Nightblade's Vengeance (Blades of the Fallen Book 1)

by Ryan Kirk

“Your manhunt will never find him.”

  Kiyoshi turned back to Minori. “What do you mean?”

  Minori grinned viciously, a laugh threatening to break out on his face. “Kiyoshi, meet Koji, my new personal chief aide.”

  Kiyoshi spun around so fast he thought he might wear a hole in his sock. Koji was bowing to him. Kiyoshi extended his sense and discovered the young man was gifted. Koji hadn’t been using his sense at the door.

  Kiyoshi knew suddenly he’d been played, and he’d put his own life in danger.

  Minori was deadly serious. “Kiyoshi, I do not want to cause the loss of life, but I do plan on reasserting the authority of the blades in the Kingdom. These lords are focused on petty plays for power, but the blades already possess all the power this land needs. Our advice and guidance should lead this Kingdom, and I will do everything I believe is necessary to bring that day closer. You can either join me or oppose me, but if you oppose me, you will lose.”

  Mind racing, Kiyoshi moved to slap Minori. The nightblade sensed the movement coming and easily caught Kiyoshi’s hand. He looked at Kiyoshi condescendingly. “I expected better from you.”

  Anger burned in Kiyoshi’s gut. He wasn’t sure if he was in danger, but he needed to escape Minori. Twisting his wrist, he broke Minori’s grip and grabbed the blade’s arm tightly. Kiyoshi sensed Koji stepping toward them, but it would take the dayblade only a moment to teach Minori a lesson. He focused his sense and pushed into Minori’s body, sending his energy into every nerve ending the warrior had. Minori’s eyes went wide and his body collapsed, a moan escaping his lips.

  Koji was close but hadn’t drawn his sword. Kiyoshi grabbed a short blade strapped to one of his forearms, hidden by his robes. He drew the blade and pressed the back side of it against Koji’s neck. The young nightblade, taken by surprise at the collapse of his master, didn’t know how to react. Kiyoshi had been very fortunate. If they had been prepared for a fight, he likely would have died.

  “I won’t kill you, because I can’t undo what Minori did. But realize this: you were born to serve, not yourself, but others. If you turn yourself in, you can save lives. I know you’re an honorable man who is scared. Make your choice.”

  With that, Kiyoshi withdrew his blade and walked out of Minori’s house, thankful to still be taking breath.

  Chapter 7

  Asa was up with the morning sun, not typically her way. But she had struggled to sleep last night, and when the sun rose, she gave up all hope of a decent night’s rest.

  She had arrived in Starfall two nights ago. The journey from Takashi’s village had been long, and more than once Asa was convinced she was being followed. But no matter what steps she took to find her stalker, she found nothing but empty space. She was certain her sense hadn’t misled her, but she still didn’t have any explanation for what she was experiencing. Because of her uncertainty, she had struggled to sleep on the road. She had hoped that being at the seat of the Council of the Blades would ease her fears, but her concerns had only been replaced by a fear for her future.

  There was only one way forward she could see. She needed to access the archives in Starfall. More specifically, she needed to access the archives in Starfall that were off-limits to all but a few.

  Being allowed into the general archives wasn’t a problem. Any blade was given access without having to explain themselves. Asa had spent the better part of the last two days, searching. But all she had earned for her effort was a pounding headache, unrelenting in intensity. If she never saw another word on a page, she’d be plenty happy.

  Still, there was one part of the archives she was restricted from accessing, which stood behind a thick door with a sign proclaiming no admittance. The door that blocked her wasn’t even locked. Locked doors were for civilians, not blades. The problem was that the archives had blades constantly wandering through them. The moment she stepped through the door, everyone nearby would know.

  Asa’s plan wasn’t complicated. If it had been, it would have had even less chance of succeeding. She would go into the archives very early in the morning, when the fewest people were around. By now, the blades who maintained the archives had gotten used to her presence. She needed to wait for an opportunity to access the forbidden section when no one was nearby. The building was far from populated; she just needed to wait for the right moment.

  Asa gathered her notes and materials and left the common bunk she had been assigned when she entered town. Like many blades, she didn’t have a permanent home. Starfall, considered the home of the blades, housed only a few permanent residents. The other blades were scattered throughout the Kingdom.

  When a blade came to Starfall, she or he received a place to stay. Someone like Asa, who planned on remaining for only a few days, slept in a common bunkhouse. If she had had plans to stay longer, she would have received a more permanent residence. The gifted who were a part of the council lived in houses that, although nothing special by Kingdom standards, were opulent by blade standards.

  Asa made her way through the streets, taking in the relative peace of morning. Starfall wasn’t a huge city. At times the population could swell to almost five thousand if there was a festival or gathering of blades, but on most days, far less than a thousand blades were present. Still, this was the largest gathering of people Asa had been around for quite some time, and it took practice to be able to use the sense in more densely inhabited locales.

  The limits of a blade’s sense were all about the ability to process information. In a city, crowded with life, most blades could only extend their sense maybe a dozen paces. Asa was no different, but upon her return to civilization, she wasn’t able to sense even four paces away. She needed time to build the ability back up, stretching her mind like a muscle that hadn’t been used for moons.

  The calm of the morning was a good time for her to be about. Far fewer people were making their way through the city, and she could extend her sense farther than she could have otherwise. The city itself was situated by a lake, and Asa could smell the fresh air carried over the water by the soft breeze. The sun still hadn’t warmed up the spring air, and she pulled her robes closer as the breeze turned into an unexpected gust.

  Suddenly she became uneasy. She stopped and tried to focus on the sensation, to figure out what warning her body and senses were interpreting.

  Asa stopped in the middle of a small square. Due to the hour, only a handful of people strolled in what would otherwise have been a crowded intersection. But what was wrong?

  Her instincts guided her to a man walking parallel to her. She guessed he had seen maybe thirty cycles, and he moved with a grace she associated with nightblades and their training. At first, nothing seemed suspicious about him, until she realized she couldn’t sense him. He was right there in front of her, but when she tried to focus her sense, she felt nothing.

  Asa’s world twisted. She didn’t believe in ghosts or the supernatural. She had felt men and women die, and she knew how their spirits rejoined the Great Cycle, which governed all things. But her senses warred with one another. Her sight told her a man was nearby, but her sense, her ability to detect all living things, told her the space he occupied was empty.

  His eyes came up and met hers, and just for a moment they seemed to twinkle. Then he smiled and was gone.

  Asa blinked. She couldn’t say for certain what had just happened. Had the man disappeared like smoke from a fire? Or had he just turned a corner and left her line of sight? Try as she might, she couldn’t focus her memories, and she felt the image of him, once so vivid, slip from her mind.

  Asa frowned and kept walking toward the archives. She shivered and pulled her robes tighter, even though there was no breeze.

  Asa tried but failed to shake her encounter with the man she couldn’t sense. She tried telling herself there was plenty about the world she didn’t understand, but the rationalizing didn’t ease her nerves.

  Asa continued toward the archives, but then a sudden memory stopped her
, almost in midstride. She remembered the plains outside Takashi’s village and the blade she couldn’t sense. Was this the same person? For a moment, her heart raced as she considered for the first time that she had been followed for hundreds of leagues.

  Her rational mind soon took over. She was getting inside her own head and making connections that didn’t exist. No one would go to such lengths to pursue her, and she was certain no one knew what drove her. She had never told another living soul.

  Asa continued walking toward the archives, pausing often to turn around and make sure she wasn’t being followed. Although she was certain the man was always right behind her, she never saw him again.

  Her nerves were too jittery. Some part of her life had changed when she killed Takashi.

  When she had stepped into that room with Takashi, she had thought that her journey was over. She had approached him filled with thoughts of revenge, and even as he confessed himself to her, her rage cooled but never died.

  Asa flashed back to the scene, Takashi in front of her, right before she took his head. The emotions the memory evoked were every bit as powerful as those she felt in the moment. Frustration that all she had been given was another clue. Sorrow, for Takashi had proven himself an honorable man at the end.

  But more than that, as she brought the sword down to end his life, she had understood a truth: she wanted to kill him. Before Takashi, killing had been an action, devoid of emotion. But as her sword sliced through the skin of his neck, finding the space between the bones of his spine, she discovered that she desired his death.

  Takashi may not have been the one who killed her father, but he hadn’t saved him. For that, she had wanted him to die, and a part of her worried that her desire didn’t bother her at all.

  Asa forced her thoughts to the present as she got to the archives. Whatever thinking she had to do could wait until she found the information she needed. Until then, she had to pay attention to the present moment. She would need her wits about her to have any chance of succeeding.

  The archives were always open but staffed only during the day. At this early hour, the library was almost abandoned. If she were an optimist, she could embrace the fact there were thus fewer blades around to detect her presence. The pessimist in her countered that with fewer people, her own presence would shine more brightly, like the only candle in a dark room. But Asa was a realist, and she wouldn’t know unless she tried.

  Asa entered the archives through the front door, relieved that the dayblade who usually sat nearby wasn’t yet present.

  She wandered the halls, walking into a few random rooms to check her surroundings more closely. If she was certain she was alone, she would pause for a moment to extend her sense. After a few attempts, she was sure she was in the archives alone. There would never be a better time to try for the forbidden section.

  Asa went to the room nearest her goal and stopped to check her surroundings one last time. She hesitated. Up until this point, everything she had done had been in accordance with the wishes of the council. If she proceeded, that would no longer be true. She had no idea what type of punishments awaited her if she was caught, but this intrusion was the first real risk she’d ever taken on her personal quest.

  The moment passed, and Asa walked toward the forbidden section. She opened the door and closed it silently, turning around to see what awaited her.

  Her first reaction was one of disappointment. For all her planning and second-guessing, the forbidden section of the archives looked much the same as any other section. Stacks of scrolls and books lined the walls, with a set of nearby documents detailing what was where. She started looking for information about the massacre at Two Falls.

  The first level of information, stored in books of records, was easy to find, but was barely more interesting than everything she had already pieced together. She read through it, taking notes as necessary. She found a list of every blade involved with the massacre and copied it quickly. When she came across her father’s name, she paused and took a deep breath. The discovery hit her harder than she’d expected, but she felt relief that somewhere, her father would be remembered for what he had done.

  Once the first layer of information was processed, Asa worked her way through her notes, looking at names and other facts. A part of her had hoped that the hidden archives would have a complete, written record of Two Falls, but the hope was in vain. She would dig deeper.

  As Asa worked, she remembered to take temporary breaks to extend her sense and check the area around her. Although she dared not extend her sense too far and give away her own presence, she examined the immediate vicinity to ensure she wouldn’t be discovered. She presumed she was alone, but she knew she wouldn’t have much more time.

  After more digging, Asa eventually found new information. When no complete record of Two Falls was found, she focused on the name Takashi had given her: Osamu. Records seemed to be scarce, but she discovered a few mentions of a nightblade by that name who seemed to fit the profile she had made of him. She started reading, and as she did, the rest of the world slipped away. The more she read, the less real he seemed to be. His life seemed to be the type of story young boys dreamed of when they talked about becoming blades. He was a serial womanizer, Yoshi’s right-hand man, and a shadow for the king himself. Although the reports he wrote were dry, they had to have been full of tremendous adventure. How was it that Asa had never heard of him? If half the information she was reading was true, he would be a nightblade legend.

  Asa was so absorbed by what she was reading, she didn’t notice when the doors to the forbidden section of the archive opened to reveal two nightblades. She did hear them enter the room. She glanced quickly around, already aware there weren’t any other exits. The only way out was through the two nightblades, and she didn’t think her skills were sufficiently developed to attack. Even if they were, it would do her little good to fight. Her name was on the records for the archives, and it wouldn’t take a genius to figure out who had been there. Better to surrender peacefully and hope for a lenient punishment.

  The nightblades who entered didn’t take kindly to her presence. Even though she didn’t put up any fight, they apprehended her in moments, pinning her to the ground and roughly tying her hands behind her back. Asa didn’t struggle, but as she was pulled to her feet, she saw the same man from the square framed in the doorway. He looked at her for a moment, face expressionless, before disappearing again.

  The first stop Asa and her captors made was to a block of cells she had never known existed within Starfall. She didn’t resist, and as the nightblades who guarded Asa began to understand she would not put up a fight, they stopped trying to control her and simply remained in a state of relaxed awareness.

  In the cells she was treated well. The guards brought her food and drink, and at her request, they even brought her sleeping pad from the bunk she’d been staying in. A guard was posted at all times, and Asa could feel his sense constantly wandering the grounds.

  She made good use of her time. Asa stretched and ran through some of her practice routines, her moves filling the small space of the cell with energy. When the sun fell below the horizon, she went to bed, her mind wandering over the facts of the day.

  In the archives she had found some interesting information, but nothing that changed her outlook. Her beliefs about what had happened at the massacre at Two Falls were confirmed. Osamu was interesting, but there was no doubt his name had been scrubbed from the records. She imagined a vow of silence had been ordered regarding him, and it would be hard, if not impossible, to find an old blade willing to bend the wishes of the council. If her investigation ever continued, she would need to find another way to get information on Osamu.

  Asa’s more immediate concern was the man she couldn’t sense. She refused to believe in ghosts, but he was haunting her. With nothing but time on her hands, she worked through the problem. If the man wasn’t an apparition, then there was a type of blade who could hide his presence from
other blades. She had never heard of the skill before, but the explanation seemed to be the most rational.

  A blade who couldn’t be sensed would explain the sensation she had experienced after leaving Takashi’s village, and if she was dealing with the same man, it meant he had been following her for quite some time. With that level of skill and her inability to sense him, he would be a very dangerous opponent. But he didn’t seem interested in killing her. That meant he was a spy, a shadow sent by someone to watch her moves.

  She was making a lot of assumptions, but the idea felt right to her. Someone with wealth and influence had hired a shadow to spy on her. The skills of a man like that wouldn’t come cheaply, and most nightblades shunned material wealth. But what had she done to attract this type of attention? The only thing that made Asa stand out was her quest to find out what happened at the massacre at Two Falls. If all her assumptions were right, it meant she had to be getting close to the truth.

  If only she knew the truth. Asa had turned over a lot of stones, but all she seemed to find was more dirt underneath. The information she had was dangerous, she supposed, but she didn’t have any plans to share it. That had never been her purpose.

  Having decided she wasn’t in any immediate danger, Asa slept well, waking up to a new guard bringing her breakfast. She tested her surroundings with her sense again, but this new guard was just as cautious as the overnight sentry. The guard was a young nightblade, a woman only a few cycles younger than Asa. This would be an important assignment for her, and she wouldn’t drop her awareness enough for Asa to escape. With no other options, Asa ate eagerly, surprised at how hungry she was. When the guard came back, she was working through her morning exercises.

  The guard waited until she finished. “You have been summoned by the council.”

  Asa wasn’t surprised. She took a deep breath and steeled herself. “Thank you. I’m ready.”

  “Do we need to bind you?”