"Absolutely not, Istvan, this cannot be allowed!"

Istvan sighed, he knew this wasn't going to be easy. "Rey..." he started but his hot-tempered friend would have nothing of it. She waved her hands in the air, fluttering like a fairy drak's wings.

"They are mob Istvan, you know what that means. No Castle on the planet will have them!" Reynate balled her hands into fists, turning little circles, probably angry that her friend was maintaining his calm so well. It was actually unlike him, Istvan was known as a jumpy, hair-triggered sort at the very least, hardly one to keep his calm when the only true friends he'd had all his life were harping on him.

Yet he was. The Judge of aspirants stood before his friends, she and her brother Alexander had both paired with their draks about a year before he had his own Cephari, but they were fiercely attached to one another. In many ways, more than friends. Perhaps because of that, Istvan was usually one to follow them, to keep to their ideas and obey Rey's word - she was a Peace Keeper after all. But she'd been wrong about people before, something that they'd come to argue about infrequently enough. So Istvan was watching her stew, when he said, "Yet there they are, Aspirants as only I know how to find them. I don't believe that any of them has a truly evil bone in their body, Reynate. They are just children."

That probably put off a couple of those 'children', by their huffy expressions. They weren't 'children' exactly, none of them younger than thirteen. Which of course, if you ask a 13 year old whether they are a child or not, one expects the answer to be a resounding 'no'!

They stood in a group, not huddling because they were more confident now that they'd been Judged. It was also apparent to them that the spooky black-haired man with the chittery noisy drak was confident in their abilities. He had only had to apply his medical skills to two of the seven when he came across the group, and he was free with the compliments on how they'd handled the rest of their minor scrapes and bruises themselves. They showed leadership qualities, honesty and loyalty to one another, even if they wouldn't ever show those things to someone outside their Mob.

And that was the problem of course. That they owed their allegiance to a Mob group that had been captured in the midst of a raid on a small settlement in the savannah near Dun Keiba. It was a known group, one which had eluded capture for some years before they were even spotted by a scout recently. But like every group of people who live together, they had families, they had ties binding them to a location. Returning to it again and again, someone's bound to notice eventually. So they were found, followed, and taken. The adults, and those younger ones which had already proven to be more bloodthirsty than most. The Sethoic kids, the redheads, were among those who remained behind because they had no taste for the murders that would occur in the small village. Veng and Nisk were left back at the river, and Kemmi...

"He's a known criminal, Istvan," said Reynate flatly, of the white-haired young man who stood stoically beside the others. "If he's brought in there is a reward for his live capture."

"He is a thief, Istvan," added Alex, glancing over the group. "All of them, probably, but that one's known. How could he be any easier to spot, with that hair?"

Kemmi looked down, unconsciously running his hand through that short pale platinum hair.

"Yes, a thief. And how has that worked out for that killer I Judged a couple years ago, eh?" Istvan said, his eyes growing more narrow and his voice turning dark. "Has not seemed to slow Ulla and her drak down, has it?" Istvan held up his hand, before either of his friends could respond. "Yes, I know, I know, that's a different situation. Had she meant to kill him she'd have been yours to do with as you would, Rey. But as it stands, she meant no harm, and frankly thievery that leads to nothing more than anger or inconvienence is hardly a crime the draks care about. Even if these kids have stolen things, what difference does it make? If they might make a better Knight?"

"I have to bring them in, Istvan, and you can't stop me," Rey said, hard. "They are not coming as guests, they're coming to Dun Keiba as prisoners." Rey turned and instructed her drak to fetch others, and Istvan did not move to stop them. He could sense the disappointment in the group, none more obvious than Kemmi's.

Istvan turned to face them, his lips tight and his eyes still narrow - but looking more over his shoulder at the arriving draks and their Knights. "At least this gets you all into the Castle, which is better than nothing. I will have to discuss this with the other Peace Keepers, of course."

Before they started moving toward the draks, to be bound gently with cloth and separated, Elgy Sethoic asked, "was that true, you Judged someone who'd killed?"

Istvan nodded, looked up at the draks, and guided her toward the Forest colored female. "Yes, I did," He said significantly more to Ulla on the Forest's back than to the redheaded girl.

Elgy sat quietly in front of Ulla on her strong drak's back, nervous but not because she was afraid for her life. More because she'd never been this close to a Drak. Neither had her siblings, but it seemed that Kemmi had. He took it in stride, though he was worried more conventionally - he was going to be brought again before a tribunal and probably found guilty of something new.

They all were.

***

No one in Dun Keiba had directly contacted or been involved with this Mob, they'd called themselves the Frostbite mob. Somehow these kids had been born to some of the most bitter, angry and violent parents that the world had seen. But the group of related ones, the Sethoic batch, were uniformly pacifistic. Even the eldest, Iamei, who tended to poke at her siblings verbally and somewhat abusively, shied away from real physical violence of almost any kind.

Though the one young man Kemmi had in fact been seen before and escaped from the detention center some miles from where he was recaptured, he was really the only one that could be said to have been dangerous at one time. However, he was one which the group of younger kids protected both physically and verbally.

Though the kids were controlled, hardly meek but not actively trying to get away, they were also deadly serious about keeping Kemmi safe. Almost fanatically loyal, in fact.

"I wonder why they're like that with him," Reynate asked absently, trying to settle the debates with not just her friend Istvan but the other Peacekeepers and Lawgivers. "I mean, he's just as much a stranger to them as anyone, he wandered in from the north."

"Well maybe they think he's cute," Istvan said with a hidden grin. He ducked Rey's thrown quill, caught it in midair and tossed it back to her. "Perhaps he rescued someone they know, maybe he's their idol,"

"We nursed him back to health," said Nisk from his cell nearby. "And we'll be damned if we'll let someone else hurt him now that he's healthy."

The kids were also steadily silent on the matter of what they knew about their Mob. It was explained to them that they could get themselves shorter sentencing or easier terms of imprisonment if they would detail their Mob's activities. But they casually played it as though they were never involved in planning sessions, they were never quite around when a raid or an ambush was done.

When the tenth evening came around, and questioning was over for the last time, Rey and the other Lawgivers had gone out to their quarters, Istvan remained behind.

"I know you're lying about all that," he said of the knowledge they denied having. "And so does Rey. I'm not sure about the others," he glanced at the door. No guards were about to come, these were kids after all, and the cells they were in had no windows and only led to one very well secured door that was in fact guarded on the outside. No one was there to hear. "So what is the story, then. Why be so silent? Your parents are criminals, and they would have led you down the same paths. I've seen that happen in other cases already."

"They would leave us behind anyway," said one of the red-headed children. "They said we were too young."

"I've seen kids half your age picking pockets at market," Istvan said.

"The raids were too far away," offered another.

"The muscles on you tell me you're used to climbing and running," the Judge said, leaning back into the chair and smiling to himself. Only a couple of them had come to the fronts of their cells - they were put in three cells, and Kemmi was in another area entirely, past this hallway and personally guarded.

"We're not fully trained," said one of the girls. "And besides, Veng can't run worth Nex droppings, he's a klutz." The others laughed, and Istvan heard Veng muttering to himself about how he wasn't all grown up yet and had big feet.

"But those are not reasons why you would remain loyal to your Mob," Istvan said. He heard them all sort of sigh, none comfortable with telling him whatever truth they had. Then, Elgy gave an audible sob.

"It was all our fault they were doing this one raid," she said, and the others chattered at her to shut up, but they eventually allowed her to continue. "We had told our parents that we didn't like them coming home with blood on their clothes, on their hands."

She paused, and the others had become quiet. This was the awful truth they'd been denying?

"So the leader, Master Kundalf, he heard us saying we didn't want them to hurt people any more. And he yelled at us that we were stupid, we were wrong to think like weaklings. He wanted us to go with them on the raid, but we wouldn't. So that last time," Elgy sighed, "almost the whole village went off. Nisk and Veng were out there, too, but that was when we found Kemmi. He had come from the last village they'd raided, with a spear stuck in his leg."

"I'd seen him limping a bit," Istvan said quietly. "Someone did an exceptional job healing him up."

"Thank you, that was Nisk and Veng too," Elgy added. "Some of our family members didn't come home from that raid, nor the next, but they were bringing back things... Proving they'd killed the people they took money from." She gasped back a sob, "But they're our parents, what were we supposed to do?"

"Other Mob's children congratulate their victories," Iamei said from another cell, cold. "But what they were doing... You had to have heard about it, right?"

"It was why we were looking so hard for them, yes," Istvan said. He actually had to stop Rey from talking about it, it was dredging up too many bad memories of his own young years.

"So when we saw the draks in the sky, we were going to run, but they came too quickly. That last village Frostbite was hitting, was it badly damaged?"

"Yes, there were fires set and even cattle were being killed. It was brutal." Istvan said. "I wish you would tell the Lawgivers these things. They really do mean it, you would be released much sooner, if you would. It is not selling your families out, it's keeping yourself on the right path."

With that, Istvan stood and bid them good night for the moment. He would return the next day, as he had for almost two weeks, with Rey and the others.

***

They'd changed their minds over night, apparently. With the words said once, they were easier to say again. Each of the six were asked questions privately, and each had their own take on what happened - not different accounts, just their opinions on it.

Rey had to admit that they were behaving better, and she knew that Istvan probably had something to do with it. But they were still insistent that Kemmi be kept with them.

"It's really not in your hands to decide that," Rey said. "But for what it's worth, he's been telling us of his gambling and racing debts, and we all know those problems fairly well."

Kemmi had fallen in with a group of wandering thieves that hadn't been associated with a particular Mob village. It was for that reason that the kids had had to keep him fairly secret, he told the Lawgivers how they had helped him, but had to keep his presence hushed because - his kind weren't appreciated in Mob territory. Rogues were the lowest of the low, even on Icarus. They stole horses and skirr from horse thieves. They plied words more cleverly than any Mob could, they were smooth and suave and pretty. Most Mob villages would hang them or gut them if they passed through a territory that was under control - they would be taking valuable 'taxes' away from the Mob leaders, after all. So the betting and racing was done under the watchful eye of another Mob, and if Kemmi had been found by their own he would have been killed for 'tresspassing'.

"Is it still harboring a criminal, if we're harboring him to save his life from other criminals?" Asked Nisk. That got the Lawgivers to thinking, perhaps Istvan was on to something.

This was a batch of healthy, loyal, strong willed and minded kids. They knew right from wrong, and while they were young enough to worry about how their parents would punish them for disobedience, they were also sensible enough to stand up for themselves in the face of punishment. They weren't throwing their lives away, they were calm and quiet. They answered questions, mostly, when asked. They sometimes gave cryptic answers, but all teenagers did that.

Eventually, the decision came down that Kemmi would in fact remain with the others, conditionally.

They were to be Aspirants, and once so, they would be under strict duties to make up for their own - and their family - mistakes. Kemmi would have to work the hardest, he had lost bets and run from debt, stolen several bits of jewlery and livestock to sell in other places later. He would have to make up for every penny he'd 'appropriated'.

The others eagerly offered to help him out, if they were going to get the chance.

So now, they were going to be split up - for the first time. It turned out there were quite a lot of places for them to stand, Aspirants were always tough to find but many castles still needed them. Draks came from these castles - their Knights instructed to carefully watch the kids when they were there. And, of course, to watch their treasury and valuables in the meantime...

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