by Kate Sander
What happened after that, Tory would never know. She'd hope, on lonely nights, that Oh and the others had won, had gotten away.
She knew in her heart that they were dead.
Tory ran as fast as she could. She grabbed the book, fled through the back door, and locked it behind her with a twist in her gut like a knife. Oh's scream cut into her as the door swung closed.
Condemning her friend to death for a book.
A book no one could read.
Part III
“It is useless to meet revenge with revenge; it will heal nothing.”
- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
18
Tomo
Fog and hunger, that's all she felt. It was her whole world.
And the stench. She had to follow the stench to feed.
Walking through the fog, the hunger burned deep in her belly. Needing to feed, she took a deep breath in and wanted to wretch. The stench. All she could sense was the stench. It wafted to her, like swamp mixed with dead body.
But all she wanted to do was kill it.
She needed to kill it.
"No," a little voice popped into her head. It was small and hard to listen to. "No. That's Senka. You love Senka. Don't hunt her anymore."
The Forsaken swung her head side to side, trying to shake the little voice out of her head.
"They did this to you," the little voice said. "You weren't always like this. Remember? You were Tomo. You were Dr. Charlie Penner. You're married to a wonderful woman named Amanda Nguyen. Remember?"
The image of her lovely wife, wearing only her pajamas and making her coffee in the mornings flashed through her head. Yes, Amanda. She was married to Amanda. They'd fallen in love as soon they'd seen each other, that cold November morning...
Her vision began to clear. Trees, rocks, moss appeared through the fog. A forest. That's right, she was in a forest. In The Other Place. It was her second time in The Other Place. And she was looking for Senka. Why was she looking for Senka? Wasn't Senka dead?
Wait, wasn't Senka with her?
"Don't," a beautiful sing-song voice commanded. "You have your orders. Listen to my voice. She left you. She wants you dead. You have to kill her first."
"No," Tomo answered. "No, Malin, I don't-"
"I AM YOUR QUEEN," the voice commanded, so loudly that Tomo sank to her knees and covered her ears. "You will respect me, Forsaken."
Tomo cowered away from the voice.
"Now, listen to me. Make no decision, fear nothing. You will kill Senka. She wants to kill you. Do this, and you will be rewarded."
"Amanda," Tomo muttered. "I want Amanda."
"Amanda doesn't exist, my Daughter," the Queen said gently. "Senka put her in your mind."
"But-"
"Trust me. You did once, did you not? Trust me again. Join me in the fog."
Her voice was so smooth, so unbelievably comforting, that Tomo really had no choice. Nodding, the fog rose around her. Along with the stench.
Kill.
She had to kill the stench.
Hunger burned in her gut and she rose to her feet and let out a growl.
Kill her.
Eat her.
Kill her.
Eat her.
That's the only truth she knew..
19
Tory
A full week. That's how long it took her heart to start beating normally again. She'd been in battles before, but, "You always won those," Tory muttered to no one. "You're a winner. This is the first time you've lost."
Everything. It was the first time she'd lost everything. Oh and the other monks had been kind. It had been so long since someone had been kind to her. And they had burned shortly after showing her kindness. Ashes mixed with the smell of burning flesh reached her as she had made her hasty escape.
Carrying a stupid book that no one could read.
"It seemed legit at the time."
Indeed it had seemed legit.
"Giving your life to protect a book no one could read, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard."
Tears filled her eyes as she muttered angrily to herself. She was tromping through the woods, heading south. Why? She didn't know. But inside her head, when she thought of Senka and her dearest Ujarak, south was in her gut.
So south it was.
Everyone around her was dying and Black Eyes had abandoned her.
After the situation, "Or crazy acid trip," she muttered, where Black Eyes and she had fought Malin and Roald in her brain, she'd sent Black Eyes to all her friends organizing the rebellion against the Ampulex.
But now, Black Eyes was gone. Tory didn't even know where. The Remiel was useless, she could barely think clearly let alone be able to clear her mind enough to use it.
Oh had called her powerful.
"Oh was also a guy who would die to protect a book no one could read."
She couldn't argue with herself.
"Not arguing," she said to herself.
The loneliness was killing her.
"I just... I want to go home."
No echo. No response. The words were swallowed by the forest.
Sheer, utter loneliness.
And a book no one could read.
"Time to break for the night, I think."
No one was around to argue with her. She started to set up camp, when a voice in her head told her that she should sleep in the trees tonight.
Tory ignored it, or tried to. But when it started yelling she had to listen.
Grouchily packing up her stuff, she hauled it onto her back and found a tree that was easy enough to climb but would keep her relatively hidden from the forest floor below. Not that it was difficult in this forest. The fir trees were huge. Far larger than any tree she'd ever seen.
Climbing carefully, she tried to keep her growing exhaustion at bay. The time at the monastery had been paradise. Now she was back to eating nothing. There was more food here than in the tundra, but she didn't have time to hunt or set traps. So roots and berries it was. At least many of the fruit and plants in this forest were the same as back home. Kept her from poisoning herself.
"Though that may be a welcome reprieve."
Hoisting herself up with a grunt, she sat on a branch about halfway up the tree. It was around three feet wide and fifteen feet off the ground. Sturdy enough. All she had to do was tie her waist to the trunk and she could even fall asleep tonight. No one would see her up here.
Eyes heavy, she tied herself to the tree. She laid her bow across her lap with the arrows nearby. She'd come across an abandoned farmyard a few nights ago. It was a sad sight, really. It looked like there had been a battle. There were freshly dug graves and wolf tracks throughout, with the heavy tracks of bodies being dragged into the forest. She'd managed to find a pack and some essentials in the wreckage. Including this now invaluable rope.
The rope meant sleep. Something she'd had very little of in the past week since her flight from the monastery.
Exhaustion overtook her, and she closed her eyes, nestling into the crook of the tree.
Oh, screaming, dying. Her mind wandered to that last battle in the monastery.
"There's nothing more you could have done," she muttered. "They chose to stay and protect the book...”
The book. All this was about a book. A book that no one could read. The Ampulex were willing to kill for it. An entire town of men were willing to die to protect it.
Shaking her head, she knew she'd never fall asleep if she didn't at least look at it. Sighing, she pulled her pack onto her lap and dug through it until her fingers touched the supple leather of the cover. It was heavy. She pulled it out of her pack gently, being careful to not drop it or catch the delicate pages on anything in her pack. It fell into her lap, and she carefully put her pack behind her back to prop herself up. Crossing her legs, she looked at the book in the dying sun.
Brown leather, once thick was now worn. The pages were thin and held on to the oil from her fingertips. She
carefully flipped open the cover, ensuring she only touched the edges of the page. The rust colour of dried blood spatter was all over the first page. The title, written in a language she couldn't read, was displayed prominently in beautiful, sweeping writing.
She flipped the page, there was tiny writing in the bottom corner. Then a few blank pages. Then, another title and writing. Flowing, perfectly spaced writing. It didn't look like anyone could write like that by hand. It was too perfect, too evenly spaced.
Tory didn't know any person or thing that could write like that. Some ancient machine, maybe? Oh said that this book was thousands of years old.
Ancient people were not something that Tory thought about. At least not before she was given this stupid stone that tied the past to the present. The Melanthios were a simple people in their beliefs.
"Meaning we don't have any," she said aloud to no one.
Harsh but true. They didn't think about death other than it happened to everyone and you ended up in the spirit realm. There were no Gods. There was no creation. They were born into this earth. They lived how they wanted, then they died and joined the spirit world.
What was in the spirit world? Nobody knew or cared.
Zoya existed. They were odd, powerful people who often died horrible deaths. She believed in them. Hell, her mother had been one. So not so much belief as the truth.
Flipping the page again, lost in thought, a picture in the book surprised her. A small human and a man in a grey cloak, beautifully painted onto the page.
Was this the world of before? It must be. Was that why the Ampulex wanted it? What could these words possibly say that could end all wars?
Flipping a page, she marvelled at the beautifully straight and precise writing. Whoever made this had a lot of time and discipline.
A twig crunched beneath her and Tory jumped. She'd been so lost in her thoughts she hadn't been focused at all on her surroundings. Leaning over slightly, one hand on her bow and another on the book, she looked below to the forest floor. The sun was almost set, so visibility was getting worse, but Tory had excellent night vision.
Standing below her was a woman with red hair that was a mess of twigs and fuzz. Tory's heart beat faster, the fear hitting her deep in the chest. There was something... off about this woman. It was the way she carried herself.
She sniffed the air with a shoulder slightly cocked. Turning quickly, she looked straight into Tory's eyes. Tory froze, not knowing what to do. The woman had the white eyes of an Ampulex slave. They stared at each other for a while. The woman sniffed again then growled. She snapped her head and disappeared into the woods, running awkwardly on all fours.
Tory let out the breath that she didn't know she'd been holding. The sun finally set and she was left in coming darkness. Her inner voice screamed at her to move. She wasn't safe anymore. That woman could be back at any moment, and how she moved, the inhuman way she sniffed the air, well Tory didn't want to be here when she got back.
Quickly and as quietly as she could she shoved her stuff into her pack, being careful to pack the book and the Remiel on the top where she could have easy access. She hadn't done her meditation today, but that would have to wait. She needed to get out of here. Now.
Scrambling down from her perch, she made more noise than she should have. But she didn't care. Needing to get out of there, pleading with herself to hurry, she scrambled from branch to branch.
The woman. She'd seen the woman before in the Remiel. Black Eyes had seen her when she'd gone to Senka's world. Meaning this woman was a Zoya. And, if she knew Senka, a powerful one at that.
Her feet finally hit the dirt and she turned to run, thankful to get out of that tree.
"Well," a voice piped up from the darkness, "What do we have here?"
Tory froze. She tried to unsling her bow from her shoulder.
Fuck.
Her bow was sitting useless in the tree above.
A man stepped out of the shadows from behind a tree, moonlight highlighting the purple lining of his black robes. "Wasn't expecting to find anyone in a tree today," he said, grinning.
Tory took a step back and loosened her shoulders, ready for a fight. One guy, should be easy enough hand to hand. She just needed to...
Shit.
The cracking of twigs behind her made her heart sink. She was surrounded.
"What have we got here, boss?" a man behind her yelled. Another two or three cackled. "Looking like it's a good time for us."
The man in front of her smiled. "It does, indeed. I have to say, it's been a while." He stepped closer to her and raised his hand to brush her hair.
She may not be a Zoya, but Tory could fight. Grabbing the back of his hand and twisting hard, she knocked him off his balance. Using his momentum against him, she lowered her hips and whipped her foot around, throwing him into his cronies behind her.
She didn't look to see the outcome, instead trusting her speed. She turned and ran.
"GET HER!" the man yelled behind her.
Yelling and hollering, the group gave chase.
Tory was fast.
They were faster.
The book and the stupid gem slowed her down. She couldn't bail on the pack, that would just be giving the Ampulex the Remiel and the Book of All. It slammed into her back as she tried to make her escape. Powering ahead, she didn't get far before one of them grabbed the backpack and pulled hard, ripping her off her feet.
Cackles of laughter surrounded her.
"Awww, is the little lass hurt?" a voice sneered at her as she struggled to catch her breath and find her feet. A boot landed in her stomach and pain seared across her belly, making her lose her breath again.
Coughing, she rolled back to her side as the men around her laughed.
Four of them, she thought, looking at the number of feet. C'mon, Tory, you can take four. You've always been able to take at least four.
She tried to get up to her feet again, but another one kicked her in the stomach again to torrents of laughter. Collapsing, she felt an emotion creep up that she'd never felt before: helplessness.
These guys had gotten the drop on her and, though her fighting skills were vast, Tory didn't know how she was going to get out of this.
"Let her up," the leader said.
The men cackled. When Tory didn't move, one grabbed her by the hair and lifted her to her feet.
The embarrassment was worse than the pain.
How had she allowed herself to be in this situation?
They roughly ripped her pack off her back and tossed it away. The leader was smiling a cold, disgusting smile as a massive asshole held her arms behind her back.
She stopped struggling, terror ripping through her.
At least the book and the Remiel will be safe, she thought as the leader stroked the side of her face, sending chills down her spine. They will do what they want with me and hopefully leave the pack.
"See, boys. She's not even fighting anymore." The leader put his hand around her neck and squeezed. His other hand began ripping clothes and grabbing at her.
The laughter around her, the smell of the guy’s breath holding her, the sheer disappointment at how this could ever happen to her rocked her to her core. How could she ever allow this to happen to her? She was smarter, faster, stronger, better, than to allow this. The leader squeezed her breast and shudders went through her spine.
"See." he laughed in her face. "The bitch loves it. You love it, don't you, bitch?"
Tory wanted to spit in his face, but she couldn't.
How could this happen to her?
He squeezed her neck tighter.
"Tell me how much you like it," he whispered. His breath stunk and made her want to vomit.
Be quiet. Don't say anything. It's the only power you have left.
Helpless.
Tory, daughter of a Zoya, general of the Melanthios army, commander of the Remiel and keeper of The Book of All, was laid helpless by one asshole and his three goons.
"Oh tell him how much you like it," the asshole holding her laughed. She could feel how hard he was as it poked into her back. It made her sick.
"I asked you a question," the leader said. He leaned forward and squeezed. Tory was starting to black out.
Good. Death was better.
His face began to blur. He reached between her legs and Tory tried to focus on something else, but she couldn't. She was useless. She was nothing.
Just die.
But he let up on her throat. And Tory's insides twisted. It wouldn't be that easy.
It never was.
She closed her eyes.
A sudden scream and a hot liquid splashed on her face.
She knew that smell.
Blood.
Tory wasn't sure where it came from. Suddenly, the goon holding her dropped her roughly onto her stomach. He stepped hard on her back, knocking the wind out of her. Something happened and the goon yelled and ran, taking his weight off her chest.
Wiping at her eyes she took deep breaths, trying to return oxygen to her brain. The sounds of battle and yelling echoed around her. Swords clashed, men yelled and swore. Tory managed to clamber to her knees.
Three were dead lying around her. The giant asshole and the leader were locked in battle with a girl.
Tory had to do a double take. She was maybe fifteen or sixteen years old. Copper skin, long brown hair, flourishing a khopesh style sword. She spun quickly and dispatched the big guys head from his shoulders.
"TRAITOR," the leader yelled at her. "I will tell the Queen Mother and King Father of your ways." He attacked with a vengeance.
"Go ahead," the girl spat, "I will tell them of yours. You think they want you out here raping women when you should be tracking? You're a disappointment, Camora. And I will have your head."
Camora screamed and attacked with a flourish. The girl dodged easily and spun, swinging low, lopping off his leg at his knee. He screamed as blood spurted and he collapsed to the ground.
The girl stood over him.