Don't Rhine on My Parade

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  I’ve never killed someone before. I’m not sure how I felt about it. I didn’t have a lot of time to process my feelings. I fell back to my knees and the jar to my broken bones was so painful that I blacked out.

  My memories of the rest of the meeting are disjointed. Like a light turning on and off in a dark room.

  My face was smashed into the carpet and it gave me a rather off perspective. Mostly I remember seeing people’s feet moving about. I could also see a spreading puddle of dark liquid. Two puddles in fact. They pooled slowly towards each other and I wondered, without really caring, what would happen when they finally joined. It seemed like it would mean something, I just didn’t know what that was.

  Blackness.

  I felt pain. Pain in my arm. Pain in my shoulder. Pain in my chest.

  Light.

  Deerhurst was speaking. “-der the circumstances, I think we can safely say that she does indeed have magical ability without further testing.”

  I heard the sound of thuds and raised voices from the door. I focused back on the carpet.

  “Agreed,” said several voices.

  A voice from behind my head. “We concur with the Synod ruling. We would like to bring forward our second objection.” It was a woman’s voice.

  “Ms. Oceania, this is hardly—” Deerhurst sounded annoyed.

  “On the contrary,” that sounded like Dhodrim, “this is exactly the time.”

  A sigh. “Proceed.”

  The woman’s voice sounded smug, “We would like to bring up the Code, item 287, point E.”

  “I don’t suppose you would care to read it to us,” a man growled.

  Blackness.

  I felt the pain circling me, looking for a location to come to rest. Something wet was interfering with my breathing. This annoyed me no end. Bad enough that every breath hurt, but why did it feel like I was breathing water? It didn’t seem fair.

  Light.

  “-ures of like magical ability, they shall be classified a magical species.”

  “And your argument?”

  “While we openly admit that the human Cavanaugh has magical ability, it is not possible for her species to be accepted since she is the only one of her kind.”

  “Only one! There are millions of humans!”

  “But only one with magical ability. We believe the law is very clear. Were the human to produce another human of like ability, we would then agree to the re-hearing of the case. Barring that, it seems clear that this is a non-issue and the whole case should be dismissed.”

  Uproar. Raised voices. Arguing. More commotion from the direction of the doors.

  “Keep her out!” someone yelled.

  Blackness again.

  Light.

  A voice yelling over my head. Someone was touching me. I wished they would stop. Fingers probing into my pain. I was rolled onto my back.

  I was screaming again.

  “—the hell were you doing! She’s dying and you’re sitting there arguing points of the Code!”

  “You are out of line—”

  “Iron take you, Maiuanna! Chairman Deerhurst!” the voice broke. “Please!”

  Blackness, finally. Merciful blackness.