The Brazen Blade

by Billy Wong

  She smiled. "Yes, but it also makes it more convenient for us to search his lair."

  "What?! We'll get in big trouble if we're caught!"

  "Maybe," Marty said, "but I don't see any better way of exposing him."

  "I guess you guys are right."

  "Does he have a lot of servants, a family?" Kath asked.

  "I think he's married, but I don't know that much. We should find out more before doing anything."

  "Then I guess I'll spend the next few days resting and healing up while you guys do that."

  #

  Asking around they learned that Lord Parr's wife always attended a play one night of the week with a female servant, leaving the lord by himself with their male servant. Having two people at home wasn't ideal, but it was only time they could be somewhat confident in who would and wouldn't be there.

  "Think maybe you should stay out of this, Zack?" Kath asked on the day of the play. "Maybe only I and Marty should go."

  He shook his head vigorously. "But I want to come! I can help."

  "Three people sneaking around inside a house?" Marty said. "I'm not sure that's a good idea... plus there is the matter of your house arrest."

  "Come on, please. This directly involves me, so it wouldn't feel right to sit it out. And I doubt my father will actually kill me, especially if we succeed."

  "Fine, you can come." Kath smiled. "If we have to confront Parr and his servant, you being there will give us the numbers advantage."

  When the time came, they waited from afar to see Lady Parr's carriage leave before moving in. They opened a window, these annoyingly being a little higher than the ones on Zack's house, and climbed up. Inside, they tiptoed through carpeted halls decorated with paintings, many of them eerie distorted portraits of people. Some seemed to mix features of young and old, such as wrinkled babies and young women with ancient gnarled hands. They crept from door to door, searching for anything that could incriminate Parr but finding naught in kitchen, dining room, bathroom, closets, and a bedroom. A couple of times they heard footsteps approaching from ahead, and hid in a nearby room until they passed. Finally they opened the last door on the first floor.

  In a glum voice, Marty observed, "Looks like just another bedroom. Let's check the drawers and shelves, but if we don't find anything here we'll have to go upstairs."

  Kath shared his unoptimistic view at first, but then noticed something. "Hey, that wall looks farther forward than it should based on the position of the wall next door. So unless the wall is extra thick, maybe there's something behind that bookcase."

  They moved the bookcase in question, Kath already picking up a strange smell. Revealed was a staircase leading down. "So there is," Zack said. They started down, Kath wondering what that scent was. It kind of reminded her of a doctor's place, or medicine? She couldn't put her finger on it. They reached the bottom. Around them lay a large chamber—the basement, wide as the house above. Their eyes swept around taking in what it contained, and their jaws dropped. "What the... hell?" Zack breathed, going white.

  Chapter 7

  The room's sides were lined with tables some of which held all sorts of instruments—knives, scissors, saws, pliers, hooks, needles, hammers, and other unidentifiable objects that looked capable of causing pain. Other tables housed large and small jars, bottles, and vials. Inside some of those containers which were clear floated strange yet familiar shapes, making Kath shiver at what they might be though she wasn't close enough to know for certain. Between the tables and stairs stood many beds.

  On the beds lay butchered human bodies.

  Zack shook where he stood, teeth clattering, and Kath too felt repeated chills run through her. "So t-these must be the gifted he kidnapped." No doubt he imagined himself in their position.

  Most of them had clearly passed on, cut up to varying degrees with their abdomens opened up, the top of their skulls missing, or their ribs spread. But others were alive, breathing though unconscious and hooked up to numerous tubes, some heavily bandaged and/or missing limbs. "What on earth has he been doing?" Marty whispered. "It's like he's some kind of mad surgeon..."

  Kath looked around, trying to skim past the more disgusting sights she glimpsed. Her eyes caught sight of a thick book. She squeezed between beds which she averted her gaze from and took it off the table. It didn't have a title, so she opened it. It seemed to be a journal. The notes were jumbled, meant for the writer rather than a reader, and hard to make sense of. Diagrams showing "procedures" to be done on human subjects turned her stomach almost as much as seeing the results. But as she kept looking, repeated words stood out. "Gifted, secret, immortal... guys, I think Lord Parr is trying to find a way to have eternal life by experimenting on the gifted."

  "I don't care what he's up to, I want to get out of here!" Zack said. Tears on his cheeks, he turned for the stairs.

  "Wait. Before we go, we need to grab some evidence of what Parr has been doing. This book alone won't be enough." She swallowed. "I know it isn't appealing, but we might have to take a body part." Then she spotted something that might be slightly less uncomfortable to carry—only slightly. Inside a jar full of yellow liquid floated a dead infant. She reached for it. "At least we don't have to touch the contents... Turn around, Zack. I'll put it in your backpack."

  He looked appalled. "Mine? Why me?"

  "I figured if we have to fight, me and Marty can try to handle it, and if you don't have to step in it'll be safer with you."

  "Oh, all right. You'd better take it out yourself, though."

  "Sure, I can do that." She slipped it into his pack. To be honest, she felt quite glad the instant that dreadful thing left her hands.

  "Now what?" Marty asked. "Do we just get out of here and take this to the constables?"

  That had been her first thought. But the more she mulled it over, the more she feared Lord Parr would be able to block a investigation from happening at least temporarily. And then, he could get rid of the bodies and the preserved baby might well be insufficient evidence. They needed to make sure a search could be done immediately. "No, we'll find Parr and his servant, restrain them, and hide them somewhere until the constables have seen what's down here. Then we can reveal them to face justice."

  Zack stared. "You're so reckless."

  "If I was more reckless I'd kill Parr now for committing the atrocities he has. But since we'd probably be arrested for murder if we did that, I'll settle for keeping him out of the way."

  "Still, how can we know we're a match for Parr and his man?"

  "We don't for sure, but he's an old man and we outnumber him."

  He frowned. "I don't like the sarcastic tone of those last words."

  "Just teasing," she said with a grin. "You know I love you—not like that."

  "Yeah, but I still don't like the constant jokes about how weak I am."

  "Marty jokes nonstop about how manly I am. But if you don't like it, I promise I'll cut down on it."

  They went back up and searched for the residents. Nobody remained on the ground floor, so they ascended the stairs. They had barely begun wandering the halls when a man in a fluffy bathrobe walked out of a door. He was handsome, clean shaven with wavy shoulder-length hair, and looked to be in his early forties. "You must be the servant." Kath pointed her sword at him. "Surrender quietly and we won't hurt you."

  "Servant? But why, I am Douglas Parr."

  "Wait, is Douglas his son's name or something?"

  "That's Lord Parr's first name..." Zack looked stunned. "I heard he looked young for his age, but I never imagined..."

  Kath's own disbelief grew as it sank in. "But he's supposed to be almost seventy years old!"

  "I guess he must have made some progress on that secret of immorality already," Marty said.

  "Don't you mean immortality?" Zack asked.

  Kath spat. "Both. Well, it's your lucky day Douglas Parr. I won't kill you because we don't need to be arrested for murder. But if you try to resist, I will hurt you." Hell,
it would be tempting to hurt him even if he didn't.

  "Oh, I'll do more than resist." Parr dropped his robe, revealing a sculpted, nude male body, and took a great sword off the wall. "You 'won't kill me?' What makes you think you can? In my veins are the beginning of Immortalis."

  "What the heck is Immortalis?" Marty demanded. "Did he make that up?"

  Kath replied, "Yeah, I'd guess it means immorality. What makes you think your life is so much more valuable that you can sacrifice all those others to extend it?"

  Parr smiled. "I am smarter than them, better than them—and the one with the drive to seek this goal. Thus if I earn it, how do I not deserve it?"

  "There's a point where drive won't justify how far you go. I think you've gone well past that."

  "And who are you to judge?"

  "It's fucking common sense that some selfish old buzzard dissecting dozens of people in hopes of delaying his end isn't in the-" Before she could say "right," she glimpsed movement down the hall behind Parr. "Marty, look out!" He sidestepped just in time to avoid taking the dagger thrown by a short older man in the chest, though it grazed his arm. While he grabbed his bicep, a crossbow bolt from Zack sprouted in the wall next to the servant's shoulder. The man wore a nervous expression, but drew two more daggers and advanced. "Get him!" Kath said. "I'll deal with Douglas."

  He raised his big sword. "Come on then, brat. You are not prepared to face one as refined as I." She charged him, pain suddenly becoming noticeable in her stomach. He put up a tight defense against her initial probing attack, seemingly well trained as he showed good awareness of body language and her blade's range in predicting her moves. But he defended many strokes without retaliation, which appeared odd for his apparent skill. She decided to fake giving him an opening. He finally struck, slower than expected, and she deflected it with ease. There was little strength behind his blow, less even than one of Marty or Zack's, and he stumbled sideways from the force of her parry.

  Zack and Marty had knocked out the servant and worked on tying him up. "He looks like he's moving underwater compared to you!" Zack observed as she battered at Parr's guard, which seemed less effective and increasingly desperate now that she upped the pace and put more muscle into her swings.

  She hadn't all of a sudden gained massive speed or strength. Why was Parr so slow and weak, and rapidly tiring too as he panted trying to keep up with her? Maybe she should just be grateful she wouldn't have to push herself through yet another grueling fight. He chopped at her, sloppily with fatigue. She met his strike with one of her own which overpowered him completely, and he went flying. "I guess Lord Parr isn't on par with Kath the Blade!" she found herself saying as he hit the floor, and Marty groaned.

  "The Immortalis... still has some problems that need to be worked out," Parr said, struggling to his feet. Kath gathered that while he might look young, on the inside he still had the health and strength of a frail seventy year old body. "But I was so close... how dare you..." He turned the sword towards himself. Before any of them could stop him, he fell on it. He toppled onto his side with a gurgle and his eyes fixed.

  Marty blinked. "That's it? I thought we were going to have a big fight."

  "Apparently, the Immortalis still has some problems that need to be worked out. I suppose he thought he could take me on sheer technique." Yet even with a strong young body, she thought he might not be better than her. He might be old, but she was weakened by severe injury too. His confidence before their fight had been the result of hubris after all. "Well Zack, I guess this simplifies some legal issues."

  "Yeah, unless we get charged with murder."

  "We didn't kill him, so I'm sure things will work out." Hopefully. She made to walk past the body to check on the servant's bindings and looked back. "If he unlocked partial immortality already, how do we know this suicide isn't a ruse and that he won't heal and get up once we leave? We should make sure."

  "What, are we going to chop him up or burn him?" Marty asked.

  "No, we'll be accused of murder for sure then!" Zack said.

  Kath knelt beside Lord Parr. "Nothing so extreme. We'll tie and gag him anyway in case he does come back to life!"

  "Tie up a corpse? I suppose better to be safe than sorry."

  They bound Parr tightly, tying his arms and legs to each other, and stuffed him in a closet. If he did revive, he'd have a very difficult time getting free. She also decided to remove the sword. She suspected he might only revive after it came out of him, and didn't want him escaping from the morgue if they extracted it there. The servant snugly bound as well, she left him in the same room with Parr.

  "That's that," Kath said after shutting the door. "Now to get the constables before Lady Parr returns."

  Zack nodded. "There's still a couple hours left in the play, so we should have time."

  The trio went to the nearest constables' office. At first the head constable, a bald man with intense eyes, didn't seem inclined to take them seriously. But when they showed him the baby jar, shock softened his features, and he took a group of his men to Parr's house with them. There in the basement, the constables stared with horror. Kath hoped some of the living prisoners could be saved, but didn't know how much of a life they could have after this.

  "And do you have any idea where Lord Parr is now?" the head constable asked. "You said he wasn't home, but-"

  Kath interrupted. "Actually, I lied. Sorry. But he's upstairs." They headed up and opened the door to the room where she'd left the criminals, Kath wondering if Parr would be dead or alive. He turned out to be alive and awake, still tied, glaring at her with hateful eyes as she entered. "He seemingly killed himself by stabbing himself with a sword," she told the constables, "but healed since then with his partial immortality. So be careful with him, if he somehow 'dies' don't let your guard down just because he appears dead."

  She turned to Parr. "Outplayed you! You thought you were so clever 'dying,' but Kath the Blade is as smart as she is strong and saw right through your trick!"

  "She's so cocky," Marty said to Zack. "What a cock girl."

  "Grrr... do these seem male to you?!" She chest bumped him hard, almost knocking him down.

  "The way you just used them did."

  She gazed down. "Point." Kath did realize her attitude had changed a lot since joining the school, and thought maybe she should rein it in a bit. Looking like she tried overly hard to come off as impressive might be counterproductive, too.

  The two men were led away in chains, though she wondered how much responsibility the servant really had in this. Lady Parr and the female servant would probably be subjected to questioning soon too. In any case, she was glad Zack would no longer be targeted for kidnapping—and much much worse, as they'd seen—and could live in peace again.

  After returning to Zack's house, Kath headed to the den and pulled Lord Parr's journal out of her bag. The boys stared. "Wait, weren't we supposed to give that in as evidence?" Marty asked.

  "That basement should be all the evidence needed to nail him on some serious crimes. On the other hand, I don't want anyone deciding they want to carry on his 'work' and butchering more innocent people. So it has been lost." She threw it into the fireplace and they watched it burn together, though Marty looked a tiny bit torn over the destruction of knowledge.

  On top of the additional reward money they received from his father, the threat to her son being averted made Zack's mother so happy she gifted a bunch of her clothes to Kath. She was a somewhat plump woman, but that made her garments fit Kath's arms and shoulders well although they were a little loose around the waist and hips. They decided to go to an expensive restaurant to celebrate, and after she changed upstairs the boys spotted Kath come out in a dress and high heels from the foot of the stairwell. "See, I can be girly after all," she said, giving a slow, elegant wave of her hand. She started down the stairs, only to snag one of her heels on a step. She tripped forward, but managed to grab the banister and improvise a one-armed cartwheel which ended with
her landing albeit clumsily on her feet at the bottom. "Damn things!" She snapped the heels off both her shoes and threw them away.

  "Well, you looked scared and girly while you were falling," Zack said.

  "I choose to take pride in that."

  "Didn't you say you could walk in heels?" Marty asked.

  "I can! But these heels are thinner than the ones than I'm used to, and I'm still injured, and stairs, and..."

  Within the week, they learned everyone who lived in the Parr household had been imprisoned. It was fair, she decided. The servants must have known what their masters did, and shouldn't have let such evil go on without trying a thing to stop it.

  It took a couple weeks before everything was sorted out through letters between their parents, Apsenia officials, and the Iron Sword, and the trio got the okay to go back to school. They returned as minor heroes, though nobody seemed to really understand how much they'd gone through. Well, Leroy did, or at least the long hug he gave her upon seeing her back made her think so. "Was it bad for you?" he asked.

  "There were a few scary moments. But I got through them."

  Zack smiled. "We've all grown, I think. I obviously owe a lot to Kath and Marty for their help, but I feel stronger now for sure. I doubt I'll be as easily scared facing challenges in the future."

  "I've learned much about what it's like to live as a peasant," Marty put in. "I'll have more respect for them from now on for being able to put up with it."

  "That's something at least," Leroy said.

  Despite their achievements, they received harsh punishment for deserting. They were woken after four hours of sleep a night for weeks and forced to spend the wee hours of the morning cleaning. "If I knew this would happen I wouldn't have come," Marty whined one time while scrubbing mold off the basement wall.

  "That's not very manly of you," Kath said.

  "Not as manly as you."

  She snickered. "You just insulted yourself worse trying to make a comeback."