Without Rhythm (The Lament) (12 page)

"I ain't said no such thing!"

"It is well known that only the truth may be said in front of a Judge. Your guilt has been spoken to me clearly. All we're seeking now is information that will determine this for those listening, so that they may know what you've done as well." She turned to Meridith then.

"What do you recall of the events?"

Yarl tried to interject as the woman spoke, her words telling them all about how she'd been late at the basket shop, meaning she had to walk home in the dark. Then how she was pulled into the alley and had a knife put to her throat.

"I begged, ma'am. I told him I have a husband and kids. He beat me then and made me... He tore my clothing and..." She sobbed pulling a handkerchief.

"Lies! She liked it! I felt her go into the throws, clenching against me like a woman will!" Yarl practically screamed this, which instead of being ignored got a gasp from the crowd and one of the men to step forward as if ready to kill the man anyway.

"True." The word from Claire made everyone go still then, except the raped woman who sobbed more and started shaking.

It took a few moments to work it all out, but Pran tried to focus on the people watching, especially the man with the meat cleaver, who'd spoken of Jenny earlier. He seemed particularly angry and was edging ever closer to where Yarl stood. He kept the weapon out of sight, holding it behind his back as if that would fool anyone that had seen it.

"That is a common reaction during rape, a physiological point that has no bearing on the crime itself. Continue please, Meridith."

"Uh... Then I heard something. A woman yelled that he had to stop, because she was a Guardian and then that there were others. He didn't though. It was like he didn't care at all. Then something happened and he was off me. I couldn't tell what. It was so dark, until the big Guardian came. He made a fire of some kind that made it like day." She stopped talking then for a moment, then sobbed a few times before going on.

"I think he was going to kill me. The Creedy. Like they did Jenny's Ma when she didn't just go silent about her being used."

Judge Claire looked at Yarl.

"We cannot speak as to intent here. Apprentice Guardian Pran, Guardian Clark, please come forward." She gestured for them to stand next to the accuser, which made the whole scene seem a little lopsided, but worked to influence the audience. It looked like authority was coming down on the one side, without ever saying so directly.

It was pretty clever actually. Pran approved and climbed down quickly, the crowd around her parting. She didn't put the rifle down though. The meat cleaver man was still working his way forward. Now she couldn't see him either, no matter how hard she focused. There were just too many bodies in the way.

"Apprentice Guardian Pran, can you tell us what you saw and heard last night?"

Before she could speak someone from the crowd, a woman at the back, called out loudly.

"That's Pran from the art school. She isn't a Guardian... She's a Bard. I heard her play at the school show last month..." Several of the other people agreed, some loudly.

Claire smiled.

"Things can alter quickly. Pran? Could you tell us exactly what happened last night, starting with what you first noticed and why you were there?"

Pran had to make herself not glare at the woman. Apparently it wasn't enough to have stopped the rape, or even to be shown a liar, claiming to be something she wasn't. No, she had to give the whole thing away in public.

"Ah, well... I was kicked out of art school yesterday, divested of everything, so I was sort of trying to find someone to sell myself too, for food money. I wasn't doing too well, and then I heard it. At first I thought the man was telling
me
not to move, but it wasn't that." Then she finished it all, including outright that she lied when she claimed to be a Guardian, which got a strange look from Meridith.

She wasn't called a liar at any point at least, having kept exactly to the truth as she remembered it, ending with Clark having her restrain the man.

Then she stopped talking, not wanting to mess anything else up.

The Judge looked at Clark then and asked a similar question.

"I first became aware of a problem as Guardian Mara and I were escorting our charge back toward The Lament, our airship transport. There was an obvious commotion and then someone called out that they were a Guardian and that she had back up. It's customary for all Guardians in an area to provide such in emergency situations, so Mara and I moved to secure the scene. After setting off an illuminating flare we saw that there was a woman being physically beaten by that man," he pointed directly at Yarl and held it until Claire nodded at him, her face looking smooth and a little blank.

"Then we realized that the Guardian on the scene wasn't one. At that time I made a field decision to offer her the position, which would become active as soon as she was legally sixteen, if accepted. She later did that, her birthday being today. The crime of claiming to be a Guardian falsely would not have applied anyway, being a minor at the time and would have likely been overlooked, given that she was simply using the term to attempt to protect another who was in mortal danger. She then listened to instructions and subdued the attacker on her own, sustaining knife wounds in the process."

It made the whole thing sound funny to Pran, but she waited then, noticing that the meat cleaver man was holding back for some reason. Waiting.

"Stand by for Judgment."

Claire closed her eyes for several minutes, finally speaking loud enough for the whole crowd to hear easily.

"Let it be known to all present that Yarl Creedy did, with full intent and foreknowledge, rape Meridith Foil. For that crime, he is now sentenced to seven years of labor and to retraining for a time after that until he is deemed safe for society. Town guard, please secure him."

Creedy, realizing that things had definitely not gone his way, tried to run. It was a mistake, since about a dozen men jumped him, and held him in place while the older guardsman put him in chains. They weren't gentle with him after that either, though no one openly beat him. He screamed, his language bad enough that one of the men hit him in the back of the head. That didn't stop him.

"I'll kill you! Lying bitch! You won't live to see another sunrise!"

Who he was talking to though Pran couldn't tell.

The rest of the trial was a lot less dynamic for her personally. Even when she had to explain that she'd shot the two Creedy brothers almost at random, not actually having any kind of skill at it. That... got a laugh from the people around them for some reason. It didn't seem mean particularly. It was only as if they appreciated her having managed it. No one even called her a murderer, not even the other Creedy brothers as they were each sentenced to four years labor for their individual crimes. Trying to break their brother free for the most part.

They didn't seem pleased by it, but it did seem to put an end to the idea that anyone would be killed by them in retribution anytime soon.

The townspeople weren't exactly happy after it was done, but there was a sense of relief from some of them. The man with the meat cleaver was gone, having vanished into the crowd, but no one was being hacked to death at that point, so hopefully he felt like it was enough punishment, to start with at least. No one cheered, or congratulated them for a job well done. No clapping or bowing after it was over either.

Pran definitely preferred performing. It was no harder and if you did a good job of it, everyone seemed to like you afterwards. These people barely looked at them. Most of them scurried away like they were afraid they'd be charged with something next in fact.

They went back more slowly, the five kilometers a lot harder this time, for Pran at least, since she was set to doing the walking guard which meant
running
, paying total attention and trying to move without a pattern the whole time. It wasn't just hard, it felt impossible. Her mind simply refused to let herself move that way, forcing her to stop and start at random to try and throw things off. On top of that it was physically way more difficult than just running or dancing. The uneven movements required so much more of her that a few minutes into it she was gasping horribly. At ten minutes Mara took over, doing it all easily as Pran got settled next to Paul, sucking in air like a bellows.

She didn't even try to talk, just feeling a little ill the whole time. The second she finished catching her breath Mara traded out with her again, not even breathing hard.

"Keep your attention level up. Also, your movement is still too rhythmic. Keep going." She grinned when she said it, as if it were a joke or something.

Pran ran, making every effort to be random, but finding it even harder when she occasionally got it close to right. Her body ached, especially her lungs and chest, though her hips were coming in a close second. Just before she felt like she'd have to stop and vomit she got another break.

"That's fine for today. When we get back you can do something easy for a while. Laundry maybe?" Mara didn't give her a chance to do or say anything, darting to the side, then dropping out of view almost instantly. She showed up again after a few seconds, but was too hard to track for it to be worthwhile.

The rest of the trip back she rode, breathing hard almost the whole time, not speaking. Paul didn't complain or talk to her at all. After a few minutes she picked up her rifle, trying to stay ready, even as she had to fight to pay attention to everything again. It was much harder after working like that. Her brain started buzzing, ideas coming into play full bore.

A new song occurred to her then, an instrumental thing that had dropped beats in it, the pattern made up of missing steps. It would work well on guitar she thought, trying to hold it in memory before she realized that she wasn't a Bard anymore. Not even a student. It was hard, but she had to let it all go and do what was in front of her as well as she could. It was pretty obvious to her why no one wanted to become a Guardian at least. It wasn't just dangerous and hard, it
hurt
. She hadn't even learned to fight yet and her body was screaming at her.

Of course, now that the trial was over, they didn't need her anymore. What Clark had said kind of made some sense at the time, about how by making her an apprentice she was given legal protection from her false claims. There was no need for them to keep her on in that position now, was there? It was probably just as well. She really doubted she'd survive another few days of this.

It was about dinner time when they got back to the ship, which would be taking off directly after the meal. They could fly in the dark after all. As long as they didn't land it was even safe enough. Captain Mina ate with her officers and Judge Claire, but she made a point of stopping by the table with Mara and Clark at it before she left to help take off.

"Next stop Danning, which we should reach in less than a day. Unless you two need something special between here or there?"

Mara shook her head, chewing a beef strip slowly. They were good, but it was as if she were actually thinking about what to say.

"I think we're fine in this area. Around the large cities we run into more energy abuse problems. Those in smaller towns tend not to be as greedy that way for some reason." She smiled and took another bite as the Captain waved a bit and walked off, her question answered.

The female Guardian looked at Pran for a moment before speaking, her large companion just eating quietly, the scars on his face moving rhythmically.

"Guardians have two main jobs. One is as you've seen, but is the lesser task. We guard officials at need. That part is a lot more varied than it looks like here, though this is good experience for a new apprentice. As often as not we stand around watching council members of various kinds that no one wants to harm at all. Our real job is making sure that no one harms the world. People tend to think they deserve more than just a living, and some will always try to take more than they need. In a way that's what happened with the Creedy's in town. They discovered that numbers gave them power and felt that should mean they could do whatever they wanted.

"Everyone is like that, unless they stop themselves. If they can't, it's our job to do it for them. When we get to Danning we'll do an assessment first, to discover if anyone is using too many resources, or too much energy. If they are we'll probably give them a warning and help them to find other ways to do what they want, that or to let go of a greedy or useless idea. If they can't, or won't, then we stop them using other means. That can be anything up to death, but it's normally a fine. We'll have to teach you what kind of things to look for in the field and how to handle them when they come up. Normally you'd already have had classes on this kind of thing, but..."

She shrugged.

Clark swallowed and actually smiled. It wasn't a huge thing, but it was real enough.

"For now, since it isn't late, you can have a bit of a break. A few hours to see to whatever you'd like before bed. Please remember to keep up your mental exercises however. The fastest way to adapt is to never release the pressure your mind is under."

It was less than fun, but Pran made herself do it, trusting that these people wouldn't keep harping on the idea if it wasn't important. She didn't have anything to do after that, so just sat for a minute while everyone else left the room. The crew had to see to the tie lines and take off, and the Guardians had their own concerns.