by Amber Morant
"That would be best. I have people I'm here to meet." Anjuu cracked her neck and stared down at the two teenagers. Both seemed oblivious to the actual dangers they were in, simply following orders from whomever their leader was. It reminded her of herself following Kalio's orders blindly and now on the wrong side of the war without having done anything beyond what she was told to do.
The twins grasped each other's hands and directed Anjuu over to one of the side streets. They turned a corner onto a short cul-de-sac with just three houses that looked almost identical in the box-like structure so many modern architects liked to build.
"Nice place."
The twins didn't respond. Instead, they walked up to the front door and knocked seven times, paused, then knocked again four times. The girl looked back at Anjuu then whispered something into her brother's ear that Anjuu couldn't hear. The boy nodded and she took off around the back of the house and out of sight, leaving the teenage boy and her outside.
The door cracked open and Anjuu could see a small sliver of a figure standing behind the door. Smoke willowed out from above and below the person, before disappearing into the air. She could see the eyes of the person were golden with slit-like pupils. A cait shidhe. They looked back at Anjuu then down at the boy. Not a sound escaped the cait shidhe, but their eyes seemed to still communicate with the boy.
"You can trust her. I scanned her for all her weapons. The only way we could make her any cleaner is if she got naked."
"Definitely don't want that," Anjuu mumbled to herself. This response got the attention of the cait shidhe back onto her.
"You don't remember me, do you shadow?"
Anjuu shrugged. "Can't say I recognize many people by just an eye."
The door swung open and in front of Anjuu stood the cait shidhe that she had met from before that led the small rebellion group. Unlike before, her fur was gone, but in a few small patches and on the revealed skin were multiple fresh scars. Her clothes, however, were much cleaner and more professional in attire. She wore a pair of black dress slacks and a blue tunic that reached halfway down her thighs. Despite this, Anjuu remembered well enough that this wasn't going to be a welcome party anymore.
"So, the smoke is from the dragon inside?"
The cait shidhe nodded. "It is. And you have left your guild and the queen hunts you down?"
"She does. Word travels fast then in the underground I see."
"When our lives depend on knowing what the queen's doing, we find ears everywhere." The boy scurried around the cait shidhe to get inside and then she turned around as well to go inside. "I can't say we are allies, but the enemy of my enemy is my friend for now. Let us discuss your predicament."
Anjuu nodded. She was going into hostile territory. She had gotten a decent sleep, albeit her muscles were still stiff, and she hadn't eaten anything yet, but there was more energy in her now than compared to last night. If anyone did attack her, she would be ready. For now, they were on common grounds and they had already heard about her predicament before even she knew about it. Whomever was truly part of the rebellion, the information they were able to gather was far greater than what even the shadows could muster on their own. She walked inside of the home and was immediately bombarded with the smell of dragon incense burning throughout the house.
"Nice place you have."
"We've been saving for it. We own most of the town now. But that's why you came here, I'm sure. Once we heard you were being hunted down and saw you were here, it was only natural to realize you were planning to switch sides."
"I'm not switching sides. I’m here to form a treaty for my own safekeeping."
"Treaty, betrayal. What difference does it make? You're here now, and I'm all ears."
The cait shidhe led Anjuu through a hallway and into a large library. In the center were an assortment of chairs. Some of them had multiple chips out of the legs revealing a lighter interior of the wood and the fabric piled until it was fuzzier than a sheep. The cait shidhe took that chair, her claws extended and scratching at was left of the light blue fabric. Anjuu joined her and sat across in a larger rocking chair made of a solid cherry wood.
"Business, shadow. Last time we talked you almost killed us and now you sit here with me. Indeed, you are a shadow of the crown compared to when we last saw you. Have you seen the evils she has committed yet? Or are you simply here for your own self-indulgences?" Her ears twitch, her eyes never wavering from Anjuu.
"I'm here because of the target on my back. Nothing more. I don't know what atrocities you're saying she has committed, but from where I'm standing, you're the ones who have destroyed the land, not her."
A low growl emitted from deep within the cait shidhe. "You're blind as well as incompetent. You want to see the atrocities, then I'll show you them instead." The cait shidhe pulled a small remote from inside of the chair's cushion and pushed a button on it. Anjuu looked over to her left and watched as a screen came down from the ceiling. "Clips from across the country while you’ve been tucked away safely in your castle."
A video started and Anjuu watched as it showcased the scholars in the quarry, some falling over never to get back up. It then switched to a scene showing two small elven children forced onto the ground by a drow guard. Underneath the image was a description from the news source that they were being arrested for being outside after curfew. The video switched again to a family forced out of their home with a sign that listed no elves allowed in the community anymore. This continued for a few more scenes of different elves being mistreated. The video stopped and the screen rose back up into the ceiling.
"You know, one of the people in the rebellion you killed last time we met, he had a son maybe ten years old at the time. Want to know what happened to him when Kalio took the throne? He was executed on the spot for simply bumping into a drow. Nothing with malice, a simple accident. So, tell me, does that seem like a righteous Queen to you?"
"She can't control every guard in her command, I'm sure the guard was reprimanded for—"
"That guard was one of your captains and was given a promotion. The only one who can give that promotion is the queen herself. Even the cait shidhe lived as a proud race until she took over. Our chieftains died, and many infants perished from an illness that we sought the queen out for help. She denied us, saying we were not her importance. She had taken the chieftain's eldest son from us already and abandoned us to fend for ourselves and pay her in taxes." The cait shidhe took a deep breath. "So, tell me again that she is fair. Tell me she isn't committing mass genocide of our people, removing our knowledge from us, and making her people blessed in riches."
"The elves deserve to suffer. They enslaved the drow."
"Did the ten-year-old child enslave you? Did he hold a gun to your head and demand you work? How is he responsible for this? How is majority of the people who lived here responsible for suffering of people in Ombramoor?"
Anjuu sat in silence. She had killed plenty of elves in her time as a shadow under contract and never felt any sympathy for them. She never even learned the reason for killing the elf. Now hearing some of the tales from the cait shidhe, she wondered if those she had killed were elves who had also just been innocent and never did anything wrong. There was the noble family of elves that she had assassinated because they were planning to poison Kalio, but other than that there was no motive outside of the fact that they were elves. She shook her head, refocusing back onto her training and forgetting about all her past kills. She was a shadow for a reason, regret for a kill wasn't what she needed to focus on.
"Do you see now why we fight against her? This isn't just an issue of us not liking drow. Hell, there were many races here who wanted the enslavement of your people to end. But you wouldn't have known that. You're probably born and raised learning about how evil all elves were and shown how much they hated you growing up. Never even thinking that an elf may hate you because if they did anything wrong near you, they would have died."
"That's not tr
ue! I lived in a poor end of town—"
"Yes, I've heard the story. You were poor, there was no privilege. Yet here you are now, coming from the castle of the queen without much effort. She chose a drow to protect her above all others." The cait shidhe stood up and walked over to Anjuu. "So, I ask you again, shadow of the crown. Do you still serve her, or do you serve the people and fight for equality? If it's a contract you need then we'll pay it. But I'd much rather someone who has left the guild not be paid for services and join us willingly. You are paying us in retribution for what you did to us in the woods."
"Says the one who wanted to kill me there." Anjuu stood up. Unlike next to many elves, cait shidhe stood as tall as drow at times and they were both eye level to one another. They stood there in silence, each one waiting for the other to respond with aggression. Anjuu broke the silence. "I will fight with you, but I will not kill the queen. She is still there with good intentions. There won't be any true king nonsense if I side with you. I have the entire ren zhe tribes behind me and will use them to stop you if you choose to kill Kalio."
The cait shidhe smirked and held out her hand. "Then we have a deal, shadow. My name is Massika, leader of the rebels."
Anjuu grasped Massika's hand and shook. "Anjuu."
"Looks like we have a temporary deal. Now if your Queen shows any signs that she is as unstable as rumors make her out to be, we won’t stop from bringing her down. But for now, we will see if we can get something going in this war now. Also," Massika let out a large smile, "there was no true king. We just did that to mess with your mind. Most people not in the rebellion think there is some ulterior motive to usurp the crown, but it's talk. We just want to remove the crown."
Twenty
The night was growing cold. Azrael's search in the caves had pulled up nothing and he couldn't find a single moon dragon in sight. The scholar had found a way out of the mountains he didn't know about and he had lost the trail hours ago. He could return to the castle empty handed and say he couldn't track down Anjuu. Then he could just assassinate the queen without worrying about helping a new dragon guardian. It would be almost too simple. His profession wasn't in assassinations, and with all the guards and Mestre still at the castle, who knew what kind of trap he would land in. No, he needed Anjuu to become a dragon guardian. It was what his father asked of him, and what Kalio knew was happening. He just needed the idiot scholar to hand over the egg.
The small town in front of the Dragon's Pass had since grown silent as many went back into their houses. The only activity he could pinpoint from the height he was flying at was a small bike flying from the center of the town and onto the highway. Azrael couldn't see clearly in the dark but judging by the white hair he could only imagine it was a drow.
"Let's head down into the city, I need to get a better view. Whatever that drow was fleeing from, I don't think it's good news." Azrael squeezed his legs to signal for his dragon to dive. The air whipped through his fur and within seconds, Azrael would be able to jump down. Outside in the fields, landing was much easier. Now he had to account for buildings his dragon would run into during the dive.
The dragon pulled back, close enough to the ground now so that Azrael could jump from it without hurting himself. Far in the distance, he could hear the drow still driving away on their bike. Once his dragon confirmed he had landed safely, it took back off into the skies. For now, he was going to search on foot again and hope the scholar hadn't left the city just yet.
Azrael walked down the street, looking into the darker corners of alleys for any movement. For the first two blocks he didn't see anything until he reached a bar. Lights flashed with tape surrounding it. No one seemed to be crying out and most of the guards were calm. He tilted his head, curious what was going on. Perhaps his luck was changing, and the scholar had run into the wrong person and pissed them off. As Azrael got closer to the scene, he noted that more people were behind the building. He looked up to see it was a bar with an anthropomorphized sexualized dragon. He shuddered at the sight and turned his gaze back at the crime scene. It would make sense that the scholar would piss a drunkard off and get himself hurt.
One of the guards walked out of the crime scene, lifting the yellow tape, and let out a loud sigh. "Damn shame we're dealing with this right now."
Azrael's ears perked up and looked over at the guard. "What happened back there?"
"Woman was killed. drow. She had a mask on, so I imagine it was some kind of shadow or whatever they are."
"A shadow?"
The guard nodded. "Seems that way. No one else died, so whoever did was probably their target too."
Azrael leaned forward over the yellow tape. "Think I can go look? Make sure this doesn't need dragon guardian assistance?"
The guard shrugged. "If I had the permission, I'd say go for it. But we were told no one is allowed back there until the guild comes to get the body. Everyone else will be pouring out of there soon enough, so I'd say just leave this to us and go do whatever the hell you guardians do nowadays."
Azrael frowned at the guard. He was just doing his job and he did remember hearing that shadows liked to take their own back for proper burials, but it still made him worried if it was Anjuu or not. "Do you at least have a name for the shadow? Was it the queen's personal guard?"
The guard shook his head. "No, wasn't her. We did hear she was in the area and when we heard a shadow was murdered by the bar, we thought it was her."
"So Anjuu was here and if she fled the city then either she killed the shadow or that scholar is a lot more powerful now than before." He looked around, half expecting the scholar to be standing around waiting to strike. He shook his head, realizing how dumb that sounded. He needed to leave and find the scholar. He still had the dragon egg, and if the stories of how strong a scholar could get when not being contained by the quarries were true, then trouble was brewing.
"Question," Azrael said, looking back at the guard. "Did you happen to see an elf and the other shadow leave? Do you know where they went?"
The guard looked up in the sky and back down to the crowd of other guards mingled on the other side of the taped-off area. "Hey, where did they say they saw the shadow and elf guy go again?"
"The worn-down apartments. You know, the ones the whores like to rent out?" A few of the other guards snickered.
"Where's this apartment?"
The guard next to Azrael pointed behind them. "Few blocks that way. You won't miss it. Biggest building over there."
Azrael nodded and left the guards alone. Most useless people ever. If they were able to get Kalio off the throne he would make sure to replace the guards or retrain them at least. He followed the street and just as the guard had described, it was one of the biggest buildings that looked like it could crumble at any moment. All he needed to do was find out which room had the scholar in it. Just outside was a small set of stairs that lined the wall. He grumbled, even if it took all night, he was going to find the elf and destroy him.
He walked up the first flight of stairs and peered inside the room. Inside was just a younger couple sleeping in their bed together. "Not this one," he grumbled and went up to the second floor. Once again, the scholar wasn't inside, but this one was empty. Again, he climbed and stopped. Just inside the window he could see a bag with the sheen of a moon dragon egg peeking out. He looked around the curtain and saw the scholar fast asleep inside. He had no blood on him, but the elf had enough time between then and now to clean himself off and get to sleep in what was presumed to be a haven.
Azrael cracked his knuckles and neck and took a deep breath. He focused his strength onto his back leg and then kicked the door open. The scholar bolted upright, his eyes wide in fear. Azrael smiled. This was what he loved about being a keres for so long, seeing the fear in his enemies’ eyes before they learned their fates.
"What? You!" The scholar stammered.
"Took me long enough to find you."
The scholar pushed himself against the wall. All too
perfect for Azrael now. The cait shidhe grasped Tosh's collar and lifted him up off the ground. "You're an idiot for helping the queen. Killing shadows and stealing a moon dragon egg that rightfully belongs to the next dragon guardian." He cocked his hand back then swung at the scholar. His fist made impact, feeling the elf's nose break under his fist. "That was for your disrespect at the quarry. And this," Azrael dropped Tosh to the ground and grasped onto the scholar’s arm, twisting it until he heard a snap, "is for stealing a dragon egg."
Tosh let out a groan. "What in Devata's name are you talking about? I'm not killing people…"
Azrael kicked Tosh in the face. "Shut it. I don't want to hear another sound from your mouth. Be glad I'm being generous tonight and don't want those idiot guards dealing with another death." Azrael grabbed the egg and dropped it into a small satchel attached to his back. "If you're smart, you'll go back to the quarry and know your place."
Tosh was unconscious, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth and nose. Azrael smiled at what he was able to accomplish tonight. Now all he needed to do was get to Anjuu, present her the egg, and hope he could defeat Kalio before his people died.
Twenty-One
If there was such a thing as a good day, today just wasn't it. Tosh's head still hurt when he finally came too. Though which was worse, the pain in his head, or the pain searing in his arm, he couldn’t tell. The pain was blinding enough as it was. The attack from Azrael combined with the near-death experience from the shadow was too much for him. And the egg was gone.
Tosh sat up. "Shit!" He pulled himself up, looking around, hoping to find something that would be good news. Instead, all he found was a small rock where the egg had once been. He reached for the rock but froze as the pain in his arm shot through his entire body. "Damn it all! Stupid keres. What the hell was he even on about?"
