Hell Born

by Marie Bilodeau

  “Alone this time?” I asked with a slight smile that I hoped proved more disarming than threatening.

  “Come with me,” he said, ignoring my question.

  Not having any better offers on my dance card, I followed him out into the corridor. There were a few people milling about, all of them dressed in the same ominous black, all of them making way for their leader, some with reverence, others with fear.

  Sonsil didn’t seem particularly pleased or stressed by any of it, just walking down the hallway as though he owned the entire area and everyone in it. Which he probably did.

  He opened the door and gestured for me to go in. I walked past him, not worried that he would stab me in the back. If he’d wanted me dead, he’d had ample opportunity to make it happen. I gasped when I looked inside the room. It wasn’t a huge room, maybe ten feet by ten, but each wall was lined with weapons, like a tiny armory of dreams. There were guns, blades, daggers, even bows! I sucked at using bows, but thought they were the coolest range weapon ever.

  “Pick your weapons for tonight,” he offered.

  I glanced at him and raised an eyebrow.

  “We want the item back in one piece. We need to make sure that the people we send will be returning alive.”

  “Makes sense,” I muttered, then grinned as I observed the different blades. I selected two long, thin swords, several daggers, two handguns, and this weird-looking blast gun, almost like a mix between an automatic weapon and a rocket-launcher. I wasn’t exactly sure what it would do, but in a pinch, I imagined it would be handy. And fun!

  I turned to face him.

  “Good selection,” he said.

  “Thank you!” I smiled. “These are nice weapons. I see that you take your business seriously.”

  He nodded.

  “What is your business, anyway?”

  He looked distant all of a sudden. “We make sure that those who can affect others are kept in check.”

  “I’m sorry?” I said. He focused back on me and a slight smile tugged at his lips again.

  “Some of the Traded are bad,” he offered, simplifying his terms, although doing it in such a way that I didn’t even feel spoken down to. Now there was a trick. Certainly not something that the teachers at my school had mastered. “So we make sure that the bad ones don’t get to hurt other Traded, or humans.”

  “Oh?” I said. “That seems like a pretty good idea.”

  “It is,” he offered. “It’s a tenuous alliance that we have. There’s a balance to be maintained, after all. If too many Traded go bad and hurt their human counterparts, then the humans may lose patience with us.”

  “We are more powerful than they are,” I countered.

  “There are many more of them than us,” he said, “and they have had twenty years to arm themselves against us. It would be foolish of us to think that we were in any bargaining position, nor in any position where we would take the humans by surprise.”

  I cocked my head and considered for a few moments.

  “That does sound wise, I suppose.” I said. “So, you’re a Traded, then?”

  Another slight smile. But no answer.

  I pushed on. “And this is a guild?”

  “We are. One of many. Just like the fighter’s league that your friend brought the item to.”

  “So why don’t you just negotiate with them to get it back?” I said.

  His eyes darkened. He could certainly be moody. “We much prefer not being seen, and negotiations require stepping up to the bargaining table. And that might get us noticed by the wrong people.”

  “The wrong people being human, or Traded?” I asked, hitting my stride.

  “That is something only the higher representatives of our guild get to know. Are you ready?”

  He made it clear question period had ended. But I knew more than I had beforehand, and that would have to do.

  “Ready as I’ll ever be,” I said, and followed him out of the armory.

  Ian waited outside. The leader nodded to him, nodded to me, and then left in such a way that made it clear he didn’t expect either one of us to follow.

  “You have everything you need?” Ian asked.

  “I think so,” I said.

  “Here.” He handed me several energy bars. I threw them into my pack.

  “Might come in handy if you get hungry along the way.”

  “Thanks,” I offered him a smile. “So this place isn’t so bad, is it?”

  He began walking down the corridor, leading me towards wherever I needed to be. I imagined he led me towards Clay.

  “Depends what you mean by bad, I suppose,” Ian said, selecting his words carefully.

  “Well I mean, it’s a guild. It seems as good as any, and it seems to play an important role in the ecosystem of humans to Traded. That’s a good thing, right?”

  “They kill people like us.” Ian said after a moment of reflection.

  “Well, just the bad ones,” I whispered. “Someone has to deal with them. I mean, it’s a fine balance, right? Traded are more powerful and have different abilities than humans, but there are so many more humans who are armed to the teeth and know how to deal with us, because they’ve had so much time to analyze us and study us and train us, and bring us up. It seems like a fair trade-off.”

  “Does it?” Ian asked.

  “Well, it does,” I shrugged. “I mean, we have all these skills, and talents, and abilities. Why not use them to keep the world safer?”

  Ian glanced sideways at me, as though waiting for me to come to a conclusion on my own. But it was a conclusion that I certainly wasn’t reaching. He seemed to give up after a few moments.

  “Did you ever wonder why they trained you to fight?” he asked. “I mean, the teachers at the schools - they were human, right? So, why would they train you to fight? If they were so scared of the Traded, why would they teach them about weapons? Why would they teach them about combat techniques? And why would they teach them to sneak around and handle their powers? Did you ever consider that?”

  “I can’t say that I have…” he did make a fine point. Why would they teach us all of those skills if they wanted to keep us in check? I wrapped my head around everything I’d learned. “And the guilds are also human creations,” I stated.

  “They have to be,” he agreed. “Every Traded is less than twenty years old, and the guilds have been in preparation for years.

  “But they existed before now?”

  “Not like this,” he said. “These were created specifically to keep Traded in line. And some guilds focus on keeping all Traded in line.”

  “So maybe the humans just felt that they needed some extra firepower?” I offered. “Maybe all that they needed were Traded who were trained to keep other Traded in check. Like you said, a lot of us have powers, which could be destructive. Isn’t it better than genocide, at the end of the day? To teach us to keep ourselves and humans safe? Instead of just killing us all, because they can’t contain us?”

  Ian grew silent. I thought maybe the conversation had ended, but I was wrong.

  “So who gets to be judge, jury and executioner?” he asked. “How do we decide who’s big and who’s bad, if most of the Traded have been trained to fight, and have been locked away in schools or in guilds for years, with few touchpoints to the world outside and to humanity? How do we get to decide who’s bad, or who just has to learn better?”

  I mulled that for a while as we walked. A few more people passed by. They gave Ian a wide berth. Ian looked pretty grumpy, so I backed their play.

  “Maybe there just isn’t time,” I said. “Maybe things would get out of hand too quickly, so they have to err on the side of safety.”

  “I’m not sure that’s the right side to err on,” Ian immediately said. “What if they decided that you were bad? Or me? Or worse, what if you had to come after Clay?”

  “They didn’t kill him, though,” I said, feeling my limbs growing cold. “They just locked him up. As soon as he retrie
ves the thing he stole, then he’ll be fine, right? They’re giving him a chance to make amends. That’s a good thing to do - give him a chance to learn…” my voice drifted away.

  Ian didn’t add anything else. He’d made his point though. But I’d made mine, too. It would just be a matter of observing and paying attention, and seeing how the dice rolled around us.

  “Look, I’ll meet you shortly. Just keep going forward and you’ll see Clay. Don’t try anything, Tira.” He made sure he had my attention before continuing. “Don’t ever think they’re not watching.”

  “They?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. He nodded, as though pleased that I’d gotten it, and turned down another corridor. I watched him go, shook my head, and continued down the first hallway.

  This whole quandary wasn’t so much about black and white, as it was about all the shades of grey in between. And that was a much harder territory to navigate. All I wanted to do at the end of the day though, was to keep Clay safe.

  If I just had one target—one goal in mind—I hoped that it would make it easier to accomplish.

  Chapter Seventeen

  I joined up with Clay and we fist-bumped, avoiding another awkward hug. We stood before two large double doors, which I hadn’t seen before. Unless I was mistaken, which I very well might have been, we were almost a block to the west from where we’d originally entered.

  Clay looked good. Sleep had done wonders for him, as it always did. His right eye was fully opened, and barely looked bruised. He’d cleaned up and wasn’t covered in blood anymore. Dressed in black from head to toe, his dark skin seemed a little bit lighter. His eyes, however, seemed much darker, and his grin all that much more prominent.

  He was enjoying this. He was absolutely loving every minute of this, even though I’d been terrified of losing him all this time.

  Of course he was, and why wouldn’t he be? We were heading into another mission, probably a battle. Battles were by far his favorite. And he’d certainly grabbed enough weapons to take on several people at once.

  “Shall we?” Clay said, indicating the door with a flourish.

  Anticipation began to grow in me.

  We stepped out into the street. We were definitely west from where I’d entered, and several streets away. How big was this underground complex? And how much more of it was there?

  The day had stretched into evening, the sun low on the horizon. Clay walked confidently west, as though he knew where to go. Which he probably did, considering he was the one who’d stolen the item.

  I sensed a familiar presence to my right, where a third shadow joined us. Ian had reverted back to dog form, although he seemed more of a wolf than a dog this time. When he looked at me and gave a slight nod, I had no doubt that it was him. The eyes were the give-away. The eyes were always the same, maybe not in shape or color, but in the depth of them. And their warmth.

  I gave him a slight grin. Clay noticed the canine walking beside me.

  “Friend of yours?” he said.

  “Yeah,” I answered, “his name’s Ian.”

  It took a little bit of self-control not to call him Max. I might still call him Max from time to time when it was just the two of us, but that was for us only. Ian glanced my way, and his eyes narrowed a bit. Perhaps with suspicion, or perhaps gratitude. I was willing to assume gratitude in this case.

  I reached down and patted his head was we walked forward. I didn’t really know much about Ian yet, but I did know one thing: he was willing to walk beside me, no matter what. That counted for a lot.

  Alright, it wasn’t just going to be Clay and me. I hated to admit it, but I felt better for having Ian there. Clay had been erratic and had kept secrets from me. I mean, he always had, but the stakes had never been this high before. I still believed he wanted what was best for me, but he needed to involve me a bit more.

  A lot more, in fact.

  And I wasn’t exactly sure what we were headed into, but I did know that it was Clay’s doing. Whatever choices he’d made trying to join this particular fighter’s league, he wasn’t very good at thinking things through. Too enthusiastic, I guess.

  The street around us stretched in quiet shadows and a few streetlights. I guess we didn’t have far to go since we were walking. But, if the two guilds were so close to each other, why not just swarm them? Why send two unknowns in? Unless they didn’t want to reveal who tried to take back the item.

  Of course. Sonsil had said that he didn’t want them to know who appropriated the canister. We were a plan, at best. A deniability, at worse.

  Clay suddenly stopped and turned to face me. I did the same. I could only see regret in those eyes—an emotion I’d not seen etched across his features in our many years of friendship.

  “Look, I’m really sorry you got caught,” he said, breathless. “I saw you go down, and I knew enough to know that they weren’t going to kill you, and I was going to come back for you!”

  His words hit me like ten pounds of sharp bricks.

  “You mean you left me there?” I said softly. “I thought that you’d gotten captured there, which is why you couldn’t bring me with you.”

  His hand went up to his head, as though trying to fight off a headache, or like he regretted his actions, or maybe just because a fly was there…I couldn’t tell anymore.

  “Well, I mean, I would have, if I’d have stayed longer,” he said. “But I knew enough about them to know that they wouldn’t kill you, and that they’d just keep you somewhere, and I was going to come back as soon as I delivered the canister to the fighter’s league. I figured you could just sleep off the knock you got on the head, and I couldn’t carry everything out…”

  “You left me there?” the words seemed foreign to my tongue. “And you carried the item you’d come to steal instead?”

  He looked flustered. My immediate reaction was to back away, to just leave Clay alone because we were friends and it had always been just the two of us, so I couldn’t push him with this. Usually, I would have backed down.

  But not today. Not for this. Not now.

  Not anymore.

  I held my ground. Ian nuzzled my left hand where it dangled by my side, and I placed it gently on his head. I wasn’t alone, and Clay wasn’t alone either. We were here. But he had to trust Ian and I if we were going to survive this.

  Hell, I had to trust Clay, too, and I just didn’t know if I could right now. Not without answers that I didn’t necessarily want to hear.

  “I screwed up,” Clay said. He took a deep breath, as though making a tough decision. “Look, I’m not supposed to tell you anything, Tira.” My eyes widened, but he pushed on. “That was the deal all along. We go on missions. Sometimes tests. I don’t mention anything to anyone.”

  “Why?” I asked softly.

  “I don’t know, but I knew what was promised. We’d get to go in the same league together. We wouldn’t be separated.”

  “But you left me.”

  “Only because I needed to get them the canister before our two weeks were up or we’d be separated, and I knew you wouldn’t be killed. They promised that, too. And they’ve always kept their promises, Tira, you have to believe me.”

  I mulled over that. A dog barked in the distance, then the world returned to silence. I fought the urge to wrap the shadows around me and leave Clay and Ian behind.

  “I do believe you,” I said softly. “But we can’t afford to keep secrets from each other anymore.” I held his eyes. “Deal?”

  He looked relieved. “Deal.”

  “So, what was in the canister?”

  “I’m not sure,” he said, seeming to find firmer ground again. “But, look, Tira, they say that they can build a portal with the stuff in them. A portal back to the worlds of the Traded.”

  I stood a little straighter and narrowed my eyes.

  “I’m not making this up,” he said, holding up his arms defensively. “Look. They say that they can build a portal and send some Traded back. Some people don’t want us t
o use them, because they don’t know what else they might bring back out here. But, I mean, as far as I’m concerned, it might bring those human kids back too, right? Everybody gets to go home! And, I mean, Tira,” he took my hands in his, held them like they were his lifeline, “you’ve been wanting to go home and find your own kind forever! I could just go with you. I don’t care about my people. But you seem to! I thought...” He gripped my hands more tightly, “I thought that I was doing something good, that I could help myself, maybe find the fighter’s league, and then through them I could help you get a portal and get home. And I swear, I didn’t think you’d get in any more trouble there. I swear that I thought you were going to be safe for the time being, and I would have come back for you.”

  He paused, spoke more softly, looked me in the eye in a way that sent shivers down my spine. “I will always come back for you.”

  I looked into his eyes, felt the pressure of his hands on mine, remembered all my years with Clay. He was always brash, yes. He didn’t always think things through, no. But he always did come back for me. He never abandoned me anywhere, and he pushed me to be faster and better. To be more than what I would have been otherwise.

  “I believe you,” I whispered. He leaned in, my eyes wide as he came closer.

  Then Ian gave a strangled dog cough, and Clay stood straight again. Ian pressed against my leg. I could hear his warning to be careful.

  “We’re not in school anymore,” I told Clay gently. “This is a big bad world, and I don’t think we know it as well as we think we do. I’m not sure about the guilds or the leagues. I’m not sure that what you’re telling me right now is true, either,” I pushed on, even though he looked stricken again. “But I do know that you didn’t tell me about the league badge that you received.”

  I pulled it out of my pocket and gave it back to him.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” My voice broke a bit.

  Clay and I weren’t exactly used to being vulnerable with each other, but we couldn’t indulge in secrets anymore. We weren’t just doing heists on human buildings with some boring old technological defenses. No. We were heading into another league filled with Traded who had trained, probably better than us, to take on any challenge that came their way.