Bullets And Bones

Chapter 2

2

A fog of confusion filled Desa’s mind, receding only reluctantly to be replaced with pain. Her head hurt, and the dizziness that came with that made her nauseous. The voices that were speaking somewhere nearby sounded as if they were coming from the depths of some ancient cave.

The first pleasant sensation she experienced was the feeling of soft, red carpet beneath her. The walls of this room are also red, and its vaulted ceiling was supported by thick, golden pillars. She knew this place. The Prelate’s office.

Desa was lying on her side, dressed only in gray pants and an undershirt that barely let her maintain modesty. Her short, brown hair was a mess, thin strands of it falling over her face. She tried to sit up.

Tried and failed.

“She’s awake,” someone said.

Without thinking, she reached for the Ether and wrapped herself in its warm embrace. The world around her became a tempest of swirling particles. The walls, the chairs, the Prelate’s desk and the people surrounding it: each one a small galaxy of tiny molecules. There were three Elite Guardians in this room. Radavan was one. “She’s trying to Field Bind,” he barked.

“Desa Nin Leean!” the Prelate snapped.

Desa released her hold on the Ether, and the collection of molecules on the other side of the desk became a tall and willowy woman with a leathery face. Her gray hair was pulled back in a bun. Daresina Nin Drialla looked even more cantankerous than Desa remembered.

Standing by the wall with his metal staff in the hand, his yellow robes seeming to hang off his body, Radavan sneered at her. “She’s released it,” he said. “You’re in no danger.”

Desa realized that she could feel the Sinks and Sources that she had Infused earlier. They were somewhere to the south-west, several miles at least, and if her memory of the city’s layout was still accurate, it was a good bet that every single one of those weapons was sitting in a vault in the police station. Desa ordered them all to release their power at a glacial pace. At this rate, it would take the better part of two weeks for them to revert to ordinary objects, but if she couldn’t have them back, it was best to defuse them. An Infused weapon was like a drawn bowstring: tense and ready to release its power at the slightest provocation. Her sudden death might trigger any one of those devices.

“Desa Nin Leean!”

Covering her face with one hand, Desa rubbed her eyelids with the tips of her fingers. “I heard you the first time.” She looked up, blinking. “Frankly, I’m surprised you didn’t put me back in that cell.”

Daresina sat behind her desk with arms folded. Her mouth was twisted like she had forgotten to add sugar to her lemonade. “Would it do any good?” the Prelate countered. “You would only make another escape attempt.”

Radavan’s wolfish grin made Desa shiver. “Leave her with us,” he suggested. “The Elite Guard knows how to deal with one such as her.”

“Is that really necessary?”

Desa froze.

She had not realized that Marcus was present, but his voice was unmistakable. One glance around the room, and she found him standing by the door with the wide brim of his hat pulled low over his eyes. He still wore the dungarees and brown jacket that he had donned during their journey.

The others were here as well.

Kalia was on her knees, staring into her lap with lips pursed. There was an ugly, purple bruise on her cheek. For some reason, that made Desa very angry.

Tommy was in the corner, doing his best not to look at anyone, and Miri was next to him. Unlike everyone else, she seemed to be uninterested in what the Prelate had to say. She just kept close to Tommy and whispered comforting things in his ear.

“It’s clear,” Daresina began, “that you cannot be trusted as you were tasked with bringing Desa home, and you betrayed that charge.”

Contact with the Ether accelerated the body’s natural healing process. Desa would need an hour at least in its embrace to recover completely from her injuries, but those brief few seconds had given her enough lucidity to carry on this conversation.

Drawing breath through her open mouth, Desa shut her eyes and tried to keep her voice steady. “He had some good reasons for doing so,” she said. “There is something dangerous out there.”

The Prelate sniffed.

Hunching over her desk, she rested her elbows on its surface and balanced her chin atop laced fingers. “Oh yes,” she mocked. “This mysterious force you keep speaking of. This creature from beyond the confines of our universe…”

Her tone betrayed more than skepticism.

“All of it is true,” Desa said. “And everyone here will tell you the same.”

“You will forgive me,” Daresina replied, “if I don’t find your new friends to be the most credible witnesses.”

Tommy perked up at that, pulling away from Miri and striding across the room, planting himself right in front of the desk. His blue eyes were as hard as diamonds. “Seems to me that simple logic would mark our words true,” he said. “How do you think we arrived in Aladar?”

“By ship or by train.”

“And yet we just happened to show up in your temple? No one saw us come into town? No one made us go through customs? Is your bureaucracy really that incompetent? Or is there more going on here than meets the eye?”

Desa blinked.

When had Tommy developed such a backbone?

Daresina was focused on him now, shaking her head slowly as she considered his questions. “I am sure there are perfectly rational explanations,” she said. “Explanations that are far more plausible than claims of some mysterious force transporting you across the face of the continent.”

Desa seated herself in a cushioned chair, crossing one leg over the other and facing the Prelate with as much serenity as she could manage while she was trapped in the grip of dizziness. “A month ago, I told you that we need Field Binders,” she said. “Since then, the situation has become more dire.”

She leaned forward, squinting at the other woman. “Our people are not the first ones to discover Field Binding,” she said. “There is an abandoned city in the desert, about a day’s ride south of Dry Gulch. They have technologies there that surpass anything we have ever created.”

“Are you saying we should send an expedition?”

“I’m saying that Bendarian tried to use those technologies to rip a hole in the Ether. He tried, but I stopped him. Unfortunately, a companion of ours – Adele Delarac from Ofalla – managed to succeed where Bendarian failed. She created a rip in the Ether, and something came through it. It claimed Adele as a host.”

“A truly fascinating story.”

“This is not a game!” Desa hissed. “This is not a tale I’ve invented to impress travelers around a fire.”

Marcus strode forward, set his jaw and stared down the Prelate. “I have seen this thing with my own eyes,” he said. “Its power is unimaginable.”

“It seems to warp the very laws of reality.”

Planting elbows on the arms of her chair, Daresina regarded them over steepled fingers. “Say I believe you,” she began. “What would you have me do?”

“Send Field Binders with me. They have the best chance of stopping this thing.”

“So, you’re planning to leave again?”

Desa stood up and immediately regretted it. A wave of dizziness nearly took her feet out from under her. “I don’t see that I have much choice,” she replied. “This thing has to die.”

Daresina’s eyebrows tried to climb up her forehead. “Impressive,” she said. “Ten short years among the mainlanders have taught you to solve every problem with violence.”

“Well, perhaps we could make peace with it,” Miri suggested. “Hello, Mr. Cosmic Entity. Would you mind terribly if we ask you to stop rewriting the laws of our universe? Thank you ever so kindly.”

Radavan had one hand braced against the wall, and his patronizing grin made Desa want to punch him. His soft laughter was even worse. “Forgive my intrusion,” he cut in. “But if this thing is so powerful, how do you plan to kill it?”

“It is currently in possession of Adele’s body,” Desa explained. “Every time we attacked her, the entity defended itself, unwilling to risk harm to that body. Which leads me to believe that it needs a vessel and that the body it chooses is still vulnerable to physical harm.”

“So,” Daresina replied, “you will kill an innocent woman to defeat this creature.”

Clenching her teeth, Desa hissed air through them. She shook her head slowly. “Adele is anything but innocent,” she growled. “She welcomed this thing into her body. She made her choice, and now she can pay for it.”

Betrayal did not sit well with Desa Kincaid. The frenzy of the last few days had prevented her from indulging in some much-needed introspection, but she realized that her blood boiled every time Adele entered her thoughts. She would put a bullet in that treasonous woman: that much was certain.

Perhaps…Perhaps…Desa didn’t want to admit it, but it stood to reason that some of her anger had come out of the fact that a small part of her had started to believe all that talk about soulmates. Fool’s talk, all of it. She should have known better than to let herself get carried away by flights of fancy. Like a girl half her age.

Daresina was silently watching all of them. Desa could see that she wasn’t sure what to make of any of this, but while the Prelate might be set in her ways, she wasn’t completely closed-minded. “You’re free to go,” she said at last. “Though I would ask that you remain within the city for a period of at least one week so that we may speak more on what you have shared today.”

Tommy stood in front of the desk with his eyes downcast. His face was pale, but he licked his lips and spoke words that Desa would have never expected. “Madam,” he began. “I would like permission to visit your libraries.”

“For what purpose?”

“To learn more about your history.”

Daresina shut her eyes, nodding slowly as she considered his request. “I see no harm in that,” she said. “Perhaps, young man, you will speak with me as well. So that I may learn more about the world beyond my borders.”

Setting his hat atop his head, Tommy pulled the brim down to shield his eyes. “That went about as well as could be expected,” he said. “Half thought she might order us executed, myself.”

Miri joined him on the top step of the Hall of the Synod, standing tall with her hands clasped behind her back. She wore a smile that made him want to kiss her. “Oh, old Daresina’s not as bad as all that.”

They stood between two pillars that supported an overhanging roof. At least a dozen stone steps led down to an open area where a round fountain sprayed water into the air, and beyond that, a paved road like nothing Tommy had ever seen was filled with those strange horseless carriages.

There were buildings on the other side of the street, tall buildings made of white brick. At least three or four stories high each. When Desa had told him about the wonders of Aladar, he had pictured many things, but this exceeded even his wildest expectations.

He began his quick trek down the stairs, his brown duster flapping against the backs of his legs. “Guess you have to take me to the library,” he said, glancing back over his shoulder. “Got a lot to learn.”

Miri was right behind him, shaking her head with a rueful smile. “See, that’s what I love about you, Lommy,” she said. “Always eager to fill your mind with new facts and ideas and philosophies.”

She was mimicking his style of speaking, the rougher dialect you heard in the outer villages near Sorla. Tommy wondered if she was doing it on purpose – Miri prided herself on her ability to blend in – or if it was just another sign of affection.

Desa and Marcus were still at the top of the stairs, standing between two of those fat, round pillars and facing each other with grim expressions. What exactly were they talking about? Something to do with the entity that Adele Delarac had unleashed, no doubt. He felt a mix of emotions at the sight of his mentor. Just one day ago, they had been in Dry Gulch. Miri had been trying to make him sort out his difficulties with Desa. He still wasn’t sure how he felt about her killing Sebastian. But it was amazing what twenty-four hours could do to change one’s outlook.

The fact was Sebastian had been a dangerous man. Treacherous and deceitful. There was just no denying that. And it seemed they had much bigger problems on their hands.

Scratching his forehead with the knuckle of his index finger, Tommy grunted. “Knew we shouldn’t have taken that priss along with us,” he said. “Rich girl like that is nothing but trouble.”

“She said she could help us find Bendarian.”

“Yeah, but only so she could take the power he wanted for herself.”

Miri nodded curtly, and Tommy smiled. Whatever he felt for her was no less complex than anything else he had been feeling over the last few weeks. But he could say one thing for Miri Nin Valia: she had a talent for seeing through to the heart of an issue.

Tommy went down on one knee in front of the fountain, dipped his hands into the water and splashed it over his face. “Don’t suppose they’ll give us rooms,” he muttered. “Someplace we could freshen up. I haven’t had a decent bath since Thrasa.”

He looked up to find people sitting on benches on either side of him. There was a dark-skinned woman in a purple dress and a pale fellow who wore black suspenders over his white shirt. There were children as well: a young boy and girl, both with sandy hair and wide eyes. And they were all watching him.

Tommy felt heat in his face that had nothing to do with the sun’s glare. “I just named myself a country bumpkin, didn’t I?”

Miri came up behind him, resting her hand on his shoulder. Then, to his surprise, she fell to her knees and washed her face with the bubbling water as well. “Don’t pay them any mind, Lommy,” she said. “You’re more civilized than half the men in this city.”

Leaning against the pillar with her arms folded, Desa frowned at Marcus. “And that’s it?” she said, her eyebrows rising. “We just stay here and enjoy the comforts of home while Adele does Mercy alone knows what?”

Marcus had his back pressed to the next pillar over, and his eyes were focused on the ground under his boots. “We have no idea where she is,” he insisted. “She seems to be able to travel hundreds of miles in the blink of an eye.”

“Your point?”

When Marcus looked up at her, his face was as hard as granite. “At least here,” he began, “we have the assembled knowledge of our people. For once, Tommy seems to have done something useful. He had the right idea about the libraries.”

Desa paced through the space between the pillars, stopping next to Marcus. Her head drooped with the weight of her fatigue. “I know almost everything our people have ever discovered about Field Binding,” she hissed. “Believe me when I tell you that there is nothing in those books that we can use against Adele.”

“Not Adele.”

Desa opened her mouth to protest but quickly snapped it shut again. Annoying as he was, Marcus was right. Whatever had taken residence in Adele’s body was not Adele herself. Though remnants of her seemed to remain. Perhaps that was a weakness they could exploit.

“You should visit your mother,” Marcus grunted.

A stab of pain – like a blade slammed right through her heart – made Desa tense up and shiver. Her mother. Ten years had passed since she had fled the city in pursuit of Bendarian. She hadn’t left a note or any explanation. Would Leean even want to see her after all that?

“There’s one way to find out,” Marcus said as if reading her thoughts.

Trembling as a chill ran down her spine, Desa scrunched up her face. “You’re right,” she muttered. “The odds of my mother forgiving me after all this time are…not good. But a small chance becomes no chance if I leave again without even visiting her.”

“Do you want me to go with you?”

“No,” Desa grumbled. “There are some things we have to do on our own.”