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"Mayor Rosewater, you should keep an eye out for hellbugs or at least wolves, if you're going to carry a sack of goodies into the woods," said Rafe McCawley.
Amanda turned around surprised to find Rafe there. She tugged on the strap slung over her should and fought the urge to turn pink, like some teenager caught out by the principal. "Rafe, what are you doing out here?" Amanda craned her neck a bit to look beyond Rafe at the big rollers and dozen miners. "You and all your friends."
"Amanda, we're not here to cause trouble."
He sounded sincere, and he probably was, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to find trouble. "Really, Rafe, how much not trouble do you think your miners are going to find in the Irathient camp?" Ever since the night of the election, everything was different in Defiance, including the addition of about 2000 Irathients, who had formed a community between Defiance and the mines.
Then again, one thing was the same – Amanda was still the mayor. Of course, it wasn’t by the will of the people, but an emergency continuance, since Datek was very sure that the Earth Republic had tampered with the election. Indeed, he didn't want the people of Defiance to think that his inclination to expand business dealings with the Earth Republic had anything to do with the tanks that surrounded the city.
At the end of all that BS, Datek insisted that Amanda deal with the tanks until a second election could be called. Luckily, Irisa was already working on saving Amanda's ass.
"Look, ever since Irisa started messing with that damn piece of shtako -"
The sound of loudly complaining Irathient voices let Amanda know that she wasn't just going to be able to go about her business in peace. The various insults directed at Rafe's miners there were sprinkled with pleas to Irzu and mentions of Irisa's name. But really, was there a reason for the Mayor of Defiance to put up with this shtako?
"Knock it off," Amanda shouted loud enough to silence the crowd into just grumbling. Once she was sure that she had everyone's attention, she spoke again. "Rafe, what are you doing here?" Amanda just held up her hand for silence, when several Irathients chimed in to reinforce her question.
Rafe looked stone-faced past Amanda at the crowd of Irathients. "There was a minor earthquake this morning-"
The Irathients murmured spiritual blessings on one another.
Rafe just got louder. "It was before we were down in the mines to work, but now we're facing a partially collapsed tunnel and a diverted underground hot spring. It's practically under us right now - the epicenter was right here. We want to look for hazards like sinkholes-"
"You want to hassle us and claim we used explosives to try and cave in the land stolen from Irathient settlers. You have no respect for the land," Rynn said through gritted teeth as the Irathient crowd parted for her. If Rynn was out front and center, that meant that Sukor was back in a comatose state. The problem now was that Rynn and Rafe were practically chest to chest.
"What part of knock it off did you two not understand," Amanda shoved a foot between them and let her body push them apart. "Look, we have enough problems coming from outside. Ever since Irisa –" Amanda took a breath, there had to be a better way to describe this, but she didn't know what that was. "Ever since Irisa merged with the Kaziri warship, this town has had a target painted on its back - the Earth Republic and the Votan Collective are just the tip of the iceberg."
"We come to this danger willingly to witness Kaziri Irisa, the Kelavar," shouted Rynn at the same time that Rafe was shouting out assurances that his people weren't leaving either.
"That's wonderful, but it also means that we shouldn't fight among ourselves!" Amanda shouted. "My bet is that since it happened right here that Irisa is working on something. Maybe we'll be growing bananas soon, I don't know."
Rafe rolled his eyes as Rynn triumphantly crossed her arms over her chest. Amanda continued as if she wasn't watching the posturing on both sides. "Which doesn't mean that everything up here is safe and stable."
"That's all I've been-"
"Cut the crap, Rafe," Amanda interrupted. "You've got diagnostic equipment, and I bet it doesn't need a dozen men to run it."
"Well, yes, but if we found something -"
"Then you could discuss it with Rynn and the other leaders of the Irathient camp. It should be easy, because Rynn's going to help escort six of your men around the camp to make sure that the earth isn't about to open up and swallow anyone."
Rynn stood with her arms folded, dead silent for half a minute, before tossing her head and saying. "Thei."
"Good and since that's settled, I'm going back to my business." Amanda turned and walked towards the woods. It was really a stretch of woods surrounded by a thick wall of twisted thorn bushes. She stopped in front of the section with a wide path – wide enough for a roller.
"No one tries to go in there - Kaziri Irisa does not wish it," Rynn said.
"Amanda, I don't pretend that I know what Irisa wants, but I'd take those thorns seriously," Rafe added.
Amanda didn't look back and just walked up to the wall of dried vines. "Irisa! Look, I don't know if you've got him to punish him or protect him, but things out here have been a little crazy, and I need a Lawkeeper. I want you to let me in, so I can drag him out." Then under her breath she added, "I'm going to look like a danggo, if this doesn't work."
Much to Amanda's relief, there was a tiny tremor and the wall of thorns split, leaving an opening barely big enough to let her squeeze through. There were collective sounds of disbelief and awe from behind her. That was good; Amanda could use a little awe these days. She did look back when there was another rumble. An Irathient - a devout one - was standing outside the reformed thorn wall, gripping his bleeding hand. "You always did like sharp things, Irisa," Amanda murmured.
From the reports she got, the irregular circle of thorns enclosed about a 100 acres, which sounded like a lot but it was really only about half a mile across. It shouldn't be too hard to find his camp, because the roller was going to have to stick to this trail. Then she laughed. What kind of Pooh Bear was she going to find in this 100 acre wood? She was probably going to find the grizzly kind. What she wasn't expecting was a naked one.
"You know, I can understand pantsless being in fashion in this corner of nowhere, but maybe you wouldn't be shivering so much if you put some on." Amanda said.
Nolan reached for a weapon as he looked up from the campfire. Then he settled back down on his tree stump and pretended not to care about his state. "That was my plan before an earthquake shook me out of bed this morning and dumped me in a hot spring that wasn't there yesterday." He hadn't shaved in a month and was looking like a caveman – a caveman in front of his fire with random food cans, piece of a mess kit, and what looked to be the innards of the roller that was parked off to the side.
"Maybe Irisa thought you needed a bath," Amanda said, letting a smile come to her face as she sat on a makeshift wood pile. Based on the condition of the clothes she saw hanging from the tree branches, he probably needed more than one bath.
Nolan rocked a little on his makeshift chair. "Irisa. You make it sound like she's alive."
"You know she's alive. We both climbed into the Kaziri ship and saw her."
"Saw my daughter being tortured by that god-damn Votan war machine! It tried to kill me when I tried to rescue her. Of all the parts of this that I don't understand, I don't know why it didn't finish the job."
"Maybe you'd understand more if you didn't jump out of your sick bed and try to do the same damn thing. You know, they say that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." Amanda spat out. This wasn't going well, and her natural urge to bicker with the man wasn't helping.
"It has my daughter! As soon as I figure out how to get her out, I'm going in again." Nolan got up and went to the roller and began tossing various pieces of clothing on the ground until he found a pair of pants.
"Actually, we're pretty sure that Irisa has the Kaziri."
Nolan stopped dead in his tracks and just stared at Amanda.
"Nolan, we've had people in and out of the ship. Irisa hasn't talked to us, but she's found ways to communicate with us. She is running that war machine – the 3000 year old war machine that is now a part of my city."
"Your city? Last I heard we had a new mayor." Nolan was finally getting dressed.
"Datak resigned. Well, what he said was that based unexpected attack by the Earth Republic forces, he feared that some might question the validity of the election."
"And what the hell was that covering up?"
"The usual – a dead body. Specifically the dead body of the Earth republic commander. Yeah, there's more than that, but it gave me back my city. Nolan, Irisa saved us from the first attack by powering the shield. During the third attack she caved in the ground under our attackers. It wasn't all good for our people, but she's in there, trying to defend Defiance. Defend it, feed it, make it thrive. She's been trying her hand at terraforming lately – small scale, converting a stretch of badlands into farmland. I do think that earthquake this morning was to give you a hot bath."
Nolan's faced creased up and he took a few steps toward a rude lean-to, constructed primarily out of some fallen branches and an old tarp. He picked up a wilted plant with pale purple flowers. Now that Amanda looked, there were hundreds of those wilted purple flowers, on the ground and even up in the tree branches.
"Someone dumped a floral shop full of bouncing-bets on me this morning."
"Bouncing-bets?"
"Bouncing-bet, also goes by soap wort and, I don't know, a bunch of names. The roots have a natural soap in 'em. I taught Irisa that." He pushed his hand over his wild beard through his shaggy hair.
"Just another native weed that survived the terraforming - like you and me. A survivor like Irisa."
"I need a drink."
"Great, let's go back to town and get one," Amanda said. He looked like he was snapping out of whatever funk he'd been in. If she could get him out into the world, it shouldn't be too hard to convince him to put his badge on again.
He walked over to the fire, snatched up a small pot, and put it under the metal tubing that Amanda had supposed was a part of the roller engine. A clear liquid poured out.
"Geez, Nolan, a still? Where'd you even find corn or whatever the hell you're brewing?"
"Irisa and I were ready to leave – head to Antarctica. We had the whole thing loaded down with supplies." Nolan went to take a drink and then hesitated. He snatched up a plastic cup, blew a leaf out of the inside, and poured in some of the hooch. He held it out for Amanda.
She had drunk things far worse when she was a kid and trying to keep herself and Kenya alive through the war.
Kenya. Every thought of her sister made Amanda's heart sink through her feet. It also made her mad and doubled her need to fix whatever was ailing Defiance.
She took the cup and held it up. "To those we lost."
Nolan raised his makeshift cup and took a big swallow. Amanda's was much more a modest sip but it still made her groan. She fought taking a gasp, but didn't succeed. "It's only supposed to taste like rocket fuel, not have any in it."
"Yeah, well it's not like it's a proper bar around here," Nolan said and then winced. "You're sister, I'm sorry." He took a breath. "Did Tommy catch the bastard that poisoned her?"
"No. He could use some help with that. He could use a lot of help with things. We need a Lawkeeper, Nolan. I need you to get back on the job."
"Tommy's good. He'll be-"
"Tommy's a good man, but he's still green and besides, he's got other distractions that you could help with. He visits Irisa at least once a day. He's one of the few people that she lets into the Kaziri now. And you know, people say the day gets better after he talks to her. She controls the weather too sometimes. She hasn't turned winter into summer." Amanda took another sip of the moonshine and narrowly avoided chocking on it. "Yet - she may get around to changing the seasons.
"Sounds like Irisa's doing fine without me," Nolan murmured.
"You know what, you're an idiot. Are you listening to what I'm telling you? The Irathients have started calling the rain, Irisa's Tears. Did I mention that we've had 2000 religiously devout Irathients move into town since Irisa unlocked the Kaziri?"
Nolan just kept drinking.
"The Irathients say that she's crying because she's separated from her people."
"Sounds about right for them."
"But not all of them. Sukor, when he's not in a coma, says that she's crying for her father."
"Do you think laying all this guilt on me is going to get you what you want?"
"You underestimate all the things I want, if you think that dragging your ass out of this cage of thorns that Irisa built to protect you is going to solve all of them." Amanda got up, walked over and took the pot he was drinking from. She poured some more of the lighter fluid into her own cup.
"You know, you could have taken that from the still.
"Dragging you out of the woods is going to be a whole lot harder, if you're falling down drunk."
"Yeah, miss lightweight, we'll see who's doing the carrying. Besides I didn't say I was leaving. I got food for at least another month and enough rye to keep this still going indefinitely. "
The earth rumbled, making Amanda and Nolan grab onto one another for support. Then they found themselves jumping back from the fire when the still fell into it and flames shot six feet into the air.
"Damn-it, she is doing it, isn't she?"
Maybe it was the stunned looking on his face or the way he was starting to shake again that made Amanda put her arms around him. "Come on, Nolan. Time to visit your daughter."
Amanda didn't try to look at his face when his whole body began to shake. She just held him tighter and stroked his back while he sobbed into her shoulder.