by TR Cameron
Leaving the man where he was, he snuck out of the house and called another ride. He had a delivery to make, which would hopefully allow him to get back to his actual task. Life outside sure is complicated.
Chapter Twenty
Usha had sat in the dark for half an hour while she contemplated how best to report the enforcer’s failure to the Empress. On the one hand, it wasn’t her failure. It was his. But on the other, since he was more or less in her direct line of authority now, she shared in it. That was one of many reasons her ruler limited her own enforcers to those who had repeatedly proven their superiority in the trials so they would be unlikely to reflect badly upon her. The threat of death for defeat was an added incentive not to damage her image.
Water sounds emanated from hidden speakers, soothing some of the mounting stress. She didn’t fear punishment from her superior. What horrified her was the idea that the other woman would believe she was inadequate in some way. In any way. While she had her own dreams and goals, they only existed within the boundaries of the Empress’s desires. It had been she who had dispatched Usha to New Orleans with the mandate to ready the city for occupation. And it had been she who had seen something special in the woman who’d fought brutally through a series of opponents to earn the opportunity to pledge her life to her. She’d had to do so in one of the rare public trials, lacking the appropriate bloodline or patrons to enter the Empress’s presence in any other fashion.
Her soul shivered at the idea of disappointing the woman she served. It would be a failure she would literally not be able to live with.
A chime indicated that she had only five minutes remaining before she was to be available to commune. She stood and smoothed her jade-green dress and checked in a small hand mirror from the desk to ensure that her hair was properly styled and accessorized. A net over her braids held sparkling gems and bright pieces of coral. They matched the heavy necklace at her throat and the bracelets on her wrists. She had even chosen her best perfume, although as far as she knew, the communication did not include senses other than sight and sound.
She sighed. As far as I know. That’s the key to everything. I need to know more and I am surrounded by people with more muscle than mind. She shook her head. I’ll have to risk giving Danna more tasks. She imagined that the relationship she had with the Empress was replicated between her and her second, with Usha in the superior role. It made her not want to endanger the other woman unnecessarily, which was something she hoped her own ruler felt about her.
Another chime signaled one minute. She cast the spell to unlatch the door, entered the lightless room, and pulled it shut behind her. It was vision and soundproof until the sphere in the basin in the front began to glow and the vapor appeared. She waited quietly and the sounds of crashing waves and whale song that always accompanied commune washed over her. One by one, she let her barriers fall and allowed herself to become part of that symphony for a time.
But when the vapors began to move, she snapped back to attention with complete focus. The face of her ruler materialized before her, simultaneously solid and ghostly. She bowed deeply. “Empress.”
The other woman’s voice was smooth, low, and resonant. She felt it as much as heard it. “My servant. What news?”
Usha had decided to start with the positives. “We are increasing our customer base for the magical drug, which we have called Zarcanum. My people expect that we will have more demand than supply for the next month or so, at least.”
The Empress nodded. “Well done. That is ahead of schedule, is it not?”
She was always amazed at her ruler’s ability to keep so many details close to hand. “Yes, it is. And all signs point to that continuing.” She received a nod and pressed on. “The drug to addict the humans is almost ready. It is too often fatal, so we are working on a less potent dose.”
“But keeping the original formula as well, no doubt? Because such things can be quite useful.”
Usha nodded. “Yes, Empress. We have a supply in case we need to create an epidemic.”
“Or eliminate a particular target. Indeed. Well done, my servant.”
She blushed with pride and forced her voice to seriousness. “Territory expansion is not going as well. The intervention of the dwarf and his minions has complicated the situation. However, my people are working to deal with that problem as we speak.”
“Have the enforcers I sent been useful?”
She didn’t sigh or allow her face to react with anything other than a smile. “They have been, Empress. One has already attempted to eliminate the girl who broke in here. Due to the vagaries of chance, I’m told, that battle did not end in our favor.”
“Is he still alive?”
“He is, Empress, and ready to make partial amends with the next attempt. He recognizes and regrets his failure.”
The other woman chuckled. “What penance did you assign him?”
Usha grinned. “Restroom monitor for the club.”
Her ruler broke out into laughter. “Truly, you possess a wicked streak, my servant. He must find that entirely humiliating, given all that he has accomplished.”
She nodded. “Yes, Empress. He does. However, I set the duration for only ten days. I don’t wish to break him, only twist him.”
Her superior nodded and tapped her chin with a long finger. The nail was metallic silver, and Usha had often wondered if it was paint or a weapon. “Make it fourteen days. Let him simmer.”
“Yes, Empress.” she bowed her head. “Your will is my desire.”
“What of the other one?”
She knew the woman referred to the other troublemaker, Tanyith. “He has been seen in a variety of places, and we believe we have his movements tracked well enough to intervene. I will send the other enforcer to handle it.”
The Empress nodded. “Impress upon him the consequences of failure. Remind him that I am watching.”
Usha swallowed hard. That was a phrase with a double meaning, clearly intended both for him and for her. She whispered, “Yes, Empress.”
The other woman smiled. “With you, I am well pleased. See that you stay ahead of schedule.” Without anything further, the vapors dissipated and Usha stumbled out of the room, breathing like she’d actually run a race. There was something deeply terrifying and yet immensely pleasurable about being in the woman’s presence. She felt it more intensely each time they communed. A small part of her mind worried that she was being magicked, but the rest accepted whatever the connection might cost as the price of the future she wanted.
She retrieved her phone from the locked desk and sent several texts, then sat in the expensive and comfortable chair to await her subordinates.
Danna was the first to arrive. She was dressed entirely in black, and a frown defined her face. She’d taken the enforcer’s failure personally, which was hierarchically appropriate, but it was no more her fault than it was Usha’s. When your Empress gives you a tool, it is not your failure if the tool is inadequate to what should have been a simple task.
And that was the key. It should have been simple. They’d underestimated the girl, clearly. It was easy to attribute it to the blood running through her veins, but that was a far too simplistic answer. They hadn’t given her enough respect, from Usha on down, and it had resulted in a failure. But not a determining one. She gestured for the woman to take the chair across from her.
The light-skinned blonde enforcer was the next to enter. She beckoned him forward and he stood at the corner of the desk where both women could see him. His face was neutral and emotionless, as befitted his role. She tilted her chin at him. “So. Your brother failed.”
The man nodded. “He did.”
“What are your thoughts on that?”
He moved his hands behind his back and presumably clasped them there. “The intelligence we had at the time suggested that the strategy should have worked. Clearly, she is more than we thought. However, he cannot be held blameless. It is his obligation to adapt and succeed and i
n this, he failed.”
She turned to Danna. “And your thoughts?”
The woman shrugged. “Failure at multiple levels. But we can learn from it and do better on the next go-round. She will have the right to additional support, as will we, so it will be a greater challenge to find the perfect moment.” A frown flickered across her face. “Unless we wish to explain things to her.”
Usha shook her head. “No. Not now and potentially not ever. That would create many, many more problems for us. We will simply have to ensure that the rules are followed on both sides. Next time, two on two.” Her second in command nodded to acknowledge the decision, and Usha turned to the enforcer.
“So. Fortunately, we don’t have to limit ourselves at all where Tanyith is concerned. Take whoever you think you need and kill him. If there is anyone with him, they’re fair game unless it’s the girl.” She stared hard into his eyes. “Understand what I’m saying. If you touch one hair on that girl’s head for any reason other than by my direct command, you and your brother will beg to die for days before I set you free to live the rest of your life without eyes, fingers, or a tongue.”
He didn’t react except for a tightening at the corners of his eyes. He nodded. “I understand. My purpose is to serve. I will kill the man and I will not touch Leblanc.”
“Excellent. Leave.” He obeyed and closed the door softly behind him. She turned to Danna with a smile. “Too strong?”
Her second in command shook her head. “Absolutely not. Enforcers tend to favor emotion over reason at times. It is good to remind them of the need for a balance of both.”
Usha sighed. “I wish more of my people approached your level of wisdom and ability. But since they don’t, I will have to ask more of you than I’d prefer to.”
Danna nodded. “I assumed that would be the case after the setback with Caliste. Have no worries. I’m capable of whatever you need and willing to do whatever you wish.” The words warmed her soul. Leadership could be lonely, and she was lucky to have such a dedicated subordinate. In another life, they’d be friends. In this one, their power relationship would always restrict true connection. Well, maybe one day when this is all over and we’re both retired, that could change. She laughed inwardly. Quite a dream.
“Excellent. Together, we’ll keep things on track and on schedule.”
“What would you like me to do first?”
She smiled. “We need to push harder on distributing the Zarcanum.”
Danna’s expression matched her own. “As it happens, I have some thoughts on that.”
Chapter Twenty-One
The sensation of Fyre’s cold nose against her bare leg hadn’t been an improvement over the wake-up app on her phone, even if the most recent song Dasante had elected was a polka from Weird Al Yankovic that would be in her mind for at least another week. The Draksa had been insistent, however, and they’d jogged around the block to warm up before the sun appeared.
Although the new apartment building had a strip of grass in the back, they’d scouted and found a reasonable-sized area a couple of streets away. While they would maintain overlapping veils while they trained together and Fyre would retain his dog disguise as a backup, it would certainly look weird if a Rottweiler suddenly gained the ability to breathe frost. It wasn’t clear what the area had been before whatever had occupied it was demolished, but it was now a large, uneven patch of dirt and grass.
She collected a few fist-sized stones and a couple of discarded Coke bottles and placed them on a small mound at one end. Pointing to it, she explained, “That’s our target. Let’s imagine that he’s all the Terminator villains rolled together.” The way the Draksa looked at her conveyed his scorn. “Uh, right, sure, you haven’t seen the movies because you’re a dragon lizard.” Or because you have no taste, more like. She laughed inwardly. “Okay, virtually unbreakable Kilomea.” He nodded, that image clearly much more resonant.
They moved to the far end of the field and she said, “All right, this is your time to shine.”
He sounded focused, his usual mirth and-or sarcasm absent. “Do you want to go in side by side or do it close-up and ranged?”
She thought about it for a second, but his previous observations about her nature held true. Plus, she couldn’t be sure her aim was good enough to avoid hitting him and she wouldn’t feel right hiding in the back. “We do it together.”
“Okay.” He nodded. “I’ll go to the right and you go to the left, which keeps your dominant hand toward him. We’ll assume my frost doesn’t stop him, but you’ll have to wait until it passes to engage or you’ll get caught. We can practice that until our timing’s perfect.”
“Got it.” Strangely, it didn’t feel odd at all taking strategy lessons from Fyre. They ran in to attack half a dozen times while she gained a sense of his speed before he began to vary the tactics and made her adapt. After fifteen attempts, she was tired but confident and competent in the approach. She called a break to rest and checked her phone, happy to discover it hadn’t taken more time than she’d expected. There was still an hour and a half before she had to be at the dojo, and even though it took a little longer to get there from the new apartment, the timing looked good.
She reached out absently and patted Fyre on the back. “Life’s weird these days, my friend.”
He leaned toward her a little but continued to look off into the distance. “Why?”
Cali shrugged. “Mysteries all over, right? What’s up with the Zatoras? What’s up with the Atlanteans? Why did my parents leave me a key to a place I can’t find, a book full of writing I can’t read, and a hunk of metal that I don’t understand the purpose of? There’s so much to investigate that I don’t know where to begin.”
His snout lowered in a nod. “Your puzzles are bigger than most. But I think everyone feels overwhelmed when something unexplained enters their life. Like a Draksa, for instance.” She laughed, and he continued, “But you’re smart and you’ve chosen your partners well. I’m sure that between us, we’ll find the answers you need.”
She put her palms on the ground behind her, leaned back, closed her eyes, and rolled her neck. Being so busy had actually been good for her as it had removed any excuses she might have made to herself. There simply wasn’t time to do anything that didn’t make progress in some areas. “How about you and your answers?”
He snorted. “I chose my partners less well.”
“Ha, ha. Don’t avoid the question.”
Fyre sounded less concerned than he’d been in previous discussions on the topic. “I still want to know why I can’t remember things as well as I think I should. But it’s not the most important thing in my life at the moment. We have so much to do and none of it requires me to recall everything.”
She nodded, scrambled her feet, and stretched her back. “We have enough time left for a couple of rounds of one-on-one.” She frowned and pointed. “No freezing. I won’t be able to stand under a hot shower for twenty minutes to counteract it.” His skill was sufficient to encase an opponent without doing real damage, but the last time he’d done it, she’d needed a whole day to return to feeling normal.
He laughed, sibilantly mocking her. They took up positions at opposite ends of the space and attacked simultaneously. She summoned her sticks as she ran and by the time they were in melee range, they were solidly in her grip. He bounded at her head and as always, she was surprised by how powerful his legs were. She slid beneath the attack, plowed a furrow in the dirt, and dragged the tip of one stick along his belly. The idea occurred to her that it might be possible to put points on them or even edges but for some reason, that struck her as different and more severe than using them as bludgeons.
She ran out of time to pursue that train of thought as the Draksa slithered in again. This particular movement was something he only did when attacking, and he resembled a snake in the way he shifted from side to side while he still advanced with amazing speed. She braced herself, and when he reared to bite at her arm, she bro
ught a stick down on his snout. He’d assured her that even her strongest blow wouldn’t damage him much unless she used magic and had demonstrated that his species healed quickly by deliberately cutting himself. In under a minute, the wound had disappeared as if it had never been. Still, she didn’t plan to hit him in the skull if she could help it.
It redirected him but didn’t stop the attack. He pushed off with his back legs and barreled into her. She tried to spin the instant she realized that was his plan but was only halfway through when he made contact. Cali fell and he landed on top of her immediately, his sharp teeth on her neck. She tapped out and he backed away. After taking a moment to wipe the dirt off her face, she bounced up. “Okay, scale brain. Let’s see you do that again.”
He laughed and trotted back to the starting position. She stared at him, then deliberately defocused to be ready for an attack from any direction. He didn’t wait for a command but raced toward her. When he got close, she forced herself to relax. The Draksa went low this time and threw himself into a sideways roll at her feet. She caught a glimmer as she leapt over him and landed on the other side, twirled, charged, and yelled, “Cheater!” He’d told her about the magical armor his species could invoke at need. It wasn’t long-lasting in most of them but could provide a distinct momentary advantage. She resisted blasting him with force and ran after him. He came out of the tumble facing her and leapt.
This time, she was ready and dipped to her right and twisted, bringing both sticks up to intercept his attack and guide him off course. She dove after him, and when he landed on his side, she flung herself on top of him. They wrestled and she attempted to get behind him and lock her arms and legs around his thick neck while he worked to twist and bring his claws into position to rake her.
