by Travis Bughi
“Stop!” Qadir shouted at her. “Stupid, human child!”
Pleiades went on screaming, only pausing to gasp for air, the shrill sound so piercing that Takeo flinched. In absolute horror, she tried to get away, only for Qadir to place his forearm to her neck and push her into his body. He twisted until the angle cut off her windpipe, and then her screams and struggles were silent until she passed out from lack of air.
Then only Gavin’s sobs and cries were heard.
“Well now, if only I had known that was going to happen,” Qadir said, adjusting Pleiades’ unconscious body so he could rest the blade close to her neck again. “It’s a wonder humans value their children so much. Such pathetically stupid, weak creatures. Wouldn’t you agree, Takeo?”
Takeo debated his next move. The loss of Yeira was regrettable only so much as she mattered to Gavin, but Takeo would be lying if he said he’d felt anything beyond surprise when he watched her head go flying. All that mattered now was getting Gavin and Pleiades free, or just Gavin if need be. He could make more children, perhaps with women more pleasing to manage.
Takeo was still mounted. He could charge Qadir. That would get him close enough that even if the exhausted komainu didn’t kill the rakshasa, Takeo could at least get to the sword.
“Ah ah,” Qadir said, inching the blade towards Pleiades. “Off the mount.”
Before Takeo could defy the order, Gavin reacted.
“Do it!” he shouted. “Get off!”
The knight charged Takeo, blocking the way to Qadir. The komainu snarled, mistaking Gavin for an enemy, and Takeo had to jerk the creature’s reins to pacify it.
“Get off,” Gavin commanded, rushing to the komainu’s side and grabbing Takeo. “Get off! He said get off! Do what he says. Damn it, Takeo, by the angels just listen to him.”
Gavin hauled the ronin off, Takeo resisting yet feeling compelled. The look in Gavin’s eyes was haunting. Once Takeo was off, Gavin shoved him away, knocking him to the ground. Then the knight slapped the komainu’s rear. The beast snarled but cantered off.
“Gavin, what are you doing?” Takeo said, scrambling to a stand.
He went to chase after the creature, but Gavin blocked him, grabbed a rock, and hurled it at the komainu. The beast snarled as it was struck in the head. Then it scampered away, annoyed at the rude gesture.
“Gavin!”
“Shut up, Takeo! Shut up. Look! Look, damn you. What do you want, huh? You want me to lose my daughter, too, huh? Is that what you want? Oh Yeira. She’s dead. She’s d—”
Gavin paused as overwhelming sobs took him. He struggled through them and the blinding tears, his shoulders quaking.
“I swear, Takeo, I swear on the lives of the angels, if she dies, I will kill myself. I will force you to watch as I stab myself like a stupid samurai in the stomach and spill my guts out. You will NOT save me, do you understand? Save her!”
Gavin flung a dirt encrusted finger at the veranda, to Qadir and helpless Pleiades. Takeo followed, looking at the rakshasa, then back to Gavin. The two stared at each other, gazes more intense than they’d ever been. Only the sound of Qadir clearing his throat broke the scene.
“You should listen to your friend here,” Qadir said. “He’s been so hard at work for the past few hours, clearing this place out, sending servants and soldiers alike far away. I didn’t want to be disturbed, you understand. I knew there would be precious little time before you arrived.”
“Fine,” Takeo whispered to Gavin, then turned to Qadir. “Fine, I’m here now. Let them go. It’s me you want. You have my sword. It’s not like I’m running away. You’re who I want, as well. I’ll stay. Just let them go.”
Gavin’s eyes flicked to Takeo. At once, Gavin understood the trap. If Qadir agreed, then that meant he knew nothing about the Takeo’s sword immunity.
“All in due time,” Qadir replied. “As much as I’d love to kill you and be done with it, you’ve caused me too much pain to end things that quickly. It will be fitting, though, won’t it? When I end your life with the very sword you used to disfigure me?”
A wave of relief, which he tried to cover with a dry swallow, rushed through Takeo. A tiny tremble of hope passed through Gavin, too.
“Well, let’s get on with it, then,” Takeo pressed. “Torture? That’s what you want? You want to mutilate me, as I did to you? Just let them go. Think about it. Keeping hostages and talking only buys time for me to get through this alive.”
Qadir, once so comfortable, went still. He narrowed one eye at Takeo, then drew Pleiades closer, keeping the blade ready.
Damn it, Takeo thought. I pushed too much. Now he suspects something.
Beside him, Gavin stifled another sob.
“Up to your old tricks again, eh ronin?” Qadir said. “You stay back. And you, knight, if he comes too close to me, you can bet I’ll lop her head off before I ever attack him.”
Takeo’s mind raced, trying to formulate another plan. He needed time. Time bought opportunity and gave birth to mistakes. He had to keep Qadir talking.
“What’s this about, huh?” Takeo demanded. “I found out how you managed to slip away. Why didn’t you run with the others? Being here, like this, gives you no chance to escape.”
“Escape,” Qadir replied in a mocking tone. “Escape to what? The life of a crippled fugitive? A royal cripple, I could manage. Being in charge of the Nguyen hierarchy, playing one brother against the other, plotting world domination—that wasn’t so bad. But to run into hiding and poverty? No. Where would I go? Back to Savara to be hunted again? To Lucifan and beg in the streets? Not a chance. Not for a rakshasa. I’d rather die, and I’d rather give my life to revenge. You don’t seem to see what’s happening here, Takeo. I set this up because I knew you’d come, alone. You’re not walking out of here, and neither am I. When they find us, they’ll know it was me who took you down.”
Takeo suppressed a shudder. This would be worse than he thought. He had to switch topics, as best he could, to try and put Qadir off balance. Something, anything, to tip the scales.
“How’d you get my sword?”
“Oh, finally you ask,” Qadir said. “You know, your good friend here had the same question. In fact, as I recently discovered, he’s got quite a story to tell. Would you guess that this man shares the blame in why I’m here?”
Takeo turned, slowly, to put his gaze on Gavin. The knight’s head fell, and he looked at his feet, tears falling from his eyes, lips trembling and a touch blue from his ragged breaths. In those glossy green eyes, Takeo spied guilt.
“Gavin,” Takeo whispered. “Before I left to come find you, I heard Nicholas had taken Emy and the Yilmaz boy and fled west. Did you have something to do with that?”
Gavin reached up and drug his handless arm across his face, smearing tears, snot, and dirt.
“It wasn’t supposed to happen like this,” Gavin said.
“Gavin, what did you do?”
The knight fought, but then lost the battle against another sob. The dam broke, and he heaved and cried for several moments before regaining enough composure to speak.
“I’m so sorry, Yeira,” he said to himself before looking to Takeo. “We met. After we all watched you kill Krunk, we met. We realized you couldn’t be trusted. It was decided that we would get free, even Emy, especially Emy. We knew that the moment Qadir died, you’d kill her.”
“What? I said I wouldn’t do that. I said I’d let her go.”
“Yeah, well, you’ve said a lot of things! You could have been lying. You could change your mind. None of us were willing to take that risk, not for Krunk. Emy wanted to kill you, oh damn did she want to kill you. I was the only thing that saved you. I told her about the prophecy and that any attempt on your life by anyone but me was fated to fail. Seemed she’d overheard the story before when you told Yeira. So, she did nothing, and we decided to just leave.
“It sounded simple, at first. After what happened at the Phan fortress, we were going to run at the n
ext battle. Nicholas has an old viking friend with a ship moored off the western coast of Juatwa. The plan was to get aboard and sail away. We’d all be free then, and you wouldn’t be able to get to Emy. Things got complicated with Pranav, though. Nicholas really took a liking to the boy, and when you said how you were going to kill him—”
“I said maybe. I said maybe kill—”
“Will you shut up? Don’t you hear yourself? What sort of screwed up mentality do you have to have to think that contemplating killing a child is any better than actually killing one? Huh? You’re called the Dark Lord for a reason, Takeo. Not because you’re a pseudo lord without land or title, but because you’re evil. Once upon a time you told me you were a changed man after seeing the angels die. Well, I think you changed again when you saw Emily die. And you didn’t change for the best.”
Takeo’s jaw dropped while his heart throbbed in his chest.
“Gavin,” Takeo whispered. “How can you say that? What about our dream? We agreed, up on that mountain.”
“Your dream,” Gavin corrected him. “And I did agree to something up there, but not this. And neither did Nicholas. And neither did Krunk, yet he’s the one who died for it, and now Yeira. Oh Yeira. You didn't deserve this. Oh, by the angels, my wife. I loved you so much.”
Several moments passed as Gavin broke down again. He regained composure just enough to finish his story.
“So, we decided if we couldn’t stop you, we could at least make sure that no one else we cared about had to die. That was the plan. That’s how things were supposed to go when I left. With the oni deal still up in the air, we decided it was time to spring the plan. I left to go collect my family. I was supposed to meet Nicholas at the ship. And now . . . and now Yeira’s dead. She’s dead. Oh, by the angels, she’s dead.”
Gavin descended into sobs, covering his face with his remaining hand. Qadir chuckled.
“So sorry,” the rakshasa said, “but it seems your friend didn’t answer the question, and now he’s indisposed. The sword, correct? You wanted to know how I got this remarkable sword that so fills me with fire? Allow me to fill you in.”
Qadir flourished the blade before returning it to Pleiades neck. Takeo met the rakshasa’s gaze, and there he poured all his hate and malice.
“As Emy described it, a miracle occurred. Fate, one could call it. While I sat up in the Nguyen fortress, you struck a deal with the oni. Unbeknownst to any of you, Emy had already decided to try and free me. She felt guilty leaving me to die unaware at your hands, and she felt she had a duty to try and save me, as we’re of a hunted race. She knew you would make that deal with the oni.
“So, there she was, deciding how best to trick my traitorous lackey, Aiguo, when the ground opened up in a show of fire and ice, and out belched this very sword. I know, seems crazy, but that’s what she claimed. I’ll not vouch for what she saw, but here’s the blade, nonetheless. First, she tried to destroy it, but the weapon would not bend or break. So instead she decided to use it. She took the sword with her and came to me.
“Let me say how naive that girl is, honestly. She’s still a cub in some ways. I must thank you for ruining her. If she’d been brought up like a true rakshasa, her mind would have been sharpened and strong. I wouldn’t be here without your ineptitude.
“So, where was I? Ah yes, we met, and I quickly deduced what needed to be done. As I said, I have no intentions of being a crippled refugee, but I convinced her otherwise. I also convinced her I’d be better on my own, and that if she gave the sword to me, it’d give her a chance to get away. Not just her, either, but all your friends, too. If she kept the sword, you might well blame all her pathetic, human friends, and go after them. Meanwhile, if I took the sword, I could be on the run forever, being more well-traveled than her. You’d never see the sword again, or I would otherwise find a way to kill you with it. She believed me.
“So, while she and that viking ran off, I took the sword and hatched my own plan.
“See, I want to watch you suffer before you die, and I knew exactly where to twist the knife best. I came here to torture you with your last loved ones, but it was only later, from this man’s lips, that I would realize that I never stood a chance. To think there was a prophecy from a sennin that one of you would kill the other? And yet you traveled and fought together? Knowing all along that one day things would come to this end? Why? For a rakshasa, it makes sense, but for a human? Stupid. Your species is weak. That’s the only thing that explains it.
“I’ll bet that’s why you wanted to come close to me, isn’t it, Takeo? You know by sennin prophecy that so long as that knight is alive, you’re protected by fate. Someway, somehow, my attack would fail, and you'd survive.
“That’s not how today will end. Today we let fate take its course. Today, right here, right now, we bring this story to an end. You two will fight to the death, and I will watch.”
Qadir’s laughter echoed out across the empty grounds, utterly alone as Takeo and Gavin turned their heads slowly to gaze at one another, their former feelings of regret, shame, hate, and blame, distilling into apprehension and disbelief. Takeo’s calculating mind immediately picked up on Gavin’s most vulnerable parts to attack, and the mere thought caused him to recoil. He backed a step away from Gavin, but the knight did not move.
Gavin steeled himself, resolve filling him in a way that made Takeo’s heart skip. The knight’s gaze darkened.
“Will you let her go?” Gavin asked.
“No, Gavin, no,” Takeo begged. “Don’t listen to him. They’re all liars. If you think you can’t trust me, you definitely can’t trust him. Listen, by his own volition, he already betrayed Emy’s trust.”
“Will you let her go?” Gavin called out, louder.
“Gavin!”
“Let’s set the terms!” Qadir boomed out, his thick, deep rakshasa voice blanketing the scene. “I’m glad to see at least one person is interested and that it’s not Takeo. Fancy that. How glad I am to see you hating this. Here are my terms, Sir Gavin Shaw: I’ll watch you two fight to the death. No weapons. But it would hardly be fair how things are, though, with one opponent missing a hand. Takeo, to level the playing field, I’ll need you to break your wrist. I’d prefer to chop it off, honestly, but I can’t risk you dying or passing out, now can I?
“Whatever the outcome, so long as one of you dies, the child goes free. It means nothing to me, honestly. You have my word.”
Gavin glanced at Qadir before staring at his wife’s corpse, lying in a pool of her own blood. Then he looked to Pleiades, still passed out. Her golden hair was highlighted against her tan skin, and her lips parted slightly as she breathed peacefully against the soft fur of her captor. Gavin held his gaze on his daughter and clenched his teeth. Then he nodded.
“Gavin!” Takeo shouted, taking another step back. “Don’t do this.”
“Damn you, Takeo,” the knight answered, matching his tone. “Don’t tell me what to do. You have no idea. None! You don’t understand what it’s like being a parent. I would gladly die for her. In a heartbeat. I love her with all my heart, and she’s worth it. Is that not so crazy, to die for the people we love? Wouldn’t you do the same? If that were Emily, in Jabbar’s arms, would you take her place?”
Takeo straightened, the offer striking him to his core.
“She’s not—”
“She is to me!” Gavin screamed. “Now get over here so I can break your damn hand!”
Takeo stammered, frozen in place. He was trapped, and he knew it. This was the only way. With Gavin committed, Takeo would never get to Qadir in time. Gavin might stop him, and even if he didn’t and Takeo managed to get to Qadir, Pleiades would die. And Gavin had already promised to die if that happened. It would all be for nothing then. Takeo alive, and everyone else dead, even Pleiades, the only thing left of Gavin’s spirit and Takeo’s dream that one day little children wouldn’t grow up in a world where they would be held as a hostage as their fathers fought to death paces away f
rom their mothers’ corpse.
Couldn’t Gavin see that? Couldn’t Gavin see that to save thousands, some had to die? So what if Pranav was killed? What did that matter if peace could be bought with it? Wasn’t it all worth it in the end?
Yet he wouldn’t agree. Gavin couldn’t be reasoned with anymore, and Takeo could see the pleading in Gavin’s eyes.
As Takeo fought within, Gavin swallowed and begged.
“Do it,” the knight whispered. “Look at her and see in her what you believe to be in me. Save her, and I’ll be grateful. This is the only way.”
He wants me to win, Takeo realized. If he kills me, then Qadir can still go back on his word and kill both of them. But if I win, he’ll have me walk over to him, and I can save the girl. I can save Gavin’s daughter. Not only that, but I will get my sword, and my dream can live on. I can have it all, if only I kill him.
The realization consumed Takeo, that this was Gavin’s plan. The knight didn’t intend to die needlessly; he intended to sacrifice himself, not just for Pleiades, but for Takeo, too.
“No,” Takeo whispered, taking another step back. “I can’t do it.”
“You have to,” Gavin pleaded, tears forming again. “You promised me. You promised you wouldn’t hesitate.”
Takeo’s throat thickened, and tears formed in his eyes. He shook his head, fought to clear them, and fought against the numbing feeling that spread throughout his body—his normal reaction to insulate himself from pain.
“Gavin. . .”
“Don’t argue with me, Takeo. You promised. Up on the mountain, we knew. We knew, and you promised! Don’t hesitate. Do it! If not for me, then her. For Emily. If that’s what it takes, fine. Just do it.”
Takeo fought back a sob, but it shuddered out of his body anyway, and it took all his strength to move forward. He managed only one step, so Gavin closed the rest of the distance. Takeo found a fist sized rock and placed his left wrist on it. Gavin stood over him.