Warden's Justice - Chapter 6
The Magisterium will not be challenged. They do not want you thinking for yourself. Otherwise, you might realise there are questions they cannot answer.
Kaila Dwyn only ever dreamed of becoming a Warden, a protector of her people. So when she discovers an intruder in her village stealing precious agimet crystals, she does what any loyal subject of the Magisterium would do—she tries to stop him. But as the pair wrestle for control of the crystal, something awakens in Kaila. Something powerful. Something forbidden. Magic.
Now Kaila finds herself hunted by the very heroes she once worshipped. Nothing is as the Magisterium taught her to believe, and pursued by a monstrosity of iron and magic, Kaila must unlock her hidden powers if she’s to survive. But there is only one man who can teach her the magic of the Elysian—Theron, the man who destroyed her life. Can Kaila set aside the past and join forces with the Elysian thief?
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“…a thief…”
“…one of them…”
“Impossible…”
“How…the Trials…”
“Wake her.”
The voices fell silent. In that pause, Kaila’s mind finally pieced itself back together. Her head ached like someone had hit her with a sack of coal. The rest of her didn’t feel much better off, but at least she was lying in what she assumed to be her bed.
The dull plod of boots on stone approached. Strange. Their flat didn’t have stone floors. There was only one building in Elgoss with—
All thoughts fled from her mind as icy water cascaded over her head. She tried to scream, but only a gurgle came out. Water filled her throat, and choking, drowning, she thrashed—only to find her wrists and ankles restrained by chains.
When the deluge ceased, she cursed the enemy between gasps for breath. Who else could be behind such foul torture? Blinking water from her eyes, she strained against her bindings. The manacles rattled against steel railings lining the bed. Definitely not home. She squinted against the blazing light in the room, trying to figure out where she was and what was going on. The last thing she remembered…she’d been heading into the mine, hadn’t she? And there was that strange man…
...the room slowly came into focus, and Kaila found herself looking up at a familiar face.
It only added to her confusion.
“Sister Eurador?” she croaked. “What’s going on?”
Her memories were hazy, but more of what had happened in the tunnels was returning now. A shiver ran down her spine. The enemy had infiltrated Elgoss. The thief had been after agimet. He’d had her father and the others bound, but she’d stopped him, hadn’t she? In the end…
Kaila’s skin crawled as she recalled the roar of collapsing stone, the flash of red followed by sudden darkness. The bastard had brought the ceiling down on them. How was she alive? Was anyone else…
“My father,” she gasped, struggling against her restraints to sit up. What the hell was happening? Why was she bound? She recognised the room now—this was the infirmary in the colonnade. “Is he okay—”
Leaning over the bed, Sister Eurador struck her across the face.
Hard.
“You will not speak.” The sister’s voice dripped venom. “Unless it is to answer my questions, you treacherous cur.”
Kaila was so stunned by the blow that she could only stare at the woman, mouth hanging open. The blood drained from her face as shock replaced mortification. What…what had she done? She had never seen such a shade of purple on her teacher’s face, nor that glint in her eyes. She struggled to understand. What had the sister said? Something about treason? Surely, she had misheard!
“Please, Sister, there was a thief—”
Sister Eurador struck her again, harder this time. Red burst across Kaila’s vision and her ears began to ring. Tears sprang to her eyes and she had to bite her lip to keep from crying out.
“You. Will. Not. Speak,” Eurador ground out through clenched teeth. Gone was her smile and warm words. There was no hint of the woman who had been the closest thing Kaila had ever had to a mother. In her place was a hard, unyielding woman.
Kaila wanted to scream, to beg her to explain why she was being treated like the enemy. She was Kaila, Kaila Dwyn, the most loyal servant the kingdom had ever seen. She would never betray Fresia…
…but one glimpse of those hate-filled eyes and she swallowed the words.
A terrible silence hung over the infirmary. There were others present. Kaila sensed them in the edges of her vision. The village doctor and his attendant. They lingered in the shadows, clearly eager to remain removed from the situation. This was between her and the sister.
“Good,” Sister Eurador said when it became obvious Kaila would not try to speak again. “Now, perhaps we can get to the heart of your treason. How did you fool our Trials?”
“What?” Kaila croaked.
“The Trial of Agimet,” Eurador snapped. “How did your filthy, contaminated blood slip past the crystal?”
Tears blurred Kaila’s vision. “Please, I didn’t—”
Kaila shrieked as the sister struck her again. For an old woman, she had a wicked swing. This time, she felt something tear in her jaw. She slumped into the sheets, breath rasping in her throat, a great sob building within. The cold iron of the shackles dug at her flesh. A trickle of blood ran down her wrist where they cut her skin.
“How. Did. You. Fool. Us?”
“I don’t know!” Kaila screamed, rearing up as far as her bonds would allow to look her teacher in the eyes, blinking angrily as tears gathered.
She remembered what had happened down there in the dark, but she didn’t want to face it. Face what it might mean, what Eurador was accusing her of. Because she had seen it. The magic of the enemy. And there at the end, she had used it.
But that didn’t mean…it couldn’t…
“I don’t know,” she repeated, voice falling to a whisper. “That man, he was going to kill my father. I stopped him. I don’t know how…”
Words failed her then and she slumped onto the bed. The scene played out again and again in her mind, the man who called himself the prince of thieves, standing over the miners, and Kaila tackling him, wrestling him for possession of the agimet. Then the stars, the swirling lights of some other realm. And the energy that had sizzled through her, how she’d reached for the stars, for the intruder’s light.
How she had moved him.
Looking into Sister Eurador’s eyes, she saw the hatred there, and the pain. She recognised it, had lived it herself just yesterday, when Caellum had looked at her with atar burning in his eyes.
Betrayal.
“I didn’t know,” she whispered. “Please, you have to believe me, Sister. I am not a traitor.”
But Eurador only shook her head. “I have sent word after Warden Chain. With the blessing of the First Matron, he will be here by morning. Lie to me all you wish, devil. The Warden will have the truth from your deceitful lips.”
With that she turned and stalked from the room. The doctor and his assistant hesitated, before following. Behind the open door, Kaila glimpsed a pair of guards standing outside. Tomas and Sareen. Her heart throbbed. They were okay. But what about her father? She wanted to call out to them. They had seen her fight the Elysian thief, hadn’t they? They would speak for her.
But then Sareen stepped into the doorway and took hold of the handle, and their eyes met. Kaila saw the same rage in the woman’s gaze as in Sister Eurador’s. The same look of loathing, and hatred, and hurt. She was still searching for the right words when Sareen slammed the door shut.
The darkness swallowed her up. And the silence. Not of the terrible silence of the earth, this time, but the familiar quiet of Elgoss. The concrete walls groaned, and outside, the mountain winds whistled through metal awnings. Somewhere outside, a dog was barking.
Home. Yet never in her life had Kaila felt like such an outsider. Minutes crept into hours and no one came. Not even the doctor, or a guard with food. The void in her chest grew deeper, darker, fed by the loneliness, by the pain of seeing that look in her mentor’s eyes, in the faces of her friends. In the agony of still not knowing her father’s fate.
Finally though, not pain or sorrow or fear could hold out against the exhaustion creeping through her body, from the aching in her muscles or the pulsing in her skull. And so, at last, Kaila drifted off to sleep, not sure what tomorrow would bring—only knowing it could not be any worse than today.
***
She woke hours later to a hand pressed across her mouth. She opened her mouth to scream, but it died when Kaila felt the cold touch of steel at her throat.
“Ah, ah, ah,” a voice spoke in the darkness, “let’s not go waking the neighbourhood, shall we?”
Heart pounding and a cold sweat upon her brow, Kaila gave a careful nod. She recognised that voice—she would know it anywhere. The thief from the mine. Theron.
The hand left her mouth. The knife, however, remained, and her lips stayed carefully closed. She strained to pick out the vile Elysian thief from the shadows. As the glimmers of sleep faded from her eyes, he shifted into focus. He was wearing the same trench coat from before, though he looked to have added an extra layer of dust since the mine.
“Good girl,” he said with a familiar smile.
The words stirred something in Kaila’s gut. Rage. She had to bite down on her tongue to keep herself from screaming. The sharp sting of pain returned her to her senses and she settled for a glare. It wasn’t like she could do anything with her hands chained to the bed anyway. He seemed to realise that, as still smiling, he pulled a nearby stool over to the bed and sat himself down, the blade never leaving her throat.
“How about we have a little chat? Starting with names. Is yours really Kaila? Theron isn’t mine, but it’s the one I go by.”
Kaila glowered at him. She didn’t know what the bastard was doing here, but whatever it was, she wanted nothing to do with it. Especially while his knife remained pressed to her carotid artery.
He seemed to realise that, as he let out a sigh. “Okay, look,” he muttered, gesturing at the knife, “I’m going to remove this. When I do, I want your promise you won’t scream. It wouldn’t achieve anything anyway. Trust me when I say there are a dozen ways I can kill you and slip out the window before the guards outside can even find the key to your door.”
If Kaila’s eyes could have shot fire, she was quite sure Theron would have been crisper than a piece of her father’s toast. As it was, she had to settle for the slightest of nods. Anything to get the cold steel away from her flesh.
“How about we skip the chat and you just leave,” she said as he removed the blade.
The Elysian’s eyebrows rose into his mop of golden hair. “My, my, what’s got you so cranky, girl?”
“You!” she hissed. She almost choked trying to keep her voice in check. Her chains rattled as she shook them. “This is all your fault! What did you do to me?”
“Me? I didn’t do anything to you. You were the one who went and showed off your powers in front of half a dozen humans. Don’t tell me you didn’t think at least one of them would go running to a Sister and report you?”
“Liar,” Kaila snapped.
Theron pursed his lips. “Usually, I would agree,” he remarked, with no hint of remorse. “However, in this case, I’m struggling to see how you think I have lied, Kaila.”
Kaila had already opened her mouth to reply, but something about his tone gave her pause. There was a softness to his words, as though he was genuinely remorseful.
She swallowed. “You tried to kill me.”
Her unwanted visitor chuckled. “Nonsense,” he said, flashing a handsome smile that had Kaila grinding her teeth in anger. “If I wanted you dead, you would be dead. I just brought down a section of the tunnel between us. Couldn’t have another Mover chasing me around and causing problems, could I?”
“You could have…wait, Mover? What are you talking about?”
“Oh, wow, you really are green, aren’t you? Was that the first time you used your powers?”
“I don’t have powers! I was tested!”
Theron arched an eyebrow. “Oh, yeah? Could have fooled me when you moved me with your mind.”
“I didn’t…” Kaila frowned. “Is that why you called me a Mover?”
“Why else?”
“Bit dumb, isn’t it?” she sneered. “Come up with that one yourself?”
“It’s not dumb!” Theron objected, the smile slipping from his face. “And no, I didn’t make up the name.” The way he said it, Kaila suspected he very well may have been involved.
“Doesn’t make it any less stupid,” she muttered, before remembering who she was talking to. She shook her head violently. “It doesn’t matter. I’m not like you! I must have been contaminated by your magic! That’s it, isn’t it? Your foul magic is infectious somehow!”
“Well, that’s a new one,” Theron muttered. He toyed with the knife in his hands, making it spin between his fingers. “But I think even you know that’s not true. If it was that simple, everyone would have magic by now, wouldn’t they?”
Her heart sank. He was right. If magic really could pass between people like a disease, well, the war would have gone very differently.
“But I’m not like you,” she whispered. “I’m not a traitor.”
To her surprise, Theron sighed. Rising from his stool, he sat himself on the edge of her bed. “They don’t care.”
“I’ll…I’ll explain it to them.”
“They don’t seem like they’re in the mood for listening.”
“Sister Eurador was in shock. Maybe in the morning…”
“It won’t work.”
“What would you know?” Kaila retorted, maddened by the bastard of a man. He loomed over her, all dark and mysterious and self-assured. By the First Matron, if she had one of her daggers, she would wipe that smile off his lips. “You’re a murderous Elysian thief! What would someone like you understand about duty?”
“What would I understand indeed.” His voice was strangely sad as he rose. “Be that as it may, I do know a few things about being Elysian—which is what you are.”
“Liar!”
Theron crossed his arms. It was a petulant argument and they both knew it. She bit her lip to keep from snapping again, and he went on: “As I was saying. I know a few things about your situation, and I know that if you stay here, they will kill you.”
His words sent a chill down Kaila’s spine. Fear. She shivered, wanting to say something, to refute his claim, but Theron was already speaking again.
“Look,” he went on, a strange twist crossing his lips as he scratched his stubble. “I’ve got to catch that last load of agimet your village sent out before it disappears. I could use another Mover. I could take you with me—”
“Never!”
Kaila couldn’t believe what she was hearing. He actually thought she would go with him! That she would betray her own kind to the enemy. And for what? Some crystals and coin?
“Seriously—”
“I would never betray my kind,” she sneered.
A heavy silence fell between them. Kaila thought she glimpsed hurt in Theron’s eyes, but surely that was only her treacherous imagination. This monster cared nothing for her—only about filling his own pockets. A part of her wanted to scream out now, to call for Tomas and Sareen outside, but the knife in his hand glinted in the moonlight, still perilously close. He was right; she would be dead long before anyone arrived to help. Yet the temptation remained. She might die choking on her own blood, but at least she would die loyal, would perish while proving to everyone that she wasn’t a traitor. That she hadn’t been working with the enemy against her people.
But the moment stretched out and Kaila did nothing, and finally, the strange man shook his head.
“Okay then,” he said softly. “It’s your life, Kaila. I just hope you live to regret the decision.”
He slipped the knife back into the sheath on his belt and turned away.
The breath caught in her throat. This was it, her chance to alert the guards to his presence. Yet, as she opened her mouth to cry out, she saw again that glint in Sister Eurador’s eyes, and in Sareen’s, and the doctor’s, and…
…and the words died in her throat.
Theron was already at the window. With a last glance over his shoulder, he disappeared into the night.
Then he was gone, and Kaila’s only chance to prove her innocence and loyalty was gone with him.
Theron didn’t linger in Elgoss after bidding the girl goodnight. The atar in his crystals was burning low after their encounter in the mine and the closest nexus was several days away, high in the mountains near the old ruins. Too far for a detour. If they caught him skulking about the village, he would be hard-pressed to escape with the few resources he had left. So he used a whisper of power to silently open the gates and slip out into the night unseen.
It had been a little infuriating, actually, how much atar this village had cost him. Normally, all it took was a glimpse of his atar-filled eyes and humans would fall over themselves to do his bidding. But, oh no, not in Elgoss. The prisoners in the mine had been cooperative enough, but the miners when they’d turned up! The prisoners had been digging all night and still hadn’t returned, so at the break of dawn, he’d gone up to deal with any early risers. He hadn’t expected an actual fight. By the Trickster, the sister of this village had really done a number on them, wrapping them up in so many ideas of honour and duty that it was a wonder they didn’t need her permission to take a dump. If the Magisterium was any sort of meritocracy, she had earned herself a goddamn medal.
Though, as far as Theron was concerned, the witch’s reward should be delivered a great deal faster than capital bureaucracy, and with a much sharper point. Still, no wonder the town’s location had remained secret so long. The entire populace was a giant cult to the teachings of the Magisterium.
Thankfully, there was always a weak link. One had spilled the beans about what they did with the agimet, and now he was hot on the heels of the wagon caravan. There was only one road in and out of the village, a pitted track that ran around the side of the volcano for a day before joining several others from villages deeper inside the Iron Pinnacles. If he travelled quickly, he could still overtake them and recover his fortune.
Even if it meant abandoning the girl to her fate.
His stomach gave a pang. Kaila Dwyn. What a peculiar discovery she’d been. An Elysian who thought she was human. There must be some story there. Shame he couldn’t stick around. If she was lucky, she would be imprisoned and sent to a labour camp, where she would serve the rest of her life alongside others unfortunate enough to have found themselves on the wrong side of Fresian law. An appropriate fate, some say, considering her high and mighty attitude towards him earlier.
But Theron couldn’t find his smile. There was also the alternative. Execution. He’d tried to scare her with its promise, but…what if they condemned her for his crime? The theft of agimet was a capital offence.
A rumble of thunder jolted Theron back to the present. He cursed beneath his breath as a jagged trail of lightning sliced the sky. It was followed shortly by another boom. Great, just his luck. A storm was approaching. Maybe it would bring only rain, though with the cold breeze that cut the air, snow seemed more likely.
You should have left her a piece of agimet.
The ache in his gut grew stronger. He’d thought about it. But…the wagons were likely to be guarded. He would need every scrap of atar he had left if the waggoneers were as loyal as their compatriots in Elgoss. And there was no time for any detours. Every passing minute, the wagons grew closer to an intersection where they could turn off the road and vanish into the mountains, lost forever from his grasp.
He picked up the pace. He needed that agimet. The half a dozen crystals he’d taken from the mine were worth a fortune, but only a small fortune. They might not even cover the debt he’d racked up with Ambrose, assembling his list of potential villages. The man wasn’t exactly someone you crossed.
Lost in his thoughts, Theron didn’t notice the rumble of hooves from the road ahead until they were almost upon him. Immediately, he took cover, darting for an outcrop of rocks just off the trail. A few seconds later, the rider appeared, charging around a bend and urging his horse uphill at a pace most would consider reckless in the dark.
But this was no ordinary rider. As lightning lit the silhouette of the man on his horse, Theron caught the glimmer of the scale armour and shrank deeper into the shadows. Polished agimet blazed in the man’s breastplate, lighting the path ahead as he charged past Theron’s hiding place.
A Warden.
He was gone within seconds, making with all haste for Elgoss. A lump lodged in Theron’s throat. He had thought they might send soldiers, or another Sister. He hadn’t expected a godsdamn Warden. He must have been close to have responded so quickly. But even then, with Kaila already secured, what need was there for one of his kind?
I passed a test.
His blood chilled as he recalled the girl’s words. He’d dismissed them as some fancy of her mad indoctrination. But what if she’d been telling the truth? What if she really had managed to fool the Trial of Agimet?
Well, that would certainly justify the attention of a Warden.
Theron watched the light of the storm rippling across the cliffs he’d spent the last couple of hours traversing. Somewhere back there was Elgoss and a young woman who had just discovered her powers. She was alone, and now a killer of Elysian came for her. She didn’t stand a chance.
His fingers tightened around the shard of agimet in his pocket. With it, Theron could do incredible things.
Don’t even think about it!
He swallowed. He only had five minutes left of atar, if he was lucky. And a Warden’s armour protected them from the Gift. Plus, they had magic of their own. Powers only the Wardens themselves understood. He would be utterly outmatched in this fight.
And he would have to give up on the caravan.
She didn’t want anything to do with you.
Theron saw the young woman again. Even lying helpless in that bed, she had been unflinching in his presence. He recalled how she had appeared in the mine, how she’d stolen his crystal, the blaze of atar in her eyes. In that moment, she had reminded him of someone he hadn’t thought of in a long time. Only a memory now, and yet...
…Theron muttered a curse as he returned to the road and began to run. Not in the direction of the wagons and his fortune, but back the way he had come.
Towards Elgoss and a young woman, and a deadly Warden of Fresia.
Become a paid subscriber to access early chapters of this series, plus many of the other series I have written! You can even take a free 7 day trial to see if my books are for you. You can find my other books on my website.