by Kate Sander
But was it genuine hatred? Eris wasn't sure. Were the Ampulex just acting out of fear and in the way they thought the King and Queen wanted them to act? Or, worse still, did they simply have to act that way because of something the King and Queen did?
"Go to hell!" A Worthless yelled at Tomo and she threw a rotten tomato at her head.
Eris pulled her khopesh and swung it at the woman's throat, stopping just shy of a deadly blow. The crowd immediately fell silent, shifting on their feet, unsure of what to do.
"You will NOT throw things at the prisoner," Eris said softly. The Worthless was breathing heavily, big eyes focused on the sharp blade being held to her neck. "She will walk to the King’s and Queen's tent and no harm will come to her," she said loudly so the crowd could hear. "Is that understood?"
The Worthless nodded quickly, not daring to look away from the deadly blade.
"Good."
She sheathed her weapon and continued to the King’s and Queen's quarters. The cheering resumed, but with less enthusiasm. Eris caught a glimpse of Tomo smiling at her but Eris ignored it. She led the group across the vast army’s camps, stepping through mud and piss and shit.
"My daughter!" Queen Malin said as they approached their quarters in the center of the army. She walked on planks so her bare feet remained clean. "You come to us with your head held high!"
Eris approached and knelt on one knee.
"Rise, daughter," Malin said. "And embrace me."
Eris did what she was told, and Malin hugged her in a tight embrace.
Eris returned it weakly.
Maybe I'm only listening because Malin told me to.
"Let me see this wretch," Roald said. He passed Eris and patted her shoulder, "I knew you could do it, Daughter."
"Thank you for the confidence, Father," Eris said, but Roald wasn't listening. He was already sizing up Tomo.
"So you are the famous Kogo Tomo Hachiban," Roald said to her darkly. "You're not much to look at. Dr. Freudman will be glad that we fixed his mistake."
"So you work for that asshole," Tomo said. "Well, never took him as being a boss but the more you know, right?"
"He works for us," Roald snapped. "And he told me you'd remember. Search her," he commanded General Pile. "You're looking for a red gem."
Pile searched her, and Eris noted that his hand lingered on her breast.
"Enough!" She commanded Pile. "I will search her."
The King shot her a warning glance but stepped aside, allowing her access to the prisoner. Eris searched her roughly and found a necklace tied underneath her wide belt. It was a golden dragon, with a ruby for its eye.
"Ah, yes," Roald said, taking it from Eris before she could hand it to him. "A piece of the Remiel. Freudman guessed that this was so when he saw this necklace disappear as you died." Tomo glared at him. "I will be giving this to the lovely Malin for safe keeping," Roald said as he turned quickly. "Take her to our personal chambers. We need to move quickly while she still has her memories."
General Pile and General Camora snapped to attention and dragged Tomo to the adjacent tent. Eris stood still.
"That includes you, Daughter," Roald said firmly. "If you go out of your way to disobey me again in front of your subordinates, I will have no choice but to punish you. Is that understood?"
Eris reeled, "Father he was touching her inappropriately. I don't think that we should be treating prisoners that way."
"We will treat prisoners however I say they will be treated," Roald snapped. "You do well to remember your place, Daughter."
Anger was about to boil over. Malin intervened and put her hand on Eris’ shoulder, guiding her away from the King.
"Join me, Daughter," Malin said firmly. "Walk me to the tent."
Eris nodded and, taking her mother's arm, led her silently to the tent where Tomo was being held. When they entered, Camora and Pile were sitting Tomo in a chair in the center of the lushly furnished tent.
"You will watch only," Malin whispered venomously into Eris' ear. "If you disturb us, I have no problem having you removed."
Shocked, Eris could only nod. She'd never heard that tone of voice coming from her mother, especially directed at her.
Eris removed herself to the corner and watched. She shook her head slightly. Her parents had a point. This Tomo had gotten in her head. She was the Princess of the Ampulex, not some girl named Kelly. This is how the Ampulex did things and only doing things this way would lead to peace.
"Now," Roald said as he entered the tent, deliberately not looking in Eris' direction. Eris looked down in embarrassment. "I want to get this over quickly. Where is your partner, Senka?"
"You got me," Tomo said. "Probably fucking someone in our world."
Roald hit her on the left side of her face. Eris twitched when she heard the already broken cheekbone shatter to pieces. Her eye was no longer in the proper place and it drooped in its socket. Eris' stomach roiled. The woman's face was a swollen mess of bruises. Her one eye was a full inch lower than the other, giving her a distorted, gross appearance.
"I don't have time for the attitude or the language," Roald said sharply. "Tell me where she is."
"I don't know," Tomo said, breathing heavily through the pain but holding his gaze with her one working eye. "She was still alive when I died. I don't know."
"Well," Roald said softly, "if that is the case, then we have no choice." He leaned over her and grabbed both sides of her face, forcing her to stare him in his eyes. "What do you fear?"
Tomo started shaking. "No!" she gasped. "NO!" she was trembling and trying to get away, but Roald held her firm, forcing her to look at him. "KELLY, NO!" Tomo screamed.
Eris twitched. The prisoner's greatest fear... had to do with her? She was reeling. She'd never met this woman...
"NOOOOO!" Tomo shrieked.
Roald was showing her a vision of the worst moment in her life. Over and over he'd be playing it, grinding her down, wearing her out. Every time he played it, it would be different but more terrifying, until he reached her greatest fear. That was his Zoya power.
"Fear is a great weapon," Eris mumbled to herself.
"She is ready for you," Roald said to Malin.
Malin bowed and approached the huddled, twitching mess. "You will go and find Senka. You will kill her," she said to her. "You will not stop until this is accomplished or you die. Is that understood?"
Eris backed away to the door. This seemed so wrong. Tomo was looking at Malin's eyes, nodding, cheek destroyed, loose tooth hanging from her mouth.
"Kill me," Tomo muttered. The last real thought with her own voice.
"I won't do you that honour," Malin said, mistakenly thinking that Tomo was talking to her.
Eris knew she wasn't. The Empress of Blood was begging Eris to kill her to avoid being a slave.
Eris slowly backed out of the tent door. This wasn't what she wanted.
"That's it," Malin said. "That's it. You will find Senka and kill her, then kill yourself."
"I will find Senka and kill her, then kill myself," Tomo repeated back in a dead voice.
Eris couldn't take it anymore. She turned and fled the tent.
"FIND HER!" Malin shouted in the tent. The shout barely reached Eris as she was running so fast. Away. Nothing, no family, no power, was better than what was going on here.
She dodged and ducked the Worthless as their arms stretched out to catch her. Eris had to make the tree line a few hundred meters away. That was her only chance.
"FIND HER AND BRING HER BACK!" she heard Malin scream.
Eris fled from the only mother she'd ever known.
.
16
Tory
"Calmly," Monk Oh said beside her. "Focus. Clear your mind. Let the energy of the Remiel line up with your own."
Tory listened. Breathing slowly, gently, she cleared her mind and stared at the red stone she was holding in her hands. Her eyes went dull as she focused on the center of the stone.
; "Mind blank," she muttered. "Mind blank."
"It is hard to make your mind blank while you’re talking," Oh said in her ear.
"Ha ha," Tory said, breaking her focus and looking back at the young monk. "It's also hard to focus with you talking so much."
Oh smiled at her. "Time for a break, I think. Tell me, did you feel anything?"
Tory thought about it. "Yes. I think I felt the power, if only for a second."
"Good! Then you can find it again," Oh said. He offered her a hand to help her stand. Knees sore from the long meditation, she gladly took it. Oh led her through the door and walked beside her in silence through the halls of the Monastery.
Tory had learned enough to give Oh some time to process his thoughts, so she walked silently beside him, taking in the beauty of the stone carved walls and dark wood.
"The power of the Remiel is really just in you. The Remiel helps you focus your own power. Remember that." Oh said. "You're the person in charge. You are the power. Not the Remiel. It just allows you to hone and focus the power."
"So, could I use any stone?"
Oh laughed, "Perhaps, after years of work and dedication. The Remiel is tied to your bloodline. It allows you to unlock powers that would be nearly impossible to unlock with any other object."
Tory nodded. "How did the Remiel come about?"
"Ah, a wise question. You will have to see for yourself. Someday, when you're ready, the Remiel will show you."
"Seems annoying, asking a stone for an answer."
Oh smiled and led her to a door she'd never been shown, refusing to acknowledge the quip.
"What's in there?" Tory asked.
"I am obviously going to show you," he said, "or I would not have brought you here. This is why this monastery exists."
He opened the door to an empty stone room, lit by torches lining the wall. "Hello," he said to a guard standing inside, perfectly still. Tory jumped when he said it, there'd never been a guard anywhere in the monastery. The guard nodded back to Oh.
"Step where I step," Oh said softly. "This room is not what it seems." He grabbed a lit torch on the wall beside the guard.
Tory nodded. Oh stepped twice to the left in the brightly lit room then walked straight ahead. Tory followed, and, through a nauseating trick of the eye, the torches and lit room disappeared showing them a dark stone bridge stretching over a massive black cavern.
"We use a series of mirrors that reflect a room above the door," Oh said softly, voice echoing in the cavern. "It ensures that no one knows where the bridge is unless they are shown first."
The bridge was only a few feet wide and it stretched as far as she could see. Her sight couldn't be trusted, however, as the monks apparently had tricks up their sleeves.
"This cavern was discovered a thousand years ago," Oh stepped onto the bridge and walked forward confidently. "It guarded a small cave, accessing it is difficult from the other side. Inside, the first monk discovered something amazing."
"Not listening," Tory said through gritted teeth. She placed a foot on the bridge and slowly leaned on the bridge, testing the weight. It held. Taking a deep breath, she started taking small, hesitant steps, being careful to follow Oh. "Trying not to fall to my death."
"It's not the fall that kills you..."
"Yes, I know. It's the sudden stop. Your humour is not appreciated right now," she said, breathing deeply trying to steady herself. "Don't look down, don't look down..."
"We are almost there," the wise monk said. "The distance is not as far as it seems."
A few more steps and they were on the other side. Tory turned cautiously to stare at the side from which they came.
"Well that's embarrassing," she said as her heart rate lowered. The other side of the bridge was a mere fifty feet away from their current ledge.
"All a trick of the eye," Oh said warmly. "It gets the best of us the first few times. Shall we carry on?"
"What are you guarding? What needs so much protection?"
"Legend tells," Oh said, "that this book will end all wars. It's called the Book Of All." He led her through another doorway and side-stepped a hidden pit lined with spikes. "Discovered over a thousand years ago, guarded by an ancient mummy in traditional clothes, the book is said to tell an ancient secret held by our ancestors. No one can read it, and legend tells of someone who will come who can. Someone, perhaps, not of this world."
"A Zoya," Tory breathed.
"Indeed, in the last hundred years with the appearance of the Zoya that is what we have thought."
"They told us Zoya have been around longer than that," Tory muttered. “That they’ve have been around for thousands of years."
Oh took three steps to the left and knocked twice on the stone wall. A piece, indistinguishable from the rest, opened silently outwards.
"Yes, many tribes have legends of folks who are... better than everyone else. Your legend melded with Zoya when they appeared. They used to be called Gods."
"We don't believe there are Gods," Tory said, walking through the door behind him. "Too many Kings and Queens of Solias likened themselves to Gods. We only believe in the spirit realm. And what we can see and touch."
"Ah, but you believed in the Zoya before you'd ever met one."
Tory had nothing to say, which wasn't a problem because she was rendered speechless by the majesty of the room. Lined with torches and monks praying, the cave was adorned with beautiful tapestries depicting epic battles and monsters.
"Are these... Gods?" Tory asked as she circled the chamber, careful of her footing so that she didn't step on a kneeling monk.
"Yes, these tapestries have been kept here for thousands of years. As has that book over there." Oh gestured to the center of the room. A book of brown leather with frail yellowed pages was sitting on an altar. The pages looked as thin as rice paper, like they would disintegrate with the slightest disturbance.
"That book was found in the chamber a long, long time ago. The mummified body was given a proper burial. We took over his sacred task. We think the book survived because this cave protected it."
Tory ventured closer. The pages had writing in neat little lines across the entire page. It was thick, thousands of pages long.
"What does it say?"
"No one knows," Oh said. "A monk once saw a prophecy while on the ayewaska. He said that someone from another world would come and be able to read it and the answer would end all wars. So we've waited."
A gong rang from somewhere deep in the mountain. A low, throbbing sound. The monks hopped to their feet and brandished weapons from deep inside their robes. They looked gravely at each other then gave Tory a pointed look before fleeing the chamber.
"What was that?"
"We are under attack," Oh said. "Someone has found the monastery. We must hurry."
Tory nodded and the adrenaline of battle started rippling down her back. "I need to get my bow. How much time?"
"They will just be starting up the mountain," Oh answered. He dashed out of the room and Tory followed. "I will meet you at the top of the tower. We have a little over ten minutes before they get here. We must get ready." He led her quickly through the booby traps. The bridge seemed like an easy obstacle versus the impending attack.
They reached the hallway.
"How many do you have?" Tory asked.
"Maybe a hundred."
"Well, I've faced worse odds. Any traps that we can devise?"
"We have the high ground. We can set boulders to release," Oh said.
"You're way too nice," Tory snapped. "What about the oil from the kitchens?"
Oh blanched.
"Good," Tory said. "Bring it to the ramparts and light it on fire. We need to give these bastards a warm welcome. I need to go get my bow."
"In all my years, no one has found the monastery," Oh muttered. "How did this happen?"
"Easy," Tory yelled, dashing down the hallway, "Someone is a traitor."
Leaving Oh to his job and to organize the mo
nks. Tory got the feeling that though they had practiced in martial arts quite a bit, actual bloody battle was something they had little experience with. "Good thing you're a general," she muttered as she dashed through the monastery. Many monks looked scared and clutched their weapons tightly, unsure of where to go.
"Find a place by the gate," she yelled as she passed. "We will kill them before they cross the threshold."
She didn't have time to see if anyone was listening. Instead, she ran to her room and shouldered open the door. Her bow was exactly where and how she had left it. Given to Senka by the Queen of Solias, all those years ago, it was made of beautiful oak and green leather. She'd unstrung it during her crossing of the tundra. Carefully, but quickly, she strung the bow and grabbed her arrows. Only ten left. She needed more, and quickly.
Running through the halls, she stopped a monk who was running down the ramparts. "Armoury," she gasped.
"By the great hall," he answered.
No need to thank him, he was already gone. The monks were trying desperately to remember where they were supposed to go in case of battle. Some of them were becoming leaders and the chaos of the initial warning was ebbing. Tory skidded to a stop in the busy great hall and looked around desperately.
There were monks going in and out of a particular door, so Tory thought she'd try there first. Shouldering her way through the crowd, she made it to the door as the gong struck once more.
"They are getting closer," a monk yelled to the crowd. "Grab your weapons and go to your positions. We protect the book at all cost!"
A feeble cry from the rest of the monks was the answer.
Tory burst into the armoury and realized that it was almost empty. She managed to grab a handful of arrows and a sword that still had an edge but was terribly balanced.
It would have to do. She'd stolen a weapon before during battle. Today would be nothing new. She made it to the top of the rampart that was erected over the gate that led to the great hall. Oh was there, waiting for her with a torch and barrels of oil from the kitchen. There were maybe fifty other archers lining the wall. Wind whipped through Tory's hair and the cold air and snow circled and danced. Hell of a time for a blizzard.