Warriors of the Way-Pentalogy

by Orlando A. Sanchez

  “The Gray compound is not very far from here,” said Luna. “We can be there within the hour if we move quickly.”

  Luna headed in the direction opposite the city and deeper into the forest that surrounded it. Rin followed, being careful not to trip over roots and fallen branches.

  “Please excuse her. She is new and somewhat overzealous,” said Luna. “Reminds me of me. She meant you no offense.”

  “None taken,” said Rin. “I don’t recall RahVen ever using firearms in the past. Is that new?”

  “RahVen are fast,” said Luna as she ducked under some low-hanging branches and made her way through the trees. “We can also shimmer out of sight and those who are advanced can timeskip, though it seems the ability is being lost among the younger generation.”

  “That would make for a dangerous enemy,” said Rin.

  “And it does,” said Luna as she stopped on a barely visible trail and sniffed the air. “This way.”

  She pointed to the right and walked down another trail.

  “And the firearms?” asked Rin as he stepped carefully down the virtually nonexistent trail that Luna navigated with ease.

  “I have found that no matter the speed of the RahVen, they cannot outrun a bullet,” said Luna with a sense of finality. “It would have helped make the transition to a new Alpha easier and with less bloodshed.

  “Please wait here. Don’t move from this location or they will think you are here to attack,” said Luna. “The Gray does not take kindly to strangers, especially those who they perceive as threats.”

  Rin sat down on the ground and watched Luna shimmer and fade from sight. For a few seconds he heard her progress into the forest and then he was alone. A few moments later, she reappeared with a large RahVen behind her. The RahVen towered above them both. It had a dark brown coat and looked like a giant wolf. Its piercing yellow eyes rested on Rin. A low growl rumbled from its chest and it headed down the trail with Luna and Rin in tow.

  “This is Yan,” she said. “He will take us to the compound and the healer. You can make your request there.”

  “Why did he growl?” asked Rin.

  “He read your energy signature and let me know you posed no threat.”

  “What if he thought I did?”

  She gestured behind her. “They would have killed you,” she said matter-of-factly.

  Behind them, two more Gray shimmered into view and startled Rin.

  How can they hide their energy signatures so completely?

  They walked down the trail for another twenty minutes before stopping. Yan gave a higher-pitched growl than before and a wall appeared.

  “The compound is hidden?” asked Rin. “How do they know where it is?”

  “How do you think the Watches transition from plane to plane?” asked Luna. “The knowledge comes from the RahVen.”

  A large door opened and allowed them entrance to a sprawling courtyard. A structure sat farthest away from the door. The courtyard was a large garden with smaller structures situated at different points within the massive walls that enclosed the property.

  “This place looks just like—”

  “A Watch, yes,” said Luna as she took point, leaving the Gray behind and walking to the building that sat squat against the wall. “They will be in the central complex. This way.”

  Rin followed her to the main structure. It was identical in design to the South Watch, on a much larger scale. At the entrance sat two more Gray flanking a massive wooden door. Each of the Gray gave Luna a slight nod as she climbed the stairs to the door. Their yellow eyes shone briefly as Rin passed.

  “Another measure of security?” asked Rin as he noticed the scrutiny of the Gray while he climbed the stairs after Luna.

  Luna placed a hand on the door and it whispered open. “You will find several more as you enter this place,” said Luna. “The Gray is reclusive and private, even among the RahVen.”

  They walked down a large corridor, which dwarfed them both. The interior of the building was designed to accommodate the Gray in both human and canine form. Some of the doors in the corridor stood eight feet tall while others were twice that size and just as wide.

  “They will be in the far wing,” said Luna. “At least that is the information I have.”

  She headed down the left corridor and walked to the end. Three Gray sat before this door, all in canine form.

  “Is she available?” said Luna to the Gray in the center. “We have a situation.”

  The door opened and a RahVen in human form stepped into the corridor. The RahVen put her fist to her left side and bowed to Luna. Luna returned the bow and grabbed the woman by the shoulders, smiling. Before her stood a tall woman dressed in gray body armor. Her short blond hair peeked out from the cloak she wore.

  “You have grown, Ji!” said Luna, pleased. “What are you doing here?”

  “I was on patrols and then heard the Alpha was visiting us, so I came right away,” said Ji. “I have missed you.”

  “And I you, but I’m afraid this is not that kind of a visit,” said Luna. “I need to see her.”

  Ji looked around Luna and saw Rin. Disappointment flickered briefly across her face. It was replaced by a genuine smile the next moment.

  “No matter,” said Ji. “You are here. Let me ask. Please wait here.”

  “You can’t just go in?” whispered Rin. “I thought as the Alpha—”

  “I am the Alpha of the RahVen, not of the Gray,” said Luna in the same whisper. “My authority doesn’t extend to them. We operate on the basis of mutual respect, very much like my Grandmother and everyone else.”

  “I apologize—I didn’t mean to infer—” started Rin. “It seems complicated.”

  “It is to anyone that is not RahVen,” said Luna.

  The door opened and Ji returned. “She will see you, but she is in a blood trance,” said Ji. “Her responses will be somewhat different than you may be used to.”

  “I understand,” said Luna as she and Rin followed Ji into the room beyond. The chamber had very little furniture. In the center sat a circle surrounded by the same symbols Rin saw in the circle upon entering the plane. In the center of the circle was the healer. She floated several feet off the ground, with her eyes closed. In the circle beside her lay Zen. He appeared to be unconscious. Around them both, red orbs moved through the circle in strange formations.

  “Hello, Grandmother,” said Luna as she approached the circle and bowed. “You are looking well.”

  The healer opened her eyes, but her stare was blank.

  “Welcome, Alpha,” said the healer with a small nod of her head. “The answer is no.”

  Her voice sounded across several frequencies, giving it the effect of several people speaking at once.

  “You don’t know the question,” said Luna, clearly taken aback.

  “We do and the answer is no,” said the healer with a smile. “You want to know if we can go with him.”

  She pointed at Rin with her chin.

  “Well, yes. Sylk needs help. He’s been poisoned.”

  “We can’t break the blood trance,” said the healer as her voiced echoed in the room. “You can take the Fury. She has learned bloodwork from dealing with her own.”

  The healer closed her eyes and bowed her head. It was clear the conversation was over.

  “The Fury?” asked Luna. “Ji, who is the Fury?”

  “We must leave now,” said Ji. “I will take you to her, although I think you know her by another name.”

  They left the chamber through a different door and descended several ramps to a deeper level of the compound. As they neared the bottom of the last ramp, the sounds of fighting could be heard.

  “An attack?” asked Rin.

  Ji shook her head and led them to a steel door. In between the clashes of weapons, voices could be overheard. Around the door, glyphs gave off a faint light as they pulsed with energy.

  “Why does this door have containment glyphs?” asked Luna.
“Who or what is in there?”

  Ji placed her hand on the glyphs in sequence and they winked out. The door opened as the last glyph went dark.

  “Whatever you see in here, do not intervene or interfere,” said Ji. “Is that understood?”

  Luna and Rin nodded their assent. They stepped into the dimly lit room.

  “What is this place?” asked Luna.

  “This is an advanced training area. Follow me, quickly,” said Ji. “It’s not safe to stand here.”

  In the center of the room stood a giant, the large man easily ten feet in height. Topless, he shimmered in and out of view like a mirage in the desert. Thick black hair covered his arms. Scars too numerous to count lined his face and torso. He held two swords, one in each hand, as he pivoted around the center of the room. A smile was fixed on his lips, but his eyes shone with deadly intent.

  Ji had taken them to an area of the room that was removed from the main floor by physical barriers and glyphs—an observation area.

  “We should be safe here, but I would not stand near the edge,” said Ji. “This is the third observation area we needed to construct because of those two.”

  “Two?” asked Rin. “Isn’t that the Fury? That large man there?”

  “That large man, as you put it, is Bear, leader of the Gray guard,” said Ji. “He is fighting the one we call the Fury.”

  “Where?” said Luna. She stepped closer to the edge of the barrier and Ji pulled her back gently. “I can’t see or sense anyone.”

  “I know. The Fury is on par with any of the Gray in everything except time-skipping.”

  A figure shimmered into view and launched a barrage of daggers at Bear, disappearing as the swarm of blades raced at him. He brought up his swords and deflected them, sending them in every direction. Several of the daggers hit the barrier and exploded. The explosions destroyed parts of the barrier along with some of the floor around the observation area. The explosions forced the group to move farther back as parts of the barrier, dust, and small bits of stone filled the observation area around them.

  “Glyphed blades. Nicely done,” said Bear, the mirth evident in his voice. “Seems like you were paying attention. That was clever. You keep doing this, and I’m going to think you’re serious.”

  “I’m always serious when I face you, Bear,” said a voice.

  “Prove it, furious one,” said Bear. “I’m getting old here.”

  Again, a figure shimmered into a view. This time she appeared close to the edge of the observation area. Her face was masked and she wore black combat gear. Her movements were fluid and graceful as she threw ten daggers at once, all aimed at Bear. She removed a larger blade from her thigh sheath and chased the daggers. She faded into nothingness as she closed the distance.

  “How can she move so fast?” asked Rin. “I can barely keep up.”

  “Honestly, I don’t know how she is still alive,” replied Ji. “She was given blood by the healer—old blood, older than the Gray. It has had some interesting effects on her.”

  Luna looked closer at the training area. “It can’t be,” she whispered. “Kal is the Fury?”

  “Yes, said Ji. “ She acquired her name from her first days fighting here. We all thought she fought like a fury. She never gave up, never relented. Even when she was clearly outmatched and outclassed, nothing stopped her.”

  “What can she possibly do against Bear?” asked Luna. “I have seen him in action. He will crush her.”

  “Yes, I have stood here and thought the same thing…many times,” said Ji.

  Kal shimmered back into view as Bear deflected the daggers.

  “You know this won’t work,” he said and swatted the daggers away.

  “I don’t expect it to, but I do expect you to do exactly that,” she said as she crouched a few feet in front of him.

  She leaped in the air and landed boots-first on his chest. He slashed upward in an attempt to remove her but she placed a hand on his head and pirouetted over and behind him. She brought up her short blade across his neck. It was over in a matter of seconds.

  “Is this serious enough for you?” she whispered in his ear. “Yield or die.” Her voice was full of menace as they stood in the center of the training area. Luna made a move to enter, but Ji held her back, shaking her head.

  “They need to do this,” said Ji. “Watch.”

  “I think today you’d better kill me, Fury,” said Bear as he slammed his head back into Kal’s face. Her nose erupted in blood as she fell off Bear. He whirled, kicked her in the midsection, and sent her across the floor with a grunt.

  “How many times have I told you?” he said as he drew his hand across his neck and checked the thin wound where her blade had been. “If you mean to take a life, you take it and then speak.”

  “More than once,” she said and faded out of sight. “I’m not going to kill you, Bear.”

  “I don’t think you can,” he answered and wiped his hand on his pants. “All I hear are big words from a little girl. What I need to do is to take your weakling of a mate and end his pitiful existence.”

  “You will not touch him,” she said, her voice cutting through the training area like a knife.

  “Who is going to stop me, you?” mocked Bear. “It’s not like you are much of a thre—”

  Bear looked down and saw her short sword buried in his abdomen. She held the sword as she pushed it in deeper and twisted it. Bear grimaced but made no sound. He grabbed her arm to stop her thrust.

  Luna pulled away from Ji and tried to enter the main floor. She was stopped at the edge by glyphs. She looked down and saw the obstruction.

  “Disable them,” said Luna. “She’s going to kill him if we don’t get to him right now.”

  “He is Gray and not so easy to kill,” said Ji. “Besides, if he were in any real danger she would have been stopped long before this. We are working with her to get past this particular challenge.”

  “So what’s it going to be, little one?” said Bear through clenched teeth. “Do I drag your mate out here and finish him or are you going to stop me?”

  “I know what you are trying to do, and it won’t work,” said Kal. “I’m not going to kill you.”

  She twisted the sword and pulled it sideways. She cut a huge gash in Bear’s midsection and watched him fall forward into a pool of blood.

  “That fucking stings,” said Bear as he turned over on his back. The wound had closed. He put his hand on the newly formed scar tissue as she stepped closer to where he now sat. Crouched low with a sword in one hand and two daggers in the other, she smiled at him.

  “I’d say that makes us even for the face smash,” she said and wiped her nose with the back of her sleeve and grew serious. “You threaten Zen again and I will forget how close we are and I will kill you.”

  “Promises, Fury,” said Bear as he stood and faded out of sight. “One day I’m going to make you keep that promise.”

  She stood and walked over to the observation area. She sheathed her weapons as she stepped over the glyphs and into the area proper. Her presence caused the glyphs to flare brightly for a few seconds before dying down to a dim glow.

  “I swear one day he is going to piss me off enough that I will kill him,” said Kal as she looked at Ji. “It’s good to see you, Luna.”

  “You keep letting your emotion control you,” said Ji. “We have discussed this, but that is not why I am here today.”

  “You’re the Fury?” asked Luna. “I still can’t believe what I saw. How did you get that close to him?”

  “The blood Grandmother gave me changed me more than we thought,” said Kal. “And no, I’m not the Fury. It’s something that huge pain-in-the-ass, Bear, came up with, and they all followed him—even Grandmother.”

  “You certainly looked furious in there to me,” said Rin as he bowed to Kal. “Greetings from the Keeper and the South Watch, Kalysta.”

  Kal returned the bow. “Hello, Rin,” she replied. “I wasn’t furious.
Just don’t threaten the people close to me and we will get along fine. Bear does it because he knows it sets me off.”

  “Precisely, and each time, you react,” said Ji. “But that is a matter for another time. Rin needs you to accompany him to the South Watch. Your bloodwork skills are needed.”

  “Bloodwork? Wouldn’t Grandmother be better at this?” said Kal, confused. “I’m much better at spilling it than healing it.”

  “I am aware of your particular skill, but the healer is in a blood trance with Zen,” said Ji. “ She has entered the melding state and cannot stop it.”

  “But me?” asked Kal. “I’m no good at bloodwork. Isn’t there someone else? Besides, what is so urgent you would come down here to tell me this?”

  “The healer mentioned you by name, so she must have had her reasons,” said Ji. “As for the reason—”

  “Sylk is dying,” interrupted Rin. We need your help.”

  THIRTY-TWO

  “I CAN’T BELIEVE no one else answered the call,” said Hiram. “I thought surely one of them would join us.”

  “People get set in their ways, and some don’t want to go back to that way of life,” said Franca. “They put it behind them.”

  “But this is the Deadeyes,” said Hiram. “How could they refuse?”

  “This glamor you have associated with the Deadeyes only exists in your head, Hiram,” said Franca. “It’s not glamorous. The Deadeyes were about killing. We were a cold-hearted group who were good at killing. It’s that simple and that complicated.”

  “How are we going to stand against an army of White Lotus?” asked Hiram, exasperated. “There are only five of us.”

  “You wanted a war,” said Franca. “I told you to stay away from this, but you insisted. You can still walk away, you know.”

  “I can’t.”

  “I know,” said Franca. “Just thought I’d put that out there, just in case.”

  “We don’t have to take on the entire Lotus, we just need to stop them from their objective,” said Raquel.

  “You don’t know the White Lotus,” said Hiram. “The moment they see us as an enemy, we will be fighting for our lives.”