by Vlada Asta
“Why should I lie to him?” Ulmanas asked in surprise.
“White lies – ever heard of them? It’s for the better. He won’t be able to change anything, and that will upset him. I don’t want that. And I… I’ll be fine in any case.”
***
It appeared as if nature was eating the city. The once majestic buildings were falling apart and drowning in dirt, leaving behind nothing but skeletons of metal and concrete. The windows with their glass broken reminded of empty eye sockets of old sculls. The grass, that looked so soft and gentle at first sight, almost finished destroying the pavement on the roads. Silence came to rule the streets where life was once blooming.
Sometimes birds would come flying here, and rare animals would use the empty houses for rest – they felt better here, away from humans. And humans never returned to the city they created. There were too many dark places among these skyscrapers, business centers and other temples of consumption where death was now lurking.
That made the lonely man walking along the remains of a broad avenue even more amazing. He didn’t look around him and moved strictly by the center of the ruined road. It was a simple man, dressed like a merchant, his sunglasses and wide-brimmed hat protecting him from the sun.
The city forgot what humans were like, and now it was probably surprised. The man walked the streets that reminded a cemetery of monsters confidently, as if he owned the place.
He stood still only when he noticed slight movement beside him. It wasn’t on the ground; a body of another human was sliding down the vertical wall like a giant spider. Or, to be more precise, a body that looked like a human. A real human wouldn’t be able to twist his joints this way, ignore the gravity or sink his claws into the wall…
Powerful triangular jaws in the creature’s chest gave away the one whom humans called a Slayer. But this one wasn’t typical – starting with the fact it had two mouths. The second one was in the same place humans had their mouths, but it was filled with fangs – as sharp as the fangs in the main mouth.
The creature crawled down and jumped onto the ground. It walked to the human confidently, and it was using its feet instead of moving on all fours. They didn’t exchange a single world, turning to an abandoned trade center instead.
The building that used to be the pride of its owners was a mess now. Time crushed its pipe system, overflowing the parking lot with dark water. Now there was something like a black lake in the middle of a big city.
And that lake was inhabited. When two living creatures walked closer, its surface rippled in waves, showing that something was moving towards them. They stood still, waiting, and soon they could observe a totally bald head appear from the water, followed by a thin neck, narrow shoulders and the rest of the torso. It was a human, but not a normal one – he was covered with thick gray skin, he had gills on his neck and scales on his hands and feet.
The gray creature remained in the water, covered by it up to his waist. The Slayer sat on all fours on the floor. The human took off the glasses, demonstrating that he wasn’t a human at all. The lenses were hiding solid black eyes that seemed to be filled with ink.
“Why did you call us?” the Slayer asked. Its voice was hoarse, and it was easy to tell the predator wasn’t used to talking. Then it pointed at the gray man in the water. “And what’s she doing here?”
The gray man was the first to answer:
“I came to hear what you had to offer.”
“It’s not a market! If you’re not with us – leave!”
“Don’t,” the man with the sunglasses interfered. “We didn’t come here to discuss her. There’s a new circumstance we must consider. Teresa’s child has entered the city.”
“I know,” the Slayer replied gloomily. “Through the lives of my children!”
“It’s only the beginning. We’ve been ignoring Teresa for too long, and now she can turn into a real threat.”
“Can be a problem. Not a big one.”
“She’s already a problem,” the one that looked more like a human insisted. “If she forms a union with humans, it’ll be a catastrophe!”
“Agreed,” the gray man nodded. “Teresa has already demonstrated us she shouldn’t be underestimated. Her union with humans is a very bad idea. That's why I'm here. I don’t really care about other goals you might have.”
“So you’re afraid of Teresa?” the Slayer chuckled.
“No. But I respect her power. That child of hers that came to the peninsula… She killed your children, Tsiara. You fought her. Is she strong?”
The Slayer became gloomier, tensing up like a scorpion about to attack.
“I think yes.”
“Most likely yes,” added the man who put his sunglasses back on. “It’s a serious step for Teresa. She had to send one of her best creations there.”
“So what now?”
“From what I see, there are a couple of things we can do. If Vilena chooses to join us, we’ll continue with our original plan.”
“And what if I don’t?” the gray man asked dryly. “You know I don’t like working together with anyone.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Losing my independence.”
“But it’s necessary! Everyone work together now. I’ve heard that Nuria made a pact with someone… Probably with Ginevra, she’s her Mother after all.”
“Nonsense,” the gray man gave the Slayer a doubtful look. “I am her Mother, but we are not partners.”
“More like enemies,” the Slayer mumbled.
“Isn’t it about time we stopped being enemies? Look at the situation we’ve got ourselves into. The amount of food is diminishing, especially in our lands. Neither Ginevra nor Illirika will let us hunt on their territory. But here we have a peninsula where human population has tripled over the last fifty years! We have found a way to conquer it, we just have to put a little more effort… Sure, Teresa is an obstacle we didn’t expect. But I don’t want her to stop us so easily, with a single child of hers!”
“Nice speech. But don’t expect me to believe you’re interested in nothing but a peninsula full of easy prey. That peninsula is a route to Ginevra’s lands. I’m not going to start a fight with her.”
“But we didn’t…”
“Don’t lie to me. I’ll deal with Teresa myself. You are of no interest to me.”
Without waiting for their reply, the gray man moved back and, diving into the water, disappeared from their sight. Soon even the circles on the surface died down, as if he had never stood there.
The Slayer watched him darkly and then turned to the only creature remaining by its side.
“Now what? Phase two?”
“No, we should wait.”
“Because of Vilena?”
“No, we just need to check how different the situation will become. As far as I know, humans haven’t reached any agreement with Teresa’s child yet. They are stupid enough not to do it at all. We must wait for their decision.”
“It would be great to watch them dig their own grave!” the Slayer laughed. “And they will, trust me! I’m ready for phase two.”
“We shouldn’t show all our cards at once. Not to humans – to Teresa. If her child sees what we can do before it dies, Teresa will know about it. I wouldn’t want that.”
“True.”
“So let’s wait for them to kill that child,” the man in glasses smirked, demonstrating his sharp fangs. “With her gone, the peninsula full of two-legged cattle will be ours.”
Chapter 5
The rain washed the streets at night, and now they were shining with rainbows. There were few people out in the city at this hour – mostly shop owners preparing for a long day and parents leading their kids to school. Nobody dared to let their children walk here alone…
It was an average rhythm for Barcelona. Sebastian knew he should be glad about it. That was the kind of world they were fighting for! Yet he felt nothing but irritation at this moment. Many people didn’t like the
order that existed here… Not the safety, of course, but the means through which it was achieved. The Church’s forced laws, the Laas family’s permissiveness, the impunity of the city police. But everyone remained quiet, because they thought there was no other way to survive.
And now there was such a way, but no-one knew about it!
“Nothing is for sure yet,” Sebastian reminded himself. “She can be our enemy!”
He tried to believe it, but couldn’t and not only because of his intuition. He saw the impression she made on Ulmanas. And she didn’t even have to save his life for it, she barely talked to him! Was she such a convincing liar? Or there was another reason?
He was happy to be invited to the meeting where her fate was to be decided. He expected it to be held in one of the temples, but he was wrong. They didn’t dare to transport the captive Hente around the city, they left her in the same building where they interrogated her. They’d probably execute her there too…
Not every warrior could come to that meeting, only the best were given such an opportunity. They were allowed to keep their weapons inside. That was a matter of safety: they wouldn’t go anywhere near Hente unarmed!
They used the atrium for the meeting. Aeterni was kept on the first floor – on a tiny island of land surrounded by salt water from all sides. She wasn’t chained, but hydro cannons were pointed at her. She stood without motion, keeping her head low. The attire Sebastian first saw her in was changed for a long white dress covering her body from neck to toe. Aeterni looked relaxed and healthy, Sebastian couldn’t see any signs of beating on her skin.
But there were enough reasons to be worried about her even without it. He took his place on one of the spacy balconies surrounding the atrium, and he could hear other warriors whispering around him. They were all scared of her, none of them would support the decision of leaving her in the city. It was a bad start!
However, their opinion actually had little weight. The final decision would be made by a special committee that took a separate balcony. The central chair was occupied by the Cardinal, his military advisors sat on both sides of him, including Father Abraham. Ulmanas mentioned him questioning Aeterni the day before, but it was unclear what decision he had made.
Sebastian leaned over the railing, hoping to catch her glance. He knew he shouldn’t show so many emotions – shouldn’t even have them! But he couldn’t feel any other way. He was unnerved by the people who whispered curses at her. Sure, he did the same when he first met her, but that wasn’t an excuse for them! They didn’t know anything… Sebastian felt like her death would make this city drown in one big bottomless swamp. Forever.
The committee finally gathered on the balcony, and Lord Cardinal called for silence. The crowd obeyed him without hesitation – everyone respected him.
“Brothers, I’m begging you to remain friendly and benevolent,” Jeremiah said. “Even though we find ourselves in such a strange situation. You can see the one who looks like our enemy in front of you. We have no evidence of her ever attacking humans, but we know for sure that she saved the life of our Brother. For this we give her a chance to explain herself.”
He stood up from his chair and walked to the railing. Aeterni lifted her eyes to him, but didn’t move. She probably knew that could send dozens of knives flying at her!
“Hente, you have told us many interesting things. About who you are and about Clans. We have heard you, yet we cannot say we believe you. Your kind has been our enemy for centuries, and they’ve demonstrated their archness more than once. You came here right after a pack of Hente reached Barcelona. That is a bad sign.”
“It’s not a sign at all,” Aeterni replied. “Just a coincidence. I didn’t know anything about this pack.”
“Did you come with them?”
“I got on the peninsula through Toulouse. There are many loopholes there that Hente use, but they’re too small for a large pack.”
“So you claim you have nothing to do with them?” Father Abraham inquired.
“Well, only the fact I ate some of them later. But in general, no, I didn’t know they’d be here. But I felt their presence over large distance, that’s how I ended up in that village. Before that I didn’t try to contact humans, because I wasn’t sure they wouldn’t kill me. It was so weird… When I came to this village, I discovered the track of a large pack going from it to the city. But there was no track that led them there.”
At first Sebastian couldn’t understand why she was mentioning all this. Couldn’t she tell it all during the interrogation? But then he realized what the Cardinal’s idea was.
When Aeterni was talking like this, collected and smart and very human-like, it was easing the tension of the warriors gathered here. She was slowly extinguishing their hostility, making them look at her from new perspective.
“Brother Sebastian reported that his squad had found a strange crater in the village,” said Father Victor, one of the military advisors. Hearing his own name made Sebastian feel uncomfortable. “Do you know anything about it?”
“Not too much. I saw this crater too, and I decided to check if it was a tunnel of some sort. The idea seemed simple and brilliant – to reach the peninsula through a tunnel! But that wasn’t like the Hente from Tsiara’s Clan at all. I got under the ruins and discovered there was nothing there. But the ground looked damaged – like it was blown up or crushed… I don’t know how to put it. In any case, there’s no underground passage there, and I have no idea what trick Tsiara’s Clan had pulled. When I got out from under the debris, I smelled human blood in the air, and then – Hente blood. I hurried to get to the source of it and witnessed a fight between your men and Hente. I believe that pack was left in the village specifically to deal with the reconnaissance unit. The pack was rather big, and you always send small squads on such missions, so the Hente were expecting an easy lunch. I don’t know how they were going to escape the peninsula after this. Maybe they weren’t.”
“We sent a five man squad on this mission. You saved only one of them. Why?” asked Father Samuel. He was the head of the confessors, a man of perfect manners, polite with everyone, including the prisoner.
“I didn’t make it in time,” Aeterni sighed. “I’m sorry about it. When I reached them, the battle was almost over. They didn’t kill Sebastian only because he angered them greatly. They were in no hurry and decided to have fun. That’s where I come in. I’m glad I was able to help Sebastian, he’s a good person.”
“How do we know you’re not lying?” a voice suddenly sounded from one of the side balconies. “That it’s not part of one big strategy? She enslaved that poor excuse of a warrior to make him deliver her to our city. Is he still human? Has anyone checked that?”
Very few warriors would dare to attract attention in such a manner without having the authority for it. But Lukas could. He was one of the strongest soldiers protecting the Church today. The stories of his craftsmanship were only slightly less popular than the stories of his mercilessness.
“I knew a member of that squad,” Lukas continued. “Julian. He was a lousy warrior, but there was one definite feature about him – his cowardice. If there was a slightest chance of escape in that massacre, Julian would use it. But he didn’t make it, and Sebastian did!”
“Keep silent, Brother Lukas,” the Cardinal ordered. “Or leave this building.”
“I’m sorry, Your Eminence.”
“I can answer that,” Aeterni noted. “There truly was a warrior there who abandoned his comrades, surrendering to his fear completely. He tried to escape and was caught. Me and Sebastian found his guts later. Hente are not interested in cowards, because cowards are too common these days. But brave men are rare. Tsiara wasn’t going to show any mercy to Sebastian, she simply wanted to break his spirit before she destroyed his body.”
“Tsiara,” Father Abraham repeated thoughtfully. “That brings us back to your stories. You claim there’s no such thing as subspecies, there are only Clans, and each of them has its o
wn Mother.”
“That’s right,” she confirmed.
“And there are six of those Clans, just like subspecies?”
“Actually, it’s seven, as I’ve already told you, you keep forgetting my Clan. Seven Mothers, seven Clans… Tsiara, Vilena, Goar, Ginevra, Illirika, Nuria and Teresa. Tsiara’s Clan keeps attacking you because they breed fast and don’t have enough food for the growing population.”
“Why should we believe you?”
“You may believe or not believe, but that won’t change the truth,” Aeterni pointed out.
Sebastian was a bit angry with her. Why couldn’t she be more polite and respectful? Was it so hard to show her obedience in order to save her life?!
But then he remembered his own talk to the Cardinal. He hated the idea of violating his principles for the sake of easy life. Why should Aeterni be any different?
‘Because she’s not human,’ he thought. ‘But does that really matter?’
“We’ve listened to you,” the Cardinal announced. “Each of us separately and now all of us together. You’ve said more than once that you came here because your Clan wants to make a deal with humans. But we haven’t heard the conditions of that deal!”
“I didn’t want to discuss it with each of you separately, because you could understand it in your own way. But now that all of you are here, we can talk about it.”
Sebastian froze on the spot, too anxious to even breathe. He knew it didn’t concern him, because he didn’t have the right to make decisions, but he couldn’t help feeling this way.
“I want to stay in this city and protect it together with your soldiers,” Aeterni said. “It will be the first experience of our cooperation. I think the other Clans already know I’m here, and they want to get rid of me. I need someone to assist me when I’m fighting. While I’m here, I need a place to live – and your respect. I’m not some kind of animal or a slave, I’ll be your partner. If we succeed, other Hente from my Clan will arrive into your country to protect your cities.”