by Sam Sea
“The same thing happen to me as I was coming here.” Derran said. “The navigational maps seem to be all wrong… My ship doesn’t even have enough juice to go back to the nearest wormhole’s click station.”
“It seems somebody messed with those old navigational maps... Probably the same people who did all of these,” Mika said with anger not leaving her voice.
“We have to find who that is…”
“That’s not my job. I should have already be out of this planet…”
“Maybe it should be your job.
But Mikka was not ready to get into that discussion. “I can’t believe any of this happening!” She was not ready to let it go. “With all the technology we have, we are left to riding horses and fighting with swords here… If I only had an air-scooter with me, I could be in the city right now! You really should have shared more information with me when you called me to come here. If we only had-”
“You cannot worry about things that you cannot change. How many times had I told you that?”
Derran sighed as he calmed down his raised voice. “But you are right. I made mistakes. It should have all be done differently. But now, we have to do the best we can.”
“Someone’s coming…” Mikka interrupted him as she reached for her sword and soon hoofs of horses were clearly audible. “Two horses… but many footsteps.”
“Who comes?” Derran called as the noise approached them.
“Lord Eirnar and Ronnich from Wier Woods.” It was Ronnich deep voice that greeted them.
Moments later they made it to the light of their camp fire "So, you are entertaining yourself by the warm fire while we are over there fighting your war?" Lord Eirnar greeted them.
"Didn't you hear the horn? I called for you to come."
"Oh, yes, the horn we did hear.. But what about tens of orcs that came our way..."
"What orcs?"
"Almost hundreds of them. They were just like in the tales of old. We slew as many as we could, but could not run away because..." his look gazed toward the darkness, and tens of small shapes slowly started to come out of there.
"Children?"
"Yes... They came out of the tunnel we guarded. They must be the ones that were being trained to become future assassins."
"We could not slay them... They yielded, looked scared."
"You did good, very good. But what about orcs?"
"We slew as many as we could. Even children helped. These children are good fighters. Many of orcs went to the tunnels, many scattered around. I am afraid that all of them was just a small raiding party. More will follow."
"We tried to make sure none of them followed us, but be warned, with the fire going here, they may fall upon us during the night."
"You did good. And do not worry about fire… We will not stay here. We have to leave right away. Be prepared to depart as soon as you refresh yourself.”
"But what about the children? They are exhausted…"
They all stood there in the darkness, unsure of where to move or what to do next.
Mikka walked over to Derran and whispered in his ear. "They better not see their master like that, or else who knows what they may end up doing..."
Derran looked at her, at the kids and then at their master, laying still unconscious besides the fire. He thought for a second and then said out lout "Children, gather around here... Come to me... All of you." They slowly started to approach them.
"We will give you food and help you. You are free of your old master! He is not a master anymore! Not a master of you or of anyone! He will be judged for the sins he committed, and he will harm nobody ever again...."
They all pulled close to each other, twenty or so of them, so close to each other they touched. Most had frightened stares which they switched between Derran and their incapacitated Master.
"He will never again be the master of anyone! The gods will not have it! And you for yourself can now choose what to do, whether you will follow the path of darkness and misery that will ultimately lead to your demise…” Derran pointed his finger at their old master. “…or...the road of light, the road of rightness, where your hearts and soul will be clean.
He let those words linger in the silenced air for a while before continuing. “You are all invited to come to the Monetary of Vartta, receive a shelter there as well as food and training so you can become more than just life-takers. Now, we have to leave soon, our priests will lighten a fire for you to warm up and will give you as many blankets and food as we have. But we will leave soon. So each one of you have to make a choice what they want to do next."
After finishing his short speech, Derran turned to one of his priests. “How many crows do we still have left in cages?”
“There are only four left, my Grand Master.”
"Send one crow to Three Rivers... Tell them not to drink water and to warn others of the same. The other one needs to go to the town of Lara. We will arrive there by the morning and I expect to have fresh horses waiting for us then…”
“And the third one, my Lord?”
"The other one has to go to the spring... they have to know that assassins are coming. If they are successful and poison the water, millions will die..."
"Priests in the city can warn royals of the plot to kill them all..."
"And how about all the land from here to there... all the towns, they are not ready to deal with orcs that are coming behind our backs. They will all be slaughtered.” Lord Eirnar interrupted him from behind.
"Yes, you are right. We will spread the word of the coming threat as we race toward the city. Hopefully, people will know, they will hide and save themselves until the army is organized well enough to fight those monsters. You can also take one of my priest and ride the southern road warning people of the coming danger."
"And what do we do with him?" Mikka asked Derran as her boot smacked Master Urko in the groin.
"He deserves to die,." said one of the priests, and instantly made Derran turn to face him.
"Oh, yeah, he probably does. But if I kill him, then what good is he? No, I think that his days are not going to end here. I have other plans for him, and he has a lot more to talk about than just this case here. Eimor and Silrkan,” he called two of his guards. “Two of you are going to take him to the church in Zirtha. They have a dudgeon there that should keep him alive while I sent for him. His back is broken so he will never walk again. But keep him alive. Understand?”
“Yes, my Lord,” they answered.
"Derran, what about Les…” Mikka asked him suddenly. “Send him back with the children to the monastery… even if gets better, he will be in no condition to fight, not anytime soon. Send him somewhere he can be safe and give him time to recuperate."
“No, I will not go…” Les came out of the carriage to face them. “I feel fine, and my sword will be needed elsewhere. I will come with you. And… you can send a few of your priests to take these children back. I am much better fighter than they are anyway.”
"We ride to the Three Rivers now. It will take us two days if we do not slow down."
Two more days... Mikka thought turned to Silent and wondered where she was, and if she was safe or not. Maybe I should have not left her. Maybe, I should have not taken this trip. If she is not fine... What use is all of this then?
Derran saw a shadow passing over Mikka's face, but decided not to ask anything. A small, almost invisible smile, emerged in the corner of his lips.
Chapter 18 - Silent in Charge
Silent didn't like what was happening. It was the second time in as many nights that the loud knock on a door woke her up. Even though it was not her door someone was raging on, she didn't have to look through her spy hole to know who it was. The hour was late, and nothing good could come out of it. Before even hearing voices, she knew it was the drunk who bothered Tap's mother the other day.
She got up and raced to the door, hoping that Tap's mother would not consider opening hers.
"What do y
ou want?" She heard his mom answer across the hallway.
"I have something for you," the drunk was saying. "It's pretty, and I know you will like it. Cost me a lot of coins..."
But the voice, Silence knew, was anything other than friendly. There was only madness in it. The drunken madness. She heard the type of it before. It was like on Pluk before they would go into their crazy modes, when they were eating too many crazy barriers ,when they could eat flash of a human without blinking.
Don't open, just don't open the door. Silent was hoping.
"I do not want anything from you... So just leave. My husband will be home soon, and then you can give it to him."
Smart, very smart. Just leave, you drunken bastard, just leave! Silent hoped Tap didn't wake up. His weakness has returned and fever broke out yesterday. The power of new medicine seemed to have stopped working.
"Your husband is not coming home, my lady... It's already been over four weeks and he is probably dead by now." The drunk banged harder. "Open up. I want to give you...something."
"Leave us! I'm going to call on the hostel master!"
"Well, I can call him for you if you want to... He is downstairs drinking with two of my friends. Maybe we can all come up here and have fun with you... teach you manners. You are so impolite. I got you these beautiful gift and you... you do not even want to open the door. I'll tell Big Ganb how impolite you are, throw you and your sick boy out to the street. That sick boy should not be here to begin with. Nobody wants him around. You don’t open that door, I'll tell everyone how sick he is and how everyone around here is going to get sick... Old Ganb doesn't want you here."
"All right, all right.
"Oh, look what we have here... a pretty little girl. What, you must not be even fifteen yet."
"No, I think I am only twelve..."
"Well, it's very late for a twelve years old to be up, so why don't you go back inside to your mother, or father, and close that door..."
"No, there is nobody here but me…" She said in the most innocent voice she could muster "I'm all alone.'' Silent saw him staring at her legs, her sleeping garment covering her up only above her knees.
“And I am so scared…” she said as stepped a few steps backward, letting the room for the drunk to stumble into her doorway, and cast a look inside.
"Well, what do you know, you are all alone... And that is just so wrong. You do not need to worry. I will-“ The dagger that appeared in her hand the drunk did not see. When she placed it into his abdominal, pushing it in with all her power, he did not understand. When he reached for it, it was not there anymore.
"You yell again, I'll kill you." She warned him, standing somehow behind his huge body. But he screamed, out of his mind, turning around to see who the hell did that little girl thought she was, whispering threats into his ear. The dagger found his throat, cutting it like it was made of butter, and he screamed no more. As he looked at the little girl standing already five steps away, he tried to reach her. But she was four steps too far, and he fell to the wooden creaking floor of her apartment thinking of how could he die by the hand of someone so small, and so innocent.
"What did you do?" the voice that brought Silent back came from Tap's mother who suddenly appeared in her doorway. Tap was there behind her, wide-eyed, looking scared and clinging to her mother's dress.
But Silent just looked at her with the expression of You really need to ask?
"You think you can protect us?" Gina's question pushed Silent back. "What do you think will happen to us now? Where are we going to go now? The king's guards are going to come and take you away... do you know what they do to girls who... behave like that? They burn them to a stake. And how can I take care of you? I cannot even run away with you. Tap could not handle it." Her eyes were watery.
Silent understood then the problem, and with each question her small statue was somehow becoming smaller and smaller.
"It's never that hard taking man's life... you know... I could have done that, him being so drunk. But, he's got friends, and if they take me away, who would take care of my sick boy or you?" She pointed at scared, trembling Tap.
"No, I did this... Let them take me away." Silent said quietly.
But his mom would not hear nothing of that. "Silly little girl. You go and hide in my room, take Tap with you and hide ..."
But it was already too late to go and play hiding games. The steps from downstairs suddenly reached them. Followed were upset voices of another drunken man.
"Damn you! When you said you were going to have a little bit of fun, never thought you would make all that noise... Damn drunk! I told you to whatever you do to keep it down… "
But the owner never reached Silent’s bedroom. As he made the last stairs, the door he passed next to swung violently open and the club hit him on top of the head, sending his unconscious body to the floor.
The young man stepped forward then, dropping the club to the floor. Silent looked at the chain which swung on his chest as he walked toward her. It was of green pyramid and two moons on its top.
“I am sorry… I will wait here for city guards to come and take me away… it was not their fault…” Silent tried to explain to the priest.
"You will do no such thing," the priest said it at once. “All three of you will follow me… Now!”
Later as he led them through the night, just before they reached the temple, he turned around and looked at Silent. "I was instructed to watch three of you. I am sorry I didn't get there on time, and I am glad you have not been harmed. But you will now give me your weapons and I do not want to see you take another life, at least while you are in this holy place, understand?"
Silent then let him have her sword, but she tapped the dagger she tied to her calf. “You may feel like I am small and do not know what I am doing… But you better not attempt to hurt any of us, or else I’ll show you no mercy, priest,” she told him as they made the first stair.
Chapter 19 - The Road to Three Rivers
There was no much chat as Mikka and the company rode toward Three Rivers. They would take turns riding in the coach, as much as to give break to themselves and to lift some weight off their horses.
"I was wondering something, and it has been bothering me for a while now, so I wanted to ask you..."
Mikka stared at him for a second waiting for him to continue.
"Back there in the forest, when you poisoned those dogs, why did you do it?"
Mikka shrugged her shoulders.
"I mean, you could have just killed them all with your blade, I mean with the way you move..."
"Maybe I could have... But I never fought hounds before. I killed other beasts, but I did not fight them. I didn’t know what to expect, so I wanted to be safe. Besides, if one of them bit me, and I got injured, it would make my job of bringing you in that much harder. You know. You're a big baby to carry around."
But Les was not paying attention to her mocking. "I mean, most assassins that I know of... they either like to use the blade or the poison. Most blade assassins hate poison...”
"So, now, you think of me as an… assassin? The one who uses poison? Does that disappoint you?”
“No, no… I was just wondering…”
Mikka let go a small laugh. “I am not an assassin... Well, not anymore anyway. That’s why I took the job of saving you… Didn’t I tell you this already? You’re really very mistrusting guy, aren’t you?"
As Mikka studied his quieted face, she added, “I guess being in the
“Well, if you are not an assassin anymore, does that mean you used to be?” Mikka would not answer not even by dropping a smile of her face. “And if you could change your ways, then why can’t I stop being one either?”
“We yet have to see about that.”
“Oh, I promised myself I will do just that.”
“Yeah, nobody ever told you to be careful of making promises not knowing if you can keep them?”
They made it to Lara just before down, but ha
d stopped only to change their horses and push onward. When the morning was almost all spent, they made it to Westin Lake. Everything around them seemed to be so peaceful as no trouble had never come to it. This part of the country has not seen wars for decades, and few feared that anything bad might happen. They waited for a barge to come and take them across, allowing for the time to be spend stretching sore muscles, laying down and enjoying a short respite.
Derran saw Mikka closing her eyes and walked over to her.
“There is something I wanted to talk to you about…” he told her in a subdued voice as he turned around to make sure that nobody was close enough to hear him.
“Before you ask me anything…” Mikka answered, still keeping her eyes closed and ignoring him. “You have many of my own questions to answer.”
Derran waited for a few minutes before the questions would come, and then only found a small answer to what he knew was being asked of him. “I could never guess you would ever choose to become an assassin…” he finally said.
"You were there one day, and gone the next... I didn't know what happened, if it was a test, if it was part of the training. I really didn’t know what to do… for a long time. I could not believe that you would just leave me like that… not you. But then I remembered the last words you told me. Do you remember them, the night before you disappeared, you said 'You are ready now. Do whatever it takes to survive...'"
"I might have said that, but I did not leave on my own choosing. Where I had to go, you could not have followed. It was the way it had to be, I guess..." The silence, uncomfortable, seemed to have frozen the time. Mikka wanted more answers, but as she turned her eyes on him and studied the look in his eyes, she knew she would get none.
If he wants to, he'll tell you, she thought and all she said was. "Maybe one day, you can tell me what happened. I really would like to know."