by Cait Ashwood
It had been nearly half an hour, though, and there was no sign of the men coming through the gate.
“Maybe you should call again.” Gwyn had her arms crossed over her chest despite the heat and was squinting up at the sun. “I still don’t understand the concept of telling time by that fireball.” She sniffed, shaking her head.
“Hound’s great at it. Maybe we can ask him to explain the process.” She paused, turning to glance over her shoulder. A smile spread over her face as the men approached them from behind.
“Sneaking in the back way?”
Zeche grinned and tossed her a wink.
Hound seemed uneasy, glancing between the two of them and keeping himself somewhat back from them as the groups came together.
The tense moment lingered, no one quite sure what to say. “You called?” Hound raised an eyebrow at her, his voice as deep as always.
Audrey cleared her throat. “I did, yes. I uh…” she twisted a strand of hair around her finger, a nervous habit she’d picked up. “Well, I need your help. With training.”
Wrinkles creased Hound’s brow. “If Quad couldn’t get you fighting with a blade, I doubt I’m going to be any better, Audrey.”
Gwyn frowned, edging closer to Audrey habitually. “We need to train her to fight the taint, not with swords.”
Hound straightened, tilting his head slightly. His eyes rested on Gwyn, then narrowed as they turned back to Audrey.
“You’re joining the assault on the compound.” His words were flat, a declaration of fact.
Audrey swallowed, trying to keep her anxiety at bay. Why am I always so nervous around him? Despite the mark, it’s like I can never tell what he’s thinking. “I don’t have much choice in the matter. Otherwise, all those men are basically pawns for Zaddicus.”
Brown eyes flicked to Gwyn. “He’s that powerful?”
She took a step back, likely intimidated by the intensity of his gaze.
Yeah, he can be intense when he wants to be. Still scares me off, sometimes. Audrey put her hand on Gwyn’s arm, giving her a reassuring squeeze. I’m right here, hun. Hang in there.
“He…yes.” Gwyn let her breath out all at once, but Audrey wasn’t sure what was going on in her head. Was she scared, anxious, embarrassed? Gwyn was one of the hardest people to read that she’d ever met. And I know Hound, for crying out loud.
Hound grunted, scanning the courtyard again. “So…who am I supposed to try and turn. You?” His piercing gaze once again landed on Gwyn, but as she stood taller, Audrey had to wonder where her sudden confidence came from.
“You’d find that task impossible, most likely. No, I’m here to supervise Audrey.”
Zeche bit into an apple, leaning against a nearby wall. Hound didn’t pay him any mind.
“Well?”
“I…didn’t ask them to show up right away.” Audrey felt about three inches tall right now, and she didn’t relish the sensation.
“Why not?”
Zeche sounded like he was chuckling, but if he was, he hid it behind the snappish sound of another bite of his apple.
“I honestly wasn’t expecting you to agree so easily.” Embarrassment wasn’t a pleasant emotion, either, but she was apparently getting a lot of that today. Hound didn’t say anything immediately, and the tension only grew.
Zeche licked his lips, eyes on his apple. “Ace was quite upset with the entire idea, much less entertaining ways to allow the training to occur.”
He finally speaks up. Took him long enough.
“You wouldn’t go if you didn’t have to.” Hound shrugged, as if it was the most obvious answer in the world.
She blinked, then chuckled. “You’re the first person to realize that, I think.”
Zeche made a scoffing sound, turning his back and taking another bite.
“Other than Zeche, it seems,” she amended.
“Yeah, well…” Hound rolled his shoulders, seeming restless. He rubbed at his chest a bit, but she caught the signal.
Right. He can feel what I feel. I’ve got to be careful with that. She attempted to force her emotions under control, and he seemed to calm.
“Are you calling these guys in, or are we scheduling a rain check?” Hound glanced at the sun, his eyes taking on their characteristic squint.
“Can you teach me to do that?” Gwyn blurted out the question, then promptly clamped her hands over her mouth and all but hid behind Audrey.
“Uh, I guess. Later.”
Audrey nodded, glancing over at Zeche. “Right. Zeche, could you—”
“Already called them while you were all busy sky gazing.”
Hound arched an eyebrow. “The Seekers answer to a Raven? Since when?”
Zeche turned, an amused smile on his face. “Oh, could it be since we saved their asses during the battle? No? Perhaps when I lost most of my premier squad keeping her alive when your own men failed at the job?”
Hound bristled, hands clenching into fists. Gwyn whimpered behind her.
“Hey now, Zeche, while I’m thankful, that was a bit uncalled for.” She placed a hand on Hound’s chest to keep him away from the assassin. Energy, almost like a spark, connected them for a split second and her smile fell as rage flowed through her. The sensation vanished as quickly as it had come, but she felt shaky and off-balance.
The assassin grinned, shrugging nonchalantly. “Facts are facts, my Lady.” He tipped an imaginary hat at her and excused himself back to the shadows as a squad of Seekers approached from the barracks.
Zeche was on the ramparts a minute later, shadowing the hulking commander. The man was a puzzle Zeche was constantly trying to figure out. While the man could certainly be an ass, he could then turn around and be more compassionate and understanding than expected.
Tops stood with his thick arms crossed over his chest, frowning down into the courtyard where Gwyn was instructing Audrey. “I don’t like it.”
He shrugged. “It’s necessary.”
“It’s not the training.” Tops waved his hand at the Institute in general. “We had to pull teeth to find a place for Gwyn to stay. Gwyn, who supposedly isn’t even tainted.”
Zeche frowned, having a feeling that he knew where the commander was going with this train of thought.
“How am I going to handle a group of refugees?” Tops shook his head, shrugging stiffly.
Down in the courtyard, the group of volunteers was dancing a ridiculous jig. Bastard has a sense of humor, at least. Audrey had her fists clenched at her side, unable to break his control. Zeche rested his forearms on the wall, letting his eyes drift around the courtyard. “You give them shelter.”
“Can I? In good conscience, can I shelter them?” Tortured was not a good sound on the behemoth of a man and Zeche glanced over his shoulder, the commander’s face unreadable.
“Because some of them aided in the attack on the compound?” Surely the man wasn’t that petty.
Tops grimaced. “That’s secondary.” He joined Zeche at the wall, though he didn’t seem to be fully present, mentally.
The commander bit his lower lip, the skin around his eyes tightening. “They know nothing of our world, what normal is. Hell, Gwyn’s a perfect fucking example.”
Zeche pondered that for a moment, nodding slowly. So much had to be explained to the woman, even after a year among them. Her fear and anxiety were nearly debilitating at times, though she was making good progress on those fronts. “That’s not what really worries you, though.” It was a shot in the dark, with the commander being difficult to read, but Zeche had a hunch on this one.
“No. No it’s not.” Tops groaned, running a hand over his bald head. “They could destroy us with hardly a thought.”
The same thought had occurred to Zeche some time ago, and he prayed that the commander had been puzzling over a solution for some time. If the man was just now discovering this problem, the Seekers were worse off than he’d feared.
“The safe answer is to imprison them, but if I do, I’m n
o better than their captors.”
Zeche dipped a shoulder in reply. “They would be treated humanely, at least. Not forced to work on death threats of their loved ones.”
Tops snorted. “Small variations. That would be Audrey’s argument.”
Zeche smiled. Everyone acts like she’s so hard to deal with. “You can’t let them live among the people, both for their sake and their safety. People have gone without for so long they’d be mobbed and overwhelmed with requests, and they likely won’t be in any state to handle that.”
“So, what do I do, Zeche? Move them from an underground compound to an above ground one? I can’t let them be unsupervised. Ever.” His eyes strayed to the eastern tower and Zeche followed his gaze.
It didn’t take much imagining to see it as it had been that day, torn down in ruins by a giant tree-like creation constructed by the tainted Order they were fighting to save. It had taken six women to breach their defenses and lay them open to the enemy.
“Gwyn will be the key in working with them.”
“Gwyn? Please.” Tops shook his head, standing to his full height. In the courtyard below, the woman broke into a tentative smile as the Seekers finally stopped dancing their jig. Hound seemed rather pissed, but Audrey just looked exhausted. “She won’t look at me, and hardly speaks in a man’s presence.”
“The tainted Order isn’t comprised of men.” Zeche watched as Gwyn gave Audrey another set of instructions, his favorite Leaf nodding grimly. “She’s the daughter of their last former leader. The other women will respect her.”
“I’m not so sure about that, Zeche. They’d be well within their rights to decide we failed them when we didn’t come after them. They could place the blame for their imprisonment and everything they’ve suffered at our feet, and I can’t refute those claims.”
Zeche looked over his shoulder at the commander, a smirk tugging at his lips. “The great Commander of the Seekers, afraid of a bunch of abused women?”
“You know what they’re capable of. Hell, Audrey was dangerous enough even before she was trained.”
It didn’t take a great leap of logic to read between the lines. These women had never lacked for training, learning directly from their mothers, who were members of the original Order. If they decided to mobilize, they would be a force to reckon with. They would die as easily as anyone else, but getting to them would be the issue.
“Fix up their old tower.”
“Oh, yes, I’m sure they’re just dying to return there.” Tops rolled his eyes, leaning on the wall again with a defeated sigh.
“And have your structural team build a wall around it. Give them ample sunlight and ample grounds to do with as they wish, but encircle them. Likely the wall will make them feel safer. Recruit women from the various city guards to ‘protect’ them. I’ll see what I can do about getting a few of my own in their ranks, now that they’ve been properly paid.” It was the first time he’d referenced the sum Tops had delivered to Nikita, and the other man nodded briefly.
“Build a wall. Give them the illusion of freedom and protection, while keeping an eye on them, and keeping them surrounded by teams that can take them out if they get the wrong idea.” Tops was chewing the idea over, and Zeche could almost smell the smoke.
“Put to her that way, Audrey will have to approve of it. She’s not irrational.”
“I don’t know which gods to thank that she hasn’t brought it up yet.” Tops pinched the bridge of his nose as the men below started dancing again. Audrey stormed away from them in a huff, pacing in tight circles some distance away.
“Don’t bring it up until the wall is built. Then show her, don’t tell her. Wait until it’s fully cleaned, provisioned, and ready, then show her so she can see it with her own eyes.” Zeche paused as she made her way back to the group, staunchly ignoring Hound as she faced the men. He shook his head, having to applaud her determination. “She’ll have less arguments that way. She cares about their well-being, not being a pain in your ass.”
“You sure about that?” Tops chuckled under his breath, watching the training. “She’s got grit, I’ll give her that.”
Zeche smiled. “She never would have made it this far without it.”
“Yeah.”
They watched the courtyard in silence for a while until Zeche was nearly ready to go. “One last thing, Commander?”
Tops’ eyes flicked to his face, and he could see the reluctance in the dark orbs.
“You can’t assign her and Ace to the same assault team.”
Wrinkles creased Tops’ brow. “Ace has already insisted on the assignment.”
“Of course he would. The idiot went and fell in love with her.” Zeche gazed impassively across the courtyard to the opposite wall. The man really should have known better. Ah, but one cannot always control the heart.
“You’re sure?”
Zeche nodded. “It’s plain as day. And he won’t be able to keep a clear head, not to mention he’ll be a distraction to her. It seems she’s having enough trouble with this without him intervening.” Audrey was pacing again, hands rubbing at her temples. Gwyn tried talking to her again, but was waved off.
“Again.” Her command was loud enough that he could hear her on the wall. Hound started to say something and she cut him off. “Again!” The Seeker shook his head, but obeyed her.
“Well, shit. That complicates things.” Tops was pinching his nose again, eyes squeezed shut.
Zeche’s eyes were on Hound, his head tilted to the side. “Indeed.”
Below, the men once again resumed their dancing. Audrey shook her head, hands on her hips.
“Again.”
Hound shook his head, contradicting her. “You’ve done enough for one day. You’re done.”
Zeche didn’t have to be standing in the courtyard to know she was rolling her eyes.
“You’ll know when I’m done, Hound. Now, again, please.”
Hound turned to walk away, but looked at her over his shoulder. Zeche had to strain to catch the words. “You’re right, I do know when you’re done. And that’s now.”
Audrey turned after him, her eyes wide and mouth slightly open. “Hound? Where do you think—”
The sly Seeker phased right out of the courtyard. He was the only man Zeche knew that could do it, and it was only because the man had been torturing himself with some gods-cursed training regimen. The assassin crossed to the side of the wall looking outward and, sure enough, Hound hadn’t gone far with his first jump. When he phased away a second time, Zeche knew he was truly gone.
14
The not breathing part really freaks me out. Audrey opened her eyes, removing her hand from Ace’s as she took in her surroundings. They were in yet another stretch of plains, but fresh water was on the breeze. She twisted around, hoping to see the source, but it eluded her. Clear as day in front of her, however, was a large tower made from sand-colored stone, rising at least six stories high. It was encircled in a shorter wall that seemed much newer than the tower itself. Audrey tilted her head, trying to figure out why Ace had brought her here. The training to protect the men hadn’t been going as well as she’d hoped, and she’d hardly worked hard enough to have earned a break.
A shout went up from the wall and a beacon was lit, causing more fires to spark up along the walls. Audrey glanced up at the lookout in alarm, hand going to her throat. What is this place? The guard’s eyes flashed green, and then they threw something over the fire. The flames turned a vibrant green and Audrey watched with wide eyes as the rest of the fires likewise changed hues, and then were extinguished. The gate she had hardly noticed opened, and someone rode out on horseback with two mounts trailing behind them.
“Where have you brought me?” She didn’t take her eyes off the approaching rider, too suspicious to look at Ace.
“The future home of the Order.” Ace sounded somewhat smug, and she finally broke her concentration on the rider to stare at him.
“Here? But…isn’t thi
s where they were taken from?” She’d never seen the infamous tower of the Order, but it was obvious this wasn’t a new building.
Ace’s eyes tightened as he glanced at the wall. “It’s seen some…improvements. The wall is new, and it will be patrolled at all times.”
Audrey frowned, staring up at the formidable wall. “Are you sure this won’t just feel like another prison to them?”
Ace sighed, something he was doing frequently nowadays. “Audrey, would you at least give it a chance?”
She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it instead. Many faces peered down at her from the wall, and she forced herself to try and think differently. They must be kept safe. She swallowed, a sense of unease still hovering over her. “A chance.” She nodded slowly, talking herself into it. “Okay.”
Ace moved slightly in front of her as the mystery rider approached, the horse skidding to a halt not far from them.
“Hail and well met, Leaf.”
Audrey squinted at the rider, the sun glaring behind their silhouette. That voice sounded familiar, though. “Sasha? Is that you?” Audrey shaded her eyes with her hand, trying to get a better look at the rider.
A brilliant smile broke out over the woman’s face and she waved. “Honored that you remember me, Lady.”
Audrey shook her head, smiling and freely approaching the woman. “Of course I remember you. You can’t train with someone daily and not remember them.” Audrey glanced at Ace, then back up at Sasha. “Have you two met, or…?”
Ace grinned, shaking his head. “I appointed her as one of the guard captains. She’s got plenty of experience and was invaluable in dealing with the aftermath of the Calanon fires.”
Audrey winced, unable to help it. Those fires were largely her fault, when the enemy had quite literally attempted to smoke her out of the city. “I’m glad the city had someone level headed in charge.” How she managed to grit the words out was beyond her.
