Chapter 13 #4
Horror rushed through me, propelling me to my feet, and I nearly jumped off the bleachers before I remembered myself.
Luckily, the rest of the crowd surged to their feet with cheers and whoops, so my cover wasn’t blown.
Blood pounded hot and heavy in my ears as I stared at the ring, watching as the lion and tiger shifters were tossed inside.
My heart twisted as I watched the tiger – a female – struggle to her feet, her long hair matted and the bags under her eyes so deep they looked like smudged charcoal.
Whatever they’d been pumping these shifters up with was clearly hitting her harder than the male she was facing, who’d already started to change.
I could tell the woman was struggling to reach for her beast, but it wasn’t happening.
He’s going to rip her to shreds.
A wave of helplessness washed over me as I watched the glow fade from around the lion shifter’s form, and I clenched my trembling hands into fists. I felt so useless, so ashamed. Who was I to call myself an enforcer, if all I could do was stand by and watch as one of my own kind was murdered?
You are not just a shifter, Sunaya Baine, a voice murmured in my head. You are also a mage, and it is your birthright to use your magic to protect the weak.
I started, not just at the unfamiliar voice in my head, but at the way the air around me changed – it grew lighter somehow, reminding me of the air inside Resinah’s temple.
I didn’t know if it was she who spoke to me but the words filled me with strength, and my doubts and fears fell away.
I wasn’t helpless – I had the power to help these victims, and damned if I wasn’t going to use it.
Reaching for my magic, I focused all my attention into the center of the ring, willing the illusion in my mind to form.
Two seconds later, a towering flame sprang to life right between the two combatants, licking the ceiling with its long, colorful tongue.
The lion shifter, who was about to pounce, shrank back, and the crowd’s cheers turned to terrified shrieks as the fire began to spread.
Of course the fire wouldn’t actually burn them, but they’d feel the heat and smell the smoke as if it really were.
The humans in charge of the Royale rushed to contain the shifters, a few of them throwing sand on the flames to try and put them out.
I allowed the illusion to die down before the humans realized the fire wasn’t real, and leapt from the bleachers as everyone else stampeded for the exits.
I tried to make a run for the cages, but Annia grabbed the back of my dress and yanked me back.
“Get ahold of yourself, Naya,” she growled. “You’ll blow our cover for sure!”
I snarled, spinning around to confront her, but the velocity of the stampeding crowd forced me to either follow her or get trampled.
People pushed and elbowed each other as the crowd clogged outside the stairwell, and I glanced back once more at the shifters stuck in their cages.
They were already being moved out of the room by the few staff members who weren’t corralling the spectators into an orderly evacuation, through a panel that had been slid open at the corner of the far wall when we weren’t looking.
Guess we weren’t allowed to use it as an emergency exit.
I wanted to turn around and investigate the secret entrance so badly it was a physical ache in my chest, but I knew Annia was right.
If I did anything more now it would only blow our cover and possibly get us, and the shifters, killed.
No, it was better to get an actual team of enforcers, ones who weren’t being bribed, to come in here and arrest everyone.
Until then, we had to pretend we were normal humans just like everyone else.
Once we made it to the upper floor of the warehouse, things calmed down a bit. Members of the event staff worked to direct the flow of traffic to the various exits, and they managed to gather everyone into the lot outside of the front of the building.
“Ladies and gentlemen!” The announcer called, standing up on the hood of a steamcar to make himself visible.
“We apologize profusely for that rude interruption of tonight’s Royale.
Our staff has managed to put the fire out, so there is no need to call the fire department.
If anyone is injured, please head over to the front – we have professionals who will render you first aid.
For the rest of you, we are giving out free tickets to our next Royale as compensation for the abrupt end to this evening’s entertainment.
For those of you who are interested, please go and see Solin Endeman over there.
” The announcer pointed to his right, where Solin, the man who’d sold us the tickets, stood waiting.
About half of the crowd surged toward Solin, eager to claim tickets, but quite a few of the humans shook their heads and turned to leave, muttering amongst themselves.
From the snippets of conversation I overheard, it didn’t sound like they were planning on coming back to the Royale, and weary satisfaction briefly swept through me.
Maybe I hadn’t been able to rescue those shifters tonight, but I’d put a dent in the Royale’s operation, and that would have to be enough to tide me over until I could crush them completely.
A handful of the attendees had been injured in the evacuation, trampled or smashed into walls, and those were led over to where Brin and Nila stood with a few other humans, a table with medical supplies set up.
Brin looked like he’d been hurt, maybe by one of the shifters – Nila was binding his right forearm up with a length of gauze.
My hands clenched into fists again, and I took a step toward them.
“Wait.” Annia placed a hand on my shoulder. “Let me go and talk to them. I can help out with the first aid and see if I can get anything from those two. You, on the other hand, don’t look like you’ve changed a bandage in your life, so you should wait for me here with Lakin.”
“Fine.” I wrinkled my nose at the accusation – I’d changed plenty of bandages, thank you very much – but I was playing the part of wimpy female tonight, so I hung back and watched as Annia made her way toward Brin and Nila.
She introduced herself as an enforcer from a neighboring town, and after answering a couple of pointed questions Brin and Nila seemed to accept her.
“That was incredible, what you did back there with the fire,” Lakin murmured in my ear from behind me.
I shivered a little at the sensation of his warm breath on my neck, and turned my body at a three quarter angle so that I could see both him and Annia and also put some distance between us. “It was an illusion, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.” I looked up into Lakin’s eyes, and felt a pang in my chest at the admiration I saw there.
I wanted to lean into that gaze, to soak up the affinity and the admiration my soul craved, but I knew I couldn’t trust that look.
“I wasn’t going to start a real fire, especially not in such a small space. ”
“Well you saved that tigress’s life.” Lakin squeezed my shoulder as he smiled down at me. “We may not have been able to free those shifters tonight, but you made sure that none of them died.”
“I was just doing my job.”
“No. You were just being you.”
Warmth flooded through me, and I turned away before Lakin could catch the blush on my cheeks. Annia was crouched down in front of a human, bandaging up his ankle as she talked to Nila, and I tuned in on their conversation, hoping they were talking about something useful.
“… amazing, the way you guys manage to keep the shifters under control like that,” Annia was saying. “Haven’t any of them lashed out and killed someone?”
“Oh, that happened once or twice in the early stages,” Nila said casually, as if she were talking about training a puppy who still hadn’t learned not to pee in the house. “But we’ve been doing this for a couple months now, and we’ve got those shifters under control.”
“How do you manage to get them here in the first place?” Annia asked. I was impressed at the admiration in her voice – if I didn’t know better I would have thought she was actually praising Nila. “I can’t imagine they’re happy to be here or that they came voluntarily.”
“They’re not happy to be here,” Brin said with a smirk. “But they only have themselves to blame. They should have been more careful about who they decided to default on their obligations to.”
“Indentured servitude?” Lakin hissed, drawing the same conclusion I did from Brin’s insinuation. “That’s not only barbaric, but illegal!”
I agreed, but something more important was rolling through my mind. “Lakin, Brin said that the shifters here all defaulted on obligations. Do you think those obligations could be financial?”
Lakin narrowed his eyes. “I suppose. What are you suggesting?”
“There’s a certain bank that’s been offering interest-free loans to shifters,” I said dryly.
Lakin’s eyes widened. “You mean Sandin Federal? Do you really think such a reputable bank would be involved in a dirty scheme like this?”
I shrugged. “Just because they’re interest-free doesn’t mean they’re payment-free. It’s possible that the shifters they took just couldn’t keep up with the payments.”
Except for Mika, a voice in my head reminded me. She was taken because of you.
“Alright,” Annia called, and I turned my head to see her walking back toward us. “Let’s head home.”
We all climbed into the purple and white steamcar in silence, the tension thick in the air as I waited for someone to stop us. But no one even spared us a second glance. Still, I held my breath until we were out onto the road, and didn’t relax until we were far from Turain’s industrial district.
“So,” Annia finally said. “You got everything Nila and Brin told me?”
“Yeah. Debt slavery.” I pressed my lips together. “I’d be interested to know who the investor is behind this, if we’re right about what Brin is saying.”
“And also why they’re giving out loans to these shifters,” Lakin interjected.
I could see him scowling through the rearview mirror.
“I interviewed nearly every one of those families, and none of them looked like they were in the position to take on a loan. Why would an investor extend credit to someone who almost certainly can’t pay it off? ”
“It almost sounds as if the investor, whoever they are, is trying to get these shifters indebted to him on purpose.”
“But why?” I demanded. “So that he can force them into an illegal fighting ring? I don’t know about you, but that sounds like an expensive way to get labor. He’d probably save more money if he just kidnapped them straight off.”
“I don’t know if it’s about saving money,” Annia said slowly. “I think it’s about control.”
“What do you mean?”
“I read something in a history textbook, back during my brief stint as a college student, that sounds kind of similar to this.” Annia drummed her fingers on the steering wheel.
“Two centuries ago, Garai was giving out loans to some of its smaller neighboring countries in the East, countries that were struggling with their own economies already. They ate up the gold greedily, of course, but they didn’t fix their broken economic system and ended up being unable to pay back the debt.
Garai used that as leverage to extort supplies, mages, and various favors from these countries, and eventually they were assimilated into their own country. ”
“Well that explains why Garai is so huge,” I muttered. It was the largest country on the Eastern continent.
“I wonder if all the shifters who owe this investor money are being forced to fight in the Royale like this, or if this mysterious investor is extorting them in other ways.” Lakin’s eyes sharpened.
“I’m going to have to interview friends and families again first thing in the morning and find out if they borrowed any money from Sandin Federal, and if so, whether they’ve been harassed by their creditor recently.
Out of those twenty names on the list something ought to pop eventually. ”
“You want some help dividing that list up?” Annia asked. “Would probably be faster if you split up the workload.”
Lakin hesitated. “I can always divide it up amongst my deputies.”
“Not this time.” I twisted around in my seat to face Lakin. “We could have gone to the Royale without you, Lakin, but I brought you in. The least you could do is let us help with the interviews in return.”
“Alright,” Lakin agreed. “Meet me at my house at eight in the morning. We need to get an early start on this, before any more shifters are taken.”
“Sounds like a plan.” I turned in my seat, settling my eyes on the Firegate Bridge as we approached it from around Hawk Hill. We were going to get to the bottom of this tomorrow, even if that meant I had to play hooky and piss the Chief Mage off all over again.