"He may fill a seat on it, but he cannot alone," the warden answered. "And because he's here, if it were to happen, he'd be compelled to recuse himself for fear of tampering allegations."
I smiled at where Quentin was going. Still, it presented the same problem as my idea.
"So, all we need to do is try to kidnap her and her brother from you, and you retain control of us," Quentin said, smiling himself.
"Oh, that's not where I thought you were going with that," I muttered, drawing a questioning look from Quentin. "I thought your idea might be for him to 'let' you escape with us."
"That presents the same problem as your idea," he replied, looking back at Mortac. "So, we try to take her away, and you ... what? Detain us?"
"For now," Mortac pointed out. "Until the inquiry board comes and investigates. How long do you think your guise will hold up then?"
"I'm just trying to buy us some time, here," Quentin stated, shrugging. "You made it sound like that's what you needed."
"Yes, but to what end?" Mortac asked. "Colvinra isn't going to go away just because you're legally detained by me. All you're doing is delaying her and her brother from falling under his control."
Quentin sat for a moment, mind pondering the situation. As he sat there, another thought bubbled to the surface.
"Well, what if you did actually take or kidnap us?" I asked, looking over at Quentin. "Where would we go?"
Quentin looked out the window. "There," he said pointing.
Mortac and I looked out the window. All that greeted my gaze was the Wilds. Mortac turned to look at him.
"Are you daft as well as stupid?" he asked, standing up. "You can't take her into the Wilds. No one goes in there—"
"Exactly. No one will follow us," Quentin interrupted the warden.
"Except Seekers," Mortac said, closing his eyes for a second. "You didn't let me finish. Seekers go into the Wilds. Colvinra won't be shy about following you in there." He glanced at me. "Besides, I'm not letting you just take her in there. That place is dangerous."
I shifted, discomfort regarding the warden's particular interest in me returning. I had never met him before, but those looks he gave me left me with the strong impression he thought we had.
Quentin shrugged, shaking his head. "I'm not a big fan of it myself, but what other option do we have?"
"Anything is better than the Wilds," Mortac hissed, waving a hand at the window, his calm demeanor suddenly gone. "There's a reason it has that name and a shield around it."
"We don't have to stay in there long. I trust Suyef to find us a safe way in and back out."
"I don't doubt he could," the warden said, running a hand through his hair. "But even his prowess in the wilderness isn't going to help you out there." He leaned over the desk, pointing at Quentin. "That place doesn't want you there. I know you're stupid, but you're not that clueless, are you? The environmental controls were destroyed long ago and what wildlife there still is on this shell is out there."
Quentin stood up, bringing himself to stand right before Mortac. "I'm getting a little tired of you calling me stupid," he whispered. "I've never met you in my life. Where do you get off judging me?"
"Stupid ideas like that one, for starters," Mortac said, standing up to match Quentin's height.
I got up myself, sensing another intervention might be needed.
"I haven't heard a single idea come from you, here," Quentin said.
The warden smiled. "When one occurs to me, I can promise you it will be better than anything you've said so far."
"I won't hold my breath waiting for that to occur," Quentin retorted.
"Boys, if you're done thumping your chests and seeing who can grunt the loudest," I said, drawing both of their eyes to me, "you're not getting anywhere with this."
"It's our only option, Mortac," Quentin continued, looking back at the warden.
Another thought. "Unless you can find a way to trick Colvinra into kidnapping them," I suggested.
Quentin glared at me. "What good would that do?"
I pointed at the warden. "Then Mortac could detain him and his Seekers until an inquiry board arrives."
"That's as unlikely as either of your escape plans to happen," Mortac retorted, slapping a hand down on a light shining up from his desk as a signal chimed. "What?"
"Questioner Colvinra to see you, sir," a voice stated, echoing through the room.
Mortac looked at each of us in turn. "Send him up."
"Yes, sir," the voice answered, and Mortac tapped the same place on his smooth desk, the light turning off.
"Coincidence?" I asked, turning to look at the entrance to the room.
"If there's one thing I've learned, there's no such thing," Mortac muttered, sitting back down in his chair, one hand brushing his hair back behind his ear. "Especially where this Questioner is involved."
The lift slid open behind me, and Quentin tensed. I motioned at him to sit down, but he didn't see me.
"Ah, Warden, I see you're occupied," the Questioner said from the lift. "And with just the person I'm interested in seeing." The doors slid shut. "How fortuitous."
"Yes," Mortac whispered. "Fortuitous." He glared at the Questioner and said in a louder voice, "Can I help you, Colvinra?"
"Tsk tsk, Warden. Don't forget your place," the man hissed, stepping into view and ignoring the glower Quentin leveled toward him. His cold, black eyes remained locked on the warden. "Titles, after all, are the only decorum we will find out here."
"I care little for your usurped titles, Colvinra," Mortac replied, returning the Questioner's steely gaze with his own.
Colvinra smiled, a small thing that hardly touched his face. "Yet, you call me that name."
Mortac shrugged. "Until you provide me with a reason not to, I will."
"Ah, my dear friend, when did we come to this?" Colvinra sighed, shaking his head and finally glancing at Quentin and me. "It's these two, isn't it? They've come between us, again."
Quentin mouthed the word "again" at me. I shrugged and looked at Mortac. The look he gave to Colvinra nearly froze my heart.
"You know full well why we've come to this, you fool," Mortac whispered.
Silence followed as the warden and Questioner traded glares. Quentin shifted around past the Questioner to stand just over my right shoulder. Colvinra ignored him, keeping his eyes on Mortac.
"You know why I did what I did," the Seeker said to the warden. "What happened, how it ended. That's not my fault. The calculations were too much."
"I don't want to hear your excuses, Colvinra," Mortac stated, his jaw tight. "You've taken enough from me. You'll not have her."
The Questioner spared a glance at me, then looked up at Quentin. "You'll forgive my boldness, Mortac, but I took the liberty of sending for your other 'guests,'" he said, not taking his eyes from Quentin. "I have questions regarding this one's training while awaiting the release of your guests for their safe return to the Central Dominance."
"We're not from the city," I retorted, drawing the Questioner's black eyes to me. "If anything, we're going back to our settlement."
The Questioner smiled at me, again a small thing that didn't much alter his face. "You forget our orders to detain you, my dear," he said, his voice quiet. "Those will need attended to before you are allowed to go home."
"Allowed to go home?" Quentin asked. "I saw your orders, Questioner. They said questioning only. I saw no charges leveled against either her or her brother."
"You will remember your place, Seeker," Colvinra hissed, his black eyes locking on to Quentin. "Speaking of which, where is your supervisor?"
"We were invited up here at the warden's request," Quentin said, pointing at me. "Actually, she was. I volunteered to accompany her."
The door hissed open and I turned my head to see Suyef and my brother walking into the room with one of Mortac's guards and a pair of Colvinra's Seekers.
"Your men will leave my office at once," Mortac stated, standing up.
Colvinra turned his head to stare at Mortac. "Excuse me?"
"My facility, my rules," the warden said. "You two get out and wait for your leader downstairs. Now!"
The Seekers looked to Colvinra, who took a moment before nodding at them to leave. They retreated with Mortac's guard, leaving the six of us. I got up and ran over to Donovan, hugging him tight. He glared at the Questioner, but remained silent, for which I was grateful. The last thing this room needed was a bit more hotheaded testosterone. Suyef moved to stand near Quentin.
"Is there a reason my trainee is here without me, Questioner?" the Nomad asked.
"The warden can answer that one," Colvinra said, pointing at Mortac.
"You know why they are here," Mortac answered Suyef's look, pointing at Quentin and me.
Suyef nodded. "That I didn't mind," he said. "What I mind is the Questioner being here with my trainee. It's highly inappropriate."
"I sent for you, didn't I?" the Questioner asked. "I was here but a few moments before you."
Suyef glanced at Quentin, who nodded.
"I assure you," Mortac added, "your trainee provided escort only and the Questioner has not been interfering with your training."
"As you are here now," Colvinra continued, "I have some questions regarding this one's training. His respect for rank is lacking, and from what I saw of your work with him before, his combat training is all but nonexistent."
"He is progressing in the latter," Suyef stated, looking over at Quentin. "His attitude is a problem, but nothing I've had a problem with." He looked at the Questioner. "Maybe you're just a bit too sensitive."
Colvinra glared at the Nomad. "Don't let your position embolden you too much, Offlander," he said, his eyes widening as he spoke. He even took a step toward the Nomad, who held his ground. "I can have you escorted off this shell easily enough, and your trainee reassigned."
"That would require an inquiry board," Suyef replied, clasping his hands behind his back. "A board that will dig into your mission out here as much as mine. Do your orders carry a protection against such an inquiry as mine do?"
From the way Colvinra shifted, I gathered they did not.
Suyef smiled. "I thought not. We'll be released long before you will be, so maybe we should avoid the matter entirely."
Colvinra looked at Quentin, then back at the Nomad. "As a Questioner, I can conduct an inspection of your training to make sure you're conducting it in accordance with Seeker laws." He turned to look at Mortac. "We'll need your arena."
Mortac shrugged. "An arena I can provide, but that doesn't answer the other issues."
Colvinra grinned genuinely for the first time since he had entered the room. "My friend, I think what we are about to do will solve all of that."
If only he knew how correct he was.
Chapter 18 - The Arena
The arena in question lay on the far side of the outpost from the Wilds. It stood connected to the holding circles by a large tunnel, which allowed the prison population to migrate out of and into what amounted to viewing stands. Row upon secure row filled upward from the base of the arena, with thick, clear walls keeping the prisoners isolated in the row they chose to enter. Along the base of the stands stood a length of seating left unsecure. The arena field, as it was, stood bare and empty, with a single entrance along the same side as the tunnel. A walkway extended out above the concentric prison circles and along the tunnel, allowing the prison guards and, in this case, us, to walk out. We entered a small door just above the tunnel and followed a narrow hallway to the unsecured row of seating.
There, I found myself sitting with my brother on my right, Mortac to my left with several of his guards on either side, and two of Colvinra's Seekers standing in either direction. More of the warden's guards and a ragtag bunch of raiders filled in the rest of the seating in that row. I noticed the other members Seeker squad and their squad leader were positioned among the raiders around the arena. Above us, all around, thousands of prisoners filed in and began pounding on the glass, filling the space with a cacophony of anticipation.
"The people do enjoy a good fight," Mortac muttered, noticing my gaze. "It distracts them from their predicament."
I pressed my lips tightly together and didn't acknowledge him. The man made me feel uncomfortable, more so than the Questioner. The way he looked at me, as one would look at someone dear to him, made my skin crawl and filled me with an urge to run away.
"So, what's going on?" Donovan asked.
I shrugged and leaned closer to my brother, putting an arm around his shoulder. "You know about as much as I do."
"I doubt that," my brother joked. "I get the feeling you and Quentin have been talking a lot more than Suyef and I."
"Quiet, that one," I whispered.
"A stone is quiet. That one makes a stone sound like a gossip," Donovan said, shaking his head and smiling. "I think he said all of three words to me the entire time we were in that room."
"You could have sat with us," I pointed out.
Donovan waved a hand at me. "I don't buy his story for a second."
"Then consider yourself lucky," Mortac said, leaning forward to look at my brother. "Such doubts will serve you well with most people."
"I also doubt that," my brother retorted. "People aren't all as deceitful or untrustworthy as you lot."
Mortac shook his head, smiling. "Youth," he said, sitting back.
"So, what's happening here?" my brother asked the warden.
He shrugged. "Seeker nonsense." When my brother frowned at him, Mortac chuckled and asked, "Have you ever seen a Seeker fight?" My brother shook his head. "Well, I gather you're about to."
"Wait, Seekers fighting Seekers?" Donovan asked, eyes shifting to take in the Seekers standing nearby. "That can happen?"
Mortac laughed. "Seekers are no different from the rest of us, boy," the warden said, shifting in his seat, hands forming a steeple before his face. "Crafty, jealous, petty creatures that have all the same weaknesses." He arched an eyebrow as he looked at Donovan. "You don't believe they're immortal, do you?"
Donovan shrugged. "No, but nearly so."
"Seekers are as mortal as the rest of us," the warden stated. "Just better at preventing your knowing so." He nodded at the Seeker to his left. "They all wear that garb to mask what they look like beneath. Notice, most Seekers are relatively identical in size and build. And the area of their face you most often see is free of any telltale markings or scars. That's to make them forgettable."
"What's your point?" Donovan asked, shrugging and shaking his head slightly.
"To keep you in the dark about how many there are and how long they live. To create the illusion of immortality." Suyef pointed at my brother. "Can you recall ever even hearing a story about a Seeker dying?" My brother shook his head, as did I when Mortac looked at me. "Precisely. You don't have to be immortal if no one can tell you apart and no one remembers any of your deaths."
"So why let Suyef and his predecessors join?" I asked.
Mortac shrugged. "Bureaucratic nonsense, that. It's what happens when politicians make military decisions."
"The Seekers aren't military," Donovan protested.
The look Mortac gave my brother spoke volumes. "You go on thinking that, boy. They'll leave you alone after your predicament resolves itself."
My brother opened his mouth to reply but stopped when the entrance to the arena field opened.
Colvinra entered, with Suyef and Quentin following a few paces behind. All three carried a staff in hand. Our former roommates stayed close together, deep in discussion as the Questioner strode to the middle of the arena and turned to face them. They stopped about ten paces from him, still talking.
"Those two had better focus, or this is going to get ugly," Mortac muttered, waving a hand at Quentin and Suyef.
"Two on one—they should have the advantage, yes?" Donovan asked.
Mortac barked a short laugh. "Against a Questioner? Maybe if they had a squad of the
ir own," he said. "Suyef's good; he's a Nomad. But Questioners earn their rank for good reason." Mortac shook his head. "This will be a much greater challenge than anything Suyef's faced before."
Suyef and Quentin finished their discussion and separated, moving around the Questioner. Colvinra kept his eyes on Suyef, ignoring Quentin.
"I'm still not sure why an inspection requires a fight," I commented, then snorted. "Males."
Mortac chuckled. "Will ever be males," he added. He shrugged, shaking his head. "You won't catch me pretending to understand Seekers, but men I get, and Colvinra is as male as they come. Extremely simple-minded for someone as intelligent as he is."
Below us, the Seeker had moved, shifting his back to the tunnel as Suyef continued to circle him. Quentin remained where he was, standing closer to us.
"Why would someone you claim is so smart resort to something like this?" I asked.
"Seeker laws require it," Mortac said. "Apparently, this is a part of their training, and Colvinra thinks Quentin is suffering under Suyef's training." He smiled and waved a hand at the arena. "Hence, the spectacle."
"Will you two pipe down?" Donovan hissed. "I'm trying to watch."
"They're not doing anything yet," I pointed out, smacking his shoulder before turning to glare at Mortac. "This spectacle is as much your fault as theirs." I waved a hand at the prisoners above us, all banging against the glass for the fight to begin. "You didn't need to let them come watch."
"Why deny them some entertainment?" the warden asked.
"Distract them from their impending doom?" I shot back.
Mortac grimaced. "As explained already, I have no control over that. If that stops, the raiders and the Seekers will remove me."
"An excuse for doing nothing," I stated, crossing my arms and sitting back in my seat.
Mortac moved next to me and I heard him take a breath to respond, but he never got the chance. At that moment, Colvinra struck.
The Questioner lunged across the field, staff swinging in his right hand to strike at Suyef. The Nomad parried the strike, spinning and directing a kick at the Questioner. Colvinra blocked the kick with his arm and shoved into the Nomad's back. Suyef rolled away, swinging his staff back in the direction of his attacker. The Questioner dodged backward, head darting to check on Quentin as he avoided Suyef's staff. Quentin remained where he was, staff held at the ready, eyes watching the fight.
Rise: Paths (Future Worlds Book 2) Page 17
