Chapter Twenty-Three

‘The Nine Wardens asked for no churches. They asked for no services on any day. Still, the people gathered to plead their cases. They asked for forgiveness, understanding, and prayed for miracles. It is unknown if the Nine Wardens took heed.’ 

“Another speech.” Caid flipped the two-day-old paper over to the back, seeing only a blank space. Turning it back over, he stared into the eyes of the Seer of Cros. Pryce was a tycoon of the mining fields, a purveyor of coal and oil, and a high patron of almost every bank in the more respected districts. But none of that mattered to Caid; Pryce was nothing more than the one man Caid needed to have a conversation with. Below the picture, Caid again read the paragraph he had read several times already.  

It is time. Not time for speeches or words. Banter will do us no good here in these times. As you have heard, my home was attacked two nights ago, and I will no longer sit and wait to be taken. I will not fall victim to the men who took Seer Creft and Overseer Krossis. I will not sit by idly and await my fate. So, if you will join me, come to Cros at noon in two days hence. Together, we will finish what has been started.  

Caid folded up the paper, putting it back into his pocket. He turned to Alis, who sat beside him on the rooftop overlooking most of Cros’ main pavilion.  

“He wants to ignite the oil he has spread. His home wasn’t attacked by anyone. He attacked his own home. Whatever that explosion was, it came from inside and not outside.”  

Caid almost pulled out the paper again. His nerves were making it very difficult to sit still. His mind raced and his heart felt like he had run twenty miles, yet he had not physically moved from the rooftop in over six hours. Caid stopped himself from the nervous reaction of reading the paper again; he knew the words were the same, Pryce was still lying, and he was still seething about it.  

“Whatever he is doing down in those mines and in his home has pissed off Rawn and the rest of the Wardens. Rawn has been in his rooms storming, cursing, and breaking anything that’s near enough for him to reach,” Creaton said, stepping up behind Caid and Alis.  

Caid again thought of the vial hanging around his neck. The Wardens called it a daliwin and used it for many things throughout their lives, but mostly it was who they became. The daliwin became something to depend on for everything once the final trial was commenced. Rawn, Maddog, and whoever else was involved in this plot had taken former Head Warden Galmont’s daliwin before he was burned and sent to the Nine Wardens of the afterlife. Caid couldn’t fathom what Rawn could accomplish with the daliwin, but he was even more perplexed over what Seer Pryce was trying to accomplish with it.  

“Rawn, Maddog, Pryce¾I don’t really care which one shows up here today, I will take one of them and get the answers.” Caid stopped his hand from reaching into his pocket again, but the image of Pryce’s cold eyes still flashed before him.  

Creaton tried placing his hand on Caid’s shoulder to soothe him, but Caid shrugged it off. He’d had a weak moment with Creaton, but there was no time for that anymore. Now it was time to focus on the big task and stop losing himself in the minor details of it all. He had been too focused on his own feelings, and now the city was falling around them. Today would be the start of a war that Caid would have no chance of winning alone.  

Caid looked over to Alis, deciding it was time to get the slaves ready to be led.  

“Alis,” he said, pulling her from whatever daydream she had been transfixed in, “I will fill you in on Pryce’s speech. I need you to gather whoever in the slave districts speaks for the others. We will have our own speech tonight.”  

Alis took a moment to register what Caid said, then nodded, and moved to the edge of the rooftop. Caid watched her hop down and out of sight and felt a flood of emotion rise in him again.  

“She is a brave girl,” Creaton said when Alis was out of earshot.  

Caid nodded in agreement.  

“Do you have any friends left in the Envoy? Friends you can trust to be loyal?”  

Creaton was silent for a few moments before responding, “I can imagine a few men would still be loyal to me.”  

“Even a few is great if it is the best we can do.”  

Creaton stood behind him silently but didn’t make a move to leave the rooftop.  

“If you start now, it gives us a leg up,” Caid prompted.  

He could feel the heat of Creaton’s eyes on the back of his head but didn’t look back.  

“I will miss the speech,” Creaton said.  

“Then, like Alis, I will inform you of the important parts. You can do nothing here, but you can help by gathering those who will still listen.”  

Creaton gave a half-sigh, half-laugh, then, Caid heard his boots heading toward the edge of the roof. Once Caid was certain he was gone, he turned to look at the empty rooftop. It was just him and the lone smokestack on what Caid assumed to be an oil-producing storage building.  

Caid needed the time to himself. Alis and Creaton were distracting him from what needed to be done, but he was telling the truth when he told them they could help more by gathering men and women together. Without them, he could move through the crowd, trying to find what he looked for.  

Caid pulled up his hood. The old scorched black bell tower of Cros struck the noon hour and Caid jumped down onto the pavilion cobbles.  

The people in the square awaiting Pryce’s speech were riled and angry. Several of them were beyond belligerent as well as inebriated. Others spoke of driving swords through anyone who stood in their way. Caid could hardly decipher whose side they were on or if they even knew what it was, they were fighting for. He doubted they knew or cared what was going on. Someone would convince them it was a noble cause to kill their neighbors. Half of the people here, Caid could almost guarantee, had not worked a day inside the mines they were supposedly fighting to save.  

They were a cover or a ploy for something else that Caid was still trying to figure out. Moving around through the crowd gave him no information. It seemed like most groups were disgruntled older folks who had dragged their younger family members along with them. Most of them seemed to truly believe the words of Seer Pryce. None of them questioned Pryce’s explanation of the explosion nor even considered the logic of it all.  

They failed even to put it together that Creft and Pryce had nothing in common beyond their titles. They were at odds in every single way and right before his disappearance, the overseer had come out in support of Creft’s cause.  

Caid pulled his hood tighter around his face. He doubted the Wardens would mingle with the crowd, but he had already taken far too many chances and lost. Few people seemed to give him a second glance as he walked amongst their groups, as they waited for Pryce’s noon speech. Caid was sure Pryce would keep them waiting for a little while as a way of stirring up an already angry mob of thousands.  

Caid cut around a particularly loud group of drunks, who berated the concept of efficient lighting from the sun. They screamed about wasting the sun’s rays that could be better used for growing crops or growing gardens. Caid realized they clearly had no concept of solar power, but he understood their ignorance. Before meeting Alis, he had been blind to the facts as well. She had filled him in on the finer points of Creft’s brainchild, and the concept was so easy to grasp. But he knew why the city overtly refused to open its arms to the development of such an advancement¾it was because of the man who was about to take the stage and those who profited from coal along with him that stopped it all.   

“Ladies and gentlemen.” A microphone crackled, and Caid continued moving forward toward the stage.  

 “Focus your attention now on the main stage. Seer Pryce will be joining us soon, but first, let us say together the Creed of Maralay,” said the voice.  

Thousands of voices chimed in to recite the oath given to the city, 

“We as a people give credence to the law of Maralay. With our faith in the Nine Wardens to protect us after our lives are done, we give the same faith to the seers to see that our will is done. Swords and hearts are pledged to the defense of the city and lives will be given to see it stays free. We give our allegiance to the name and bear the burden for all times to come.” 

Caid moved through the almost trance-like crowd much easier as they recited their pledge to a city that wasn’t willing to give them a thing. As he moved closer to the stage, he noticed the attire of people became far nicer and the ribbons in the ladies’ hair changed from the yellow of the common citizen to the blue of nobility and money. Down in the very front, Caid could see the red ribbon for the most powerful women in the city, some almost as powerful as the seers themselves.  

Caid would have to stop before he made it that far into the crowd to avoid commotion. Instead, he swung to his left and looked for a higher vantage point. It was always the same no matter where he was¾no one seemed to notice what was above them.  

Caid moved to the small string of buildings alongside the stage, but, to his surprise, he saw several wardens already there. No one else seemed to notice them. He’d heard no whispers of the hooded men staring down at the stage.  

Caid, however, noticed them very clearly, but they had yet to notice him. The small string of rooftops was now out of the question for him, unless he wanted to fight an entire posse of wardens. Instead, he stayed where he was, keeping an eye on the envoy near the stage and the wardens on the rooftops. Did one know about the other? He wondered if this was part of Seer Pryce’s ploy. What did the Wardens have to do with the speech he was about to give today?  

“They tried to take me. Those who would see our city fall to ashes and smoke tried to take me.” Seer Pryce had taken the stage and the low, buzzing whispers had ceased. Caid hadn’t noticed the seer walking onto the stage, as he had been too busy watching the rooftops for a sign of movement.  

Now he turned half of his attention toward Seer Pryce. The man dressed completely in white with a black top hat upon his head. In Cros, to be this pristine almost defied logic, yet there he was, almost glowing.  

“To their disappointment, I was more than ready to defy them. I thwarted their attempt to dispose of me, and now it is up to all of us to dispose of them once and for all!”  

The crowd cheered, but Caid noticed Pryce had left out any information about who, why, or how; more evidence people didn’t care what they fought for.  

“We are the volcano that erupts; we are the ones who leave ashes in our wake. It is our force together that will keep the city walls standing. It is our backs that will carry the load and our arms that will swing the swords of protection. We will not live in constant fear of those who would do us harm.” Pryce paced the stage.  

Around him, even the nobles were nodding their heads, their fancy hats bobbing. Caid again wondered who they would be protecting the city against. The only enemy he could recognize was the man inciting the crowd to violence.  

“I want all of us today¾” Pryce was suddenly cut off.  

Caid saw them moving on the rooftops before the commotion had started. Only now, there were more than only the handful of wardens he had spotted on the smaller buildings. They rappelled from the top of the city hall building. The envoy around the stage lifted their one-shots, pointing them at the advancing group of hooded men. Caid had his answer¾the envoy hadn’t been expecting any company.  

Those who repelled from the rooftops landed on the back of the stage and were surrounded by the Envoy, but wardens were not intimidated by envoys. They showed no sign of running away or cowering.  

Caid turned back to the wardens on the rooftop who had now dispersed into the crowd. The envoy at the front of the stage lifted, steadied, and pointed their muzzles into the crowd, not knowing where the men had disappeared to. Caid suddenly realized he, too, was wearing a hood and felt the heat of the crowd’s eyes upon him. He wanted to remove his hood, but then the wardens would see who he was. At the same time, keeping the hood meant everyone else would think he was trying to interfere with the seer’s speech.  

Caid looked for a way out of his predicament, but a familiar voice interrupted his thoughts. He looked back over his shoulder toward the sound of the voice. For a moment he forgot to be worried about the hood, or the other wardens in the crowd.  

Elevated above the stage, about fifty feet above Seer Pryce, was Rawn, the head of the Wardens. Accompanied by his seemingly ever present sidekick, Maddog, their heads were covered in the traditional hoods. But Caid knew who they were without having to see their faces, and by the look on Pryce’s face, he knew them too. 

Rawn spoke again, and Caid listened closely to hear the words over the roar of the crowd.  

“I hate to ruin your parade here, Pryce, but I believe you may have something of mine.”  

Pryce replaced his look of surprise with a smile. Even surrounded by the wardens, Pryce seemed at ease. Caid wondered if he really put that much trust into his envoy, or if Pryce was just that crazy.  

“If you would kindly give it back to us, then we can forgive the transgression and move on with our lives. However, if you fail to do so, then I have instructed my friends to take it from your cold, dead body.”  

Caid knew Rawn discussed Galmont’s daliwin, but since no one else in the crowd was privy to that information, this conversation must have seemed very confusing to them.  

Pryce shrugged as he turned back toward the crowd, acting as if he was not surrounded by men who wanted to kill him.  

“This is not their day, my friends,” he yelled over the ruckus. “We are the ones who will be victorious.”  

The crowd erupted into cheers, although Caid could sense the nervous tension coming from many of them. The wardens who had disappeared into the crowd still had not resurfaced.  

“Then you leave us no choice, Seer Pryce. This could have been a beautiful partnership, but as they say, nothing good ever lasts.”  

Rawn waved his hand, signaling the other wardens. Caid quickly looked around for a way to escape the carnage he knew was about to unfold.  

He ran for the small line of buildings. Since the wardens had vacated the rooftops, he could get to the high ground. The crowd and the Wardens were both his enemy now.  

Caid pushed off the ground, grabbing at the storm drain of a low-hanging rooftop. In seconds he was up on the roof, staring down into the crowd. That was when all hell broke loose.  

Screams rose from the crowd, as the nobility were cut down where they stood. Whoever did the killing was like a fleeting wind, but Caid knew the skills the daliwin allowed.  

Caid kept his eyes glued to the stage, watching Seer Pryce.   

The envoys had spread out, protecting the seer, but Pryce almost looked bored by the chaos around him. He casually looked over the shoulders of those who would protect him, watching the wardens killing his denizens. Pryce almost seemed to revel in the efficiency of it.  

The envoys aimed their muzzles at the wardens, but they were packed too closely together to use those high-powered weapons. Either the wardens sensed this, or they ignored the weapons, pulling out small daggers and moving in to combat.  

It wasn’t a fair fight once things started on the stage. The Wardens moved with such speed and grace they were hard to follow with the untrained eye. Caid assumed whoever in the crowd wasn’t screaming and running for higher ground merely saw blurs moving on the stage.  

The Envoy members fell one by one as if they were nothing more than leaves on an autumn tree. Yet, Pryce didn’t show fear or any sign of trying to flee. He stood impassively, almost as if he waited his turn at the game.  

Caid glanced up at Rawn, who hadn’t moved, and saw that he, too, was patiently awaiting the end result. Maddog hung beside him looking much more tense and anxious. Caid hated that this was taking place openly, before the public¾this wasn’t who the Wardens had ever been. It was of no personal consequence to Caid now, since he was no longer a warden. Caid was glad he had sent Alis and Creaton away as the bodies started lining the streets and the crowd trampled over one another, causing even more chaos.  

Looking back at the stage, Caid saw the last of the envoys fall to the ground. Not a single shot left their guns, and none of the wardens appeared injured. The entire massacre began and ended extremely quickly.  

With his envoys dead around him, Caid expected Pryce to plead or bargain for his life, but instead, he stood in place, waiting for the Wardens to finish off his guard. Maybe Pryce had accepted his inevitable death.  

A warden darted in fast, aiming his dagger at Pryce’s neck. Pryce didn’t seem to move, but the warden stumbled by him. Another warden came at Pryce with lightning speed. Again, Pryce somehow avoided the strike, as the warden stumbled past him.  

Caid finally realized what was happening¾Pryce was moving much faster than the wardens. He appeared to be standing still, but Pryce was moving out of the way as they tried to assassinate him.  

After a few attempts on his life, Pryce pulled out a small dagger of his own. The next warden to attack was relieved of his life in an instant, as Pryce shoved the tip of his dagger through the man’s temple; he silently fell dead to the floor.  

Caid felt a shiver run up his spine¾this was the first warden he had seen die. Geth’s murder had shocked him, but he hadn’t witnessed it. This time, he saw it with his own eyes, and Pryce had barely expended any effort.  

Two more wardens charged forward, and both were killed. Pryce cut one across the stomach so deeply, his insides fell to the stage. The other was sliced across the throat, his blood pouring out and painting the wooden planks.  

“This will not end up well for you, Rawn,” Pryce said without any apparent strain in his voice.  

Another warden died at Pryce’s hands. “You should leave, recoup, and know that this just isn’t your day.”  

Pryce killed two more wardens and Caid felt his body shaking. Something was happening with Pryce. He was faster, stronger, and more precise than any man could be. Even a man with the power of the daliwin.  

Caid looked up at Rawn, who had lost his nonchalant attitude and looked frightened by what he witnessed.  

After another warden fell dead¾making seven dead wardens¾Rawn waved his hand a second time. The remaining wardens broke off their attacks and started climbing the buildings.  

Pryce flipped the dagger in his hands and laughed. “Until next time.”  

Caid watched the wardens disappear, then saw Pryce walk around the stage, whistling and collecting the daliwins of all the wardens who would never need them again.