This post is chapter fifty-five of my not-previously-published epic fantasy novel Broken Rule, which I'm serializing here on the Steem blockchain.
The story so far:
Chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54
Lorne rushed to the side of the unconscious wizard. Jonas joined him a moment later, kneeling on the other side of Arturo, trying to wake him. Behind them, Faber entered and was surprised to see them there. Lorne hopped to his feet, his dagger in his hand. “Are you free of her control?”
“I... I think so,” said Faber. “I was coming to get the empress, tell her that a new battalion of soldiers was ready for her to enlighten. But that seems like a strange thing. Why would I want to help her?”
“The spell is broken,” said Lorne. “Everything is back to normal. We've won.”
“Don't be so sure,” said Jonas. “Her active spells may be gone now that she's banished, but she said that what she did to most of the people was like blinding them with too much light. The blindness doesn't depart when the light goes away. Most of the people out there have had their sense of right and wrong permanently altered. All they care about now is supporting this empire.”
“And,” added Faber, “they are all used to me delivering orders on her behalf. They don't need to know that she's gone. I can tell them that she's in seclusion, issue my commands in her name. They probably won't even care enough to check, as long as they've got orders to follow.”
Lorne couldn't believe his ears. Faber was saying this? Faber, who had been so quick to urge him to action against this threat, now wanted to control it? It made sense in a way. Faber was used to his commands being carried out. Used to having his will imposed on others. The Heart of the Black Circle decided what was right or wrong, and the Hand carried out its will. Would this be so different? Faber was a member of the Heart. This would simply mean the addition of several thousand more members of the Hand. Was that so unlike the system he had known in Old Harbor? Was that so wrong?
Lorne pushed the thoughts aside. He wasn't sure if it was different from what they did in Old Harbor, but he knew that what Faber was proposing was wrong. Deep in his gut, he knew. It was wrong to exploit the people that Natasza had altered. How could he stop it? Faber would never listen to his arguments. Lorne was part of the Hand, not the Heart. He was supposed to act, not make judgments. Even if Faber was willing to listen, Lorne was sure that he wouldn't have the right words. He could barely explain it to himself. He looked Faber in the eye, and saw his familiar confidence. Lorne could tell that Faber would not be dissuaded from the path he had chosen. Lorne sighed heavily and plunged his dagger into Faber's gut when he got close.
“No, Faber. What she did to those people is wrong, and I won't let you compound her evil. They need free choice again, not another emperor to issue more commands.”
Faber stood in shocked surprise, blood spreading through his shirt. “I liked you better when you did what you were told,” he said.
“I liked you better when I still believed in you,” said Lorne. He jabbed his dagger into Faber's gut again, hastening his death. There was no need to see the man suffer.
Jonas had been watching the whole thing. “I don't fault you for what you've done, but I'm not sure it's going to be that simple.”
Behind him, Arturo rose to his feet, finally recovering from the ordeal of his confrontation with Natasza. He shook his head a few times, and then looked at Lorne and Jonas with unbridled hatred. “I can't believe I helped you. Disgusting. Don't think that I'm going to let you stand in my way. I'm going to finish what she started.”
Had everyone gone mad?
“At the end,” Jonas said, “she must have been using more than light and sound. Arturo was at the center of it. He must have had his conscience burned away, like the people in the city.”
“Guards!” screamed Arturo. “Assassins are trying to kill the empress!”
A deep instinct took hold of Lorne. He grabbed Jonas by the sleeve and pulled him toward the nearest exit. Guards were coming. They needed to get out.
Lorne took two corners, dragging Jonas behind him, and then pushed the wizard into an alcove and clamped a hand over his mouth. With Faber gone, any pursuers would be thinking conventionally, and that meant that they'd be watching the exits. That meant that Lorne wouldn't use any of them. For the moment he would wait, until the situation changed. Thwarting an opponent's expectations was the surest way to undermine his plans, and Lorne doubted that anyone would expect him to be hiding rather than running.
An hour later, some sort of commotion erupted in the palace. They hadn't been spotted, so Lorne was at a loss for what the problem was until a group of armed men ran past their hiding spot screaming about a giant attacking the city.
“Did he say a giant?” whispered Jonas.
“We were planning to deal with him next anyway,” answered Lorne. “Perhaps he's upset that we're late.”
“Very funny.”
“It sounds like everyone here is going out to meet it. Let's get to the roof and see if we can see what's going on.”
The two of them made their way up, making efforts to be cautious that proved completely unnecessary. The palace had emptied. When Lorne and Jonas got to the roof, they saw where the guards had gone. The giant had made its way to the central market, squeezing its way through the wider avenues of the city. The central market had been converted to an enormous livestock pen, holding animals for the huge kitchens that served the army of the Liatian Empire. The giant seemed content to skip the cooking step and was feasting on the penned animals while simultaneously dealing with attacks from the army. It bit a cow in half while stomping on a squad of men that were trying to bring torches to bear against it.
Hundreds of men lay dead before the giant, with many more wounded. Thousands more rushed from every corner of the city to join the battle. Every able-bodied man and woman in the city considered themselves part of the army of the Liatian Empire, and here was the first major threat to defend against. Obsessed now with their duty to the empire, the people were throwing themselves against the giant in desperate, futile gestures. When the giant had been smaller, as it had been at Thornwood, such a massed attack might have defeated it. Now the giant had grown so large that it was nearly a force of nature. The Liatian Empire could fight it about as well as it could push back a rising tide.
“Do you want to stick to the original plan? Head to the foundry and forge a colossal sword for your Stone Woman?” asked Lorne.
“I suppose that would be for the best.”
“Let's go. The streets should be clear enough by now. The men who work at the foundry are probably all over there fighting.”
“I don't think we need to travel by foot.”
Jonas knelt down and placed his hands against the stone tiles that made up the palace roof. The surface under Lorne's feet grew soft, and he lost his footing and fell down. Disoriented from the fall, it took him a moment to realize that he and Jonas were being lifted into the air. Jonas was creating a new Stone Woman from the palace, and she was lifting the pair of them in her outstretched palm as she grew.