Someday I'll Be Redeemed Read online

  Looking now, he saw the abnormality of magic channeling through the walls, ceilings, and floors all toward this area. With a hard look, he used his magic to peer through the walls and found layers upon layers of heavy cables pulsing with magic. Where is this coming from? He frowned but then pulled back—out of the wall, out of the hall, and out of the building altogether until his presence hovered far above, looking down.

  Through magic he instantly mapped every single cable through its winding paths up and over the ceilings, down and under the floors, over and inside the walls, around the corner, through that door and the next, and the next, another turn, and then another, and then Lorrek stopped.

  He now stood in a room identical to the one he had been in earlier with Vixen and Loroth. The only difference was that there were only two chairs now, and both of them were connected to the cables that came up from the floor and through the arms of the chairs. Lorrek frowned when he saw this, and he walked around the room. He saw traces of past magic channeled from the chairs and through the cables, but never to the other chair. Perhaps these are extractions.

  Making note of this room and the apparent operation, Lorrek whizzed back through the corridors to the door where he had stood before. Now that he knew where the magic came from, he wanted to know where it was going.

  Out of habit he looked both ways to make sure no one was watching, and once satisfied, he headed for the door then lifted his hand, ready to pass through it. For a moment he hesitated—uncertain whether or not he wanted to know the truth that hid behind the door—but then gathered a breath and passed through.

  A hallway full of doors was all he saw at first. A few magic users passed through it—always guided and directed by someone else, but they did not use their magic. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary except for the constant pulsing of magic in the walls, ceiling, and floor. Lorrek frowned, confused, but then he realized the present held no answers for him, though perhaps the recent past did.

  Closing his eyes, he shifted backwards through time and felt time rush past him in reverse. When he opened his eyes, he saw a woman being escorted by Asalda to one of the rooms in the corridor. Still passing through time in reverse, he saw another woman speaking to Pelham outside another room. Then another woman—always women.

  Finally, Lorrek decided to eavesdrop, so he stopped the backwards flow of time and moved close to the young woman who was being guided to a room by Asalda. She clung to her purse as if frightened, and she looked to the kind-faced Asalda for guidance, as if her future depended on it. Finally, Asalda ushered her into a small dim room and sat her down then sat across from her.

  “You're afraid,” Asalda rightly identified the woman's prime emotion. “There is nothing to fear. We are here to help. Now...” she crossed her legs as she grabbed a tablet from a nearby table and poised to type. “Tell me what happened.”

  The young woman looked at her surprised. “You want details?”

  Asalda appeared unimpressed. “Well, you did come here for help, so we must know the situation before we can assess anything.”

  Nodding, the girl clenched her hands in her lap and took a deep breath. “I am married, but my husband...he doesn't want children right now.”

  “And you think you're pregnant.” When the girl nodded, Asalda put down the tablet and smiled. “Well, we can determine that. Simply sit there.” Asalda picked up another handheld device and brought it to the woman's stomach.

  Lorrek slipped around to see the reading on the screen of the device because he had already detected life in the woman's womb, and he wanted to see what this device read. He saw a heartbeat and smiled then looked to Asalda to see what she would do.

  No expression passed Asalda's face. If she was pleased or disappointed, she hid it well. “Something seems to be there. Could be a tumor or a fetus. Either way, it is unhealthy for you. If you would like, I have staff on hand, and we can remove it for you—at a discount charge.” She offered her client a warm smile.

  The woman's eyes widened, and her hands immediately went to her stomach. She didn't know what to do or think, but she trusted Asalda to take care of her, so she nodded. “Yes, yes—whatever you need to do!”

  Asalda smiled again. “The operation will go by much quicker and be less frightening for you if you are unconscious.” She activated her tablet again and turned it around to her client. “Please sign here, so we have record of your consent.”

  When the woman signed her name, Asalda accepted the tablet back and pocketed it away then pressed a button on the desk. The woman frowned, and Asalda offered her a smile as she rose to her feet. “Come, and we can begin the operation. You will have to change, and we will have to give you a sedative, but when you wake, all will be right in the world. Not to worry, I will be with you.”

  She escorted the client from her office to a room further down the hall where they met a woman in a white dress with red hair. “Kyra will show you where you can change, and I'll be right here when you come out.”

  The woman hesitated but nodded and followed Kyra into the room. While they were gone, Asalda went to a room across the hall, and Lorrek immediately recognized it as another operation room. A few Guardians were in the room, and Asalda barked orders to them as she marched to a table where tools were laid out but covered by a cloth, and there was a box of plastic gloves on the table. Asalda reached into the box, pulled out two gloves, and began to pull them on her hands as she continued giving orders to the Guardians. “Prepare the sedative. You know the routine.”

  Intrigued by what was happening, Lorrek frowned, but something else tugged at his mind—Kyra. He heard that name before, but where? Ah yes, Skelton and Adonis mentioned it, but who was she? There was something elusive about her presence.

  Pulling out of the operation room, he came back to the hall in time to see Kyra emerge from the room with the client now donned in a gray robe. Fear and uncertainty radiated from the woman, and Lorrek wished he could reassure her, but this was all the past. Instead, he focused on Kyra. She looked human in every way except for the lack of any deep emotion or thought on her face, and when Lorrek tapped into her mind, he pulled back in surprise. No soul, no thoughts—merely the hum of technology. She was not human.

  With a frown, Lorrek withdrew from his thoughts and watched as the client was directed into the operation room and told to sit in the chair in the middle of the room.

  Sensing her fear, Asalda tsked her tongue as she grabbed a syringe. “Not to worry,” Asalda reassured the girl. “Everything will be fine. You will be unconscious for only an hour, but then everything will be back to normal.” She came to stand beside the girl. “It won't hurt except for the initial pinch.” She laid the needle against a vein in the girl's arm and looked at her face. “Now, just take a deep breath...” As the girl did so, Asalda slid the needle under the vein, earning a sharp inhale from her client, but before she could pull away, Asalda emptied the liquid into her vein and withdrew the syringe. “Now, just lay back and close your eyes.” Asalda pressed a button on the side of the chair, causing it to lean back and lift the girl’s feet, so she lay parallel to the floor.

  Lorrek felt sick as he watched everything unfold. The girl tried to fight the sedative at first—her eyes flickering back and forth and blinking hard, but finally she succumbed to it with a sigh, and she lulled to sleep.

  As Lorrek tried to comprehend this, he realized they had already set to work on the patient, and he stepped back as they worked in a blur. He didn't understand what they were doing, but they moved quickly and with one mind here and there. Kyra's fingers transformed into needles and other medical tools as she tended to the patient, but finally one of the Guardians brought in a small glowing contraption and opened it for Kyra. Carefully, she placed something bloody inside, and the Guardian sealed it shut, and Lorrek sensed a pulse of life in the container.

  As the Guardian moved past Lorrek, he peered inside and saw a human no larger than his thumb tucked away in an orange liquid substance. He s
ensed no distress from the infant and felt its heartbeat still pulsing in the realm of magic, so Lorrek turned back to the patient as they cleaned her up and wondered what he had just witnessed.

  “They are not human.” A woman's voice yanked Lorrek out of his observation of the past and brought his mind back to his chambers in the present moment. Looking around for the invasion, Lorrek halted when he saw the glowing presence of a woman standing in his suite. He knew if he emerged from the realm of magic, he wouldn't see her because she was traveling the magic realm just as he had.

  “Who are you?” Lorrek refused to back down or relax his guard.

  The woman chuckled as she meandered around the room. Her slight body spoke of little physical training although the grace with which she walked kept Lorrek alert. The tendrils of her long oily black hair framed her face—almost childish features, and Lorrek was struck by the resemblance.

  “Radella?”

  She looked at him with slight surprise then smiled. “So Mother did tell you who I am.”

  Lorrek thought back to the time he invaded Verddra's privacy with her daughter and remembered the image of the girl asleep on the bed—never to wake. He tried to grasp the fact that he was speaking with her now. “How are you here?”

  “The same way you are, Prince Lorrek—magic. I am not stuck in my body—as much as Mother would prefer that.” She neared the window and stared out into the nightlife of the city with an emptiness even Lorrek could not fathom.

  Taking the moment to observe her through the eyes of magic, the power he saw in the fibers of her being startled Lorrek. He didn't see a broken body or a shattered soul but rather a mind full of so much power and no known way to direct it, so it stayed trapped within itself.

  Knowing to word his questions carefully—because any amount of anger might cause Radella to lash out at him and trap him in his own mind—Lorrek chose his words. “You said that child is not human. What did you mean?”

  Radella sighed. “Because the child was never acknowledged as human on any level when it was taken from its mother's womb, it was never given the privilege of being human.”

  “Then the child lives?”

  Lowering her eyes, Radella turned from the window then lifted her gaze to Lorrek. “All the children raised in this facility are unseen servants of Jechorm and are subject to whatever experiment is deemed necessary.”

  This caused Lorrek's mouth to run dry, but for some reason he could not get the image of the Guardian out of his mind—or the overabundance of magic flowing toward the back rooms of the building. “And the Guardians? What of them? Why is magic being sucked through cables to the back rooms?”

  Something crossed Radella's pale features—jealousy or anger, Lorrek wasn't sure—but she pressed her lips into a thin line as she wrung her fingers. “The magic is directed to the Guardian suits. That is what powers them, and why they have extraordinary reflexes.”

  “Technology and magic finally collide,” Lorrek realized, stunned. Pelham did say they were their best inventions, and now it made sense why, but what would happen if the magic flow suddenly stopped?

  “One more thing.” At Radella's words, their surroundings shredded away then pieced back together, and Lorrek realized they stood in a massive domed arena. An eerie silence draped upon them as if time stopped. Up high and all around, he saw rows and rows of benches crowded with cheering people, who shook their fists and shouted as they looked down upon the arena—each person frozen in mid-shout.

  At the base of the arena, over it, and all around it, he noted the faintest shimmer in the air and recognized it. “A forcefield. But why?” He turned around and saw Guardians in full armor crashing down upon one another, but all frozen as time stopped around Lorrek. One Guardian had leapt in the air with a blaze of fire in his palm, and he targeted the Guardian who knelt on one knee but held up her hands with a shield of ice covering her. Across the way, Lorrek saw another Guardian with her hand stretched out and lightning shooting from her fingertips. The lightning whipped around another warrior, lifting him off the ground.

  Round and round Lorrek turned and saw Guardians fighting each other, and finally he shot Radella a look. “What is happening? Why are they fighting?”

  “This was last year. The Guardian Games. These Guardians questioned society—questioned their origins. They know they are human and not technology, yet this knowledge would demoralize the rest of the Guardians.” Radella shook her head as she meandered around the frozen fight and looked into the visors of the fighters. “The government decided to set up these games once a year for those who wish to earn their humanity. Whomever survives will be rewarded with the status of human.”

  Lorrek nodded—that made sense in a twisted way, but as he gazed upon the warriors, one thing puzzled him. “If all of them believe they are human, why are they fighting each other? Why not band together?”

  “Because those in charge of the Guardian Program are very crafty. As any human being, they have their feuds, and the Director merely...arranges complications and grudges against them.” Sighing, Radella dropped her hand from the shoulder of one battling Guardian and glanced back at Lorrek, who stared, bewildered, until he finally locked eyes with her.

  “Surely they could put aside their differences with at least one person.”

  Radella placed her hand on her hip and gave him a long-suffering stare. “They've tried, but if there are two or more who refuse to fight, then the Guardians without a moral compass are released into the arena with the order to kill all remaining corrupted Guardians.” She cast her gaze around with sad eyes. “A good many men and women die this way.”

  “Have any survived?” His question caused her to look back at him, and he went on, “Has a Guardian ever won these games and became human?”

  “Yes.” She nodded. “But then you have the Crucible.”

  “The Crucible?”

  “Aye...” Once again their surroundings faded from around them, and when it came back together, they stood in the shadows of an abandoned warehouse. Unlike in the gladiator arena, time moved, and Lorrek noticed a young man kneeling on the ground tying together provisions. At his side and on his body, he wore various guns and knives, and his actions were jerky as he kept glimpsing around.

  Radella folded her arms as she observed him. “This is the winner from the last Guardian Games. The winners are rewarded the status of human on the condition that they surrender their armor, and if they survive the Crucible—which usually takes place a week after the Guardian Games.”

  “What is the Crucible?”

  Radella lifted her brows as she glanced at Lorrek. “Bounty hunters, assassins, or thieves around the world and from all kingdoms are welcome to participate in these games. There is only one objective...” She looked back at the man before her and nodded to him. “Kill the surviving Guardian. The government can't have them running around free, now can they? None of the Guardians have survived the Crucible.

  Lorrek frowned as he learned all this. The only reason he came to Jechorm was to have Loroth healed, but now this other issue came to his attention. As one gifted with much power, Lorrek saw it as his responsibility to help those in need, but this—he had never imagined. “Children are taken from their mothers' wombs, raised believing they are only technology, and when some dare to think, they are sentenced to kill one another and be killed?” He shook his head and made his hands into fists. “How could no other kingdom know of this?”

  Radella shrugged. “In the world's eyes, the Guardians are Jechorian technology, and the Jechorians may do whatever they wish. Besides, it provides entertainment.” Her voice dripped with heavy sarcasm on that last word, but an opening door caught their attention as well as the attention of the Guardian.

  He took a rifle from his back and pointed it at the intruder.

  Curious, Lorrek watched. By the sharp, distinct sound of the invader's footsteps, he knew it was a woman. By her silhouette, he determined she wore a tight-fitting, short dress, and wh
en she emerged from the shadows, he saw no weapon in her hands or on her person, but her striking red hair caught his attention. At first he thought it was Kyra, but his magic told him she was human. Lorrek slid Radella a puzzled glance, but Radella didn't acknowledge him.

  The unarmored Guardian pointed his gun at the woman. “Who are you? And what are you doing here?” He took in her elegant appearance and noted the absence of weapons, and he frowned. “Are you from the government?”

  She smiled but shook her head as she neared him—slowing her steps and raising her hands. “My name is Ceras. And before you try to kill me since I am an assassin, hear me out. I've rigged this place with jammers—disrupting the video feed as well as any listening devices planted here. To everyone else, you're here alone—still working.”

  He narrowed his eyes, weapons still balanced in his hands. “Why should I trust you?”

  Raising her elegant brows, she halted before him and folded her arms lightly. “Perhaps because I am not attacking you—”

  “Not at this moment.”

  She sighed. “Always distrusting. Every single one of you, and yes, I would know. Each time one of you wins the Guardian Games, I come offering my help, and each time, you refuse and die. When will one of you be smart enough to accept my help? I have a plan. It involves faking your death, so all the other Hunters will stop looking for you, and then I'll smuggle you out of Jechorm, and you can live freely.”

  With eyes still narrowed and hands clutching his guns, he jutted his chin toward her. “What's in it for you?”

  A coy smile slid across her lips. “Oh, let's just say I cannot wait to bring an end to the Guardian Program.”

  “Why?”

  “Personal reasons.”

  For a long moment they stared at each other—her waiting, and him trying to decide whether or not to trust her.

  Finally, he withdrew his guns and holstered them. “Well, I'm not going anywhere without my armor.”