Honestly, if I hadn’t been so busy watching the room like a hawk, I’d have been bored to tears.

  She was going on about something, when the wards went off. The ones around the island. It reported five vessels, and then seven, and then ten. I considered it had been five days since the invasion, which worked out timewise, this was the counter attack. I briefly considered connecting to Melinda, but then I didn’t want to throw her off, I was sure she was on it.

  I cleared my throat, and Daphne looked up startled.

  “Sorry your majesty, but it appears we’re under attack. We should send guards down to the shore, just in case.”

  I seriously doubted Melinda would have trouble, unless the ships split up and one snuck by her while she blocked others.

  Daphne nodded regally.

  “Send two squads down please.”

  I nodded to the guardswoman at the door, who ran out to make it happen.

  Again I felt the need to go, but I’d already done what I could, and the captains on those ships should very shortly figure out that they’re helpless and can’t access the sea. Despite the absurdity of it, we went back to the long dry legal discussion. I was not only impressed she’d absorbed all the facts, but she seemed to be passionate about it. I supposed the people on trial would be grateful.

  I keep using the word trial, but really it’s called a judgement. Suspects are questioned with the bracelets on, which forces truth. There is no need for reasonable doubt, or any of that crap. They are either innocent and walk, or guilty, and the council hears evidence on any mitigating factors before pronouncing sentence.

  As legal systems, it was brutally straight forward, but it was also probably more accurate than anything Earth had. There were no mistakes, no convicting the innocent, or releasing the guilty, not with the truth so easily grasped.

  I held back a snort, no doubt the bracelets would be inadmissible in court, or some other ridiculous thing back home.

  Melinda walked in the room about thirty minutes later, and bowed to Daphne.

  “You have something to report captain?”

  Melinda nodded, “Fifteen ships, fourteen of them charged in while one held back. We waited until they were committed enough that they would have a hard time changing course, especially without magic. We destroyed them utterly with a shockwave, nothing but splinters were left of those fourteen ships. We then chased after the last vessel which had already turned, no doubt to report what had happened, and on our defenses here.

  “I’m sorry to say we were unsuccessful in stopping her escape. The ship had a good head start, and I couldn’t leave the island without protection to chase it for days, so I let her go.”

  Daphne shook her head in wonder, “Captain, are you apologizing for only destroying fourteen of fifteen enemy vessels?”

  Melinda looked startled for a second, but then smiled and shook her head, “More in the way of a warning, I doubt they’ll try to attack us again as they did, now that they know our capabilities and what our ward does. If I was the enemy, I’d split a fleet and come at the island from all sides. There’s no way one ship could catch them all before they landed. I would advise at least six watch points around the island, until there is a navy large enough to cover.”

  Which, could take years I knew. It would be a long time until we had a navy large enough to protect all the islands. We barely had enough new recruits for one more ship, much less have enough to leave ships here when we leave.

  Daphne asked, “What about the small fishing boats, if a fire, air, earth, and water team had one of those they’d be quite effective in conjunction with the ward. I wouldn’t put them out in deep sea, but they would be perfect for patrolling around the island. Perhaps we could call those an island guard patrol, and put the local guards in charge of that. They would be answerable to a kingdom ship, if there was one present during battle, but otherwise could just patrol the island. Heck, they could even fish at the same time.”

  Huh… or not. Daphne was a genius. At least she hadn’t called it the coast guard, I don’t think I’d been able to hold in a laugh. I was also annoyed that I hadn’t thought of it, as it was a little obvious in hindsight. Then again, most good ideas usually were.

  Melinda nodded slowly, “I like that idea, but either will work. It would certainly let them get to their patrol position faster.”

  Daphne said, “Thank you captain.”

  Melinda nodded with respect, and then took her leave.

  I held back a sigh, as the lesson continued…

  Chapter Twelve

  On the first floor of the keep there’d been a rather gaudy looking throne room. It was where in theory, the people could have approached the governor with any concerns. I doubted that ever happened. I hadn’t been in that room since the first day, and when we walked into it after breakfast, just two mornings after choosing the council, it looked completely different.

  Much of the finery had been removed, but there was a tasteful amount of it left. The dais had been expanded and slightly curved to comfortably fit five new chairs that weren’t quite as grand. I also thought they looked a lot more comfortable.

  Regardless, the new council sat, their eyes slightly higher than a standing person, as seemed to be normal for such things. There were also chairs along the side wall, and we moved toward those and sat down. In our group was Daphne, Sharon, Lia, and myself, although Jenna and Marie were with us, they didn’t get a chair to observe.

  I could feel the elves nearby as well, but they weren’t in the room itself.

  I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, but it was political crap, and apparently Sharon, Lia, and I rated chairs as royal advisors. As this was the first official council meeting and judgement, and I was just a cop, I figured I’d keep my opinion to myself. I supposed I needed to learn all about this kind of stuff though.

  Still, I felt guilty for sitting, when the two women stood.

  In the center of the room was another chair. It was stark, humble, and it was equidistant from all five councilors because of the slight curve. It also had the truth spell on it, no one could lie while sitting in that chair. I guessed that was necessary, because the suppression bracelets weren’t required for those without magic.

  A few feet behind that was a low fence wall, behind which there was plenty of standing room for witnesses. I was pretty sure that was open to the accused families, and anyone else that was connected to things. There was also a small rounded part in the middle of the fence, presumably for supplicants, or during a trial, for those that spoke on behalf or against the judged.

  I’d paid some attention during the last day and a half of teaching that Daphne had given her new sworn council.

  The side chairs of course, were for observers. It was the council that would be judging the sentences, Daphne was just there to make sure they’d paid attention and got things right. Although, I doubt she’d couched it in that language at all. Her speech was far less blunt than my own.

  It wasn’t long before the first to be judged was dragged in, the governor of the island.

  He was almost immediately disruptive.

  “The king will destroy you all for sedition, and…”

  His face turned panicked, and his chubby cheeks started to turn purple. It was Sierra, the air wielder on the council. A moment later he gasped.

  Sierra said coldly, “You are to be judged, and you will remain silent unless asked a question. Is that understood?”

  He looked like a landed fish as his anger grew, but he eventually managed to get control of his anger, and he nodded. It seemed asphyxiation was a very effective crowd control measure.

  I thought of a few times that would have come in handy back home. I guess that sounds pretty bad, but it’s no worse than getting hit with a Taser.

  The guards maneuvered him around the short fence, and put him in the chair. They took a short step away, but didn’t go far.

  Sierra stated, “You are guilty of the rape and abuse of countless women over the years. You are also guilty of not only allowing the same activity for your guards, but encouraged it. Yes?”

  The governor glared, and didn’t answer, but when menaced by the guard next to him he said, “Yes!”

  On Earth that would have been coercion, and completely illegal. But in that chair, or even just in the bracelets he wore, he couldn’t have lied, even if forced to try. As far as the fifth amendment, that wasn’t a thing here. That might have bothered me, except getting the truth here is a foregone conclusion, it doesn’t require the elaborate games of my old Earth to get at.

  Sierra asked, “Do you have anything to say in your defense that would mitigate the proscribed sentence?”

  The governor didn’t hesitate to open his mouth this time, but when the no slipped out he looked absolutely horrified. Apparently, he’d tried to say something else.

  The councilors took a moment to whisper to each other, I felt the curtain of air that Sierra had raised to keep their words from everyone else in the room. It dropped a moment later.

  Sierra took a deep breath, “The judgment in this case is for immediate hanging, please take him out, find the nearest tree, and then bring us word of his last breath.”

  It was literally that fast, and certain.

  The judgement trial continued for the next three days and was brutal. There was over a hundred of them to go through, including the six assholes that had taken Chad.

  Over seventy-five percent of them were hung.

  Twelve of the trials took a little longer, and the old guards were simply dismissed. Those twelve hadn’t raped anyone, and had done their best to mitigate things in an impossible situation and even helped the citizens at times. Nine more hadn’t been guilty of rape, but they had abused their power. Those were sentenced to between two and five years of hard labor in recompense to the city, depending on the severity.

  It had been far more than nine that were guilty of abuse of power of course, but the rest were also rapists so it was a moot point. They all hung.

  The only trials that had been really hard for me to watch, were the three ladies who’d taken the law into their own hands and committed murder, and perhaps worst of all, Melanie who’d grown on us all a little bit, before she tried to kill Daphne and I that is.

  Those four hung as well, a damned waste…

  Things were going rather well at that point. We’d taken the island, the old government and guard had been wiped away, and we even had a functioning council for the island. They still had plenty to learn about kingdom law, the original uncorrupt version that is.

  There was still a ton to get done though, which is why it would take another six and a half weeks. The new guards for the island would have to be trained, before we left and took the current temporary guard with us. Not only about force and apprehension, but laws as well.

  There was a new ship being built at the port, which would be crewed by a mixture of the new volunteers for the royal fleet, and a small part of the more seasoned crew from Melinda’s ship. They had training to complete too, on not only how to sail a large ship, but on battle and strategy in the water.

  There were also teams of the new guards, who would be part of the new island guard, and had to learn similar things. Though it was far easier to run a small fishing boat than one of the larger ships.

  So in short, there was still plenty to get done in the six weeks and some odd days that we had left before moving on to the next island.

  The problem was of course, that none of it really involved me. I was learning as well, as I’d need to understand the laws and politics in order to be a decent advisor to Daphne. Although my role there was more based on the military and security side of things, Daphne really didn’t need any help with the political side. From me at least, Lia and Sharon had that taken care of.

  After a few days I think I was starting to get a little stir crazy. So after ensuring there was plenty of security around Daphne, I grabbed Marie and made a run for it.

  I had a plan, and it was something useful to do, even if we didn’t really need it for weeks yet.

  We searched around for scrap metal, I couldn’t feel any raw metals in the ground at all, and it kind of floated along behind us. When we found enough, it was time to get to work.

  We went down to the port, where the crate was, which had held the networked ward before it was deployed. It had gathered a bit of dirt, but a little bit of channeling from Marie, and the crate was nice and clean again, the dirt removed. Next time I wouldn’t forget it like that, but we’d been a bit busy at the time.

  I started to shape the metal into the small metal balls, ball bearings basically, and filled up the crate, along with the small box for the keep and communication ward.

  “Thanks Marie.”

  She shrugged, “I’ll stay and watch your back, just in case.”

  I nodded, I knew I’d be a bit distant from things doing this. Still, those six guards out in the woods seemed to have been the last holdouts of the old regime.

  I cleared the earth of detritus, and then built a circle, and started to carve symbols into the smoothed dirt. I started with the larger island ward, I’d take care of the keep ward next.

  I wasn’t sure if the symbols were really necessary for magic spells to work, or if they were just necessary for the person doing a casting to get in the right frame of mind. Either way, I followed the proscribed path as I’d been taught, and concentrated on what each symbol would accomplish as I drew it in the dirt.

  Still, was it really the symbols that shaped the magic in a spell, or was it the mind of the one that drew the symbols, which were just an aid for concentration? Maybe one day I would find out. I’d developed the spell on my own, using the symbols and meanings from other spells, combining things in a new way. But I’d only cast each one once successfully, though there had been several failures before I managed to combine them correctly. Despite that, I only had to refer to my notes twice.

  I wasn’t sure, but I think my mind’s retention abilities had improved. Not perfect, but better. Police are trained in observation skills, but this was very complex.

  Each symbol of course, was a word. Once I’d finished with the symbols I stood and paused for a moment, and then after a quick review of the three-minute-long spell, I started to chant the words. It was important to clearly enunciate each word, with a short pause between each, while once again thinking of the effect of that word when spoken.

  It was the hardest part, because I couldn’t let my worry about anything intrude, or even good things about my mates, Daphne, or my other friends. It took total focus on the magic, and just the magic. Without a doubt, it was the hardest part. Writing the symbols took the same focus, but I could pause while writing them. During the casting there were no breaks allowed.

  Without my martial arts and meditation background it would have taken me years to achieve a spell this difficult and long, instead of just a couple of months of hard work.

  When I finished, I examined it with my magic, another benefit to being a diviner was that I could tell if it would work or not when activated. Most casters had to wait until activating the spell before they could be sure they hadn’t screwed it up.

  It looked good, and I moved the box out of the circle. I was glad Marie was still there because the damned thing was heavy. I put the small box in the circle, wiped the symbols, and did the second spell.

  Symbols first again, and then the chant of words. It was exacting, and took discipline and focus, but there was also something Zen about it. Maybe because I could feel the spell forming, like an intricate dance of magical energies. Each thing fit perfectly, harmoniously, both raising the complexity, and built upon the last word. Almost like an orchestra, adding one instrument along with a separate harmonious note at a time, until the listener was overcome with the awe at the complexity and beauty of the combined sound.

  After verifying it, I relaxed a moment and enjoyed the crisp evening air. I’d found out that this was actually winter, and I was right that we were pretty much on the edge of a tropical zone. It was rare for it to get much colder than the mid-fifties or so.

  I wasn’t sure when we’d move on exactly, but we had the wards for the next island now. Early or not, we needed them sooner or later, and it gave me a break from things. Let me recharge.

  I cheated a bit, and used the communications device to talk to the captain. Melinda had one of her earth wielders grab the crate and smaller case right off of the shore, and pulled it across the water. Luckily they’d been in range of the port, although I supposed an air wielder could have flown an earth wielder within range if it’d been needed.

  They’d be stored on ship until the next island.

  “Do you know if they picked the fishing boats for island security yet?”

  Marie looked startled for a second.

  “No, why?”

  I smiled, “For that to work they’ll need keys for the wards, I thought it might be wiser to make the local island guard vessels actual keys. That would be more secure than making generic ones.”

  Marie looked thoughtful, and we started to walk back toward the keep.

  “Yeah, that would be a problem, because likely they’ll have multiple teams, and might even swap ships often. There’d also be a higher turnover rate than a captain in the royal fleet, and it would be hard for you to replace keys when you aren’t here.”

  I snorted and agreed, “It would be very difficult.”

  She snickered.

  “What if they need new ships?”

  I replied, “I’ll make it so they can be moved from ship to ship with some effort. To prevent it from being stolen or used against us, I’ll set it up so if it loses contact with the ward for more than an hour, the ward will fail. Which means the patrol boats will be limited from going farther out than a quarter mile from shore. Eventually, when the kingdom is stable, I’ll teach trustworthy people that can make replacements, and are part of the kingdom navy. Until then they’ll need to be cautious.”