by J C Maynard
Riccolo held his breath as Kyan stood up and looked out a hole in the shack right next to him. After a minute, Kyan sat back down in the shack. “I thought I heard someone.”
After that, the shack was silent, save for a few whispers that Riccolo could not discern in the wind. I grant him his freedom and now this girl knows! That bitch is on our tail and she’ll tell the Prince, then Kyan will lead him to us — lead the Nightsnakes to the gallows.
An hour later, Riccolo stood with the Nightsnakes on the snowy roof of the theatre. Riccolo turned to Bay, his right-hand man. “You tied up Vree before you left?”
“Yes,” whispered Bay, “I think she was going to warn Kyan and the girl that we were coming. You should have killed her with her sister.”
Riccolo clenched his teeth and looked at Kyan’s shack ahead of them. “Get Kyan first,” he whispered, “then the girl. But don’t knock out Kyan.”
“Why?”
Riccolo smiled. “I want him to see his shack burn to ashes.”
Bay obeyed and signaled the rest of the thieves forward. Surrounding it, a few of them silently stepped inside.
◆◆◆
In his dream, Kyan raced away from the Phantoms in the forest of Endlebarr. Running over moss and brooks, behind him the Phantoms, enshrouded in black shadow, gained on him. Kyan tore around another bush and then yelled as he tripped over a log. The Phantoms surrounded him. Gallien stepped forward, drawing a sword. Someone from behind him grabbed him and forced a hand over his mouth.
Kyan awoke, unable to breathe. Multiple hands secured his arms behind his back while one clamped over his mouth, pulling him up. Kicking and twisting, Kyan struggled to free himself. In the dim light of the shack, he could discern more figures surrounding Raelynn, who fought them back. Kyan barely saw her draw a knife when a figure bashed her on the head, knocking her unconscious.
There were too many of them for Kyan to overpower. He tried to punch with his arms, but they were pinned back. The figures shoved him forward and out of the door of the shack into the freezing snow and blowing wind.
Pushing himself off of the snowy roof, Kyan found himself surrounded by Nightsnakes with torches. The Nightsnakes grabbed onto Kyan and held him down in the snow as a pair of boots stepped forward. The hushed, snake-like voice of Riccolo coiled out in the winter wind. “I gave you your freedom.”
More Nightsnakes dragged Raelynn’s unconscious body out of the shack and into the snow beside Kyan. Riccolo kicked snow over her face. “But you two are conniving little bastards.”
Kyan struggled against the thieves who held him. “We’ve left you alone . . . After I stole from the Palace for you, you said that you would let me be.”
“And then you broke your promise to keep quiet about us . . . But I think thanks are in order Kyan,” said Riccolo with a smile, “because until today, we didn’t know that Whittingale never followed through on his promise to get rid of the government’s intelligence on us. Now we can have those documents destroyed. Apparently your friend here knows where they are.”
Kyan looked up at Riccolo. “What do you want?”
Riccolo grabbed Kyan by the chin and spoke in a voice like a hiss. “I want to destroy everything you love; and I want this girl to get me those documents.”
“You think she’ll do what you want?”
Riccolo laughed. “I’ve found that watching someone’s throat get slit is a powerful convincer . . . so it’s quite perfect that I have two of you . . . isn’t it?” said Riccolo.
After no response, Riccolo smiled and raised his hand, and a Nightsnake handed him a torch. Kyan’s heart raced. “Don’t!”
Kyan tried to stand, but the Nightsnakes threw him back in the snow and held him down, making sure he watched as Riccolo tossed the torch inside his shack. Within seconds, the interior lit up in flames and the bit of snow on the top of it steamed away. The crackle grew, and showers of sparks flew out the door and the window. Something wooden fell inside the shack, and the back corner fell in. A timber on the roof fell down into the fire, and the flames rose up out of it to the outside, where they slithered over the entire shack.
Kyan watched helplessly as another wall fell inward. He stopped fighting the Nightsnakes around him and sat frozen in the snow. There, scorched in flames was his home ever since he had left the orphanage. Crumbling, falling in on itself, every last thing he had was burning, sending smoke into the snowy night.
For a long while, the shack burned; and only when nothing was left but a glowing heap of coals did the Nightsnakes put a rag over Kyan’s face. As soon as Kyan breathed in a strong smell tingled in his nose and his mind went blank.
Kyan tried to open his eyes; the room around him was completely black. The sounds around him were muted, but he began to hear a faint jingling sound. Lifting his arm, he flinched as something cold and metallic jerked it back. Becoming more aware, Kyan pulled his arms up again, only to be stopped by the chains binding them to a stone pillar. There were footsteps somewhere beyond the pitch black room; a door creaked open, letting in light. “Kyan’s awake, Riccolo.” said the figure.
Carrying a torch, Riccolo stepped past the watchman into the room. Only when Riccolo glanced to Kyan’s left did Kyan realize that an unconscious Raelynn was tied to a pillar beside him. They were in the basement of Riccolo’s manor. Riccolo stepped close to Kyan, towering over him. Staring into Kyan’s eyes, Riccolo said nothing, seeming to wait until Kyan spoke; but when he said nothing, Riccolo sighed. “You never learn.”
Kyan moved in his chains. “You know, truth be told, I’m getting kind of tired of being knocked out and captured as your prisoner.”
Riccolo smiled. “It’s too easy.”
Kyan shook his head. “You’re afraid of me. You burn down my home, you knock me out and take me wherever we are now . . . You’re afraid.”
Riccolo snarled. “When this war is over and you’ve all died, I’ll come back down to the slums from my throne to defile your corpse.”
Kyan stood there silently.
Riccolo breathed heavily, raging with anger. Beads of sweat dripped down his red face as he turned to the Nightsnakes, one of whom held a box. “Bring it over.” said Riccolo.
The Nightsnake approached and handed the box to Riccolo, who took it carefully. Riccolo stroked the outside of the box with his four fingered hand. Kyan’s stomach dropped when he realized what it was.
Riccolo smiled at Kyan. “Our snake has not tasted blood for quite some time . . .”
Kyan tried to move away, but Riccolo pinned him up against the stone pillar, holding his neck in place.
Riccolo slowly opened a hatch in the box, just the size of a snake. A hissing sound wriggled out of the box, and from the corner of his eye, Kyan could see the green snake coiling up, ready to strike. Its forked tongue flicked and its eyes beamed red. Riccolo released a sinister laugh and spoke to the snake one word, “Bite.”
Like a bolt of lightning, an excruciating shock of pain ran through Kyan’s neck. The snake recoiled and Riccolo grabbed it and closed the box, handing it back to the other Nightsnakes. He then motioned for the Nightsnakes to let go of Kyan and he stood in front of him. Riccolo reached out his four fingered hand and stroked Kyan’s neck where the snake had just bitten and pulled it back — it was covered in hot blood. Riccolo licked Kyan’s blood off his fingers and then smiled. “I told you that you were destined to be one of us.”
Overcoming the pain from his neck clenched his teeth and groaned. “So that’s why you have me in chains?”
Riccolo spun around and turned to the Nightsnakes, “Wake the girl! Alert the other Nightsnakes!” Within a few seconds, one of the Nightsnakes carried in a pail of water and drenched Raelynn. Coughing, she opened her eyes and looked around to figure out where she was. A bit of tension went away when she laid eyes on Kyan. Riccolo stepped in front of her. “Hello deary. You know where we can find the documents that have our location?”
“Who are you?”
“Whe
re are my manners, we are the Nightsnakes, and I am the Lord of Thieves. I overheard you tell Kyan here that you’ve seen the rest of the documents that could send the Guard after us — our location, the names of our members, our history. They’re somewhere in the Great Library after Whittingale hid them to keep as collateral.”
Raelynn kept a calm face. “You heard correctly.”
Riccolo tried to match her mood, but his anger showed through. “Here is what we will do: you’ll lead us through the Palace there, we’ll get rid of the documents, and then we’ll let you go.”
“You’re rats.” said Raelynn.
“And you care why?”
Raelynn bit her lip and then shook her head. “I prefer not to associate with the lowest life-forms this world harbors.”
Riccolo laughed and pointed at Kyan. “Except when they sleep with you . . . I’ll tell you what; if you lead us there, I’ll spare Kyan’s life.”
After no response from Raelynn, Riccolo clicked his tongue. “Kyan . . .” he said, “Does she know why you’re here? . . . Oh dear, you haven’t told her who you are . . . and yet, she has sentenced you to death.”
From the corner of his eye, Kyan could see a figure approaching slowly. With another glance he knew by the deep color of her skin. Vree. One step after another, she inched toward them out of blackness. Held behind her back was an axe. Immediately, Kyan knew what was about to happen and readied himself by finding the quickest way out of the room. Before Riccolo could stop her, Vree swung down with the axe and broke Kyan’s chains.
Riccolo sprang forward, but Kyan slammed into him as Vree brought down the axe on Raelynn’s chains, knocking Riccolo to the ground.
As a crowd of Nightsnakes rushed in the room, Riccolo pushed himself up from the ground and drove his knife toward Kyan, who jumped to the side. Thrusting again, Kyan grabbed Riccolo’s wrist and twisted it up hard. Riccolo’s hand slipped and he dropped the knife.
Next to Kyan, Vree jumped, wrapped her legs around a Nightsnake’s neck, and spun, smacking his body into the floor. Another Nightsnake swiped a dagger at Vree. She ducked as it sailed over her head, and quickly knocked it out of his hand. Vree dodged him again as he swung at her, stabbing his thigh before slitting his neck.
As Raelynn fought with her hands, more Nightsnakes who funneled through the doorway, Riccolo jumped up and kicked Kyan’s chest, hurling him into the wall. Barely able to breathe, Kyan struggled away. Riccolo picked up his knife and ran for Kyan, who ducked and drove himself into Riccolo, tackling him to the floor.
Before Kyan could grab the knife from Riccolo’s hand, Riccolo spun him around and landed on top of Kyan. Riccolo pushed the knife closer to Kyan’s neck. Kyan held Riccolo’s wrist in his sweaty hand, which threatened to slip at any moment. Out of options, Kyan butted his head into Riccolo’s knocking him back. During the instant Riccolo was down, Kyan lunged away and headed for the door, seeing Raelynn in the corner of his eye.
Kyan, Raelynn, and Vree bolted through the door past more Nightsnakes, knocking anyone down who tried to grab him. From behind, they heard Riccolo scream, “Stop them, but leave them alive!” The three ran away from the swarm of Nightsnakes behind them, winding through the hallways of Riccolo’s manor, around a corner and up a flight of stairs.
“We need to get out of here!” shouted Kyan from behind as the yells of the Nightsnakes slowly grew distant behind them. Vree lead them to a side room and ran to a painting on the wall. Grabbing the edges, she swung it to the side, revealing a hole in the wall. “Through here!” she whispered. “Riccolo made this in case we ever needed to escape the Guard.” Raelynn and Kyan followed her through as she put the painting back up from the inside of what seemed like a hallway in between rooms. Planks of wood crossed it every which way, holding it up. The two of them followed Vree through the passageway.
“I don’t hear them behind us.” said Raelynn.
Vree whispered back to her. Around a bend in the passageway, Vree knelt down and pried up a plank of wood from the floor, lifting up a hatch in the floor. She lowered herself into the darkness of the hatch and dropped. A little splash echoed and from below them, Vree whispered, “Come down.”
Raelynn, lowered herself into the darkness. Again the sound of a small splash . . . and then Kyan followed them into the hatch, falling a few feet before his feet splashed in a foot of something liquidy. A rotten smell overtook his senses and he nearly vomited when he realized what he was standing in. Kyan reached up and grabbed the edge of the hatch and closed the wooden floorboards above them, jamming the wood so it couldn’t be opened.
Vree pointed down the small, stone tunnel in which they stood, even though no one could see her in the darkness. “The sewers lead to the ocean.”
The walls were gray and only six or seven feet apart. The rotten smell and cold muck in Kyan’s boots only slightly distracted him from what really scared him. “What about Riccolo?”
Raelynn looked back up at the wooden hatch in the stone ceiling. “If they break through it and come for us, they won’t have enough room to give us a good fight.”
“Vree,” said Kyan, “how well does Riccolo know the sewers?”
Vree shook her head. “I’m not sure. But there’s no way that he spends enough time down here to have it memorized.”
Kyan strained to see in the pitch black. “Is there a longer way to the ocean other than a direct path?”
Vree nodded, afraid of Kyan’s idea.
“But wouldn’t Riccolo expect us to go for the ocean?” said Raelynn.
Vree breathed heavily. “We have to leave the city.”
“We can’t.” said Kyan.
“Are you saying we should go back into Aunestauna?”
Kyan nodded. “There must be a drain that goes to the river.”
“There are a few, yes.” said Vree.
Raelynn shook her head. “Riccolo will find us in Aunestauna.”
“I doubt it . . . the city is massive. He burned down my home; he has no way of knowing where we would be.”
“Yes,” said Vree, “but if he got just a hint of our location, he’d be there before we would know. He knows this city like the back of his hand.”
“So do I.” said Kyan. “I’ve been here as long as he has.”
Far off, drips echoed off the stone along with the remnants of his voice. Kyan swallowed and continued. “If he comes after us, we’ll have the advantage . . . Look, I know how dangerous Riccolo is, but I know what I’m doing.”
The three stood in silence, which made it even worse when the hatch above them rang out with a bang. “They’re here!”
The three of them sprinted forward through the muck of the sewers. Blindly splashing forward, they ran around a bend in the tunnel. “Where do we go?” questioned Raelynn.
A crazy idea ran through Kyan’s head. It could work . . . “What if we went somewhere he would never expect any runaway to go? Somewhere that already has security . . . !”
The two girls skidded to a halt. “You’re not saying —”
Kyan nodded, out of breath. “The last place he’d expect us to go to is the Palace.”
Vree panted and turned toward Raelynn. “He’s right.”
“We’d take the river and follow it until it wraps around the first district,” said Kyan, “and then go west up to the Palace, enter from the docks’ side.”
Raelynn looked back and hoped that the hatch held shut. “Which way to the river, Vree?”
“North, so that means we’ll turn right when we can.”
The others nodded and ran forward with her, paying less attention to the overwhelming smell of the sewers. As they rounded another turn, a distance echo something breaking and splashing. Raelynn flinched, almost feeling it. “They broke through.”
“We need to keep going.” said Vree. “It should turn soon.” They pounded forward through the slime of the sewer, blind in the underground darkness.
Cursing and splashing echoed behind them, and with every second,
the Nightsnakes grew nearer. The tunnel bent left and the three of them rounded the corner. Slightly faster than the others, Kyan pushed them onward, while Riccolo’s cursing grew ever nearer.
“It should be here!” exclaimed Vree, “where is it?”
“Keep going.” said Kyan. Raelynn and Vree ran closely behind. “Vree,” said Kyan, “are you sure it splits off?”
“Yes, I — I know it does somewhere.”
Feeling along the sides of the wall, they navigated another sewer that ran to the right. The three of them splashed their way to it with Kyan leading the way. The echo of Riccolo and his Nightsnakes chased after them.
Not ten feet into the tunnel, Kyan felt a smack against his head and the clanging of metal. He stumbled back after running into a giant filtering sewer grate that filled the entire tunnel. The clamor rang out, sending a loud rattle echoing through the tunnel system.
“Are you alright?” asked Vree.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Kyan responded in the pitch black darkness. “Is there a way around this?”
They felt the walls for a way out, but it was a dead end.
“We have to turn back-” said Kyan.
Vree shook her head. “Ricc-”
Raelynn reached for Vree’s face and put her hands over her mouth. Listening, they could hear Riccolo coming closer. As the Nightsnakes bent around a corner, the light from Riccolo’s torch illuminated the main tunnel, sending flickers of light into their side tunnel.
Kyan and Vree looked to Raelynn, and she nodded back and mouthed the words, Trust me, I have a plan. Silently, Raelynn stepped closer to the main tunnel, sliding against the wall up to the corner where the tunnels met.
What is she doing? Kyan thought, as the light from Riccolo’s torch grew bright.
As he walked through the muck, Riccolo traced his finger along the wall. “I know you three are near, I can hear you. I can hear your anxious breaths and your racing heartbeats.”
Raelynn held up three fingers, then two, one, and a fist. As Riccolo emerged, holding his blinding torch, Raelynn jumped out and knocked it out of his hands, sending it into the slush on the floor of the tunnel, where it sizzled and flickers out to total blackness. “Run!” she screamed.