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  His voice was softer now, not the usual loud mocking tone, nor the anger from moments before.

  “I’m gonna get us all killed. He’s too powerful. We have swords, and he’s got fire.”

  “It’s okay to be scared,” the big man responded. “There’s no shame in that. Fear keeps us alive. It’s kept me alive many a time. There is shame in letting it make you shirk your duty, though.”

  “My only duty is to get those people out. The ones still there. I know you don’t believe it, but it’s true. I’m going to get us all killed in two days.”

  “Maybe that’s your duty, but it’s not mine. My duty is to the Prefect, and he sent me up here to discover if what you’re saying is the truth. I don’t believe it, not for a second, but fear ain’t gonna push me away from my duty.”

  “You’ll die,” Pat whispered. “He’s far too powerful.”

  William nodded. “If you’re right, maybe I will die. That’s okay if it happens. A Right Hand should die if it’s necessary. I’ll be honest with you, crazy man. I don’t see that happening. I’m good at what I do. I was the best until Riley back there came around, and I may still be the best, but she’s quick on my heels. She’ll pass me soon. She’s dangerous, and one-on-one I’m not sure I could handle her. Whatever lies ahead, the two of us will go through it like shit through a kangaroo. She’s not frightened, and neither am I. This is what we were made for, crazy man. To protect the Prefects, and kill people if necessary.”

  “You’re not going to listen to me, are you?”

  “I just did, crazy man. You just don’t want to listen to me. There’s nothing ahead that we can’t handle, Riley and me. Now go get some sleep. I’ll prove it to you in two days.”

  Chapter Five

  The third day passed without incident. The ride was long and slow, the sun beating down as if it were angry at the Earth. Riley was quiet in the back, watching Lucie. Wondering if she was going to say anything to her or Pat.

  Lucie remained quiet, and Pat said nothing either.

  Only William seemed in good spirits, commenting as usual on what he was going to do to Pat when they returned to New Perth without having found anything of note. Riley knew the man was just boasting now, filling the time with talk. William didn’t think anything lay ahead, and when they returned empty-handed, he would say nothing to the Prefect.

  Finally, with the day ended, they dismounted their horses and made camp. Riley built a fire with deadfall from the forest while Lucie prepared their meal.

  Riley kept her eyes on Pat since his unease appeared to be back. Perhaps even more so. He wasn’t glancing around constantly, but he lived with fear—and it was growing worse.

  They ate, and still the old woman said nothing. William seemed unconcerned, completely content with lying on his back and waiting until it was his turn to take the watch.

  Pat stared at the fire.

  Riley focused on Lucie.

  “You going to tell us why you came all the way out here?” she finally asked. “Because tomorrow night we’re going to reach the supposed compound, and I’d rather not hear about it an hour before if it’s all the same to you.”

  It was the most directly she’d ever spoken to Lucie, but Riley was tired of being toyed with, and that’s what this felt like. That the older woman was holding important information from them, despite having started this trip with the explicit direction that she would have to divulge it.

  “I figured I would, yeah,” Lucie answered. “Although I don’t really want to.”

  “Oh, goodness, skinny.” William’s massive hands moved up and down on his stomach while he breathed. “Let it go. It don’t matter what she says, just like it don’t matter what crazy man over there says. We’re going to be done with all this tomorrow.”

  Riley ignored him, but Pat was looking over now too.

  “Do you know him?” Pat asked.

  “Aye, I may. It was a long time ago, when New Perth was just bein’ founded. The first Prefect wasn’t even yet Prefect. That would be Goland’s father.”

  “You were alive?” Riley asked, her eyes widening some. Lucie was old, true enough, but she didn’t look that old.

  “Aye, I was. It makes me wonder why Goland didn’t see the truth in what this fellow is sayin’.”

  William let out a loud fart at that. “There’s your truth.”

  “When New Perth was first being founded, Goland’s father—his name was Simon. He was a strong man. A strong leader, and that was how he won.”

  “Won?” Riley asked.

  “Yes. The Prefect position, but also New Perth’s soul. He was in a struggle, though not a violent one. It was a struggle of wills, and Simon was strong. He was persuasive, and in the end, he got what he wanted.”

  “Which was what?”

  “No magic, of course,” Lucie told her. “Every once in a while someone might have an accident. The magic is in us, whether or not we want to acknowledge it, and sometimes it bubbles to the top without any help from us. Definitely in moments of stress, with people who hold a lot of potential it just pours out.”

  Riley said nothing. She gave no indication that she knew anything about that.

  But you do, don’t you? she thought. You’ve never told anyone, but you’ve had accidents.

  “Simon thought magic was too dangerous, but he was a good man. He didn’t want to command people not to use it. That would backfire. Instead, he used his pulpit to spread the message. To convince citizens of the dangers of magic, and that they should shun it. They taught their children that, and so on.”

  “We know all this,” William retorted. “If you’re going to give us a story, at least make it one we haven’t heard.”

  “William, I just wish you had a brain the size of your big toe. It’s a damn shame ya don’t.” Lucie looked at Riley again. “What the steer doesn’t know is that there was another man back then, too. Aye, New Perth did their best to wipe away his legacy, but he existed, no doubt about it.”

  Lucie paused for a moment. She moved her foot absently in the dirt, looking down at it.

  “Most of our knowledge on this continent about magic comes from a woman named Linda. I never met her, but if the rumors are to be believed, she learned it from an old man with a beard and a staff in some far away land. I don’t know the details, but I do know that Linda taught a group of people what she had learned; about ‘Etheric energy’ and ‘nanocytes.’ One of those was a man named Rendal. He thought humans should embrace magic. He thought it was our birthright after everything that happened before, and that magic would keep us safe and basically make sure we never wiped out the world again. Rendal Hemmons wanted us to use it; wanted everyone to use it.”

  “And this is the man we’re supposedly going to hunt?” William asked.

  “I think it might be.”

  “You know how damn silly you sound, Lucie?” William asked. “That man would be old. You would be old. Now I’m not sitting here saying you’re a spring chicken, ‘cause you’re not, but you’re certainly not that old.”

  “He would be old, that much is true. This would have been fifty or sixty years ago, and he was the same age as Simon. He probably would be ninety years old now.”

  “Exactly. That’s not possible.”

  Pat shook his head. “No, that’s not him. He’s not that old.”

  “Let me finish, you two oafs. You don’t want to believe me at the end, I don’t give a rat’s ass. Right now, though, I told Riley she’d know why I came, and that’s what I intend on doing.” Again, Lucie looked up from the fire at Riley. “When Simon won the hearts of New Perth, Rendal knew he was done. He could use magic back then. He did use magic, and the people of New Perth weren’t going to have it. They…we… Well, we chased him out of the city. I’m not proud of that now, but we didn’t hurt him. We just didn’t want anything to do with magic back then, and he was the only one who could truly wield it.”

  “Where did he go?” Riley asked.

  “I don’
t know. I thought he would make his way to Sidnie. It seemed like they went the opposite way of New Perth, embracing magic in a way we didn’t. He could go there and feel free to use his powers any way he wanted. I thought he might try to get some kind of political power there, just as he’d done in New Perth, but I never heard of Rendal Hemmons again after that. Not until this man here came into the city talking.”

  “Lucie, all this ramblin’ and you still can’t tell me how this man is still alive. Crazy man here is finally having a moment of sense, saying that the man isn’t that old. More, I want to know how old you are.” William was having fun with this, his gruff voice filling the night air.

  Riley knew the questions were legitimate, though. Things Lucie would have to answer if she actually wanted anyone to believe her.

  “I don’t know how he’s alive,” she responded simply. “I’m younger than Rendal by twenty years.”

  She glared at William.

  “I don’t want to hear nothin’ ‘bout me datin’ someone that much older, either.”

  William grinned and avoided eye contact, looking like a much younger version of himself.

  Lucie continued. “Goland is what…seventy or seventy-five years old right now? Mason is thirty? And Simon died ten years ago or so, although there wasn’t much left of ‘im by that point. I think if he’s taking the Etheric energy from people, their magic basically, then he’s somehow using it to keep himself alive.”

  “Ha!” William laughed. “That’s less believable than the crazy man’s story over here.”

  “I wish your ears were as big as your mouth is,” Lucie snapped back. “Then you might be able to learn something. I’m not saying it is Rendal. I’m saying it might be. I’m saying if it is, then he’s going to be pissed, and that’s why all this is happening. We ran him out of New Perth, ya lout, after rejecting his ideas. If he didn’t go to Sidnie, and he went north, he’s been planning his return for sixty years.”

  Lucie turned back to the fire.

  “He wanted magic to rule us, and mayhap he figured out a way to do just that. That’s why I came—because I need to know if it’s him.”

  Riley couldn’t sleep much, and when William came to get her for her watch, she was already awake.

  She looked around the campsite, but the other two were sleeping.

  “What’s keepin’ ya up?” the big man asked. “Lucie’s story?”

  “Yeah.” Riley stood and took her sword from the ground. “It’s possible, whether or not you want to admit it, William.”

  “Aye, possible, but not likely. Someone would have told us.”

  “Who? Simon? She’s right. The last ten years of his life, he was little more than a deranged man walking through the castle banging into walls. If Goland remembers, it surely didn’t trigger anything when Pat came before the court. Mason wouldn’t know anything about it. When we get back we can ask Goland, but right now we’re on our own, and that makes me a bit nervous.”

  “Well, we’ll see in just a few hours what’s what,” William retorted. “Now I’m gonna get some sleep. I hope you’re rested enough to handle whatever comes our way.”

  She watched the big man descend onto his blanket.

  I hope so, too, Riley thought.

  She headed away from the campsite, her eyes adjusting to the darkness beyond the fire’s embers.

  Riley rarely doubted herself. Her skills with a sword were topnotch, and improving all the time. Yet what Lucie said had stuck with her all night.

  A man exiled from his city and sent out into the wilderness. Even if he had made it to Sidnie, the Badlands separating New Perth and Sidnie were vast. He would have been lucky to survive at all. And if he hadn’t gone? But instead turned north and began…

  Began what? she wondered. Kidnapping people from across the continent and sucking magic from their bodies, somehow able to funnel it into himself?

  It made no sense.

  What Lucie had said about magic troubled Riley some, too. Accidents. Because Riley had experienced those before, and more than one. Many more than one. It happened when she grew overly stressed, although so far no one else had seen them. As a Right Hand Riley dealt with stress alone, never allowing the outside world to see any of it. Yet, hadn’t she witnessed fire dancing across her fingertips? Hadn’t she seen her eyes blazing red when staring in the mirror?

  Yes, without a doubt. She’d never told a soul because New Perth didn’t use magic. She was the Right Hand. She served royalty. She served Mason. To use magic...it would sully his family’s name and destroy their relationship.

  Yet Lucie had said it happened to other people, too. Those with a lot of potential.

  What’s that mean for me? Riley wondered.

  She heard movement behind her and was on her feet with her sword drawn in a split second.

  It was Pat. He stood over his blanket, not wanting to yell and risk waking everyone else up.

  Riley waved him over, watching as he walked through the night.

  “I just wanted to thank you,” he said when he reached her. “I know you don’t totally believe me, but you at least are giving me a chance to show everyone the truth. You’re giving me a chance to rescue the people who are still there, still trapped. I wanted to thank you for that.”

  Riley nodded as the sky slowly grew lighter behind her. “It’s my duty.”

  “Well, whatever happens tomorrow, I wanted to thank you.”

  Pat didn’t move, however.

  “There’s more?” Riley asked.

  “I—maybe,” he answered. “The woman back there...Lucie. It feels like something is different about her. Do you feel it?”

  Riley looked over the man’s shoulder toward the campsite.

  “I’ve known her my whole life, and I’ve always thought she was different. She took notice of me when no one else did, pulling me into her restaurant and giving me work when I was surely going to end up in the kingdom’s stocks. No one else would have done that when I was a punk kid. So, yes, something is different about Lucie.”

  “That wasn’t what I mean.” Pat didn’t look away.

  Riley knew that. Something was different about Lucie, and for all Riley’s awareness, she hadn’t noticed it until tonight.

  Not until she wanted you to, Riley thought. Not until she finally opened up a bit about herself.

  “Maybe,” was all she said to Pat, though. She turned back to him. “Look, we’ve got a couple more hours before the sun comes up and we finish this half of the journey. You need sleep.”

  Pat nodded. “Okay. Thanks again, Riley, or Right Hand, or whatever you want to be called.”

  He smiled, and it was the first time Riley had seen him do such a thing. It wasn’t a horrible smile, either.

  Dawn was almost upon the small group, and Lucie wasn’t asleep despite what the people around her thought.

  Lucie had told Riley most of what happened. She hadn’t told her everything, though, and Lucie was struggling with that. Had she lied to the girl, or simply omitted certain things? And did it matter?

  It matters, or you wouldn’t be lyin’ awake all night considerin’ it.

  That was the truth. Tomorrow (actually today, since the sun would poke above the horizon any minute), Lucie thought she would see Rendal again. It’d been a half-century or more, and Lucie had honestly thought he was gone forever. She’d hoped so. If she could be even more honest with herself, she’d hoped that Rendal had died.

  Maybe on the way to Sidnie all those years ago, the Badlands taking him as it had others.

  He’s not dead, she thought. It doesn’t matter what William thinks, or Riley, or even Pat for that matter. You know the truth about Rendal, maybe better than anyone else ever did. He’s not dead, and now he’s returned.

  And then another thought came.

  You’re going to have to tell her. Tell Riley. You’re goin’ to have to tell William, too.

  Lucie knew that was true, but she didn’t want to. Those things happened decades
ago, and Lucie thought she had outgrown them. She’d believed the past would remain in the past, and at the end of her life, she would have peace.

  Lucie kept her eyes closed, but she knew Riley was standing guard thirty feet away or so.

  But if he’s returning, is it best that she’s here?

  Lucie had known since first laying eyes on the young girl that she was special. Riley didn’t understand that, of course. She thought Lucie had simply been a kind old woman, taking her in when Riley was eleven. That wasn’t the case, though—at least not all of it.

  Riley carried potential. Not the kind most people spoke about—the potential to rise high in the world. She carried magical potential, and Lucie had seen her reaction when she mentioned “accidents.” People becoming stressed and unable to hold their magic inside any longer.

  It’d happened to Riley already, but then, Lucie had suspected as much.

  That amount of potential... It wasn’t really possible to avoid accidental magic flare-ups, especially if the girl got stressed. And as a Right Hand? There would be tremendous pressure on her almost all the time.

  But what can you do? Lucie thought. Simon was smart—very smart. He didn’t outlaw magic, but rather made it so that it was shunned. The people decided against using it, and to use it now would invite ostracism. The city would turn against her, the Right Hand.

  Yet, laying in the wilderness, Lucie didn’t think Riley would have a choice. If Rendal was alive, and this Pat is telling the truth, then New Perth might have no choice but to use magic.

  All the steel in the world wouldn’t matter against a mage.

  Tomorrow, old woman, Lucie thought. Tomorrow you will know for sure.

  Chapter Six

  Rendal knew the small group was approaching. They would arrive in the evening, and he wanted everything to be perfect when they did.

  Harold stood behind him, having been called a few minutes earlier.

  “Sir, how can I be of service?”

  “Are you keeping up with our preparations?”