Jak greeted the smaller man, his voice booming too loud. The three in the corner raised their mugs. The band let their music swell. One thick arm around the smaller man’s shoulders, Jak led him away. Bredonna thought he looked as sneaky as a lumbering bear.

But nobody cared, anyway. This town knew its place. Everyone kept their heads down.

Something was up between the two men. She knew it. Leaving her spot, she dance-shimmied across the room to intercept the mayor.

When Jak asked Bredonna about Anika’s age, she’d reduced the number to give her time. She thought she’d have time. But this place ate the months away before she noticed. Even though she’d lied about the brats age time was catching up with them. Jak might be getting impatient, give away the truth, any number of stupid things could happen every time he got to boasting to another man.

Pulling the Mayor up to the bar, Jak rounded the edge by the kitchen to get the man a drink. One of the hired women already had a brew poured, handing it to him. He said, “Go and take a mop to the toilet box now, get it cleaned up. I’m tired of you leaving before it’s done.”

“I said I’d do it later,” the woman answered, she tried to lean forward, showing off her exposed cleavage. The mayor loved to tuck copper when he got the chance, wasn’t a woman in town who didn’t know it.

“And I said you do it now, Janice.” His voice lowered a notch in warning.

She didn’t flinch, indifferent. Bredonna knew Jak couldn’t afford to hit the other woman. He had no tolerance for working with men, and there were few women left around to do the serving and cleaning. “I’ll do it now, but not again tomorrow. Men around here are all blind after drinking your stuff, Jak. They couldn’t shoot in a piss pot if someone held it over their peckers, and you know it,” she said.

“I know it,” Jak laughed, proud. He passed the drink to the mayor, who took it into his hands as if it were precious.

Bredonna draped herself over the old mayor’s shoulders. He gave her a wobbly smile and leaned in to sniff her hair. “Hello, girl.”

“Hello, sir,” she said with a bright smile. He’d paid for her time more than once and would assume she was happy to see him, greedy for more of his attention.

Jak nodded. “So, tell me then.”

Bredonna kissed the mayor's bearded cheek, hiding her smug grin. Jak was a fool, and that worked in her favor.

“Well, then, you said you wanted to know when the bounty hunter was back. That spit is back. Again. He’s been coming in a different way, don’t you know? Coming to my town, bold as you please. One of them old roads, using the wood. What a freak. Can you imagine? I wouldn’t go into the wood to save my life, you bet I wouldn’t. But people saw him and his crew ride right down the main road last night. Did you hear them machines of his?”

“He’s working for the Consortium, then. No one goes around like that if they don’t have a pass. And we got nothing left here. Nothing to fear.” Jak’s forehead bunched up in a worried frown, despite his words.

“He’s working for whoever he pleases. The miller said he had a woman with him. A witch. A pretty, shiny piece of sweet sugar sitting right there in the open, riding in front of him. How is he getting away with that?”

“Told you. Must be a hired man. You sure he is a spit? He doesn’t look like a spit. Looks like a landed man. Same as you and me. Muscle and wood. Last time he was in my place, I saw no woman.”

“He is not a null. No, he is not. Not a void. How would he power them bikes? He don’t look that rich. And that witch. I know how he looks. Them looks a’lie. He’s some kind of magicer using witches. Why would he bring something so pretty in here with all these hungry bastards? And no patrol at his back? No one taking him down off that high and mighty? Has to be a spit, mage shit. Who can do that but a mage?” The mayor didn’t hold back his feelings about magicers. Every word came out laced with so much disgust that he spat them.

Bredonna listened closely. What’s this? A mage with the ability to keep a witch out of the city was not normal. There were some that said it was against the law, for the woman’s own safety, but as far as Bredonna knew, no actual laws had passed.

Her own father had married the last witch she’d seen outside the city, the only witch in Little Indio, Anika’s mother. Snatched her up like candy in the street. He’d forced the crazy, light-brain into a full life-pac.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

They must be talking about Calix, the bounty hunter. Was he a real mage? Would he be willing to help Bredonna? He could be her ticket out of here.

She’d seen him too, when he’d come into the pub after she first started working here. Jak was right. He looked like a null. Acted like a null.

His two men coaxed her upstairs to her closet, smiles first, one after the other. They knew what they were doing and wore her out. But the hunter didn’t leave his table. He was big and dangerous in a way that simultaneously made Bredonna’s small parts take notice and the hair raise on the back of her neck. Too intelligent, attractive, and very unpredictable.

She’d been better at managing the two without him.

The mayor took a little sip of his drink and kept on complaining. “How can it be legal for that man to have sugar out of city walls? How? Any city walls. D’orroto, Yassidio, Perdane? How does he get to break the law like that? What kind of friends does he have that he can ride those hummers through my town-my town-with sugar in his lap and not a care in the world? And why is he coming here?”

Jak grunted.

“That’s right, my friend. That’s right. We have nothing here.” The Mayor nodded vigorously as if Jak had said something of intelligence. “Our illium is all gone, fiends like him horded it or poisoned it so the landed couldn’t use it. Everyone knows that. Now, half our lands are cursed or haunted. They forced that war on us and now we can barely scrape two coppers together. Why come here?”

“Where’d he go?” Bedonna asked, since Jak said nothing.

The mayor took a long drink of his ale. Pressed up against his side, she could feel the stuff sinking into his system, tension along his side loosening. It didn’t take much.

“Did you hear, girl? The wood. He drives to the edge of town, past the refinery, right on past the caelifera harvesters, and into that evil old wood. Wish the proctor would send the correctors and cut the damn thing down.”

“They tried.” Jak frowned.

Bredonna hadn’t been here then. But she’d heard stories. The Proctor’s armies, the correctors, had a terrible reputation. They also had all the power. She could soften at least one of them, if they ever came back. But Little Indio had been abandoned by the Proctor. No one of any importance came here. It was why her father had chosen this place to live. He said life would be better out of the city. It wasn’t the only lie he ever told her, but it was the one she hated him most for.

“I think he’s got more than one, don’t you know? Didn’t someone say he takes whatever he wants when he’s on a hunt? How can he get away with that shit?” The Mayor drank more ale. He was a pro-drinker. Bredonna gave him space to take a couple of deep breaths after, perspiration dotting his brow, but he didn’t have more trouble than that. She knew in about ten minutes he’d be too drunk to give her any actual information.

“One what?” Jak asked.

“Witch! I heard he will take them when he goes to collect his bounties. Why does he get to keep witches? He’s not a mayor. He’s not a good’ole boy like you either. He’s pure magicer trash.”

“Ya. You said. Trash. He bring any trouble with him? You sure he's free of the patrols? No notices of an inspection? No one after his sweet?”

“Sure as can be. There are road checks on every road. Didn’t I tell you? Thought I told you. I know you never leave your bar, you’re a good man like that, ole Jak. But I had to pass through them last time I went to see my brother.”

Bredonna remembered. Even after the war, there hadn’t been road blocks or trackers. She’d come to Little Indio with her father down an open road. But the news from the cities said rebels were hiding illium and witches. The blocks were for everyone’s benefit.

“If I didn’t have his letter, I’d have to turn around. Can you imagine? Magicer trouble again. And I know for sure that a person can’t get past ‘em unless he can fly. You think that is what he did? Use that witch to give him sky power? Wouldn’t that be a sight?”

“No witches like that anymore. Maybe in the cities? Not here. Sure of that. Didn’t you say he has men with him? Did they have witches too? I’ve never seen a proper witch. Was she pretty?” Jak gave Bredonna a side eye. He’d told her he thought she was beautiful. Was he trying to make her jealous?

Bredonna had seen witches. The native-born stood out like sunshine in a jar.

“The last time the patrol came through here, you know they took more than sugar.” The mayor was in full whine now. “They won’t let me do any proper policing, won’t let me hold a judgment circle, won’t let me do nothing but collect taxes and debts. And they take what they want, even after I done the collecting. And from who they want.”

The mayor took what he wanted after becoming mayor. Until the patrols took it from him.

Jak nodded. He had a storage area he kept secret from the patrol. Every few months he set aside half his brew for them, just in case they came through, and put it where they’d see it. The rest he hid, including anything he thought was valuable. He’d let Bredonna hide there.

“You don’t owe no debts, Mayor. So, nothing to fear. And neither do you, Jak. We are all safe.” Bredonna said.

“Girl. How can we be safe from someone who isn’t afraid of the patrol, who has that woo-woo and a real witch to power him? Who has the kind of machines this man has? I don’t like what the Proctor has done, lost family to his conscription, I have, like everyone else, but you know he’s right about energy. Them filthy spits hoarded it all and kilt the world.”

Bredonna had to hide her face in her hair and bite her tongue. This man complained about the government that made him afraid in his own house, stripped him of his authority, and drained the town of natural resources down to the women and daughters who brought forth the next generation. And on the other hand, he praised them for the reason they did it all.

She knew who her enemies were. Everyone. Everyone else. And she’d do anything to find a place where she could finally be safe.