by Kate Sander
"Shit weather," Tory said.
"Indeed."
"How many do the scouts count?"
"We don't know," Oh said. "After the gong rang the second time, none of the scouts returned."
"Damn."
Echoes of snarling reached her ears through the snow, carried by the wind.
"Any idea who they are?"
"My best guess is the Ampulex," Oh said.
An arrow flew out of the blizzard. Tory sidestepped and it clanged harmlessly off the back wall.
"They are here," she yelled over the swirling snow. "Get the oil ready! Once they make contact with the gate, you light them up. Archers with me."
Drawing her bow off her shoulder, she carefully placed an arrow and drew back. There would be no blind shooting today. With a limited number of arrows, each one had to hit.
"Steady," she called to the other archers who had followed her lead. The snarling grew louder.
"Steady."
In a snap, the weather cleared resulting in an eerie calm. No snow, no wind. Just two armies facing each other on the side of a mountain. There were hundreds of humans scrambling up towards the gate. They moved on all fours, like animals, clawing and twisting over each other, desperate to get to the wall. Mixed in with the snarling human mass were a few people, well-armed and dressed in black and purple armor. One of the armed soldiers held a horn to his lips and blew. The snarling mess of humans stopped their charge, waiting and panting.
"Give us the book," the man called. "Give us the book and we spare your lives to devote to the great King and Queen of the Ampulex."
"What is with these people?" Tory called. "Why are they acting like this?"
"They are the Forsaken. They refused to bend knee to the King and Queen, so the great Queen Malin made the choice for them."
Tory aimed. "No surrender?" she asked Oh.
Oh looked scared and determined. "No surrender."
"Good." Tory breathed out and released the arrow. She'd aimed well and caught the soldier with the horn right in between the eyes. He fell to the ground. The Forsaken fell on him, tearing and biting.
Another horn blew. The army of Forsaken changed their focus and dashed to the door.
"FIRE," Tory yelled. The monks listened and most aimed true. Oh lit a barrel of oil on fire and dumped it on the thrashing mass below him. Screams of pain reached them, but the Forsaken didn't quit. They crawled over each other and threw themselves at the wall.
Tory fired a few well-aimed arrows, but there was no hope. They would break down the gate, by sheer body mass and willpower.
Grabbing Oh's hand, she pulled him away from the edge. "We need to go guard the book," she said. "They are going to break through."
"Go," a monk said, firing an arrow. "Protect it. It's been an honour."
Tory nodded and pulled Oh away from his brothers back into the monastery. They passed the great hall. Arms and hands were already making holes in the gate. The remaining fifty or so monks were chopping them off at the door, but it didn't stop these Forsaken. They screamed in pain and kept coming.
"What did they do to them?" Oh gasped at the carnage.
"I don't know. But I promise they will pay," she said. She pulled him away from the grisly sight and they dashed away.
Guard the book at all costs.
17
Tory
They slammed through the door of the chamber and darted across the bridge. Oh guided them quickly through the booby traps and they finally stopped when they entered the chamber of the book.
"How did they find us?" Oh gasped. "What are those things?"
"I think they are people," Tory said through deep breaths. "I saw one dressed in the same outfit as you guys. He was right at the front."
Oh shook his head. "No one would betray the monastery."
"Maybe they didn't know they were betraying you. Or they didn't have a choice. You send any spies out into the world."
Oh stopped to think. "Monk Tsu," he gasped. "No. He was too good to get captured. And he'd kill himself before divulging where we are..."
"You heard what that asshole said," Tory snapped. "They don't give them a choice. That woman, she can turn people into that. She takes away their choice." Tory spat on the ground. "They must be pure evil. That's the only way."
"They have to be Zoya," Oh said. "And if they're Zoya, there's another way..."
Screams echoed, carrying in the dark chamber, interrupting his thought.
"What way?' Tory asked.
Oh took off out the door. "We must protect the Book at all costs," he called to her. "Follow me."
"What way?" Tory called from behind him. "Oh, stop. How do we defeat the Zoya?"
He didn't listen. Instead, he ran for the base of the bridge. Screams were approaching. Five monks scrambled through the door across the chasm and ran across the bridge.
"The Ampulex," one said through a bloody face as he collapsed in Oh's arms. "They've taken the monastery. They are being led by Monk Tsu. They're coming. They know where the book is kept.”
"Is this all?" Oh asked.
"Everyone else is dead."
"Then we make our stand here."
"THEY'RE COMING-” a guard’s scream cut short across the bridge.
A growling, rabid noise reached them. A monk skidded around the corner. White eyes with blood running down his chin, he bared his filed teeth. Growling, his tattered and ripped robes billowed around him. Other growls echoed from across the cavern. The Forsaken monk began to charge across the bridge.
They were coming.
"Take the book and run," Oh said to Tory. "There is another door that locks from the outside. Use it. Take the stairs down."
"But then you won't be able to escape."
Oh took a small dagger from inside his robes. "This is my sacred duty. Take the book and run."
The six remaining monks smiled at each other. They nodded and at once they charged the grizzled, less-than-human attackers.
What happened after that, Tory would never know. She'd hope, on lonely nights, that Oh and the others had won, had gotten away.
She knew in her heart that they were dead.
Tory ran as fast as she could. She grabbed the book, fled through the back door, and locked it behind her with a twist in her gut like a knife. Oh's scream cut into her as the door swung closed.
Condemning her friend to death for a book.
A book no one could read.
Part III
“It is useless to meet revenge with revenge; it will heal nothing.”
- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
18
Tomo
Fog and hunger, that's all she felt. It was her whole world.
And the stench. She had to follow the stench to feed.
Walking through the fog, the hunger burned deep in her belly. Needing to feed, she took a deep breath in and wanted to wretch. The stench. All she could sense was the stench. It wafted to her, like swamp mixed with dead body.
But all she wanted to do was kill it.
She needed to kill it.
"No," a little voice popped into her head. It was small and hard to listen to. "No. That's Senka. You love Senka. Don't hunt her anymore."
The Forsaken swung her head side to side, trying to shake the little voice out of her head.
"They did this to you," the little voice said. "You weren't always like this. Remember? You were Tomo. You were Dr. Charlie Penner. You're married to a wonderful woman named Amanda Nguyen. Remember?"
The image of her lovely wife, wearing only her pajamas and making her coffee in the mornings flashed through her head. Yes, Amanda. She was married to Amanda. They'd fallen in love as soon they'd seen each other, that cold November morning...
Her vision began to clear. Trees, rocks, moss appeared through the fog. A forest. That's right, she was in a forest. In The Other Place. It was her second time in The Other Place. And she was looking for Senka. Why was she looking for Senka? Wasn't Senka
dead?
Wait, wasn't Senka with her?
"Don't," a beautiful sing-song voice commanded. "You have your orders. Listen to my voice. She left you. She wants you dead. You have to kill her first."
"No," Tomo answered. "No, Malin, I don't-"
"I AM YOUR QUEEN," the voice commanded, so loudly that Tomo sank to her knees and covered her ears. "You will respect me, Forsaken."
Tomo cowered away from the voice.
"Now, listen to me. Make no decision, fear nothing. You will kill Senka. She wants to kill you. Do this, and you will be rewarded."
"Amanda," Tomo muttered. "I want Amanda."
"Amanda doesn't exist, my Daughter," the Queen said gently. "Senka put her in your mind."
"But-"
"Trust me. You did once, did you not? Trust me again. Join me in the fog."
Her voice was so smooth, so unbelievably comforting, that Tomo really had no choice. Nodding, the fog rose around her. Along with the stench.
Kill.
She had to kill the stench.
Hunger burned in her gut and she rose to her feet and let out a growl.
Kill her.
Eat her.
Kill her.
Eat her.
That's the only truth she knew..
19
Tory
A full week. That's how long it took her heart to start beating normally again. She'd been in battles before, but, "You always won those," Tory muttered to no one. "You're a winner. This is the first time you've lost."
Everything. It was the first time she'd lost everything. Oh and the other monks had been kind. It had been so long since someone had been kind to her. And they had burned shortly after showing her kindness. Ashes mixed with the smell of burning flesh reached her as she had made her hasty escape.
Carrying a stupid book that no one could read.
"It seemed legit at the time."
Indeed it had seemed legit.
"Giving your life to protect a book no one could read, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard."
Tears filled her eyes as she muttered angrily to herself. She was tromping through the woods, heading south. Why? She didn't know. But inside her head, when she thought of Senka and her dearest Ujarak, south was in her gut.
So south it was.
Everyone around her was dying and Black Eyes had abandoned her.
After the situation, "Or crazy acid trip," she muttered, where Black Eyes and she had fought Malin and Roald in her brain, she'd sent Black Eyes to all her friends organizing the rebellion against the Ampulex.
But now, Black Eyes was gone. Tory didn't even know where. The Remiel was useless, she could barely think clearly let alone be able to clear her mind enough to use it.
Oh had called her powerful.
"Oh was also a guy who would die to protect a book no one could read."
She couldn't argue with herself.
"Not arguing," she said to herself.
The loneliness was killing her.
"I just... I want to go home."
No echo. No response. The words were swallowed by the forest.
Sheer, utter loneliness.
And a book no one could read.
"Time to break for the night, I think."
No one was around to argue with her. She started to set up camp, when a voice in her head told her that she should sleep in the trees tonight.
Tory ignored it, or tried to. But when it started yelling she had to listen.
Grouchily packing up her stuff, she hauled it onto her back and found a tree that was easy enough to climb but would keep her relatively hidden from the forest floor below. Not that it was difficult in this forest. The fir trees were huge. Far larger than any tree she'd ever seen.
Climbing carefully, she tried to keep her growing exhaustion at bay. The time at the monastery had been paradise. Now she was back to eating nothing. There was more food here than in the tundra, but she didn't have time to hunt or set traps. So roots and berries it was. At least many of the fruit and plants in this forest were the same as back home. Kept her from poisoning herself.
"Though that may be a welcome reprieve."
Hoisting herself up with a grunt, she sat on a branch about halfway up the tree. It was around three feet wide and fifteen feet off the ground. Sturdy enough. All she had to do was tie her waist to the trunk and she could even fall asleep tonight. No one would see her up here.
Eyes heavy, she tied herself to the tree. She laid her bow across her lap with the arrows nearby. She'd come across an abandoned farmyard a few nights ago. It was a sad sight, really. It looked like there had been a battle. There were freshly dug graves and wolf tracks throughout, with the heavy tracks of bodies being dragged into the forest. She'd managed to find a pack and some essentials in the wreckage. Including this now invaluable rope.
The rope meant sleep. Something she'd had very little of in the past week since her flight from the monastery.
Exhaustion overtook her, and she closed her eyes, nestling into the crook of the tree.
Oh, screaming, dying. Her mind wandered to that last battle in the monastery.
"There's nothing more you could have done," she muttered. "They chose to stay and protect the book...”
The book. All this was about a book. A book that no one could read. The Ampulex were willing to kill for it. An entire town of men were willing to die to protect it.
Shaking her head, she knew she'd never fall asleep if she didn't at least look at it. Sighing, she pulled her pack onto her lap and dug through it until her fingers touched the supple leather of the cover. It was heavy. She pulled it out of her pack gently, being careful to not drop it or catch the delicate pages on anything in her pack. It fell into her lap, and she carefully put her pack behind her back to prop herself up. Crossing her legs, she looked at the book in the dying sun.
Brown leather, once thick was now worn. The pages were thin and held on to the oil from her fingertips. She carefully flipped open the cover, ensuring she only touched the edges of the page. The rust colour of dried blood spatter was all over the first page. The title, written in a language she couldn't read, was displayed prominently in beautiful, sweeping writing.
She flipped the page, there was tiny writing in the bottom corner. Then a few blank pages. Then, another title and writing. Flowing, perfectly spaced writing. It didn't look like anyone could write like that by hand. It was too perfect, too evenly spaced.
Tory didn't know any person or thing that could write like that. Some ancient machine, maybe? Oh said that this book was thousands of years old.
Ancient people were not something that Tory thought about. At least not before she was given this stupid stone that tied the past to the present. The Melanthios were a simple people in their beliefs.
"Meaning we don't have any," she said aloud to no one.
Harsh but true. They didn't think about death other than it happened to everyone and you ended up in the spirit realm. There were no Gods. There was no creation. They were born into this earth. They lived how they wanted, then they died and joined the spirit world.
What was in the spirit world? Nobody knew or cared.
Zoya existed. They were odd, powerful people who often died horrible deaths. She believed in them. Hell, her mother had been one. So not so much belief as the truth.
Flipping the page again, lost in thought, a picture in the book surprised her. A small human and a man in a grey cloak, beautifully painted onto the page.
Was this the world of before? It must be. Was that why the Ampulex wanted it? What could these words possibly say that could end all wars?
Flipping a page, she marvelled at the beautifully straight and precise writing. Whoever made this had a lot of time and discipline.
A twig crunched beneath her and Tory jumped. She'd been so lost in her thoughts she hadn't been focused at all on her surroundings. Leaning over slightly, one hand on her bow and another on the book, she looked below to the forest floor. Th
e sun was almost set, so visibility was getting worse, but Tory had excellent night vision.
Standing below her was a woman with red hair that was a mess of twigs and fuzz. Tory's heart beat faster, the fear hitting her deep in the chest. There was something... off about this woman. It was the way she carried herself.
She sniffed the air with a shoulder slightly cocked. Turning quickly, she looked straight into Tory's eyes. Tory froze, not knowing what to do. The woman had the white eyes of an Ampulex slave. They stared at each other for a while. The woman sniffed again then growled. She snapped her head and disappeared into the woods, running awkwardly on all fours.
Tory let out the breath that she didn't know she'd been holding. The sun finally set and she was left in coming darkness. Her inner voice screamed at her to move. She wasn't safe anymore. That woman could be back at any moment, and how she moved, the inhuman way she sniffed the air, well Tory didn't want to be here when she got back.
Quickly and as quietly as she could she shoved her stuff into her pack, being careful to pack the book and the Remiel on the top where she could have easy access. She hadn't done her meditation today, but that would have to wait. She needed to get out of here. Now.
Scrambling down from her perch, she made more noise than she should have. But she didn't care. Needing to get out of there, pleading with herself to hurry, she scrambled from branch to branch.
The woman. She'd seen the woman before in the Remiel. Black Eyes had seen her when she'd gone to Senka's world. Meaning this woman was a Zoya. And, if she knew Senka, a powerful one at that.
Her feet finally hit the dirt and she turned to run, thankful to get out of that tree.
"Well," a voice piped up from the darkness, "What do we have here?"
Tory froze. She tried to unsling her bow from her shoulder.
Fuck.
Her bow was sitting useless in the tree above.
A man stepped out of the shadows from behind a tree, moonlight highlighting the purple lining of his black robes. "Wasn't expecting to find anyone in a tree today," he said, grinning.