Asunder: A Gathering of Chaos by Cameron Hopkin (children's ebooks free online .txt) 📕

Renna’s eyes bulged and her jaw clenched. Nira watched her, fascinated and nearly sick at the thought of how she might respond. The gaunt Weaver seemed to be having a hard time taking a breath. Her hands clenched and twitched, and her eyes flicked toward her younger companion for a bare instant before settling back on the man. She found her words, and they were cold ones. “What is your name, guardsman?” On Renna’s lips, the title sounded like the vilest curse.

He was unimpressed. “My name’s Go Away.” He jerked his considerable chin in the direction of the stairs behind them. “Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

The Hand stepped closer to the man, her face level with his. “I’m sure all your little friends think that’s just the funniest thing they’ve ever heard when you’re having a drink, but I am not amused. I will have your name.” Her expression could have crushed stones and baked bread out of the dust.

The man didn’t even blink. “No, you won’t. What you’ll have is a crop of nasty bruises if you both don’t disappear right now. I’m not kidding.” He hefted the butt of his pike and thumped it against the stone, reptilian eyes never altering.

“Do you have poor eyesight, or are you just desperate to leave the Governor’s Guard? Do you not see who I am?” She gestured to her outfit. It would have been alluring on nearly any female body other than hers, but the shape and design of it were unmistakable.

“You’re one of those Gaia girls, I know,” he drawled, somehow sounding both bored and angry. “Don’t care. If you’ve got business, come back in the morning.”

“Impossible. My mission is of greatest urgency to this city. You will admit me immediately, and then I’ll be having words with your superior.”

He shook his head. “Everyone’s asleep,” he said slowly, as if speaking to a particularly stupid child. “The big man went to bed hours ago. Whatever you’ve got will keep ‘til morning. They’d have sent one of their top ladies otherwise.”

The cords stood out on Renna’s neck. “I am a Hand of the Second Class, you pile of shit.”

The flat-eyed man shook his head with a little snort. “No, you’re not. I see Seconds and Thirds coming in and out of here all the time. Two years and I’ve never seen you. Ten flats says you’re a Fourth. Fifth, even. Go home and let the higher-ups handle the big stuff, girl.”

“‘Girl’?” Renna exploded. “Shall I show you my badge of office, then, you pathetic excuse for a man?” She dug in one of the pouches at her belt. “‘Girl’? I’ll have you whipped.”

He shrugged. “Go on, then – let’s see it.”

He held out his hand and then rocked back on his heels when the gaunt woman suddenly slapped him hard across the face.

“That’s that,” he said in a dangerous tone, lowering his pike. Then it drooped past horizontal as his eyes rolled up in his head and he crashed to the stone floor. Nira squeaked in surprise and jumped back. She looked around. No one else was in sight.

Renna knelt by the fallen guard, muttering to herself. “Serve you right if I left it there. In one day, you’d be a drooling moron. If I left it two, you’d die.” She withdrew a vidrin phial from her pouch and a pair of wooden tweezers and plucked at a black seed stuck to the man’s cheek. His face clung to the dark nugget as she tweezed, and Nira was disgusted to see roots pulling free from underneath his skin. His face looked discolored where the unnatural seedling had invaded his flesh. “Maybe the two weeks of incontinence you’ve got coming when you wake up will teach you to speak respectfully to your betters.” She carefully deposited the thing in the phial and packed it away. Standing, she brushed her hands briskly and said, “Come along quickly now, child.” She slipped in through the unlocked door, and Nira had very little choice but to follow.

The man had been correct – everyone was asleep, and all the lights were out. “Are we just going to barge in on the Governor while he’s sleeping?” she whispered nervously. Moonlight filtered through the massive vidrin windows, painting the opulent residence in a pearly glow. “That seems like a bad idea.”

Renna shook her head. “Waking someone up is the best way to get the true measure of them. You have to learn these tricks, as a woman.” She gestured up the grand staircase. “His bedroom is up there. Best be about it before anyone else comes along. There are bound to be other guards on the premises.” She stopped and gave Nira a hard look. “I have been in here before, you know.”

Nira nodded, confused, but the woman swept up the stairs without explaining any further. How did I end up roped to this woman? She wished that her life was in the hands of someone a little more… stable, but she wasn’t spoiled for choice. She crept up the white marble staircase, luxuriating in the soft, cold smoothness under her bare feet even as she feared for her life. The marble had been quarried in the foothills beyond the Twin Cities and shipped here nearly fifty years ago, she knew, though she couldn’t have said how.

Renna motioned her to stillness at the head of the stairs. Down the hallway was another grand door illuminated by a glowpod set into a fancy carved sconce. Another guard sat in a padded chair right beside it, but his head was slumped to his chest and he breathed evenly, deeply asleep. The Hand fiddled in her pouch again, and after motioning to the girl to remain where she was, the bony woman crept forward in a deep crouch, moving more quietly than Nira would have believed she was able. She slid into the circle of light slowly, stealthily, and the young castaway had to stifle a giggle. Bent