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Walker and a dark-haired man were bent over a table littered with devices when I walked into the sitting room. It had taken searching, apparently, there were several in the house. This one was below ground level, with no windows and reinforced stone walls. Several tables full of equipment I didn't recognize, other than it was disassembled tech, different tools hung along the wall, and an open large cabinet that looked like it contained even more tools.
Several of the devices were still whole enough I could recognize them as different lasguns. They must be doing maintenance on them. Lasguns were tricky; usually, they needed an expert to recalibrate him, another reason firearms were more common Outside.
Walker looked up from the disassembled weapons and smiled at me. “This is a friend of mine. He’s also a security specialist, with bodyguard training, and he’s going to stay overnight. With Dmitri.”
When the man looked up, every muscle in my body tensed as I recognized him. Black hair, worn long enough that it curled, dark brown eyes with lashes any sane woman would envy, a strong face with an aquiline nose that had been broken some time in the past. Of below-average height and a strong build, his hands moved with unexpected delicacy as he continued clearing and cleaning the weapon.
I couldn’t sense the tremendous magical power he had. All the judges were magical powerhouses. Sometimes I wished I knew the trick they used to hide it.
Why was Flint here?
It was hard to keep my tone light when every muscle had gone stiff as memories of the Tree crowded in on me. I breathed through it; the Judges had no malice for Dmitri and could guard him better than anyone else in the Guild.
“Am I supposed to pretend I don’t know that this is Flint, one of the Judges? Because I’ve run into him in Silver’s office before. Sorry, not happy to see you.”
Flint was light on his feet as he moved around the table to approach me. No gem, which made him even more memorable to me. He offered his hand.
I shook my head, tucking mine behind me. Once was more than enough. I’d touched Silver, and I’d promised never to do so again- the feeling of age, layered grief and hope, so much emotional memory that it stunned me. It was partly why I couldn’t bring myself to hate him; there’s been no malice in him at all.
It was like he wasn’t human. And I didn’t want to go through that again.
“You know he’ll protect Dmitri?” I asked Walker.
“I’m standing right here,” Flint said.
“I know. You were standing right there when I was put on the Tree to be judged, too,” I snapped.
Memory clamped down on me. I’d been restrained, and three of the five of them had been discussing what to do with me- Silver, Frost, and Flint. Rue and Rope had remoted in, but I couldn’t hear anything they said, or see them.
By law, as a murderer, I should have been executed. But I was pregnant. Silver had argued that letting the Tree judge me, and if what I had done was justified, commuting my sentence to lifelong servitude.
I remembered Flint’s response. “Death is kinder than slavery.”
“I’m trying to save her life!” Silver had snapped.
“Servitude can be escaped or commuted. Death is permanent. And she believes it was justified… and the Tree judging is the only way written into the law to do this. So we do it.” Frost’s voice was low and resonant, full of power. A frightening figure, taller than the rest, with skin and hair crusted with ice, cold breathing off her.
She gestured, and magic scooped me up and pressed me into the Tree, my arms forced out to the sides and supporting my weight. My boots scrambled against the rough bark, trying to ease the strain on my shoulders and chest. An alien mind invaded my own, sifting through my memories, forcing itself into my deepest privacy, all the way to the wall Ethan had made to confine my power…
I shuddered, snapping back to the present.
Both men regarded me, Walker with concern, Flint with distant sympathy.
“Yes, I was there, Alys Quinn-Stormdust. And you’re breathing today to hate me and the others for it. Also, therapy is available through the Halls if you choose.” There was no mockery in Flint’s voice, only calm and a distant wariness. I took the wariness as a compliment, given that he had the authority to order me around, just like Silver.
My hands trembled with the force of my desire to punch him. They were gloved, I wouldn’t actually be touching him…
“Alys. Anything that comes will have to go through him first. And he’s a solid wall.” Walker nudged me toward the table. “He also has some information on the persons of interest for the shadow’s case, before I start the briefing for tonight.”
Focus, Alys. Shadow related to Wendigo possession and the potential involvement of people with political power. A Judge wasn’t bad to have at your back in a struggle like that, even if his presence made you feel like you were swimming in a lake full of fish.
I sat across the table, eyeing Flint with a hard glare. He gazed back at me, and the flicker of amusement that crossed his face annoyed me. Patronization had gotten very tiresome during my stay in the Guild.
Flint returned to cleaning the weapons on the table. “I went digging through records. First on Wendigo manifestation in the past century; there’s been three confirmed. One nullified by Frost, two by Rope. I looked for potentials, and hit a block: a seal from the President’s office.”
Click. His fingers, strong and sure, cleaning and assembling. “Then, oops, I broke the seal and all the security flags to keep me from seeing the files—remind Silver to send me a reprimand, Walker.” A gleam of humor flitted through Flint’s dark eyes. “About eight years ago, a young woman, Tuuli Lahtinen, reported that Ross Cohen, the President’s younger brother, had summoned the Wendigo on his estate and she had been attacked. She’d been charged a few months before for her parents’ death by arson. They’d lived in Ross Cohen’s administrative territory.
“The team dispatched to arrest her crashed, no survivors. Executive seal prevented further investigation. Interestingly, President Cohen’s daughter Melissa Cohen-Rossi, who was sixteen years old then, was present on the estate at the time of the alleged summoning. While she’d been a bit of a discipline problem before that, she straightened out, finished her schooling with stellar grades, and began making political connections.” His eyes met mine.
