Between Cases (The City Between Book 7)

by W. R. Gingell

  “I wish you would attempt to appreciate the difficulties of—”

  “It’s hard to appreciate the difficulties if you never tell me anything!” I retorted. “You’ve been trying so hard to convince yourselves and me that I’m not an heirling that you haven’t spent any time teaching me what to do if I am one!”

  “Very well!” snapped Zero. “If you’re so intent on knowing every dribble of information about Between and Behind now that the sword has started to come to you, let’s begin!”

  I stared at him for several seconds, trying to figure out if I’d misheard, or if he’d actually said what I thought he said.

  “Hang on,” I said. “You’re going to tell me stuff? Behind stuff? That actually worked?”

  “Since it seems it’s the only way to have you cooperate with us, yes,” Zero said, in something that was very close to exasperation. “First, did you really pull the sword from Between as a matter of happenstance? You absolutely didn’t take the umbrella with you?”

  “Pure accident,” I said caustically. Even when he answered some questions, he still couldn’t help himself from side-stepping others. “I told you: I didn’t take it out with me when I left, but when I went to grab something from Between, it came out as the Heirling Sword.”

  Suddenly frowning, he asked, “Is this what happened while you were with the leprechaun the first time, too?”

  “Yeah. Same feeling. Why? What’s it mean?”

  “It means,” said Athelas, “that the King Behind is reaching the end of his reign and the cycle has begun again.”

  “I’m pretty flamin’ sure I’m not that important,” I told him. “So you’re gunna have to explain a bit more than that.”

  “She does not have to compete if she does not wish to do so,” JinYeong said abruptly. “Put the sword away again.”

  “It’s no use trying to hide the sword again,” Zero said wearily. Heck, he really had given up. He had finally admitted something he’d been fighting for probably longer than I realised, and now the flood-gates—such as they were, with him—had opened. I would have felt guilty if it wasn’t for the fact that this was stuff that he should have told me about two or three months ago, no matter how unwilling he was to believe it could be true. Maybe I would have been able to be more careful, and yesterday’s fight need not have happened. “It will simply come back out again when she needs it, as it once did for me.”

  It was my turn to stare at him. “Wait, the sword popped up suddenly for you one day, too? Why? And where was it before that?”

  “Those are all questions to which we would very much like to know the answers,” Zero said.

  “Yeah?” I stared at him for a bit and then added accusingly, “Pretty sure you do know the answers. You just don’t like ’em much, do you?”

  Zero, his eyes suddenly very blue with rueful amusement despite the weariness, said, “Bad pet.”

  “We have surmises,” Athelas told me. “But from my lord’s perspective none of them seem particularly felicitous. Why? Do you wish to be a contender to the Throne Behind?”

  “Heck, no!” I said, in horror. “Is that really what the sword means when it comes to someone who needs it?”

  “It means that there are enough heirlings around for the sword to be more active than usual, and that it has, for whatever reason, picked you to wield it should you choose,” said Zero.

  “You should pick up two blades,” JinYeong dictated. “Do not pick up the sword when it wants to be picked up.”

  “Yeah, I’ll be sure to take the time to think about that next time a bridge troll’s about to knock my head off my shoulders and play cricket with it. Are you saying I’m encouraging the sword?”

  “The sword,” said Athelas, very gently, “is inclined to make itself available to heirlings.”

  “I told you I don’t want to be an heirling.”

  “I’ve yet to find that the Heirling Sword cares very much about what people do and don’t want,” Athelas murmured, his eyes meeting Zero’s with a faint touch of amusement.

  “He’s talking about you, isn’t he?” I said to Zero at once. No use backing down when they were actually talking about stuff at last.

  JinYeong muttered, “If you talk about it, it will happen,” in an impatient sort of way, but I didn’t think I could stop now. I just sent a friendly sort of kick his way beneath the table and shrugged at him when he looked at me.

  To Zero, I said again, “He’s talking about you, right? You said the sword kept coming to you once, too.”

  He nodded. “Just like it does to you now.”

  “Reckon that would have annoyed the king a bit.”

  “The king,” said Athelas, “was not informed. My lord’s father took very swift steps to hide the sword once he realised what was going on. No doubt other steps were taken as well, since the cycle did not start anew and the king remains on the throne to this day.”

  “Once he realised what I was using it for, he took very swift steps,” said Zero, and the smile on his face was cold and worrying. “If I had been trying to make a play for the throne, no doubt he would have approved.”

  “Is that when you were trying to help humans last time? Hang on, is that why you were so surprised when I brought out the sword the first time?”

  “Yes,” Zero said baldly. “But this is worse: you brought out the sword from something that isn’t its own human world form. You twice picked up a random item that had no connection to the sword, and brought it to yourself through Between, anyway. The first time, you only brought the sword out of its other physical form, but a human shouldn’t be able to do even that.”

  “Not a full human, at the very least,” added Athelas. “And it is certain that only an heirling can bring the sword out through an unrelated item—someone with a touch of Behindkind to them as well as human.”

  “You said that the cycle is starting again.” Daniel had said something about that once. I could give him a call—ask him how Morgana was going, casually slip in a few questions about the Behind version of Ragnarök—and see what he had to say about it, too.

  “We can only suppose so, with the way the sword has been reacting. It’s possible that other heirlings are stirring, too.”

  I frowned. “That mean someone’s gunna start coming after Zero?”

  “I shouldn’t think so!” Athelas said, rather startled. “I imagine we’re among the first to realise that the cycle’s started again, and even when word does get out, the other heirlings will go for outliers first. My lord is far too strong to take down without quite some thought. The other heirlings might try to form alliances first, but only if there are enough of them and they know who they each are.”

  “Yeah, but what about the king?”

  “The king has reached the end of his cycle,” said Zero shortly. “He’ll soon die.”

  “Like he did last time?” I saw the look they exchanged, and said accusingly, “You already told me that he killed all the heirlings last time and stopped the cycle. What’s to stop him doing it this time?”

  “It’s too late to do what he did last time,” Athelas said. His eyes rested on me meditatively for a moment before he added, “Rather fortunately for you. He killed every heirling before most of the world Behind was aware that the cycle had started, even perhaps before it did begin. Barring my lord, he killed every child Behind that had a drop of human blood to them, too.”

  “Well, my parents are dead and I nearly was, too, so I don’t think I was that fortunate.” So the killing itself had been enough to stop the cycle? What was stopping him from doing it again, then? What made it too late now?

  Beggar all, probably.

  “How come it’s too late?” I pressed. “Why can’t he do the same thing again?”

  “Because my lord is grown and can also use the sword,” Athelas said.

  “Even if he forces the issue and starts killing other heirlings, it won’t matter,” Zero explained. “My father will call for the heirling trials to
begin, with the evidence that the Heirling Sword is now active to prove that the cycle has started again.”

  Great. I mean, at least if the king had me killed, it wouldn’t be any use to him, but I still didn’t particularly want to be killed. As an heirling, I was much more likely to die horribly in any number of ways and at the hands of any number of people. “Fine, so we’re not worried that the king will try to kill us, just yet, but we’re worried your dad will start making announcements on your behalf and also kill me if he finds out I’m an heirling, too.”

  “Exactly,” Zero said coldly. “So perhaps you could try to be a little less obvious if you must fight bridge trolls.”

  “Got it,” I said. “But that still leaves me wondering about something.”

  “What would that be?” he asked. He was still annoyed with me, but he wasn’t willing to leave me alone with thoughts he didn’t know about, where they might do damage one day. I could sympathise, but at the same time, he’d had long enough with his secrets and they hadn’t helped anyone by the keeping.

  “Well,” I said, “the king has to be behind the killings, doesn’t he? If I’m an heirling and someone tried to kill me ages ago, the murderer you’re after is probably one of the king’s men. He was probably trying to get the jump on this years ago. Do it before it got to this point.”

  “We suspected at one time that the killings were related to the succession, but never proved it,” Zero said. “Now that we’re sure you’re an heirling, we’ll adjust our investigations accordingly.”

  “Which is why you’re getting Athelas to show you the file he has about that boy, yeah? The one whose parents died like mine?”

  “Since my lord was doing nothing of the kind, may we assume that you wish me to do so, Pet?” enquired Athelas dryly. “I have the file in the other room.”

  Zero, a bit on his dignity, said, “There are enough links to make it worthwhile. We’ll concentrate on that one for now: at this point, peripheral cases like yours may provide more information than the main cases.”

  “That is not the important thing,” JinYeong said impatiently. “The important thing is that she is an heirling.”

  I shifted uncomfortably, but it wasn’t like I could really do anything about it. I asked, “What are we gunna do about it, anyway?”

  They all spoke at once.

  “Kyesok ssaum baewoyahae.”

  “Discover how widely it’s known.”

  “Send in notice of your cession.”

  “’Course I’m gunna keep learning to fight,” I said to JinYeong. “Even if this specifically doesn’t kill me, I don’t see Behindkind stopping trying to kill me.”

  “Your position in the worlds will open you to more of that sort of thing, Pet,” Athelas reminded me. “My lord is not incorrect about the dangers of your situation. If it were not an inescapable conclusion at this point, I would not have advocated for telling you anything further.”

  “Thanks,” I said, a bit sarcastically. Of Zero, who had advocated cession, I asked, “What about you? You gunna send in your notice of No thanks I don’t wanna be king?”

  “I already have,” he said briefly.

  “Oh, is that what you were doing while you were helping humans? Teenage rebellion?”

  Athelas’ lips twitched. “You have a wonderful way with words, Pet,” he said.

  “That was a message for my father, not the king,” Zero said shortly. “We’ll send in notice of your cession once we’re sure how widely this is known. Athelas is correct: we need to know how many people could be aware of the cycle. If my father doesn’t know it’s doubtful that anyone else knows, but we can make careful enquiries.”

  “If your father knew of it, I rather fancy we would have received a visit from him, my lord.”

  “Yeah, and I’d probably be dead,” I said, more quietly.

  I found that Zero was watching me, but all he said was, “I’m glad to see that you finally understand the ramifications of your situation, Pet.”

  “Ramifications, heck!” I said indignantly. “You’re the one who wouldn’t tell me anything about anything—if you’d been more honest about everything from the start, maybe I would have tried to be a bit more careful!”

  “If you’d just obeyed instead of questioning everything—”

  “—I’d be a lot deader,” I interrupted. Heck if I was going to take the blame for not obeying him when he’d never tried to explain why he wanted me to do stuff. “I know now that I can trust you, but I didn’t know that for sure until pretty recently, so you’ll have to excuse me for not obeying every word that drops from your lips. You threatened to kill me to get a USB.”

  “That was you,” JinYeong said, pointing at Zero. “I was helpful. I am trusted.”

  “The heck are you talking—”

  “I’d love to think that this means you intend to obey me without question from now on,” said Zero dryly, interrupting, “but I can’t afford to trust as much.”

  “Of course I’m not going to obey you without question,” I said. “Even if I do trust you. I’m still not sure your conscience is fully functioning and even if it is, I’ve got my own I need to worry about. Maybe we can work out a deal where I obey you like sixty percent of—”

  Zero sighed and JinYeong grinned, his eyes dark with malicious laughter.

  “All right, all right, no need to snigger,” I said resignedly. “I obey you most of the time, anyway. You’re really hard to please, you know?”

  “I have been trying to keep you alive,” said Zero, and there was a note of exasperation in his voice that was also very slightly hurt.

  “I know,” I told him. I’d been telling him for ages that he needed to be more demonstrative, but the emotions that were currently making their way out of his cold shell were uncomfortable. It was easier to deal with him when I didn’t have to worry about hurting his feelings. It wasn’t fair of me to think that, so I said, “I’m thankful for that. Really. But it’s part of the problem—I still want to have a say in how I get protected. I want to know what I’m going into, and what the possible outcome is. It’s easier for me to do what you want me to do when I know it’s the right decision.”

  “Someday,” Zero said, his blue eyes dwelling on me with that same expression of mingled frustration and hurt, “there is going to be an occasion where there isn’t time for me to tell you everything. I’ll tell you to do something and you’ll either do it or be dead.”

  “Makes it easier if I already trust you because I have past experience,” I said. I wasn’t going to let him get away with that. “And if we’re talking about JinYeong’s sister now, you’re going to have to remember that I’m not her.”

  “Of course it’s nothing to do with JinYeong’s sister!” snapped Zero. “You’re nothing like her!”

  “All right,” I said politely. “Never said it was. I was just pointing out that no matter what’s happened with you and humans in the past, it isn’t necessarily going to happen again.”

  “You can’t promise that,” Zero said. “You can’t promise that I won’t have to kill you because you’ve turned into a monster. You can’t promise that you won’t be torn to pieces by Behindkind while I’m out of reach and unable to protect you, and you can’t—”

  “Perhaps we should return to this conversation later?” suggested Athelas as Zero stopped and caught his breath, looking away.

  “Hyeong!” said JinYeong, appalled. Then at me, he said, “Ya, noh! Mwoh hanun kkoya?”

  “Pet,” Zero said, through his teeth, without looking at any of us. “Stop pushing buttons.”

  “I’m not pushing buttons,” I said quietly. “I’m just saying that it’s never been your choice to decide who lives and dies, and you can’t choose for me, either. But if you can remember to keep talking to me and letting me know what’s going on, I can promise I’ll do my best to obey you when I should.”

  “How will you know when—” Zero stopped, and said in exasperation, “I’m not sure why I bother.�
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  “Me either,” I said, shooting an apologetic sort of grin in his direction. “But thanks for saving my life all the time, anyway.”

  He actually laughed then, at first just a spurt of laughter and then a full head-in-hands laugh that shook the table while Athelas looked on in what seemed to be fond amusement and JinYeong stared with his mouth open.

  I shrugged when JinYeong turned his open-mouthed look on me, and waited for Zero to gather himself again before I asked him, “What now, then?”

  “First,” said Zero, sobering, “sword practise. Secondly, if your human friends answer you, try to find out if they have any idea about other similar cases to yours—ones that may not have made it to the police station or my notice.”

  I sent a sharp look in his direction, but before I could open my mouth, he bent a very clear, cold look on me. I grinned.

  “All right,” I said, instead of the cheeky oh, so you think we need help from the humans! that had nearly come out. He’d already laughed today: I didn’t want to break him. “I’ll tell ’em about the bridge troll at the same time. If they talk to me.”

  “And Pet?” The slightly-damaged Zero was gone again, but there was still a touch of softness to him when he said, “For now, try to pull anything from Between but the sword. No need to spread word before we need to.”

  “Okay, boss,” I said. I would have said more, but JinYeong was already behind me with a finger hooked into the back of my t-shirt collar. He pulled me up and across the room, ignoring the table that needed clearing and the dishes that needed doing.

  “Oi!” I protested.

  “Practise!” he said, and dragged me out with him to the back yard.

  He didn’t let me go until we were fairly outside, either, which prompted me to remind him, “There’s a tie frog upstairs that could do with a little friend, you know.”

  He stripped his tie from around his neck and rolled it up to shove in his pocket. “Do not turn my clothes into other things!”

  “You’re no fun.”

  “Clothes,” he said firmly as I looked around for anything to use as a weapon, “are to be respected. My tie—”