A Hand of Father - Chapter 1

Here's the start of the unedited sample chapters of Justice #8, A Hand of Father!

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The eleven other seats didn’t release me from Child’s chains until after the Autumn Equinox. Part of it was concern for what I might do to others, for the dead demons that comprised the grimoire I’d kept had dug their psychic claws deep into my mind. Part of it was worry of what I might do to myself out of shame.

For believing myself immune to the demons’ influence.

I was under no illusion my fellow seats cared about my well-being. The demons targeted me because I was the only human who could see them regardless of the form they took.

My sight was different to other humans, thanks again to my arrogance. Like all other female children who were born blind, I was taken to the Temple of Balance in my home nation of Issura. The ancients thought those like me were touched by the Balance Herself. In reality, my blindness was a result of my birth mother’s attempt to illegally abort me.

However, I assumed if I could restore my sight, I would no longer be bound to Balance. But how could I give myself something of which I had no real concept? Instead, I gave myself a form of sight based on the heat an object. Fire blinds me as equally as snow and ice. And I was still bound to Balance because there were things I couldn’t see, such as ink on parchment.

But I could always see demons because they were a black far darker than the night sky on a moonless night regardless of any form they took or any illusion they cast. Therefore, I was valuable to my fellow humans in their war against the demons.

Though the demons had tried to take over me, body and spirit, I made it easy for them. I let me pride in my abilities get in the way. A fault High Bother Luc of Light had gently chided me about during the ten years we spent on circuit through the eastern portion of the Duchy of Orrin.

Then there was the guilt of letting the demons use me to abuse my squire Nathan.

While I was imprisoned in Child, there was simply no lying to myself in the presence of High Sister Mya. I would have preferred a truthspell, but as she pointed out, one can only lie if they consciously know the truth they are hiding. There were far more layers to the human mind than most people realized. The odd thing was Mya simply came down to my cell in the Temple of Child and talked. No magic. No silent speech. No touching of my mind. We just talked.

Also, I couldn’t truly call it a cell. Unlike the stone cells beneath Balance for those accused of wrongdoing, the walls and floor where I was kept in Child were covered in oiled leather, padded with horse hair. I had a cotton and linen pallet to sleep upon at night. Even the door was padded.

It was for the protection of those who were mentally ill and had a predilection for self-injury or were a danger to their fellow humans. Otherwise, I would have been kept in one of the treatment rooms on the second floor of the Temple.

“I wish I hadn’t ordered the entrances to the tunnel closed,” I said one day. Or night. I wasn’t quite sure of time anymore with the spell threaded shackles.

Mya looked at me with her sad half-smile. “Why is that?”

“So the Miners Guild could bury me in them,” I said. “It’s what I deserve.”

“Self-pity, again?” The slim, blue brow over her right eye rose.

“No.” I played with a fold of the shift I wore. “Embarrassment.” I shook my head. “After the lecture I delivered to the mob from the South Side this summer, how can anyone take me seriously as a justice again with what I’ve done?”

“Do you want to resume being a justice?”

I snorted. “Are you going to tell me I have a choice?” When she remained quiet, I added, “I thought you said we weren’t supposed to lie to each other.”

“You’re right,” she murmured. “It would be a lie to say you would be relieved of your duties, but the whole point of these sessions is to evaluate when you’re ready to resume your position.”

Then she surprised me. “How do you feel about a visitor this afternoon?”

I leaned against the padded leather on the wall. “Who?”

“You don’t like surprises do you?” Mya teased.

“No, not really.” Even I had to smile. “Surprises in my life have a tendency to want to kill me.”

“It’s Ming Wei,” she admitted. “It’s a test for both of you.”

I shuddered. Ming Wei was Justice Yanaba’s squire as Nathan was mine. She had stopped me from striking the boy. Her desperation to save her friend had unlocked her abilities. She not only saved Nathan’s life, but she saved mine as well.

Ming Wei’s psychic self showed the woman she should become if she could let go of her emotional pain. The girl had been sold by her parents to a Jing noble who sorely abused her. When his foul deeds were discovered, he burned his manse with himself and his child slaves inside. Ming Wei had been the sole survivor.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea for her sake?” I murmured.

“Why don’t you want to see her?” Mya asked in return.

“That answering a question with another question got old when I was a novice at the home Temple,” I muttered.

Mya chuckled. “And you avoid my questions because you don’t like it when you feel out of control.”

“The last time I saw her I wasn’t in control,” I said softly. “Ming Wei had so much happen to her in her short life. I added to her pain, and-and—” I took another shuddering breath. “I don’t if I can face her after what I did.”

“The thing is you didn’t strike Nathan.” Mya cocked her head. “And if the demons had full control over you…”

I finished the ugly thought. “I would have killed Ming Wei.” I stared at Mya. “Let’s discuss the subject we’ve been dancing around. Why hasn’t Yanaba or Elizabeth taken my head?”

“No one really knows what happened at Balance other than the Orrin seats and your staff.” Mya shook her head. “I’ve never seen such personal loyalty to any seat, much less a chief justice.”

My short bark of laughter made her jump. “They had to deal with Penelope. Compared to her, I’m a sweetcake at the Winter Solstice.” Still, Mya’s comment touched my heart.

“After we had a convocation concerning what to do about you, all the seats as well as acting Chief Justice Yanaba decided to see to how things went with your treatment here.” Mya shrugged. “Elizabeth agreed.”

“Though she has no standing in Orrin?” I asked.

“She knows what it’s like to be manipulated and tortured, Anthea,” Mya said. “Out of everyone in the duchy, she’s the most sympathetic to your condition. You gave her a chance to recover and deal with what was done to her. She was your staunchest advocate other than Luc and Claudia.”

I asked the question I’d been dreading the most. “And what’s the Reverend Mother of Balance say about all of this?” I gestured to indicate my cell and Mya.

“She doesn’t know.”

Someone could have knocked me over with a dandelion puff. “No one’s told her?”

“The official story is you had a breakdown in your guilt over the death of Claudia’s babe at Gerd’s hands. You voluntarily and temporarily abdicated your seat to seek treatment because you felt you could no longer perform as an objective jurist.”

I blinked a few times as I tried to swallow this information. Yanaba and Elizabeth had threatened to have me removed as Chief Justice over my obsession with my birth mother Gerd’s escape from custody in Standora. Their discovery of the grimoire should have cemented my fate.

I licked my lips before I asked, “Why is everyone covering for me?”

“Talbert informed us of the suspected spy within the Balance home Temple.” Mya sighed. “As much as I dislike politics and lies, someone helped Gerd escape and someone made sure that damn grimoire ended up in your hands. You were set up. You didn’t choose to join the renegades. For now, we simply can’t trust anyone outside of the city.”

“What about Duke Marco and Magistrate DiCook?”

Again, Mya sighed. “They fear that we have done something to you. I think it best if you are the one to tell them what happened.”

For all of my righteous indignation over doing the right thing, I didn’t know how I was going to face my equals, much less my staff. Nor was I sure I trusted myself.

Or that I ever would again.