Warlords Rising (31 page)

“I AM THE LAW!” Trexler roared.

“You are not,” four voices announced simultaneously.

“The law existed before you,” Rikkana Shiva stated with a
soft finality. “The law will continue after your death. It is beyond you. The
only connection that you have with it is that it was your duty to uphold it.”

“It is a duty that you failed,” Rikkan Akbar continued, tone
hard. His hands fisted on the table’s top. “For that reason, you stand before
us. Commander, read us the first offense.”

Trexler growled and roared some more, but they over-rode him
and continued. Becca let out a slow breath and listened intently as the trial
continued.

It followed much like their conversation in Tiergan,
actually. Someone at the table would read off the exact law that he had broken,
list his offenses against it, and then give him a chance to respond. Since
Trexler wasn’t interested in doing so, they would shrug and continue with the
next. Becca felt the strangest sense of déjà vu, as if she were repeating the
same conversation in a different setting with only slightly different words.

They came to the last offense, that of slavery, and she
finally moved out of her spot from behind the table. After standing in place
for nearly three hours, her knees stiffly protested a little. It felt good to
finally walk. As she moved, she pulled out the triangles and handed Amir one.

“I don’t know how to use this, Raya!” he protested in a low
whisper.

“You don’t need to do anything,” she assured him, pressing
it into his hand. “It automatically lights up when placed in front of a
magician. Just hold it so the crowd can see it.”

Relieved and still nervous, he went to stand on the other
side of the bench. Becca stood tall and held the triangle in front of her own
chest. Carefully, she phrased the words in her mind before speaking, “As you
can see, the triangle glows when near a magician. It will not for a non-magical
person.”

“These people,” Danyal thankfully took over at that point
and gestured to the group of ex-slaves patiently waiting on his right, “are
former slaves. They were with the other magicians until an hour ago. Sergeant,
the triangle?”

The crowd stared intently but as Amir went slowly down the
line, the triangle didn’t react. People started whispering to each other, the
tone confused and escalating with each person.

“Not every person in the slave pens was a magician.” Danyal
waved the sergeant to cease and Amir did so, standing at semi-attention near
the judgment table. “This is against the law.”

Trexler flung an outraged finger at Becca. “She is a
magician! SHE SHOULD BE IN CHAINS!”

With a flex of power, Becca casually broke the triangle. To
the naked eye, it looked as if she broken it by willpower alone. She flung it
at Trexler’s feet with a negligent toss of the hand. “Trexler, you are confused
on a vital point.”

“And what is that?” he sneered.

“Human beings shouldn’t be slaves to begin with. Ever. Your
original lawmakers understood this. The first laws written for Khobunter outlawed
slavery. Period.” Becca had to switch to Solish to say all of this and was
grateful Amir automatically translated for her. She paused to let him catch up
before continuing, “The new conquerors of Khobunter are reversing the laws and
will return to the original ones. They are more humane and uncorrupted than the
laws that supposedly serve the people now.”

He stared at her with eyes burning in hatred, jaw working.
“You won’t last. This reign of yours will not continue forever. I give it a
week
.”

“If I were relying on my strength alone, Trexler, I wouldn’t
last the day.” Becca smiled at him, not in the least insulted. “But unlike you,
I don’t go out of my way to make people hate me. Perhaps, if you had shown
kindness instead of greed, your people wouldn’t have been so quick to turn on
you.”

He spat at her, although he was too far away to actually
land anything. “You are too haughty, magician!”

“I am not the one that judged you, Trexler. It was your own
people that turned against you. I just gave them the power to stand up to you.”
Tired of this back and forth, she turned her back to him. “Judges, how do you
rule?”

“Immediate execution,” they said, more or less in unison.

“See it done, then.” Becca turned away, heading for Cat, but
she paused next to Danyal and murmured, “If I ever become as bad as that man,
strike me down. Do not hesitate.”

“Warlord, I would promise to do so, but,” he grinned at her,
his exhaustion disappearing for a brief moment, “I do not dare cross your
dragon.”

Cat heard this (of course she did, she heard everything) and
gave a rumbling chuckle. “No worry. I make her behave.”

“A dragon chaperone.” Becca snorted, amused at the idea, but
knew good and well that her dragon seriously would keep her in line. Shaking
her head, she went and slung herself into Cat’s saddle. “I think my work here
is done for the time being, Cat. Let’s go see if the boys need help.”

“What is with this office?” Trev’nor stared around with his
face screwed up in distaste. “There’s gold everywhere.”

“Gaudy doesn’t begin to describe it,” Becca agreed. She
stepped into the room as if afraid that that something would explode. “Are all
king’s offices like this? Well, not that he was a king, but….”

“No,” both Trev’nor and Nolan denied immediately.

“My grandfather’s office isn’t anything like this,” Nolan
clarified, unable to take his eyes away from the desk dominating the center of
the room. It had enough gold trimming on it to feed a small country for about
two months. “And King Guin’s office is even plainer than Grandfather’s.”

“Garth’s and Chatta’s offices looks a lot like King Guin’s,”
Trev’nor offered by way of explanation. Becca had never been to visit either
king herself, but they had all semi-grown up in their mentors’ offices.

“I’m relieved to hear it.” Becca took another three
tentative steps forward, staring around with a horrified look. “Gold curtains,
gold furniture, gold statues, even golden armor…the man was obsessed with
appearances.”

“Let’s sell the lot,” Trev’nor decided on the spot. “We’ve
been spending money left and right anyway, trying to outfit the magicians and
feed them. I think this will more than make up for it.”

“Splendid plan. For now, though, let’s find a different
place to talk. All of this—” she waved a hand around “—is distracting me, I can’t
hear myself think.”

Trev’nor glanced about but the office was a square space
that had no dividing walls. At least, none he could readily see. “Outside
veranda?”

Becca apparently liked this idea as she immediately bee-lined
for the large glass doors.

The outside veranda, fortunately, was not covered in gold.
There were several plush chairs, a few small tables, and some dormant flower
beds. Sinking into one of the chairs, he asked, “How did the trials go?”

“Smoother than they should have,” Becca answered sadly. “The
people here really hated their government. No one offered up any real opposition.”

“On the contrary, we had people volunteering to go and
witness against him,” Nolan added, letting out a tired sigh as he sank into a
plush armchair. “Ah, that feels good. Llona tells me that we rescued four
hundred and twenty-one people today. She’s already matching up friends and
family.”

Yes, that had been a funny sight. Trev’nor had come to drop
off the last of the magicians and found people clustered around the white
dragon, the younger ones actually sitting on her like she was a giant bench.
Llona loved it; that was obvious from her happily twitching tail.

“And resistance?” Becca glanced between the two of them.
“Commander Danyal hasn’t reported any resistance to me, but you saw some signs
of it in the city, yes?”

“Some. The population is too large to be one hundred percent
on our side, but—correct me if I’m wrong, Nol, you’re better with people than I
am—I think they’re too used to the idea of being conquered. I don’t think this
city has been fought over for decades, not like the others, but on some level
they’re always mentally prepared for it. ”

“Unfortunately true.” Nolan slumped more into his chair.
“They’ve adopted a ‘let’s wait and see’ attitude. I honestly think that as long
as we’re good to them, we will never get any large resistance. Between cultural
norm and corrupt leaders, they’re used to not resisting.”

“Well, if we don’t have to worry about any uprisings right
this minute, let’s talk about what to do with all of the magicians,” Becca
suggested. “We have far too many on hand and it’s going to be impossible for
the three of us to teach them. Even if we didn’t have other things to do, which
isn’t the case, we still wouldn’t be able to teach them.”

“There’s also the matter of a young Earth Mage to discuss,”
Nolan agreed. “Alright, let’s talk about magicians first.”

“Earth Mage first, as she’ll be easier to solve. So as I see
it,” Trev’nor started, “we have one of two options. We send Parisa by dragon to
Q’atal or I take her by Earth Path to Q’atal.”

“Either way, drop her off in Q’atal?” Becca wasn’t really
asking a question. She spun sideways in her chair to dangle her legs over the
arms. “Probably the best move. You don’t have the time to go all of the way to
Strae, and even if you did, once the adults lay hands on you….”

“They won’t let go,” Trev’nor agreed, wincing at the mental
picture of what would happen when the adults finally did catch up. “Q’atal is
neutral, very close to Strae, and they have a way of contacting Garth directly.
I think it’s our best option.”

“I’m not arguing that.” Nolan tilted his head down and gave
Trev’nor a look that stated he was being obtuse. “But Trev, you need to start
thinking like a politician.”

“Meaning…?” Trev’nor trailed off invitingly.

“You are Q’atal’s new neighbor. It behooves you to properly
introduce yourself and establish relations with them now. Before they get
worried and jump to conclusions they shouldn’t.”

That…was a very good point.

“Might I also point out that instead of just taking Parisa,
you should take everyone we’ve rescued?”

“Not Ehsan and Azin,” Becca blurted out, sitting bolt
upright.

Nolan waved her down. “No, not them. They’re already
half-trained, they’re fine. I meant everyone else.”

Trev’nor was just as relieved to hear this as having the
other two mages helped tremendously with the workload. Besides, Trev’nor
honestly didn’t know what they would do without Ehsan. He was the only one that
could find water in the middle of the desert. Becca would have to call storms
in to keep them supplied with water, which considering the state of the soil
out here, wasn’t usually the best option.

He turned over the idea in his head. “Shouldn’t some of them
stay though? How is the culture going to change if there are no magicians? And
not everyone may want to go.”

“It’d only be temporary. They’d certainly all be free to
return once their training is over, but they have to be trained. Half-trained
magicians running around without suppressive amulets are a disaster in the
making,” Nolan pointed out.

Trev’nor blew out a breath. “You’re not wrong. I don’t think
it’s fully right, but you’re not wrong. We’ll go with it for now, but something
else will have to be figured out for later on. There’s no way Strae and Hain
can take all of the magicians from the other provinces as well.”

“Perhaps by that point some of the Trexler magicians will
know enough to come back and teach the new ones. We’ll worry about it when it
happens. For now, we need to take care of the magicians we do have,” Becca
said.

“Alright, agreed. Man, an influx of over five hundred
students at once. Chatta will kill us.”

“The new branch academy is supposed to be up and running by
now,” Nolan pointed out, all innocence.

“She’s still going to kill us,” Becca opined. “But if it’s
too much, Garth can take some of them into Hain.”

“My grandfather is not going to stand for that,” Nolan
denied. “He likes having magicians around.”

“Then he better give Garth more funding and teachers;
otherwise he’s not going to be able to handle it.”

A thought struck Trev’nor and he frowned. “I can hardly just
drop them off in Q’atal like a litter of kittens and run. I mean, shouldn’t we
write a letter or something?”

Becca and Nolan exchanged looks and then twin grimaces.

“Yes,” Nolan said with vast reluctance.

“But what can we possibly say?” Becca asked uncertainly. “I
mean, give them even a hint to go off of, they’ll be able to track us down.”

“I’m not sure if it will matter what we say,” Nolan denied
after a moment’s thought. “They’re going to be asking a lot of questions from
their new students. They’ll learn everything eventually.”

Very true. But that meant they didn’t really have any good
options. Well, no, Trev’nor could think of one. He could honestly say that this
whole thing had been Becca’s idea.

“Trev, so help me, if you start off with ‘This was all
Becca’s idea’ I will zap you.”

He did a double take, flinching back into his chair. “Do you
read minds?!”

“That was written all over your face,” she growled, frown
dark, eye twitching. “Might I remind you that conquering Khobunter was
not
my
idea? I came up here to research weather patterns and get a dragon.”

Right. Come to think of it…his eyes gravitated to Nolan.

“You can’t use me as a scapegoat either,” his friend
informed him drolly. “You were the one adamant about conquering the country.
Man up, Trev.”

“But life is so much easier when I have someone in mind to
blame.”

“Man up,” Becca echoed. “In fact, I think it’s time we all
man up. At our ages, Garth was doing covert operations in Chahir.”

“He had backing from a king,” Trev’nor couldn’t help but
point out.

“Dilly-dally, shilly-shally. Same difference. You think if
Shad knew about this situation, or Aletha, or Xiaolang, that they would react
any differently? You think if Garth or Chatta knew what was going on, they
would have hesitated?”

Well, no, likely not. “I suppose we are old enough to not be
worried about the parents.”

“You can be.” Nolan made a face. “I can’t.”

True, his father and grandfather would not be pleased to
have their heir apparent conquering another country. “I’ll help you escape
before they can catch and skin you.”

“You’re a true friend, Trev.” Resigned, Nolan heaved himself
to his feet and went to a nearby desk, rummaging in the drawers for a few
moments before giving a soft, “Ha!” of victory. Coming back, he pulled a small
table closer to his chair and laid paper and quill out. “Well, let’s write a
letter. You can explain the situation as much as you need to when you’re in
Q’atal, but I wouldn’t stay there long.”

It wasn’t like they could keep things in the dark forever.
“What are we going for? Full confession, half-confession, bare basics?”

Becca twirled a strand of hair in between her fingers,
staring absently at the floor. “Full confession.”

“Full confession,” Nolan agreed. “Because otherwise the
facts will get warped by other people and who knows what they’ll think? I’d
rather not have them come after us in a panic, assuming that something has gone
drastically wrong.”

Trev’nor imagined Garth in full-panic. Or Shad. Or Xiaolang.
Yikes, that wasn’t a good picture. “Yup, I vote we avoid that. So, full
confession it is. When should we deliver our magicians? Tonight?”

“The sooner the better,” Becca confirmed. “We don’t have
enough room to put them all here and if we get them out of Trexler now, then we
avoid complications.”

Slapping his hands to the armchair rests, he pushed himself
up to his feet. “Then I’ll leave you two to write.”

Nolan paused mid-word and looked up. “Why? What will you be
doing?”

“Testing to see who’s going to panic on me underground. I’d
rather know now who needs to be unconscious. Also, I need to send word to
Tiergan and have them ready to go so I can swing by and pick them up on the
way.”

Nolan gave an ‘ah’ of understanding and bent back over the
letter. He paused barely a word in. “Wait, Trev, I have an idea. Get Azin up
here to melt down some of the gold, or at least take it into market and sell
it. We should send at least some money with our magicians so Garth isn’t
scrambling to financially support all of them.”

“Genius, Nolan. I’ll send her up to you.” Trev’nor was
firmly of the mindset that anything they could do to ease the potential wrath
of the adults was a good thought.

Becca scooted over to sit next to Nolan, leaning over his
shoulder to read as he wrote. Before Trev’nor had even cleared the door, they
were already disagreeing on what was being written. Trev’nor was just as glad
to skip that little debate.

Finding an open window in the hallway, he stuck his head
through it and called out, “Garth?”

“Hear you fine, fledgling.”

Of course he did. “Can you relay the message to the dragons
in Tiergan and have people get ready? Tell them I’ll come and get them, oh,” he
did some quick calculations in his head, “about two hours from now.”

“Will.”

Satisfied, he withdrew and headed down the stairs. He rather
hoped that neither Nolan nor Becca would think to tell Garth that he now had an
older dragon namesake.
That
reaction he’d rather see in person.