Bastion

by Kyle West

  That was why I was confused when Isaru took a set of stairs downward.

  “Where are we going?”

  “I looked over Isandru’s blueprint of the building,” Isaru said. “The way we were going would have led us right past the barracks, so I’m taking us down to the dungeons to avoid running into anyone.”

  What Isaru said made sense. We followed the flights down as far as they would go. It grew cold, and the silence thickened. The air was dank with condensation, and a rank smell filled the air.

  We had arrived at the dungeons.

  Now that we were here, though, I wanted nothing more than to look for my parents.

  “Let me find them,” I said. “Please. I just want to know if they’re alive. After that, we can look for the Prophecy then return to get them out.”

  Isaru looked for a moment as if he might protest, but in the end, he gave a single nod. “We’ll have to hurry.”

  So, we began our search. This entire floor seemed to be dedicated to cells. As our footsteps sounded in the narrow halls, I heard heard the clink of chains, the sound of someone hacking, and another person wailing. Not many torches had been lit along the walls, so it was dim, but never did the light fully illuminate any of the cells. It made it hard to search, and I knew I might have to start calling them by name. But for some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to speak. I just had the feeling that my parents weren’t here.

  We passed the thick, rusty bars, one cell after another. A prisoner in rags suddenly appeared from the darkness to the right, only stopping when he crashed into the bars. He wrapped his thin, ghoulish hands around the metal, his eyes wide and his lips trembling. His hair was wild, greasy, and long. He seemed shocked to see us, and he sputtered gibberish, spittle flying from his lips.

  The disturbance caused other shouts to carry thorough the halls. Other prisoners came to the bars, watching us with strange, and almost inhuman, eyes.

  “Don’t watch,” Isaru said.

  “Free us!” a man rasped. “I have done nothing, they took me and my lands, they ripped me from my family! I did nothing, I swear, it was never supposed to be like this!”

  The man was old and shriveled, with white, wispy hair. As he continued babbling, I hardened my heart. I was only here to free two people, and anyone would say anything for a chance to be free. Outside the Silence, against which my emotions battled, there were a hundred cries, a hundred broken souls rebelling against their containment. I fought to keep myself calm, but when I imagined my parents in this place, all I wanted to do was break down.

  At the end of the corridor was another set of stairs, leading down into darkness.

  “There’s another floor?” I asked, horrified.

  “I have a feeling they are not among these,” Isaru said. “If they are as important as we think they are, they would be kept on their own away from the others. Perhaps in kinder conditions.”

  “You give me hope, even now.”

  “Let’s go further down.”

  We took the stone steps, and as we left, howls of rage and pain followed us. Unlike above, the corridor on the floor below was completely dark. I ran back upstairs, grabbed the nearest torch, and took it with me, leaving an entire corner of the floor in darkness. The prisoners wailed, and it was the most horrible, soul-rending thing I’d ever heard.

  I’m sorry, I thought. It’s for my parents.

  Isaru waited for me, and together, we pressed forward, our shoulders touching. There were other torches on the wall, but they were unlit. I used my torch to light them, and soon, my surroundings were better revealed. This floor was like that of above, only most of the cells were empty. However, the fetid smell of urine and excrement told me that there were people down here. The urge to throw up was becoming unbearable.

  I shone the light in front of a nearby cell. There was an emaciated body, half-exposed through rags, not moving. Flies buzzed around his head, and maggots churned in his open gut.

  “Isaru…”

  “Seek Silence,” Isaru said, through great effort. “We can do this.”

  Isaru held onto my arm, which was a bit of comfort. We pressed forward.

  How could people create such a monstrous place? No one deserved this — not even the worst of the worst. But apparently, Elekai and their sympathizers were among the worst of the worst. I realized the punishment that would have been meted out on me was a mercy compared to this.

  After passing a few more empty cells and turning the corner, I called out.

  “Mother? Father? It’s Shanti. It’s your daughter. Are you here?”

  I heard someone cough, followed by a series of pained hacking. I followed the sound, hope growing in my chest. I didn’t know why I thought it had anything to do with my parents. It was just a feeling.

  When I reached the cell, I raised my torch, dreading what I might see.

  It wasn’t them. There were two people, an old man and an old woman, thin and wretched. But perhaps they might know something about my parents.

  I fought to keep control of my voice. “Do you know my parents? Their names are Nick and Yasmin. Please...my name is Shanti, perhaps you’ve heard of them...”

  They both stared with hollow, ghostlike eyes. The woman started to shake, her arm raising toward me.

  “Shanti…” Her voice quavered. “My dear Shanti...you’ve come...I always knew you would…”

  I realized the truth. These were my parents, who looked as if they’d aged twenty years in two months. I fell on my knees, crying, feeling like I’d been punched in the stomach. It couldn’t be. But looking closer at each of their faces, it was them, hardly recognizable from the emaciation.

  “Mother...” I said, choking the word out.

  Her horribly thin hands found mine, and I was surprised at how cold they were, nothing more than skin on bones, stained with spots that hadn’t been there before. Her cheeks were hollowed and ghoulish, her skin pale and gray, and her eyes seemed to protrude from her skull. She had once been so beautiful. Now, she looked like a ghost, something half-dead.

  “Don’t be afraid, dear,” she said. “I don’t have long, now. Nothing can save us...but to see you again...” A tear forced itself from her eye, and it fell to the stones almost violently. “It is a treasure beyond words. Nick...Nick look who has come. It’s Shanti. She’s real, this time. I can feel her.”

  My father only stared at the ceiling, his eyes seeing into another world. He was in far worse condition than my mother, horribly thin, looking more like a skeleton than a man. I could hardly even see him through the tears forming in my eyes.

  “Yes,” he rasped. “Shanti. It is a fine name.”

  “She’s here now, Nick. Won’t you speak to her?”

  I couldn’t stop crying. A horrible weight pressed me into the cold stones.

  “What did they do to you? Oh, gods...why?”

  “Don’t cry, dear. You look so beautiful. You are a woman now…a woman grown. I always knew…I always knew…”

  She seemed to lose her train of thought. Her hair, once lush and dark brown, had lost its color, and what few strands clung to her head were dried and dead. Both of them stank of death.

  “We found her, in the xen...” my father rasped. “You always wanted a child, Yasmin. Yes...Shanti is a beautiful name...after your grandmother…”

  “What is he talking about?” I asked.

  “It’s nothing, dear,” my mother whispered, reaching a hand to wipe away my tear. “Don’t cry. Never you mind him. It’s madness...I am better because…he gives me his food…”

  I wanted nothing more than to comfort them, but how to comfort this?

  “Do we have food?” I asked.

  Isaru knelt beside me, handing his canteen to my mother. “Here,” he said, quietly. “We have no food, but we do have water.”

  “Please…” my mother rasped.

  Gently, he raised the container to her lips, but she shook her head. “Hand it to me.”

  Isaru did so, and my mo
ther went to see to my father first. To my relief, he did drink as soon as she held the canteen to his lips, only letting a small amount escape. Only when he was done did she drink herself.

  “Here,” she said, handing it back. “They cannot find us with this in our possession.”

  “That doesn’t matter, Mother,” I said. “We’re going to break you out of here.”

  “Don’t…don’t speak such foolishness, Shanti,” she said. “The Hunter…the Hunter has the key…”

  “Hunter? What Hunter?”

  “He’s…here, somewhere…” As she spoke to me, her eyes never left mine. “Oh, Shanti. I’m so sorry…we never told you…we never believed it would come to this. Please…forgive us both.”

  “There is nothing to forgive, Mother. I know the truth now…or at least a part of it. And it’s all right. I still love you as I always have. As I always will.”

  “The truth?”

  “I’m…not your child, am I? I’m adopted.”

  My mother’s eyes widened. “Of course you are, Shanti. You’ve always been ours, from the day we first saw you.”

  “Alone,” my father said. “In the xen...”

  “You found me in the xen,” I said, wonderingly. “Is it true?”

  “Always…you were always ours. Even...even when we found you there, lying in the xen, you were mine. I had only to look at you.”

  “Mother…”

  I was crying now; I couldn’t help it. She held on to me, such as she could though the bars. There was surprising strength in her frail arms.

  “Don’t be mad at us, Shanti. Don’t...”

  “I’m not,” I said. “This changes nothing. I love you, mother. I love you both. But we need to escape...I need to find that key to get you out...”

  “I couldn’t move, even if I tried, dear. There is…no strength left.”

  “Don’t say that,” I said. “I’ve fought so hard to get this far. We can’t give up now. No matter what.”

  “I remember that night,” my mother said, suddenly thinking of something else. “You were a gift. A gift to us from Annara herself. I had prayed for a child…”

  I felt a chill at those words. My mother, probably without realizing, had come close to the truth. Not only had Annara given her a child…she had given herself.

  “You...you were left there. Yes, a dragon. I remember now. Sometimes, I wondered if I really saw it. You were such...such a beautiful baby. Such eyes, such whiteness...they faded in the coming days. Even then...we knew...we knew what you were, and we still loved you.”

  “You always knew I was Elekai?”

  My mother gave the barest nod.

  “But…you told me that they were evil. You couldn’t have believed that, could you? Not with me?”

  “I was only trying to protect you, dear. I was afraid…always afraid…someone might find out. I thought, if you believed as everyone else does…”

  “Found you...in the xen,” my father rasped. “No one there. I heard a crying...a baby, all alone...”

  I had finally found out the truth, just as I had suspected. I had been left in the xen by a dragon, most likely Quietus. And I realized that my mother had been asking forgiveness for a reason other than I had thought. Her state was so addled that she perhaps couldn’t express it clearly enough.

  She wanted my forgiveness for not telling me who I truly was — even for lying to me. But I knew what she said was true; she had only wanted to protect me, the child she had so dearly wanted.

  “It’s all right, Mother,” I said. “I understand why you did it.”

  Her features seemed to relax. Tears formed in her eyes

  “You’re both coming with us,” I said. “This is Isaru, and we’ve come to get you out of here. We’ll have to leave you for a bit to find that Hunter…”

  “What’s this, then?”

  My mother went still, frozen with terror, at the introduction of a cold, male voice. I stood to face it, only to see three robed figures whose features were obscured by shadow. The voice, however, was chillingly familiar.

  “So we meet again. I thought I felt your presence. And this time, you will not escape until I’ve had my say.”

  The man stepped forward, followed by his two men. And when he stepped into the pool of light cast by the torch, I saw the wicked face of the man who had detained me what seemed so long ago.

  “Hunter Valance,” I said, drawing Katan. “You might have found me, but this time, things are going to turn out differently.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  THE TWO MEN FLANKING VALANCE’S either side drew their swords while the Hunter merely stood.

  “So, the Elekai returns to the web,” he said. “I couldn’t have planned it better myself.”

  “Release them, Valance,” I said. “Or else.”

  I wanted nothing more than to cut him down where he stood. A Seeker, however, did not kill unless it was otherwise necessary.

  But I wasn’t a Seeker yet.

  “You have changed,” Valance said, hefting his own weapon...a slightly curved katana, not unlike my own. “You have grown into what I feared; a menace that must be brought to heel.”

  “Let them go,” I said.

  He gave a wan smile. “I have learned some interesting things about you. Far more than you would know. Would you care to hear?”

  “She doesn’t care,” Isaru said. “You Covenant dogs are filthy, lying mongrels…and this ends tonight! Too long have you oppressed the Elekai!”

  “Ah. Prince Isaru, I presume. You may have escaped us last time, but you won’t leave this place until I’ve had my say. And, you forget that it was your people who oppressed us first. Without that, there would be no Covenant. Unless, of course, you are being willingly ignorant of your own history. I wouldn’t put it past you.”

  Isaru bore his teeth, but did not oppose the point.

  “Old Colonia. Hyperborea. Both Elekai evils have passed from the face of the world, but the Hunters will never rest until the rest of your filthy blood is purged. The Elekai disease, the infection, will destroy us all if left unchecked.”

  His eyes went to Anna’s blade, seeming to light upon it. “Well. This has gotten interesting, indeed.”

  I didn’t have time to wonder whether he recognized the blade. I assumed Windform, my blade angled forward and both arms extended. My hands held the form steady, and a range of sword sequences came to my mind of how I might proceed. Eventually, I settled on one. If it came to blows, I knew exactly what to do. This sudden rush of knowledge had to be Anna, and for once, I was grateful for her help. Following my lead, Isaru assumed Treeform.

  “Enough,” I said. “I will only ask you one more time. Hand over the key or things will get violent.”

  “Come, then,” Valance said, firming his stance. “Dance with me…if you dare.”

  I scowled as I strode forward. Without any reservation, I slashed as quick as lightning. The man on the left rushed to parry, but the move had been so fast that his flesh gave way to my blade. The man screamed in agony as I stepped back. His hands went to the wound, but it was no use. Blood streamed through his fingers in a torrent. He lay on the ground and went still.

  Meanwhile, Valance and his other crony backed up.

  Isaru moved to strike the other man while I maneuvered to engage Valance. The Hunter raised his blade just in time to block my next strike. There was no superiority now on his face; he had decided to take me seriously as an opponent.

  After exchanging a few blows, I could see Valance had assumed Windform himself. I blinked in surprise; I thought the sword forms I had learned were unique to the Seekers.

  Valance gave a smile as he caught my surprise. “Yes, Shanti. You have learned a secret of the Hunters. We, too, know your forms. Do you want to know why?”

  He gave a few, quick slashes, all of which I deflected easily. He certainly moved like a Seeker. But there was something else I sensed from him…something I couldn’t have noticed the first time I met him.
It was a similarity between him and myself that I couldn’t quite explain.

  No. It couldn’t be true…

  “You’re…Elekai.”

  Valance stepped back, blade at the ready should I decide to strike again. “Not quite. We are given ichor to drink when we are inducted. Those who survive the ritual become Hunters, and having survived the test, we are imbued with some of the same powers as our enemies. How do you think it was that I found you so easily? I could feel your power then…even as I can feel it now. No matter. We take on this evil that we may destroy an even greater evil. It is the Hunter’s burden.”

  That Valance could use the same forms as an Elekai wasn’t exactly proof that he was Elekai himself. He was something different…something dark and wrong.

  “You are the very definition of hypocrisy,” Isaru said.

  Valance grunted. “Perhaps. But if hypocrisy is the price we must pay to get rid of your kind, then it is well worth it.”

  Valance crept back into the shadows, which was followed by the sound of his steps dashing on stone.

  “He’s running!” Isaru said.

  “He has the key,” I said. “We can’t let him escape.”

  Isaru took off after him, but I felt torn between helping him and seeing to my parents. In the end, I turned to face them.

  “I’ll be back. I promise.”

  My mother was still staring at me with her wide eyes. It was hard to tell if she knew what was going on. But there was no time to wonder about that.

  I chased after Isaru.

  * * *

  By the time I was running, Isaru’s footsteps were in the distance. He was much faster than me, and when I rounded the corner ahead, he had already taken to the stairs.