The Flames: Book 2 of the Feud Trilogy

by Kyle Prue

  He found his way to the large tent and grabbed a nearby candle. He pulled a splinter of wood off of the deteriorating table and rubbed it furiously against his hand. Eventually a flame emerged and he transferred it to the candle. He crushed the splinter and applauded his own ingenuity. He pulled the book close to him and opened it to a random chapter. He examined the heading of the chapter and realized that he was reading from recent family history. He could tell from the illustration that the man pictured was a Venator. He picked a random sentence and attempted to read it out loud. “We first met the Horseman while hunting for Nikolai Taurlum. His ability was to train animals with his mind and use them as his servants. He took offense to our killing of one of his animals and he hunted us for a few days. In our first encounter he had mental control of a deer, a spider, a bear and a…” Darius stopped.

  “Stal… Stall… Stallion?” He stared at the word intently. “Stallion?” he murmured. “What the hell is that?”

  He looked for a footnote, but found nothing. He glared at the page. “The Stallion was several feet taller than even I was at the time. It was a glorious animal, that is, until Carlin Filus killed it to prove a point to the Horseman.”

  Darius rubbed his forehead. Well, the guy was called the Horseman, so maybe a Stallion was a type of horse? Why be named the Horseman if you didn’t at least have one horse on your payroll? That was probably right. Darius pumped his fist in the air.

  His celebration was cut short when he heard light footsteps coming from the Annalisa. He looked down at the book and remembered how much the Wolf loved it. He probably wouldn’t appreciate someone reading it in the dead of night. Especially someone who could accidentally rip it in half if he sneezed while holding it. Darius put out the candle’s flame between his fingers and crawled under the table. He saw small black boots maneuver out the open door of the Annalisa and through the array of tents. Darius crawled out and scratched his head. Was that Anastasia? he wondered.

  He followed her out into the expanses of Volteria and saw her jogging down the road in the direction of the main town. He shrugged to no one in particular and followed her. After nearly half an hour of Darius darting behind buildings and into alleys to remain unseen, Anastasia reached a seedier part of Shipwreck Bay. He followed her through it, fully aware of how stupid it was. Shipwreck Bay didn’t have a strong Imperial presence, but it did have outlaws of every cut and creed. She stopped at a small and unmarked shop and knocked on the door. A sketchy looking gentleman in a hat extended his hand to her. She gave him something white. It looked sort of like a letter but could easily have been any other type of parchment. The sketchy man listened to what sounded like harsh instructions and closed the door. Then Anastasia pivoted and made her way to an unmarked door a few streets over. She knocked on it and a man who looked even sketchier opened the door. He smiled at her through rotting teeth and handed her a small pouch. She handed him a pouch of her own and the man closed the door. Anastasia turned and bumped straight into Darius’s iron chest. She didn’t look surprised to see him Darius noted, but then again, she hardly ever looked phased by anything.

  “Why hello there,” she said as she rubbed her head with one hand and patted Darius’s chest. “Been lifting your carriages, I can see.”

  He stared at her skeptically. “What are you doing here?”

  Anastasia glanced around. “Just came to pick up some things. Loose ends are being tied up.”

  “What’s in the pouch?” Darius asked.

  “What’s with the interrogation?” Anastasia countered.

  He stared at her. She was up to something, he could tell. “What’s in the pouch?” he repeated a little louder.

  Anastasia glanced around, clearly not wanting to start a scene. “It’s called Nature’s Scream,” she said. She pulled the pouch open to reveal a red powder. “It’s made from a rare flower that grows on an island somewhere. When it’s ground up into a powder it produces the hottest spice imaginable. One small bit can leave a grown man in tears.”

  “And you bought it so you can… what?” Darius asked. “Make us all dinner?”

  “It’s for interrogation,” she said. “Obviously.”

  “Obviously,” Darius repeated.

  She smiled. “So I paid those weasel-faced gentlemen for a dose. I usually always carry some on me. But I’ve been running low recently.”

  “What about that other guy? The one you gave a letter to.”

  Anastasia didn’t answer straight away. “I could answer questions all night, Blondie,” she said affectionately. “What do you want from me? I’m sorry I left the ship? Am I a hostage now?”

  Darius looked over his shoulder at the first building she’d knocked on. Maybe he should knock on it too and then, for good measure, knock a few heads. That was the quickest way to find out what she was doing with all those papers. He walked toward it, and she gave an overly exaggerated sigh. “Fine!” she said. “You got me!”

  Darius turned around. “I did?” he asked. “I did,” he decided.

  She sauntered towards him. “Look, I knew you were following me. You’re not exactly the stealthiest fellow. Sure I wanted some of this,” she said indicating the bag of Nature’s Scream, “but what I really wanted was to get you away from the others.”

  “Why?”

  “So no one would catch us,” she said nonchalantly.

  “Doing what?”

  In lieu of answering, she pulled him into a deep kiss. The iron Taurlum tried desperately to avoid turning into butter. He kissed her back passionately and forgot his concerns. He pulled away. “Oh,” he said. “Awesome.”

  She gripped the back of his neck as she pulled him in for another. He thought he saw her eyes drift over his shoulder to the shop where she’d dropped off the parchment. His suspicions washed away during this next kiss. Despite what he’d thought a minute ago, something was absolutely different now. For this wasn’t some halfhearted kiss with nothing behind it. This was a real kiss. A passionate kiss. Darius was absolutely certain of that, and that alone.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  SHIPWRECK BAY

  NEIL VAPROS

  Neil was sure that he knew the secret to not getting his teeth knocked out. Whenever he swung at Bianca during sparring, he noticed that she never looked at his first directly. She didn’t focus her vision. Every move he made was always in her periphery. He would swing and she would evade. When he was slowing, she would deliver an attack somewhere unexpected like his ankle or the inside of his thigh. Finally she’d finish him off with a strong punch or use his weight to flip him over her shoulder. She always won, but Neil wasn’t trying to hurt her. He was trying to learn everything about how she fought because the Wolf had taught her and he was coming next.

  In the back of his mind, as he parried punches and kicks, he tried to discover what the Wolf meant to teach him with this. Lilly had been changed from head to toe by her exercise with the Wolf. She seemed less tense now, more sure of herself. Maybe she was even free of the nightmares that plagued her night after night. He could see the Wolf on the outside of the clearing and knew it was time. “Is he ready?” the Wolf called to Bianca.

  She delivered a swift roundhouse kick, but Neil was ready for it. He ducked and hit Bianca with her signature leg sweep. She never hit the ground fully, but he knew that he’d won the round. “Looks like he might be,” Bianca said to the Wolf.

  She left and Neil’s new opponent circled him. His hands were already wrapped and he’d come without his coat. His thick cream colored oxford shirt was rolled at the sleeves and made him look like one of the boxers that occupied the slums of Altryon. “Are you ready, Neil?”

  Neil raised his fists and let his mind go blank. If he were going to learn a lesson, it wouldn’t come from being beaten senseless. The Wolf didn’t raise his fists. He was clearly waiting on Neil to make the first move. Neil experimentally threw a few punches and the Wolf blocked each one effortlessly. He struck Neil’s arms in a way that slowed them and m
ade them tense. He could feel his tendons and muscles tightening all the way through his shoulders and chest. The Wolf struck Neil once. That was all it took for the Wolf to knock him out cold: one punch. “Again,” the Wolf said. This wasn’t the voice of Steven Celerius. This was the voice of a savage. It was the Wolf. “Get up.”

  Neil stood up and raised his fists again. He didn’t attack this time; he waited for the Wolf. This tactic proved to be a mistake, as the Wolf could land ten punches within a second. Neil fell to the ground, coughing violently. “Again,” the Wolf repeated.

  Neil stood and fell six more times before sundown. The Wolf was too fast, and Neil had never seen anything like it. No wonder this man had evaded capture for years. He was unbeatable. The Wolf rubbed his stubble. “Again.”

  Neil stood and hoped that his organs would decide to stay inside of him. He inhaled sharply. Maybe if his guard were strong enough he could get in a few punches after blocking the Wolf. This strategy proved slightly more successful. The Wolf’s first hits were blocked, but Neil’s next swing was caught, and the Wolf used a pressure point in his wrist to bring him to his knees. “I suppose that is enough,” the Wolf said.

  He released Neil’s arm and walked away. Neil’s mind began to race and even more sweat poured from his brow. It couldn’t end here. He needed that lesson. “Again,” Neil said.

  The Wolf turned around. “You’re hurt.”

  “Again.”

  The Wolf squared up against him and this time actually prepared a proper guard. He could see the fire in Neil’s eyes. Neil intentionally led with a slower swing in the hopes that the Wolf was too quick to notice the difference. While the Wolf was distracted with his block, Neil’s left foot pivoted and he delivered a snap kick into the Wolf’s thigh. The Wolf exhaled in surprise and stepped out of range of any more attacks. This time he was going to lead with the offensive, Neil could tell. The Wolf closed the distance between them in a flash. Neil did the only thing he could remember. He let his peripherals do the work. He didn’t focus on the Wolf’s hands; he just let the swings come. By some miracle, Neil blocked one punch with enough force to set the Wolf off balance. Before the next swing came, Neil nailed the Wolf with a solid uppercut that sent him staggering backwards. Neil expected the Wolf to berate him with crushing blows, but instead the man threw his head back and laughed. “That was excellent, Neil,” he said. “No one’s landed a swing on me since I was a lieutenant.” He patted Neil on the shoulder and the young Vapros dropped his weary stance. “You’re certainly fit to join us.”

  “Wait…” Neil said. “Wasn’t I supposed to learn a lesson?”

  “I don’t know,” the Wolf said. He leaned back expectantly. “Did anything sink in?”

  Neil didn’t say anything. He just panted lightly, still exhausted from the fight. “Neil, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I believe that you are burdened with purpose. Maybe you’re not this chosen one, but you still have this extraordinary strength and power within you. I wanted to see how much you would take and keep going.”

  “Did I really land that hit or did you just let me?”

  “It doesn’t matter. The reason you won is because you stood up again and again. Even after I stopped pushing you. Revolution is a long road that breaks many people. I wanted to see if you could be broken.”

  “And?”

  “There’s no end in sight. You might just be him. You might just be forged in fire.”

  Neil wanted to smile or buckle under the pressure. But whatever his revelation would be, the Wolf left him to contemplate it alone. “Wait,” Neil said. “Why couldn’t I use my powers? Why hand-to-hand combat?”

  “I wanted to see you prove that you could do it without them.” The Wolf cocked his head back and forth as if weighing a decision in his head. “Also, Bianca told me she wanted to hit you a little bit.”

  Neil laughed. So did the Wolf. “She likes you,” the Wolf said.

  “She likes hitting me.” Neil said, collapsing to the clearing floor for a rest.

  The laughs subsided. “Seriously though, she really cares about you. You two might not ever have a normal life, but you might still have a life together.”

  Neil sat until the sun disappeared completely from view. Something warm was growing in his heart and he couldn’t tell if it was a terrible happiness or a terrible longing. No one set him on fire like Bianca.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  SHIPWRECK BAY

  DARIUS TAURLUM

  Darius finished throwing his final piles of sand out of the pit just as the Wolf approached him. Anastasia had been watching and he made a little extra show of the labor. He’d stretched his muscles just a little bit more than necessary. Something was off about her though. She was coughing often and looked like chills racked her body despite Shipwreck Bay’s warm climate. He couldn’t help but look up at her from the hole he’d dug every few moments. The Wolf arrived and whistled. “Someone figured it out.”

  Darius grinned. “Are you ready old man?” he asked.

  The Wolf bowed to Darius like a caricature of an old gentleman. “After you, youngling.”

  Darius placed both hands under the side and lifted with all of his might. He could feel the blood rush to his face and was sure it was as red as one of Josephine’s tomatoes. The muscles under his iron skin tensed and nearly tore under the weight of the behemoth steel carriage. “All this for nothing?” he heard Anastasia tease.

  He could feel warmth building in his chest. With one last burst of adrenaline, he lifted the carriage off the ground and onto its side. Darius roared in triumph.

  “Well, well,” Anastasia said. “He’s conquered the mighty carriage. What a warrior.”

  Darius climbed out of his hole. “I did it,” he said. He raised his hand for a high five and the Wolf returned it slowly.

  “Did you learn anything from trying to move a carriage for a week?” the Wolf asked.

  “I learned how strong horses are,” Darius said.

  The Wolf raised an eyebrow and Darius tried to avoid paling. This guy didn’t like making jokes. “I learned that there are limits to my strength.”

  “And when you encounter those limits what must you do?”

  “Apply intelligence?” Darius asked.

  Those were big words for him. And he knew it. “Seems you learned what you needed to,” the Wolf said. “And you also learned some humility in the process. Those are certainly pleasing results.”

  “Am I in?” Darius asked.

  “Everyone’s in,” the Wolf said. “I’m not charging into battle with the Doctor without a Taurlum at my side. Follow me to the strategy tent. Neil and Lilly should be there already.”

  They walked down the paths of Shipwreck Bay until they reached the Annalisa. As expected, Neil, Bianca, and Lilly were waiting there. Rhys sat at the front with spectacles perched on his nose. Darius snorted. They kept slipping off of him. The kid either needed a bigger nose or smaller spectacles. “Tomorrow night is the night,” the Wolf said as everyone gathered around. “Rhys, shall we discuss the plan?”

  Rhys beckoned them to come closer. “You guys are going to want to listen very carefully. I’ve taken all of your special talents into consideration here.”

  “Rhys designed the plan?” Neil asked.

  “What do you think he’s been doing all this time?” the Wolf asked.

  Rhys continued with his strategy. “According to Anastasia and the Wolf’s spies, the Doctor is holed up in a military base called the Cliff.”

  Neil snorted. “People sure are simplistic outside the walls. The Cliff, the Wolf, the Doctor, the Marksman.”

  “What did your family name its opera house again?” Bianca asked.

  “The Vapros Opera House,” Neil said without thinking.

  “Right,” Bianca said.

  “It’s not Outsiders that are simple,” the Wolf said. “It’s the Venator. We don’t do real names at the lodges. Everyone goes by their hunter name. That’s where they cam
e up with the Marksman, the Doctor and, of course, the Wolf.” He indicated himself.

  “Can we get back to nicknames later?” Anastasia asked. “I want to see if this plan is going to get us killed.”

  A few people smirked. Rhys did not, which worried Darius. “Okay, so this thing is huge and built into the side of a cliff. Which is the point. No one can come or go without using a special pulley system on top of the cliff.” He pointed to the top of his schematic. “The doors are iron and reinforced; it’s the only way in.” Rhys shifted the drawing so that everyone could see. “But there’s a small balcony off the main office. It’s where Carlin stays whenever he visits.” He said that in the direction of Lilly and her eyes flared at the mention of her archenemy. “They don’t expect anyone to be able to rappeal down the cliff because it’s guarded at the top and you’d need hundreds of feet of rope.”

  “Are you sure we couldn’t just force our way into the shaft?” Lilly grumbled. “Darius could rip those iron doors right open.” The idea of rappelling down a mountain made her skittish. She hated heights.

  “If someone tries to go through without sending the correct signal, they drop the cart and it falls hundreds of feet. Darius is strong, but a fall like that would even turn him into a paste,” Rhys said. “The balcony is the best way for our initial entrance. You won’t even be the one going through the balcony. Neil will.”

  “I will?”

  “Neil you can fly. You can just land on the balcony,” Rhys said.

  Neil’s eyes widened. “I can’t actually fly. I can just give myself a boost. Accelerate.”

  “If you can accelerate then you can decelerate,” Rhys said. “You can make a controlled descent to the balcony. All we need to do is get you through the guardhouse at the top of the Cliff.”

  “Who clears the guard house?” Anastasia asked, peering at the drawing. “They’ll probably have alarms.” She sounded confident about that.

  “Darius will lift the gate for Lilly and the Wolf. They’ll clear the room before anyone can signal the alarm.”