Chapter Three

Chapter Three

 

Breathing hard, Irin looked around for her brothers and was glad to see that Jace was already bent over his hostile and searching through the smelly furs for his wand.  She reached down to her opponent to do the same while Jace checked on Lance.

 

“If one of you guys isn’t busy, you can come take care of one of these dipshits,” Lance responded, and both Irin and Jace were glad to hear he was ok.  “They’re both down, but I had to chase one halfway to England before I got a good shot in.” 

 

Jace and Irin chuckled.  “I can’t.  I’ve got one more a ways back that way,” Irin pointed over her shoulder in the direction of her first opponent. 

 

“Alright, Lance, I’ll come take care of him.  Head on in with the one you’ve got,” Jace responded as he fastened zip cuffs on his Stealer.

 

“Right-o.  See you on the other side, guys,” Lance said before he turned off his earpiece �" they didn’t handle time travel well. 

 

“I’m going to go handle the one in the forest first.  Got everything under control here?” Jace asked as he brushed off his hands on his pants. 

 

“Yeah, I’m good.  I’ll go bring in the one back there first, and then we can come back for these beauties,” she said, pointing to the Stealers right by them. 

 

“Sounds like a plan.”  Jace pulled out his weapon and popped a stunning pulse into each of the hostiles to make sure they didn’t wake up before they could be taken in.  He holstered his weapon with one hand while he flicked his earpiece back to manual mode now that the action was over.  With a small wave, he headed for the river at a trot. 

 

Irin mimicked her brother and returned her earpiece to manual mode as she retrieved a set of zip cuffs from her belt and fastened her opponent’s limp arms behind his back.  She slipped his wand into her pants pocket and began the trek over to her first hostile, mildly surprised with the distance she had covered in such a short period of time.  It all came down to adrenaline, she supposed. 

 

She approached the prone enemy slowly and wondered how hard she had actually punched him.  Clenching her right fist in the memory, she realized it must have been really hard when a quick zing if pain shot up her arm.  She made a mental note to ice it when she got back.  She reached out with her foot to roll him onto his back when she heard a loud crack come from the forest not ten feet away.  She whipped around fast enough to catch a glimpse of a man standing at the edge of the trees �" a man wielding a Stealer’s wand!

 

“Hey, you!” she called out, hoping to stop him from getting away as her hand went for her weapon.  Her shout seemed to shake him from his state of shock at being discovered, and he allowed the wand to clatter to the ground as he turned from her and ran into the trees. 

 

Irin’s mind was racing as she darted into the trees after him.  Had they missed one?  How was that possible?  Cursing her terrible fortune, she followed the few glimpses she had of him between the trees and didn’t even bother to pull her weapon; there was no way she would get a clean shot.  She chased him as best she could while yelling out, hoping to lure him into turning and fighting instead.  She had no idea what his plan was, because without his wand, he was unable to get home. 

 

“Hey jackass, why don’t you turn and fight me like a man?” she taunted as she ran, but it came out weaker than she hoped as her lungs began to burn.  She had just opened her mouth to try again when she broke through a line of trees that surrounded a large clearing with her quarry already halfway across. 

 

“Freeze!” she yelled as she leveled her weapon in front of her eye to take aim.  A second later he came to a halt and lifted his hands in the air, stunning Irin, who stopped as well.  Was he surrendering?  She held her fire while he took slow, careful steps and turned to face her, never once lowering his hands.  “Get down on the ground and keep your arms spread out,” she ordered, never loosening her grip. 

 

They stood there looking at one another for a few seconds, and Irin realized he looked nothing like the average Stealer.  He was wearing actual clothes instead of rancid furs and he didn’t look like a linebacker.  He was tall and lean, and his long black hair and pale skin looked well groomed.  Pushing those thoughts aside, she was about to order him down again when a slow smile stretching across his face stopped her cold.  It wasn’t a menacing smile; it was one of superiority, but that didn’t make her feel any better.  She was concerned by what he thought he knew and she didn’t. 

 

Irin was half a second away from shooting first and asking questions later, but he must have seen that in her eyes.  He raised his eyebrow in such a cocky look it could rival Lance at his worst as he brought his hands together in front of his chest like he praying.  However, the second they touched, he drew them apart to shoulder width, and Irin felt her eyes grow as wide as saucers when she saw what was between them for the briefest instant �" it was a web!  She felt her hands go slack in shock and drop her weapon as he brought his hands back together forcefully.  The blast of light emitted the instant his hands met was so powerful that she barely had enough time to throw up an arm and protect her retinas from being burned. 

 

With her eyes still closed, she reached out with all her mind, trying to locate the strings of his web so she could jump his Weave.  She could just barely locate a few, and she reached out to try and intertwine them once more, but the strands were disappearing far too fast for her to catch enough.  Frustrated, she raked her hand forcefully through her unfinished web and shredded her work.  Then she opened her eyes and stared at the spot where he had last stood. 

 

Two thoughts raced round and round in her mind, each vying for prominence: Who was that, and what had just happened?  Other Weavers didn’t just show up on missions like that, and they certainly didn’t get involved by picking up wands and leading agents on merry chases.  She struggled to find even remotely possible explanations and eventually shook her head in an attempt to clear it.  Those were questions she could worry about once she had gotten back home.  Right now she had captives to bring in. 

 

She quickly made her way back out of the forest, emerging farther down the stream than where she had entered.  Resigning herself to the walk, she picked up her pace and had just reached the location of her first fight when an unexpected voice rang out, “Stop!” 

 

“Jace, what’s �" ” she began as she ran toward him, but then she saw.  Her first opponent, the one she had knocked out but neither stunned nor restrained, had regained consciousness and made it to the tree line to fetch the dropped wand.  Her hand went to her weapon, but she knew she would be too late; he was already using the wand to open a rift in front of him.  Jace managed to get a shot off, but this hostile was still just as fast, ducking in the nick of time.  With a gloating smile, he stepped into the rift and was gone. 

 

Jace rounded on her quickly.  “What happened?  Where did you go?” he asked sternly, but he never yelled.  Irin could only look at him helplessly, awash with a mixture of disbelief and guilt.  Seeing her distress, Jace immediately softened.  “Hey, are you ok?”  He took a couple steps toward her, looking concerned. 

 

Irin closed her eyes for a second before responding, “There was another one.  I chased him into the forest.” 

 

Jace’s eyes widened in alarm.  “Another one?  What do you mean?  I thought we got them all,” he asked, his eyebrows pulling together in confusion. 

 

“I saw him when I walked over here.  He was holding a wand, but he wasn’t like them.  He ran when I saw him and dropped that wand,” she gestured to the spot where the Stealer had just gotten away. 

 

“So,” he paused, trying to figure out what she was saying, “what happened to him?  If he dropped his wand, where did he go?”

 

“He,” she started and then stopped, barely able to bring herself to say her next words.  “He Wove away,” she said weakly. 

 

Jace’s concerned look multiplied tenfold.  “What do you mean he Wove away?” 

 

That was enough to break Irin out of her trancelike state and she felt herself begin to bristle at his disbelieving tone.  “What do you think I mean?  I mean he Wove a web and disappeared,” she replied curtly. 

 

Jace’s look didn’t change, but he did pause before responding.  “You know as well as I do that’s not possible.  Scotty would have warned us if another team had been here in the past. Plus, another Weaver would have greeted you properly �" he wouldn't have gone near a Stealer's wand. Are you sure you're alright?” he asked, taking a few more steps toward her, looking for any outward signs of trauma on her body. 

 

“I’m fine,” she replied exasperatedly.  “I know it may be confusing to hear, but imagine how I felt watching it.” 

 

“Irin,” he started, and she could tell he was still concerned with her mental wellbeing.

 

“No,” she cut him off, “don’t you ‘Irin’ me.  I know what I saw!”  Her hands found her hips, and fire flashed in her grey eyes.

 

Jace knew better than to argue with her in this state so he raised his hands in surrender.  “Alright, alright, let’s just get those other two back, and we’ll deal with this later.” 

 

Irin thought about dragging out their argument further, but she realized it was neither the time nor the place, so she lowered her hands in acquiescence.  “Fine, let’s go,” she said and she began walking to where the remaining two captives were still bound.  Jace waited until she had passed him before following. 

 

Neither of them spoke as they each walked up to their captive and stood over them.  Irin didn’t even look at him as she brought up her hands and began a more intricate Weave than the one that had brought her here in order to bring the captive back with her.  Still, it was mere seconds before she drew her hands apart and they disappeared in a flash of light.  With a sigh, Jace performed his own intricate Weave, causing him and his captive to disappear as well.

 

Jace and his hostile landed in the Weave Bay just as Irin was hauling her captive off of the platform.  “ID?” a stern voice resonated through the room. 

 

“Hey again, Xandra,” Jace said, looking at the screen displaying a dark haired women at her terminal next door.  “0031214.”

 

“Welcome back again, Jace,” Xandra gave him a small smile.  Irin snorted in derision at the friendly exchange and slapped her hand down on the gel pad, anxious to get out of the room.  As soon as the light flashed green and the door began to slide open, Irin started bouncing on the balls of her feet.  She didn’t even wait for the door to open all the way, instead dragging her cargo through when it was only halfway across and not giving a damn when his legs smacked on the solid metal frame. 

 

The eighth floor technicians were already waiting outside the door with three gurneys prepared to take the captives away.  “Special delivery!” she called in a falsely cheery voice as she rolled her hostile in front of them.  Ignoring their curious looks when they noticed there were only two more captives instead of the originally reported three, she strode purposefully across the room and punched the button for the elevator. 

 

As soon as she got to her floor, she made a beeline for her room and punched in the pass code.  She pushed through the door, one hand already on her hair tie and the other undoing the buckle on her belt.  The tie was slipped around her wrist, her belt went back to its home on her nightstand, and soon her sword was back in its corner as well.  It wasn’t long before she had kicked off her boots and dumped her clothes into a heap near the closet, opting to change into some cotton shorts and a white tank top.  At last, she fell back onto her bed in mass of tired, sore confusion. 

 

She gave herself a minute or two of silence, reveling in the softness of her bed, before she came back to the matters at hand.  First and foremost she saw that her room was once again silent with Nikki nowhere in sight, and she made a mental note to be nicer to Bill or Bob or whoever that guy was Nikki was dating now.  Nikki spent so much time with him that Irin barely saw her anymore, and she was quite ok with that. 

 

Unfortunately, thoughts of Nikki and what’s-his-name weren’t nearly important enough to occupy her mind for long.  Soon she found her mind drifting back to the events that occurred in that clearing today.  All she wanted more than anything was come up with a better explanation for what she had seen, but she also knew what she saw.  It didn’t make any sense!  And, on top of all that, she was kicking herself for not having the foresight to stun her first opponent and prevent his escape.  That blunder was all on her, and she didn’t even bother looking for another way to view it.  She had been so worried about her brother that she slipped up, and she vowed to make sure it never happened again. 

 

Of course, having fully admonished herself, she was left once again with the stranger in the forest.  She had stopped thinking of him as the enemy when she realized he could Weave; he was now squarely in the unknown category.  For a few minutes she toyed with the possibility that she might actually have imagined the whole thing, but she didn’t really believe that.  Besides, she’d watched that Stealer open a rift in the exact spot the stranger had dropped the wand.  He must have gone over there and picked it up after she had chased the Weaver into the trees.  Alright, then who was he and what was he doing there?  She let out a loud groan when she realized those were the same two questions that she had been trying to answer from the very beginning, and she was nowhere closer to the truth now than before.

 

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