Chapter 36
The roar of the crowd crashed over Aemere as her opponent submitted. She was through to the finals. The Vorin arena was built into a natural bowl in the landscape, a short way inland from the port cliffs. To exit she had to climb the ramp near the spectators. Closer to her audience than she'd had to get before. It was disconcerting.
Augni waited, smiling tightly. She didn't suppress her smile.
'Volthus,' he said.
'Yes.' She hesitated. 'Will you be coming?'
'One way or another,' he said.
She glanced questioningly at him. 'Thjorn's going to Volthus?'
'Yes.'
'And you're not certain if you'll be with him or me?' Earlier he'd seemed so resistant to having anything to do with Thjorn again. She'd seen the emotions warring on his face, but there'd also been a determination when she'd asked, even if his response had been non-committal.
'I'll always be with you,' he said without hesitation.
She met his gaze as they left the arena. She still wasn't certain where this was going, or whether she wanted to consider that right now. It was over a week until the finals, but she had to prepare.
'Where is he?' she asked.
'Laying the groundwork for a meeting. He was vague, saying it's to do with after the current problem is dealt with.'
'I thought the current problem was the reason for his crusade?'
Augni offered an uncomfortable shrug. 'He has longer range plans. He always has longer range plans. Given how surprising it is he's revealed as much as he has, I figure vagueness about the later stuff is to be expected. One step at a time.'
They continued in silence for a while, before she voiced the unavoidable question. 'So, the current problem... do you believe him?'
'I don't disbelieve him. He seems convinced, and I trust him on this kind of thing.'
'It seems a bit unbelievable.'
'But not impossible.'
'I suppose not. You think he can do anything about it if it is true?'
He was quiet a while. 'We accomplished things,' he said at last. 'A lot was vague, but we did stuff. We incited tensions between members of the Society and Alliance, both between and within the organizations. We damaged their relations with countries. We sabotaged important glyphs, embarrassing them. Individually they may have been inconsequential, as though we were barely a nuisance. With what we now know I think I can see a plan under the surface. I don’t entirely understand it, but I think I believe it's there.'
'And is it enough to convince you he's doing the right thing?'
Augni met her gaze, his eyes haunted. He said nothing. The silence vanished under the tumult meeting them as they approached the cliff overlooking the port.
The gradient of the cliff allowed for construction down the slope, a main road of steps zigzagging down for close to half a mile back and forth. Buildings backed into the rock, with only a few metres emerging. The occasional set of steep steps cut through rows in narrow alleyways, most of them hard to see at the moment.
The steps were filled by a procession being escorted in batches by Society guards. There must have been at least a couple of hundred people.
'What is it?' asked Aemere.
'They're moving the people,' said Augni. Tension was evident around his eyes as he held his temper in check.
'Where?'
'Somewhere there are jobs for them. Whether they want to go or not.'
She had trouble understanding. 'Can they do that?'
'They are. Who's going to stop them?'
The huddled, fearful groups drew her attention. They were being kept in batches to maintain control. They probably kept the total numbers low for the same reason, but she didn't imagine this would be the end of it.
Glancing at Augni, she studied the taut muscles of his face. He seemed on the verge of charging down to intervene. Putting a hand on his arm, she drew his attention, and felt his tension ease.
'You're going with him,' she said.
'I started to wonder whether I'd lost my sense of right and wrong, whether I'd lost myself. Then they did this. This is wrong. They're wrong. I'm starting to think Thjorn may not have gone far enough. That's my anger talking, I know that. It'd lead me to do something stupid, and pointless. Thjorn wouldn't. He always thinks with his head. That's why I have to go with him. I can't stand by while this kind of thing is happening. I need him to show me how to fight them properly.'
'I understand,' she said. Part of her wanted to join them. The war could wait a short while, though. She had her own battle to win.
And after? She'd only given brief consideration to what she'd do after the Tournament, and seeing this she felt Thjorn's crusade may be worthwhile.
They cut through an alleyway, and waited for a gap between the groups of deportees before crossing to the next. The sight distressed her, impotent to do anything about it.
The tension in Augni's hand said he felt the same, and it was only then she realised he'd taken her hand. Or had she taken his? Either way, it felt natural, and reassuring. And brief. She'd have liked him to be there with her.
Maybe after all of this was done. She realised that now when she considered the future, he was there with her. When had that happened?
They'd almost reached the bottom – they were lodging in a waterfront place – when the disturbance began. Raised voices drifted up the alleys, an almost palpable tension spreading through the streets. The atrocity didn't appear to be going as smoothly as the Society hoped. That was hardly surprising.
Peeking out of the alley they saw the problem a short way down the hill, where the guards tried escorting the first lot along the docks. Locals had formed up to oppose it, and some in the front row of deportees had raised voices.
It hadn't gone beyond words yet, but the guards were understandably wary, and a few people were growing aggressive.
More Society guards filed out of a nearby building, cautious since they were still outnumbered. Those guarding the other groups watched proceedings with anxiety, between surveying their own charges for trouble.
They'd assigned enough troops to keep each group in line, just about, but it was primarily the old and young being moved. With others joining in, the guards could easily be overwhelmed. There could be other guards nearby in case of emergencies, although from the way things seemed to be degenerating she wasn't sure they'd arrive in time. Fingers were pointed, voices raised.
The smart thing for the guards to do would be to call it off and redo it another time. Whether their orders and officers would allow it was another matter.
'I have to go help,' said Augni.
She was about to say she'd join him when the practicalities gave her pause. If she ran into trouble she could miss the finals. That shouldn't matter, but it had been her goal for so long.
'You should stay out of it,' said Augni.
'Being a wanted fugitive, so should you.'
'I'll be among the crowd, one of many. Here.' He unbuckled his sheathed sword and handed it to her. 'They'd pay more attention if I'm armed, and be more likely to retaliate.'
She took it, reluctantly. It was with the same reluctance she accepted that she should stay out of the way.
Squeezing her hand, Augni moved towards the crowd. All she could do was watch.
A few sharp exchanges erupted, and some protestors launched punches at guards, but their own people pulled them away – Augni among them – maintaining the relative peace a while longer.
Guards continued to filter in, if not in the numbers necessary to force their way through to the docks. Should their numbers continue to grow – even with the swelling crowd – a physical confrontation seemed inevitable. Especially as further outbursts flared.
What happened next went by too fast for her to act, even had there been anything she could have done. Spotting another group of Society troops approaching, she was taken off guard seeing Einari at their head. What was he doing here? Hunting Augni and Thjorn?
As sh
e considered how to warn Augni, another round of aggression erupted. This time the guards saw it as more than that and retaliated. They only used batons, but the sight was enough to escalate things, and the riot erupted.
Einari led the guards into the fight, and she saw swords flash as they hit the mob. The sounds of the dying overwhelmed the angry shouts, as obvious as a flag being raised. A peaceful ending was no longer an option.
Their focus on defence, the guards no longer pinned the unwanted in, and the majority – women, children, and the old – fled screaming up the steps. The guards on the next group faltered, before their officer cried for them to support the troops under attack. Their prisoners joined the flight, which gained momentum as they hit the later groups.
Coming under attack, and with the prisoners having taken the opportunity to flee, the crowd lost their belligerence and started to break away at the rear. Aemere felt the possibility of relief rising as she saw Augni flee with them, but it didn’t dislodge her concerns. Had he seen Einari? More importantly, had Einari seen him?
The protestors started fleeing up the steps, the mob in full retreat. It didn't stop Einari leading a few guards in cutting down every man he could catch. One he caught across the legs, and the throat as he stumbled back; the next he ran through, spinning to pull his blade free and continue pursuit; the next stumbled in his flight, not even getting the chance to scramble away before Einari's blade dived at him, only knocked aside by a baton at the last moment.
Augni dropped the weapon before Einari could retaliate, his hands up. 'We surrender,' he shouted, above the chaos. 'We surrender.'
It seemed to sap the momentum of the guards still running people down. They looked to Einari for direction. He stared at Augni, recognition evident. They stayed like that for a moment.
Einari gave an abrupt slash of his blade, and red spurted from Augni's throat as his hands quickly grasped for it.
A hammer slammed Aemere's thoughts. She had to go to him, help him, before it was too late.
Grabbed from behind, she was pulled into the alleyway, back against the wall, struggling against Thjorn as he held her. She pushed him away and he grabbed her again, holding her eyes with his gaze, pitilessly forcing the impossibility of her hopes into her head.
She stopped struggling, and he released her. Glancing around the corner again she saw Augni on the ground, his life trickling down the steps. He didn't move. He wouldn't.
Turning, she saw Thjorn retreat up the steps. Leaving her alone.