by Sam Sea
Les decided not to say anything but looked around as the gate slowly started to close behind him, the work of levers pulled from tunnels under the ground.
"I expected to be greeted by others here or even on the road..." Les finally said. "It can't be that there is nobody home."
"Oh... there are plenty people here... Enough to keep this place running. Master is waiting for you. I guess you have a lot of explaining to do."
"Explaining...? Me? Sure, I can do that. But I certainly could use some rest first. I had a long ride, and feel... not so good still."
The big man silence meant that was not what he expected. After a long moment of silence, nearby door has opened, and a kid of not more than fifteen winters came quietly walking toward them.
He whispered something in the man's ear.
"No... the master says to see him right away. He said that you will have a plenty of time to rest afterwards. A plenty of time to rest.' The man's grin on the face let Les know exactly what he was employing.
"Master was surprised to see you travel alone. He thought that you would certainly have company."
"Well, not that I have not tried. But every women I asked to accompany me to come here, just ran away."
The man grinned.
"Must be that they knew you were here."
Les lurched his body out of the seat, stepping on the brick, and lazily took the plank off that was his seat. The bag of gold coins clinked as he pulled them out. He took one out, and nonchalantly, threw it toward the kid. "Take good care of my horses. He likes oats."
From the corner of his eye, he observed Sor seeing the gold, seeing his expression stiffen.
"Who knows, if you are nice, maybe I'll toss you a coin too..." The lack of respect hidden in those words made Sor's eyes lash with fire. But, he still stood still in a full control over himself. Even a small, maddening smile started to come out on his face, instantly covered up in angry frown as Les continued to talk. "Not that I'm anything like Tirniran who really liked every time you sucked his cock."
"Little man... you are breathing now because I was not sent in Tirniran's place. The master always had a weakness for you... But that can change... soon."
"Well, let's go and see the master then. Let's see what he is ready to do for a toss of a coin."
"You know the way." Sor said as he waited for Les to step ahead.
"No need to get angry, Sor," he said as he passed next to him. "I can toss him... two coins. Maybe he can such your cock then. Would you like that?" He asked as he turned around and looked the man straight in the eye, fully aware of the grip his right hand had on a short sword's handle.
"Or you would prefer one of those little kids instead?"
Sor started to pull the sword out as Les turned around and stepped forward the house. Not yet. Sor stiffened the step to reach him, and suddenly Les felt dizziness inside of his head return.
In the middle of it all, he thought of Mikka, and wonder whether she was still with him. It's been a while since he heard her voice, and he paid a little attention to that, occupied by his own thoughts. But now he wondered. As he made the last stair and climbed on the porch, he wondered if she was real at all. Could it be that he imagined her... all of that, everything that happened to him. He looked at the bag of gold in his left hand and wondered, if it was all the dream, why was he holding it, and where did he get it from?
Sor shoved his shoulder with his left hand, thrusting his whole body to stumble forward, his body waving around like a young fruit tree in a storm.
As the door to the main house opened up without anybody's help, Les's strength seemed to have instantly evaporated. His hand quivered, and the bag with coins dropped out of it.
"You always had a big mouth for the size of your brain..." Sor nudged him again, and it took Les a lot of effort to pick up the bag. Two steps away, he made it to a doorway, but needed the help of his right arm holding on the wall to keep his body upright. The light showing the corridor empty.
"Yes, it will soon be over."
"For you, sooner than that..." Les thought of the boy who took his horse away, remembered sadness in his eyes, misery, shame and abuse so easily recognized in his posture. "You will cause pain to others no more..."
The wood creaked behind them and Sor instinctively turned his head around, but nothing was there. As he looked to push Les forward, he found a dagger coming out of nowhere slice ligaments of his left knee right underneath him. He tumbled in surprise as he tried to make a step, his hands reaching for Les. But he was not there anymore. He flanked him with the speed of a cat, and in the same motion Les's dagger found the way to his throat, disappearing completely inside of it, slicing though his vocal cords and blood vessels. Sor's huge arms raced to pull the blade out, but it was out already as Les jumped up and planted the blade between his disbelieving eyes. Second later, Sor's body fell over and covered Les's who twisted out of him and laid him down to bleed out right there in the doorway, as quietly as he could.
With blood covering most of his face and the dagger still in his hand, he jumped through the doorway, making across the hallway and to the door in less than a second. He was surprised with his own speed, and not for the last time that day.
He jerked it open violently, looking at the face of his master sitting quietly behind his long writing table.
"I guess Sor didn't consider of any significance my instructions to search you for any weapon..."
“Yeah, you won’t be talking to Sor about that ever again…” Les answered as he stepped slowly inside, measuring carefully each move he made. The room was smaller than he remembered, windowless, the only light coming through the circled white walls made of thin paper. No silhouettes of bodyguards could he see through them.
They are there, don’t you worry about them...
"He will be missed. He has been with me for a... very long time. His service to the family was incalculable"
"What family? If this here you call family, then..." He was going to tell him off, insult him, make him see how wrong he is, but then he remembered something that the grand master told him, his face and voice interrupting his voice 'You're not going there for a vengeance, to kill him. You are not going there neither to talk to the man and you will not get into conversation with him, and won't let him spread his laying tong around your disturbed mind... You are going there to bring him to me... That is your job, and that is what you will do.'
Master seemed confused with the silence and peace that befallen on Les's face. He could not make the sense of it. "You are angry... You are angry with your family. And that's why you killed Sor. Angry that you are not as good as you think you are."
"You betrayed me..." Don't talk! Didn't come here for that. He will not amend your pain, his death cannot correct your wrongs or ease your pain.
"Because you got caught... After all the training, everything we done for you, saved your life from hanging... It's your fault! You got careless, even on your last two assignments. I do not need to remind you on them, do I? Could not even kill a woman?"
"She was with a child..."
"She was a job! Just like anything else! That is who you are! Who we are! That is how we survive. We are masters of our faith, life and death..."
Pain, so much pain...
"Should had kill you right then!" The anger in his master's voice seemed like it could last forever. "That is why I gave you an easy one this time! Very easy assignment! All you had to do was go and bring those damn documents to me. You could have done it blindfolded if you wanted to. And you know I am right! But no, you had to mess that up too!"
Les threw the bag of gold to the table. "That is for you..."
"For what?"
"For a job, of course..."
Master slowly reached for the bag and turned it around. About fifty coins ran over his table the next second.
"Must be important job to be worth all that money."
"Yes it is..."
"First of all I have to tell you so
mething... I guess, I have to remind you of something... You do not offer me jobs. You are not contractor.
"Well, I knew you were not ready to accept the payment and that you would not have it... But then I was told to try, sort of giving you one last chance..."
"One last chance?" Master touched the side of his table and seconds later four shapes dropped around Les from somewhere above them.
"Still using your old tricks, huh?" Les said as he stepped back.
"Maybe in your best days, you could take two of them out, maybe even three. But four... I don’t think so. So tell me, why would I not just kill you and take your coins? You know you cannot work outside the clan. You know you are a member for the rest of your life. Only death can set you free. You are mine."
"Funny... I do not see it as such."
His ex-master then tapped his table three times and then everything start happening really fast. Dozens of dots ripped through the white walls and flew out of nowhere toward Les. He knew they were poisoned, so he skidded to the floor only to have the closest assassin jump on top of him with two daggers pointing forward. Les rolled to the side and one of the dagger sliced the leather armor covering his shoulder. As he thruster his sword in the face of his attacker, three other once jumped on him simultaneously.
"Mikka, if you are here now... Deliver me from their hands...
Mikka sword flashed out of thin air and one of three was cut in half, right around his waist, the other two held frozen for a moment in disbelief. The sword flashed through the air, and the other one's head rolled down.
Les was sure he saw a shadow move next to him, across the floor, felt the air dance and tingle him. But then, two dark balls flew from the shadow and disappeared beyond paper walls.
"Duck!" He heard Mikka's yelping voice, and he threw himself back to the floor.
The bang, stronger than when a catapult's ball smashes against a city walls, exploded beyond the walls, and hellish inferno unleashed from there, mixed with cries of men and women, and metal and splintered wood.
But Les had no time to hide away from the explosion or think of what magical thing could cause so much destruction. "Get the master!" Mikka yelled at him.
But his master was there no more.
"His secret gateway. Must be a lever on his table." Les jumped beyond the table, and saw only one open drawer. He placed his hand inside and stopped."
"Be careful of the booby traps." He heard Mikka's voice behind him. Two assassins ran through the door with swords flashing, straight at him.
Mikka's one went to meet them. "Hurry!" He heard her as she met them halfway through the room.
He looked inside the drawer seeing three sticks he could pull on. One, the closest to him and in the middle of the draw seemed very sharp. "That one must be poisoned. It will cut me through my gloves, and I will die. But which one is it then, the one on the left or the one on the right?"
He feared that if he pressed the wrong one, some kind of deadly trap would open up and not even Mikka could save him then. "Right or left... Master always prefers the left ones, not the right ones." So he pressed the left one, waiting for something to happen. There was a noise of an opening of the floor, right under his feet, but it opened only an inch, and stood stuck there.
"He has it locked from the other side. We have to follow him by finding another way. I think I know which way to go.
"No!" Mikka said and only then had she materialized in a figure standing but a hand away from him. "We have no time to waste. Move out of the room." She said and pushed him out.
He understood what she meant as she dropped another dark metallic ball right where he stood. Before he had a chance to run out, Mikka's body jumped on top of him, and they both hit the ground only a second after a new explosion shook entire house.
When they got up, they saw half of the room blown. Les started to pick splinters from his pierced legs and slowly walked over the hole. Luckily, they did not make it to the hole as four big bags of sand dropped down from somewhere above and smashed themselves loose at the place where the table once stood.
"I guess that's what would have happened if I pressed the right lever."
"Yeah, you would be dusted." Mikka said grinning.
"There must be more booby traps ahead."
"Yes... but what do we do?"
"Do you know where it leads?"
There are multiple exits... I do not know which one he will chose."
He saw Mikka look at the hole.
"I will go first." Les volunteered, getting no complaints from Mikka. "I know what to look for. Just follow my step."
They had to jump down to the secret passage as broken-up stairs was also covered with fallen debris.
The tunnel did go only one way, with only trays of light following forward. They ran toward it until darkness has swallowed them both and suddenly Les stopped. he took one of the torches on the wall.
"Do you have anything to light this with."
Mikka matched it up instead of an answer. It was good that they stopped where they did. A small rope was almost invisibly tied across the tunnel at the height of their knees.
"No way we could have not trigged that one."
As they slowly stepped over it, Mikka whispered quietly in his ear. "First time that you might have saved my life..." Les had to smile.
There was no sight of Master, and the tunnel was not going up, but down.
"I hate underground." Mikka whispered behind. They moved cautiously forward. Obviously, the master was gaining time on them able to move faster, knowing fully where all the traps were, Soon, its walls were no longer covered by bricks, and the tunnel curved sharply to the right.
They could hear noise, and then voices from behind them and stepped up. Then there was a loud bang, and screams, and they stopped to look back.
"Whoever was following us, must have trigger the trap."
The screams stopped but the noise of something tumbling continued. It grew louder and louder.
"Whatever it is, it's coming this way. We better hurry." They ran, first at the slow pace, but as the noise grew louder, they ran, turning around to see what could it be behind them.
"It's a giant stone!"
"Crap! It will smash us like bugs!" The giant ball was as wide as the tunnel, and there was no way to step aside from it. As the tunnel was going down, it was gaining speed.
Mikka took her sword out and while running slashed a piece of the wall on one side. It was soft and it landed behind her.
"It's too little - it won't stop it. It will just slow you down." Les screamed as he became aware of what she was doing.
Mikka saw it clearly now. The stone ball was not more than twenty yards behind, and they had only but seconds to get out of its way.
Mikka reached Les in a few fast steps, and as the ball was only a few yards away, she wrapped her hand around his waist. "Hold on to me." She told him as she struck the ceiling of the tunnel with all her might and pulled herself and Les up with the rolling ball passing under her waste, and brushing her caves which could not get out of the way.
As the ball thundered further the tunnel, Mikka dropped Les down, and then jerked the sword out.
"That was smart. I owe you yet again."
They continued down the tunnel but not more than few yards away they saw a hole in the right wall.
"He would have gone through that hole... He would not risk going down the tunnel and getting his body mashed."
They creped through the hole but soon it opened up in another tunnel, big enough for both of them to be able to stand up and walk side by side.
The tunnel was not going down any more, but its floor started to get moody. As they went onward, there was more and more water in the tunnel and soon it covered most of their boots.
"It would not be good if he escapes us..." Les was going to say something else, but Mikka held his arm, and showed him to be quiet. By now, he knew she could hear things much better. They moved along with more caution and sud
denly passed next to the cage with open doors. The tunnel suddenly turned to the right, and they could see some light coming from far away.
"The opening..." But before they could race forward, they felt the floor underneath their feet move, ever so slightly.
It stopped, but as Mikka bounced on her heals, realizing how soft it was, the floor moved again, then jerked harder and almost knocked them down off their feet and into the ground.
"What the hell is that?" Les tried to shine torches across the muddy water.
"Whatever it is, let's get out of here.
But they could not run further. The giant serpents head flew out of the water, and turned around to look at them with her reptile eyes.
"The floor... we are standing on the serpent!" Mikka yelled in horror as it became obvious that the monstrous snake was more than thirty yards long. The floor moved under their feet as the head rushed toward them.
Les stroke first and in a single blow cut off part of serpent's tong which leaped two feet ahead to meet them.
The snake hissed in horrific cry, and pulled her head back, and then opened its mouth to cover entire tunnel with it. Then it stroke at Les, swallowing his whole body in a single move.
Mikka let out a thunderous cry. It was defiance, fear and anger all melted into one 'Nooo!!!', shrieked out with enough energy to make the mountain shake and the birds in the forest outside fly out of the trees.
But Les was not going down without a fight. The serpent was trying to swallow him, but he buried his sword on top of her mouth, right beyond her teeth, holding on to it with all his strength. The giant snake went crazy then. It shook its whole body around, tossing Mikka around like she was nothing more than a pebble. Its mouth was opening and the severed tong hissing, trying to pull Les further in her stomach. Mikka saw him fight for his life there, inside her mouth, and she took a deep breath.
"Run! He yelled at her, seeing that she was standing her ground.