Free The Way of the Power by Stuart Jaffe

to berate her. She was only trying to —”
    “You should not speak either, Sheriff .” The title sounded like a curse in Canto’s mouth. “Our celebration ended with a distraught girl, fighting, and death in the air. People didn’t go home remembering the wonderful music, the grand performance, or even the pleasure of drinking. They only recall the fear of war, the sound of screams. They will wake tomorrow just as they go to bed tonight — in fear.” Canto shook his hand as he paced the edge of the pool. “I always suspected you would be faced with an event that questioned your loyalty. But nobody can be loyal to two opposing groups. I had hoped you would have chosen to remain with us. That is clearly not what you have done.”
    “You are wrong.”
    Canto leveled his stare on Malja. “And you. You are most at fault here. I once thought of you as a savior to our people, but I know better now. You and all those you bring with you are a poison. We may have been trapped in a war before you came, but at least our world made sense to us.”
    Malja struggled to maintain a strong voice while not sounding like a challenge. She reminded herself of the pressures of leadership and employed as much control as she could muster. “Your world would be one of genocide by now. The Carsite people were on the verge of extinction, and they didn’t even know it. With Harskill’s help, the Scarites would have slaughtered you all.”
    “Maybe so. Maybe we would have defended ourselves just as successfully without you. What we never would have done, though, was destroy the only source of magic in our world. Everything we had was wiped away by you. Do you understand that? These people aren’t rebuilding the world they knew and loved. You have brought an apocalypse to us, and we are simply surviving.”
    Malja’s throat went dry. Could that be true? Could she have caused something like the Devastation?
    Holding out his accusing finger, Canto turned his focus toward Stray. “You. More than anyone, I want you to see this room. Here is where our most valuable, most important asset existed. This was the Great Well, and with it we were granted the energy to power our lives, to free us from the bare existence we now suffer. Malja took it away from us. And now, she dares to return and brings trouble like you with her.”
    Malja said, “I’m trying to save the life of that woman.”
    “She was a little girl this morning! That stinks of magic and magic is the last thing I wanted these people to be reminded of. Bad enough having Tommy around all the time, but now there’s this Artisoll thing — and the two of them are mostly seen together.” Sweat beaded on Canto’s forehead. “Worst of all, the magic you’ve introduced here has brought back violence. Had you been discrete, perhaps my people would not have known. But you had to go on a mass killing.”
    “That’s not fair,” Fawbry said. “Malja went to great lengths and risked a lot to get those things away from the town. We all did.”
    “You want us to throw another party in her honor?”
    “I want you to stop berating and start realizing that this situation is not nearly so bad.”
    “Are you insane? The entire town knows what happened — or thinks they do. I have no doubt that the story is already expanding into Malja fighting an entire horde of blood-thirsty, child-eating beasts. But one thing that will remain true no matter how outlandish this tale grows — everybody will remember that this all was because of that magic girl.”
    Stray stiffened, but Canto appeared to have run out of anger. He bent over as if he might vomit into the empty well. Hirasa rushed around to his side and rubbed his back.
    Malja said, “I hope you know that we never intended to bring harm to you. When I fought with you, it was only to help. While the life you have now is not as luxurious as the one before, you don’t live in fear of Scarite attacks, and you —”
    Canto put out his hand.