Six pairs of guards marched ahead of the oxen cart holding their king. Aurel’s body, unnaturally stiff and posed, lay on top of a pile of tinder, prepared for the funeral pyre as was their tradition.
The men wore crisp uniforms, swords hanging by their sides. All of them had their eyes raised toward the image of the Matriarch, who looked down on them with a watchful stone gaze. Their feet maintained a rhythm as they moved down the wide path marked out between the citizens and their rows and rows of chairs.
Nearly three-quarters of the way down the aisle, the lead guards stopped. A quiet din rolled throughout the crowd, their silence broken by what seemed like a disruption of the normal ceremony.
“Aye, the hell is this, lass?” Karl whispered.
“Just wait,” Hannah murmured, her hand on her friend’s shoulder. But her eyes were already blazing red. She’d been waiting for this. For something.
Heads turned in all directions. The disruptions of the Blue Scarves had made everyone in Solyr tentative about events like this, times when they were all gathered. They were called terrorists for a reason.
“For Solyr,” one of the lead guards shouted in a voice that seemed to be amplified by a hundred amphoralds.
As he did, the men pivoted toward the citizens and attacked, each of them assaulting a group of Mylek who had gathered to pay their last respects to the king who might have legitimized them in the community.
“Oh, hell, no!” Hannah shouted as she moved toward the attack.
The crowd milled around in a frenzy. Some rushed toward the fight, some in the opposite direction. She pushed through the churning people, eyes red, mental energy going out over the sea of bodies in an attempt to still their minds.
But there was no response to her mental magic, not even from those standing closer to her.
You reading me? she sent to Parker, who was several rows of people behind her.
Nothing.
Something was out of whack, and Hannah knew that the magic of the mystics was not working.
Just as she was considering what sort of massive magical distraction she would use to calm the crowd, someone beat her to the punch.
A voice filled with strength and rage boomed at those gathered, “Be still!”
The crowd froze in place as if the sun had gone dark before their eyes. They all turned their bodies toward the statue of the Matriarch and stared up at the woman standing on the stone-cast image’s right shoulder. Her arms were stretched out over them like a priest before a sacrifice. A blue scarf was draped around her face hiding her features from the onlookers.
But Hannah knew precisely who it was.
The woman pulled the mask down, and an audible gasp came across the crowd.
"Look and see where we have come to!" Aliz shouted, her voice carrying across the town square at an unnatural volume. She pointed at the guards in the middle of the gathering, the ones fighting with the citizens who had come for the funeral. "Your Guard. These men. They have turned on you today, as the city has come to pay homage to our beautiful king. This is just a sign of things to come. The future is here, and it is now. But really, we all know it isn't much different than our past."
She paused, and there was a murmur in the crowd.
"There is a time for all people to make a decision whether to stand or to rollover. The Mylek have prostrated themselves to the power of the Myrna for far too long. It is not their city. It is our city. Everyone’s city. King Aurel knew this, and that is precisely why his cold, dead body lies before you on that pile of sticks. Aurel had already made the decision to spread the power out, to add representation from all classes and all people to the council. We have evidence of this since our sister stands as our voice among them."
Aliz pointed at Ky, who was standing on the platform, nodding in affirmation. "But you know what? It could not be this way. The ones around Aurel wanted the power for themselves. The power and the rule. They fear us, fellow Mylek. Fear our voices. Fear our arms. Now that the king is dead, they will do all they can to keep us silent. A seat on the council,” she pointed at Ky, “is simply crumbs for dogs. It means nothing. It is time for us to rise up against the Myrna scum and take what is rightfully ours. We will no longer be pleased with the scraps we are fed, but sit at the banquet table."
Hannah looked from Aliz, still standing on the statue, to Kirill. His face was red and filled with rage. She glanced at Ky, whose face had dropped in solemn resignation. Aliz was deconstructing everything she had built.
"I'm here to say that Kirill is not going to take my power without a fight.” She pointed at the guards in the middle of the promenade again. "They will not take my power without a fight. Rise up, Mylek people. You are powerful. You are suited to rule. Join me and make this sovereignty ours."
From somewhere in the crowd, a shout rang out, and then another. Hannah could feel the Etheric energy welling up in the bodies of Aliz's people; the power buzzed around her like a swarm of bees. Limbs and appendages and features started to twist and turn and reshape.
The first Mylek strike was on the guards who had turned on the people. Massive fists and feet and elbows attacked the armed men, who dropped to the dirt and covered their bodies in hopes of survival.
And then the rest of the Myrna joined in.
The crowd burst into shouts and screams. Some voices cried out in praise, others in horror.
"Scheisse! Here we go," Karl spat, raising his hammer.
Hannah scanned the crowd again. Mayhem had broken out, and there were fights in every direction. She looked up at the woman standing on the statue. A sneer laced with satisfaction covered her face.
“I’m going for Aliz,” Hannah shouted to the BBB. “We need to stop this. Protect the crowd. Save the innocents."
Aysa’s eyes cut around the town square. "How do we know who's who? Who the hell is innocent in this dumpster fire?"
"It’s hard to tell," Parker agreed. "Just don't make any lethal decisions."
Aysa nodded. "Okay. Knock them out, don't kill ‘em. Got it.” She ran into the crowd, bolas swinging in a tight revolution overhead.
Hannah glanced at Parker. "Get in there. I’ve got work to do."
Parker nodded. “Be careful.”
He seldom said those words to her. He understood her power, and his three syllables rang in her ears. Parker knew what she had come to realize—Aliz was more powerful than any of them had ever imagined.
As her team entered the fray, Hannah knew exactly where she was going. She had to get to Aliz. As she moved through the crowd, she realized Aysa was right. It was nearly impossible to tell foe from friend. Who was at fault in this mess? Myrna fought Mylek, neighbor against neighbor. She stepped through an opening in the mass of bodies, dead set on making it to the statue, when a guard with two soldiers at his side moved in front of her.
"You need to come with us, ma'am," one of them said. "Kirill sent us to protect you."
The contents of his words were filled with kindness, but the tone was nothing of the sort. She glanced up at the platform, where Kirill was shouting directions to his men. Hannah and her people were wildcards in his mind. She knew that. And if the Myrna were going to come out on top, it might just take removing the cards from the table altogether.
"I'm good," Hannah assured him. "I can help."
The second man shook his head. "Sorry. We’re not asking."
Hannah raised an eyebrow. "You guys don't understand, do you? I don't take commands. Not from Kirill. Not from anyone. It's not part of my makeup. Now, get the hell out of my way."
The lead guard raised his club.
"Oh, please.” Hannah held back on her power, but only enough to not kill the men.
She didn't have time for this bullshit, and with the blood of the Matriarch racing through her veins, she had more than enough power to kick these guys into the next millennium. With a sudden burst of blue energy, she knocked the lead guard out of the game.
The other two looked at their leader for a
beat. It was just enough time. Hannah landed a powerful right fist to one man's temple; her strength increased by the energy inside her, he hit the ground. Spinning, she pulled her trusty rearick blade from its scabbard at her hip and placed its tip on the third man's throat before he could cast his own magic.
But instead of black, his eyes flashed yellow.
“What the hell?”
The Mylek ripped the guard’s cloak from his body, which now bristled with thick, angry spines. She moved fast, moving her knife aside. Before she had a chance to respond, the two other men were back on their feet, their bodies changing as they ripped their cloaks off.
“You’re not city guard,” Hannah said. A vision of dead bodies in a mass grave came back to her. She suddenly realized why Irmand’s men had been stripped of their clothes before they were killed.
Anger swelled within her. The three Mylek moved fast, but not fast enough. She concentrated, sending out her thoughts to the BBB as she dodged scaly arms and claws.
Blue Scarves have infiltrated the city guards. Aliz has been planning to start the war here all along.
Hannah blocked a kick as words came back to her. It was Aysa.
You still want us to play it soft with the Blue Scarves?
It didn’t take Hannah long to consider. She thought about all the damage Aliz’s crew had caused. All the lives lost. And now she had sparked a war which threatened every life in this city. She channeled her energy into fire, pushing it out all around her. Within seconds, the three Blue Scarves were little more than charred bodies.
Take them down, she responded.
Chapter Forty-Six
Hannah pushed through the crowd, convincing herself not to stop at every fight she encountered along her way toward the statue. Her powers were needed for one mission right now, and she couldn’t be slowed en route. Hannah had to get to the source of the problem. That meant getting to Aliz.
She had all but convinced herself of that simple fact when she broke through a row of people and found a heap of cowering children in the dust. As she watched, a giant Mylek swung an angry battleax at a Myrna, who dodged the assault.
"Shit," Hannah shouted as she threw her hands toward the children. A blue dome of energy rose up around them as the ax descended.
It bounced off its surface, narrowly missing the kids.
She grabbed the Myrna and drove her knee into his gut. All the air left him. She followed up with a right fist to the face, dropping him out of the fight. Spinning toward the Mylek, she asked, “The hell are you thinking?" She glanced at the children. He had a look of shame on his face. Hannah shook her head. "There's no time for that bullshit. Make it right. Take these kids and get them out of here."
Without a word, the man complied with Hannah's command. She pushed on through the crowd, each step taking her closer to the statue of the Matriarch and Aliz. Halfway there, she climbed up onto a pedestal that on a peaceful day served as a piece of architectural art in the center of the city.
Today, it served as Hannah's crow’s nest. She looked around the city square at the civil war that had erupted within minutes. She spotted Irmand not far off from where she stood. He was shouting, waving his arms, trying to get his men to quell the violence they were waging against the Mylek. It seemed his commands were in vain. Spinning, she found Ky, the Mylek councilwoman, doing the same. She ran from group to group, pleading with her people to end the fight.
Finally, Hannah's eyes ended up on the platform once again. Kirill stood there like a general separated from his troops, shouting commands from a point of safety. His face was red, brighter than she had seen it before, as he spurred his people on, urging the Myrna to fight harder. To fight for their city. To fight for their people. To fight for the way of life they had always known they would refuse to give up to the Mylek, no matter what.
Hannah turned her eyes toward the graven image and lost her breath when she saw Aliz was nowhere in sight.
"Damn mother bitch douche nugget," Hannah cursed.
"If you think that's bad, wait until you hear about my day.” Hannah turned and saw Vitali standing right before her.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Hannah and Vitali stood back to back as they fought, trying their best to keep the city from tearing itself apart.
“Where have you been?” she shouted as she landed a heavy fist on the ribcage of a Myrna woman who tried to freeze her.
The Lynqi laughed. “That’s a tale too long to tell now. What’s more important is what I know.”
Hannah dodged a bony arm with razor-sharp spines. “Spill it.”
“Good king Aurel had a kid.”
“I hate to break it to you, Vitali, but you’re kind of behind the curve on that one. The prince is that asshat on the stage.”
Vitali shook his head. “Another kid. Twenty years ago, he had an illegitimate child with a Mylek woman. I’m pretty sure that kid ended up murdering him.”
“Holy hell,” Hannah shouted back as she used her magic to freeze the feet of some asshole carrying a club to the ground. “Who is it?”
“I don’t know, but whoever it is, they can shape their body like a Mylek and use physical magic like the Myrna.”
“Gotcha,” Hannah shouted. “So, keep a look out for fireballs and weird-shaped feet. How the hell did Aurel keep this a secret?”
Vitali shrugged. “He was the king. Plus, it probably helped that he was a psychic.”
“What?”
“That’s my guess. No one else around here does mental magic, so no one suspected it.”
As he spoke, Hannah felt the itch in the back of her head burn, the same nagging pain she had felt since coming to this gods-damned town.
“There’s another psychic,” she exclaimed out loud.
Vitali looked at her, surprised, but she responded only by closing her eyes. She pushed outward with her mind, pushed past the anger and the fear erupting from the mob around her. She heard one thought ringing out.
This city is my responsibility now. This city is my responsibility now. This city is my—
Hannah pushed harder on Kirill’s mind, and the words changed. This city is mine now. This city is mine.
He had been fooling her this whole time. She pushed harder, and gasped as saw his true plan unfold. Her eyes opened.
“What?” Vitali asked, worry on his furry face.
“We’ve got incoming,” Hannah said. “Kirill has some new friends.”
She looked upward in time to see kites flying through the sky. “Pirates.”
Chapter Forty-Eight
"Bloody pirates," Karl shouted to Aysa, who'd been fighting by his side since Hannah had left them. "I thought it couldn't get any worse ‘an what we had."
Aysa laughed, watching a half-dozen hang gliders land a few yards away. "Worse? At least I know these guys are a bunch of dicks we’re allowed to dispose of."
Karl squinted. "What ye know about disposin’ of dicks?"
Aysa laughed. "Far too literal, rearick. Leave my innocence out of this. Let's get to work."
Karl was happy to follow Aysa as they plowed their way through the crowd of Myrna and Mylek who were still fighting with one another. The girl was right, it was a true pain in the ass trying to figure out who was on the right side of justice and who needed to have their lights put out. There was nothing Karl hated more in battle than ambiguity, and this city had served up a heaping portion of that shit.
"You take right flank," Aysa yelled, pointing to her left.
Karl snickered. "Guess we'll need some classes when we get back on the Unlawful fer you, little girl. Left and right are hard, huh?"
"Shut up and fight," she yelled.
Karl was glad to comply. He dropped one pirate before he was able to unhook from his hang glider. The second and third were on him before he had time to congratulate himself.
"You again?" one of the pirates said with a sneer. “I thought we were going to get your boat the first time around."
"Aye,
and all ye got was yer ass kicked, after all. I guess ye got a little ass left to kick, is that right?"
The second pirate, this one younger than the first, stepped forward with a short sword raised in Karl's direction. "The only one who's going to kick some asses—"
Karl pulled the dagger from his belt threw it at the pirate, landing it in his jugular. The young pirate clenched his hands around the blade as blood pumped between his fingers.
"Anybody else want to tell me what's going to happen?"
The lead pirate stepped up to Karl and swung his sword in a mighty arc toward the rearick. Karl met him with the shaft of his hammer lifted over his head, hands spread wide. Sparks flew as steel hit steel. The man bore down, pushing his blade toward Karl.
"No need to play nice," Karl said as he kicked with his heavy leather boot up between the man's legs, finding the softness of his groin. The pirate’s eyes rolled to the back of his head, and Karl took advantage of the moment. He spun his hammer down and it landed on the side of his enemy’s knee, making sure that particular pirate would need a peg leg. With one more swing, he took the man out of the game.
Turning, Karl saw an old friend. The giant pirate, a head taller than the rest of the crowd, lumbered toward the rearick. He dropped a Mylek woman with his hatchets and gave Karl a wide, toothless smile.
“Third time’s the charm.” He laughed.
“I was hopin’ ye’d show up.” Karl smirked and raised his hammer. “I hate to leave loose ends.”
"I'm gonna tear you limb from limb, little man. And then I’m gonna take all those pieces and feed them to my dogs, who will run throughout the borderlands shitting them out onto lonely, vacant ground."
Karl laughed. "Well, that's somethin’."
"Aye, it is," he spat back.
The man raised his hatchets and charged. Karl answered.
The battle raging around them disappeared. All that remained were two men determined to kill each other, and only one would succeed.
Once again, the pirate leaned on his speed and ferocity, hoping to overwhelm the rearick. But Karl decided to change things up this time. He swung wide with his hammer, keeping distance between the two of them, and then suddenly let go. His hammer went flying, threatening to take the pirate’s head off. It nearly succeeded, but a quick duck saved the man. While he was distracted, Karl used the opportunity to grab a shield and sword from the ground.
Solyrian Conspiracy - C M Raymond & L E Barbant Page 17
