Crimson Ring Chapter 10

The garrison was a massive structure, taking up a full Bhadestani block and rose a full four floors into the sand choked air. Unlike the clay buildings that made up the outer ring districts, the garrisons were stone and mortar, making for an imposing sight amid a sea of tan clay structures. 

Inside, the building felt like a foreign place, better suited to some place outside of the Sovereign Cities, easily as jarring as the central inner sphere district of Bhadestan. The abundance of alchemical lamps made the interior bright and cool. The air was clean, with none of the sand that clung to the air like a thin haze inside of any other structure within the mid and outer ring districts, and there was no fine layer of sand coated the surfaces of the floor or furniture. There was absolutely nothing that showed the barracks were in reality a fortress in the heart of of a desert.

That last part was most likely the reason for the undercurrent of resentment Raven felt as he sped through the halls of the garrison. These peacekeepers lived in the outer ring, but within these walls, they experienced none of the desert harshness.

Flanked by the Rail and Breach, with Raven maintaining a pace behind, First Sword Abon swept into an interior suite on the lower level and marched directly up to a desk occupied by a uniformed peacekeeper. Behind the seated woman was an enormous set of double doors.

The first sword marched through the room and skirted the large desk, toward the entrance, but was stopped by the peaceman behind the desk. The woman scrambled to her feet and positioned herself between the first sword and the entrance. Breach hesitated a moment, cocked her head to the side, then made for the uniformed woman.

First Sword Abon put a hand on Breach’s shoulder, bringing her to a halt. “Easy, Breach.”

The peaceman looked from the first sword to Breach and crossed her arms. “Are you going to be a problem, peaceman?”

“Corpsman,” Breach corrected through gritted teeth.

The peaceman raised her brows. “Oh, an elite? Which strike team?”

“Dark,” said First Sword Abon, drawing the peaceman’s attention back to him.

“Thought so.” The peaceman nodded. “You’re with the big fella, calls himself the Vanquished.”

“Titan,” Rail said. “That big walking mound of very intimidating muscle is named Titan. Ti-tan.”

The peaceman looked confused for a moment, then shrugged and turned back to First Sword Abon and shook her head. “I can’t allow your team back there.”

The first sword released a slow breath. “What do you mean, peaceman? There isn’t a section of this garrison I am not allowed to enter.”

“Right…well…because you have a member of your unit currently detained and under criminal investigation, access to this section is restricted.” She shrugged. “Protocol.”

“I am a first sword. You don’t have the authority to keep me from seeing one of my corpsmen.”

The peaceman sighed and did a poor job of disguising the roll of her eyes. “Listen…I don’t have the authorization to allow you access.”

“Well then, bring out someone who does.”

To Raven’s surprise, she hesitated, then actually turned and ducked inside the double doors. No sooner than the door swung closed, it opened again to the same peacekeeper with a smug look on her face. A step behind her was a young lieutenant that looked barely twenty summers old that walked with his chest poked so high Raven had to check to see if the boy walked on his toes.

Rail and Breach simultaneously sighed and averted their eyes as they shook their heads in some unspoken understanding. Raven understood their reaction at the sight of the lieutenant shortly after the boy opened his mouth.

“Who is causing my corporal so much trouble?” The lieutenant’s eyes slid over each of team Dark’s rank pinned to their breast with an equal dismissal of Raven’s bare shirt as he did the first sword’s vertical sword book ended by triple chevrons above and below.

The first sword cleared his throat. “I need to see my team member released with immediate effect.”

“Sergeant…” the lieutenant said with open disdain, then let the word hang in the air before somehow puffing his chest higher before continuing. “You do not have the authority to come to my desk demanding anything.”

First Sword Abon scratched at his beard. “Look, I really—”

“Sir…” said the lieutenant, frowning at the puff of fine sand that cascaded up from the first sword’s beard and settled to the polished floor in a soft hiss. “You will address me as sir before you speak, sergeant. And you will watch your tone.”

“By the damn sun,” Breach said as she brought a fist down atop the desk with a thunderous boom loud enough to make both the lieutenant and the peacekeeper blanch. She turned to First Sword Abon and pointed a finger inches from the lieutenant’s eye. “Sword, say the word, and I’ll knock this rookie’s teeth down his pompous throat. I’ll even help you wright up the Article 20 for my reprimand.”

The lieutenant blanched and scrambled back to the door, all bravado gone from. “You lay a finger on me corporal and you’ll have a lot more to deal with than an Article 20. I’ll see that you’re court-martialed! How does a year in the crystal mines sound? And you,” he swung his gaze to the first sword and took another half step back, “I’ll be sure that you get busted back down to a buck sergeant. Maybe even a corporal for dereliction of duty.”

Rail laughed. “Don’t flatter yourself, love. Do you think some pup fresh off of the training grounds is more valuable than any member of an elite strike team, even some no rank recruit like myself and Raven? I’m willing to bet if Breach here decides to turn those words into action, they may not waste the parchment on even a reprimand.” 

First Sword Abon held up a hand, bringing attention back to him, then cleared his throat. When he spoke, he seemed to have regained his cool composure. “If I have to, I’ll take this up with garrison command.”

The lieutenant threw up a hand. “Fine…fine.” He turned to the peaceman, who had stared at Breach as if the striker was a feral animal. “Escort the first sword to their strike team member.”

The peaceman gasped, finally snapping her attention from Breach and gaping at the lieutenant. “But…LT…you’re not serious—”

“Just do it,” snapped the lieutenant, then turned and marched back through the doorway.

When the peaceman recovered, she turned to First Sword Abon and adjusted her uniform, then turned on her heel and headed toward the door. “Right this way, first sword.”

They forced the rest of strike team Dark to remain behind. The wait was long and tense, and it surprised Raven to see that he felt a sense of anxious energy. In less than one full day he had established a connection with the group, even if it was a begrudging one.

It turned out to be two full bells of waiting. They stood in the vestibule area and watched uniformed peacemen come and go as they escorted manacled detainees in and out of the double doors that separated the holding area. 

First Sword Abon stormed back out with a still seething Titan hovering behind. 

“Look alive, Dark,” said First Sword Abon as he passed through the area towards the exit of the chamber. “Let’s go.”

It was only after the team descended to the lower level reserved for the elite corpsmen that the team seemed to relax and let go of the tension. And Raven saw why. The men and women they passed on that level of the garrison were like them. Non-uniformed, with the same presence that team Dark possessed that separated the strike teams from the regular peaceman. He finally understood why the strike teams distinguished themselves with the name corpsmen. Technically, they all were corpsman, giving the proper name of the force was the Peacekeeping Corps. But there was a difference, and being in the presence of the other strike teams now made that palpable. 

They headed straight to the suite of apartments exclusive to team Dark. Raven stepped through the threshold and his brows rose. He expected a sterile, utilitarian decor for the living quarters of not only a unit of peacekeepers, but an elite strike team, no less. Instead, he saw the complete opposite. The space was wide and open, with five plush sofas situated around the space. Dominating the center was a long table carved from smooth stone lined with several platters of assorted nuts and sliced flat bread, all of which smelled delicious and rested atop thin rectangular sheets of crystal that glowed a dull red and radiated alchemical heat. Positioned between and around the food were a half dozen crystalline cylinders that looked to contain pure water, each of which stood on flat crystal circles that glowed a cool blue beneath a thin layer of frost.

Breeze lounged on one of the comfortable sofas with her legs kicked up and one hand behind her head. Her other hand was full of the nuts, one of which she tossed high into the air and held her mouth open. She would have missed not only her waiting mouth, but the sofa altogether—by a large margin—except a pinch of aeromancy redirected the nut in a wild looping arc that landed on target, which she crunched loudly, and chewed even louder.

She had cleaned herself up well. Still appeared just as flighty as Raven’s first impression, especially with her ridiculous multi-colored sleeveless civilian shirt that somehow matched none of the colors of her even more ridiculous pantaloons. 

Even though Breeze looked like something straight out of a traveling carnival that toured the Djudeni, Mixer somehow looked even more absurd. It had been bells since the team had returned to the garrison. The man was still coated with grime and sand. He sat at one end of a heavily stained sofa at the far end of the room, body draped over the side in deep sleep. Clutched in one hand was a slice of the flat bread he hadn’t started eating, and in the other was a mug of water somehow held upright at an awkward angle that looked like it should have been too uncomfortable to allow him to hold the position for long, let alone sleep.

First Sword Abon was the last through, and after he shut and bolted the heavy outer door, he rounded on the group. “Discipline, Dark!” He spun in a slow circle and swept his gaze across every member of the strike team before leveling the big man with a frigid glare. He inhaled as if to say more, then paused. He grimaced, then turned over his shoulder. “Mixer!”

The stench of ozone and copper filled the air just before Breeze flicked a casual hand in Mixer’s direction and a blast of air launched the alchemist from the sofa, sending the bread, mug, and water within flying.

“Huh…what?” Mixer popped up onto his knees, eyes wide in alarm. “Oh, hey, everyone’s back. About time. You know, I was act—”

“Mixer!” Breach took a half-step toward the man.

“Why does everyone keep shouting my name?”

Breach clenched both fists. “One more word and you’ll get all the affection I couldn’t give to that damn lieutenant back at the holding cells. Now shut up and let the first sword finish kicking our asses so I can have a bath and some food.”

Mixer actually looked like he was about to respond, but paused, snatched up the piece of flat bread on the floor beside him, then climbed to his feet. He bit into the bread, tore a sizeable chunk away, and glared at Breach with each exaggerated bite.

As if the first sword had somehow watched the display, even though his eyes were still locked on Titan, he forced a slow inhale and exhale from his flared nostrils. “Discipline, team. If we lose sight of that…our discipline…even for one instant, we become no better than what we fight against.”

Titan swung his meaty fist down around and struck the stone wall beside him hard enough to send a tremor through the granite floor. The large man spoke in a voice like rolling thunder. “Should we stand by? Do nothing? That entire platoon, right up to their first sword, is a disgrace to the uniform. She was lucky I held back.”

“Had you not done so, Titan, there would be no amount of talking, or negotiating, or threatening I could do to get you out of the pit of crap you would have dug for yourself.” First Sword Abon tapped the side of his head with a finger. “Think. All of you. You need to think. We cannot enforce rules that we ourselves subvert. Just because you feel justified in your actions does not mean you are justified. If that were the case, then we’d have to let half the people we arrest walk free.”

“So what do we do, boss?” Breeze asked, her voice the polar opposite of Titan’s rumbling baritone. “What do we do when we hear that kind of garbage time and time again from the people we spend so much time and energy and resources supporting? What should the people think when they have one team riding through their streets telling them how much we care—and showing them—and as soon as we ride out the uniformed peacemen—our colleagues—the ones that regularly patrol their streets, sell them out? It undermines our message and purpose out there.”

“No!” First Sword Abon said. He was trembling. “Our message is not undermined by anyone but us. Strike team Dark leads the way. Tip of the spear. Those are not just fanciful words, Breeze. The proof is all around you.” He waved a hand in a circle. “All around. Let’s stay within our garrison. There was corruption in every corner of this building before they had no choice but to follow our lead. Not everyone, no. But enough to make a difference, with more every day.” He leveled a finger at Breeze. “You, of all people, should know this. You are all that remains of the original team I took over when I came to Dark. Corruption was the name of the game. Now look at this team. Look at how many other teams, platoons, individual peacekeepers—peaceman and corpsmen alike—have followed our lead. Tip of the damn spear, Breeze.”

The first sword circled the large interior of the room, locking eyes with every member again. “And look outside these walls, to the people in most need. Do you think we do what we do for recognition? Or even to be distinguished from those that wear the uniform that embarrasses what the peacekeeper corps stands for? No. We do what we do for the people because that’s why we are here, why we wear the uniform.” He finally stopped and lowered his voice. “We do what we do, the way we do it, because it is right. Anyone lose sight of that again,” he looked to Breeze, then to Titan, and lastly to Raven, “and you will be gone. Not just from my team. But I’ll ensure you are fully discharged. Am I clear?”

A collection of voices confirmed their assent, but none seemed satisfied. 

The First Sword held up a finger. “However. I do want to make one thing perfectly clear. We will not abide atrocities. We will not abide the things revealed in that necrologue. I ask you to trust in me with this matter. I will make sure the corpsmen responsible are handled, and handled with an extreme punctuation.” He paused, and his expression hardened. “Now, I would suggest you get some rest, because we’ll be up four bells before dawn and headed to the opposite side of the ring. We have a fresh lead.”

The team perked up at that. Breach grinned. “We’re going after the Crimson Ring?”

First Sword Abon returned her grin. A hungry gleam came to in his eye. “Yes, Breach. Tomorrow, we go after the Crimson Ring.” 

The first sword turned his attention back to Titan. “Now, for the matter of your reprimand.”

Titan frowned. “You said the Major agreed to let the matter rest.”

“Yes, Titan. That was a surprise to me, actually. Something I didn’t ask for. Tells me the Major herself felt your actions were justified.” He shook his head. “But I will not let the matter rest. You’ve got extra garrison duty. One full month. Four bells each night after duty.”

Titan grimaced, but lifted his chin. “Where should I report?”

“Anywhere you’d like. Kitchens, quartermaster, maintenance…you pick.” He nodded. “On days where we hit the sands for more than ten bells, extra duty is cut down to one bell. I’ll waive extra duty for any day we do over twelve bells on the sand. Every night. Can you handle that, titan?”

“Too easy, Sword.”

“Outstanding.” First Sword Abon swept his gaze around the room. “Alright team. You’re dismissed.” 

When everyone broke to go their separate ways, Raven looked around, unsure of where he should go and what he should do.

First Sword Abon walked up to him. “Come. I’ll give you a tour of team Dark’s quarters—for however long you remain attached to this team.”