Twenty-Seven

Terce, Sixteenth Day Before the Kalends of June

Hazel Drina’s Private Chambers, Unnamed Quarry, Eastpoint, Bahim, Drum

Logan stood with his right arm outstretched, palm facing outwards. Hazel stood before him. Her blade was drawn and pointed at Logan.

“First, I will attack without any Connexion,” said Hazel.

Then, slowly she pushed her blade forward. When the blade was close to Logan’s palm she felt some resistance.

“Good,” said Hazel. “Continue to repel the blade.”

The blade creeped closer towards Logan’s palm.

“Stop it!” said Hazel.

The blade nicked Logan’s palm and drew blood. Hazel lowered the blade and sighed.

“I do not understand,” said Hazel. “You can produce such impressive attacks with your Stone Connexion, create arcs of lightning that holds the destructiveness of a dozen challis, but you cannot use Barrier Connexion?”

“I have never been able to produce Barrier Connexion,” said Logan. “Even during my trainings as a child.”

“Is it not instinct to protect yourself?” said Hazel. “I learned Barrier Connexion on the battlefield. When you have been disarmed and an axe is coming down onto your throat , you thrust out your hand and repel it, to protect your life. Have you not experienced anything like that?”

“No,” said Logan.

Hazel shook her head slowly.

“Why do you want to learn Barrier Connexion now,” she said.

Logan was silent for a long time and Hazel was about to continue on when Logan said, abruptly, “have you ever saved a life.”

Hazel hesitated, then said, “yes, I have saved the lives of some of my men.”

“What will you do with the Anselm boy,” said Logan.

“I do not understand what you —”

“What will you do,” said Logan, gazing at Hazel steadily. “Will you make him fight.”

“If he wishes to fight.”

“How old is he.”

“I do not know,” admitted Hazel.

“Has he seen battle.”

“Not yet,” said Hazel. “Why do you —”

“He wishes to fight,” said Logan. “You know that.”

Hazel shrugged, then felt a deep ache in her stomach when she saw the look Logan gave him.

“I did not know you were so worried about the boy,” said Hazel. “Is this why you wish to learn Barrier Connexion? To protect the boy?”

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“Yes,” said Logan.

Hazel grit her teeth. “Then use that. Use that fear, indignation, whatever you are feeling.” She then swung her sword and Logan parried it with Barrier Connexion. Her eyes widened. She swung more times. Logan parried them, more fluently now. She then used Force Connexion to break into Logan’s Barrier Connexion. At first Logan resisted, but his Barrier Connexion broke and Hazel’s blade sliced open Logan’s forearm. Bright red blood dripped down the wound. Hazel took a step back, suddenly remembering the battle at Larkins, the fallen man, the sacrifice of the seventeen-year-old girl, Mary.

Shaking her head, she said, “so you wish to fight now, to save the boy. I pled for you to stay. But you fled. To Cyrill Forest! After everything, you would not fight for me. But for this Anselm boy you wish to fight.”

“I do not fight to save the Anselm boy,” said Logan. “I fight to save myself. For what I did at Greghorn Castle.”

“It is war,” said Hazel. “Such childish sentiments —”

But suddenly Hazel found that she could not finish her sentence. What was she feeling now, if not childish sentiments? She felt that the focus, the courage, the unshakeable resolve that she had during the Aegis days had fallen from her grasp and were nowhere to be found. She felt her knees buckle. She stepped forward and collapsed onto Logan.

“This burden,” she said, burying her face into Logan’s chest. “Is too heavy.”

It was now that Kate Rinehart stepped into Hazel Drina’s private chambers, covered in blood, every joint in her body shaking. She looked at Logan, then at Hazel, and the look she gave Hazel was one of pure disgust.

“Ah,” said Kate.

“Kate —” said Hazel, stepping away from Logan hastily.

“I killed Marrow,” said Kate.

Logan and Hazel stared at Kate as she opened her mouth again, as if to say something else, but then collapsed to the floor without warning. Hazel stepped forward towards her, but stopped when she saw what rolled out of Kate’s palm. It was the Stone of Water. It rolled lazily and stopped at Hazel’s feet.

Sext, Sixteenth Day Before the Kalends of June

Larkins

Larkins fell within the hour of the arrival of Hazel Drina, Logan Floyd, and a small group of revolutionaries. Though Jeremy Wynn attempted to hold down a defence, Mercy’s betrayal immediately broke down the formations. When Mercy kneeled before Hazel Drina to present to her Jeremy Wynn’s head, Drina beheaded Mercy without a moment’s hesitation.

Hazel gave the soldiers the opportunity to join the revolutionaries, if they wished. She allowed the others to flee.

“They will help break morale in the whole of Drum,” she said.

Vesper, Sixteenth Day Before the Kalends of June

Larkins

The night was ripe with revelry. It had been the first victory for the revolutionaries in a long while. Hazel swiftly made her way through the crowd, gracefully accepting pats on the back, dodging questions, and smiling this way and that. She found Logan behind the inn, drinking mead.

“You are not joining the others?” said Hazel.

“Hello Hazel,” said Logan.

“Hello,” said Hazel.

“What will be next,” said Logan.

“Onto Gulldon,” said Hazel. “Rinehart will be able to defend Eastpoint.”

“And who will you send to Gulldon.”

“I will send Garth,” said Hazel. “And along with him the Anselm boy.”

Logan nodded slowly. Only half his face was illuminated by the dim glow of lights from inside the inn.

“I will remain to defend Larkins,” said Hazel.

Logan made a sound that was halfway between a laugh and a cough.

“If you wish to say something,” said Hazel. “Speak.”

“What did you tell Garth,” said Logan. “If the boy dies, secure the Stone?”

And now it was Hazel who did not reply.

“You are doing well for yourself,” said Logan. “Five Stones against one now, is it not?”

“Yes,” said Hazel. “I am doing well. But not for myself. For all.”

“And by all, who do you mean.”

“All who look to me to free them,” said Hazel, stepping closer to Logan. “Including you.”

Logan looked away from her.

“You belong to me, do you not?” she said.

ogan remembered their first and only night together, two years ago. After he had climaxed, she had whispered into his ears, “you belong to me.” Logan, despite himself, had nodded.

“I belong to nobody,” said Logan.

But now Hazel was leaning in too close. She placed a hand on his chest and her mouth was by his ear. “No,” she whispered. “You belong to me.”

Logan pushed her away.

“Before I came here,” said Logan. “I received a prophecy, from a braxin woman who used Connexion.”

“And what did she say,” Hazel said, noticing with anger that her voice was quivering.

“She said that you will die,” said Logan. He placed the jug of mead on the windowsill of the inn, then walked away.

Hazel grit her teeth. She looked down at her reflection swimming in the mead. She grabbed the jug with both hands and swallowed down the mead in greedy gulps.