Dawn of Destiny

by Amy Hopkins

  He moved closer, his greasy smile growing as he watched her plead.

  “Please, don’t hurt—”

  He took one more step and Julianne smirked. She whipped a fist out, punching him square in the nose. Stunned, he reeled back, choking on blood. Her foot was next, snapping up to make contact with his already broken cartilage, then a second one towards the groin.

  He doubled over, making it all too easy to plant her knee into his already smashed-in face. Coughing out a splatter of blood, he collapsed onto the floor.

  One of the first changes Julianne had made to the teaching curriculum was to add in lessons on how to use magic while also concentrating on other things. She never wanted one of her students to be so confident in their mystic ability that they underestimated a non-magic opponent.

  By playing weak and desperate, she had made her attacker buy in to the idea that magic was everything, that without it, she couldn’t fight. Then, she hit him—literally—with the last thing he expected.

  “Three strikes, dipshit,” she said, staring over him. This time, the smile was on her face. Her door flung open as she dropped into a fighting stance, quickly relaxing when she saw her own guards piling in.

  “Shit on a stick. What the fuck happened in here?” Aldred asked, eyes wide.

  “Remember all those lessons I insisted on that had nothing to do with magic?” Julianne asked. Aldred and his companions nodded. “He didn’t take them.” She pointed at the man on the ground in a heap.

  A crowd had gathered down the hallway, but Julianne was too tired to reach out mentally. When a commotion started up behind them and someone shoved through, she flinched, expecting worse news. Relief soaked her bones when she saw Danil. He rushed up to throw his arms around her.

  “Are you ok?” he asked. He blinked, white eyes off in the distance. Then, he blanched. “Bitch and Bastard. What the fuck happened to his face? What did he do, call you a girl?”

  It was Julianne’s pet hate. She wasn’t a girl; she was a woman, and Master of the Temple. Anyone who treated her otherwise would get their ass handed to them in short measure.

  “I’m fine.” Relief drained away as she pushed him back. “But we need to figure out how these men got inside, and if there are any more of them. Where’s Gunther?”

  “Can’t reach him, Master. I sent a runner up to wake him, but he wasn’t in his room.” Aldred’s face creased with worry. “We’re missing another, too. Daved couldn’t be found when William went to relieve him earlier.”

  “Why the bloody hell didn’t you raise the alarm then?” Julianne snapped. The last guard rotation was at midday.

  Aldred shrugged, averting his gaze. “It’s not unusual. Daved enjoys the elixir just a bit more than he should. We thought he must be passed out in a hallway somewhere. I’d planned to take him off rotation until he sorted it out. This was his last shift.”

  Hoping it wasn’t his last ever, Julianne mobilized the watching mystics. “Groups of three, scour the Temple first. Stay mind-linked with another group and if anyone drops out, sound the alarm. Aldred, you and two others will stay here and look after these two.”

  Aldred saluted. Before she turned to go, Julianne kicked one of the unconscious men. Not hard, but enough that Aldred winced. “If either of them wake up, let me know.”

  The crowd in the hallway thinned quickly as mystics—eyes glossing over with white film as they summoned mental links—darted off to search for their missing comrades. The fear in the air was palpable.

  Melanie? Julianne sent with some effort. The children.

  I’m with them now. Would you like us to assist on the search?

  As much as a dozen extra eyes would help, Julianne shuddered, thinking of what they may find. No. Keep them occupied and shielded. Do you want me to send a group to help?

  No, I have two of the guards with me. We’ll just practice our emergency drills. Despite Melanie’s loathing of violence, it had been her idea some months ago to create emergency practice drills for the children.

  They would evacuate to one of the many hidden passages within the Temple and erect the strongest shields they could maintain. Once hidden, they would sink into a silent meditation and reduce their heart rates as low as possible. This would make them all but invisible to anyone searching for them, with or without magic.

  Thank you. Julianne sent a flood of gratitude to the woman, who replied with the same. They often butted heads, but each knew the other’s sole motivation was to keep their people safe.

  An hour later, a loud scream was punctuated by a sensation of overwhelming grief, as the discovery of two bodies was passed through the mystic Temple as fast as thought. Gunther and Daved, throats slit, had been rolled into a bush just outside the gates and covered over with branches.

  No. Julianne fought the urge to fall to her knees with grief. Not Gunther.

  He’d spent more time by her side than anyone since she had taken her position as Master. Heart racing, hoping she was wrong, she sprinted to the gates just in time to see both bodies being laid on the ground.

  “Fuck!” she screamed as she turned, then punched the stone wall behind her. She leaned into the cold surface, teeth clenched so hard she was sure they’d crack.

  Strong hands grasped her shoulders, kneading them. “We’ll find them, Jules. All of them. And we’ll make sure they pay for what they did.” Danil tried to pull her into a hug, but she brushed him off.

  Julianne forced her jaw to relax and took a deep breath, hardening her grief into a ball of solid metal. This, she thought. This will drive me harder than any loss I’ve taken, Donna. You don’t know what you’ve done.

  When Julianne looked up, her eyes were hard. Though tears glittered, they didn’t fall. “It doesn’t make sense. How did they get to them? They shouldn’t have been able to make it past Gunther, no matter how fucked up Daved was on Elixir.”

  Aldred? Julianne sent to the guardsman. Either of our friends woken up yet?

  Not yet, they… Julianne felt a spike of alarm from Aldred. Ahh, shit. Master, I’m sorry, I should’ve kept a closer eye.

  A quick image flitted through Julianne’s mind of Aldred turning over the man she’d fought with. He was grey and lifeless past the smear of blood that saturated his lower face.

  A cold weight pressed at her heart. How?

  Mostly likely suffocated. Aldred’s guilt and pain came through the mental link. I’m sorry.

  Despite the dead man's attempt on her life, Julianne felt a pang of regret for the life wasted. Not your fault, she sent. Bastard came here to kill me. Who knows what else they’d planned?

  Julianne shivered, then nudged Danil. “I have to go back in. Stay here, make sure everyone is accounted for. Could you…” She couldn’t form the thought, but Danil understood.

  “I’ll see to Daved and Gunther. You go. Try not to implode any more heads unless it’s needed.” Danil leaned in to give her another hug, and this time, she accepted the gesture. It warmed her slightly, and she breathed in his familiar scent, steadying herself.

  Danil pulled away and called over another mystic to stand by him and act as his eyes. He directed the guards and others around to hoist the bodies and carry them inside.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Julianne slipped away quietly, darting to the upstairs room where Aldred waited. He bowed as she entered and tried to stammer another apology.

  “I don’t need apologies from you, Aldred, I need leadership. You are now Master of the Guard. Take the body, leave the other. You will need to organize your troops and increase the security. At daybreak, come and see me. I will brief you on last night’s meeting, you’ll need to know about the changes.”

  Aldred gaped, frozen as he tried to compute the rapid-fire instructions Julianne sent at him. “I’m… Master of the… But Master, I just let a man die under my watch!”

  “Bloody hell, Aldred,” she replied. “You let a prisoner suffer the fate he was probably intended for anyway. Can’t quite put that in the
major fuck up column, can we? You’re a good man, and I trust you. Right now, I need you. Can you do as I ask, or should I turn the duty over to William? If you accept the position, he will be your second.”

  Aldred drew himself up and offered a crisp salute. “I will pledge my heart, mind, and soul to you, Master. You can rely on me.”

  Julianne allowed herself a smile. “For the love, you’re not pledging to me, Aldred, but to the mystics of the Heights.”

  Gunther’s oath had simply been ‘to the mystics’ and Julianne hated that she’d had to make a distinction. The mystics had always been her family; now it seemed that some no longer were.

  She shooed Aldred away to his duty and closed her eyes, searching for her center. She found it, not the calm, still pool she normally held, but a lake of frozen ice. She stayed there a moment, honing her mind. Then, her eyes flicked open, white as snow, onto the unconscious man at her feet.

  Wake up. She sent the thought with a powerful push, and was gratified when the body twitched. The man rolled, then cracked his eyes open. They drifted over to Julianne’s face, then past it, uncomprehending.

  Julianne blinked and her eyes cleared. She waited a moment, but he didn’t move. She pushed away her familiar headache, muttered a word under her breath, and her eyes glazed over again with white mist.

  Then, she dove into his mind.

  She coldly examined the damage she’d done. It surprised even her. Julianne was the strongest mystic that lived, according to Selah. It was a hard thing to gauge, but she was clearly leaps and bounds ahead of her more experienced peers. This? This was new.

  For a brief moment, she felt regret; Then, Gunther’s swollen face came to her own mind. Her angst fading, she pushed through the broken psyche to rifle through the man’s memories.

  His name was Jared. Even getting that was a trial. As memories floated past, Julianne snatched at them, but most were too torn to make any sense. She saw the back of a farmer’s cart, oversized. Probably something from childhood. A meal, something with potatoes, and a snippet of a song caught in a repetitive loop.

  A warmth spread over shoulders as he donned a blue robe. Gone. A man, a shadowy figure that came with a sense of pleasure, a gift for doing well. It quickly soured. A crawling like a million ants beneath the skin, light enough that it wasn’t pain, but sickening. He had done something wrong, displeased the Master…

  Julianne swooped away from his mind, her eyes clearing as she broke the trance. Her legs wobbled, and she sat down on the floor with a thump, then leaned over to press her forehead on the cold stone wall beside her. Despite Margit’s warning, she’d overextended herself.

  After a moment, the spinning in her head slowed down and she could stand again. Julianne watched him lie on the ground, drool tracing a glistening line across one cheek. Despite his condition, he was more alive than Gunther and Daved, more than she would have been if she’d stepped out the ‘door’ in her dream.

  When she opened the door to her room, the guard outside ducked his head.

  “Matthew, ask Aldred what to do with our guest. He won’t be a danger, but he’ll need babysitting so he doesn’t choke on his own tongue. If he lives past morning, I’ll decide what to do with him then.”

  “Yes, Master.” The guard’s eyes misted over for a minute. “He said the holding cell should be sufficient, there should be someone down there. Are you… well?”

  For a moment, she didn't understand the question.

  “Sorry, Master. It’s just… you look like shit. Worse, even.”

  An image of Julianne’s pale, drawn face and shadowed eyes floated in front of her, projected by the guard.

  Screwing up her face, Julianne said, “I’m fine. Just tired. That reminds me, was Aldred on last shift?”

  The guard nodded and Julianne cursed herself for slow thinking. She’d sent the man on a dozen errands when he was already dead on his feet. “Before you take our new resident away, send for William. I need to see him.”

  Matthew didn’t ask why Julianne didn’t just send the messages herself, likely guessing she was mentally exhausted. His eyes whitened again, barely returning to their normal warm brown before boots came jogging down the hall. “He’s just—”

  “Here,” William called as he rounded the corner. “What do you need?”

  “No other problems?” Julianne asked.

  He shook his head. “Everyone seems to be accounted for. Aldred mind-searched those on duty when the New Dawn crew left. It looked like all five passed through the gate, but Aldred found telltale signs of an illusion. He suggested that was the reason for the robes. Much easier to project a simple hooded figure when you don’t have to worry about facial details. We think two left, and these three stayed.”

  Julianne nodded tiredly. “Tell Aldred he’s relieved for the night. I’ll wager he needs rest as badly as I do.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  It was another two days before Julianne finally left on her journey. She woke early, still feeling mushy after several late nights spent fortifying the Temple defenses, checking that emergency drills were in place and hoping each night would lead to something other than dreams of falling, dying, or killing.

  “You’re sure the rearick were ok with rescheduling?” Julianne asked as Margit ran down a checklist of things to be addressed while Julianne was gone.

  The older woman would, with the help of the elder mystics and some of Julianne’s trusted advisors, take the reins while she was gone. It was only a short-term solution, and Julianne suppressed a shiver of fear, wondering what would happen if she ran into trouble and couldn’t return.

  “Of course, they were. An extra fifteen percent charged for the privilege of lying about a few more days? The greedy bastards are always ok if it makes their pockets a bit heavier.” Margit rolled up the papers and used the hollow tube like a weapon, pointing it at Julianne. “Stop being a ninny. I might be old, but I’m far from dead. I can handle things until you get back, even if you run into delays.”

  Grinning, Julianne nudged Margit with her shoulder. “Your secret will be out, though. No more playing the frail old lady—they need a strong leader, and you won’t be able help yourself.”

  Margit scowled. “Fine. The cranky old sow persona won’t be going anywhere, though. That one’s real.”

  Julianne snorted as she headed for the door, hefting her pack over one shoulder. Months spent in Arcadia pretending to be a guard had given her a new appreciation for physical strength as well as mental, and she’d made sure not to lose it when she’d returned. “If you’re going to see me off, we’d best get going. I want to be gone before the sun is fully up.”

  She took the stairs quickly, barely stopping to give each guard she passed a silent nod or quiet farewell. At the door, Aldred greeted her, his expression pained.

  “Aldred, what’s wro—oh.” By the door, Danil waited for her. She’d expected him to be up in time to say goodbye. She had not anticipated him turning up with his bags packed and an extra horse saddled and ready. “Danil, what the hell are you doing?”

  Aldred heaved a sigh and fished in his pocket. As he handed over two shiny coins to the blind mystic, he mumbled an apology. “Sorry, Master. Damn fool just showed up and ordered a horse. Threatened to wake the whole Temple if we said no.”

  “And the bet?” Julianne asked, one eyebrow raised.

  “Well, seeing as how close you two are, I figured you’d have guessed at his plans, or read them from him. He said you wouldn’t, that you’d been too busy.”

  “Too trusting, more like,” Julianne huffed. “Thank you for your faith in me Aldred, even if it was misplaced this time.” The guard nodded, watching sadly as his money disappeared into Danil’s pocket.

  She turned to Danil, hands on her hips. “This was a solo trip, Danil. We’ve told the rearick we need a single person escort, not a party of two. I can only imagine the surcharge they’ll add on. And anyway, I need you here. You can’t come. Your ass is staying in the Heights.”
She didn’t apologize for her order.

  “Sorry, Jules.” He shrugged, then turned to check that his saddle was fastened correctly. “I’m coming. My feet have been itching to go on a pilgrimage for a while, and I’d planned to go a little after you left anyway.”

  “But you—”

  “Besides,” Danil cut her off with an easy smile. “Think how reassured the others will be to know you won’t be alone, traipsing across the Madlands.” He pressed a hand to his heart. “Think of the children.”

  “I’ll shield you,” she threatened. “You won’t be able to see where you’re going.” Julianne knew she wouldn’t do that, but damned if she was going to back down without a fight.

  “Fine. You know I can make it down the mountain alone, the horses are well trained. Mine will follow yours, until you abandon us. Both of us. A mystic and his loyal horse, frozen to death or maybe drowned, all because they couldn’t find their way home.” He struck a dramatic pose, one hand to his forehead while the other stretched out beside him.

  Julianne let out a howl of frustration. He’d been in moods like this before. She wouldn’t be able to convince him to stay, and if she dug her heels in and made good on her threat, he’d try even harder to follow. “You, Danil, are as lovable as the sweaty scrotum of a hairy boar. The boar is better looking, too.”

  His mouth dropped open, unused to hearing such colorful insults from the Master of the Temple.

  “Aldred, will you help me with my pack?” Julianne turned away from him to address the Master Guardsman. While he tied her bags to the horse, Julianne briefly delved into Danil’s mind. He was more worried about her than he should be, and not just for her physical safety.

  She had, after all, killed two men. Though Julianne had tried hard to block off that part of her mind, to protect the cool confidence she usually wielded when running the Temple, Danil had seen past that.

  Her nose prickled and her eyes stung, and she cursed him for making her feel emotions she was trying to ignore.