Magic Rising by Jennifer Cloud Page A

planet.
    Everything should’ve been over. Scorpion had faced the challenge and had been successful. Victory belonged to her and no one could challenge it. At least that’s what Dragonfly thought.
    Mercury stood in the crowd, demanding something be done. Scorpion had used a weapon to defeat them. Using the enemies’ weapons against them was standard practice but this was the first Contrition that Dragonfly had ever seen and here the leaders changed the rules on a whim. She was still shocked when one of the leaders allowed Mercury to challenge her mother.
    Dragonfly held her chin high, knowing Scorpion would win. Her mother fought better than any of the men, still, the giant Jamaican frightened Dragonfly. He came down through the crowd causing a hush in the masses. Scorpion looked shocked but bowed, then took her stance.
    It was the look of shock that Dragonfly remembered, the wide glassy eyes, the agape mouth. Scorpion looked at her daughter, stared at her for one moment. Her mother was afraid. There was a fighter Scorpion feared.
    The fight was brutal. Mercury was physically her superior and swung a sword with the best of them. After being fatigued from defeating three warriors, Scorpion didn’t have enough strength to best Mercury. They went hand to hand, Scorpion holding her own until the sword cut across her back. At the end, Mercury straddled her and slit Scorpion’s throat, her mother’s throat.
    Crying wasn’t permitted, so Dragonfly sat in the stands and bit her lower lip. There, in a crowd of more than two hundred, she was alone. For the first time in her life she realized how terrible this place was. Only evil would make a child an orphan. Now she had to confront the human-faced demons, her teachers, without her mother to protect her.
    Dragonfly continued to sit in the stands as the people dispersed, some praising Mercury and some standing mutely over the body of her mother. She couldn’t go down to the field. She would cry or attack Mercury and that would give the leaders an excuse to rid themselves of her too. Everyone around ignored her, pushing past as if the woman lying dead in the grass was nothing to the teenage girl sitting on the bench.
    She tried not to scream. They’d hurt her if she did. She had to restrain her emotions until she was safely back in her room. All she could do was fight for control and wait for the funeral pyre to take her mother safely to the afterworld.

Funerals took place fast here, unless they were after the victim’s soul. Warriors were taken to a clearing an hour’s hike from the building. There in the middle of greenery and life, they had the service for Scorpion. Because of Dragonfly’s disgrace, she wasn’t permitted near the body, only watching from the side, hoping the wind would carry her goodbyes to her mother. Mercury lit the fire and the linen-wrapped body burned.
    * * * *
    Deirdre shook away the memory but it was hard with the smell of smoke and soot clinging to the air around her. Her mother hadn’t been wrapped in that linen. She just found her mother’s body upstairs. Something in her mind’s eye was mistaken but why would her mother fake her death? Who had they burned and how did Scorpion fool the leaders?
    She thought back to the look on her mother’s face. Maybe she hadn’t been afraid of Mercury. She might’ve been afraid of the plan they were about to enact. She might have been afraid for her daughter.
    The cool stone surrounding her brought a terrible chill. She longed for sunlight, for warmth, and fresh air, not the dappled red from the stained glass coloring her skin like memories of blood.
    She went to the exercise yard. It was no longer the immense landscape of manicured grass with stone benches rising on the surrounding land, or dangerous sports arena where so many watched to see who would be killed next. Now it reminded her of a badly tended park. Weeds grew tall, knee high in places, waist high along the edges. Most of the benches were