“Nobody is trained by the Brotherhood who is not one of us.”
But Aaron could see he was sympathetic, and also more than a little curious.
“We are fighting a good fight, a noble fight, and one that could change the face of the world. I’m not asking you to fight for us, just give me the tools I need to reach my full potential. I have dedicated my life to the sword. That is work that will have been worth it, if we can get through this.”
But he was still uncertain.
“What if we were to join the Brotherhood?” Ava stepped up beside him to address Aldred and all others who were watching, but that made Aaron uncomfortable.
“What are you doing?” Aaron whispered.
“Whatever I have to. We can’t leave here with nothing, and if we don’t join them, we’ll never leave at all.”
The thought hadn’t crossed his mind. His own personal safety was the last of his concerns in this. Ava was far more vigilant than him. He looked back at their faces to realize she may be right.
“Do they look the sort who would let us leave again after seeing this place? Knowing how it find it?”
Once again the thought had never dawned on him. He expected to find an old master in the wilderness, not a well-established commune of trained killers.
“We will train you, and if you are good enough, maybe then you may become good enough.”
“And if we aren’t?”
He didn’t reply, and they both imagined the worst.
“Then we die here,” whispered Ava.
He wanted to believe that wasn’t true, and yet he knew she wasn’t far from the truth.
“You may stay here while you train, but you will abide by my rules.”
“Of course,” replied Aaron.
“You will do what you are told when you are told. You will not attempt to cause anyone here harm unless directed to do so. You will make no attempt to leave or contact the outside world unless instructed to do so, do you understand?”
“We do.”
“Nothing is more important to us than protecting the sanctity and secrecy of the Brotherhood. Do not do anything that would endanger either of those things. Give your best efforts, as if your life depended on it, at all times. Strive to be the best version of yourself, better than you ever believed possible. That is our way. There is no other, do you understand?’
Ava nodded in agreement. It was a daunting prospect, but they had no choice. They needed a miracle, and this was the closest thing to one.
“Then welcome, and may your time here be enlightening.”
Chapter 11
Theodosia found herself outside Thanatos’ club yet again, praying he would see the light and help her once more. She sighed, knowing there wasn’t much of a chance he would, but she wasn’t ready to give up on him. She strode toward the door. The bouncers instantly recognized her and quickly stepped aside.
“Hey, what the hell are you doing?”
A man near the front of the queue had clearly been waiting a long time and wasn’t impressed.
“Trust me, you don’t want a piece of that,” said one of the bouncers.
She smiled as the customer backed away, and she passed through the doors. She was gaining quite a reputation, and she didn’t mind it. This felt like a familiar scenario now. She’d go looking for help, and Thanatos would decline. But she had to keep trying.
“What brings you here?”
Thanatos appeared beside her and led her toward the bar. She stopped to try and talk with him, but he carried on, and she was forced to rush to keep up.
“Thanatos, we…”
But he was too busy ordering drinks.
“Two double whiskeys, on the rocks,” he said with a smile, “All right, that’ll do me, what are you having?”
His eyes were glazed over as though he was feeling the effects of more than just alcohol.
“I…we,” she began.
“Just kidding, why would I need to order two drinks when I own the joint?” As he was handed the glasses, he gave one to her.
She didn’t initially look happy about it, but the drink became more appealing with the whimsical tone she was putting up with. She took it and gulped down half of it in one.
“Well, we are in a good mood this evening.” Thanatos saluted with his glass and followed her.
“No, I didn’t come here to drink and get wasted, or to party or any of that.”
“Oh, no, you’re going to bore me to death once again.” He put his glass on the bar and gestured to the barkeep for another.
“I came here because it’s important. You can’t keep ignoring this forever.”
“Yes, I can, and that’s exactly what I intend to do. Hades doesn’t want a fight, and I don’t intend to give him one, Theo.”
“Aaron has gone in search of a great warrior, a very dangerous quest. He’s risking everything to be the best he can be for the coming war.”
“You say it like I should care.”
“I thought he was your friend.”
“If he’s such a great friend, where is he?”
“He was here when you needed him. When trouble came your way, he was there. He fought Hades harder than any of us. There’s a fire that burns bright within him, like I have never seen before. He may only be a mortal, but he’s special.”
“Well, that’s good, then you won’t be needing me anymore, will you?” He threw back another drink as if determined to not make it to midnight.
“Why are you so determined to destroy everything you have?”
“Destroy?” He almost coughed on his next drink and spat some of it out across the floor. It hit a woman nearby.
“Sorry, sorry!” he replied, but tried to hold back his giggles. The young woman initially looked appalled, but upon realizing who was the cause, quickly calmed down and didn’t make a fuss.
“Look at what I have built here. I have an empire of my own, a paradise. These people, they don’t come here because I’ve order them to, or because they feel they have to. They’re here to enjoy themselves, a paradise with free will, can you believe it?”
“They come here because they think they should!”
Though the music drowned out their argument.
“And why do you think you keep pursuing this fight with Hades? Because you think you should, you’ve never known any different, and because father would want you to. Well, guess what? He’s gone, and he’s not coming back!”
“Because of you!”
“Oh, yes, it’s all my fault,” he replied as he shook his head.
“I knew it was a waste of time coming here. You don’t care about anyone but yourself. A time will come when you’ll need help, and who will you turn to?”
He shrugged as if he didn’t care. It was as if he didn’t care about living or dying anymore. The last fight with Hades had had a profound effect on him, and she was starting to see that now. He didn’t want to fight because he didn’t think he had any chance of winning. She didn’t know how to tell him that without turning him against her forever. She felt sorrow as much as she did anger.
“Hades will be back, but we can defeat him. We did it once, and we can do it again. But we have to have faith in each other.”
“Faith, right, that always wins battles,” he replied, throwing back another drink.
She wanted to grab him by the neck and shake him until he saw sense, knowing it was useless. She sighed disappointingly and walked away.
“What are friends for, hey?” Thanatos shouted angrily as she looked at him condescendingly from the balcony, and finally went to leave. She reached the front door and could feel the anger brewing inside her, just as a stranger called out.
“Have fun in there, did you? Shake that ass, and you can get anything!”
It was the same man as before, still waiting in the queue. The anger finally boiled over. She unhooked one of the ropes leading to a post set up in the line and rushed toward him, it hidden behind her back and long coat.
> “Ruffle a few feathers, did I?”
She didn’t break stride as she went forward and swung the post at the smart-ass man. It caught him square on the jaw. Several teeth flew out onto the street, and blood followed it as he went down out cold. The friends with him put up their hands as if not wanting any of it.
“Deal with that, will you?” She furiously tossed the post down to one of the bouncers.
For a moment she felt a whole lot better, but a wave of regret soon passed over her. Beating on a human was no relief, no sport. It was an abuse of all the power that had been bestowed upon her, and that only made her angrier and more disappointed in herself. She took a deep breath as she tried to calm down and move on.
I need help, but who else can I turn to?
* * *
“One! Two! Three! Four! Five!” Aldred shouted the commands.
Aaron and Ava went through strike after strike in a set pattern they had been taught. Aaron was already familiar with it, and it felt like beginner work to him. He couldn’t understand why they were wasting time on it, not after seeing what he could do.
“Now on the command of attack, attack!”
They moved through the motions in time and sequence.
“Attack!”
They did so once again, and before they had even finished the fifth motion, the command rang out again, “Attack!”
They were rushed through it, and neither of their form was as good as on previous attempts.
“Do you know why you are slower than Wolfgang?” Aldred asked.
“Because he’s fit as hell, probably trains all hours of the day.”
“No, it’s because he doesn’t think about each action. When I stopped counting your motions, you continued. You thought, and you planned each stage.”
“How else are we supposed to do it?” Ava asked.
“Your body must know the actions without your mind having to remind you of them. Wolfgang is a step ahead of you every time because his mind is clear. Tactics are up there yes, but not technique. The body knows what motions are required for a tactic. You both hesitate as you remind the body what it must do. It’s nothing more than a fraction of a second. A time that would not matter against a common fencer, but Wolfgang is no common fencer, and neither is your adversary.”
“How can you know what Hades and his allies are like?” Aaron asked.
“I know they’re better than you, like Wolfgang is better than you. Until you can be as fast as Wolfgang, you will never stand a chance against Hades.”
“And if Hades is faster still?”
“Then you have a lot of work ahead of you.”
They’d been working at it for hours. He was dripping with sweat and was exhausted, and still they had done nothing more than basics. He sighed in disappointment.
“What troubles you?”
“These kinds of basics, Aldred, we work them for beginners, and we go back to them. We know them.”
“Not well enough.”
“Will we ever be good enough for you?”
“If you are not, you will never be a Brother.”
“I’m not exactly ever going to be, you know.” Ava pointed down at her body.
“You will not be the first woman to become a Brother. This is a family that goes far beyond blood. A unique bond few will ever understand.”
She was surprised to hear it, but she didn’t push any further.
“You have learned much, many techniques, and many weapons. You have become good fighters, but you have never become masters of your art.”
“Until recently we didn’t even know masters still existed. I mean people use the term, but we thought the real masters were long dead.”
“There are many things you do not know in this life. A master understands that.”
“There are things you do not know? Really?”
“Of course. Nobody ever can know all there is to know. Gathering knowledge is a lifelong mission that can never be accomplished, but that is not to say it’s not fruitful.”
Aaron smiled.
“What is it?”
“I just find it bizarre that you’re here training what, soldiers, assassins? And knowledge is what you consider sacred.”
“We are whatever we need to be, and what the world needs us to be. Knowledge is what has kept us alive this long. Every one of the Brotherhood is an expert fighter in a wide range of fighting styles, but also many more skills. More than you can imagine. But no matter how skilled they are, individually, they are but one being. They cannot achieve what an army can, not in open combat. Knowledge is what allows us to fight in the most efficient way. Sometimes that is without ever having to use a weapon.”
“I don’t get it. What do you really do in the world? What are you? What is your goal?”
“That is for you to discover, if you live long enough to become one of the Brotherhood.”
“Live long enough?”
“There is no place for weakness, not here, Ava. We rely on one another. If you cannot place your life in the hands of anyone here, and trust in them to defend it, then they are useless. You will become one of us, or you will not live at all.”
Ava looked to Aaron as if trying to establish if he really meant it. Neither was certain, and yet they were not willing to chance finding out.
A bell rang out, an old-fashioned type that used to be used in schools. It didn’t travel far, but enough for all in the circular area to hear. Those training saluted their opponents and began to clear away.
“What does that mean?”
“That the day’s work is over, and time for the evening meal.”
Ava looked relieved, but it was short-lived.
“Not for you, either of you. You will train this drill until you no longer think about each action. Every attack will come as naturally to you as walking and breathing. Continue,” he replied as he left them.
Ava groaned.
“This is standard stuff, believe me. Break you down and build you back up.”
“You’ve been through this before? In the Army?”
“Something similar, yeah. We’re fresh meat to them. They’ll enjoy making us work for it, and maybe we need it.”
“What? We’ve worked damn hard to get where we are.”
“For fun, and for sport. Our lives never depended on it, not up until recently. These guys, well they’ve literally been doing it for many lifetimes over. They’re still here, and still a secret to the world. They must be doing something right. We trust in the masters who left their fight books to us, so we must trust in their ancestors who have carried their teachings all this time.”
“Do you think it will all be worth it?”
“If we can fight like he can by the end of it,” he said, gesturing toward Wolfgang who was following the others to the great hall, “Damn right.”
“He was really that good.”
“I gave it my all, and I didn’t come close to hitting him. You know how many times that has ever happened?”
She shook her head.
“Never. I’ve fought some of the best swordsmen in the world, or were thought of as the best anyway. Some of them really were great, but I could land blows on them. Maybe not all the time, but some got through. Against him, it’s like I was fighting a brick wall.”
She smiled and looked down at the weapon they’d given her for training. It was a training dussack, a short curved blade with a simple knucklebow. The ones they used at home were wood and leather, in an attempt to mimic originals from centuries ago. These were all made of modern plastics, and it made her smile.
“All the fuss about materials, yet we come here, to the living masters, and this is what they use?”
“I guess it’s what we always said, it’s about the fencer, not the tool.”
“The number of people who’d mock us for using these right now. How funny it would be to tell them it’s how the old schools evolved.”
“Just like the cheap trainers we get right home, that people bi
tch about all the time,” laughed Aaron.
“Get back to your training!” Aldred roared from the door of the hall before vanishing inside.
They both got back to their guard postures to continue with the simple drill they felt they knew like the back of their hands.
“You think they really mean what they say? That we wouldn’t leave here alive if we don’t pass their tests?”
“I do.”
“Why?”
“Because if they’d let people leave that were not one of them, this place would never be safe. It would never be secret.”
* * *
Grace shut her front door and sighed with exhaustion. She put her bag down and slumped into an armchair. She’d been working all hours of the day, in the museum by day, and in the books at home by night. She was so tired, but finally summoned the energy to get back up, heading to the kitchen to find some food. She opened the fridge to find it was near empty.
“Really?”
She’d never been so disorganized in her life, and she didn’t even keep take out menus about. That had never been her thing. Now she wished it were, as she was almost out on her feet, and couldn’t muster the energy to go and buy anything. She knelt down and opened the dry cupboards to look for anything that might sustain her when the doorbell rang.
“Whoever you are, I hope you have brought food.”
She got up and staggered back to her hallway. She reached for the door latch when she remembered what Aaron had told her. That she had to be more careful. Her hand reached for a sword stuffed in the umbrella rack by the door. She once again reached to open the door, her other hand firmly on the hilt of the saber propped up in the rack. She prized open the door just enough to see who was outside and smiled in relief to see it was Aaron. She let go of the sword to leave it in the rack and swung the door wide open.
“I was just thinking about you and what you told me.”
“Yeah?” He smiled back at her.
“That I had to be safer, not just throw my door open to any stranger.”
Fallen Gods II Page 15