Without Rhythm (The Lament)

by P. S. Power

  Pran blinked. She didn't either, so that was fair enough.

  "Play something." The voice was female, and sounded a little more tense than she'd heard it before. Claire stood in the hall next to Pran, her white clothing covered with red splotches.

  Blinking, hands shaking, the Bard nodded and moved to his guitar. The familiar habit making his hands steady a bit. After a few minutes a soft tune started to fill the air. It was just a progression, but it was better than the low moaning coming from the other room.

  "Pran, would you go see if the Captain has need of your assistance? She should be on the bridge."

  For a second that didn't make any sense at all, since they didn't have a bridge at all on the ship, much less a river, But Claire got that the term was unusual and explained.

  "The upper room with the controls. We were there earlier."

  She didn't wait for more instruction, moving to the staircase that went there directly expecting to be asked to leave instantly, but finding that no one noticed her at all instead. The Captain was next to Clark and they were both taking turns talking into a box that was part of a counter on the right hand side.

  Clark leaned over it, his finger on a button.

  "Attack. Old style weapons. Explosives. There are at least twelve left at this point. We have two dead. From the town." He waited, then a voice, stern and cold came back a bit later.

  "This is Captain Jacquess Hopper , of The Conscript. We're headed toward Danning directly. We have three Guardians on board at this time. Will spread the word."

  "Understood." Clark stood up then and looked around.

  "That will give us eight Guardians in all. We can't expect them to reach us for a full day, maybe more if the weather doesn't hold."

  This was addressed to Mina.

  "So, what do we do? We could move to the next town, or just circle and go back to Danning in the morning."

  "Back to Danning. We can't abandon them, especially since we know that this group is willing to use explosives. We'll have to secure the town with just the three of us."

  "Three?" The Captain turned enough to see that Pran was there and that she still had a rifle in her hands.

  "I see. So three then. Well, my crew will do what we can. We aren't fighters and I don't think we can count on the Bard or the Doctor for much in that direction."

  They shouldn't of course, Pran knew. All Doctors took oaths that said they wouldn't do harm to anyone, and those were really serious. Ben was a good guy, but he didn't even pretend to be tough or a risk taker. Pran knew that she probably seemed half insane to him at this point, barking orders like she had been, playing make believe and all that. She didn't fool herself into thinking that this was the same thing as even the rape in the alley though.

  The people they were facing were organized and had a plan of some kind in place and weapons that were dangerous. A knife could kill, sure. It was harder to do and took more time to make work, and that gave you a fighting chance. These people could destroy whole buildings and make them burn almost instantly. How could they beat that? It was probably in the early training that she hadn't gotten as a child.

  If the town needed her to pretend to be a Guardian, so they could feel more secure, she could do that. What she couldn't do was actually protect them if those evil people came back.

  Clark looked at her then and shrugged.

  "Stay armed. Try to get some rest and be ready to move out at first light. We may not get any sleep after that for several days, so get what you can now."

  Swallowing she nodded.

  "Yes sir."

  Then she left to lie in her bunk and worry, knowing that sleep wasn't coming anytime soon at all.

  Chapter ten

  That she slept at all amazed Pran, after she woke up, being shaken slightly by Roy, who'd already changed and gotten a shower, if his wet hair was any indication. She got up as fast as she could, pain screaming through her abused muscles, making her gasp. The young man looked ready to help her up, but she waved the hand away and forced a smile.

  Without waiting she grabbed a towel and went to wash up, not knowing what the day would bring at all, but figuring that reeking wouldn't make it any better. It was just past daylight, from the look of the sky through the window in her room. She found the others, all of them, in the dining room. Well, not Captain Mina, but Claire, Clark and Mara. Her people.

  When that had happened she didn't know, but it was clear to her that they were hers now. Her responsibility at least. She shook her head a little before anyone could say what was going on, which got a strange look from the blonde Judge, who was dressed in a simple white tunic and pants for once, instead of a robe or dress. Thinking about the one that she'd trashed the day before made her want to wince, but as long as she wasn't having to pay for it, Pran decided to let the whole thing go.

  What Claire said was strange, being about nothing important at all.

  "Your hair... I can see why you did it, it makes you look completely different, and you were seen in town, but..."

  Clark grinned and Mara ate silently, not even making a face for once. It was a lot more subdued than Pran had seen from the woman before, her normal demeanor being a little playful and even happy seeming.

  "Once we land we need to see to securing the town. That isn't going to be easy if the people that were holding it have stayed in the area. I hate technology cults like this."

  Pran got a bowl of early oatmeal, which was hot and fresh, if not very interesting and filled it up, a few dried apple slices resting on the top of it.

  "Technology cults? I swear, I've lived in this world my whole life, but I have no clue what the heck you're talking about. I mean, I know all the words, but I don't think I get your meaning at all." She didn't expect a response, but Mara started in on one instantly, her voice matter of fact.

  "Quick update then. About three hundred years ago there was a decision made to lower the use of energy for the average person on the planet. We were trashing everything and it had to be done fast. Not everyone was happy with that, since it meant personal hardship. The Guardians were created back then to "guard" against abuses. To make sure no one used more energy or high level technology than was needed for simple and balanced survival. After the first few hundred years things stabilized and the world became pretty much as it is now.

  "That's why the modern Guardians spend our time protecting council officials and Judges. The skills that allow a person to do the one thing translate well to the other. Our main job is to stop people from grabbing up old tech and setting off wars. About once every ten to twenty years we have some group come along that tries to do something like these people seem to be doing. Using old tech to create a hardened military force." She shrugged. "They looked hard to me at least."

  That got a general grunt of agreement from Clark, and Judge Claire actually looked worried, which was out of the norm for her. She looked at Pran directly and sighed.

  "It isn't correct to place your new apprentice in danger in a situation like this. She doesn't have any real training for it and I don't want her to die." The words were a lot more bleak than not, as if the only thing that could possibly come of this was her death.

  Hardly a ringing endorsement.

  "Luckily it isn't your place to decide that Claire. We need the help, at least until reinforcements come. This is..." He spread his hands and then chewed his own apple slice for a bit before going on.

  "We have to find out a lot more about this and we need everyone working together. Pran here isn't a trained Guardian and never will be. But wasn't it you that pointed out that the first Guardians weren't trained either? She may lack the skills, but so far she hasn't failed or given up and that's a lot more than I'd expect from almost anyone. Besides, we don't have a choice. We're going to need everyone we can get on this one. We don't know the numbers of people involved in the tech cult, but what I saw in the marketplace yesterday spoke of a lot more than just twenty people. Just to be able to build what they had
with them. If they have combustion vehicles too, then there could be hundreds involved. Maybe more."

  Claire made a face but didn't say more about the topic, and they all just ate for a while, the airship starting to tilt eventually, a gradual thing that she'd learned already meant they were going in for a landing. It would take a while, about half an hour. Airships covered a lot of distance, the hydrogen engines moving propellers constantly, but they weren't that speedy. A good horse was faster. For that matter a person on foot could go faster, for a while. They couldn't haul as much though, so it balanced out.

  The big difference for the day was that the second they were on the ground a single hatch got opened, and the Guardians all ran out, then dove to the ground, weapons pointed at the tree line that surrounded the landing field. Instead of everyone else coming to tie them down The Lament took back off, a soft whine increasing and pushing the ship back into the sky. It was the plan, since a moving airship was harder to hit, if the Tech cult had weapons that could do that.

  The idea that they might not wasn't even considered. They'd shown themselves both willing to kill and well armed for it. The big thing there was that no one knew if they could hit a ship in the air at all. It was a lot harder to do than it sounded like, apparently. A rifle bullet, like the ones Pran had at least, couldn't hit something that far away that was also up. It just wouldn't reach.

  She'd been given a little waist pack, like what the others carried, but no Kinetic pistol, since those took a lot of practice to use well. There were five different controls on the things after all and while they were extremely useful in a fight, the idea of having Pran scramble to work it all out when she didn't know what she was doing was ridiculous. So she got a little medical kit, some dried fruit and a spare air canister as well as another forty bullets. Two button flares and a beam light for night work. That was it. If she needed anything else, she had to either make it or 'borrow' it from someone else. That wasn't technically theft, as long as it was important to the mission, but she might have to pay for it out of wages later. That was to help keep the Guardians honest, since they were, no matter how highly trained and dedicated, still people.

  All of this was explained before she got off the ship, but as The Lament rose into the air, leaving them, it seemed a lot more real than it had standing in the supply closet. Before the day was out she might very well have to kill someone. Again. If that Creedy she'd shot wasn't still alive. She should have checked, but the fact was she didn't really want to know that she was an evil killer. Given everything else that would be too much for her to take.

  The jog into town was both hard and slower than what they'd been doing. She had to try and keep to the non-pattern thing, which still wasn't really working for her and they didn't take the road at all, fighting as fast as they could through the brush alongside it, so they wouldn't be easily seen. When they found the town they crawled, on hands and knees part of the time, around the whole thing from cover. About ten minutes into that she felt sore. After an hour she was doing better, because parts of her were totally numb. It was an improvement, but she didn't doubt that there was blood coming out of her at various contact points. She handled that by not looking at all.

  Then, finding no one at all except townspeople, they went from door to door again, working from the far side of the place, near the old granary that had been burnt down the night before, which still smoldered in places in the cool air, to the other side. It didn't take as long as all that, there being only about fifteen buildings to check. It just wasn't a huge place.

  Still, it was nearly four in the afternoon when they had Danning reliably secured, darkness starting to hint at coming in the sky.

  The huge Guardian pointed to the area they'd chased the tech cult into the night before.

  "If they were any other kind of people we could safely assume that was the most likely place for them to attack from. They might come from anywhere, so we need to have a person on each side. There are only three of us and we really can't count on the people here, so we need to work it as a triangle." He sketched the plan out for her, literally drawing in the dirt.

  "Try not to use your light. They're a giveaway as to your location."

  Pran could see that, though the clouds coming in overhead didn't look like they were going to leave a lot of moonlight to see by.

  "Why can't we trust the people here?" It was a dumb question, she realized, when both the others rolled their eyes at her.

  Mara shook her head and growled a little in response.

  "Why can't we... They were with the tech cult for weeks. For all we know they have agents here. It might be why they chose Danning in the first place. The whole town could be in with them. More likely they've turned one or two, but we can't know who they are."

  She just shrugged, not wanting to make anyone mad about her lack of knowledge on the topic. It could just be that everyone was a little stressed and grumpy after all. She was at least, so why not the others? They were tough and hard, also in way better shape than she was, but that didn't mean they couldn't feel fear, did it? In the end they were all just people, no matter how skilled.

  Clark asked if she understood her patrol area.

  "I do. At least in daylight. I don't know how well I'll do in the dark. If I hear anything I'm supposed to light a flare?" It hadn't been said straight out, but it seemed to make sense. She got a positive sounding grunt from the larger form next to her, who was starting to lose distinctness in the near dark.

  "Right. Then get away from it fast. Also, don't look directly at it, since it will take your night vision for a time. Set it off and run, if you hear or see anything you can't explain. Then we'll come, if we can. If you have to fight, do so carefully. We don't have ammunition to waste."

  It was all good advice, but she wanted to roll her eyes at them and go into grand dramatics. The fact was that she probably couldn't do anything in the dark except waste ammo. She didn't know how to aim her rifle even. Just point it and pull the trigger. She hadn't had any training with it at all. Unless someone jumped directly on her she doubted that they were in any danger, which wasn't exactly mighty Guardian skills being shown. She might be able to bluff them with it, if they didn't just kill her first, but her real job that night was to listen and set off flares if she had to.

  They didn't have cloaks, so Mara told her to keep moving as much as she could, since it would be chilly. Then she vanished into the dark. Clark stayed for a minute, looking at her, hardly moving.

  "You're doing really well you know. I never knew that Bards could be anything than slightly fussy whiners." He chuckled gently and put a large hand on her shoulder. "How do you feel?"

  She shrugged, knowing he'd feel it if nothing else.

  "Like I should be fussy and whine, of course. I'll be fine." At least she had some food with her and should be able to get more in the morning. It was going to be a very long night.

  Clark was gone so fast she couldn't tell which direction he'd left in. For her part she started walking, her route being on the far side of town, away from where they'd fought the night before. Not having anything else to do at all, except wonder how she'd gotten herself into the fix she was in, Pran tried to focus on everything as hard as she could, her eyes wide open. It wasn't easy in the dark, so she added in an attempt at randomly starting and stopping, moving suddenly in a new direction and then changing to another new one, if at a walking speed. It hurt, aching in places she wasn't used to muscles hurting in, but it did help keep her warm.

  Hours passed that way, with very little sound coming at all. No roaring vehicles at least. There were animals in the woods and those could have been people, but she really doubted it. Pran cradled her rifle, ready to fight if needed. For all the good it would do her. Honestly, if it came to it, she doubted that doing anything but running would help her at all. Even that would be a problem, as slow as she was moving at the moment.

  It went from boring to mind numbing and into sharply and bitterly obnoxious befor
e the morning's first light came. No one found her, so she kept to her post, trying not to be too prissy or anything. It meant having to use a bush to relieve herself, but that was what she had. Of course, the second she came out from behind it, Mara was standing there, smiling at her in the dim light. She didn't speak, just pointing up into the sky. There were two airships, both similar in size and color. The names were on the side, but she couldn't make out which was which.

  "We have to hold the town still, but we have others incoming. Have you eaten anything?"

  Pran shook her head, feeling a bit stupid, but she hadn't had any water and the idea of eating dried fruit without it was foolish. Hunger gnawed at her, but Mara just left, not suggesting she fix the situation at all. It was hours later when people came for them, a half dozen people in black, all on foot with Kinetic pistols in hand. Luckily two of them were Clark and Mara or she might well have freaked. One of them was a boy that looked to be her own age and another, the one that seemed to be in charge was a woman that must have been near sixty. They all scanned the world carefully the whole time.

  The woman with silver hair looked at Pran, her face stern and more than a little disapproving.

  "This her?" The tone was just as dark. For some reason Mara smiled about it.

  "Yes. Apprentice Guardian Pran. Don't put her down based on looks though, she's done a lot with very little. Just stood a thirteen hour long watch and managed to stay alert the whole time. No complaints either. Really... none at all, even though there have been some things..."

  The older woman sniffed, a derisive thing that would have made Pran stiffen if she had the energy left for it. She was used to being judged unfairly. Orphans always were. It turned out her first impulse would have been wrong, since the lady wasn't judging her at all.