The Core

Stela laughed. ‘Tellin’ me you didn’t like it a bit, playin’ the bad girl? Didn’t curl your toes while you were at it?’

‘I don’t have to explain myself to you,’ Leesha said.

‘Course not,’ Stela said. ‘Leesha rippin’ Paper doesn’t need to explain herself to anyone. Leaves town for seven years and comes back orderin’ folk around like someone made her duchess.’

‘Enough,’ Leesha said. ‘There were conditions when I warded your skin and gave your people weapons. You have broken them, and the laws of Hollow County. You will be taken into custody to answer to the magistrate for your crimes.’

Stela barked a laugh. ‘By what army?’

Leesha pointed, and the two looked back to see Cutters blocking egress from the alley. They had kept their distance as Leesha instructed, but there was no way out for the pair.

Stela had a wry smile as she turned back. ‘Ent enough. Not by a long sight.’ She leapt, easily clearing the thirty feet between them.

But as fast as she was, Wonda Cutter was faster. She stepped in front of Leesha, immovable as a rock demon, and struck Stela an open-handed blow to the chest that stopped her short, blowing the wind out of her and knocking her to the ground.

The wards tattooed all over Stela’s skin flared to match the anger in her aura. She put her hands under her, not seriously injured.

Wonda gave her no time to recover, kicking her onto her stomach and torquing back one of her arms. Stela screamed, but it was short-lived as Keet stepped in, cracking Wonda across the head with the shaft of his hora spear so hard the strap broke and her wooden helm was sent tumbling away.

‘Let’s go!’ Keet shouted, pulling Stela to her feet as the Cutters charged.

Stela threw off his arm. ‘Not until I put this ugly skink on the ground!’ Wonda was stumbling to her feet as Stela came in, impact wards flaring on her fist as she punched Wonda square in the jaw.

Had Wonda been a normal person, even a Cutter, the blow would likely have killed her. But Wonda’s flesh was warded as well, and her wooden armour was infused with hora. Even so, Leesha heard the crack of bone.

Leesha pulled her wand, but Wonda wasn’t down yet. She sidestepped the next blow, catching Stela’s wrist and using her own momentum to pull her into a body blow that cracked ribs.

Keet had seemed unwilling to fight, but now that it was upon them, his aura flared nearly as hot as Stela’s. He push-kicked one of the charging Cutters into the woman next to him, cracking a third across the face. A year ago he had been a harmless boy, innocent and a bit simple, but now he moved like a predator, striking where his foes were weakest, never losing track of them as they tried to surround him.

Stela had been right. They hadn’t brought enough warriors.

Stela and Wonda fought like demons, exchanging heavy blows. In the thick of battle, much of the artistry fell from sharusahk, leaving only a brutal melee of kicks, punches, and twists. Wonda put them on the ground, wrestling her way toward a hold, but Stela put an elbow into her, impact ward flaring. Wonda was knocked back and Stela tried to reverse the hold, but Wonda got a foot between them, kicking her off.

‘Enough!’ Leesha shouted, lifting her wand. Stela turned to her, eyes like a coreling, and started to move her way.

Leesha wrote a practised series of wards in the air as easily as she might sign her name. She could have used the magic to strike at Stela, but this wasn’t the girl’s fault – at least, not entirely. Instead Leesha formed a Draw.

Stela screamed as the magic was torn from her. Her wards dimmed as the wand grew warm in Leesha’s hands. Wonda reached for her, then shouted and pulled her hand back as she was caught in the Draw.

‘Stop Keet!’ Leesha shouted. ‘I have this!’

But it didn’t seem like she had it. Stela found her feet, stalking in, eyes ablaze. Smitt took a step back as his granddaughter drew close.

The wand was hot now, but Leesha gritted her teeth and stood fast, even as she felt the feedback passing through her specially warded gloves and up her arm. It made her strong, but only increased her anger and frustration.

‘How dare you!’ Leesha shouted. ‘You were nothing! A mouse scurrying in my hospit! I gave you power to stand up in the night and this is what you do with it? This is how you repay me?!’ She wrote more wards in the air, increasing the pull.

And then, suddenly, Stela’s aura winked out, snuffed like a candle. She collapsed to the ground, lifeless.

‘Night!’ The sight brought Leesha back to herself. She stopped the Draw and ran to the girl, panic screaming through her as the magic heightened that as well. She had not meant to drain so much. Not meant to kill her.

Stela was still warm, but she wasn’t breathing, her heart still and her aura dark. The wand was still hot in Leesha’s hand, and she touched it to the keyward on Stela’s breast, giving back a touch of what she had taken.

Leesha saw as the ward greedily drank the magic, sending a spark through the net, racing throughout Stela’s body. She girl jolted, eyes wide as she pulled in a gasping breath, then fell back, panting. Her aura was dim, but Leesha could see her heart beating again, and knew she would survive.

By then Wonda and the Cutters had Keet pinned, stripping him of weapons and armour. Wonda looked to be healing, but her jaw was crooked. Leesha might need to break it again to set it properly.

‘Keet and Stela Inn, you are under arrest,’ Leesha said. ‘I’d hoped never to use the dungeons Count Thamos built, but you leave me no choice.’

Stela coughed, spitting blood, but she was smiling. ‘Not for long. Pack’s gonna hear about this. They’ll come for us.’

‘Then they’ll share your cells.’ But if the rest of the Painted Children were eating demon meat, Leesha knew it wouldn’t be so simple.

Things would get worse before they got better.

‘Don’t see the need for all this, mistress,’ Darsy said as she and Leesha sipped tea, watching Hollow Soldiers march onto Gatherers’ Academy grounds.

They were in what was once Leesha’s cottage, now the seat of Headmistress Darsy’s administration. It was odd, being a visitor in her old home.

‘I pray there isn’t one,’ Leesha said, ‘but the Painted Children’s camp is only a few miles away, and it’s only a matter of time before they realize we have Stela and Keet locked away. With magic amplifying their emotions, they may want to strike back, and not be picky about where.’

Darsy gave her a knowing look. ‘Ent your fault, Leesha. You didn’t know what would happen.’

‘Didn’t I?’ Leesha asked. ‘Arlen told me not to ward flesh. Night, he begged me not to! He knew what it did to folk’s minds. I told myself he wasn’t giving us enough credit, but I think now I wasn’t giving enough to him. The will to resist power like that … what kind of person does it take?’

Darsy blew out a breath. ‘Thought Renna was bad at first, but she came out the other side, didn’t she?’

‘I suppose, but she had Arlen Bales with her, day and night. Children just have each other.’ Leesha sipped her tea.

Melny came out of the kitchen with a tray. ‘Biscuit, mistress?’

‘Thank you dear.’ Leesha took a biscuit. ‘They smell delicious.’

Melny’s smile lit her face. She was a beautiful young woman, swollen bosom and belly barely contained by her homespun dress, but seeing her tending Darsy’s house, no one would ever guess she was the Duchess of Angiers, snuck out of the city with Leesha’s apprentices when her husband was killed in a Krasian attack.