Hand of Justice Boxed Set

by Jace Mitchell

  Before him, a smaller ship floated in front of his larger one. It was parallel, and ladders had been extended from their deck to his.

  “Ah, here we are,” he told Mason who stood on his right side.

  “Do you ever get bored with your theatrics?”

  “No, sir,” Rendal answered. “It’s the theatrics that give me the most fun. The more important question is, are you ready to see what I can do when your friends show up? Are you ready to see what’s going to happen to New Perth?”

  “You do whatever you need to right now, Rendal, to make yourself feel powerful. Riley is coming, though, and when she gets here, you’re going to have a very different outlook on things, I think.”

  “We’ll see, we’ll see.” Rendal stepped up to Harold, leaving the Assistant Prefect behind him. “How are our new friends doing?”

  “You heard them from belowdecks?”

  Rendal nodded. “Yes.” It’d been something less than pleasantries—a warning cannonball flying over the ship and disappearing into the ocean.

  “Well, not much else so far. Took them a bit to line up with us, and now we’re just waiting for them to board.”

  The deck was empty, all of the men below. Rendal knew they weren’t happy; many were actually terrified. He didn’t care.

  A man stepped out of a hatch onto the deck of the pirate ship. He was dirty, with long stringy, black hair. He wore a bandanna and had a large scar across the left side of his face. He held a thin sword in his right hand and looked to have about nine different knives hanging from a belt around his waist.

  “Aye, my name is Captain Grayskull, and this here is my ship. These here are my men.”

  And as he spoke the last few words, some of the grimiest human beings Rendal had ever seen came up from belowdecks. They spread out around their captain, all wearing black and brown tattered clothing. Some were toothless, some had only one eye, some only one leg.

  “They make mutants look healthy, don’t they, Harold?” Rendal laughed.

  “Yes, sir. I’d say your assessment is correct.”

  The pirates all held weapons, and more kept emerging.

  “Now, I have the rights to this here water you’re floating on, and I didn’t receive me necessary paperwork to sign off on. That means you are sailing illegally in my waters.”

  The pirates on the other deck laughed.

  “So, without the paperwork,” the captain continued, “I’m afraid I’mma have to take possession of this ship and all the loot on it.”

  “Aye!” someone shouted. “Need to take possession!”

  The crew laughed again.

  The captain still hadn’t moved from his ship. The ladders connecting the ships remained empty.

  Rendal decided to play dumb. “Where would I get the paperwork you speak of, Captain Grayskull?”

  “Aye, the paperwork. Men, where would he get the paperwork? I can’t remember where I put it.”

  “I think it might be up me ass!” someone shouted.

  “No, no, you put it up Brett’s ass last night!”

  The captain laughed along with his crew, but as his smile faded, their laughter died.

  “I guess it’s up someone’s ass over here, from the sound of things. Either way, I didn’t get it in time, so I’m going to be comin’ aboard that ship, and then you all are gonna do what I say. You understand me?”

  Rendal looked at Harold. “He’s making some serious demands, isn’t he?”

  “Yes, sir. It would appear we should listen to them.”

  “Aye, if you two are over there makin’ jokes, I suggest you stop. Now, before we board, how many men ya got?”

  “How many would you say, Harold?”

  “Besides us three?” Harold asked with a grin.

  “Yes, besides us three.” Rendal didn’t take his eyes from the pirate captain as he joked with his second-in-command.

  “Well, if we include the ones we got in chains, plus your private army, I’d have to put the number at five hundred or so.”

  “Enough!” the captain screamed across the expanse. “Men, take them!”

  “Mason, friend, pay attention.” Rendal’s voice carried to the Assistant Prefect’s ears.

  The pirates rushed forward and climbed the ladders. Loud grunts and angry curses filled the air, but Rendal and Harold remained in place.

  The bracelet on Rendal’s wrist lit, shining deep red for everyone to see. He closed his eyes, and the nanocytes in his blood latched onto those of the people wearing the necklaces. He could feel their bodies as if they were his own, the energy inside them now his to control.

  Artino had explained how it worked to him. The amphoralds in his bracelet were charged with his energy, and he was using them to control others. Through the amphoralds, his nanocytes were focusing those inside his prisoners, their potential becoming his.

  It was like mind control, but he only needed to tell the bracelet on his wrist what to do instead of fifty people at once. Rendal directed his will to the bracelet, and it sang that across the necklaces on his prisoners.

  They were his to do with as he wished.

  The first of the pirates reached his ship, but Rendal still didn’t move. The captain climbed his ladder carefully, slowly, even as those around him rushed up the others.

  “Belowdecks, lads. That’s where we’ll find ‘em.”

  “Indeed, it is,” Rendal whispered.

  Two large hatches opened on the ship’s deck, basically holes with ladders leading down.

  The pirates running across the deck skidded across the wood as they came to a stop.

  “What the hell?”

  Red eyes peered up from below. Fifty pairs of them.

  “Captain!” one of the pirates shouted. “Captain, ya need to see this!”

  Captain Grayskull landed on Rendal’s ship with a thud.

  “What’s stoppin’ you?” he screamed. “Move outta the way!”

  He shoved forward, pushing people out of the way. The two hatches in the deck were just in front of Rendal and Harold, separating them from the cutthroats holding knives, swords, and axes. None of their eyes were on Rendal, though.

  They stared at these new people.

  “What’s wrong with their eyes?”

  Rendal smiled. “You see, Harold? Things are never as bad as they seem, are they?”

  “No, sir. Not with you.”

  “What the hell?” the captain asked. Having made his way to the doors, he was now looking down at the unmoving people.

  Their faces were lax, their eyes calm, their pupils glowing red.

  “Gentleman, this is part of my crew. Would you like to meet them?”

  The captain glanced at Rendal. “What’s wrong with their eyes?”

  “What on Earth do you mean?”

  “You know damn well what I mean. Why are they red? And why are they wearing those necklaces? They’re glowin’ red too!”

  “Would you like to see?”

  “Don’t you move! Don’t you dare move! Men, seize ‘im!” the captain demanded.

  The pirates didn’t move an inch. They all stood staring at their leader and this strange robed man, unsure what to do.

  Rendal walked behind Harold and then headed to the rail, skirting both hatches and the group of pirates around them.

  “That’s a good looking ship, Captain Grayskull. Fast too, huh? No way mine could have gotten away from it.”

  “You listen to me right now, and you listen good. Don’t move another step ‘less you want me to pop your head off your neck like a zit on my ass, you understand?”

  Rendal raised his hand next to his face and looked at the palm.

  “I wonder…how’s a pirate to survive without a ship?” Rendal asked. The whole pirate crew stared at him now, their eyes distrusting and their hands tight on their weapons.

  Rendal closed his hand slightly, his fingers shaking as if he suddenly held some immeasurably hard rock.

  A loud groaning sound filled the
open air. Wood creaking.

  “NO!” the captain shouted, rushing back to the rail, knowing exactly where the noise came from.

  “Harold,” Rendal called. “Start us moving at full speed. We don’t want to get sucked down with it.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And Harold, let’s make the pirates feel at home. How would they say such a thing?”

  Harold smiled. “Aye aye, Captain.”

  Harold disappeared down the ladder, the red-eyed army moving out of the way for him before shifting back into their spaces.

  Rendal’s hand closed tighter, and things started popping on the other ship. Loud noises that sounded like explosions. Wood cracking and breaking.

  “KILL HIM!” the captain shouted, pointing his sword at Rendal. The pirates’ trance broke. Whatever this mage was doing, he had to be stopped.

  They rushed forward, and Rendal’s red bracelet shone over the entire deck.

  It sounded like a cannon fired from the two hatches.

  The men rushing toward Rendal were blindsided, but not by fire. Not by electricity. Not by anything that could hurt Rendal’s ship.

  Instead, wind slammed into them and they flew through the air, knocking into each other, some skidding across the wooden deck. They hit the rail, cracking their ribs and arms and shoulders.

  Shouts rang out.

  More rushed forward, the wind not stopping them all. The ship had begun moving, the ladders pulling away from the pirate ship.

  Rendal’s fist closed more, and the first true sounds of breaking came. Water was flooding in through the hull, and splintered wood burst from the ship’s sides, flying into the ocean. Water churned as the ladders fell between the two ships.

  Some of the pirates rushed to the rail to view the ship that was being left behind.

  Rendal’s soldiers were all on deck now, their eyes bright red.

  A pirate was five feet from Rendal, his sword out and his face full of fury.

  Rendal didn’t move, only closed his hand a bit tighter, the invisible rock crumbling.

  The pirate stopped in his tracks as if he had run into a brick wall. His sword moved against his will, the point now facing his gut.

  One of Rendal’s red-eyed soldiers stood behind him, face emotionless, hands at his sides.

  The pirate plunged the sword into his own stomach, his blood spilling on the deck.

  Rendal smiled and glanced across the ship at Mason.

  “You see, Assistant Prefect?”

  Rendal’s hand closed more, and the staff holding the pirates’ flag shattered and dropped shards of wood onto the broken deck.

  The soldiers were tossing pirates over the rail, using a combination of wind and telekinesis.

  Screams and blood.

  Rendal only smiled, his hand closing farther and more easily as the ship’s internal structure fell apart, the sea claiming it.

  And then his hand was fully closed and the pirate ship was sinking.

  Half his soldiers turned their attention to the ship’s sails.

  A huge wind suddenly filled them. The ship had been moving before, but now it truly took off. The pirate ship continued going down behind them, but the water couldn’t suck Rendal’s ship down with it. They were too far away.

  Rendal watched as Captain Grayskull was tossed over the rail. He screamed as he fell.

  The mage turned from the rail and strode across the deck to where Mason stood. Painful yells still filled the air, but they were growing fewer and fewer.

  Mason’s eyes didn’t hold the fear that Rendal had hoped for, but he cared little. Time was on his side.

  “Are you seeing what I mean yet?”

  He stood so that the two men were shoulder to shoulder, watching the melee play out in front of them. Another pirate was flung into the ocean, the screams ending as he hit the water.

  “I see you’re a cruel man, mage or not. I know that if Riley is coming for me, she’s not bringing cruelty but justice. It’s going to be cold when it gets here, Rendal. At least as cold as the water you just tossed those men into.”

  Chapter Three

  Riley didn’t like being on a ship one bit. William had warned her, but she hadn’t listened—mainly because she didn’t have a choice. If Rendal was on the ocean, then Riley had to be on the ocean too.

  She hadn’t known how much she would hate it, though.

  Her stomach was in constant turmoil and her head felt like it was always swimming, her brain trying to stay above some waterline it hadn’t known about.

  “Weaker both on land and on water.” William laughed and slapped his knee as Riley bent over the bucket at the side of her chair.

  “I’ll show you weak—”

  She tried to say something back to him, but the food she’d eaten an hour ago shot up her throat. She stared at the mess for a moment, wiping her mouth with the back of her arm before straightening.

  Riley, William, Lucie, and Worth were three levels below the upper deck.

  “Laugh all you want, William, but I know you didn’t eat lunch just so you’d avoid this.” Lucie’s smirk filled her face.

  “I did no such thing.”

  “Oh, yeah? Tell me, then, why there is twice as much food left in the kitchen as there normally would be?”

  “Enough.” William grunted. “We’ve got stuff to teach the young lady.”

  Lucie laughed, knowing that she’d won. William didn’t want people to see him vomiting, and it would certainly curtail his ability to make fun of Riley.

  “I forgot that you’re a master mage already,” Lucie retorted. “Go on then, William. Show her what to do. Please.”

  The crew had set sail one day ago, and the lessons had already started.

  Worth had told it short and simple. “No time. Make you magic now or we die.”

  Lucie was a mage, too, but she’d taken a back seat to Worth’s teaching so far.

  “You stubborn.” Worth refused to stop for Riley’s stomach. “More stubborn than him.”

  He pointed at William.

  The big man grinned at Riley. “So stubborn, Riley. Be more like me. Pliable. Easily molded.”

  Riley gritted her teeth. “Don’t forget what happened when Rendal kept fucking with me, William. You want to see me explode?”

  “I’m much too powerful for that now, Riley. Child’s play.” William’s grin was large enough to split his face.

  “Focus,” Worth snapped. “Here. Now. He know we come. He see us right now, so you focus.”

  Riley did; she forced away her rolling stomach and hurting head. She wanted to learn this. She needed to learn this. For her own sake, but also for New Perth’s. For Mason’s.

  “Sword important for him. Not you. Magic greater in you. Because it greater, your focus must be greater. Eyes closed.”

  Riley listened.

  She’d been doing this for hours, and so far nothing had happened. No fire in her hands like William. No red eyes. Nothing.

  Even now with her eyes closed, she couldn’t focus like she did with her sword. There was no physical extension of her. Nothing for her senses to latch onto. Nowhere for her mind to go. It was forced to be silent and focus only on itself.

  “What you see?”

  “Nothing. Just blackness.”

  “Deeper.”

  “What do you mean, Worth?”

  “Deeper. Go deeper.”

  Riley simply sat with her eyes shut, not understanding.

  “What you see?”

  “The same. Just blackness.”

  The big bald man was growing frustrated and he stood up, nearly knocking over his stool. “Enough for now. Need rest. Me. You need think. Figure out what you want.”

  Worth left the room, saying nothing else.

  William stood. “I ain’t never seen him that upset. You must really be pissing him off, skinny.”

  “I...I don’t know how. I’m trying my hardest. I really am. I just don’t know what he wants.”

  “I’m
gonna go grab some—” William stopped mid-sentence, looking at them.

  “Grab some what?” Lucie smirked.

  They both knew how he’d been about to end the sentence. Grab some food.

  “Just some stuff.” He walked out of the room, not looking at either of them.

  “That man has more pride than anyone but Rendal himself.” Lucie stood and lifted her stool up, then brought it over to Riley. “He’s teaching you to do it differently than I learned.”

  “Worth?”

  “Well, certainly not William. He couldn’t teach a thief to steal, far as I can tell.”

  “How did you learn? Who taught you?”

  “Rendal did. I think that’s why I fell in love with him. I was only twenty.” Lucie looked down at her shoes. “I think the love was based quite a bit on what he saw in me. Something I didn’t understand myself at the time. He used me. I see that now. Like he wants to use you.”

  She looked back up.

  “You know that, right?”

  Riley nodded. “He told me. He said he wants me to be his heir.”

  “That’s what he told you, but don’t you believe him, girl. Rendal don’t want no heir. Rendal don’t think he’s ever gonna die.”

  “What’s he really want, then?” Riley asked.

  “Same thing all men with power want—to get more power. He’ll use you to help him do it. This is tough for ya now, learning how to let the magic loose inside you, but Rendal is right. The amount you hold...I saw it the first day I met you. Unleashing it might be hard, but when you do, it’s going to rip through this whole continent, girl. It’s going to change things.”

  “I don’t care about any of that. I don’t care about changing the continent, or even New Perth. I just want to get Mason back. That’s why I’m doing this.”

  “I know.” She stood up and walked across the room. “I can tell you how Rendal taught me if you think it might help.”

  “I’ll take any advice you have right now. Absolutely any.”

  Lucie nodded, grinning. “I don’t care what Worth says. Ya ain’t as stubborn as that big dumb animal William.” She went to the other side of the room and spread her arms to either side, the smile fading from her face. “Rendal used to tell me that it’s all energy. Magic isn’t anything other than that. Energy is matter, and some people—special people, as he used to call us—can bend it to their will. It’s not really magic at all. There’s something different about us that lets us manipulate the physical world, and that includes minds, because make no mistake, it’s energy inside your brain right now, girl.”