ARWIN

  Azamont stood in the center of his study, a riding crop in hand, his dark-purple tunic partially unbuttoned, face red with anger. Seeing the intrusion, his eyes bulged over his refined moustache. “Who are you? How dare you enter my home uninvited?”

  A pretty young woman was on all fours next to a broken cup and spilled tea.

  Arwin gave the blueblood no time to act. He flew across the room and clotheslined the middle-aged man with his forearm, slamming Azamont to the ground.

  All breath left Azamont’s chest in a great whoosh. Still, he vainly clawed at Arwin in astonished rage. “Y-you d-dare…!”

  Aoi dropped to the ground next to Azamont and snapped a blue collar around the man’s neck.

  Magic went to work. But it faced a formidable foe trying to overcome that much pride and arrogance. A great battle took place within the blueblood: his body writhed, and agony twisted his features. After a few moments of desperate struggle within his mind, Azamont slumped, looking begrudgingly beaten. The man’s will must have been strong to resist so much. Luckily, the collar had won out.

  Harl helped the tear-stained belle up from the ground. He spoke kindly and acted normally, “There, there, Rina. No need to cry anymore. He won’t be harming you ever again. We’ll make sure of that.”

  Rina sniffled and seemed ready to burst into fresh tears at seeing her rescuers. In a weak voice, she asked, “What have you done?” Sje cast desperate glances at both Azamont and the door. “What’s going on?”

  Aoi clenched a white-knuckled fist and looked fierce. “Revolution.”

  Harl agreed. “She’s right. About time we stood up to the abusers of the Blue Region. We’ll not let them decide how our lives are lived anymore. We’re going to decide for ourselves. And build a fair and equal society for all of us.”

  Aoi stepped closer to Rina. She spoke softly. “No more beaus and belles. No more collars and slavery. We’re going to live for ourselves and for each other, not for selfish people like him.” She nodded towards Azamont.

  Rina looked even more scared. “You’re mad! He’ll punish us for this!”

  Arwin shook his head. “We’re not alone. This is happening all over the village. We’re bringing all the nobles down.”

  Rina backed up a step, shaking. “You’re insane! You don’t know what he’ll do to us for this. What they’ll all do.” She stumbled backward onto a couch and collapsed there, frightened tears on her cheeks, shaking.

  As much as Arwin sympathized, they didn’t have time to waste. There were still staff and guards about. The mission wasn’t yet complete.

  Aoi grabbed Azamont by the collar. She delivered a vicious slap to his face, then another to the other side.

  As his anger reawakened, conflict momentarily struggled once more on Azamont’s face, but the collar eventually won out, and he returned to being docile.

  She coldly demanded, “Your records of ownership, where are they? Land titles, all of it.”

  “I…” This time, the conflict on his face went on longer. He was a man of terrifyingly strong will, and the very last thing he wanted was to lose any of his wealth or power. The magic in the collar struggled to make him obey. When he finally calmed down, they all breathed a sigh of relief. He pointed to the bookcase behind his desk. “There.”

  Harl and Arwin bodily hauled the man to his feet.

  Aoi snapped, “Where? Show us.”

  Azamont trudged to the bookcase. He pulled two spines out slightly, and the case slid aside, revealing a safe in the white stone wall.

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  Noting the keyhole, Arwin asked, “Where’s the key?”

  Azamont scowled briefly; a half-snarl formed, and then his face stilled. He pulled a key out from under his tunic, where it hung from a cord around his neck.

  Harl opened the safe. The inside was about one meter cubed and stuffed full of papers and sacks of coin.

  Aoi and Harl both gasped.

  Harl breathed in awe, “A bloody fortune!” He pulled out a heavy coin sack. It fell open, and gold coins spilled out.

  Aoi was stunned. “You could feed the entire village for a decade with what’s in this safe. So many in the village struggle to survive from day to day, yet he has all this…” She picked the riding crop off the floor, where Azamont had dropped it, then came to his side. With savage force, she repeatedly whipped him with it, leaving angry, red marks on his face and arm.

  Arwin instinctively thought to stop her but held himself back. It was nothing less than deserved.

  Harl riffled through a stack of papers pulled from the safe. “It’s no good. I don’t understand these things. Which are the ones we need?”

  Arwin took the stack and quickly flipped through it. He saw shipping manifests, sales receipts, and contracts for various services. In a folder at the bottom were land titles to his estate and several pieces of property in the village. Arwin grinned and held them up. “Got ‘em!”

  The door crashed open, startling the trio of invaders. Two men in uniforms burst into the room, clubs in hand. The clubs were wooden but had heavy, banded iron rings on the end, and the weapons could no doubt be used to deadly effect.

  The guard on the left shouted, “You there! On the ground — now!”

  Looking confused and scared, Aoi gasped, “How did they—?”

  Arwin’s eyes darted about the room. The young woman was gone. Surely she hadn’t fled and alerted the guards, had she? What appalling cowardice. Or, perhaps, the abuse had driven her so far into hopelessness that she couldn’t even contemplate salvation. They should have kept an eye on her.

  Harl cursed, his worn face wrinkled with frustration. How well could an old man stand up against others half his age?

  The guards charged. The first one tackled Harl to the ground, and they wrestled in front of the couch, the broken tea cup crackling under them. Harl cried out in pain.

  Arwin pushed the papers into Aoi’s hands and thrust her behind him so fast that she stumbled. Ducking the incoming guard’s club, he lunged forward, grabbed the man about the waist and lifted him off his feet in a bear hug before slamming him down to the ground.

  The guard grunted. He was not as muscular as Arwin but still had enough presence of mind to repeatedly slam his club into Arwin’s back.

  The painful blows bruised deep. The pain was enough to push Arwin away, and he watched the guard’s lips twist in triumph. Arwin crawled forward again through the blows, taking more hits. With one hand, he took hold of the guard’s throat. With the other, he punched the guard over and over in the face. When the guard slowed his movements, Arwin took the opportunity to punch him in the throat, too, leaving him choking. Panting and hurt, Arwin climbed to his feet and stomped as hard as he could on the guard’s solar plexus before kicking him in the face, taking him utterly out of the fight. Then Arwin looked up, ready to help his comrade.

  Somehow, Harl had already subdued his guard. He huffed as he stood up from the floor, wiping sweat off his brow. “Bah, these guys are soft. Too much time sitting around threatening people and drinking instead of doing any real work.”

  Aoi looked bewildered. “Rina. She must have alerted them. But why?”

  Harl shrugged one shoulder. “Fear.”

  She protested the suggestion, “But she won’t have anything to fear soon enough. Why would she betray us?”

  Harl replied, “We’ve been lucky enough so far, but that luck could run out at any time. There’s no telling how the others are faring. Trying to round up a couple of dozen bluebloods and councillors ain’t going to be easy. If we fail, these bloody nobles will probably do a lot worse than putting collars on us. We’re definitely the underdogs here. Besides, looks like whatever Rina’s been through has marked her deep. And she was never a strong one growing up, either.”

  Aoi trembled with rising anger. Her arm rose and fell, bringing the riding crop down on Azamont’s head. “Curse you! All you do is ruin lives. I hate you all!”

  This time, Arwin eventually stopped her, gently taking her arm. But not before a couple of wounds opened in the lord’s face and a few drops of blood smeared across his skin. “Punish him later. We have a job to do.”

  They ran out of the room, Aoi leading with the stash of property papers in one hand and the riding crop in the other, Arwin and Harl pulling the cooperative but lethargic Azamont along with them. With the alarm already given, they made for the back door to the garden. But before they could reach it, a glowing seal appeared over the door. Word of their intrusion must have spread.

  Harl growled in his gruff voice, “We’ll have to go out the front.” He hefted a club that he’d taken from one of the guards.

  Arwin wished he’d thought to do the same.

  They rushed through the grand chateau and out the main door. Outside the front of the house was a wide circle of white paving stones for carriages, with a few tall pine trees in a grassy knoll in the middle. The surrounding area was evergreen forest, giving the estate privacy from the road beyond.

  The escaping group made it only a couple of steps before three more guards appeared from behind nearby trees. And one of them looked especially dangerous.