Steel Victory (Steel Empire Book 1) (27 page)

“Until I say so,” Syri said. “Hopefully I didn’t misjudge the strength since I was using your power instead of my own.”

Oh dear. Toria tried to feel concern, but lacked the necessary energy. “Hope you didn’t give her brain damage or anything.”

“Give who brain damage?” Max’s voice sounded from the hallway.

Toria shot out of the recliner. She collected herself in the middle of the room while Syri struggled to her own feet. “Good evening, Max.” Her nonchalance sounded false even to her own ears.

The head of the Mercenary Guild, her boss and mentor, filled the doorway, his gaze shifting from them to the body on the couch and back again. “I’m not even going to ask how you two pulled this one off.” He entered the room and stole Toria’s seat. “Better warn you, your mother’s in the front room with Daliana.”

While she felt her skin pale with that bit of news, Toria had more pressing concerns. “Where’s Kane?”

Max met her eyes, his gaze steady. “Octavian wouldn’t release him to us.”

“What?” Toria’s nails dug into her palms, a hold on reality to prevent her from collapsing. “Do you have any idea what they’re doing to them?”

“We were assured they were safe,” Max said. “But being a prisoner of war is no vacation.”

Syri placed a hand on Toria’s arm, but she ignored the elven girl’s look of concern. “They’re starving Asaron,” she said. “Keeping Kane drained so neither of them is strong enough to escape.”

“Damn it.” Now Victory’s voice came from the entrance to the room. “I knew something like this would happen.”

Toria whirled around. Victory strode into the center of the room, and Toria wrapped herself in her mother’s cool arms. “I’m sorry, Mama.” She buried her face in the crook of Victory’s neck, inhaling the familiar vanilla scent of her mother’s shampoo.

“Don’t be sorry, love,” Victory said, murmuring in Toria’s ear and squeezing her once. “Daliana told me what you two did. I’m so proud of you.”

Lifting her head and taking a short step back, Toria dropped her arms to clutch Victory’s hands. “Even though I didn’t stay at the hospital with Dad?”

“What’s good isn’t always right,” she said. “Cliché, I know, but still true. I might not be pleased, but I understand when it’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission.”

“Spoken like a true mercenary,” Max said. “And she’s not the only proud one, girl.”

With that load lifted from her shoulders, Toria broke her more important news. “Syri managed to get me in contact with Kane.”

“At least we know for sure they’re alive,” Victory said. “Octavian wasn’t even willing to discuss a ransom. We’ll get them soon, though.”

That, Toria knew without a doubt. With Asaron being held, Victory must be going through the exact same riot of emotions. Toria considered herself stubborn, but her mother had had centuries to perfect the art. Time to break the bad news. “Ma—”

Daliana brushed past Toria and Victory to stand by Fabbri. She placed two fingertips, which glowed green, on the unconscious woman’s forehead. “I called the rest, Victory. They’re on their way.”

“Good, thank you,” Victory said, turning her attention away from Toria. “We’ll be meeting in the front room?”

“Yes,” Daliana said. “I’ll go put the coffee on?”

“Bless you,” Max said. His tone belied the fact that he looked dead on his feet.

More political stuff. Toria shared a look of mild resentment with Syri. Time to be sent home again like good little girls, despite all they’d done that evening.

“I’ll make up the guest room upstairs first,” Daliana said. “The girls can rest while we talk.”

Toria waited for her mother to disagree, but Victory surprised her. “Good idea. Okay with you, Toria?”

“Um, sure. That’d be great.” Unexpected, but she wasn’t about to complain. “Wake us up when you guys make a decision?”

“I wouldn’t dream otherwise,” Victory said. “You are the heroes of the hour, after all.”

Even more unexpected. Victory gave Toria another hug before accompanying Daliana out of the room, Syri trailing behind.

“Wait, Toria.” Max reached up to touch her elbow, stopping her from following Syri. “I need to speak with you.”

Time for the other shoe to drop. “Yes, sir?”

Max opened his mouth to begin, then paused with a significant look toward the occupied couch.

Toria dismissed Fabbri with a wave. “Don’t worry, she’s out.”

Max’s shoulders loosened. “You understand we’re vastly outnumbered right now, yes?”

Since that was the exact impression she’d received from Kane, Toria said, “Yep. You have no idea how well I understand that.”

“Then you’ll understand why you are now the proud owner of a battlefield promotion. Congratulations, Mercenary Torialanthas Connor.” Max stumbled over her full name a bit, but it did not detract from the weight of his proclamation.

She was stunned. Even her journeyman status was tenuous until she finished college and could, well, journey around with Kane.

Max softened. “Be happy, but also be wise. We need all the fighters we can get right now. But this still isn’t going to be easy.”

“I understand,” Toria said. “There’s another perk, too.”

“Yes?”

“If I get kidnapped with Kane, you can charge the full ransom price for me.”

Max snorted. “That’s my girl. Always looking on the bright side. At least I know you’ve been paying attention to something other than sword work.”

“One more thing.” Toria paused, unsure of how to break the news that the situation they faced was even worse than he thought.

He must have sensed the gravity of her attitude, for he sobered at once. “What’s wrong?”

“Have you ever heard of a nuclear weapon?”

“And that, ladies and gentlemen, is where we stand.” Max finished his speech and resumed his seat on the piano bench in Daliana’s formal sitting room.

Victory scooted over a few more inches to make room for him. They had all squeezed in, since no one wanted to leave Fabbri unsupervised. It wasn’t like Toria could ward the house in her present state.

“What did you guys do with Sethri’s body?” Lorus said. The pain in his voice crept through the weresnake’s natural stoicism.

“We dropped him off at the hospital,” Max said. “I called in Mason, the physician under contract with the Mercenary Guild. He took charge of the body directly from us and will take care of things on that end. The death of the head of the council isn’t something we really want to make public yet.”

“And the two men who—” Lorus halted, unable to voice whatever he’d intended to say.

“Locked up in my basement,” Daliana said.

Victory brushed a finger over the wood covering the piano keys. She had washed her hands when they’d arrived, but she could still feel Sethri’s blood. His murderers would get a fair trial once the city’s more immediate problems were taken care of. But they wouldn’t be held in comfort. No couches and quilts for them downstairs.

“So, any other questions before we start the next stage of planning?” Max said.

“One, sort of.” From her spot on the floor, Genevieve raised a tentative hand. “I, um, don’t even know what a nuclear weapon is. You said it’s just a bomb or missile, right? What’s the big deal?”

Victory gaped at her, along with Max and Daliana, but Tristan nodded in embarrassed agreement. Victory couldn’t blame them for their ignorance. Not all of them had been around for centuries, as she and Daliana had, or studied military history, like Max and Lorus.

“You know what the Wasteland is? The settlers at the edge can barely eke out a living,” Daliana said. More cautious expressions of affirmation. “The center of this continent used to be lush farmland around a major river. The river’s gone. And not much grows there now, and certainly not well.”

“So what would this weapon do to Limani?” Tristan said. “Destroy every living thing?”

“Destroy every living thing, yes,” Victory said. “And every building. And ruin this land for millennia to come.”

“No one knows when, or if, the Wasteland will ever become viable again,” Daliana said. “I used to treat refugees from the area. The war was brutal.”

“And from what Toria told me based on her contact with her partner,” Max said, “the Roman commander doesn’t even know what they have.”

“What?” Victory said. “You didn’t mention that.”

“Octavian even wanted Kane to study the thing,” Max said. “Chances are he found it in a bunker somewhere, missed in the global disarmament and forgotten.”

“Until now.” Victory’s heart chilled by yet another degree. “So not only is it a weapon of incredible destructive power no one knows how to use, it’s an old and unstable weapon.” From what she knew and could read of them, her fellow councilmembers had shifted from uncertainty to fear. Good for them to be worried, but she wasn’t about to start a panic. Continuing into the silence, Victory said, “You all know this information can’t leave this room.”

“We have a duty to our people to keep them aware of the danger they’re in,” Tristan said.

“And cause a full-scale riot?” Max said.

Now Bethany spoke up. Victory had wondered when the woman would put her thoughts on the situation forward. This should be good. “You’re already hiding the fact that the leader of our government has been murdered. It’s a tragedy, yes, but doesn’t need to be hidden. No one has bothered to confirm the rumors that the Roman military is at our borders. Half of my friends think it’s troop exercises and aren’t concerned in the slightest. How far is the military willing to go to ‘protect’ our people? If we fail, they’ll be even more defenseless without preparation.”

“And if we tell them, there’ll be panic in the streets,” Lena said. “Yes, a much better idea.”

“We don’t have time to police the city and deal with the Romans,” Max said. “And we need to face reality here. The head of the government is dead. We don’t have time to hold elections right now, not even internal ones. We obviously don’t know who to trust among the human councilmembers, or else they’d be here with us.” He paused, looking around the room to meet each person eye to eye. “So we’ve come up with a temporary solution.”

That was Victory’s cue. “Martial law,” she said. “Or close enough. We are now in charge. The human councilmembers are temporarily stripped of their power unless we know we can trust them.” That still didn’t solve the problem of a leak in this council, but that would be dealt with soon enough. “This means we can deal with the Romans on our own terms, without having to balance Humanist politics.”

“So, the military’s in control of the city?” Bethany said. “That makes Max in charge?”

“No,” Max said. “Not just me. All the members of the council in this room are. It’s just convenient that the two most experienced military personnel in this city happen to be included.”

“What about all of the weres we’ve recruited to fight the Romans?” Tristan said. “I know at least a few won’t be happy they’ve been drafted.”

“They’ll get battlefield commissions for order’s sake,” Max said. “But it is a voluntary action, like volunteering was in the first place.”

“I know we’re all scared,” Victory said. She didn’t hesitate to include herself in that statement. “But we have to remain calm. We’ll deal with this. This idea makes it easier for all involved to deal with both the Romans and Humanists successfully.”

“And how does this deal with the Humanists?” Lena said.

Victory could always count on the teacher in her longtime friend to make sure people followed through. “Probably the one thing you guys might have a real problem with.” Even she had a problem with it, angry with the prejudiced idiots as she was. “We declare the Humanist movement illegal.” She awaited the outcry.

It didn’t come. “Now that’s the first really good idea you’ve had,” Bethany said.

She waited for dissent. This couldn’t be that easy. But nods met her from around the crowded room.

“I bet if we really dug into the city’s constitution,” Lena said. “We’d find something saying that. And if not, it’s long past time it was added. The world has changed since Limani was established.”

“And while it’s a shame we should have to enforce the ideals the city was founded under,” Tristan said. “We wouldn’t be the first to do it.”

“All in favor of the proposals?” Max said. He raised his hand first.

Victory followed suit, Lena and Bethany close behind. She wasn’t about to remind Bethany that she didn’t have voting power, since she appreciated the support. Soon every hand in the room was in the air.

“That settles that,” Tristan said. “Okay, Victory and Max are now our fearless leaders. What do we do now?”

“Wait, what?” Max shook his head.

“No, he’s right,” Victory said. “I saw this coming. Martial law still means the military is in control, no matter how we pretty it up for our circumstances. Despite my age, Guild law still says you outrank me. And since Limani is now at war, the entire local Guild has now become the city’s military force. So what are your orders, General?”

Victory paced her kitchen while Toria worked through a full breakfast of oatmeal, toast, juice, and coffee. Her daughter would need her strength for the upcoming day, and Victory had readied one with all the care of a mother sending her lone offspring into battle.

“Mama, now you’re starting to make me nervous.”

Victory forced herself to sit at the kitchen table. “Is that gladius going to work out for you okay?”

After swallowing, Toria said, “It’ll have to do, since nothing else was light enough. Hopefully I won’t even have to use it.”

“Hopefully,” Victory said. “I love you, sweetheart, and I have every confidence in your abilities, but I am very, very glad Max placed you in the reserve guard.”

“I’m glad you have confidence,” Toria said. “I feel pretty close to worthless. Can’t even do the job I’m trained to do.”

“Not without reliable magic and not without Kane to back you up.” Victory hooked her ankles around her chair legs rather than stand to pace again. “And certainly not carrying a blade you’re not entirely comfortable with.”

Toria pursed her lips. “Thanks for the reminder.”