The Lostkind

by Matt Stephens

  With sick, tortured expressions, the Shinobi fell back, getting clear of the room. Keeper kept trying to claw her way forward, to get closer to the youngest of her terrified charges, and Yasi forced her still. "Think it through Keep!"

  "They'll die!" Keeper hissed horrifically. "They'll burn!"

  "And you'll burn with them!" Yasi snapped.

  The four of them kept moving, inching forward slowly. The more her vision cleared, the more Yasi could make out dark shapes at the other end of the dark corridor; aiming weapons at the kids from a distance... with lit crossbow bolts.

  Yasi tightened her grip on Keeper, trying to calculate a solution. If one of them made a break for the children the enemy would shoot, shattering the lanterns and likely exploding the whole room. If the kids went back, the same would happen...

  Keeper was trapped, she couldn't abandon her beautiful baby Gremlins, but she couldn't save them either, and it was all Yasi could do to stop her own mother from charging in on a suicide mission.

  Kamy was now close enough to count the tears rolling down her cheeks. "I'm sorry Keep, I should have come when you told us to, I'm sorry I stayed, I'm so sorry..."

  Yasi bit her lip, and scanned the room again, finding a crossbow resting against the rubble... With a bolt notched. A trained Shinobi could work a pump-action crossbow to fire three bolts in four seconds... She could count the archers at the end of the corridor by the lit arrows they were ready to fire...

  But she would have to release Keeper.

  "Go left when you get Kamy." She told Keeper quietly, and the old woman settled for a second, before nodding.

  On three." Yasi whispered.

  Electric silence.

  "THREE!" They both yelled instantly, and hurled themselves in opposite directions, Keeper toward the terrified Kamy, and Yasi for the crossbow. They both made it to their targets in a split second, and the world seemed to drop into slow motion. Keeper got to Kamy, and pulled her off her feet to the side of the wrecked door, out of sight of the archers. She ripped and pulled at the duct-tape that tied the flammable liquid to her.

  Yasi came up shooting, firing with machine like precision; she managed to get two shots off before the Wildmen could make good on their threat.

  Too late to get the third.

  Time sped up again, as Keeper shoved Kamy toward the other end of the room, and the safety through the opposite door. Yasi grabbed the old woman and pulled her to the floor as the last two living bombs were incinerated; along with half the room.

  Keeper made her last lunge for one of the kids and failing, but the lunge put her body between the sudden burst of fire and the Shinobi Captain. A blast of flame caught them both, hurling them off their feet and across the room.

  Yasi stayed low, and did her best to drag her mother from the Throne Room, even as the flames rolled through the room.

  "Keeper! Keep!" Yasi shouted.

  Keeper wasn't answering, her clothes and hair still smoldering.

  ~oo00oo~

  "Well." Owen said with grim amusement as he threw his cards down. "I seem to have been taken to the proverbial cleaners."

  "You're a lousy bluff; not our fault." Vincent commented blandly.

  "I'm lousy at it, because I never do it." Owen shot back. "When have I ever needed to bluff?"

  Connie made a show of stacking the coins in front of her. "Yeah."

  "It's a talent Owen, not something you teach." Gill counseled, as Owen's pager suddenly beeped. "You've just got an overly honest face."

  Vincent and Connie snorted, but Gill didn't notice. "Another hand?"

  Owen checked his pager. "Nope. I'm done."

  "You sure? The night is young."

  "Yeah. Game's over." Owen said, grinning easily at Vincent. "It's over."

  Vincent just wanted to cry. If he was going, then it meant he had no reason to watch any more. If he was done, then the battle was joined.

  And Yasi was most likely dead.

  Owen rose and headed out, thanking Gill again. Vincent didn't respond. Couldn't move.

  Gill returned to the table, saw Vincent still staring at the discarded cards. "I've seen that look before." He smiled. "Take my word for it Vincent, you can stare at the cards for a hundred years, they won't turn into a straight. Nothing else you could do."

  "Yes. There was." Vincent whispered.

  Gill read his friend's body language. "Vincent? What's wrong?"

  Vincent rubbed his eyes, and suddenly burst into tears. Connie was with him instantly, hugging him tightly to her side. "It was my fault Connie. I let them in. It's all my fault!"

  Gill was stunned. "Hey! What's the matter? Tell me. This is Gill, your partner in crime. Come on, talk to me."

  Vincent fought for a long time to get his breathing under control. What are you going to do Vincent? Owen's voice came back to him, repeating the conversation at the poker game. We're not the warriors. That's why we aren't down there right now.

  It's not about her, it's about there. Connie's voice said to him gently. You love The Underside. And Yasi is The Underside to you.

  Connie was staring at him in open sympathy. "Vincent..." She whispered kindly. "There's nothing you can do to change it now. Be kind to yourself this once, and let yourself off the hook. It was never our fight."

  She wasn't wrong. If it had been their world, their fight, they would have been down there right now; and instead they were here, at a poker table.

  Gill overheard that, and didn't like the possibilities. "What's she talking about, Vincent? What's happening?"

  Vincent shook his head. "Don't worry about it Gill. I think I'll head home too. Sorry about this."

  Gill reached out from his seat at the poker table and grabbed Vincent's wrist. "Vincent, three years ago, I was in a bad place. Bad enough that I tried suicide. It took five doctors and nurses, an ambulance driver, plus two co-workers to keep me here. It would have taken one person to ask what was wrong." Gill shifted his chair, bringing them side by side. "So. What's wrong?"

  It was a sincere question, born of honest concern. And suddenly, Vincent couldn't think of a single reason not to answer it.

  "Three years ago..." Vincent heard his voice saying. "I was on the subway, heading home from work, when I found myself making eye-contact with a woman named Yasi..."

  FIFTEEN: The Last Line Of Defense

  Gill didn't believe at first. Connie joined in after a while and added some details. After they were done, he asked a few questions, some of which they knew the answers to, most of them they didn't. Gill didn't believe it, but was willing to concede that they weren't lying to him.

  Vincent had described the Lostkind; the dirty, hidden, patchwork people; and the elegant, artistic wonder of everything they made and did; and found his eyes shining. He didn't like to think of Riverfolk running free through the Tunnels; and dreaded the thought of what had happened far below them while he was reading the cards.

  Wiping unshed tears from his eyes; he suddenly realized it wasn't about making a choice any more. The choice had been made. He couldn't escape the reach of the place... and he didn't want to. The Lostkind's fate would be his own.

  "You're going back, aren't you?" Gill said finally, seeing the determination growing on Vincent's face. "You're going back down there."

  "Yes." Vincent admitted. "I have to."

  "What are you going to do?"

  Vincent took a breath. "I have a few ideas. But it's going to take some preparation."

  "So what do we do now?" Connie whispered.

  Vincent bit his lip. "Vandark took my files. All the ways in. And Yasi would collapse as many entrances as she could; but if Owen left without contest, it probably hasn't worked. Which means... I'd have to find a whole new way in."

  "Vincent, even if you do find a way in, what do you plan to do about it?"

  "There might be a way. But doing it would mean breaking Rule Number One." He gave Connie a crooked smile. "Yasi would kill me."

  "Anything we can do to
help?"

  Vincent bit his lip. "Connie, I need you to keep Tecca close; because I'll need him eventually. And Gill I need your help now. We need to track down some rather obsolete equipment and get it here as fast as we can. We're going into the Office, we're going to take this City apart and find ways into the Underside. A lot of them. As many as we can get. I'm pretty sure I'll remember most of them as we go through the files. Any that I can't remember we'll have to explore."

  Gill frowned. "There's no shortage of places to hide things, but if these guys collapsed as many entrances as they could, what would finding a bunch of doors give you?"

  Vincent smirked. "You'll see."

  "What about Yasi and the others?" Connie asked. "How long can they hold out?"

  Vincent shivered. "I don't know."

  ~oo00oo~

  The Twelfth Level was the last line of defense.

  Keeper was in bad shape, but still conscious. Yasi sat with her once the guard was set up. "Hey."

  Keeper looked at her daughter, barely moving for a long time.

  Yasi didn't know what else to do, so she filled Keeper in on the situation. "It seemed like a good plan, collapsing a lot of the Tunnels, turning the whole place into a Gauntlet. I figured it would work for longer, but... Vandark did things I didn't predict. We stopped them though, stopped them dead-cold at the entrance to Twelfth Level. We've even got enough room to fit everyone semi-comfortably."

  "...food?" Keeper rasped.

  Yasi leaned a little closer and poured small sips of water between Keeper's cracked lips. "Not enough." She admitted. "He can't get in, but we can't get out. We can only hold out so long. The good news is, the Throne Room wasn't a frontal attack like the Entrance or the Markets. I think it's working. We're wearing them down."

  Keeper licked her lips, grateful for the water, and began to speak. "I've been Keeper of this place for sixty years." She rasped slowly. "Rule Number One is to be invisible. When you're Invisible, you never get noticed. I have kept this place at the status quo as best I could for my entire life; trying not to... let things change."

  "I noticed." Yasi nodded, not really in the mood to provide examples.

  Keeper looked around the Twelfth Level, up at the softly twinkling lights of the private living chambers. "I know the names and life stories of each and every one of them, living up there. Some of them are married; I was the one that married them. Some of them have kids. I was the first one to visit every newborn Lostkind." Keeper shivered violently, and settled into sleep. Yasi tucked the blanket tighter around her bony shoulders and stood up.

  Yasi looked around slowly, telling herself it wasn't the last time she'd do so. Those that escaped the Throne Room explosion were badly wounded. Burned, laying out on pallets along the second of the seven steps. Not a huge number, as far as the world went, but they were her warriors.

  And I was their Captain. Yasi thought bleakly to herself. I led them into battle. I led them here.

  Kamy appeared out of nowhere, as all the Gremlins did, and tugged on Yasi's belt. The Captain scooped her up and sat on the edge of the Steps. "How's it going?"

  Kamy sniffed. "Keeper saved me."

  Yasi nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, baby girl, she did."

  Kamy's eyes were red. "I'm sorry. We should have run when you told us to."

  Yasi shook her head. "We are what we are. We're tied to this place. It's more than our home; it's us. Keeper wouldn't be our keeper if she wasn't willing to run out into the middle of it to save the kids in her keeping. And Gremlins are always there, just out of sight. If you weren't, we'd have to call you something else. Don't ever apologize for being you. I never have."

  At that moment, a calm, cultured voice came whispering from all directions. "Yasi."

  Everything froze.

  "Yasi, you know where I am. My name is Vandark; but you knew that too." The voice continued, unhurried and not at all concerned.

  Kamy glanced at her. "The Whisper Gallery."

  Yasi gave a single nod.

  "Your warriors have fought bravely. A credit to their Captain." Vandark continued. "But look what happened. We have undone your defenses, overwhelmed your soldiers and captured your Kingdom. I have been reliably informed that you have successfully sealed off the River, and the Twelfth Level."

  The few Shinobi left standing cheered bleakly at that. There was no sense of victory.

  "Yasi, I can dig my way into you, but with you ready and waiting, people would die. A lot of them. Probably enough that you win. So I won't try." Vandark said. "Ours are two small armies Yasi, trained and taught by us. We've both lost people we count as our own. I aim to keep what I have made... and what I have captured. So, where does that leave us?"

  Yasi glanced up, seeing people coming to the Chamber entrances all over the Level, listening to his voice. It was a good tactic making the whole thing known to the public.

  "Well, I know for a fact that you can't stay alive forever. You try and exit through the River, my allies will stop you. You try to escape any other way, my own warriors will stop you. Your greenhouse is my territory, and we found a lot of your stores in the ruins of the Throne Room. You can't hold out for long. I can hold out indefinitely. And if you think I won't starve every last one of you; you're wrong."

  Yasi glanced up again. The Lostkind were looking to her now. Vandark would do it; she knew he would. Time was on his side. If he waited a few days, a few weeks, a few months...

  "Idiot!" She whispered at herself in outrage. "You should have had all the stores down here, but no; you were so sure you'd be able to hold them at the Throne Room."

  "Yasi, you're the only one left. Archivist had to choose between himself and the History of this place; Keeper had to choose between herself and her kids... You're the only one left. If the fight goes on; you might even win. It's over; because I have decided it's over. All that's left is to pick the winner." He paused, his tone became richer, grander; like he was giving some inspiring speech. "We are the Generals. We are the Warriors. We're not that different, when it comes right down to it. We could decide the whole war, right here; or we could wait, bluff it out, drag dozens of people we care about into it with us."

  Yasi looked to her Warriors. They returned her gaze evenly, shaking their heads. They knew he was baiting her, and didn't want her to go for it.

  "Admit it Yasi, if either of us dies, our team falls with us. Who's going to lead them if you fall? And who will continue the fight for me if I am dead? We can settle this, right now. You and me. All you have to do is let me open the door."

  Yasi turned her gaze the other direction, at her fallen Shinobi, wounded or dead; laid out in neat rows on the huge stone and concrete Steps. The Lostkind all looked to her from above, holding their breath, waiting for her reaction.

  "Admit it Shinobi; it's the way you'd really prefer it to be. You against me, nobody else involved, nobody else gets hurt; with everything we want as the prize." Vandark said, the eagerness in his voice was clear.

  Yasi walked, in no particular hurry, toward the telephone on the wall.

  "And you want to see who'll win as badly as I do." Vandark added; coming to the end of his story.

  Yasi lifted the phone. "Hello?"

  Vandark's voice responded, her phone already connected to the Whisper Gallery. "I'm here."

  Yasi spoke. "I want to find out too." She growled into the phone. "Come and get me."

  ~oo00oo~

  Vincent's key was enough to get them into the City Planner's Office, even at that late hour. "We'll do it here!" He declared as he strode into the Archives Room, Connie and Gill flanking him.

  Everyone started clearing a space, when Vincent suddenly noticed there was a message waiting in the pneumatic tube. He sent a glance over at everyone, and collected it.

  V--

  This will be the last message I send before I disable the tubes, so if you get something new; either we've won; the bad guys sent it.

  Tecca knew when the attack was coming, so I sent hi
m up to you.

  Understand?

  --Y

  PS: Merlin is a finicky eater, you gotta give him good stuff. Wish us luck.

  Connie came over. "What's that?"

  Vincent crumpled the message instantly. "Nothing I didn't already know."

  "Here's what I don't get." Gill called over to them. "Your whole plan is dependent on going back to the Underside, right?"

  "Right." Vincent confirmed.

  "But if Vandark took your secret list, then what does rebuilding it matter? Because if I was the bad guy, the first thing I'd do is burn the bridges behind me."

  "Very likely." Vincent agreed.

  "So we can tear through all these files and blueprints; but if they all lead to the Labyrinth; then we're still left with just one way into their Secret City. So why do we need a thousand ways in? How is that supposed to help the good guys win?"

  "Who said anything about helping the good guys win?" Vincent responded innocently.

  ~oo00oo~

  "You're going to die, doing this." Keeper rasped weakly. "You know that, right?"

  "Keep, this might just be the only way to save us all. I win this... and we can mop up what's left easy. They won't fight for a dead commander."

  "He knows that too." Keeper said softly. "If he starves us out, he wins. So what the hell is he thinking?"

  "He's thinking that we shouldn't be left down here too long alone." Yasi reasoned. "He's thinking that he can't run New York through manipulation and man all the needed posts in the Underside with what's left of his army; so he needs us. He doesn't want us wiped out; he wants us to surrender control. He's thinking that if he doesn't win this fast, he doesn't know what happens. I'm the only way this ends quickly."

  Keeper weakly raised a hand and traced a finger gently over Yasi's tribal marks. "I was the one that inked that mark into your face child. I was so scared for you that day. Proud, but scared. It's been seven years since the Lostkind were in danger. The last time, you were the one that saved the day. And now... When Archivist and I made you Captain, our great fear was that it would happen again."