“I used to know heroes, although they probably would have said the same bullshit you just did. I’m no hero, and I don’t want to be. I haven’t sworn to a damned thing, nor will I. What makes you want to give that much of yourself to the world?”
It was a question William had never asked himself. Something he’d never thought about in his whole life.
“I guess because the world’s given me so much. It’s only right that I give some back.”
Linda shrugged. “That’s as good of an answer as any. Better than most, I imagine.”
“Why are you asking me all this? It has nothing to do with Riley.”
Linda grinned. “Because I get tired of hearing you drone on and on. Seemed like a nice change of subject. What can I tell you, William? She isn’t ready. If you go now, she will die. You will die. Your kingdom will be lost.”
“And if we wait, those I care about inside the kingdom will die.”
“I have no perfect answer for you, boy.” Linda sneered. “I am not a soothsayer, or the Oracle Ezekiel knew. I’m simply an old practitioner of magic who wants to be left alone.”
“You know he’ll come for you, right?” William asked. “He’ll come, and he’ll take this place, and then he’ll kill you.”
“Right now that sounds like heaven, at least compared with listening to your mouth that knows no end.” Linda looked at him. “I don’t know what you want me to tell you. That she’s ready? Okay, she’s ready. That she can leave? Okay, she can leave. You know the truth. You all should decide what to do and leave me out of it.”
William stared at the woman hard for long moments, then walked off. There was no more use talking to her. It was time to go to Alexandra and Worth. William needed to get their opinions. He hoped they weren’t anywhere near Riley, because from what he could tell, the damned Right Hand was just moping around on the beach like some lost puppy right now.
This was all turning into a disaster.
He found them in Linda’s house, and Riley was still at the beach.
“That woman is a real bitch,” he said as he entered.
“You two still getting along swimmingly?” Alexandra asked.
“You have crush,” Worth remarked from through the open door of the back porch. He was cooking fish for dinner. The woman caught no shortage of fish, using some kind of magic that William didn’t understand (or care about).
“I’m going to crush her,” William shot back. “But I ain’t here to talk about that old biddy. We need to discuss Riley and what to do.”
“Not ready.” Worth didn’t look up from the task at hand.
“Father and Mother, I’m tired of hearing that. Alexandra, what do you think?”
The woman looked more at peace than William had ever felt in his life. She was lying on a couch that was remarkably well kept. William had no idea how the old bitch did it, nor where it had come from.
“I think we’re exactly where we need to be. Riley is doing exactly what she has to in order to win this thing.”
“Out of everyone on Earth, I’m here with you two.” William ran his hands through his hair. “One is a member of a damn cult, and the other only thinks about food and booze.”
Worth’s head whipped away from the food. “Wine! Not all booze!”
William rolled his eyes.
“She’s going to beat him,” Alexandra said. “We just need to trust her and her decisions.”
“Her decisions?” William was growing more exasperated. “She’s outside kicking sand across the beach and pouting because the old woman won’t tell her she can beat Rendal. All of this is madness!”
Alexandra shrugged. “I wish I could give you some of my peace, but I can’t. You’ll have to either trust in our Savior or not.”
“Savior, savior, savior,” William mumbled. “I’m the only one here with a lick of sense.”
“Less sense than dingo, you have.” Worth laughed.
“So we wait, that’s what you’re both saying. Regardless of what happens to New Perth, we wait?”
Worth walked away from the cooking food and stopped in the doorway. “We wait ‘til she ready. That only way we win. Otherwise, we die.”
They appeared out of nowhere.
One hundred of them, at least.
“I thought I’d seen a lot of ugly before,” Riley quipped, “but this is almost more than I can handle.”
She was staring at a hundred identical versions of Linda. The old woman had surrounded her on the beach, both behind and in front.
“All your talk. Let’s see you beat us, then.” They spoke as one, a hundred voices at the same time.
Riley understood this was another example of psychic magic, somehow Linda making replica after replica.
Riley pulled her sword from its sheath.
“Are you still going to talk to me once I kill all of you?” she asked.
“If you kill one of me, I’ll eat my shoe,” a single Linda on the left told her…and then launched a fireball.
Riley’s eyes flashed red and she spun, water covering her sword. It sliced through the flaming ball, causing it to sizzle and burn away.
That Linda was still staring at her. Riley paused only for a second, deciding what exactly she should do.
Fuck it, she thought. The bitch tried to kill me.
She swung her arm wide and threw the sword at them. It spun in the air, electricity now flying from the blade, and shot across the beach, latching onto the different Lindas. None said a word, although when the electricity touched them, their bodies convulsed.
“Too many of us.” The others spoke as one.
The sword continued spinning as it flew.
Riley looked behind her just in time.
A whirling tornado of sand, ten feet tall, was aiming straight at her. Riley made a parting motion with her hands, but she felt Linda’s strength as she did. The tornado kept coming, and if Riley didn’t split it, the thing would rip her apart.
She thought about running, but—
No. Believe.
The tornado was two feet away, the sand starting to scrape Riley’s skin.
She did the splitting motion again, her eyes wide open.
The tornado split in half and went around her, the sand falling to the ground as it lost its momentum.
“Nice try,” they said. “But that’s only one of our tricks.”
Riley looked to her right. The sword was still scattering electricity, and twenty or more Lindas were shaking as if having seizures. She stuck out her hand and the sword ripped through the air, its hilt finding her hand easily.
A fireball streaked at her from behind, but she felt the heat just in time and dropped to the sand as it soared overhead. Another came from the left, then one from the right. Riley shoved her sword into the sand and leapt.
The fireballs collided with each other, creating a dazzling blaze.
Riley looked down. Lindas were staring up at her, their eyes alive with fire. Some were on the ground; the ones the electricity had taken out.
There are too many, she thought.
Forty pairs of hands raised into the air at once.
The other forty turned their backs to her and looked out at the ocean.
Fuck.
Long, dazzling strands of electricity flew from the fingertips pointed at her.
Riley let herself drop.
The electricity followed, bending and twisting to find its target.
Riley brought her sword in front of her face and closed her eyes.
Water erupted from the air around her, a shell of it that spread outward. The electricity hit it, creating a beautifully frightening wall of sparks. Riley forced the water out farther. The Lindas continued their assault, trying to break through the shield she’d created.
Farther, she thought. Force it on them.
The water shield hit the first rows of Lindas. They shook just as the others had, and as the water passed them, they dropped to the ground.
“Good,” the re
maining ones said. “But not good enough. You weren’t aware of your surroundings. Go ahead. Look.”
Riley turned, knowing instinctively what she was about to see.
The wave was a hundred feet high and heading to the shore.
“YOU’LL KILL BOTH OF US!” Riley shouted.
There was nothing she could do. There was no escape. It towered above everything, even the crumbled buildings behind her. It was going to wipe out everything at once.
No, Riley thought. No, that’s not true. None of this is real. That wave, these Lindas—it’s all magic.
Then how the hell do I stop it?
The answer was sudden and sure.
Find the right one. Ignore the rest.
The wave was ripping toward her, the beach having extended out five hundred yards. It would be here in mere seconds.
See. See the truth. Believe, she thought.
Riley ignored the wave, scanning the Lindas. They all looked the same, each now staring at her impending death.
And then…
She knew.
As simple as that.
Riley closed her eyes and her sword took off, dashing through the air like a missile.
“Good fucking job.” Linda was laughing.
Riley opened her eyes. Only one other person stood on the beach, fifty feet away from her. Riley’s sword hung in the air, its point an inch from the woman’s forehead. No dead Lindas littered the beach. The tsunami that had been about to break everything was nonexistent. The ocean lapped lazily against the shore, just as it had when Riley came out here.
“Mind getting this damned weapon away from my face?” Linda asked, still smiling.
Riley raised her hand, and the sword returned home.
“Was any of that real?” she asked, amazed.
“Some of it. Some of it was fake.”
“How? How in the hell did you do all of that? I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. I’ve never even imagined anything like it.”
The old woman shrugged, still grinning as she walked across the beach toward Riley. “I’m good at what I do, I guess.”
“I’ll say.”
“The question is, how did you figure out which one was me?” Linda stopped about ten feet in front of Riley.
“It’s hard to describe. I just… I saw through the rest. They were still there, but ephemeral, like they didn’t really exist. The only one that looked real was you.”
“And that is psychic magic. Congratulations, you finally did it.”
“Huh?” Riley asked. She hadn’t felt any magic. She’d simply seen. “No, that wasn’t magic. I just saw through the bullshit.”
“Tisk, tisk, girl. Do not doubt the wise old bitch. You practiced psychic magic to see through the lies, and consequently, you beat me.”
“I can’t do what you did, though.” Riley didn’t care about throwing her sword at the right Linda. What she’d just witnessed was beyond… Well, beyond anything. “You have to face Rendal. You can beat him.”
“Ha!” The old woman cackled. “He’d make me look like the ancient no-good I am. You don’t need to do what I did to stop Rendal, though. You only need to believe. Now, I think that bald man named Worth is cooking dinner for me, and I plan on eating. I been cooking for myself for far too long, so it’s good to have someone else do it, even if the whole lot of you smell like shit.”
Riley watched as the old sorceress made her way up the beach. Riley didn’t move. She only stared, still in awe of what she’d just witnessed, and not caring that she could now perform—at least somewhat—the magic that had evaded her until now.
Chapter Nine
“You know these jackasses are trying to get us killed, right?”
“Nope,” Kris answered Brighten. “I think they’re just trying to make a man out of you. Little do they know, you have no nutsack.”
Brighten shook his head but said nothing. The two of them each had a bag over their back, and if the contents of either of those bags were to be inspected by one of the infinite number of guards patrolling the streets, the two of them would find themselves in stocks.
Or worse.
Perhaps they’d find themselves with nooses around their necks.
“You’re so scared,” Kris said, “that I bet I can tell you what you’re thinkin’ ‘bout right now.”
“Hell no, you can’t.”
“I bet you you’re wondering what happens if we get caught with these bags,” Kris responded. “Actually, I bet you that you’re thinkin’ about how they’ll kill us.”
Brighten swallowed but said nothing.
“Ha! Knew it!”
“Shhhh! You’re going to get us fuckin’ caught!”
The two of them were carrying these damned bags to drop them off at a house Eisen said was loyal to the cause. Eisen couldn’t go, because he’d be spotted immediately in the streets.
How fucking convenient, Brighten thought.
The two kids were hiding in a tiny alley and peering out at the house across the street. It was a busy road, with horses and buggies constantly moving back and forth. Things had sort of gone back to normal after Rendal’s little speech about the bombs hanging over the kingdom.
Guards were everywhere, though. A constant threat.
Brighten knew who they were looking for—the original Honor Guard, Erin, Lucie, Kris, and obviously Brighten.
“We need to go back,” he whispered. “We don’t even know if we’ve spotted all the guards. Some of them could be in disguise, just riding in a buggy like any other moron.”
“Ain’t no way I’m going back to Erin and Lucie without having dropped these bags off at that house right there. You want to take your sorry ass back carrying it, go right ahead. My bag is going to be at that house, though.”
“How are we gonna do it, then, genius?”
Kris smiled. “Like this.”
She stepped out of the alley into the street.
Sweat blossomed across Brighten’s brow, and his heart raced double-time.
“Kris!” he whispered harshly. “Kris, get your ass back here!”
She acted like she didn’t hear him, and now he had a very simple choice: stay here or go.
“I hope a buggy runs her down in the street,” he whispered to himself, then stepped out of the alley.
Kris walked as if she didn’t have a care in the world. As if she was supposed to be here on this busy road, carrying a bag about the same size as her full of goodness-knows-what. Brighten hadn’t asked. He didn’t want to know, although the damned thing was heavy.
Brighten lugged the bag, carrying it over his shoulder and doing his best to catch up with Kris. She seemed to not notice they were separated.
“Kris! Slow down!”
Luckily, a buggy rolled across the street and she was forced to stop. The bag on Brighten’s shoulder was making it hurt like hell, but what was he going to do, put it down in the street?
He walked up next to Kris. “That was messed up.”
“These are too damned heavy,” Kris grumbled. “Eisen is an asshole.”
“Or you’re just weak.”
“Yeah, I bet you’re not struggling at all.”
The buggy passed, and the two continued across the street. The house was about a hundred feet ahead.
“We go around back, right?” Brighten asked.
“That was what Eisen said.”
Brighten kept his eyes peeled, looking up and down the road for any sign of a guard.
They reached the sidewalk and Kris paused, setting her bag down.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“This thing is heavy.”
Both were out of breath, but Brighten wasn’t about to stop in the middle of this sidewalk and put his down. “Pick it up. Come on, we’re almost there.”
He looked to his left and right. A man farther down the road was watching him and Kris curiously. Brighten said nothing, just started forward. He reached the edge of the house’s yard but didn
’t turn around to see if Kris was following.
That man looking at them had been enough.
He rounded the yard, heading for the back of the house.
Please let him not be a guard. Please let him not be a guard.
He repeated the phrase in his head, hoping that might somehow make it true.
Brighten turned the back corner of the house, leaned against the outer wall, and dropped the bag to the ground. His shoulder felt like it might fall off; just drop right to the grass.
Breath surged in and out of his mouth.
He was just about to peek his head around the corner to look for Kris when she arrived.
“Someone’s coming,” she said. “A man. He started coming when you walked off. You should have stayed there with me!”
“Stayed with you? You’re the damned one who got his attention by stopping and putting your bag down like that!”
“We ain’t got time to argue. Grab that thing.”
“How far away is he?” Brighten asked.
“I don’t know. You want me to walk back out and ask him? ‘Excuse me, sir, how long do you think it’ll take you to walk down the rest of this little sidewalk here?’”
“Grab that shit. Come on,” Brighten said.
He picked up the bag and hoisted it over his shoulder again. The pain was remarkable.
They walked the rest of the way across the back to a wide wooden porch. Eisen had told them where to leave the stuff, but he hadn’t told them what to do if some man walked up on them while they were doing it.
Brighten ducked under the porch, the sunlight disappearing and darkness reigning. Kris quickly followed him.
“There, I see it,” he whispered. Ducking, he continued walking. If anyone was inside the house—hell if anyone even lived here—Brighten didn’t know. Didn’t care, either. He just needed to drop this godforsaken cargo off.
Sure enough, Eisen hadn’t lied. There was a wooden door beneath the porch that connected to the house. It had been left open, with an unlocked padlock hanging from it.
Brighten tossed his bag through the door and backed up so that Kris could do the same.
“You’re so damned slow,” he told her.
Hand of Justice Boxed Set Page 64
