Preserving Hope (29 page)

“You’ve already killed her, Arthur,” Will said, his voice quiet. “The box is already around her. You just can’t see it. How long until you and the rest of those living here are able to do so?”

Arthur glared at him, and then turned Maynard. “Escort Will to his room, and station someone there to ensure he does not leave.” He smirked. “Any man with a small knife should be able to guard him. Tell the guard that Will is not to leave until we return from our trip to remove Eva from our midst. And station another at the gate, in the event this
girl
elects to try to escape.” Maynard nodded, and seized Will by the arm. Will looked at Elizabeth, and watched as her face clouded into despair.
Do something, Will. Please
.

I will not do anything to force people to behave against their will, Elizabeth. That would make me no better than Arthur, and he’s not a man whose example I want to follow.

It would better for all of us if he were gone and you were our leader, Will.

Perhaps. But I will not force that outcome. This will work out for the best in the end, Elizabeth. It looks grim now, but it will get better. One thing I promise you, though, is that I will get you out of here. I don’t know how, but I will see that it’s done. First, though, I need to make sure that Eva gets away from here safely. I don’t think that’s Arthur’s intent.

Thank you, Will.
But he could hear the disappointment in her thoughts. She wanted him to make things right, to use his ability to force the community to do the right thing. And yet he didn’t. The disappointment was powerful, more so because it came from her, and he began to wonder if his philosophy of using his power to persuade, rather than coerce, was wrong. He then thought of Arthur’s approach, using fear and jealousy and the threat of Maynard’s sword to persuade, and realized that Arthur’s way was a form of coercion. There was no greater example possible to show him that, no matter how bleak the situation seemed, that his approach was the right one.

Maynard smirked at Will as he shoved Will along, an expression reminiscent of the future Hunter called Aramis. “One day you’ll learn not to question authority, Will. Shut up, like the rest of them, and do as you’re told. One day, perhaps, you’ll learn to carry a quality blade so that you can defend yourself and those you seem to care about. How is it that you don’t carry a weapon, and how is it that you simply stand by and watch us batter your people, doing nothing but talking?”

“One day, Maynard, you’ll learn that the man to fear is the one who has weapons you
can’t
see,” Will said, his voice a whisper. Maynard blanched, undoubtedly remembering the mysterious heavy sword. “One day, Maynard, you’ll learn to read people better than you do. I’d have thought all that zirple would have done the trick, but apparently it’s not quite as powerful as Roland would have you believe. But I will tell you this: I will continue to be a thorn in your side, and Arthur’s, until I see your tyranny end.”

They’d reached his room, and Maynard threw him forcibly inside. “Then I suppose it’s best if you get used to this little prison cell, Will.” He motioned for one of his men to stand outside. “This
man
is under arrest for threats made against me and our leader, Arthur. See to it that he doesn’t leave this room. If he tries?” Maynard shot another smirk at Will. “You have a sword. He doesn’t. Make him regret that choice.”

The door slammed in Will’s face.

XX

Banishment

Will knew his first priority was to exit his room and go after Arthur and Maynard before they harmed Eva. In order to do so, he needed to ensure that the guard stayed out of his room. He closed the curtain to his room. “I have no interest in seeing you, hearing you, or…” He sniffed the air, loudly. “Smelling you.” The guard snorted, and turned his back to the room.

He considered going out the rear window immediately, but he heard noises back there, and saw Maynard arriving with Joseph the carpenter, armed with several wooden planks, nails, and a hammer. Will leaned out the window, and Maynard spotted him. “We’re well aware of this window, Will,” the man said, grinning. “But don’t think you’ll be trying to escape through it.”

The first plank slammed into place, and Will just pulled back in time to avoid having his nose broken. The men worked quickly, sealing up Will’s primary possibility of a more mundane exit, and then left. The only positive point was that if Maynard hadn’t left yet, neither had Arthur or Eva. He still had time.

But he needed to work and think quickly. He needed to be there to watch Arthur and Maynard escort Eva away, because he was fairly certain she wouldn’t otherwise leave the forest. Arthur wasn’t going to let her get away with attacking him and suffer a mere banishment as punishment. He was acting the part of a monarch, one who would see any insult, real or imagined, as an offense punishable by death. Maynard, and his sword, would carry out the punishment Arthur truly wanted, but one with which he knew the community would never agree. It was a punishment that none would ever learn about either, unless Will got there. None of them expected to ever see her again; both punishments had the same visible result to the villagers, but entirely different repercussions.

Will knew he could leave the community easily enough through teleportation, but if it were necessary for him to come back in through the gate, he’d need to explain in more mundane terms how he’d gotten out past the guard. He could probably make the man sleep, but didn’t like that idea. He’d need to show how he’d gotten away in a manner that would have escaped any reasonable guard’s notice… and something that any normal man could have accomplished.

He sat down on his cot, then rolled onto his back, staring up at his ceiling, hoping for inspiration.

The ceiling?

Will stood on the cot and reached up. Yes, he could definitely touch the ceiling in this fashion, for at its lowest point the ceiling was only about five feet off the ground. The peak of the roof faced the community, which meant that the lowest part of the roof was shielded from the viewpoint of any villagers.

He sat back down on the cot, and focused his senses on the grounds outside the village walls, looking for something specific. He finally found a stack of branches, and he teleported them into his room, and used his nanos to shape and weave them into a reasonable facsimile of a panel, one large enough to cover an opening that he could fit through. He then pulled the sample hinges and springs he’d been given from the spot under his cot where they’d been stored, and attached them to the panel. Will then floated the panel up to the ceiling. He attached the other half of the hinge to one of the cross beams supporting the roof, and used nanos to cut a hole the size of the panel into the roof. Finally, he attached the spring to the panel and roof cross-beam on the outer side, so the spring would hold the panel shut. The panel would open by pushing it up from below. He quickly cut a small notch in the panel that he’d be able to grab from the roof.

He did all of this without leaving his bed and in a matter of minutes; the nanos had enabled him to create a door in his ceiling that he could, if needed, use to pull himself out of his room and sneak back in.

After recalling his nanos, Will tested the approach to ensure he could perform the movement if challenged. He stood on the bed, pushed the panel open, grasped the sides of the opening, and pulled himself up and out onto the roof without too much strain.

Once on the roof, out of sight of everyone in the village, he jumped, using his Energy to float down to the ground on the outside of the wall. He closed his eyes, and his senses found Eva, tracking the harp-like sound of her Energy. They were still in the forest, though a good distance away from the village. Eva was walking, while Arthur rode next to her on his favorite horse. Maynard, armed as always with his sword, trailed behind. Arthur was talking to her, though Will couldn’t hear them. It mattered not. Focusing on the spot, he teleported into the trees above the trio, out of sight. Once certain that he’d not been spotted, he floated down to the ground once more, careful to remain silent.

He’d been practicing his invisibility skills now for the past three years, initially in his room at night, and later, as the zirple began to have an effect, in the cave during his private morning training sessions. Flooding his body with Energy, he focused on making each cell transparent, letting the light waves hitting his body pass through rather than bounce off. He glanced down at his arm, and could see nothing. Mission accomplished.

He still found it unnerving trying to walk in such a state. Even though he didn’t need to look at his feet or arms to walk, he was accustomed to seeing them in his peripheral vision during daylight hours. He felt momentarily out of balance as his mind worked to adapt to this new reality, but after a few moments he was able to walk at a brisk pace and catch up to the trio leaving the village..

He had to remind himself that he was invisible, not inaudible or weightless. On more than one occasion, he snapped a branch or twig underfoot, and Maynard would swirl around, looking for the source of the noise. If the situation weren’t so serious, Will would have enjoyed spooking the man in this fashion.

Arthur was questioning Eva with fervor. “I know that some of your team members have been developing abilities for some time, Eva.” Will was shocked. The three of them – Will, along with Elizabeth and Eva – had all been quite careful to hide their development. “I just don’t know for certain
who
has developed them. You? Aldus? Matilda? Tell me!”

Eva simply shrugged. “I don’t live in your neighborhood anymore, Arthur. You have no power over me here, any more than you did before. Stop wasting your breath.”

Arthur leaned lower in the saddle. “I could make things uncomfortable for you, Eva.”

Now she laughed. “I’m
leaving
, Arthur. What could you possibly do to me that would hurt? It’s a bit late to threaten me with torture now.”

“Who said
you
would be the one tortured, Eva?” The man’s smile was cold and calculating, and his eyes lit up as understanding reached Eva’s face.

“Your own
daughter
, Arthur?” Eva’s voice was one of despair, and Will noted with a sickening sensation the look of triumph that flitted across the faces of her captors. “Not even you could be so cruel, could you? You’ve already tortured her enough her entire life. Did you ever tell her you love her? Or was she just a slave, a piece of property in the form of your own flesh and blood, that you introduced into a community of people who fled their own bondage?”

“She wasn’t a slave, Eva. Payment was made for her services. And your affection for her has been obvious, which is my concern at the moment. If you don’t talk before you leave this forest, then Elizabeth will suffer as a result.”

“She was never a person to you, was she?” Eva’s eyes were no longer angry, but full of pity. “How empty a life without love must be.”

Arthur snorted. “My life is far from empty. I need names, Eva, not moral commentary. If you love her as you imply, then you won’t allow your inaction to cause her harm. Speak!”

Eva rolled her eyes, but said nothing.

The head nod was subtle, but Will caught it. He saw it happen in slow motion: the sword moving silently from the sheath on Maynard’s back; Arthur’s sudden halt of his horse; Eva’s movement stopping as well, as she looked up at Arthur with a questioning look on her face, puzzled as to why they were stopping; the look of horror on her face as Maynard’s blade pierced her back below her rib cage and exited out on the other side; the look of triumph on Arthur’s face as Eva’s eyes began to cloud, matched by Maynard’s face as he pulled the bloodied blade from her body.

Will dropped the invisibility and ran, screaming, toward the men. “How
could
you? How could you
do
this?” As he ran, he dispatched his healing nanos to Eva and sent a bombardment of Energy to her, praying it would be enough.

Arthur and Maynard looked stunned at Will’s appearance. “How did you get out?” Arthur hissed, anger replacing the shock on his face.

“Same way I got in originally. I climbed.” And before they knew what he was doing, Will had seized the sword from Maynard and hurled it back toward camp and buried an Energy-backed fist into the man’s abdomen, then pulled Arthur from the horse and threw him bodily through the air. “Leave! Both of you! Go slinking back to the village on your bellies and brag about your deeds. There’s no desire for such a sentence in our community. You’ve lost them now, Arthur.”

And for the first time since he’d known the man, Arthur did as he was told. He made to mount the horse, but Will slapped the animal on its haunches, and the horse bounded away. Will’s eyes burned with anger. “Walk.”

As he moved away, Arthur twisted around. “What are you going to do?”

“Give her a proper burial. Leave.”

Maynard stopped to pick up his sword. Will sent his nanos at the man, using them to form a glove around Maynard’s hand, binding the sword to him. A thin coating of nanos surrounded the blade, outside the thick coating of blood still present there. Maynard would not be able to clean the blood from the sword, nor would he be able to remove it from his grasp, until Will decided to allow it. With luck, that would occur
after
Maynard’s next trip to the latrine… and after his possession of the blade showed his guilt.