Niyx

by Samantha Kroese

  Onyx rubbed his forehead. He sat with Niyx and Ruel at a table they’d brought into the throne room. He felt tired, worn out. Physically his body was not tired after all the blood he had drank, but his mind was exhausted from the emotions weighing him down. He was having trouble sorting out how he felt about Jadeia’s death. He and Ruel had spent the last few hours with Niyx telling him everything they knew about the Templars, which did not amount to a lot of information. Onyx and Ruel worked within the noble circles, which existed outside the influence of the Templars. The Templars were the holy order of guardians that were charged with keeping the law in Aderaan and protecting its people from all threats.

  Ruel drummed his fingers on the table, staring at nothing, lost in thought. “I still don’t believe they’re involved. Everything I grew up reading about the Templars goes against this. They wouldn’t break the treaty without a reason. Surely we would have heard if there was some zealot leading a campaign?”

  “Not necessarily,” Onyx said with a frown. “That might be the exact thing that the Templars would keep secret from the general public. Especially if the current King approved of it. I think there’s something more to it. Maybe they are looking for something in the forest and Niyx was in the way?”

  Niyx leaned against his throne, steepling his armored fingers. “How do we find out?”

  “That’s a good question. I haven’t made any connections inside the Templars yet.” Ruel shrugged. “I didn’t have any reason to. Everyone just assumes the Templars know what they’re doing, they’ll follow their rules and the law, and don’t need to be governed or watched by anyone.”

  “To be honest, most of Aderaan would probably agree cleansing the forest of the Night Creatures was for the good of the people,” Onyx noted, as he tried to shake off the exhaustion creeping on him. Dusk was only a few hours away and that was the best time for him to obtain information. “I need to get back to work. My mark got away from me the other night. I have to finish that job. While I’m at the parties, I’ll try to prod people for any news of the Templars.”

  “I cannot just go capture one and torture them until they tell me what I need to know?” Niyx sighed dramatically. When the other two stared at him, he grinned, baring his fangs. “I am joking.”

  Ruel didn’t seem convinced. He stood and pushed away from the table. “Sorry I wasn’t more help. I’ll go to the city library and peruse the one at the manor and see if I can dig up anything for you.”

  “My thanks, Lord Ruel,” Niyx nodded slightly.

  “You’re my brother now. Just like Onyx. I’ll do anything I can to help,” Ruel smiled warmly. He gave Onyx a worried look. “Be careful, Onyx. I don’t think they’ll like us poking around the Templars.”

  “I’m sure they won’t. Don’t worry,” Onyx waved off his concern, then he and Niyx watched as Ruel left the room. Onyx sat for a moment longer before he stood as well. “Word will get out that you destroyed the Divide. However, people didn’t dare attack the Den before.”

  “If they were afraid of The Divide and stayed away, they would be foolish to attack now,” Niyx agreed. “Do not worry. I will set magical wards, as well as defenders, at the entrances.”

  Onyx glanced toward the doorway then frowned. The Divide had been attacked once. It was what had driven him and Ruel to their freedom. He had never found out the details of that attack. Ruel had said it was many armored men. They had thought at the time it was knights from the human kingdom, but that had not made any sense. Would the Templars have attacked the Divide just to get at him because he was a Night Creature? That also didn’t make sense, since he faced off against them in Aderaan after that and the Templars had seemed to have no interest in him.

  “What is it?” Niyx asked, breaking into Onyx’s thoughts again.

  “The Divide was attacked once. Right before Ruel and I fled. Ruel thought it was an armored group like the Knights from the human kingdom, because it didn’t make any sense for the Templars to do it. The Templars always stayed out of the way of the Divide. They hated each other but they co-existed.” Onyx sighed. “You know, if anyone needed to be tortured for information; it was the Lord of the Divide.”

  “It would have done you no good. He would have died before he would have talked,” a smooth male voice interrupted from the shadows by the door.

  Onyx started, turning around with daggers drawn against the intruder. Niyx did not move, though, except to look that direction. Sephyrn leaned against the wall, partially hidden by the shadows.

  “Sire,” Niyx acknowledged and motioned for Sephyrn to join them. “Have you come to offer your assistance?”

  “I’ve come to watch my sons destroy the corrupt powers of this world. Nothing more.” Sephyrn shrugged then headed out the door.

  Onyx hissed and ran after him, determined not to let his mysterious father disappear again so easily. “Wait!”

  Sephyrn kept walking until they were halfway to the surface and turned only as Onyx caught up to him. “What is it? You have pressing business in Aderaan, don’t you?”

  Onyx slid to a stop a short distance away. Sephyrn looked so much younger than Onyx expected now that he was close. His father didn’t look a day older than Onyx, perhaps even younger. How was that possible? His blue-green eyes glowed in the dim light, magic flowing through them. It was the strongest and strangest magic that Onyx had ever sensed. Now that he had confronted his father and the man stood before him, his mind went blank. All those questions he’d wanted to ask disappeared as he looked into depths of his father’s eyes and found the soul of a predator. Onyx saw himself reflected in them looking like a confused child. He recovered his senses enough to say, “You’re my father but I know nothing about you. I have questions.”

  “You would not like the answers.” Sephyrn smirked at him, then turned and walked away. “Sometimes the past should not be stirred, Onyx. Look to your future instead. That is why your twin destroyed this place, after all. Once you have secured your place in this world then perhaps will be the time for reflection. Maybe then you will be able to bear the answers to those questions.”

  “Why didn’t you come for me?” Onyx called after him. “You clearly know this place, and the Lord of the Divide was afraid of you. Why did you leave me here?”

  Sephyrn paused to look back at him, a confused look crossing his handsome face. “That is not an easy question to answer. And I am confused as to why that is your first question. Does it matter so much?”

  “You and my mother just let them steal me for the Divide. I want to know why,” Onyx scowled as he caught up.

  “I didn’t let them do anything. Your mother did not tell me about you until it was too late,” Sephyrn growled, his voice dangerous. “We don’t have time to discuss this now. Help Niyx first. Then I will return to answer your questions if that is your true desire. Sometimes it is better not to know things that you can’t forget.”

  Onyx let Sephyrn go this time, still frowning. He watched his father disappear. The tunnel was the only way out of the Den from this side so Onyx had no choice but to follow. Once outside there was no sign of Sephyrn. Onyx shook his head and turned toward Aderaan. He had to return and figure out exactly what was going on under his nose. The Divide had controlled every assassin in Dakaal. With their rule ended, new assassins would rise. Onyx did not want any of them in his city unless they worked for him. He had to set precautions in place, but he had not counted on the Templars interfering. His father and his past would have to wait.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  A few days after they had taken the Den, Niyx stalked through the underground stone halls. He stopped at every room to make certain the Night Creatures had settled in. The underground base with its winding tunnels suited the Night Creatures far better than it had the living assassins. They needed few supplies from the outside and it was difficult to penetrate the defenses with only two ways in and out. Niyx found himself missing the sacred graveyard and his forest. It filled him with righteous fury that the Te
mplars had dared to destroy his village.

  Riven floated out of a nearby room to hover next to Niyx. “My Lord, have you considered petitioning the elven King and asking him why they have broken the treaty? Perhaps there is some misunderstanding?”

  “The misunderstanding, Riven, is that they do not recognize me as a King nor our people as anything but monsters. I would not even be able to have an audience with Aderaan’s precious King.” They walked to Niyx’s throne and he sank onto it.

  “Your twin is part of a powerful noble House,” Riven began to say.

  “They do not know Onyx is a Night Creature. That is why the elves allow him to stay in Aderaan,” Niyx cut him off with a scowl. “He pretends to be elven to survive there. It is well known who and what I am.”

  “You are a King, my Lord. If you want the other Kings to respect you as one and recognize our people as a nation, you need to start acting as one. Tell Aderaan’s King you demand an audience, or you will declare war on the elves for breaking the treaty.” Riven crossed his thin boney arms, which only made him look thinner and more pathetic. Just three years ago Riven had still been a powerful Night Creature. He had begun to deteriorate at an alarming rate and Niyx had not been able to figure out why.

  “It’s too dangerous,” Onyx said as he slipped from the shadows. “If you walk into Aderaan, you’ll become a prisoner of the Templars. They’ll see that as trespassing.”

  “Leave us,” Niyx dismissed Riven with a wave. He didn’t miss the irritated look on the lich’s face but Riven obediently floated from the room.

  “He doesn’t like you much, does he?” Onyx asked with a raised brow, as he watched Riven disappear.

  “Why would he? I took his place as King of the Night Creatures.” Niyx rested his cheek on a fist as he watched his twin brother. “What did you find out?” Onyx had disappeared for a few days and left them to settle in at the Den.

  “Nothing good,” Onyx leaned against the wall, as he unwound and rewound the garrote wire around his wrist. “The King sanctioned a new sect of the Templar Order dedicated to hunting the Night Creatures. He did it suddenly and without the approval of Aderaan’s noble council. It’s led by a Templar named Raijin.”

  Niyx hissed at the name and stood up, startling Onyx. “Raijin? This is his doing?”

  “I take it you know the guy.” Onyx gave him a nervous look. “Who is he? Does he have reason to attack you?”

  Niyx paced back and forth before his throne. Anger clouded the memories that danced unbidden through his head. “Before I was King, a few years after they had granted you our people’s gift, I met Raijin in the woods. He tried to capture me. He used Starsilver and some sort of terrible trap made of light magic.” Niyx paused and tilted his head to show Onyx the long nasty scar on the side of his neck. “He tried to decapitate me, but I was too strong for him. It was that encounter which made me discover I could control the hoarfrost. I didn’t think he survived.”

  “You were just a kid and he tried to kill you?” Onyx growled. “Why?”

  Niyx closed his eyes. He remembered running through the frozen forest away from the terrifying light magic that flooded everywhere around him. He took a deep breath and looked back at his brother. “Because I was a Night Creature, nothing more. He has something against our people. I did not find out what.”

  Onyx twitched a long ear, then walked close so he could lower his voice. “You look scared, Niyx. You just destroyed The Shadowed Divide almost single-handedly when the rest of the world didn’t dare. You’re immortal. Why are you scared now?”

  Niyx bristled and adopted his emotionless exterior as he straightened. “The Divide had no weapons that could withstand me. Raijin has unnatural light magic. It’s not the normal kind that Templars have, his was unique. Terrible. It felt like being paralyzed and drowning in a boiling pool. It is my weakness. I survived only by chance the first time. I am impervious to common magic. Whatever is fueling his light strips my immortality away.”

  “So, he’s your mortal enemy and he has the power to harm you, if not kill you,” Onyx considered that. “And now, somehow, he convinced the King of Aderaan to give him an army.”

  A shiver of repulsion worked its way down Niyx’s spine. “If he has trained others to use that strange light magic, my people won’t be able to withstand them.”

  Onyx frowned then shrugged. “That’s probably the point. But it’s all right, Niyx. You’re not alone. You have me. And Ruel.”

  Niyx met Onyx’s gaze. “You need to be careful, Onyx. You are a Night Creature too. You will be vulnerable to his magic.”

  “Only if he sees me.” Onyx winked and snapped the wire around his wrist. “I’ll spy on them and let you know what I find.”

  “Be cautious,” Niyx called after him as Onyx hurried from the room.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Onyx knew the rooftops of Aderaan better than its streets now. He ran and leapt from one to the other, knowing the best ones for hiding from the street view, and those which had windows to avoid. He was glad to have a mission, even if spying on the Templars was forbidden and dangerous. When had that ever bothered him? It was preferable to the emotions about the deaths of The Divide that churned underneath the surface of his mind. It bothered him that his twin had so easily destroyed the people who had controlled his life for so long. But now, knowing Niyx wasn’t truly invincible and had his own fears and enemies, Onyx felt they had more in common.

  Onyx slowed as he arrived at the balconies of the Templar’s temple. Balconies lined with metal railings surrounded the beautiful square building. As Onyx slipped over a rail and onto the walkway he tried to figure out the design wrought there in the brilliant gold metal. He hoped the pattern was not hiding magical runes of protection he did not understand.

  No one ever broke into the Templar’s temple. It was the highest act of treason in elven society. His heart pounded in his chest. He couldn’t sense any protective magic that would warn the Templars of their intruder but just because he could not sense it, did not mean it was not there. He crossed the balcony to lean against the building and flattened himself into as small a target as he could as he edged along toward a door.

  A number of people had spoken against The Divide and wanted to destroy them, but Onyx had never heard anyone dare utter the same things about the Templars. No one threatened The Holy Order of Templars. They were above reproach. Ruel, and Rubei before him, had wanted to be a part of the order. The Templars were revered; they were Aderaan’s heroes. Why had this Templar, Raijin, tried to trap and murder a child in the woods? Niyx may have changed from an elf into a Night Creature at a very young age but he had still been a child. The thought bothered Onyx; even as an assassin he refused to kill children.

  Onyx perked his long ears as he caught the sharp sound of metal ringing against metal. He glanced inside a doorway to find a mezzanine floor and no one in sight. Deciding the low wall around it would hide him from anyone below, he stepped through the door and into the building. He crept close enough that he could see over the low wall. Two Templars in gleaming armor met in a deadly dance on the sand below.

  The Sandsilver weapons gleamed as they sliced through the air. Onyx could only stare in awe, lost in how beautiful they were. Dark silver metal shone with little glimmers like the constellations of stars in the night sky. Each sword had a different pattern engraved in its blade. Onyx forced his gaze away from the brilliant weapons to study the knights who wielded them. One wore the armor of a High Commander, the highest level of Templar. Though the dust from the arena dulled the shine of the red, gold, and silver armor, it was still unmistakable. The other knight was younger, wearing armor indicating a lower rank.

  There was a loud clash of metal as the Commander’s sword connected with the chest-plate of the younger knight, and sent them sprawling in the dirt. The young knight’s helm jarred loose and flew across the sand. Onyx raised a brow when he realized the knight on the ground was a beautiful woman.

  The older k
night brought his sword to her chin, and she glared at him in defiance. “I yield,” she spat, though nothing about her attitude matched those words. If looks could kill, her brilliant green eyes would have struck the older knight down. She blew strands of red hair out of her face.

  The older knight withdrew his blade and sheathed it at his belt before lifting off his heavy helmet. It was clear they were related, but half of the older knight’s face was scarred terribly and one of his ears was only a stump. He smoothed his long red ponytail then offered his hand to the girl. “Your anger and arrogance will be your undoing, Callistra. You will never find the calm perfection you need to access the light if you cannot control your emotions.”

  The girl batted his hand away and stood on her own. She stormed over to retrieve her helmet and her sword. “There are many things that could be my undoing, Commander. Being the first female Templar, being your daughter-“

  The older knight stiffened and scowled at her. “Bite your tongue. The walls have eyes and ears here.”

  Callistra slammed her helmet on to hide her feminine features once more. She sheathed her sword then sketched a hasty salute. “Yes, Commander Raijin. What is your command?”

  Raijin started casting his gaze around the area. Onyx barely managed to duck back through the doorway before the Templar looked his way. “Go. I must see to something.”

  “What is it?” Callistra asked, her tone changing to one of concern.

  Raijin put his helmet on, then turned to the stairs that led up to the balcony. “There is an intruder in the Temple. A Night Creature.”

  Shit. Onyx didn’t stay to hear the girl’s response. He couldn’t be caught here. Had Raijin really sensed him? If so, the man’s light magic was very sensitive and would be difficult to work around. Onyx made sure no one was out on the ledge he had come in on before he bolted out, used his supernatural strength to leap from the railing, and landed on the roof of the farthest noble manor he could jump to. He ducked around a corner. He could still see the Templar balcony, but they would not be able to see him from this angle. He pressed into the shadows of the building anyway.