Game of Survival

by T R Tells

  The man’s words silenced as he grabbed his throat. His feet lifted from the ground as Thea slightly rose her hand in the same motion. The man’s eyes bugged out of their sockets. He started clawing at his neck, leaving bloody scratches on his skin.

  Thea's eyes turned a bright amber hue, but a red hue circled around the lining of her eyes.

  Everyone in the building shouted and started to run around in panic, pushing and shoving not wanting to be caught in the onslaught of the crazed assassin. However, with Thea’s other arm, and outstretched palms she sealed the doors closed so no one could escape.

  The men banged and yelled on the inside doors hoping that someone would be able to hear them.

  Kill them all, Hel cooed in her ear to which Thea's smirked deviously.

  She looked to the blue-faced man that she had in her clutches, trying hard to rip away the pressure that was suffocating him. It took only a second for a crack to appear on the man's skull. His eyes widened, and his jaw dropped letting out a silent scream as his body was slowly ripped in half.

  Blood splattered from out of the body and Thea tossed the strewn parts over to the side. She turned her head to the prisoners who stood cowered in a corner as they stared at her with fear in their eyes.

  “Stay out of my way, if you want to live,” she said and looked to the chains. They fell with a loud clank releasing them from their shackles.

  She turned to face the crowd of men that loudly cried out and clambered on top of each other as they tried to escape. Her eyes darted around searching for the one man who had caused everything.

  ***

  The muffled screams in the Caspian seemed to echo as the sounds of slashing and gurgling of the slaughtered men were heard from behind the walls. Mar Donias had managed to escape the brutality before the chaos had begun, but before he could seek refuge elsewhere a silver-glint in the night went toward him and pinned the palm of his hand to the wall.

  Mar Donias grunted and bit his tongue, tasting copper as he suppressed the scream that wanted to escape. He looked at the leather-bound handle of the silver-tipped curved dagger embedded into his flesh. His fingers slightly moved as blood seeped out of the wound. He reached for the handle, but a voice stopped him.

  "I suggest you don't move if you don't want to lose that hand."

  Mar Donias turned his attention to Maggie who had appeared from the darkness. He squinted his eyes, trying to see her appearance, but her cloaked hood kept him from doing so.

  The sounds of blood-curdling screams could still be heard from inside of the building. Maggie and Mar Donias' eyes never ventured from each other.

  “Tell me, General Mar Donias Bishop, why does it get you off seeing people suffer and die?” Maggie questioned him, her tone never wavered or showed a hint of emotion.

  Mar Donias grinned, unphased by the Sicarri in front of him.

  "The same reason, I suppose, the Sicarri get off killing shrewd men and women." His shoulders shook as he chuckled. "Though I'm surprised that the infamous and most wanted killers of Kingsland are women."

  Maggie tilted her head to the side and smirked at him. "Oh, you'll be surprised what a woman can do when she has her reasons."

  The clambering noise and screams in the background came to a sudden halt, making turn her head toward the building.

  "It seems like this was a two-man job," Mar Donias stated, pulling Maggie's attention back to him again. "Kill the men inside and apprehend me."

  “You’re slaughtering innocent people! Children were in there! Don’t pretend that you didn’t have a ploy in any of this. Every person in Kingsland has a vendetta against you.”

  “Well, don’t I feel special,” Mar Donias said mockingly and smiled at Maggie.

  “Don’t get cute.”

  From the corner of Maggie's eye, she looked up and saw Thea come from the roof of the building. She dropped down on the ground, crouched with something in her hands.

  Maggie gasped and stepped back to see Thea's Sicarri outfit soaked with dark crimson blood. Her eyes widened when she saw the object in Thea's hand was a severed head.

  Thea rolled the disembodied head over to Mar Donias, letting it tap his boot.

  Mar Donias didn’t look down and instead greeted the new guest with his signature smile. “And this must be the leader, did you have fun? Because it will be your last when your head rests at the gallows.”

  Thea lifted her head back and let out an unpleasant cackling that sounded inhuman. She approached Mar Donias and closed the space between them.

  “How’s your headache, Mar Donias?”

  The smug grin on Mar Donias' didn't disappear, but a look of confusion crossed his face. He furrowed his brow trying to work out the meaning of Thea's words.

  Thea grabbed the base of Mar Donias’ skull and slammed it against the side of the wall. The reaction made Maggie jump, not expecting the attack.

  “Now don’t pass out on me, Bishop,” Thea said and grasped Mar Donias’ scruffy chin her hands, tilting it up to face her. “I still need you alive.”

  The side of Mar Donias’ head bled dark red blood and dripped down to the sides of his face. He started chuckling. “Be my guest, bash my head in, but it’ll be me who has the last laugh when your head is on a spike and your heart fed to the hogs.”

  Thea gripped Mar Donias’ chin and again, slammed his head against the wall.

  “Thea, stop!” Maggie shouted at the top of her lungs, racing toward her, distraught by her friend’s actions. “You’re going to kill him that way.”

  Mar Donias' eyes were blurry and black spots danced in his line of vision, but he was still able to see the two women Sicarri in front of them. He spat blood from his mouth, his blood-stained teeth soaked.

  Thea ignored Maggie and removed her hood, revealing her face, and amber eyes to Mar Donias. The hue of her eyes made him jerk backward, pressing his body into the wall, hoping he would sink into the material. Since that day almost eight years ago he had seen the same amber eyes in his dreams.

  He had thought there was no more. The wheels in Mar Donias' head began to turn like clockwork.

  “How’s that eye of yours?” Thea asked and jutted her chin toward his missing eye.

  The talk of his eye washed the fear from him and he lurched forward, uncaring about the knife in his hand that started to make it profusely bleed from the gaping wound.

  Thea unsheathed a dagger from her belt and pressed it firmly against Mar Donias’ neck.

  “Not so tough, are you General? I’ll kill you slowly without the use of magic. It’ll be all the more satisfying to feel my knife dig into your flesh,” Thea hissed, leaning her face toward Mar Donias with a crazed look in her eye.

  “Thea, stop this now!” Maggie shouted again, aghast to her behavior, “This isn’t like you to go on a rampage spilling blood.”

  Thea didn’t turn to Maggie, her attention still focused on Mar Donias, when she spoke, “This man is responsible, under the king’s order, to persecute and send Magi women into banishment. My sister, everyone in my village, the king and his hound are responsible for it all!”

  Thea pressed the knife deeper into Mar Donias’ neck, shedding an ounce of blood, but the General tilted his head at the action and looked down at Thea with a smirk.

  “And he still has the damn nerve to have balls! “Thea screamed in his face, her eyes extended and wild. “I’m in charge here!”

  Kill him, or I will do it for you.

  Thea’s hand had a mind of its own as Hel briefly took over and pressed the blade deeper into Mar Donias’ throat, shedding more blood. Thea gained further control and held her hand steady.

  “It seems like someone is getting impatient. Your friend has more common sense than you do,” Mar Donias mockingly said. “A man who charges in with blind fury will only lead himself and others to death.”

  “Just shut up! Shut up!” Thea continuously barked at the man. Her eyes twitched constantly. She pressed the knife to his neck to cease his sp
eaking.

  "Thea," Maggie whispered beside her, a solemn look on her face as she stared at the troubled face of her sister and friend. "I know what he did was terrible, and he will burn for it, but we cannot lose our heads.”

  “We’re the bloody Sicarri, Maggie. That’s what we do, we get rid of people like him and give them no reason to leave!” Thea spat, glaring at the General, her eyes filled with tears.

  “No.” Maggie reached out her hand touched her shoulder. “That’s what we became not who we are. It will only make us lose sight of our humanity. That demon . . . However, it got inside of you, is doing this to you, Thea. You're not a killer and you can't keep lurking in the shadows as if you are one."

  Thea pulled the dagger away from Mar Donias’ neck, letting Maggie’s words seep through. She took a step backward, seeing the travesty that she had caused, just as pain erupted inside of her head.

  Thea grasped her head as the voices called out to her, screaming at her, and telling her hateful, crude words.

  Maggie wrapped her arms around Thea and held her, so she couldn’t scratch the sides of her face to get the voices out of her head.

  “This isn’t you. This isn’t you,” Maggie repeated the mantra over and over in Thea’s ears until the presence of the voices and Hel dispersed from Thea’s thoughts.

  The sound of horse hooves clambered in the distance.

  “You can’t protect your friend forever,” Mar Donias said, speaking directly to Maggie who helped Thea stand to her feet. “Everything will hit her sooner or later, and then nothing will be able to stop her.”

  She glared at Mar Donias with a tight lip frown on her face. “I’ll die before that happens,” she said and together, the two of them hurried off into the night.

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  The meeting room was packed as usual with the Perfect Confederacy of Middilgard. King Godfrey had called a brief meeting to discuss the early winter weather that had struck suddenly.

  Angeal was present listening to the back and forth discussion on how to survive the upcoming storm that had come out of nowhere. His thoughts, however, began to drift to Thea.

  Angeal knew that Thea was the one. He had started to believe that the constant dreams of the unknown woman would only be in his head, but when he first saw her, he knew that something had put them together.

  There was a knock on the doors that it pulled Angeal from his thoughts. He looked down to the double golden doors opening for the person on the other side.

  “Mar Donias, what is it?” King Godfrey said, standing at the far end of the table. The other houses sat on either side of the table.

  Mar Donias bowed profoundly and placed his hands behind his back.

  “Forgive me your Majesty for the interruption, but I request His Highness for a moment.”

  Angeal furrowed his brows and frowned. What could Mar Donias want to speak with me about?

  Angeal looked to his father, waiting for his permission, but King Godfrey had his hand up waving his son off.

  “Be quick about it, Angeal, you should be here for the rest of the meeting.”

  Angeal gracefully eased out of his seat and formally bowed to the kings, apologetically. "Forgive me. My Lords. Father," Angeal said and turned to follow Mar Donias out the doors.

  Once they stepped out of the meeting hall, Angeal walked side by side Mar Donias, the two men didn't say anything. Discreetly, Angeal looked from his peripheral at the General. He always had a stoic past, but he had been with his father before Angeal was born. He sometimes wondered about Mar Donias' history, the only thing Angeal knew was that his nephew, Leonard, was a Kingsland soldier. The other thing was how his eye got missing, but whenever someone spoke about it or asked about it, the Kingsland General would be cold and brazen about it.

  “How do your studies come along, My Prince?”

  The question completely caught Angeal off guard as he had to reprocess what was said.

  “It is going good, Mar Donias, thank you for asking. My history and language teachers have applauded me for my work ethic. My swords master says that I’m fairly good as a seasoned Kingsland guard, though I still have much to learn.” Angeal responded in a courtly manner. “How may I ask is your nephew doing? Leonard, I presume?”

  Mar Donias grunted. Angeal had never seen the man smile and wondered if he even could.

  "Don't count yourself short, Angeal. You have talent that has been graced upon you, use it and own it." Mar Donias praised the young prince for his accomplishments. "As for Leonard, he's doing well, I suppose. I've caught him slacking a bit in his training. He's apparently been visiting the brothel."

  “Oh?” Angeal asked curiously. “Do you happen to know which one?”

  Mar Donias turned to him with a determined gleam in his eye.

  “Actually, I do, have you ever heard of the Meretrix?”

  Angeal figured that was the brothel he would name. He hadn’t expected it to be a coincidence. He prayed that Thea had nothing to do with this.

  “I have heard of the place. Pray tell, why do you ask?” Angeal asked, hoping he sounded believable. He tilted his head and furrowed his brows slightly to give the impression he knew nothing.

  “I’ve asked around, Kingsland Guards, civilians who would speak, and they’ve all given me the same intel that the Meretrix is one of the best brothels in Middilgard that doesn’t just specialize in “the arts”. Do you know what I mean by that?”

  Angeal nodded. “I do. I’m not blind from the secular activities of the realm.”

  Mar Donias nodded, believing the bit Angeal was feeding to him.

  “It seems like they may also be fornicating in other nefarious acts and I have a hunch that it has something to do with the Sicarri.”

  The look of surprise that crossed Angeal's features wasn't being played off this time. He had no idea or any clue that the infamous and deadly Sicarri were traversing inside of a brothel.

  “And what do the Sicarri and the Meretrix have to do with me?”

  Mar Donias stopped walking and placed his hand on the hilt of his sword, glaring at the boy as if searching for answers.

  “Did you hear about the slaughter at the Caspian bar? Someone, one of the Sicarri, murdered an entire tavern of men and only left the prisoners.”

  He had heard that, but he had also heard that there was an illegal fight ring inside of it. Angeal figured that Mar Donias already knew that information

  "I may have stumbled across it by word of mouth. Why? Is that how your hand was injured? You encountered one face to face?" Angeal gestured to his gloved hand that he knew was covering the bandaged scars.

  Mar Donias made a face and wrinkled his nose.

  "I actually know the name of one of the Sicarri, and with some snooping around, I found the name to be one of the most well-known prostitutes in the Meretrix. Her name is Thea, coincidence?"

  Angeal subconsciously backed up and his complexion turned pale as Thea's names found their way onto Mar Donias' lips. He couldn't believe what he was hearing and the thought of Thea and the Sicarri being one and the same made his head spin.

  “My sources also tell me that you’ve been seen prancing about the brothel. I don’t want to tell you what to do, My Prince, but you have a duty to the kingdom and your throne. It shouldn’t be wasted on a common whore and killer.”

  Angeal straightened his posture and placed his hands behind his back. His pale features returned to their usual skin complexion. He held his chin high before replying, “I know of my duties, thank you, Mar Donias. But I will not go around every brothel and start accusing women. Justice will be served, of course, but for now . . . Will you excuse me?”

  Mar Donias lightly bowed his head, taking a step backward.

  “Of course, My Prince. Thank you for your time.”

  Angeal turned away from Mar Donias and continued walking down the red, gold carpeted hallways to head toward the servants quarters where his brother usually stayed.

  Mar Donias
stared at the back of Angeal's head as he watched the prince walk away. He knew that he was lying, the moment he mentioned the whore's name. He looked at his gloved hand where it concealed the bandaged mark. Mar Donias clenched his hands tightly into a fist, anger radiating through him. He would deal with the matters himself.

  “General!”

  Mar Donias raised his hand in a gesture, so the man could relax.

  “Soldier, I need you to find me Prothcybus and tell him I have a task for him . . .”

  ***

  Back at the Meretrix, Thea was getting Kadda ready for the morning. She had not remembered everything that had happened the night before, but the feeling of being suffocated remained inside of her. She recognized the feeling from years of being scarred by the voices and Hel.

  She hated herself for being weak and caving in temptation. If Maggie had not been there at the time, she was sure she would lose herself entirely.

  Thea placed her hand to her heart and played with Kadda’s hair with the other.

  Kadda sensed something may have been wrong and reached out her tiny arms, taking her mother's cheeks in her hand. The image of a field of lilies was placed in Thea's mind and the smell of sweet aroma filled her nostrils as if she was actually present.

  "Thank you, Kadda that makes mommy feel better." Thea kissed Kadda gently on the nose.

  There was a disturbance outside the doors, that sounded like someone yelling. Thea turned her head to the door and with gracefully fingers removed her dagger from behind the bed's post. She stood up just as the door swung open.

  “Angeal?”

  Thea's grip on the dagger loosened, but she did not put it down. Angeal's face was bright red, his eyebrows were pinched together, his lips turned into a small frown.

  “Ange!" Kadda exclaimed at Angeal's presence. She started to climb off the bed, but Thea stretched out her arm to stop the child from climbing down. Kadda looked up at her mother confused but did not move.

  “Is it true, Thea?”

  Thea licked her lips and tilted her head up, straightening her shoulders back. The back of her neck hairs stood on end. “Is what true?”