by G. D. Penman
He rose up and had started walking away before Malius called steel.
The lance was completely expected and rather than his frantic roll last time Kaius simply slapped the back of his hand against the side of it to knock it off its path into his lower back. It lodged in the wall but would have taken just a moment to free. A moment that Malius did not have in a battle with called speed. The heel of Kaius’ boot struck the front of his helmet, then again, and again. He watched the metal collapsing in, sharp edges turned in towards his face and visor slit blocked. Malius released steel with a roar and the final stamping kick broke his cheekbone. Kaius looked down at him and shook his head, “I will not ask so kindly again. Brother.”
Atius went away to his business in silence masked with joviality. Kaius called his steel the moment he was out of the door and launched himself onto the rooftops, able to clear much more distance without the risk of crushing someone in the crowd. He moved over the ruins that composed the slums peering down at the terrified faces looking up at him, reaching down to lift the rust scarred corrugated metal when it hid them from his view. He dropped down onto the mud of the streets only when there was solid stone blocking his view.
He walked through homes holding three generations of a family, and brothels with the same. Through open air restaurants that were little more than a pot of questionable soup or stew over a fire and those scared and huddled people who had scraped together the silver required to buy a bowl to share. He went onward into the alleys and warrens of tents and piles of rubble until he reached the honeycombed wall of the city itself. He closed his eyes and listened, letting his heightened senses soar for the first time since he returned to the city. He heard the screams and gibbering of a thousand voices and he flinched under the weight, nearly as bad as the owl's shrieking in the arena. He closed his mind to thoughts of the arena, thoughts of the blood soaking into the sand for nothing but applause. Some of the blood had been his.
He shook his head again and listened for something out of place and then with his head cocked to one side he laid his fingers against the city walls, felt rather than heard the sounds vibrating through them. He searched for the sound that did not fit. His fingertips, still lifelessly pale within his glove, stung as though they had been singed. He flexed his fingers then raised his hand again, the stinging heat was most pronounced towards the east. He began following around the curve of the wall in that direction, casually hopping the odd building that had latched itself on to the original structure.
Eventually the stinging sensation eased so he turned his hand in towards the city and almost immediately the heat returned. He moved through the nearly abandoned streets, streets that became much more abandoned at the sight of him. Up on top of the wall he caught the familiar glint of steel and he waved his arms to catch the Chosen's attention. The armoured form dropped from the wall like a rock, then instead of crashing into the ground it rebounded and sprang across to meet him. Kaius halted the woman with a hand on her shoulder. He could feel her tense as he leaned in closer,
“Contact the rest of the Chosen. Have them find Brother Malius and Brother Atius. Tell them that I am here and I do not wish to proceed without their oversight.”
She nodded rapidly, leaning away from his touch.
“Go quickly now.”
He turned back, trusting Negrath's other servants to do their duty, and immediately his hand burned as though it were aflame. He released his steel now despite the prying eyes on him from hidden niches. Then he dropped into a half-crouch and crept forward letting the growing pain guide him. He came to a halt beside a building that was more hole than wall, all raw stone and spit for mortar streaked with ashen rain blown in from the Dales.
He called a touch of strength, more than he really needed to numb the pain in his hand. It was strange to find it flowing so easily now where before Negrath had always withheld it. He eased off until he could feel the beginnings of the burn again. He didn't want to start ripping the buildings apart by accident and lose all element of surprise. He glanced around, expecting to see the other Marked, more than willing to let them take the lead, take the credit and defuse the situation with both Malius and possibly Valerius too. It had been only a few minutes, they were not yet found by the searching Chosen. Kaius did not know what form this creature would take nor the nature of its power. Valerius had told them far too little, but so close to the heart of the empire they could not tolerate any enemy running free. Kaius called his steel and dashed around the corner of the building with a blade drawn.
Lucia was still there wedged between the buildings. Kaius’ fluid movements faltered. He reached into the gap and grasped the back of her clothes. She hung limply over the mud and compounded filth. Bile was still crusted around her chapped lips and her hair was caked in ash and filth. Her breathing was shallow, her eyes were unfocused when Kaius pulled them open. The pupils were not so much dilated as they were multiplying, there were three pupils to each eye, drifting in slow circles.
He dropped her in shock and when she hit the ground she awoke gasping. She didn't even have the strength to do more than roll onto her side and groan. Buried deep within Kaius was the solid core, the place that duty had always spoken to him. Now in the place of its steady drum beat all he could hear was a song.
He backed away slowly and released his steel. His senses were nearly overwhelmed with the reek of corruption. His hand ached where he had been marked. He heard a whisper in his mind and understood Valerius' look of horror when Negrath had touched him in the same way. The voice was not clear, it was wailing and scratching behind his eyes, muttering, squealing, and ranting, kill it, kill it, kill it, over and over.
Kaius’ grip on his sword quavered as Negrath tried to tighten its hold. Kaius dropped the sword and immediately Negrath withdrew. His absence was like the strike of a hammer. The sword hit the mud and burst into a splatter of quicksilver. It did not move back towards him. He looked down in horror at his hands, the colour had returned to his fingers and he immediately tried to call steel again and found his connection blocked. Not just blocked, gone. He looked down at the helpless girl in the mud and he began to shake as he realised all that his hesitation had cost him. A moment's doubt was a moment too long.
Behind him he heard Malius drawl, “Is this the creature, Brother Kaius?”
Kaius halted the quaking to turn with all the false confidence he could muster. Both Malius and Atius stood at the far end of the path, by the rubble of a collapsed aqueduct support, in full armour, with their favoured weapons called. He did not hesitate, to hesitate again would have made the loss for nothing, “She is nothing. Listen to me Brothers, my mark burns here. I feel that great Negrath is trying to speak to me. What can you feel?”
Both men stood impassive for a moment then said Atius said, “Negrath speaks to us Boy. That is the fate of the Marked. To hear his will.”
Malius took a half step forward, face hidden but spite bursting from his lips, “Why can't you hear him now Brother?”
Malius flipped the swords in his hands and started to walk forward. Atius tightened his grip on his mace and started to circle around Kaius. Malius roared, “Why can't you hear him tell us to cut you down. Why can't you hear him traitor?”
Kaius fell into the first defence of the Forms of Bone, tightening his fists as his teachers approached. Atius shook his head, “Stand down boy. We won't hurt you. Everyone has moments of... confusion. You have had a busy few days, no wonder you are getting mixed up.”
Malius laughed when he got a proper look at Lucia still lying in the mud. “For this Kaius? This is what you finally work out what your cock is for? Some skinny little ash farmer? This is what you throw your eternal life away for?”
Without speed of his own to call, Kaius only had time to flinch as Malius slashed both of his cheeks in quick succession, hissing, “Tell me why Kaius? For some little whore? Did one of the other Eaters get to you out in the dark? Make you a better offer?”
Blood ran scaldi
ng hot down Kaius’ cheeks as he looked back at the defenceless woman and then turned to two of the three most powerful men in the city. Malius blurred into motion again but this time Kaius was moving first, the flat of his hand smacking against the hard steel of Malius armour, driving the thrust out wide. He was afraid now, his hand ached and his muscles twinged with atrophy after years of relying on other strength. He smiled at Malius, “Valour.”
Malius, still shaken by his interrupted strike cocked his head and said, “What?”
Kaius took a controlled step to the side, still in his stance, and said softly, “For valour.”
Then Atius charged in from the right and Malius slashed at his legs. As skilled as he was he was only human. He kept his legs, in no small part by luck but his ribs cracked under the mace strike and he tumbled to his knees gasping for air. Malius laughed and kicked him in the face with a steel boot, breaking his nose with a wet crack.
Despite the pain, he twisted as he went over to land on his hands and knees. His body shielding Lucia from the sight of her enemies. His breath rattled and blood rolled down his face. Her eyes were open and fixed on him. Malius sword had lengthened into a heavy chain covered in small hooks, a complex feat. He lashed Kaius back and the silk of his fine new robes tore away leaving trails of blood. This was Malius standard punishment for disobedient pupils, they were rarely disobedient again, even if they lived.
Kaius held himself up even as the chain lashed right over his shoulder and a hook lodged under his collarbone. Malius cackled and pulled at the chain, it dragged Kaius back up onto his knees before the hook jerked free in a shower of blood. He toppled back over Lucia, she was lying on her back with tears in her eyes. Agonisingly slowly her hand reached up to cup his marred cheek and she whispered, “My hero.”
Strength flowed through him, dulling the pain, and steel flowed over him, blocking Malius’ next strike. He drew in an unsteady breath.
Then he rose.
Chapter 10- The Shortest Path
The steel was light around him and he was off balance when he moved far too quickly out of the whip's path. With almost casual ease he reached out and caught it. With a tug he sent Malius off balance and when Atius rushed in from the other side Kaius snapped out his other hand and caught the mace by its handle. Their faces were covered but body language showed through the armour.
The Marked were beyond shock. They were trying to understand the meaning of the impossible armour and the sudden strength. To decipher the will of Negrath.
While they thought, Kaius moved. Snapping the whip to tangle its barbs around Atius and kicking the feet from under him. Only when both men were stumbling did Kaius scoop up Lucia and run for his life. He still moved too fast. He stumbled over obstacles he thought he had plenty of time to avoid. He crashed through half-built walls and shanty houses when he could have jumped them.
Every step, he twisted and turned to keep the girl cradled in his arms safe from the showers of mortar and stone. They burst into a square amongst the slum houses and skidded to a halt by the abandoned cooking pot. He laid her down by the fire, hoping that it would bring some vigour back into her cooling body.
Some blood trickled out of his visor when he was looking down at her, dripping onto her cheek and prompting a startled moan. Kaius took a sticky bundle of herbs from his belt pouch and tossed them under the cooking pot. Then he jerked to his feet abruptly, kicking the cooking pot at Malius as he entered the square.
Malius deflected it with a flash of steel and scorn. Kaius called his usual sword, then adjusting for the situation, called a second. Atius burst through the wall behind him, hefting a hammer as big as himself and roaring. Kaius did not turn, just thrust one sword point back towards the man, who reversed his charge so suddenly that he nearly fell.
Atius feared him, that much was clear, he had seen this warrior's skills in action and found his own wanting. Malius still moved with a confidence born of many victories, many of them over Kaius. Malius took in Kaius position in the square, noted the way he stood over the husk of a girl on the ground. He was rooted in place if he wanted to protect her.
Inside his visor Malius lips peeled back from his yellowing teeth. He merged and extended his swords into a spear as he approached Kaius. He used his reach and mobility to strike at Kaius from a variety of angles. Even launching a few thrusts in the direction of the huddle of rags on the ground. Kaius deflected them with more force than necessary. Malius kept it up, certain the boy would tire soon.
Atius found his courage and swung the hammer down at the same time as Malius' latest attack. With one sword above him Kaius managed to deflect the hammer, letting the curve of the blade on the pole angle it away but while he was doing so Malius made another flurry of attacks and he had only the one sword to parry them away.
For the first time Kaius consciously called speed and the sword moved so fast that he missed two of his parries, having to snap the blade back for a second attempt that was successful due more to luck than skill.
Atius came on again. He discarded his hammer after a horizontal swing was thwarted by another parry and launched into a rough amalgamation of the Forms of Bone, snatching at Kaius’ wrists.
Malius still demanded Kaius full attention. He could not turn to face Atius so he released his armour and took a lumbering step forward with the heavy man pressed hard against his back. He kept his swords up and moving.
He ignored the sharp edges of Atius armour cutting into him. Ignored the tightening grip as he tried to twist out of Atius arms. Kaius took another step forward, feeling the heat of the cooking fire on his legs. His sweat and blood dried in the heat as he went through the motions of the Forms of Steel against their Master.
Atius locked his arms around Kaius and started to crush the breath from him when suddenly the world went dark and he could not breathe either. The herbs in the fire pumped out an oily black smoke now, enveloping the struggle and cloaking them from Malius' sight.
Malius’ next spear thrust hit solidly and when he pulled it from the smoke Atius staggered out with it. The winged tip of the spear caught in the jagged rend in the armour over his stomach as Malius withdrew it. The fat Master's armour fell away in a shower of silver and Malius could do nothing but gape as Kaius strode from the smoke. Kaius’ face was the same emotionless mask it had always been through his years in training. Through his years out in the dark, and through those darker times when Malius had offered him up as a morsel to delight whichever nobles' favour was being courted. Kaius’ sword lashed out in a perfect horizontal cut, true to the Forms as he had been taught, and Atius' head tumbled from his shoulders.
Malius took a half step back then found his courage, retracting the bloody spear and reforming his straight swords. He snarled, “You have never bested me boy. Not once. How do you think this will end for you? How do you think it will end for your little whore?”
Kaius did not charge as Malius had hoped, his face remained impassive as steel formed a plate over his features, one of the swords disappeared into the moving mass of metal and Kaius was left with his favoured weapon. It was still strange in his grasp. The new strength flowed through him without needing to be called. It made the sword seem too flimsy so he called more steel and made the blade thicker and heavier. Then he flipped it around his hand with a twist of the wrist and took his stance. The herbs and oils tossed in the fire had all burned away. The air cleared. Malius waited for the charge but it never came, Kaius stood perfectly still, almost peacefully, between the Marked and the musician.
Malius ran forward with all of his speed called and slashed straight for Kaius’ throat. He did not trust in the element of surprise so his other sword was already moving to parry the expected counter-attack. Kaius leaned just out of reach of the first sword's swipe. He called strength for his answering strike and Malius sword was bent from the force of the blow and wrenched from his grip. They parted for a moment and Malius tried to circle around, to put Kaius between the bent sword and his quaking hand
.
Kaius stepped sideways to block his path, shaking his head in what Malius took to be disdain for so obvious a move. The steel leapt back to Malius hand and was reforming when Kaius brought a heavy double handed blow straight down at him. It hammered both of his swords down so their opposite edge dug into the armour of his faceplate.
Kaius lifted his sword a fraction to bring it down again and Malius flung himself backwards, rolling through a wall before coming to a halt in a low guard. He glanced around at the terror in the eyes of the peasants living there. Crammed in so tight that the walls were practically made of flesh. There were so many he could not count them but he knew they would not interfere.
Kaius had moved from his spot by the fire to inside this hovel. Malius could not see where he had gone until the tin roof collapsed above him in a shower of sparks under the plunging weight of Kaius colossal blade. Malius managed to dodge aside again, crushing a few of the inconsequential slum-dwellers into the wall. The falling roof obscured the other side of the room from view but he heard childish shrieking. The cacophony of the city was a constant distraction to the highly-attuned senses of the Marked.
Malius caught the next thrust between his two blades and turned it away to pin a filthy faced girl to the wall. Kaius simply released the weapon and closed the distance too fast for the eye to see. He moved through the Forms of Bone, switching through their motions impossibly fast. Already inside Malius guard. A well-placed kick knocked Malius off balance into a wall and the punch that followed pushed him through that wall and back out into the street in a shower of bricks.
Kaius recalled his sword as Malius rolled to his feet and charged in a fury, both blades dancing in and out in carefully measured thrusts. Testing Kaius’ defences from every angle of attack. Kaius' speed, balanced by the weight of his sword kept his parries more consistent and he gradually upped the pressure, deflecting each thrust with more force, striking the tips of the blades earlier until there was a hole down the centre of Malius defences. Until his swords were driven out to the sides and a simple step forward and thrust pushed the huge curved sword through armour and sternum to burst out of Malius back.