by Heath Pfaff
"Yes," I answered, feet scrambling for some purchase on the ground but finding none. She gave me a sharp shake and I stopped fidgeting. As I did so, she dropped me to the ground, my knees very nearly giving out on me.
The woman-Devil looked at me, and I was sure she was looking at parts of me that no other could see. I reflexively tried to shrink away. She sneered. "Don't be a coward. Whether I am more powerful than you or not, there is no benefit in showing your weakness to anyone- friend or foe." At that I made myself stand up straighter and did my best imitation of gathering my courage. She let out a breath of exasperation. "They talk about you as though you're something special, but I don't see it."
I was looking at her more closely now, attempting to understand her. I guessed that she was perhaps five years older than me, maybe less, but she carried herself like a seasoned warrior. There was a firmness about her that dared anyone to take her less than seriously. I opened my mouth, shut it, and then, remembering the conversation I'd had with Kyeia the day before, spoke. "I will be the best." It sounded ludicrous to me as I said it, partially because it came out in a waiver, and partially because I knew nothing of what I was going to be "the best" at.
She laughed sharply, there was no humor in it, "We shall see. You will report to the training yard by sunrise tomorrow." With that, she spun in place with an audible crack of her cloak and walked out the door, slamming it in her wake. I let out a breath I'd been holding while she was in the room and fell back on my bed. I didn't know where the training yard was, or how I was to be up before first light tomorrow, but I intended to be there on time - one way or another.
The night passed quickly and the pre-dawn hours found me ready to leave my room and find the training yard. It would be easy to say that I was anxious only because I had been cooped up in my room since I'd arrived, but the truth was a good deal of my rising anticipation was the fear generated by the black-eyed woman who had come to my room the night before. I managed to wait almost another twenty minutes before I finally got up from my bed and opened the door. There were a pair of boots sitting just beyond the door and I surmised they had been left for me. I put them on, noting that they fit like they had been custom crafted for my feet. I walked down the corridor to the door that had been locked the day before and put my hand on the handle, expecting to find it still locked, but it turned easily under my hand and I pushed the door open. The door, to my surprise, lead directly into an open yard. I stepped out into the darkness and only once I was fully outside did I notice the figure standing just beyond the portal. I jumped, startled by the presence of the figure in the shifting cloak so near at hand. The cloaked figure was neither Tempest nor the woman from the night before, making it the third Black-Eyed Devil I'd encountered at close range. This one, though I knew it had seen me pass, made no motion as I walked by. He was of average height, most of his features hidden by his cloak, hood, and face mask. I swallowed hard and forced myself to speak to him.
"Sir, I am looking for the training field, do you know where I might find it?" I decided that being as polite as possible seemed the best course of action.
The cloaked figure lifted a hand, a surprisingly human hand that featured none of the fur and claws I'd witnessed on Tempest and my visitor from the day before, and pointed off into the darkness in front of me. Where exactly he meant I could not be sure, since the sun was more than an hour away and the night was particularly dark.
I bowed, as I might have to a customer of the library while I was still working as a loremaster's apprentice. "Thank you, sir." I did not bother to ask for clarification. I didn't think he would offer any, and I would just as soon find my own way. I began to walk into the night. Now out in the open, I could see that I was in a large, fenced-in compound. There were many buildings around me, not all of which I could determine the nature of. The building I had been staying in was one of the smaller but there were many others of near the same size. The largest of the buildings appeared to be a fortified mansion but it was in the opposite direction from which I was walking so I could not see much of it, especially in the darkness. The direction I had been pointed appeared to be away from the bulk of the buildings. I could see the wall to my left as I went and I guessed that it was in front of me as well, but I was too distant to make it out.
I thought of the Black-Eyed Devil I'd seen outside my door and the so-very-human limb he'd shown while pointing out my path. I wondered what could account for such a range of differing physical traits in a single race. The female of the night before had not had the same razor like teeth or earth-shaking voice that Tempest had but she'd had the fur clad arms and clawed hands, which the guard beyond my door had not. I wondered if they were all of different, but similar, races. Tempest, the woman, and the guard at my door had all had the same black eyes and stoic mannerism. There was still a puzzle there to be deciphered. As I made my way along I had to stifle a yawn, tiredness seeping in on me. I had slept very little the night before, worried about what was to come, but the early morning was chill which helped to keep me moving. My eyes scanned my surroundings, looking for some indication that I had reached the proper place.
Ahead of me I could make out a small building, smaller even than the one that contained my room and I made my way toward that structure. I reached it quickly and was still looking around when I felt a touch on my shoulder that caused me to jump so hard I nearly fell over. I spun around in terror, almost striking out with a fist. Of course, had I done so I would have accomplished very little if not managed to injure myself further. The guard from my room was standing behind me. He gestured to indicate that I could stop walking. I had, apparently, reached my destination. Breathing heavily from my fright, I apologized, "I'm sorry, Sir, but you very nearly scared the life right out of me." He pulled down his shifting veil and there was a smile on his lips, open and surprisingly friendly for one of his race. I noted that his teeth were quite human in proportion, nothing like the line of knives inside of Tempest's mouth. There was yet another strange dissimilarity amidst the Black-Eyed Devils I'd met so far.
I had arrived early, though not by much, because I only had to wait another ten minutes before a figure appeared in the slowly brightening morning, seeming to materialize from the fabric of the night. It was the same woman who had come to my room the night before, though it took me a moment to realize this because she was fully adorned in her shifting cloak, hood up and mask in place. As she came near she nodded to the silent figure standing at my shoulder that had been guarding the building which contained my room. He returned the nod before turning and walking back the way I had come. Obviously, he was going to resume his post, having seen me to where I needed to be. The woman who faced me now pulled back her hood and slid down the mask covering the bottom half of her face, once again presenting the contrast of beauty and grave, tightly controlled, fury.
"I am Malice." She began. "You will address me as such, with no honorific. I don't enjoy titles. They are pretentious and wasteful." Her black eyes glanced over me, assimilating my entire condition quickly. "You are prompt, which is a trait I can appreciate, but you fail in all other regards. You are skinny, weak, slow, and you lack confidence as well as grace of movement. Of those I've trained you are, undoubtedly, the worst. On top of that, you are currently injured. Have I missed anything?"
I opened my mouth to reply, to argue that I was not so completely unfit and worthless, but I closed it quickly. The truth of the matter was that I had never needed to do physical chores or labor. I could read and write fluently; not a common skill, but I would likely lose a physical confrontation with most men of my age. As pained as I was to admit it, I was every bit the lost cause she'd just described. I thought for a moment more and decided to add to the list, "I've also never so much as held a sword, or found myself in a position where I had to physically compete with another person."
Malice nodded, a less than friendly smile on her face. "Do you still plan on being the best? You don't even know what you're attempting to beco
me the best at..." Bringing up my words from the night before raised my ire but I bit it back, knowing there was little I could do to defend myself in the current situation. She was stronger, faster, and had a sharper tongue than I did. The most I could accomplish would be to make myself look more foolish, though I felt that would be difficult to achieve at that moment. "Hmmph, at least you know when to keep your mouth shut. That is a trait in short supply." She approached me, coming within just a few inches, bending over so that her eyes were level with mine. I was beginning to grasp the nature of this woman and so I resisted the inclination to take a step backward. I held my ground. She came closer, so close that I thought for a moment she might brush her lips against mine. Instead, I felt her hand go up the side of my shirt and this time I really did step back, or attempt to. She grabbed me fiercely and held me in place with one arm while the other pulled my shirt up and my pants down. I struggled uselessly in her grip, but there was no look of strain on her features, and her arm never wavered. She was, I realized belatedly, looking at the wounds along the side of my body. After a moment she let me go, apparently having seen what she wanted to. With no shortage of embarrassment I pulled my clothes back on, muttering random curses under my breath, some I'd never said aloud and some few of which I didn't even know the meaning.
She ignored me. "We'll have your stitches out today. Tonight I will send some equipment to your room and I want you fully geared and here at the same time tomorrow morning." She turned her back to me as she finished talking. "Ethaniel has come to see you. He'll be ready to meet with you at noon today. Silent, the Knight who guards your room, will take you to see him at the appropriate time. I recommend being prompt. Ethaniel is a busy man, and not a patient one. Other than that, the rest of the day is yours. I recommend you use it to do what you will, because after today your time is mine and I believe you've a measure of what that will be like." With those parting words, she walked away, leaving me to my embarrassment and the cool morning air.
I made my way back to the building that contained my room, doing my best to contain the anger and shame I felt. I dreaded the thought of having to deal with Malice day after day for what could be a very long two years, if Kyeia's prediction about my training was correct. Kyeia had never come back to see me the day before and though it had not surprised me, I was distressed. I desperately wanted to speak with her again, to apologize for ignoring her the day before. I wondered if she would even bother coming back at all. I supposed that her responsibility to me had ended when we reached wherever it was that we had reached. Even as that thought occurred to me, I realized that I still had no idea where I was. I would have to ask next time there was someone around who might answer a question for me. Maybe, I thought, whoever Ethaniel was, he would be able to tell me. He must be someone important. Even Malice had spoken his name in reverent terms, and she struck me as the type who was reverent of very few.
When I reached the building that contained my room, Silent, as Malice had called him, was standing in his place at the door frame. He nodded his head to me as I came into range, but made no other move. I stopped before entering the building, "Thank you for seeing me safely to my destination." I told him, to which he nodded again, and I thought there may have been a smile beneath his hood and veil. Silent, it seemed, was true to his name, for he uttered not a sound. He was not hostile toward me and I was relieved for that. Silent made me almost believe that the Black-Eyed Devils might have something in common with humans after all. If some of them could smile, perhaps they weren't all frightening monsters. Malice on the other hand.... I retired to my room, exhausted from a sleepless night. The bed was welcoming, the blankets a warm invitation that I had no intention of passing up. I kicked off my boots and sunk into sleep. It came to me mercifully quickly.
I awoke to a firm pressure on my shoulder. I turned to see what it was and came face to face with Kyeia. She was leaning over the bed, her arm extended to nudge me awake. I smiled as I saw her, for I had thought it unlikely that I would ever encounter her again. If nothing else, her presence there proved she was a far better person than I. I reached out and touched her arm as she withdrew it from my shoulder.
"I am happy to see you again," I told her, wanting her to know that ignoring her the day before had been a foolish act on my part. I supposed that apologizing may have been a better reaction but I wasn't sure how to go about doing that. She withdrew her arm from my hand and took a quick step back, a faint blush coming to her face.
"What are you talking about?" She said. She sounded flustered. "Of course you were going to see me again. There is still much we have to accomplish." She pulled her hood up around her face and turned slightly away from me, I thought, so that I couldn't see the color in her cheeks.
"There was always the chance you might have decided I wasn't worth the bother. I know that I have been a lot of trouble." I spoke honestly, though I felt a fool for doing so.
She sighed deeply. "Yes, you have been a great deal of trouble so far, Lowin, but I do not believe you're intentionally trying to make things difficult. Now, get ready to go. You have an appointment with Ethaniel in ten minutes and we shouldn't be late."
If she saw my look of surprise she didn't show it. That I had slept so much of the day away startled me. I noticed then that there was a serving tray on my desk and a wash basin, evidence that I had indeed slept through a great deal. I went about cleaning myself up as much as possible and grabbed a piece of bread from my tray, knowing I had time for nothing else. That finished, I put my boots on in a rush. Once I was ready to go, Kyeia opened the door to my room and I followed her out. Silent was standing beyond my door and he joined Kyeia and me as we began our walk to the place where I was to meet Ethaniel. The world beyond my building was now brightly lit by the sun and seemed a completely different place than that I'd seen in the darkness of the early morning. I could now make out the full size of the compound and it was quite large. The wall around the perimeter stood some thirty feet high, and was wide enough to allow two men to walk abreast. It was dotted with guards, some of human stock, some in the shifting cloaks of the Black-Eyed Devils. I wanted to ask Kyeia how many of these Devils there were, but I didn't want to offend our other companion so I held my tongue. The grounds were well kept and the compound was comprised of no less than thirty individual buildings spread in a circular pattern about the grounds such that the great manor was in the center of it all.
From my perspective, the manor was just short of being a full-fledged castle. It lacked a moat and seemed built with more of an eye for style than a castle, but it was a close thing. The slotted windows of the manor started what looked like three floors from the ground level and there were a great many towers and parapets about the structure. The front door was an immense wood structure with a portcullis, which was raised, in front of that. Standing before the door were two Black-Eyed Devils, each with a long spear in hand. I paid special attention to the hands that protruded from the shifting cloaks and found myself surprised again. One of the Devils had an arm like Tempest and Malice, but the other, whom I thought might be female, though it was hard to judge when fully vested in cloak, hood and mask, had what looked like the arm of a dragon. It was black, scaled, ending in a terrible claw, but most certainly distinct from the type of forelimbs I'd seen so far. I stored this information away inside my head, keeping it for when it might be needed again. I felt that these differences were part of a puzzle I was, as of yet, unable to ascertain the nature of. The guards at the gate didn't even shift stance as we passed them, but the impressive wood doors swung back to permit us entrance. I found myself wishing that I'd had time to ask Kyeia about this "Ethaniel" person we were going to meet. It was likely that I would know for myself before long, but had I been wiser I might have gone forward with some knowledge.
Silent took the lead as we entered and Kyeia fell in at my shoulder. The manor seemed mostly empty, though I did see a few house-keepers working as we moved through the lush interior. Whoever had built the p
lace had spared no expense. Every hall and room appeared to be carpeted and you couldn't go more than a few feet without seeing some new tapestry or antiquity. I was so caught up in my surroundings that I barely noticed that Silent had come to a stop at a large oak door. I very nearly walked into him but Kyeia grabbed my hand and I stopped just in time. I looked at her and found that she was looking up into my eyes. I still had trouble judging her expressions, her strange purple eyes throwing off my ability to read her intent, but I did sense that she was worried about something. She gave my hand a light squeeze and I returned it. She then pulled her hand from mine as the door in front of us swung open and Silent ushered us inside.
The room we stepped into was no less extravagant than any of the others we'd been through on our march into the manor but this one did have a "lived in" feel the others did not. There was a grand table in the room, easily large enough to seat fifteen people, though only three seats surrounded it. It was crafted of some dark wood I did not recognize and had great, thick legs that swirled down to the floor in intricate patterns. Atop it was a mess of maps, scrolls and opened books. The walls were lined with shelves that were full of tomes, more than I had ever seen in a private residence. While all that the room was magnificent; the most outstanding feature was the figure looking through one of the slotted windows to the compound beyond. I guessed we were four stories up, though I hadn't bothered to keep track of them as we ascended into the building. I admit this lapse in memory was due to my fearful anticipation of the meeting with Ethaniel. If this man was he, then I realized that Ethaniel, to my complete surprise, was not a human. He was a Black-Eyed Devil, and he was the first of his kind that I had ever seen without the shifting cloak that seemed to mark his people. He was massive. He stood at least a foot taller than I, his shoulders broad enough that I guessed he would need to go sideways through most doors. His powerful arms were, like Tempest's and Malice's, fur-clad and ended in mighty claws. His legs - and this was the first I'd really seen of any of the Devils' legs - were fur-clad up to the point where they vanished into his pants, and they were bent back at the knee like those of a great wolf. From his head rose the ears of a wolf as well, large and pointed, twitching attentively at the sounds of our entry. At his back were folded massive, leathery wings that I had originally taken to be a cloak of some type. He turned as we entered, and there were more strange features to be seen. At first I thought his cheeks were hollowed and gaunt, but in a moment I realized that he had pits there, like those found on certain vipers in the wild. His eyes were different as well, but only subtly so. They appeared black at first glance, but in a moment I realized they were also a deep blue color, so dark that it was hard to tell them from any other Devil's. I tried to fit Ethaniel into the image of the Black-Eyed Devils' race that I'd been trying to build, but, yet again, I found that I couldn't draw any conclusions from what I'd seen so far.