He ducked to one side, then sprinted towards Tellish as the larger man tried to bring the sword around to bear. The thin blade of Pieter’s witchwood sword pierced the arm of Tellish. For a brief moment, Pieter was sure that he had scored a point. Then, he saw the flesh begin to knit together, a black ichor seeping out to almost pull the wounded skin back together.
Damn it. “You are an abomination.”
“No, I am something better. I was given the chance to join, not forced to be a servant of them.” Tellish’s cold smile caused Pieter’s blood to chill. “You don’t understand, Pieter. They are trying to help. You could have been someone of great import. Instead, you will have to die,” Tellish said. He looked sad for a moment, before slamming his shoulder into Pieter, knocking the other down and skidding across the deck.
Pieter looked up at his one-time friend. He felt the rage starting to boil inside his own head. He could feel the Rift coming off of Tellish in waves of red heat. He could see a corona of blood red encompassing Tellish. He pressed harder on his own emotions, yet they were being drawn out by the rage and anger feeding off the rage of Tellish. Pieter’s control started to slip.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Kyp felt panic start to pump through his system. He tried to go through the exercises that Sempai had showed him, yet they disappeared. They slipped from his mind like sand running through his fingers. He felt his breath starting to come in ragged gasps. His hands felt sweaty, and he gripped the sword hilt a bit more. The comfort of Gar’s hilt was enough to calm him for a moment. Then he swallowed the lump in his throat and moved forward and around the corner. He brought the sword up in a guard position and saw the empty tick-like boarding craft, the main part of it open and empty of any occupant.
“Looking for me?” he heard Percy say in his head. Then, something struck him from behind.
Kyp whirred around, to swipe at what was behind him. There was nothing.
“You will have to do better than that,” Percy moved. Kyp heard him snicker and felt something strike him to the left.
He whirred and struck out again.
“Far too slow, it is a wonder Sempai Strahd wishes to have you as a disciple. You are pathetic.” Percy then appeared from the shadows, smiling at Kyp.
“Shut up, you privileged piece of filth,” Kyp shouted.
“Careful, street trash, I can feel the Rift inside you coming out,” Percy said with a cold grin.
Kyp knew it was true. He felt the rage starting to build up. He pushed it down with a force of will. Yet, it clung to him, wanting to be unleashed. No, I have to control it.
“Having trouble?” Percy whispered.
He saw the sallow-faced Percy, smirking at him. The two moved closer, Kyp’s sword held in a guard position. “Like you could use that against me.” Kyp moved forward to strike. Percy’s movements, fast as a serpent, struck out to hit Kyp in the jaw.
Kyp went sprawling. Dazed, he tried to get up, but Percy was there in a moment, kicking the other youth in the side. It sent Kyp onto his side to avoid the worse of the blow.
“To think that Sempai Strahd would actually train a piece of garbage like yourself. You are nothing. You aren’t even a true one of the Blood.”
“What the hells are you—”
Percy cut him off with a strike to the chin. Kyp’s head snapped up and blood sprayed from his mouth. He was on his hands and knees. Percy squatted down, “Do you really think that you can be any kind of Void Emissary? You are weak, you are pathetic, and you can’t even control the Void in yourself.”
Kyp looked at Percy, one eye closed from the beating. He felt something thrum in his chest. He reached out for the Void, and felt it slip through his grasp. “I am not weak; I am a Void Emissary. Pieter said—”
“Pieter even more pathetic man if he thinks you can do anything but shine his shoes.” Percy dropped Kyp’s head, stood up and kicked the youth in the face again. Kyp tried to hold the rage back, but the pain broke something inside of him. He reached out and grasped the Void hard, he felt the power of the universe in his grasp. He also felt a red nimbus of anger and wrath congeal around him
“Kyp, no. You have to—”
“I have to what? You said I was a pathetic piece of trash; why do you look so worried?” Kyp stood up. He reached out with the Void and grabbed Percy by the throat.
Percy’s face drained of color. The older boy tried to move back, his hands coming up to his throat. “I am sorry, I was simply trying to help you,” he choked out.
“Of course,” Kyp said, reaching out with the power of the Void, grasping his witchwood sword. It shot through the air, clipping Percy in the shoulder then came to a rest in Kyp’s outstretched hand. He dropped Percy who fell gasping to the deck. “You were helping me,” Kyp let out a roar and charged forward.
Percy pulled his own sword, knocking the lunge aside. Though, Kyp could see that line of blood along Percy’s face. Percy backpedaled more and more. “Please Kyp. I was just… I was—”
“What? What were you trying to do?”
“I was trying to help.”
“You keep saying that, and I don’t believe you!” Kyp shouted. He jabbed forward with the blade again and again, Percy blocked the first three cuts, yet he moved the wrong way and Kyp cut into his left shoulder.
Percy let out a pitiful cry and the sword dropped from his hand. “Please. Please, I was just—”
Kyp slammed his weight behind the thrust, stabbing into Percy’s shoulder until the hilt of his blade rested on Percy’s flesh. “You are done. You won’t hurt anyone else.” Kyp felt the lust for blood coursing through him.
Percy looked at Kyp. He was crying. Seeing the pitiful look on Percy’s face caused the anger drain out of Kyp. The youths stared at each other for a long moment. Kyp let go of his sword and dropped to his knees. “I-I-I-I don’t know what happened…”
“It’s alright,” Percy said. “Let me go, and I can heal that cut.”
Kyp nodded and Percy moved closer. “What are you doing here, anyway?” Kyp asked.
“What?” Percy asked, his hand coming up and the warmth of the Void’s healing started to creep from Percy’s hand.
“What are you doing here? That ship is from Harkness. Are you working for him?”
“Yes.” Percy said. Percy lashed out with the Void, striking Kyp and knocking him backwards. For a moment, Kyp saw stars. When he blinked away the dizziness, he saw his sword on the ground, the blade covered in blood. Percy was running. Yet, his form changed and shimmered. Kyp blinked, and he saw a tall lanky creature made of silver goo ooze its way into the boarding ship. He heard the engines start up and saw the edge of the tick boarder moving out of Benny. A viscous fluid seeped around the invading craft, yet even as Benny tried to plug up the hole, Kyp could see the æther swirling outside for a moment. He felt the rush of low air and then the breach was sealed by Benny.
Then he was thrown violently to the deck as a blast of energy slammed into the ship.
Kyp felt his stomach drop when he saw the boarding ship leave. He then turned when he heard Sarena speak. “Kyp, you need to get onto that other Ilvan ship.” It sounded as though she was next to him. He whirled around and saw no one.
“What are you talking about? And why does it sound like your voice is close by?”
“Don’t worry about that,” Sarena said.
“Well, what ship—”
In the middle of the room he was in, there was a viewport image that opened in front of him. It showed five black Ilvan slave ships, and five Ilvan ships with Benny being the sixth. “Where did all the Ilvan—”
“Kyp, focus. You need to get that injured slave ship on the far right, on the other side of Harkness’s war galleon.”
“How?”
“Take the jumper.”
“And fly through that?” He asked as several streaks of silver light erupted from the prows of the Ivan ships, Benny included and struck at the galleon and the five Ilvan ships. The injured one was limp
ing its way away from the battle.
“If you don’t do it, Pieter is gone.”
“He told me to stay here. If I—"
“Damn it Kyp, do you think he would want you to stay if he died?”
Kyp knew the answer. He knew Sarena knew it as well. “Get the jumper prepared,” Kyp said. He turned and broke into a run to get to the jumper bay. Within minutes, he was in the pilot seat, warming up the small wooden ship. He still thought it was a strange shape, and it had an odd feeling to it. He felt Gar on his hip purr and felt relieved. “You are always with me, aren’t you?”
Until the end.
Benny launched the jumper and Kyp felt his stomach lurch again. The æther was boiling from the energy exchanged between the different Ilvan ships. He hoped that the hull of the jumper could handle it. He felt the heat suffuse into the interior, yet the jumper continued to handle as it should have. He pulled at his collar, dodging and banking whenever he got close.
The jumper’s comm relay piped up. “Also, human child, if you find my mate, bring him home. He has much to answer for.”
“Goldie?” He asked, surprised by the voice of the Lasha.
“Admiral Goldie, thank you.”
“Adm—”
“Been through this already Kyp,” Sarena cut in. “Just get to the ship.”
Kyp shook his head. “What else is going to happen? We find out that I’m some lost prince? Usually the way these stories work.” He smiled at the thought and dodged as a small boarding ship tried to latch onto him.
“Incoming,” Kyp shouted into the ansible. “More of those little tick things coming.”
“Acknowledged. Take a five degree turn and hold steady,” Sarena ordered.
Kyp didn’t want to argue with her. He set the jumper and watched as a silver streak shot past the stern of the jumper, missing it by ten or twenty feet. The small trickle of loading ships were caught in the blast and vaporized. He shook his head. “When did we get one of those?”
“Just get there and find my helmsman and Pieter, Emissary Kyp.”
Kyp looked at the ansible for a second. Did she just call me an Emissary? He took a deep breath. “Acknowledged. And try not to die.”
“Thanks,” she said before closing the channel.
***
The ships had formed into small groups of three. Yet, Kyp reached out with the Void and could tell which one held his Sempai. He dodged two more blasts of energy from the slave ships, and one from the concentrated Ilvan ships led by Sarena and Goldie. Still, he was able to attach to the outer hull of the slave Ilvan. The hull cracked and rippled when he touched down. He wasn’t sure how long this ship would last. Now that he was there, he wasn’t sure how to get into the other ship. He pondered for a moment, trying to think of something. It wasn’t like the slave ship would allow the jumper in. He didn’t have a suit and the æther outside didn’t have a pocket of air that surrounded it like other normal ætherships. The claws were holding onto the ship tight. He reached out with the Void and felt that a seal had been made between the jumper and a portion of the outer hull. If he could cut through it, the æther might fuse the two together.
Without another thought, he took his sword and stabbed down into the jumper’s deck. He felt his sword pierce the two pieces and cut a hole large enough for himself and Pieter to get through. He didn’t want to think of what he would do once he found and rescued Pieter and Toth. Burn that bridge when you get to it, the saying was from Flynn. Thinking of his old crewmate didn’t cause the same issues as before. He took a deep breath, kicked in the wood and jumped down.
He miscalculated the landing and hit the deck hard. He felt a pain shoot up his left foot. Kyp took a little bit more of the Void and ignored the pain. Kyp found himself in a strange decayed-looking room, like one of Benny’s many rooms, but this one looked as if it was made of wax that had been partially melted. The smell of rot stung his nose.
Kyp pushed the smell aside and moved into a hallway. It was bent and twisted, black and gray with lights that weren’t the soft yellow of Benny’s lights. These lights were a harsh white that caused his eyes to water. He also saw Toth clawing his way along the deck, struggling for every inch. He came to the Lasha, seeing blood oozing from several small cuts.
“Toth, what is going on? What happened?”
“The damn helmsman of this ship is insane. I tried to talk to him, he wouldn’t listen. He tried to kill me. He is coming. Hide me.”
Kyp stepped past Toth. “Then, I will find him.”
“No, Kyp you can’t. He’s a Lasha. He can hide—”
A hissing ball of fur and pale skin struck Kyp hard, sending the youth down. Claws and fangs sank into his chest and arms, raking his sides. Kyp cried out, pulled, and plucked at the squalling creature. The mad Lasha’s fangs struck deep into Kyp’s shoulder. He didn’t have any room to move his sword. He punched at the fur and skin ball of fury, trying to dislodge the thing. Then, Toth leapt onto the creature, sending both into a hissing ball.
Eat you up, eat you up eat you up, the mad Lasha’s blitz in Kyp’s mind hurt.
He took deep breath and reached out with the Void. The light hurt, yet he sensed which was Toth and which was the feral Lasha. He pulled Toth off, though the Lasha let out a screech as another set of wounds appeared. Thanks human!
Eat you up, eat you up, eat you up, eat you…eat you…eat…eat…eat…eat.
Kyp slammed the feral Lasha against the bulkhead. It continued its tirade. He smashed it again and again until it was meat and bone meal. He dropped the dead Lasha and lowered Toth to the deck. There was a groan from the Lasha. Why didn’t you run?
“I have to help my family.”
The idea I am in any way related—
“Save it, fur ball.” Kyp moved closer to Toth. The Lasha hissed, then mewled as Kyp touched him softly. “I am going to try and heal you. Be still.”
Not a problem.
Kyp reached down, pulling at the Void to start to mend at the worst of the wounds. He delved down and felt two of the Lasha’s legs were broken. He reached out with the Void and started to heal them. Something resisted him. He pushed harder and the resistance increased. The harder he pushed, the harder the resistance. “Toth, I need you to stop resisting me.”
Toth was quiet. Kyp shook his shoulder. “Toth. Toth, are you…”
What? I am trying to stop resisting. Go already.
Kyp let out a pent up breath and started to heal the legs. As he finished on them, he started to reach out for the bleeding wounds when he felt a spike of anger from the ship.
“Where is my cat!”
“That isn’t good,” Kyp said. The ship then shook violently to the side. Kyp grabbed Toth and held him close. Kyp struck the bulkhead of the treeship, and it hurt. He held onto Toth, and he checked to see it Toth was unconscious. He let out a sigh of relief. He moved the Lasha to the room he had entered from the jumper and set him in a corner. “I’ll be back,” he said, petting Toth on the head.
He didn’t get very far before he saw a black form moving through the hall. It was humanoid in shape, but it had roots and black bark for skin. The head had a crown of black flowers that gave off a rotting stench. The eyes glowed with a malevolent red light. It roared and charged towards Kyp. He didn’t stop to think, he turned and ran. He looked back to make sure the thing was chasing him.
It was closer than he thought possible. The roar was in his ears. He pushed himself harder, pulling in more of the Void to run away from the thing. The sword in his hands held point down. He felt Gar growl at the thing yet Kyp kept running and running. He took passages at random, hoping that it would lead further and further away from Toth. There was no respite. He felt that every time he looked back, it was get closer and closer. Then, he saw the open maw of the command center. He tried to move away from it, but a root caught his foot ,and he went hurtling into the room.
He hit the back of the command chair, rebounding off of it and going sprawling on the deck. He looke
d up as the monstrous tree thing cocked back a thick limb and shot forward. He tried to block with his sword, couldn't get it up in time, and braced for the impact. There was none. He hadn’t realized he had closed his eyes. The thing was gone. A long feminine laugh emerged from a dark grey pillar. Kyp pushed himself up, his body hurting from the fall and holding the Void as he had been doing for so long. From the alcove emerged a woman in her twenties. Her skin blanched a pale alabaster, her eyes black. There were rags that covered her body, and the rank scent of an unwashed body added to the general smell of rot.
“What are—”
“I am Inara, pilot of the ship. And you are a trespasser.”
Kyp held his blade before him, warding her off. “Then, I am here to stop you.”
“How are you going to stop me? You were fooled by one image of Yusef. You think I am real?”
“Only one way to find out,” he said. He struck out with the blade, and it went right through the image.
“Tsk, tsk. You are no fun,” the voice of Inara filled the room. It hurt his ears with the volume. He pushed the pain away. “Then, why not come out here, and we can have some.”
“You won’t play fair, so why should I?”
Kyp moved closer to the alcove. He found that it was a solid piece of wood. He tried to slash at it with his sword. It chipped a small bit of wood off, yet did little else.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Pieter looked at the creature that was spawned from the ruins of his friend Tellish. It was the size of a slender man, that picked up the thick black witchwood blade of Tellish’s. Pieter was shocked it could pick it up without an issue.
“Surprised?” It asked in a voice much like the secondary voice of Tellish before. “I am the incarnate of that fool that will defeat you.”
Void Emissary: The Book of the Void Part 1 Page 21