Shield of Winter Read online

  "Their abilities?"

  "It's not advertised, but any Psy who goes into the prison system has his or her abilities restrained by a self-sustaining leash. PsyNet access is restricted to a controlled area. I'll organize it."

  Vasic thought of Aden's words about justice as he returned to the snow-covered orchard and to Ivy. The other Arrow was right in one sense, but the violence of the abilities possessed by their race meant there would always be some monsters so horrific they needed to be hunted down and executed, terrors no justice system could handle. When that time came, it was an Arrow who'd do the hunting, darkness pitted against darkness.

  Scanning the area around Ivy's cabin in the muted morning light, he crossed over to the rucked-up snow beside it. Her small pet spotted him first, barking out a sharp warning from where he stood on guard in the back doorway. Ivy appeared a second later, a broom in hand and her curls held back by a purple and white scarf. "I knew it was you," she said with a slight smile. "You've now been downgraded from 'deadly threat' to 'irritation that won't go away' in Rabbit's bark vocabulary."

  He thought perhaps there was a correct way to reply to that statement, to the wary softness of her, but he didn't have that knowledge. "Why are you on your own?" He'd left only because he'd seen her parents and others on the way, armed and ready to protect.

  "I'm not." A quick glance over her shoulder before she lowered her voice to a whisper. "My mother, however, hasn't yet realized you're here. Do you want to meet her?"

  "If you believe it'll assist her in accepting the parameters of your proposed contract."

  "Probably not." A slight wince, her expression so open he knew she wouldn't have been able to fake Silence in the outside world. "She'll probably take one look at you and pull out a gun."

  "If I'd meant to kill you," he pointed out, "you'd be long dead, your body disposed of in a crematorium incinerator."

  Blinking, Ivy stared at him with those unusual eyes that made him feel stripped to the bone. "Maybe it's better if you don't meet my mother."

  "I disagree." A taller woman, her body rangy, appeared in view a second after that pronouncement. "At least," she added, "he's honest."

  Handing her own broom to an Ivy who was looking increasingly doubtful about the situation, the woman Vasic identified as Gwen Jane from Ivy's biographical data, said, "Your father's about a minute away with the materials to repair the window and doors." She stepped out to Vasic. "Let's take a walk."

  The next ten minutes were . . . interesting. In the twenty-seven years since he'd been drafted into the squad, Vasic had experienced many things, but never had he found himself being interrogated by a mother concerned for her child. Gwen Jane might appear Silent on the surface, he thought, but in her ferocious protectiveness, he glimpsed the truth--and while he had no experience of maternal love, he understood it to be a formidable force.

  "I'll make certain she comes to no harm," he told her. "Krychek's priority might be the Net as a whole, but mine is the safety of the empaths, with Ivy my particular assignment."

  An intent look. "How can you promise that when you work for Krychek?"

  "A common misapprehension." One the squad permitted because it gave the Arrows freedom to stay below the radar. "We choose to side with him because his current stance benefits the PsyNet and the populace. Should that change, he knows not to expect our support."

  "Not tame dogs but wild wolves who've decided he's an ally for the moment?"

  "Except we aren't wild." To be an Arrow was to live a tightly regimented life. It wasn't a choice but a necessity. Because there was always a reason an Arrow was an Arrow, and each and every one of those reasons was deadly.

  "There are different kinds of wildness," Gwen said as they came within sight of the cabin once again.

  He could see supplies for the window repair laid out against the outside wall--wood for the new frame, the old one having been cracked by the barrage of bullets, as well as a sheet of glass designed to click in. From the sounds echoing over the sunlit snow, Ivy and her father were working on the front door. It only took him a short time to take care of the window, his telekinesis at 7.9 on the Gradient. He didn't have to pound in nails, simply push with his mind; they went through the wood as if it was butter.

  The skill required was of subtlety. Push too hard and the nail would exit out the other side. Working with a thick plank and hundreds of nails had been one of his easier and more fun exercises as a child--back when he'd lived with his "father." The same man had later dropped him off at an Arrow training facility and never looked back.

  Not even once.

  Vasic knew because the scared four-year-old he'd been had stood in the entryway of the training facility and watched his father's vehicle getting smaller and smaller and smaller. According to his memories, he'd cried, but he could no longer access the emotion that had led to the response.

  "Well," Gwen murmured, this woman who'd proven willing to go toe-to-toe with an Arrow to protect her child, "that's useful."

  "Yes." People had found Vasic useful his entire life, but it didn't usually have to do with anything as harmless or as oddly satisfying as fixing a window. "I assume from your earlier questions that Ivy has decided to accept the contract."

  "I'll let her answer that." Leaving him with that statement, Gwen went around to the front door.

  Ivy came over soon afterward. The sleeves of her faded denim shirt were now rolled up to the elbows to reveal the white of a long-sleeved tee, her scarf having slipped a fraction to set several curling tendrils free. Rabbit, of course, was at her heels. He bared his teeth at first sight of Vasic.

  "I'll agree to the contract," Ivy said without prelude, "but Rabbit comes with me." Tipping up her chin, she folded her arms. "Where I go, he goes."

  "He'll have to be taught to stay within the boundaries," Vasic said, wondering if Ivy was as loyal to everyone who belonged to her. "I'm certain the changelings would do nothing to harm him, but there are natural wolves and lynxes in the area, too."

  Ivy's arms dropped to her side, eyes huge. "We're going to be near changeling territory?" It was a hoarse whisper that brushed over his skin like a tactile sensation.

  "Inside it." Neither Vasic nor Aden had expected the changelings to agree to Krychek's request, but it was official as of the previous night. "DarkRiver-SnowDancer territory."

  Ivy turned her attention to her growling pet. "Hear that, Rabbit? Don't go around snarling at our hosts or they might decide to eat you for lunch." There was a flush of quiet pink on her cheeks when she looked back up. "Sorry, I'm used to talking to him."

  "Do you find it therapeutic?" Vasic had never had a pet, didn't understand the concept.

  Ivy didn't know how to answer Vasic's question without saying too much . . . but what was the use of hiding things? He already knew her most perilous secrets. On that realization came a wave of freedom. "He was a stray," she began, "crawled into the orchard bedraggled, skinny, and broken up from a fight . . . while I was still . . . wrong." Not real, nothing but a shade of the girl she'd once been, her mind brutalized and her soul battered, chilling screams at night the only sound she made all day.

  "I fed him because I didn't know what else to do, then carried him to the vet. No one would say anything, but I could tell the adults thought he was going to die." It had been a moment of acute insight, slicing through the fog in which she existed. "I wanted to tell them they were all wrong, that I could see his will to live in his eyes, but I didn't have the words then.

  "Instead, I took him home with me after the vet cast his broken leg, fed him by hand, and made sure his wounds stayed clean." Her parents had found her curled up with Rabbit in the barn the first night, and carried them both into the family cabin. "It was maybe five days later that he staggered up and started trying to walk.

  "A week after that, he fell into a muddy patch of field, and I found myself washing him." Laughter chased out the lingering echoes of horror. "I had to chase him around with a hose." Her pet had bee
n so fast, even with the cast on one leg. "By the end, I was drenched head to toe myself."

  Ivy met Vasic's gaze, tried to make him understand. "Caring for Rabbit was the first time in seven months I'd done anything except follow simple instructions." She'd been a living, breathing automaton, the only sign of conscious life her desire to help her parents do chores--even when it was clear her brain wasn't sending the right signals to her limbs.

  Vasic considered her snarling dog. "He was a wounded living creature, and you are an empath. He spoke to the most immutable aspect of your nature."

  Ivy didn't care about the technicalities of how or why. She just knew Rabbit had saved her as she'd saved him. Skinny but stubborn, he'd wriggle his way under her hand when she sat staring out into nothingness, nudge at her until she gave in and petted his then-ratty coat. When her fingers kept spasming open to drop the apples she was attempting to collect, he'd used his teeth to pick them up and put them in her basket. His determination had given her the impetus to bite back her tearful frustration and try again and again and again.

  And again.

  Somewhere along the way, her brain began to rewire itself, finding pathways around sections so badly bruised, Ivy's head had pulsed with the excruciating pain of it for three years after her reconditioning.

  "I relearned to run because Rabbit wanted to play," she said through the knot in her throat. "He was so small and skinny, but he never gave up, so I couldn't, either." It had taken time for her pet to put on weight, for his coat to become shiny and healthy, the transformation echoed in her own healing mind.

  When he'd collapsed in exhaustion, she'd picked him up in her arms. And when she'd fallen because her body refused to do what it should, he'd nudged and barked encouragement at her until she dragged herself back up. "Three months after he arrived, I spoke for the first time. A month after that, I asked for brain therapy."

  The intense sessions with a settlement medic had slowly helped her reclaim the final pieces of her mind. "It was hard." Comparable to the agonizing physical therapy sometimes necessary after severe injuries to the body. "But each time I thought I'd reached my limit, I'd remember watching Rabbit crawl into the orchard even when he was so broken, and I'd find another store of willpower."

  The wind riffled through Vasic's hair in the silence that followed her story. "I'll take care when 'porting him," he said at last. "Though perhaps I should be the one concerned for my safety."

  Startled into a smile by that cool statement, she blinked away the burning in her eyes and reached down to pick up her teeth-baring pet. "He'll behave, won't you?" She turned Rabbit's face toward Vasic. "Hold out your hand so he can sniff it."

  Vasic did so, but Rabbit refused to look at it, fascinated by everything in view but the Arrow's hand. Ivy attempted to get him to turn, only to be forced to concede defeat. "I'm sorry." She placed Rabbit back on the ground--and he immediately took position in front of her, canines flashing. "Maybe after he gets to know you a little more."

  Vasic didn't appear put out by the rejection. Then again, he'd been as icily calm after handling the two intruders earlier. Ivy had the disconcerting sense that nothing could penetrate the cold black armor of an Arrow . . . and for some reason, she wanted to do exactly that, fascinated by the tiny glimpse of a personality beyond the ice.

  "The experiment," Vasic now said, "is to begin as soon as the security perimeter around the site is complete. You should be packed and ready to depart at short notice."

  "Will you comm me?" She fought the growing temptation to touch the frost of him, convince herself he was real and not a winter illusion sent to tell her fantastical things.

  "Yes."

  Ten seconds later, she stood alone, the only evidence of Vasic's presence boot prints in the snow . . . and a single perfectly repaired window.

  Chapter 10

  This world was once a true triumvirate, but we now exist as disparate pieces. Humans in their insular enclaves, Psy in steel and glass high-rises armed against intrusion, changelings in packs generally closed to outsiders. This cannot be a viable long-term existence. Change is inevitable.

  Excerpted from an essay by Keelie Schaeffer, PhD (December 2073)

  VASIC CALLED A meeting of his security team two hours after retrieving the parachutes used by Ivy's assailants and assigning a covert guard to watch over her. He'd already made the decision that the ratio of Arrows to empaths at the compound would be one-to-one, with each Arrow being paired with a specific E. Security had to be high and it had to be tight; Pure Psy wasn't the only group that might see the empaths as a threat.

  The six males and three females he'd personally chosen for this duty stood in front him in the glade situated near the back of the subterranean green space at Central Command. All were dressed in identical black uniforms embellished only with a single silver star on one shoulder. "The empaths," he said to them now, "are our priority. Anything that places them at risk is to be eliminated."

  "If we receive orders that contradict that directive?" asked a female operative trained as a combat telepath.

  "You're under my direct command," Vasic responded. "Designation: Arrow Unit E1. If anyone else attempts to give you an order, you come straight to me." Krychek wasn't stupid enough to attempt to subvert Arrow leadership in that fashion, but the ragged remnants of Pure Psy weren't as intelligent.

  Not that Vasic believed any of these men or women would be disloyal. Some had been tempted by the idea of psychic peace espoused by the fanatical group, but any such leanings had died a quick death with the group's first violent act. "If you believe yourself unsuitable for this task," he said, because the Es would push them all to their limits with their simple proximity, "speak to me afterward."

  There will, he added telepathically, be no negative repercussions should you wish to withdraw from the team. During Ming LeBon's leadership of the squad, the former Councilor had crushed any attempt at defiance or disagreement, to the extent of dosing Arrows with Jax, a drug designed to amplify their abilities as it turned them into ruthless assassins with no ability to distinguish right from wrong.

  Vasic knew the team in front of him trusted him not to do the same, but he always made it a point to reiterate the message, remind his squadmates of their right to choose. Never again would anyone treat an Arrow as a disposable tool.

  One of the males in the back row spoke up. "Will it cause problems if we request a transfer after the start of the operation?"

  It was an astute question. None of the others had as yet spent any real time with an E, couldn't know how he or she might react. "No," Vasic said. "I've factored that into my plans." He had a backup list of five substitutes. "Alert me to any issues as early as possible, however."

  Seeing there were no further questions, he used his gauntlet to bring up a holo-map and projected it to the left of his body. "We've been given access to a section of DarkRiver-SnowDancer territory." The map delineated an area the wolves and leopards had described as "small" but that to Psy eyes was an expansive landscape.

  Vasic preferred open spaces over the more contained areas favored by most of his race, but he could function in either. "The instant we move beyond the marked perimeter we'll be considered hostiles and eliminated. The perimeter will also be rigged to cause injury or death."

  Abbot stirred. "If there is an exigent risk to the Es and the teleporters in the unit are inaccessible or out of commission?"

  There were three Tks in E1--Vasic, Abbot, and Nerida, the latter one of the extremely limited number of strong female Tks in the Net. Telekinesis had been statistically shown to express more heavily in the male gender; Vasic had always considered it unusual that there was no counterbalance in the female population.

  That mystery had been solved with the data coming in about the dormant empaths, the females outnumbering the males by a significant percentage.

  Shelving that fact for the moment, he said, "I'll arrange for an emergency code to be embedded into your wrist units that'll link you direct
ly to the changeling security team." He and Aden had a meeting with the DarkRiver-SnowDancer team in an hour to discuss the finer aspects of the operation. "Study the details of your assigned assets, alert me of any security threats."

  Dismissing the team soon afterward, with none of the nine asking to be taken off the protection detail, he downloaded the files on the other Es. As the leader of the team, he had to have a complete profile of the situation. Paying specific attention to the images, he confirmed a fact he'd already suspected--it was only Ivy Jane's copper gaze that made him feel stripped to the bone.

  Aden found Vasic when it was time to 'port to the meeting with the changelings, the image he needed to anchor the transfer having been forwarded five minutes prior. "It's an unknown situation," he said to Aden. "I should do a reconnaissance." Even Vasic wasn't fast enough to avoid a bullet shot at him from point-blank range directly after a teleport, but it would be one death rather than two.

  However, his partner shook his head, his stick-straight black hair having outgrown its severe military cut enough for the strands to slide against one another. "The changelings have never shown a tendency to pick a fight, and this situation is a delicate one. We should meet them halfway--not for Krychek, but because the squad needs to build alliances of its own."

  Aden, Vasic realized, was thinking years ahead as he always did, this time into a future where an Arrow might need friends outside the squad. "In two. One . . . two."

  They arrived in front of a sturdy log cabin surrounded by open land that merged into dark green firs set far enough apart that there was plenty of light on the ground. That ground was coated in snow that glittered in the sun burning from a crystalline winter sky, the sound of water flowing over rocks in the distance.

  Standing with their backs to the cabin were the DarkRiver alpha, the SnowDancer alpha, and two others. Vasic didn't know the tall female with the black hair and vivid indigo eyes who stood next to the wolf alpha, but he recognized the white-blond male beside the feline alpha. Dorian Christensen, the changeling who'd spoken to Vasic over the body of a young woman whose life and death Vasic had been sent to erase.