by Kory Shen
I coughed. "Where are you from? Who are you?"
The woman had black hair and light yellow or gray eyes. I couldn't quite tell in the poor light. Their skin was pale, though, paler than most women in the Elderlands.
"We're from the kingdom of Min," she said. "Captured and sold as slaves to men like you."
Min? Wasn't that somewhere to the far west? Beyond the mountains? I shook my head. "There's no slavery in the Elderlands. It's outlawed."
One of the other women gasped. "The Elderlands?"
The woman raised her arms, shaking the chains and shackles binding her. "Outlawed? What does this look like?" I tried not to stare at rest of her body shaking along with the chains.
First stealing armor and weapons. Now, importing slaves? Had Lexley gone that far? This was beyond what Vimm or anyone on the black market would do.
"I don't know…" I said. "I'll take you somewhere safe."
We found two small boats on the ship, little more than rafts, but enough to get the women to the docks. There was no room for me, so I slid back into the dark waters, returning the old-fashioned way.
I climbed onto the docks again to find the former slaves talking to Genna. She beckoned to me.
"We can send them to the Temple," Genna said. "The Temple will offer refuge, I'm sure."
I nodded, then spotted Kuri. Three men were on the ground by her. Kuri had somehow managed to get her hands on rope and bind the men's arms and legs.
"They're alive?" I asked.
"A few broken bones or burns, but otherwise alive," Kuri said. She scowled at the women next to Genna. "Although I can change that quickly if you like."
"No, I need to question them," I said.
I walked over to the first one, crouching next to him. I slapped his face, but he remained unconscious.
"Mira," I whispered. "Give me a weak lightning bolt here."
I aimed my left arm at his body, sending a sliver of lightning into him. His body jerked, and his eyes popped open.
"What…?" The man's eyes focused on me. He screamed.
I clamped my hand over his mouth. "Keep that up, and I'll pluck out your tongue. Understood?"
The man's eyes widened in horror. "What do you want?" he blurted out. "I'll tell you everything!"
"Good. What's going on here? Who are these women?"
"They're slaves for Lexley. Pleasure girls."
"Forced here against their will?"
The man shook his head vigorously. "I don't know. I'm just here to keep an eye on the shipment. Really! They don't tell me anything."
"Do you know anything about rogue Sentinel armor?" I asked.
"Rogue Sentinel armor? No, no. Nothing."
I looked back at Genna. She nodded grimly. "He's telling the truth," she said.
I slapped the side of the man's head, knocking him unconscious again, then stood.
"I guess Vimm was wrong this time." Vimm was rarely wrong about these things, and he had been so sure about the tip. I rubbed my neck. Maybe his old age was catching up to him. Or someone good enough to trick Vimm was involved…
"Something isn't right," I added. "After we take the women to the Temple, we need to go back and see Vimm."
The freed slaves murmured. I glanced over to find them watching me intently. I turned to the first woman I had met. "No one can hear what we've said. Not even the Temple."
The woman nodded gravely. "You saved our lives. It is the least we can do for you." The others nodded, too.
"What do we do with these slaver scum?" Kuri asked, kicking the unconscious man. Her fists glowed red.
I almost wanted to let Kuri have her way with them. Almost.
"Leave them," I said. "These are flunkies. Lexley is the one that needs to answer to this."
CHAPTER 32
We were back at the Temple. Priestesses arrived to usher away the freed Min women. The first one I had spoken to, now wearing a simple gray cloak, came to me before leaving.
"Thank you for your service, Sir Jakson," she said. "My name is Leila. Perhaps we will meet again under better circumstances." The chains still clinked from her arms and legs.
"Not Sir Jakson. Just Jakson. I'm glad we could help." I said with a forced smile, still disturbed by what had happened to the women.
"Your friend, Genna. She mentioned you were a knight."
"I was. Maybe. I'm not sure what I am anymore."
Leila tilted her head. "In our kingdom, a knight is simply someone who serves and protects the people. Is it any different here?"
"You tell me." I glanced down at her chains. "The prince, your intended owner, is a knight. The First Champion, in fact." It was hard to keep the bitterness out of my voice.
"Champion?" Leila shook her head. "Your people are strange."
"Your knights are honorable? They do what's right?"
"Most. Not all, but most. Our king is wise."
"Oh." It sounded like a fairy tale.
My thoughts drifted back to my last conversation with Vimm. Maybe it wasn't the same everywhere. Maybe we could run to a better place.
But I couldn't just abandon Evercrown. I had to finish what I had started. What Lexley had started.
"One day, I'd love to talk to you more about your kingdom, Leila," I said, bowing slightly.
"As would I, just Jakson," Leila said.
It took me a moment to understand Leila's jest. I smirked, but she had already whirled away to join her kinswomen.
I looked to find Genna staring at me.
"What?" I asked innocently. "I didn't do anything. Or even think it."
Genna smiled. "I know, but you are now."
* * *
It was past midnight by the time we reached the whorehouse where Vimm was staying again. The street was quiet, and the building's windows were dark and lifeless.
"Something's wrong," I whispered as we approached. "It's prime business time for them."
"We're a bit far away, but I can't hear anything, either," Genna whispered back.
Kuri stepped forward, but I placed an armored hand on her shoulder to hold her back.
"Wait. Let me check with Mira." I spoke softly. "Mira, have anything for me?"
"I am detecting weak heat signatures inside the building, but nothing precise," Mira replied.
"Mira thinks there are people, but it's muddled," I said.
We moved forward together, slowly approaching the front entrance. We were still several feet from the door when the smell hit us.
Blood. Fresh blood.
I pushed the others behind me, then reached for the door. It swung open at the lightest touch with a sighing creak. I stepped inside, but my boot landed on something wet and slick.
"Mira," I said.
She knew what I wanted. My vision changed, and the surroundings grew brighter, painted with eerie blues and mild greens or yellows. I could make out a number of figures slumped on the ground. I reached for a torch on the ground.
"Just a touch of power. Fire bolt," I whispered. The torch sizzled to life, lighting up the grisly scene around us.
The others gasped. It took me a fraction of a second longer to take in the view, as Mira adjusted my vision back to normal.
Kuri stepped next to me, her hand holding a plume of fire to light her own vision.
Five ladies of the house were sprawled on the ground. I moved closer to inspect the nearest one. The body was slashed open, as if from a blade. I didn't recognize the face.
I moved to the next body, lifting the head carefully.
"Sylvia," I whispered. I set her head back on the floor slowly.
Genna stepped to my side. Her eyes went up the staircase. "I still can't hear anything," she said.
I stood. Even with the weight of my armor steadying me, I trembled. No, no.
I took a step towards the staircase and stopped, unwilling to go further.
"I can go," Kuri said. She tried to move past me, but I blocked her way with an outstretched arm.
"I have th
e armor," I said. "I should go first."
Kuri turned her large golden eyes to me and gave a slight nod.
"Jaks…" Genna said.
I took one step, then another, trudging up the staircase.
I reached the upper floor. The doors on either side of the hallway were open, some broken to pieces. There were more bodies and more pools of blood, the torchlight casting flickering shadows on them all.
I ignored the carnage and headed for the end of the hallway. The door was slightly ajar, but I couldn't see inside.
I placed my hand on the door, pausing.
Dear Yora, if you really exist, I swear I will devote my life to you. Please, just please, don't let—
The door pushed open.
I raced forward to Vimm's broken body on the floor. His face was bloodied, as if they had beaten him first. He had a gash through his chest, and his limbs were twisted.
"Fuck you, Yora!" I screamed. "You worthless piece of shit!"
Genna cried out.
I spun, ready to direct my anger towards an intruder, to tear him apart with my own hands.
Genna stood before two more bodies.
I dropped my torch. The flame sputtered briefly against the wooden floor, but Kuri must have done something, because the fire went out.
Kuri moved closer to the bodies, her hand's living torch the only light in the room. She knelt next to one of them.
"No, this isn't right," she whispered. She looked at me. "Jakson…"
I walked up to Kuri, then forced myself to look downward. Ollie's blank, lifeless face stared back at me.
I quickly looked at the other body. Lars. I frantically searched the room for another body, but there was none.
I didn't know how long I stood there with the others, silent and empty.
Then, I fell to my knees and wept.
* * *
We stood on a hilltop, watching the inferno in the distance. Kuri had offered to send the bodies of Vimm and the boys to the heavens.
I had agreed. Vimm wouldn't have wanted to rot in the ground, food for worms. Better to fly to the heavens, to soar as he never could when living.
Kuri had set the whorehouse on fire, and we had retreated to a hilltop on the outskirts of Evercrown. Legend had it that Yora herself had laid the city's foundation eons ago. One day, Yora would return to judge its worth, to raze or renew it as She saw fit. I know what I would have done tonight, if I were Her.
"How could they have snuck up on Vimm like that?" I asked. Vimm was a veteran of the streets, the best at what he did. There was no way Lexley had the touch to root out someone like Vimm. Lexley approached things like a mad bulldog, loud, brutish, and anything but cunning. Vimm was a slippery mouse that would vanish at the first sign of trouble.
Then, again, Lexley had tricked me as well, hadn't he? It was unlike him.
Genna slipped her arm through mine, armor and all.
"Maybe it's not all about Lexley," Genna said. She leaned her head forward to speak to Kuri, who was on my other side. "Lexley used to play with us when we were little. He looked up to Jaks, even, like an actual older brother."
I pulled my arm away from Genna. "Genna, not now. Damn it." I walked away, my back to them.
"What happened?" Kuri asked.
She did. It had all started with her.
"The queen," Genna said. "She drove them apart, even before his mother's death. Back then, and even now. This has to be the queen's doing."
Queen Priss. Genna was right. Lexley hadn't always been bad, but he had been young and pliable. His mother had turned him into the vicious monster he was today.
The queen was my real enemy, the true cause of all my pain.
"I should kill her," I said. "I can sneak in there with Mira's help. It would be for the kingdom's sake."
"Jaks," Genna said. "You're not a cold-blooded murderer."
"It's vengeance," Kuri said. "Nothing cold about that." Her eyes glowed in the dark night.
I nodded grimly.
"Then, what?" Genna asked. "You said it yourself. No matter where you go, the same thing will happen. That's assuming you make it out alive."
"Who says I need to make it out alive?" I looked away.
I wanted to rip Lexley apart with my bare hands in front of his mother, to hear the two of them screaming in agony. I wanted to peel the flesh from the queen's throat, to pluck her veins out and watch them blossom with hot blood. Forget everything else. I would make them suffer. I would make them die if it was the last thing I ever did.
"Jaks…" Genna whispered.
My mind went numb. The rage, the anguish—it all vanished.
I screamed at Genna. "Don't touch my mind! This is all I have left!"
Genna flinched. The emotions flooded back.
"I'm…I'm sorry," Genna said. "I wanted to help."
I let the emotions melt away on their own. "I know." I grasped Genna's hand gently, then reached for Kuri. She placed her hand in mine. It wasn't true, what I had said. I still had people left to protect. People left to fight by my side.
I took all the grief and pressed into a tight ball at the core of my being. The pain wouldn't be forgotten, no. It would drive me, focus me, remind me of who I was and where I was going. We stood in silence for a minute.
"This isn't the time for vengeance or forgetting," I said, meeting each of the women in the eyes. "It's a time to set things right. Lady Dyann said there was more going on than just Lexley and me. That's why we're doing this." That's why I would be a knight, my own knight. Although I wouldn't hesitate if I had a chance to give the queen what she deserved.
"What now?" Kuri asked.
"I don't know," I said. The stolen armor was the key to proving to the kingdom what Lexley had done, that he was the real traitor. But the ship had been our last clue.
We were at a dead end, with dead friends, and nothing to show.
"We can rest at the Temple," Genna said softly. "Tomorrow is a new day. We'll figure it out."
* * *
We returned to the Temple in the middle of the night. It was mostly quiet. I headed towards the healing ward where I had been staying, but a priestess barred my way.
"You and your foreign friend can wait here," the woman said. I took her to mean Kuri.
She shook a finger at Genna. "The High Priestess wants a word with you."
Genna nodded slowly, her eyes darting to me. "It'll be okay, Jaks. Wait here with Kuri."
"You sure?" I asked. Testing the Temple's patience had to have been an enormous risk.
"I'll be fine." Genna's lips pressed together, and she clutched the edges of her priestly robes. She was scared.
Genna…
I turned to the woman who had delivered the summoning. "You hurt her, and Yora be damned, I'll tear down the Temple myself."
"And I'll burn the rubble," Kuri added.
I gave her an appreciative nod.
Genna's eyes widened in horror. "Stop it! Stop it!" She waved her hands at the other priestess. "They don't mean that. They're joking around. Please, take me to the High Priestess."
She glared at the two of us. "Stay out of trouble until I'm back." Then, she followed the other woman deeper into the Temple.
We watched them in silence. I sat down on the stony floor. Kuri joined me.
"She's quite powerful," Kuri observed. "No one would let such power walk away."
"I could say the same about you," I said. "But here you are."
Kuri was quiet. "That's not the same."
I turned, swiveling my helmet to meet her gaze. I realized I was practically living in my suit these days.
"It's the same, like I told you before. In your forest kingdom, fire is unstoppable, the ultimate power. Your people couldn't handle it."
I reached out and patted her hand gently. "But I can."
Kuri raised an eyebrow. "Can you?" She opened and closed her right fist. "We haven't fought since the Open Melee."
"Of course not. Why would we fight?"
/>
"If you hadn't summoned those knights to run from the fight—"
"I didn't run. I was sparing your honor. And making sure both of us got into the Sentinels."
Kuri shook her head. "Both of us were fools to join them." She suddenly stood. "Fight me."
I looked at her in confusion. "What?"
"Fight me. Here." A small ball of flame danced between her palms.
"No! We're in the Temple." I gestured towards the stone walls around us. "Genna told us not to get into trouble."
"Are you her pet? She tells you to sit, and you sit? I thought you were more of a man."
"I'm not her pet. I'm staying out of trouble because it's smart and keeps me looking handsome."
Kuri sighed. "Enough talk. Fight." She threw a medium-sized fireball at my sitting figure.
Fuck. I rolled away, not keen on singing my armor. The fireball exploded against the stone wall. "Kuri, cut it out."
She replied with another fireball.
Someone ran into the hallway, checking on the ruckus, then turned around screaming.
"See!" I shouted. "Stop it, Kuri!"
"Fine. No more fireballs," Kuri said. Instead she launched a flying kick at me.
I crossed my forearms to meet the kick, but when her feet touched my arms, a fiery explosion knocked me backwards into the wall.
I pushed off the wall, leaping forward to catch Kuri, but she darted to the side and smashed me down into the ground with another explosive strike.
I swept my leg under Kuri, first one way, then the other, but she lightly danced around me. Then, she lunged downward with a fist. I rolled to the side, letting her strike the floor instead.
I crouched, my eyes level with hers. I jabbed a quick punch at her head, but she was too fast, knocking my fist to the side and countering with her own jab. I met her strike on my shoulder, but I had braced myself for the hit. I launched myself into Kuri.
This time, she couldn't dodge in time. We both crashed into the far wall, but she had somehow managed to twist so that my back struck the wall first. A lamp embedded in the wall shattered, broken glass tinkling everywhere.
I wrapped my arms around Kuri from behind, holding her in place. "Kuri, stop it."