Rhian

Avoiding the Delphi spire was an unwritten rule between Partisans. Then again, it might have been a written rule and I just couldn’t read it. I wasn’t all that worried about the telepathy when spending time with Adeline. I had excellent counter-training, and I trusted her not to browse my brain. But the spire was theirs. Hundreds of them roaming around, reading minds willy-nilly.

The point is: I didn’t like spending too much time in the Delphi spire.

There are some words I’d learned to see, even if I hadn’t learned to read. Those words included the Assembly’s names. I knew Adeline had the perks of being a Councilwoman’s daughter, and I knew that included a room on the fifth floor. So I zipped up four flights of circular stairs, whizzed around the circular corridor, and knocked about a thousand times on the first door with a name I recognized.

“Open up, post-haste, lickety-split, right this goddess-be-damned second.”

The door creaked open and an eyeball peeked through the crack.

I also peeked through the crack. “I’m looking for Adeline.”

The door creaked the rest of the way open.

“My sister lives next door,” Not-Adeline said.

Wrong Blanchett, but I saw the resemblance. Tall, fiery, pointy. The only difference was, Adeline’s brother seemed the sad, skeptical sort. It made sense, seeing as the poor bastard had probably spent his entire life playing last-best to his sisters: the all-mighty successors, future grand pretenders, and keepers of dark, dirty secrets.

“Right, well—I’m Rhian.”

“I know who you are,” Not-Adeline said. “My sister often speaks of you.”

“Afraid I can’t say the same, but it’s nice to meet you.”

Not-Adeline almost smiled. “It’s kind of you not to lie.”

I was about to agree when the door to the left burst open.

Without a single thing to say for herself, the Squeaky Lass dashed out into the corridor, waved to Not-Adeline, yanked me by the arm, and locked me in a room.

We’ll have to learn more about the sad, pointy one another day.

Adeline pressed her precious back to the door, looking around with big, puffy eyes.

“You all right, lass?”

“No, Enforcer S, I am not all right.”

It’d been about an hour since she’d broken into the asylum and set seven inmates free, so it wasn’t too tricky sorting out why she was acting strangely. It didn’t take long for the Assembly to catch on to what happened, although from what I’d been told, they still didn’t know who did it. There was a Chase scheduled for later that day.

“Did you know they are one and the same?” Hiccup. “The locks on the doors—” Hiccup. “—and the cells? This is both practical and lazy.”

I did know that, and that’s why I said springing the place would be easy. The thing is, Adeline had no way of knowing that until she sneaked back in there and tried.

“How were you planning to do it, if it weren’t so simple?”

“I would have picked the locks.” Sniffle. “It’s a hobby.”

Adeline Blanchett had a lot of hobbies apparently. Her room looked more like a workshop, what with all the cogs and springs and things likely to explode in my hand. Also, she had a lot of clothes, stacked in colourful piles next to a shelf full of shoes. If I’d been the envious type, I might have been seeing everything in shades of green. The rest of us didn’t get hobbies or clothes with colour on account of they were pointless.

“Would it have worked?” I asked.

“With my tools? Yes, of course.”

“Give ‘em here,” I said. “The tools.”

The lass was obedient about it, tossing me a sack full of picks and jimmies. I stowed the sack away in my satchel.

“Enforcer S, I’ve decided to turn myself in. I must pay the consequences.”

Adeline had stopped crying, but her big hair still looked sad.

“Stracha’s Steed and its mythical shite. Do not say a word, hear me?”

“Those men and women will die!”

“Aye, but they knew that when you let them loose, and you knew that heading in, didn’t you? Your confession won’t change anything, and at least they’ll die in the wide-open air instead of in a puddle of their own miserable piss. You did good lass. I might have underestimated you a lot. Don’t you dare confess.”

I had about an hour to spare before I was supposed to meet with the Chasers assigned to hunt down the escapees. Also, I had a plan so the Assembly would stop searching for the culprit. But Adeline was still feeling guilty, and I couldn’t trust she wouldn’t ruin it while I wasn’t looking. I glanced around the room again.

“Some of these doohickeys you’ve got here—they look impressive. I haven’t got the first clue what they are, but, they look impressive.”

“My mother believes my talents are irrelevant. She tells me, ‘Adeline, you will not have time for frivolous hobbies when you are Councilwoman.’ Take, for instance, this prototype.”

We wandered over to the workbench and I took, for instance, the prototype.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

I peered over at two oval pieces of black glass held together with wire. “What is it?”

“They are for your eyes. To conceal them and protect from the sun. Could you imagine, Enforcer Rhian? We could introduce these sun-goggles to the southern territories first to create a fashion trend. Then we could take advantage of this, and wear them amongst the locals to hide our eyes and more easily blend.”

Seeing as no Barren was born with eyes like ours, and it wasn’t always advantageous for us to stand out, the idea was genius. Also, and I reckon Strauss might have mentioned this already, but Partisan eyes are especially sensitive to sunlight. I put on the sun-goggles.

“I can’t see a bloody thing.”

“This is why I called it a prototype.”

I took off the sun-goggles. “And your mum disapproves of this?”

“Yes, and this is why I called it a hobby. If only my brother had been a sister, or my sister had been born first. Then maybe I wouldn’t have so many restrictions.”

“Is your mum dying?”

“No.”

“Sick?”

“No.”

“Then why all the pressure? You have decades to become the next Councilwoman. We could use your doohickeys now.”

When Adeline Blanchett laughed, it was like a cold pillow on a hot night. Like it, hate it, ignore it—whatever suits your character best and whatnot.

“You know better than most how careful my mother truly is. You may have prevented one attempt on her life, but it was not the first, and there will surely be others.”

Well, she had me there. But she was feeling better about herself, and that was the point.

“Look, I’ve gotta go, mate. But it was nice spending some time on your side of the fence. We’ll do it again some time. Just don’t do anything stupid. We freckle-faced lasses have got to stick together, all right? I’ve got this one.”

Adeline chewed her lower lip a while, but eventually she nodded. After that, the strangest thing happened.

I gave her a hug.

----------------------------------------

The inmates knew they had no chance escaping Palisade, seeing as it was an island. We could stop a ship on account of they were slow, and an embark wouldn’t go anywhere at all without a Celestian at the helm. They knew what they were in for when they were sprung.

The inmates couldn’t escape, but they could do some damage. The entire compound was locked down for the main event. Faust’s soldiers held the doors and the docks. Blanchett’s telepaths kept the guards company, just in case the escapees tried playing any mind-tricks.

On the list of targets for the day: one Strachan, two Amali, three Delphi and a Senec.

With everyone gathered ‘round on the ground floor of the Strachan spire, I paired one of my students with one veteran Chaser until I ran out of matches. The decent lad went with the promising lass. The so-sos with the so-sos. The most talented Chaser was placed with the best of my class. The shittiest of both were paired with each other. Fifty-fifty chance they’d pass or fail the hard way—one weak team, no weak links.

Next, Councilwoman Kelly gave out directives.

Number one, kill on sight unless someone surrendered or it’d be a clean capture.

Number two, choose a timekeeper and keep it. The teams were ordered to swap locations with another group every fifteen minutes. What one pair didn’t see, another might not miss.

Number three, don’t die.

There were nods, salutes, and off everybody went. But if you’re expecting details about the Chase, too bad. I couldn’t be everywhere at once, and I never got to hear the reports. Besides, I had business of my own. I knew Random Man was out there, and I needed to find him afore someone put an arrow through his neck.

I slipped out with the rest of the Strachan, but seeing as I wasn't officially taking part, I didn’t have much arsenal except the usual pair of daggers on my hips. I hadn’t planned on getting too involved, but I couldn’t be sure who I’d run into out there. Good thing I kept some extra toys in the tree house, which also happened to be an excellent look-out point.

It didn’t take me long to get there. As I said, fast like a kitty-cat. But after climbing the tree, I had no way of knowing what I’d find inside the cabin.

Random Man was living up to his name. I hadn’t expected to find him so quickly, let alone just sitting there, munching on a loaf of bread without a care in the world. He’d found my snack stash, and that was quite all right. I tossed him my flask of Hocks.

“I seem to remember this place having a door," he said.

“Well, I’ve never claimed to be a goddess-be-damned carpenter, have I?”

Random Man chuckled. He was looking at me like he’d known me for years, but I reckoned it was the family resemblance. I settled in on the floor.

“We rebuilt what we could after someone came ‘round and busted it up.”

“That was my fault,” he said. “We used to come here, back in the day. I told the Assembly about it when they offered me the Chase in return for information about your father. I reckoned all they’d find were could-be-clues mixed up with decades worth of other people’s rubbish. They didn’t release me, but it shut them up for a solid week.”

“You mentioned your mates were killed—Strauss and somebody called Laine? So why are they keeping you alive?”

“Couldn’t tell you, but I wish they’d stop. I was a nobody, just a random man under Rick and Rhydian’s banner. Strauss and Laine, though? They were somebodies.”

“Tell me about Strauss.” Given the man’s apparent age and the fact he knew my father, it stood to reason he wasn’t talking about my Strauss.

“Reckoned you’d be more interested in Rhydian.”

“Nah, I’m not too interested in hearing about the man from whose loins I sprung or what have you. Tell me about Strauss.”

Random Man considered me for a moment, poking his tongue through the hole where he was missing a tooth. “Rhydian loved you very much, lass. He never wanted you to end up in this place, all right? You have to believe that. As far as Strauss goes—Andreas Strauss was the best of us. No more, no less.”

I wasn’t ready to absorb what I was hearing about my father, mostly on account of it didn’t matter, but also on account of it hurt. Moving along.

“Are you aware he’s got a son?”

Random Man paused mid-sip. “You’re telling me the boy’s alive?”

“That or I’ve been hallucinating.”

Right about then was when things got a lot more complicated. There were only a few Celestian with the power or the permission to do this particular trick. Reckoned the ones who learned it on their own defected far, far away. They probably hopped an embark and went on living invisibly in some invisible village somewhere. Shudder to bloody think. The bottom line is: we weren’t alone in that tree house. We probably never were.

One minute she was air, and the next…

“Enforcer Sinclair, do you often dine with your prey?”

Councilwoman Oranen was tall. The cabin was short. Slouching wasn’t her best look.

“Aye, it’s a thing I do. You ought to join us, Councilwoman. Might not be a bad idea to test out the view from down here.”

“Erika,” Random Man said. “Finally come to kill me?”

The Councilwoman had eyebrows like fuzzy, black caterpillars. They were distracting as all six hells. “Death would be merciful. The Assembly would prefer to see you before them, although I must commend you on your role in this clever escapade. Whatever it may be.”

“He had nothing to do with it,” I said.

“Perhaps not, but he will tell us who did.”

“Isn’t it obvious?” I stood, dusted off my bottom, and shrugged. “I needed wolves.”

After the three of us left the tree house, I shared a private moment with Random Man on the way back to the compound. It was only a second, but sometimes a look speaks louder than words. It had to be then, and it had to be me. Now, seeing as it was a private moment, I don’t intend to share the rest. But I will tell you this much: three of us left the tree house for the compound that day.

One of us didn’t make it.