Bitter Wind (Death's Handmaiden Book 2) Read online

  ‘Nava’s exceptional at that,’ Mitsuko said. ‘It’s almost impossible to know what she’s thinking. Unless you ask her.’

  ‘I’m thinking,’ Nava said, ‘that I need another drink.’

  ‘Of course, what she’s thinking may not be very profound…’

  235/8/25.

  Nava felt the handcuffs lock into place around her wrists. She had expected them to get used at some point during the night. Having her arms tethered over a rail in Mitsuko’s huge walk-in wardrobe had not been one of the scenarios she had envisioned, but it was certainly not an unexpected turn of events.

  Mitsuko’s fingers began trailing lines over Nava’s skin. Fairly soon, Nava was having trouble stopping herself from squirming.

  ‘So, what did Rhianna want?’ Mitsuko asked. She was still fully dressed. If what she was wearing could be called dressed.

  ‘Now?’

  ‘Yes. Now. You don’t get to come until you’ve told me.’ Mitsuko lowered her voice to what was probably meant to be a menacing level but just came off as sexy. ‘Even if it takes hours.’

  ‘That is no incentive for me to talk.’

  ‘I can come up with some.’ Reaching into her bodice, Mitsuko removed a small device: more or less bullet-shaped, bright pink, and about five centimetres in length. She twisted the blunt end and it began to buzz.

  ‘Have you been walking around with that in there all evening?’

  ‘Yes. I never quite got around to using it.’ Mitsuko wrapped an arm around Nava’s waist and then lowered the hand holding the vibrator against Nava’s butt.

  ‘This is kinky, even for you.’

  The vibrator was repositioned. Its pointed end pressed between Nava’s cheeks and slid closer to its target. ‘What did Rhianna want?’

  ‘I think I can hold out longer thaaaaa–’

  ‘Oh, cool. Maybe I’ll just make you come until you tell me.’

  ‘That’s not going to make me… It’s just driving me… Okay! Okay, I’ll talk!’

  ‘Spoilsport.’ Still, Mitsuko turned off the little buzzing object. Nava was acutely aware that the vibrator was still in the same place, however.

  ‘I wanted to ask you about this anyway,’ Nava said. ‘She wants me to join the Greylings. I’d be adopted into the family.’

  Mitsuko blinked several times. She was not the kind of person to let her jaw drop, but she was clearly dumbstruck for several seconds. ‘That’s… I think that’s great news. I think. Let me think.’

  ‘It would clearly be advantageous for our relationship. The Greylings have, I believe, roughly the same status as the Trentons. At least on paper. No one could complain about you hooking up with one.’

  ‘They could, but they wouldn’t dare show it. I don’t want you to put that as your first priority. You do this because it fits with what you want, not because it’s advantageous to us. As I’ve said more than once, I think this relationship can last, but I could be wrong. I won’t have you stuck with the Greylings because you wanted to make it easier for me.’

  ‘I hadn’t planned to. I need to talk to Fawn Tyrell. Rhianna Greyling said there would be no problem with me serving the ASF and the Greylings, but I want to hear it from someone in the ASF too. Actually, specifically because of the battalion I’m in…’

  Mitsuko frowned. ‘I never did get what part of the ASF Fawn was in.’

  ‘No… I don’t suppose it matters if you know. It’s the Intelligence Response Directorate.’

  ‘Oh.’ Once again, Mitsuko was silent for a few seconds. ‘You should talk to Fawn. I suspect there won’t be an issue, but you should definitely confirm that with Fawn. The IRD, huh? Wow. Okay.’ Another pause. Then there was the sound of buzzing and the widening of Nava’s eyes. ‘Now, where was I…’

  ~~~

  ‘Nava, did you see the email from Lambert Stenger this morning?’ It was just after breakfast and everyone had trooped out to sit beside the pool for an hour. Rochester had decided to keep the news for then since it did not concern Mitsuko’s family.

  ‘Yes,’ Nava replied. She was busy smoothing sunscreen onto Mitsuko’s back. ‘Suki, why don’t you just use a Shade spell? We could dispense with ten minutes of me– Never mind. Stupid question.’

  Mitsuko smirked, but she said, ‘I haven’t checked my mail yet.’

  ‘It was copied to all of us,’ Melissa said. ‘Courtney and Kyle too.’

  ‘Oh. What did he have to say?’

  ‘He’s taking a sabbatical,’ Rochester said. ‘He’ll be away until at least two thirty-seven.’

  ‘I got the impression that he might not come back,’ Melissa said. ‘Ever.’

  ‘I could certainly understand that,’ Mitsuko said. ‘It wasn’t the school’s fault, but his work there basically cost him everything. I wonder what he’ll do?’

  ‘He didn’t say,’ Rochester replied. ‘The message was mostly to thank us for taking care of the Harbinger entity and to make arrangements to get the paper we were working on finished.’

  ‘His assistant is taking over most of his work,’ Nava said. ‘Hoshi Horne Sonkei. She graduated last year and moved on to postgraduate studies, so I can’t imagine she knows his work that well, but he says she can be trusted and has a good grasp of metaphysics.’

  ‘I assume he meant that she can be trusted to keep your capacity secret,’ Melissa said.

  ‘Mm. Well, my part in that paper is done, so I doubt I’ll need to talk to her. Chess will need to help finalise things, but I don’t think there was much left to do.’

  ‘No,’ Rochester agreed. ‘The mathematics needs to be properly typeset. Everything needs to be rechecked. I’d imagine she’s been at least partially involved in getting it ready before this.’ He sighed. ‘It’s a shame. Lambert was a good metaphysics teacher.’

  ‘I wonder who they’ll get to replace him?’ Melissa asked.

  ‘The student council should get notified of new faculty,’ Mitsuko said. ‘By “student council,” I mean you, Mel. They’ll send it through to our secretary so the rest of us can be notified.’

  ‘Oh. Okay. Well, there hasn’t been anything yet, but I suppose there doesn’t need to be a replacement in place for two weeks.’

  ‘And they may just cover his classes with existing staff anyway,’ Rochester suggested. ‘We are talking about first years. Even a postgrad could probably teach the classes. I’ll message Hoshi Horne later and tell her we’ve received the bad news.’

  235/8/27.

  ‘Ahem.’ Lunch was concluded, but it was apparent that Zackery, Mitsuko’s father, had something he wished to say. No one actually said ‘ahem’ when they coughed. Nava changed her assessment when Yuzuki got up from the table and joined her husband. They both had something to say. This sounded serious.

  ‘Father, Mother, what’s this?’ Mitsuko said. Apparently, she had no idea what was going on either.

  At that point Michiko, the youngest child of the family and far too mature for someone in her tenth year, returned carrying a box. She had asked to be excused a moment before the fake cough and rushed off in a manner far more like a ten-year-old than Nava was used to from her. Now she returned with great solemnity and walked up to join her parents, little hands wrapped around the wooden box she had been entrusted with.

  ‘Nava,’ Zackery said. Nava got to her feet, because that just seemed like the right thing to do. ‘In recognition of your actions in keeping our daughter alive on more occasions than we would have wished, we would like to present you with this small token of our appreciation.’

  Zackery gave Michiko a little nod and she paced forward to Nava’s seat, holding up the box which was really too big for her. ‘Thank you for helping Onee-chan so much,’ the tiny girl said.

  Nava took the box from her before the strain on Michiko’s arms began to show in her face. It looked like it was made from mahogany or some other dark wood and there was a copper plate inset into the top with ‘Nava’ inscribed into it in cursive script. It looked a lot like a pr
esentation gun case and, sure enough, when Nava opened it, she found a pair of spell pistols inside. ‘Thank you, Michiko, and thank you, Zackery and Yuzuki. I was only doing–’

  ‘The other reason for getting you a small gift,’ Zackery said, ‘is that you saved hundreds of lives along with the reputation of the Clan Assembly a week or two ago. No one is ever going to know about it. Consider this a replacement for the medal you deserve. I suspect you’ll find them more useful anyway.’

  ‘The people who matter know,’ Nava replied.

  ‘Please accept them,’ Michiko said, looking up at Nava with her big, doe eyes.

  ‘I suppose I have no choice if you’re going to look at me like that. Thank you. I’ll put them to good use.’ Turning back to the case, she lifted one of the pistols free, checking that there was no magazine in it currently.

  ‘There are magazines under the top shelf,’ Zackery said. ‘Four standard and two extended, if I remember correctly.’

  ‘I-is that a Himura-Yamasaki SAH three oh one?’ Rochester asked. ‘The model with the MageEye targeting system? A m-matched pair of three oh ones…’

  Nava peered across the table at him. ‘Chess, you normally only get like that around pretty women.’

  ‘Well, uh…’

  ‘Yes, a pair of them. This is really a little much.’

  ‘Not compared to Suki’s life,’ Yuzuki said.

  ‘Oh, please don’t worry about persuading me to accept them. I may feel guilty about it, but I’m not going to pass up the chance to try out MageEye or use a magitech device of this quality.’ Nava looked around at Zackery. ‘Sir, would you mind if I used your pigeon-shooting equipment.’

  Zackery grinned. ‘Not at all. I may even come out to watch.’

  ~~~

  ‘Pull!’ Nava watched the biodegradable plastic ‘pigeon’ fly out of the right-hand trap and took her time lining up the shot. In her field of vision, a target marker tracked the aim of her pistol until it coincided with the target. At that point, a range indicator appeared to the lower right of the marker and she watched as the range climbed. She pulled the trigger at fifty metres and the puck exploded into powder.

  There was clapping from behind her and she glanced around at the gaggle of observers. Everyone had decided to troop out to watch. Even Yuzuki and Michiko were there, though Michiko seemed less impressed than everyone else.

  ‘Father can do that with his shotgun,’ Michiko said.

  ‘Ah,’ Zackery said, ‘but I shoot lots of small bullets which spread out to intercept the targets, Michiko.’

  Michiko’s eyes and mouth widened. ‘Oh,’ she said through the circle her lips formed. ‘And Nava is using Concussive Force which fires only one bullet. Now I see.’ For someone yet to enter her teens, Michiko was abnormally bright.

  ‘How is the MageEye?’ Rochester asked.

  Nava considered her answer briefly. ‘I think I’d have to say that they’ve done a good job with it. It provides the necessary information without getting in the way. I have a charge counter and some crosshairs. When the crosshairs are on the target, I also get the range in metres. Having a precise range makes a significant difference to accuracy.’

  The MageEye™ targeting system was, at least currently, unique to Himura-Yamasaki weapons. In fact, while there were other weapons on the release schedule featuring it, the Spell Assistance Handgun Model 301 was the first weapon on the market to feature MageEye. The name was pronounced like ‘magi’ which was a fairly obvious marketing gimmick. ‘Mage’ was not a term frequently used in reference to magicians, but everyone knew what it meant. MageEye was designed for use by expert magicians; one feature made sorcerous power something of a requirement.

  ‘I can’t help but think that the need to feed quintessence to the weapon to power the targeting system will hurt sales,’ Nava went on. ‘Extended use would be draining to most magicians.’

  ‘But not you,’ Melissa said, ‘with your military-grade Gather Quintessence spell.’

  ‘Well, that’s true. And the option to bypass the battery to power the spells myself while still allowing use of the targeting system is something I can get behind. There are times when you don’t want to change the magazine right at that moment.’

  ‘From what I’m told,’ Zackery said, ‘the weapons with MageEye are intended for premier users. Magicians able to store up reasonably large amounts of quintessence. Extended use is only suggested where the magician has at least civilian rank Gather Quintessence available. Yes, it narrows the market somewhat, but not enough to make them uneconomic. I believe that the ASF is looking to the carbine version for their special forces operatives.’

  Nava nodded. ‘How far can these machines throw the targets?’

  ‘How far do you want?’

  ‘About a hundred and fifty metres.’

  Zackery smiled. ‘Long pull!’ he called out. The right-hand launcher spat out another target at a higher trajectory than the first time.

  Turning, Nava lined up her shot. Seventy metres. Ninety metres. A hundred and twenty… She squeezed the trigger. A little over a hundred and fifty metres away, the puck disintegrated. ‘And the range extension works too.’ People had been constructing magitech sniper rifles with range extension spells built in for a while, but getting that technology into a pistol form, even if it was not quite as powerful, was new with the SAH-301.

  ‘The specs suggest you can double the range of your spell,’ Rochester said.

  ‘And that wasn’t quite double the usual effective range of Concussive Force,’ Nava said, ‘but it suggests that the marketing information was not lying. Thank you for this gift. I’ll be sure to make great use of these weapons, even if I’m not required to save Suki’s life again.’

  ‘It’s not like I try to get into these situations!’ Mitsuko wailed.

  Yuzuki looked around at her daughter. ‘Are you absolutely sure of that, daughter?’ The first couple of times had been because Mitsuko decided to run for student president.

  Mitsuko hung her head. ‘No…’

  ASF Flight Training Base Ashiya, 235/8/29.

  The Ashiya base – named for an air base in old Japan, apparently – was the principal flight training facility of the ASF. Instructors there taught students how to fly every form of air vehicle the ASF made use of. They also taught advanced flight techniques to magicians who did not need a vehicle to take to the air. And, for a week in each year, the base closed down normal operations to host the Shinden Aerobatics Competition.

  Mitsuko was attending the penultimate day of the competition as the student president of the Shinden Alliance School of Sorcery and you could argue that Melissa was also there since she was a member of the student council. In reality, Melissa was there because she loved flying and she would have been there for the whole week if she could have been. Nava and Rochester were along for the ride, though Nava did enjoy the freedom of flight almost as much as Melissa.

  ‘That’s the amateur team from the Daison clan,’ Melissa said, indicating the team currently doing a freestyle routine over the field.

  ‘Tight formation,’ Nava said. ‘If the quality is this good throughout the amateur teams, SAS-squared’s teams are going to have their work cut out.’

  ‘The Daison team is among the best in the freestyle competition. They were second to us last year. Looks like they may have upped their game…’

  ‘Which means Naomi and Carlton will be sweating bullets,’ Mitsuko said. ‘We should head over to the tent and check on them.’

  ‘That means I need to prepare to be griped at,’ Nava said.

  ‘This is what you get for having excessive talent,’ Melissa said. ‘Being awesome must be such a burden.’

  ‘Wait until you’re awesome and then tell me it’s not.’

  Each team or group of teams had a tent on one side of the airfield. The one for SAS2 was fairly large, but then most of the Flight Club seemed to be there, so large was a good thing. This was the last day of the amateur competition, wh
ich was why Mitsuko was there: the student president was making a showing to boost morale. Morale did not seem to need much boosting, to be honest, but it had been arranged and Melissa had been very keen to attend. It was a bright, hot August day, so being outside was not exactly a problem, even if Mitsuko had to keep a Shade spell up all the time to avoid burning.

  Just about everyone in the tent was either in school uniform or the flight suits designed and fabricated for the competition. Mitsuko and Melissa had put their uniforms on since they were representing the student council. Rochester had put his on because it was easier than deciding what else to wear. There was a lot of blue on display, which meant that Nava stood out quite a bit in black. She had decided not to wear her uniform because she was most definitely not representing the school. She was wearing her boots, but they did not count. Her outfit was a short, flouncy skirt in black satin over what might have been described as a leotard if you were being generous. Made of black nanofibre fabric which was just a little translucent, it covered her chest and upper back, but not the bottoms of her breasts. A loop of fabric went down the centreline of her body, under her crotch, and back up, giving a very high hip. It was just about as far from being school uniform as it could get, and Mitsuko had wanted to get Nava back out of it as soon as she saw her in it. Secretly, the fact that Mitsuko still wanted her just as badly as ever after almost eight months, and discovering that Nava was not entirely human, was an ego boost Nava could not deny.

  ‘President,’ Naomi said as soon as he spotted Mitsuko weaving through the throng of competitors and support personnel. ‘I’m glad you could come.’ Naomi Himura Sonkei was a big man in just about every good way. Tall and muscled. Slim in the waist but broad in the chest. His presence was almost as powerful as his physique, and he was easy on the eye too.

  Carlton Horne Sonkei stood beside him, less imposing in comparison, but still a handsome man with a sense of presence beyond the physical about him. He turned to look at the newcomers and smiled. ‘President, and our illustrious secretary. Come to cheer us to victory?’

  ‘I certainly hope so,’ Mitsuko said. ‘We saw the Daison freestyle team in the air as we came in. It seems that we have competition this year.’