Tenets of War

by Beth Reason

  Chapter 6

  The horses needed rest, and the men needed it just as badly. Yet, they were so close. Though Wren couldn't see the transport, if they could keep running at their current speed, he felt sure he would soon. The clumps of mud kicked up by the wheels of the vehicle hadn't had a chance to soften and run back into the ground from the rain, which meant they were within miles. As exhausted as they all were, there simply was no time to stop.

  Wren leaned forward and raised his back end, shifting his weight on his horse to allow the beast to run even faster. The warriors behind him did the same, and Lendyl called over his shoulder for Tenet to follow suit.

  "We're close, Tenet!" he said excitedly. Wren only rode like that when they had caught a herd and were hot on the heels of a big animal.

  Tenet did his best to copy their motions and was soon riding faster than he'd ever ridden before, holding on for dear life and straining to see through the rain. He didn't know how Wren was so sure, but the man was, and he trusted him. He tried to get his heart to slow down. What would they find when they caught up? Would there be a fight? Of course there would be a fight. Would he have to kill his father? He damn well would if it came down to it!

  "Tenet! Look!" Lendyl yelled, pointing in the distance.

  Tenet squinted in the rain and saw at the very horizon a large, dark blur on the ground. Old memories gripped him and he suddenly realized he was staring at an air transport. "No," he whispered harshly. "No!" he screamed. He urged his horse faster, faster. They were about to fly away! "Wren!"

  "Ha!" Wren yelled at his horse, pushing the animal as hard as he could. They would not lose. He was the lead warrior for the great Ogden septad and he forbade defeat! He yanked his bow from the sheath on his back and held it toward the sky, asking the Mother to bless his arrows and make them true.

  Scarab struggled in Jace's grasp and watched helplessly as her daughter was shoved into the hover plane. She had yelled and screamed her voice raw until Jace shoved a wad of cloth in her mouth to shut her up. Violet kicked and screamed until a large man in a black uniform carried her off to the waiting plane. Scarab heard her release one more ear-shattering screech, and then the hum of the rotors drowned out any more.

  Bradwin walked over to where Scarab and Jace stood and yelled to be heard over the noisy transport. "I'd like to say it's been a pleasure meeting you, but..." He patted Scarab's cheek. "Don't worry about Violet. She'll be far safer than she's ever been. After all, I won't be so careless as to let someone simply walk away with her. She'll get a proper education, have real medicine, live a life you could never give her. Why, she'll be a national treasure. My long lost granddaughter, taken back from the heathen bitch who kidnapped my son. If I were you, I'd spend my last few hours on earth comforted by that."

  Scarab tried with all her might to will herself free. She felt her muscles clench so tightly against their magnetic restraints that she knew she was close to doing her body real damage. She didn't care. She was beyond thought. She needed to get to Violet. Never in her entire life had she felt so useless.

  "That cargo transport will be waiting at Terminal B of the Clough Pass station," Bradwin said to Jace. "That will settle our debts."

  "Yes, sir," Jace agreed. "Pleasure doing business with you."

  Bradwin gave a little huff and turned and walked away.

  Jace's grip on Scarab's arm tightened. "Stop before you hurt yourself. It's too late."

  Bradwin boarded the plane and Scarab lurched forward. The door to the plane closed and she tried to throw herself at it, her mind screaming. The great rotors under the vessel increased in speed and Jace pulled Scarab around to face him. "Aw, now, sweetheart," he said when he saw her teary eyes. "You heard him. He'll give her a good life. Trust me, the man's loaded. She'll have everything she ever wanted."

  Scarab's rage was useless against the plane. She could do nothing to Bradwin. She couldn't tear him to pieces. But there was still someone to vent her fury on and she turned every ounce of anger towards Jace.

  Jace swallowed hard at the look in her eyes. He raised his hand and cupped her cheek. "Look, I've got a transport waiting to take me across the desert. We'll go south, start the life we used to talk about."

  Scarab could not believe her ears. Was he serious? Was he honestly so delusional that he would think she could ever, ever forgive him? Didn't he understand that he'd already signed his own death contract? His hand on her cheek was cold and disgusting, the hand of a dead man.

  Jace frowned. "Now, Scarab," he said as patiently as he could. "You knew how this would play out. You got six years more than you should have and you damn well know it. Be thankful for what you got and move on."

  She was going to take her fingers and slowly drive them into his eyeballs slowly. She was going to take out her knife and slice open his belly and let the coonskunks eat at his guts while he was still alive. She was going to...

  "Now, if you play nice, I'll let you join me and we can have a life." Jace licked his lips. "Come on, Scarab. It's what you always wanted." He was close enough to smell her. His heart began to pound so hard in his chest he was sure she could feel it, too. He gave a small laugh. "God, I suddenly feel like a horny teenager." He brushed the hair from her eyes. "Don't tell me you don't feel it, too, baby," he whispered.

  Scarab did feel something. She felt a hard thumping coming from the ground and knew it was horses. She saw Jace turn his head a fraction of a second before they were violently ripped apart.

  Tenet jumped off his horse as soon as it crashed into Jace. He knew Wren and the others would secure the hunter. With a single-minded focus, he landed hard on the muddy ground and scrambled to get to Scarab. She was face down in the mud and for a heart-stopping second, he was afraid he had hurt her. But as soon as he turned her over and saw her dark, shining eyes, he finally let himself feel something beyond anger. He pulled her to him and kissed her head, her face, her hair. She mumbled something and he pulled the rag from her mouth.

  "The plane!" Scarab yelled.

  Tenet's hold on her tightened as he watched the air transport speed off toward the horizon.

  "What are you waiting for?" she screamed in a panicked voice. "Go get her!"

  Tenet shook his head. "I can't chase down an air ship on a horse."

  Scarab was near her breaking point. It was one thing to be hard and cold and calculating when she was being held captive in the back of a transport, all alone, miserable, and uncomfortable. There was something so familiar about that environment, and she had found it surprisingly easy to revert to her old training. However, comfort, Tenet's comfort, threatened to shatter the walls again. "You have to try," she insisted, her voice breaking.

  Tenet smoothed her hair and looked her in the eye. "I thought I lost you."

  Scarab closed her eyes, squeezing them to keep the tears away. "I can't move," she said quickly, desperately trying not to succumb to the fear and anguish and pain of the last few days. Not then. There would be time later, after she had her daughter back.

  Tenet looked over her body and couldn't see any cuffs or ropes, just some disconnected bracelets. "How are you bound?"

  "Electromagnets," she said. "Jace has a unitool."

  Tenet pulled Scarab back to her feet and turned around. Wren and Takar held Jace between them on his knees, each man holding one of his arms and a large fistful of hair. Blood trickled from Jace's lips, and a large bruise was already forming on his eye. Tenet made sure Scarab was steady on her feet without his support and walked over to the man. "Where's the unitool?" he asked.

  Jace knew he was beaten. He knew there would be no getting out of this one alive. The very best he could do was be as big a pain in the ass as he could until he died. He worked his mouth until it filled with the tinny tasting blood and spat it right in Tenet's face. He got a kick in the back for it from one of the barbarians holding him, but as Jace watched the punk wipe the bloody spittle off his face, he decided it was worth it.

  Tenet saw r
ed. He'd always heard that expression before, but never really understood what it really meant until that very moment. His hand twitched again with the need to hit something, to bash itself into someone, and for the first time in his life, he gave into that desire. He heard the dull smack of his fist hitting Jace's jaw and was surprised in an odd, detached way that he didn't actually feel the impact. He looked down at his own fist, then up to the surprised face of Wren. The warrior looked almost horrified, and even though he heard Takar's encouraging hoot, Wren's shocked expression brought Tenet back to reality. He hastily fumbled around Jace's pockets until he found the unitool.

  With shaking hands he returned to Scarab. "I...I don't know how..." he began.

  "Press the decom button and wave it over the wrist bracelet and ankle ring," Scarab said carefully, knowing Tenet well enough to understand that he was close to his own breaking point. She never before saw him become violent, and she decided she never wanted to witness it again.

  Tenet did as Scarab instructed, and in a moment she stumbled, her arms and legs suddenly unbound. Scarab reached up and ripped off the necklace she wore. "Shock collar," she told Tenet when he saw the raw, red welts around her neck. Tenet clenched his jaw against the anger, and caught her elbow and held on until she was steady.

  Scarab had to move. If she didn't move, she couldn't stay strong. Already the adrenaline was waning. It had been days since she'd eaten, and her body had been through some fairly alarming electroshocks. In a few moments, she would not be able to stop herself from collapsing, and she couldn't let that happen.

  Tenet let Scarab go when she looked to Jace. He knew that look in his wife's eye and he wondered if that was the same look he just had on his own face when he hauled off and bashed the man. He crossed his arms over his chest and stood, watching. It may be Scarab's score to settle, but he planned on enjoying every minute of watching the bastard suffer.

  Scarab stood in front of Jace. She held his cold glare for a minute until she could tamp down her anger enough to think clearly. She needed information. In her few bursts of consciousness, Bradwin had been very careful, revealing few details of his plan. She had no idea where Bradwin was heading, or what his end goal really was. There was more behind Bradwin's actions than simply taking Violet, and Scarab she was sure of it. As infuriating as it was, they had one connection to her daughter now, and if she gave into her anger, she'd blow their best chance at getting Violet back.

  Scarab held her breath and counted to ten while she considered her options. She could simply ask, but she knew Jace would either laugh or spit in her face as well. She's have to make him an offer he couldn't pass up in exchange for the information. Jace was going to die, of that there was no doubt in any of the people present in that muddy, wet clearing. Her only bargaining chip was the hidden cowardice very few people knew was at Jace's hollow core. After a few tense, silent moments, Scarab held her hand out to Lendyl. "Bow," she said simply.

  Lendyl frowned and looked to Wren. At his leader's nod, he handed over his bow.

  "Arrow."

  Again, Wren nodded his approval, and Lendyl pulled an owl-fletched arrow from his quiver and carefully passed it to Mrs. Lorne.

  Scarab notched the arrow and drew the bowstring, then leveled the arrow tip at Jace's head. "Where is he taking her?"

  Jace let out a miserable little laugh. "Now, sweetheart. You know I never kiss and tell."

  Scarab tightened her hold and the taut string creaked with the pressure. She lowered the arrow tip to Jace's heart. "You talk, I let you die clean." She moved the tip even lower, pointing it to his abdomen. "You don't talk, I'll gut shoot you and let you suffer for days."

  "You're bluffing," he sneered. "You'd always be looking over your shoulder to see if I somehow managed to survive. There's no way in hell you'd walk away with me still alive."

  Scarab nodded. "You're absolutely right. I'll stake you to the ground and watch while the coonskunks gnaw out your intestines. You will die knowing that I'll carry the image of your torture with me forever, that I'll bring up that thought in my darkest of days to give me comfort."

  "You're bluffing," Jace said with less conviction.

  "Try me."

  Jace swore, a feeling of dread sinking deep in his stomach. "After all we've been through, you'd really do that to me?"

  "It's no more than you threatened to do to my daughter," she said coldly. Her arm was starting to strain. "I've been through a lot the past few days and right now you're putting a whole lot of faith in my ability to keep holding this string. You better pick while you still have a choice."

  Jace looked into the icy eyes of the woman he loved for so much of his life. They should be sitting on a beach somewhere drinking fancy drinks and whiling away the rest of their days. Wasn't that what they always talked about doing? Hadn't they earned it a thousand times over? When had it all gone so wrong? "Life catches up to you, doesn't it?" he asked, as he had dozens of times before. Only this time, instead of saying "Only if you stop running," as she always had in the past, she simply glared back at him, a complete and utter stranger.

  Jace took a deep breath. He didn't deserve to die clean, and he damn well knew it. It shocked the hell out of him that she'd even give him that choice. In her shoes, he wouldn't do the same. "You've changed," he said. "It was a job, Scarab. It wasn't personal."

  Scarab scoffed. "You stole my daughter. It doesn't get any more personal than that!"

  Jace sighed heavily. The woman he loved was gone. She simply did not exist anymore. In her place was an even more unforgiving figure. "No," he said quietly. "I guess it doesn't." He saw Scarab's arm begin to shake. There was just a small tick in her forearm, but he knew she wasn't kidding when she said she was close to collapse. He knew the hours and days of agony he'd have if she actually shot him in the gut. He'd been on the other side of things enough times to know what a horrible way that would be to die. Hell, that one woman at the burnt out homestead across the border hung on for five days. Five! And Jace knew he deserved that death. He was a bad man who spent his life doing bad things for money, and he knew full well he earned himself a long, torturous, agony-filled ending. And yet, Scarab offered him one final reprieve. Jace gave a sad laugh as life once again proved there was no such thing as fairness.

  "Wheat," Jace said after a moment, his decision made. "He's got some fancy wheat farm or something."

  Tenet frowned. "Are you sure? They're usually in the corn sector this time of year."

  "Wheat," Jace repeated firmly. "I'm sure. Why do you think we're heading east, brainiac?" Jace grunted when one of the warriors tugged his head sharply. "I'm telling the truth," he insisted looking Scarab in the eye. "He said something about training her away from the press or some shit like that. They're stopping in Leonsburg for some summit, then heading to his wheat field."

  Scarab studied the eyes of the stranger she used to know. She believed him. Without allowing herself time to get angry again, she moved the arrow to Jace's heart.

  "No last words, sweetheart?" he asked sadly, giving her the half smile that used to make her do anything he asked. Scarab pressed her lips firmly together and held his gaze for a long moment, a world of history passing between them silently. Jace couldn't take it. For some reason, that kind of torture was far worse than a few coonskunks gnawing at his insides. For the first time in his life, he felt regret, and the bitter taste of it clogging his throat was too much. "Do it," he whispered fiercely, begging for it to just end.

  Scarab released the bowstring and Jace's eyes went wide for a split second before they rolled back in his head and he slumped in the warriors' grasp. She didn't feel relief that one enemy was finally gone, nor did she feel any sadness for the loss of anything they used to have. She stared at the body and felt absolutely nothing.

  Scarab's arm dropped in exhaustion as she simply stood and stared. Tenet motioned for Wren and Takar to strip anything of use from Jace, and he placed a hand on Scarab's back. Scarab looked numbly at the bo
w in her hand and she held it up to Lendyl. "Thank you for the use of your bow in slaying my enemy," she said wearily.

  Lendyl was uncomfortable with the way the kill happened, but he wisely said nothing. Giving her a nod, he took his bow and decided to speak to Wren about it later.

  Scarab felt a shiver run through her body. After a few seconds, she felt another. Soon she was shivering uncontrollably. "Tenet," she said, through chattering teeth. "I...can't stop...shaking..."

  "We need to get somewhere warm," Tenet barked to Wren.

  Wren looked up from the prayer he was saying over the fallen enemy and saw the urgent look in Tenet's eye. One glance at Mrs. Lorne was all it took to know Tenet was right. He turned to Takar and made a few hand motions. In seconds, Takar was on his horse racing away from them. Wren stood and wiped his muddy, bloody hands on his pants as he walked over to the Lornes. "I have sent Takar to scout," he said. "He will find a place to rest."

  "We...have to...get Violet..." Scarab said through her shivers. She cursed herself for getting so weak over the years, and desperately tried to will her body to stop its ridiculousness. No matter how hard she tried, though, she could not get herself under control.

  Tenet removed a blanket from his pack and wrapped it around Scarab, even though he doubted it would do any good. She was beginning to show the signs of shock, and he needed to get her somewhere warm, dry, and safe. "Let's get you in the transport until..."

  "No!" Scarab said vehemently before she shuddered again.

  Tenet's jaw clenched at her reaction and he had to push away the anger once more at the thoughts of what may have happened in the transport. He looked to Wren for advice, but Wren was clearly at a loss as well.

  Scarab frowned at the men. "Stop looking...like I'll break. Saddle up. Move out." Even though she spoke in quick sentences, her voice was still raw and her teeth chattered, the combination taking all authority out of the order.

  "The only place we're moving to is a shelter for tonight." Tenet saw the hurt and outrage in Scarab's eyes and felt his own guilt flare up. He knew she wanted to get Violet back as badly as he did. But he also knew he had just gotten his wife back and he'd be damned if he was going to lose her to hypothermia or shock. The warriors were strung out, and the horses were all but useless in their exhaustion. They all needed rest. It wasn't just something they wanted, something they wished for. It was an absolute need. The group knew where his father was taking Violet, and Tenet was certain that Bradwin's plan wasn't to harm her. The very best thing they could do for her was to stop, rest, and regroup. They'd be no good to Violet dead.

  "We can't afford to wait," Scarab said through the teeth she clenched to make them stop clacking together.

  Tenet held up a hand. "I want to get her just as badly as you do."

  Scarab scoffed. "Do you?" She instantly wanted to take it back.

  Tenet's eyes went wide and he stepped back as if she slapped him. "How could you even..." He bit off the rest of the words and shook his head. He knew her. He knew she was just lashing out because of her own guilt, but it still didn't take away the sting. "Look at yourself," he said after a few tense seconds. "Look at all of us. We have no choice but to stop."

  Scarab knew it. She knew she was about to drop, and it hadn't escaped her attention that the others were damn near the breaking point as well. Even the horses were sagging. She knew Tenet was right, and yet the part of her that felt like it was ripped away when that air ship took off still called for her to push forward. Her lip quivered and her eyes watered and she never felt so helpless, weak, and useless. "We have to get her," she insisted on a hoarse whisper.

  Tenet pulled her to him and held her tightly, suddenly realizing he was shaking as well. "We will," he said firmly. "I got you, right?"

  Takar whistled from the stand of trees to the south, and Tenet lifted his head. Takar was making signs to Wren, and in a moment, Wren nodded firmly and told them to mount up. Tenet had to help Scarab get on his horse, and he began to think like a healer instead of a terrified father and angry husband. He made a mental checklist in his head, a plan for how he'd treat Scarab for her injuries in a cold, distant way that gave his tortured thoughts a reprieve.

  Not far into the stand of forest was another clearing containing an old farmhouse and three barns. The home was not abandoned, but the elderly farmer and his family sorely needed the coin Tenet offered for the use of one of the crumbling barns, even though he eyed the Celtist warriors with trepidation.

  "Was that all our money?" Scarab asked when Tenet took the reins and lead their horse to the far side of the farm yard.

  "We'll make more," was his only reply.

  They settled into the barn quickly, and Wren dispatched Lendyl to gather up broken bits of wood that sat in heaps in the rundown building. While they built a fire, Tenet tethered the horses and dragged over some old hay. Scarab tried to help, but when she realized her fumbling was just getting in the way, she sat down on a dusty hay bale by the fire. When the horses were wiped down and fed, Tenet removed his saddle pack and pulled out a dry blanket and his herbs.

  "Come," Wren instructed his men. "The battle has ended. Time for meditation." He was giving Tenet and Scarab some privacy, and Tenet tipped his head in thanks as the warriors went to the ladder and climbed into the loft for their prayers.

  Tenet sat on the bale of hay next to Scarab and gently guided her to turn and face him. He ran a hand over her hair before forcing himself to get to business. "Where are you hurt?"

  "Left arm and neck."

  Tenet gently lifted her chin and looked at the burns. Only his years as a healer let him keep his features calm in spite of the new boiling rage inside. Though the burns were not very deep, the fact that anyone would dare do something like that to his wife made him wish he had punched Jace more before he died. Suddenly the clean kill Scarab offered the man churned up the acids in his stomach. Not trusting himself to speak, he pulled an oiled skin pouch from his herb bag and dipped his fingers into the soothing salve. He spread it as gently as he could over her neck and when he was done, he finally felt calm enough to speak. "You said it was a shock collar. Like for cattle?"

  "I guess for people now, too," she said as she watched the vein in Tenet's temple throb.

  "I see," he said tightly. Without any more discussion, he gently unbuttoned her shirt and pulled it off. When she shivered, he wrapped the blanket around her shoulders and laid the shirt by the fire to dry. He turned back and held the blanket open to look her over. Satisfied that the bruises on her ribs were only on the surface and not indicators of broken bones, he tucked her back into the blanket, leaving only her left arm uncovered. He poked and prodded until he hit a spot that made her wince.

  "I've got to..." he began, the apology already in his voice for the pain he was about to inflict.

  "Do it." Scarab clenched her teeth and balled her right hand up around the blanket until she could feel the nails dig into her palm even through the layers of material while Tenet poked and prodded some more. She only relaxed when he stopped and looked up at her. "Broken?"

  Tenet shook his head. "No, I don't think so. Were...were you kicked?" Scarab didn't have to answer. His lips pressed into a firm line and he went back to his bag. He couldn't go back in time and make it not happen, but he could fix it. He took a few pinches from several bags and dropped them into a cup. He rose and walked to his saddle that lay on the hay near the horses. He pulled his water flask off the saddle clip, then dumped some water into the cup of herbs. He swirled the mix together, then gave it to Scarab to drink. Though she made a horrible face at the bitter concoction, she drank it all down.

  Tenet made her rise and stripped off her pants. After he eased her back down on the hay, he gently took her feet one at a time into his lap to look at the marks around the ankles. The electromagnetic cuffs left bruises, but none of the burns the shock collar made. He rubbed them with another ointment, one that would soothe the ache. Once that was done, he was satisfied t
hat he'd done all he could for Scarab medically. He removed his own shirt to lay it by the fire, then pulled his wife into his lap, wrapping the blanket around them both and simply holding her.

  "Tenet, I'm..."

  "Shh," he said. He kissed the top of her head.

  "You're shaking," she said quietly.

  "Yes."

  Scarab wanted to ask him if he was injured. She wanted to assure him she would be fine. She wanted to tell him about everything she observed and her thoughts on how to get Violet back. But the fire crackled, and Tenet's heart thumped on her cheek, and his comforting arms were around her. It all worked against her, and she felt sleep pull at her. She idly wondered what the herbs Tenet gave her contained, but she couldn't make her mouth form the words to ask.

  "I thought I lost you," Tenet whispered as he kissed her head. "I would die without you." He felt her body going slack and shifted her weight into a more comfortable position. "I love you," he murmured before he joined her in sleep.