Contest (The Stork Tower Book 6)

by Tony Corden

  “Not really, but I understand what you want me to do. I’m not sure why she wouldn’t be with you, but I expect it’s one of your crazy plans.”

  “It is. Now let’s do this.”

  Thad and Sparrow got into suits and went inside the room. Leah said to the slave, “You betray me, and you will die. If you do as I say, then my team will leave you alive.”

  “How do I know they won’t kill me?”

  “You don’t, but honestly it’s the best chance you have.”

  With that, Leah stepped aside and quickly changed into the clothes she’d brought with her and then put the suit over the top of them after winding the fourth suit around her abdomen. She stepped out just as three huge forms came into view at the other end of the cave. Their suits were made of the same material as the one Leah was wearing but were over two feet taller and that much wider than Leah's.

  The faceplate of the suits allowed the wearer to see out but had a reflective coating that stopped others looking in. The three figures stopped close to Leah and the tallest of the three said, “So, this is the elusive Cassius? I thought you’d be taller. Open your helmet.”

  Leah shook her head and said, “I’ll leave it closed for now. Maybe if you all open yours, then I’ll think about it. I’m here to do a job, let’s go.”

  The three forms stood a little straighter, and again, the tallest spoke, “You are not Cassius. Who are you?”

  “You were offered an assassin. Here I am. You don’t need to know more than that. I haven’t asked who you are and I don’t care. Now, either lead me to my target or tell me you can’t. If you can't, then I’ll leave.”

  Nothing was said but one after the other the three turned and led Leah into the system of vents. She followed them for thirty minutes through a series of natural caves with carved pathways and connecting tunnels. Less than a quarter were lit by lava and the others were navigated in darkness. The first time this happened Leah almost panicked, but she quickly cycled through the different spectra her eye could see and discovered there was a series of painted footsteps and edge markings visible at the edge of the ultraviolet bandwidths. She also noted that the suits ahead of her also glowed faintly at the same wavelengths.

  Finally, they turned from the vents into a small vestibule which contained a set of stairs leading upwards. The three Pyranthians turned and said, “Your target will be in the baths at the moment. From there, she will return to her quarters to prepare herself for the graduation ceremony. To get to her room, turn left at the top of the stairs. At the end of the hall is a locked door. Go through that, and you will see some stairs to your right. Go up two levels then turn right. Her room is the second last from the end on the left. Don’t fail. We will not be here when you return. Find your own way back.”

  Leah said nothing but started up the steps. Altogether she climbed almost thirty metres up the winding stairway carved out of the rock. Before opening the locked door, she removed the suit and pushed it and the spare against one of the walls before carefully opening the door. After peering both ways she headed up the stairwell. She made no sound as she went up two levels and then after making sure the hall was clear, she moved to the heir's door and carefully checked it before unlocking it and stepping inside.

  As she moved inside, she reset the two telltales and the two traps she had had to disarm. Once she was inside, she relocked the door. Moving carefully, Leah searched the mostly utilitarian room before finally settling into a meditative pose in the middle of the single bed that rested against one wall.

  Leah had to wait ten minutes before the door finally opened, and a young woman stepped into the room. Leah wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but the heir didn’t look like she’d imagined. There was no doubt about her identity as she clearly resembled both Queen Alexandra and Prince Albert. What surprised Leah was her complete lack of hair, including eyebrows, and her heavily muscled body covered with hundreds of thin, almost invisible, scars. She was wearing only a towel and had dropped it when she’d seen Leah and automatically assumed a ready stance to fight.

  Leah slowly raised empty hands and said, “Hello, I am sorry to drop in like this, but I wanted to meet you before tonight’s festivities. Please feel free to get dressed as I promise not to kill you.”

  The heir moved in a glide to her set of drawers and reached carefully into the top drawer as Leah said, “I did move the knife from that top drawer. I put it and several others with your swords in the bottom drawer. You’re welcome to get them, but I didn’t want you acting rashly before we could talk.”

  The heir reached into the second drawer and got some underwear before moving to her wardrobe and put on a set of short leather armour. When she was dressed, she said, “Who are you, and what do you want?”

  “People call me Charlotte. I was told you were going to be killed at the Festival tonight and I was sent to rescue you and escort you to Aeolipile. When I arrived, I discovered it wasn’t as simple as I’d imagined. Now, I know I hate being told what to do, so I thought I’d come and find out what you wanted.”

  “Are you from my family?”

  “That’s up to you. What is your name?”

  “I am called, as of the last testings, three hundred and fourteen. We’re supposed to be given a name by our families. What do you mean, it is up to me?”

  “Well, the leaders of the Pyranthians want no one to claim you, and they’ll have you killed before announcing who your parents are and therefore bringing shame to your entire family. There are rebels in the Pyranthian leadership who want you killed before the graduation to bring shame on the current leaders. Some people from Aeolipile want you dead, but most people don’t even know you are alive. You really have only four choices; first, you can tell me to leave you alone, and I will do so. You will not be claimed, and you will probably be killed as a sacrifice if you don’t kill yourself first. Second, you can come with me now, we will escape, and I will take you wherever you want to go. Third, you can graduate, and I will step forward to claim you as family, and I will give you a name. Or, you can try and kill me, and you’ll die now.”

  “You know who I am?”

  “I do.”

  “Why would my family put me here? Do they know what type of hell my life has been?”

  “I can’t judge their reasons, but I believe at the time they were trying to do the right thing. They do not know what your life has been like, but I believe they could have uncovered the truth if they had looked for it.”

  “Why would I want them as family?”

  “That isn’t what I am offering. I am offering to make you my family. Mother, daughter, sister, aunt, whichever works out best for us. I expect we will end up more like sisters, but we need to know each other a bit better before deciding.”

  “They will not let me leave.”

  “Then we’ll fight our way out, or we will die trying. What do you have to lose?”

  “I expected to die before the graduation ceremony.”

  “Well I’m the one they sent to kill you, and I don’t really want to. What do you want to do?

  “I need to graduate, I need a name, I need a family. I need to prove something to myself and to the rest of them.”

  “Good decision. That was what I was hoping, although my boyfriend was hoping we’d be escaping the easy way. I’ll head out now, and I'll meet you at the ceremony. Um, do you know where family is supposed to sit?”

  “They can be anywhere in the central open area as long as they can be heard. Their voice is amplified so they can claim the graduate. What happens if they reject your claim?”

  “Can they do that?”

  “If the claimant has been shown to be dishonourable.”

  “Well then, we have nothing to worry about. Is there anything else I should know?”

  The heir looked nervous for a moment, then she said, “Some here may challenge a claim not for reasons of dishonour, but simply because you look too young to be a warrior.”

  Leah smiled and said
, “Don’t worry about that. Others have thought the same thing and yet here I am.”

  Leah rose from the bed and stepped toward the heir and said, “I promise that if I’m alive, I will be there to claim you as family. Now, I’d best go.”

  The heir opened the door and peered down the hall. “How will you leave?”

  “The same way I came.”

  With that, Leah hurried down the hall and into the stairwell. Moments later, she was back through the locked door and stepping back into a suit. This time she left one behind and strapped her holster and sword belt on the outside of the suit. She moved quickly through the vents back to the bathhouse and was somewhat surprised not to be attacked on the way. Once she was back at the bathhouse, she checked the suit storage area and saw Cassius’ contact tied up at the back of the room. She checked the ropes holding him, and after ensuring he couldn’t escape she took a fresh suit and followed the path she’d thought Thad and Shadow would have taken. Altogether her trip from the heir until she reached the place looking over the caldera took fifty minutes. If all her timing were right, the graduation would start in about twenty minutes.

  As she stepped out of the final passage, she saw both Thad and Shadow facing her with their pistols held at the ready. She unclipped her faceplate and said, “I’m glad you guys are OK. I met the heir, and she wanted to graduate so I said we’d wait.”

  Shadow’s mouth dropped open while Thad ruefully shook his head and then chuckled. He said, “I bet you gave her the options and was glad when she chose that one.”

  “She needs it to move forward. I know that running away is sometimes the right choice, especially if you know you’ll be beaten. Even then, I think it’s often the easy way out. Sometimes we learn more by losing.”

  “So what’s the plan?”

  “You and I will get as close as we can. Shadow will stay here and provide cover if we’re forced to withdraw. From here we can either go through the maze of vents, be picked up by the Cavaticus, or head to where the Iapetus will be.”

  “We’ve an hour-and-a-half before the fleet starts their approach. When do you want to move closer?”

  Looking out over the area, Leah could see the crowds had already formed and about twenty cages with those less successful students who hadn’t been claimed had already been dragged to the edge of the central area near where the portal was. Stakes had already been placed in the ground to hold the one hundred and twenty sacrifices, and a circle of sixty large copper braziers filled with coals and supplied with natural gas to give a tall pulsating pillar of flame had been raised to flood the area with light. A procession of what Leah suspected were priests was making its way toward the centre area followed by one hundred and twenty heavily armed warriors. She said, “The naming ceremony is about to start. We’d best leave now. Have you worked out a good route, or are you OK to follow me?”

  “Either, I worked out a few routes and the safest brings us to the outer edge of the crowd between two of the training houses.”

  Thad described the route, and after Leah made a few changes, she said, “Let’s go. I’ll follow you.”

  Thad nodded and began to move carefully as he led them deeper into the caldera. They’d been moving for a few minutes when the priests started chanting to begin the festivities, which was taken up by the crowd. Thad realised they wouldn’t be heard and he picked up the pace until he was almost jogging. After five minutes the chant suddenly stopped, causing Thad to come to a complete stop. He’d had to stop in the open between two low set buildings, but fortunately everyone was looking the other way.

  The silence was only momentary though. and soon there was the sound of marching feet as the top five hundred graduates marched from the training house into an area directly in front of the one hundred and twenty warriors. Thad kept moving and soon he and Leah were safely back in the darkest shadows at the rear of a building when the graduates stopped and came to attention.

  A warrior stepped forward and in a voice that was amplified by speakers hanging beneath the braziers said, “We are born of blood and trained for honour, we are named by blood and live for honour. We are cleansed by blood and die for honour.”

  The words were repeated by the tens of thousands of Pyranthians who filled the caldera. The amplified voice then said, “Of the fifteen thousand two hundred and eighteen born of blood twenty years ago, fourteen thousand one hundred and twelve survived their training with honour. Before us stand those who are still unnamed by blood, besides the best five hundred who are yet to be presented to be named. Forty-two of those already presented remain unnamed, with their only chance of honour to be cleansed through death. Nineteen have already sought honour by their own hands. We will seek honour for the remaining twenty-three through their sacrifice. Trainee five-hundred, step forward to be named by blood.”

  The Pyranthian in the left-hand corner facing the officials stepped forward until she came to rest in the centre of an eight-metre radius circle which was marked midway between the graduates and the officials.

  The warrior's amplified voice said, “Whose blood will provide the name that this graduate may live with honour?”

  In the silence that followed, all Leah could hear was the faint roar of the flames before two warriors near the inner edge of the crowd stepped forward. Their amplified voices said, “We offer our blood to name the unnamed that she may live with honour.”

  There was silence for several seconds and when no one else stepped forward to claim the graduate the two, a male and a female, moved to either side of the new Pyranthian warrior. Both used a claw to make a horizontal cut across the palm of one of their hands. With their bleeding hand, they grabbed the hands of the graduate and said, “With our blood we name you ‘Tafasa Girmawa’ which in the old tongue means ‘She breathes respect’.”

  The trainee’s voice was also amplified. “By blood I take the name Tafasa Girmawa.”

  A great cheer went up before the Master of Ceremonies continued, “Trainee four-hundred and ninety-nine, step forward to be named by blood.”

  The small ceremony played out the same way until Trainee four hundred and five was called out. Two couples claimed the right of blood, the trainee stepped out of the circle, and the two couples stepped inside. The announcer said, “Only by death may the false claimants find honour. Through blood may the true family be known. Begin!”

  Each of the warriors in the circles drew a sword and a knife and attacked. The battle was over in less than a minute. The surviving couple was the second to claim the right to name the graduate. As the two bodies were dragged from the circle the trainee reentered and stood in the centre. The two survivors stepped forward, and after scratching their palms, they took the hands of the trainee and said together, “Through death the false find honour. With our blood we name you ‘Hanya Fansa’ which in the old tongue means ‘He is our means of Revenge’.”

  The trainee shook loose the hands and said, “By blood I have been named and given honour.” Then with a swipe of each hand, he made a deep cut down each cheek and said, “By blood I was named Hanya Fansa, with my own blood I take the name ‘Zafanshe Jinisu’ which in the old tongue means ‘Their blood will be avenged’.”

  With that he strode into the crowd as did the two who’d killed his parents, though they headed in a different direction. This time there was no cheering.

  Leah and Thad arrived at their destination as the trainee numbered three hundred and eighty was called. Looking into the mass of Pyranthians, Leah saw a few slaves moving through the crowd. They were being ignored by everyone around them. Leah pointed them out and pulled the rags she’d worn in the bathhouse. Thad leaned close and whispered, “Slaves have no honour. I suggested the same thing to Sparrow, and she suggested that if we got close by using subterfuge, we’d lose any honour we might have in the eyes of the Pyranthians.”

  Leah nodded and slipped the slave clothes back into the small bag she carried on her back. Ten trainees later Thad said, “If you listen carefully yo
u can hear when whatever amplifies the voices is turned on and off. I think that’s why everyone becomes so still and quiet.”

  Lea closed her eyes, increased the amplification to her modified ear and waited. She came to the same conclusion as Thad, and her last worry disappeared. When trainee three hundred and sixteen was called, Leah and Thad moved silently off their perch and waited behind a row of Pyranthiams.

  80

  Chapter 80

  December 19, 2073 - Early Morning - Part 6

  “Trainee three-hundred and fourteen, step forward to be named by blood.”

  Although Leah couldn’t see over the crowd, she could tell by the sudden murmur among the Pyranthians that the heir had stepped into the circle in front of the assembled officials. When the murmur had died down the warrior's amplified voice said, “Whose blood will give a name so this graduate may live with honour?”

  Thad and Leah stepped between two warriors and their amplified voices rang out throughout the crowd, “We offer our blood to name the unnamed that she may live with honour.”

  With that, they began walking toward the centre. Pyranthians silently made way to allow them through, and after what seemed like several minutes, Leah and Thad stepped into the open area and walked toward the heir. They stepped toward the circle and stopped short, waiting for the challenges they expected to be raised.

  In the silence, a voice they both knew well joined with one they didn’t and said, “We offer our blood to name the unnamed that she may live with honour.”

  Minutes later, two slaves stepped into the circle and pushing aside the disguises, Frank Emerson and a woman they’d not met stepped toward the circle. Even as they stepped forward, another voice rang out, “I offer my blood and honour to preserve the honour of our people. Those without either honour or names have no place among us.”