The Flames: Book 2 of the Feud Trilogy

by Kyle Prue

  “He’s got a brother!” one called. “Rhys Vapros!”

  Neil’s mind made the connection and in his head he could see his brother clear as day. His short hair and jade green eyes stuck out prominently in Neil’s mind. “He was responsible for the death of Saewulf Anima!” another one yelled.

  A chill ran down Neil’s spine. He couldn’t put his finger on why, but the name Saewulf made him want to flee back down into the hull. “Is any of this helping?” Alexander asked.

  “Yeah,” Neil said. “A lot is coming back to me. Thanks, Alexander.”

  “Alex is fine,” he said. “Glad you’re part of the crew, Mamba.” He outstretched his hand.

  Neil shook his hand appreciatively. Until he could fully remember who Neil was, maybe being Mamba wouldn’t be so bad.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  THE DOCTOR’S WORKSHOP

  THE PACK

  The boy hadn’t yet awakened, but that was to be expected. The Doctor made his preparations. He was actually nervous. He’d heard much about the boy and desperately wanted the stories to be true. Maybe this one would understand. Maybe this one would grow to seize his mantle. He would finally be free from his undertaking.

  “Victor,” the Doctor said.

  Victor peered up from his workbench where he was cleaning his weapons. “Yes?”

  “How many people know the location of this workshop?”

  The Marksman thought. “Besides us? Three or so. The Hyena, General Carlin, and Quintus.”

  “We can lead the remaining fugitives back here when the boy has been converted, but if they arrive sooner it will make me very upset. Quintus is the weak link.”

  “I understand,” the Marksman said. “But we’d get a lot of flack for killing him.”

  “Just protect him,” the Doctor ordered. “They’ll go after him for information. Make sure they don’t get it before I can turn the boy.”

  The Marksman began suiting up without a word of confirmation. The Doctor didn’t need it. People did what he asked when he asked. “Before you go, bring a body back for the pet,” the Doctor continued. “He hasn’t eaten in too long.”

  The Marksman bowed to his father and left the workshop. The Doctor could hear the boy stirring and he knew that if he still had a full mouth, he’d be grinning. It was time.

  “Rhys Vapros: scholar, strategist, medical mind. You’ve got a full list of talents under your belt.”

  The boy’s big round eyes opened as if he’d just left a nightmare, but the terror didn’t fade. From one nightmare to the next, he supposed. “Welcome to my workshop, Rhys,” the Doctor said. “I have a very exciting opportunity to share with you.”

  The boy was panicking as expected. The Doctor waited until he calmed. “What do you want with me?” Rhys asked.

  “I want an heir,” the Doctor said. “I want you to become what I’ve long searched for: the next Imperial Doctor.”

  “What?” Rhys asked. He was clearly horrified.

  The Doctor stared at his misshapen hands and then over to Rhys. “I never wanted to be this way. I didn’t choose this fate. It was given to me by the first Imperial Doctor.”

  “I don’t understand…” Rhys said. “I don’t want…”

  “I was kidnapped when I was a little younger than you are despite my powers, by a man trying to create a pain index. Can you understand what a pain index is?”

  “He wanted to determine a unit to measure pain and then rank what hurts the most?” Rhys asked.

  The Doctor had to resist shrieking in excitement. “Yes! Yes, that’s it!” He calmed himself and smoothed his blood-splattered apron. “In being tortured to determine this, I realized that my curiosity was piqued. I needed to know. So once I escaped, I strapped him down and tortured him until he expired. I was actually much closer to finishing it. I’ve spent the last fifty years working on it, but I am terrified that my mission will outlive me. It won’t be finished in time. So I need an heir. I need someone to finish this pain index.”

  “There are humane ways to do this,” Rhys said desperately. “You could go to clinics or work to… You don’t have to cause the pain yourself.”

  “I thought the same,” the Doctor said. “By the light, you remind me so much of myself, Rhys. I know what has to happen.”

  “What has to happen?” Rhys breathed.

  “The Imperial Doctor is not a title. It’s a calling. It’s a mantle. You can’t choose it; it has to choose you. After I killed him, I continued to hear his voice everywhere I went until it eventually replaced my own. Here is what has to happen: you have to become me. You have to accept the spirit and mind that is the Imperial Doctor.”

  “That’s not possible,” Rhys said. “You can’t turn me into you. I can’t share in your psychosis.”

  “Big word,” the Doctor said, his mood turning. “Psychosis would imply that I have had a break with reality. And yet this is all very real, as you will discover. Here’s what has to happen: I will experiment on you and add new procedures to the pain index until I complete a few chapters. Then you will torture me until the pain index has advanced considerably. You have to kill me Rhys, to truly become me.”

  Rhys stared at him horror. “I can’t. I won’t. I can’t kill you.”

  “You’re only killing me in a way,” the Doctor said. “I will be reborn in your mind and in your work. Death will only be the beginning for me. Trust that.”

  Rhys stared at him unconvinced and uninspired. The Doctor growled, frustrated that Rhys hadn’t taken to his calling. He selected a pair of pliers from the workbench and rubbed his metal chin. “Get some rest, Rhys. Tomorrow we begin with sleep deprivation. This can’t be rushed. It must be done carefully and with the utmost precision. And don’t bother trying to materialize out of that cage. It might be possible if you were only wearing one cuff, but I’ve never seen anyone use their powers with two cuffs.”

  He left the boy to cry and ponder the horrors that might await him. The Doctor went to one of his benches and began working on another project to calm himself. He remembered that he hadn’t accepted his destiny at first either. It would take time and dedication but he would have his prodigy. This boy was perfect. He could feel it in every remaining inch of his body.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  CONVOY

  LILLY CELERIUS

  With a squeal of pain Lilly slammed her hand into the wooden wall of the convoy. The Wolf did the same while grunting quietly. “The tricky part is the speed,” he murmured as he brought his fist into the wall again. “You’ve got to hit hard enough that your bones will break, but at the same time…”

  “You’ve got to go fast enough that they won’t heal before the next hit,” Lilly said as she heard her own knuckles crack against the wood. “I know.”

  “What do you dream about?” the Wolf asked.

  Lilly never wanted to think about her dreams. She couldn’t imagine anything worse than discussing them. “I dream about the dead. Always the dead,” she said quietly. “Why?”

  “I used to dream about my wife every night,” the Wolf said. “Right after I was exiled. It was always the same thing. I’d be comfortable in bed with her and then I would feel her pull away. When I turned back she would be a few feet away. She was in the same bed and all. She was just beckoning to me from the other side.”

  “That sounds horrific, Uncle,” Lilly sighed.

  “I wish that were it,” he chuckled sadly. “I would reach out to her and she’d just keep getting farther away. The bed would keep getting bigger. I’d try to push through the covers but I’d find myself tied up in them. The more I struggled for her, the further away she appeared to be. I’d scream and claw, but I would sink deeper into the plushness of it all. Soon the sheets would strangle me or the pillows would smother me. Really bizarre, isn’t it?”

  Lilly didn’t know what to say. “Doesn’t it hurt to think about?”

  “Lilly, I’m crushing my hands into pulp,” the Wolf said.

  She
grimaced. “Right.”

  “For a while I found myself pulled between these two worlds. I was either wrestling with pillows and blankets or doing something like this.” Lilly couldn’t see him but she was sure he was gesturing to his damaged hand. “I always tried to live in the world that hurt less at the time. I was bobbing and weaving. Dodging punches. It hurts to dwell, Lilly. But sometimes it hurts just a bit less than what’s right in front of you.”

  “That’s your lesson in recovery?” she asked incredulously.

  “No,” he said, “That’s my lesson in maintaining sanity.”

  She heard a sickening pop and then what must have been the Wolf ripping his bloodied right hand out of his chains. He groaned in relief. “I got one free.”

  His hand began to reform as the bones found their shattered fragments and realigned. Within a few moments his hand was starting to look more like a hand again and less like a puddle of flesh.

  Lilly’s next strike cracked a bone in her thumb and with a pop she managed to free one of her hands. She used her new freedom of motion to wrap her arm around her uncle’s shoulder. He returned the hug half-heartedly. “We’ve still got another hand to go, Miss.”

  She tried not to whimper as she pulled away. “Well, we’re not getting any closer to escaping by talking about it.”

  The Wolf looked anxious. “If they’re taking us to Carlin then we might not have much time left.”

  “Once we get free we can take the guards by surprise,” she said. “They probably think we’re asleep back here. We’ll certainly have the upper hand.”

  “I really have to question your choice of wording there, darling,” the Wolf said.

  Within ten minutes Lilly’s left hand was free. She winced in pain as her skeleton returned to proper form and the flesh reshaped. The Wolf had managed to free his other hand as well. “How many guards do you think we’re dealing with?” Lilly asked as she scanned the bare caravan for a weapon.

  “Two up front managing the horses and then the assassin riding on a racehorse in case anything goes wrong,” the Wolf said.

  “It’s a wonder they didn’t put someone back here to watch us,” Lilly said.

  The Wolf shook his head. “The Doctor was smart enough to know that we could easily overpower any Imperial guard. Chained or not.”

  Lilly and the Wolf sat waiting in silence while the cart moved on.

  After a few seconds of silent meditation, the Wolf climbed up on top of the convoy. Lilly heard a body hit the ground and watched as a soldier was crushed under the wheel of the cart. She dropped out of the back and pulled his sword from his hip. She fought off dizziness from hunger and thirst. The Wolf was disposing of the other guard on the convoy. There were two unbridled horses and that circled around. The Wolf leapt onto the nearest one and tackled its rider off the horse and into the dirt. The other horse charged at Lilly and she realized the Hyena was the one spurring it along. She lashed out with the sword, but in her attempt not to hit the horse the Hyena was able to dodge her attack and kick her solidly in the head. It certainly didn’t help with her nausea and dizziness. She stumbled like a drunkard. The Hyena pulled a knife of his own from his belt. He circled the horse and ran it across her shoulder on the next charge. He then used his momentum to pull his horse next to the escaping convoy. He lashed at the nearest horse’s side and in a panic the two horses bolted out of sight, down the dirt road. He threw his knife at the horse the Wolf had pushed the guard from. The Horse fell to the ground and crushed the soldier that had been wrestling with the Wolf. Lilly gasped loudly at the sight of a horse being killed. The Hyena cackled at her. “Why the long face?” he managed through his laughs. He then steered his horse off to make his escape.

  The Wolf groaned. “I doubt we’ll be able to catch him,” he said as he approached Lilly. “Not at this strength.”

  Lilly debated running after him, but her legs were wobbling just from standing. Their trip in the convoy had taken days and they’d been given nothing but a bit of bread and water. Clearly their captors wanted to keep them in a weakened state. “See that in the distance?” the Wolf said pointing toward the horizon.

  For the first time since her escape, Lilly actually examined her surroundings. They were on a basic dirt road that cut through miles upon miles of even plains. For the first time they were surrounded by flat land. Gone were the rolling hills and mountains of the north. In the distance loomed a large village. It must have been one of the big five. “Brightbow?” Lilly asked.

  The Wolf nodded. His face always maintained a modicum of quiet dignity, but something was wrong. His lower jaw trembled. “Lilly we are in a great deal of trouble.”

  “What?” Lilly asked. “We can go to Brightbow, regain our strength and then head back in the direction of the Cliff. It won’t be an easy journey, but Brightbow has a strong, secret rebel presence, correct? I’m sure we can find some strong horses.”

  The Wolf didn’t even seem to be listening. He placed his hands over his face for a moment. When he raised his head his eyes were full of fear. “We were better off in the carriage,” he whispered.

  “What is wrong with you?” Lilly asked. She couldn’t keep the discomfort out of her voice.

  “Of all the places we could have ended up, tactically, this is the worst. Brightbow is about half rebels and half loyalists. The rebels here are incredibly organized, so most of the loyalists don’t even know that they’re here.”

  “I don’t understand the problem,” Lilly said.

  “When I was General, the Imperial Hunting Squadron used to talk about Brightbow a good deal. It was tactically interesting because it’s surrounded on all sides by miles and miles of plains. All flat.” He gestured around him. “We were hunting a Venator, not unlike the Marksman. He was famous for killing Imperial soldiers with arrows and stringing them up in a forest that used to be on this path.”

  He pointed down the road. “We didn’t know what he looked like, how old he was, or whether or not it even was a he. All we knew was that he’d been shot in the center of the back at some point. The devil was such a problem that we ended up building a military outpost and burning down the forest.”

  “So he couldn’t hide in the trees?”

  “Essentially,” the Wolf said. “But what we really wanted was to force him out onto the fields. So we could hunt him down and he’d have nothing to use as cover in a firefight.”

  Lilly looked around impatiently. Carlin could be on his way at any moment. “Did it work?”

  “Well our problem was always Brightbow. What would stop him from fleeing into the village? How could we catch someone in a village of thousands if we didn’t know what he looked like? He could simply vanish into the crowds or disguise himself.”

  “And what’s to stop us from doing that right now?” Lilly asked.

  “Carlin, ” the Wolf said. “Before we started recruiting people from outside the wall, the Imperial Hunting Party consisted of Anthony, Carlin, myself, and a few others. Carlin and Anthony both proposed different approaches to finding the Venator if he made it to Brightbow. Anthony would post a reward and send in a few spies. They’d watch the city and anyone who left would be checked for a scar on their back. He’d have to leave eventually so we would just wait him out. In the end it didn’t matter because the Imperial Hunting Party was called away to search for Nikolai Taurlum.”

  Lilly stared at him. “What was Carlin’s idea?”

  “Carlin insisted that the Venator had a revolutionary spirit and could be drawn out by his hatred for the Empire or his desire to protect people. He would take hostages and destroy property until the Venator stepped forward. He’d close off the city and turn it into a trap.”

  Lilly’s face grew hot. She suddenly understood the Wolf’s fear. “We’re in the same position that the Venator was all those years ago,” the Wolf said. “Carlin is about to know where we are. And the only place we can flee is to Brightbow village.”

  Lilly felt dizzy. She stabbed the swo
rd into the ground and gripped it for balance. The Wolf looked like he wanted to do the same. “If we’re killed, the entire Celerius line, and possibly the revolution, dies with us. But if we go into this city, we’re putting every rebel in grave danger. The ones in Brightbow are clever, but not clever enough to stay hidden if Carlin turns this village upside down.”

  Lilly looked around. “But… exposed out here. No cover. No nothing.”

  He gripped his sword hilt and gritted his teeth. “We have an interesting moral dilemma to face.”

  Chapter Forty-Six

  TRIDENTI SHIP

  NEIL VAPROS

  Neil had been on the Tridenti ship for three days and he’d only discovered one more thing about himself. He hated and deeply feared fish. The taste was familiar to him but the look of them certainly was not. Their eyes were particularly frightening, soulless, just recently snuffed out. Unfortunately the Tridenti family only ate food from the sea for both convenience and superstitious reasons. Neil had been watching them in action for the last few days and nothing within his short memory had ever impressed him so much. Their powers were connected to the sea, and so was all of their nourishment. According to Serena, they were immortal when they were in contact with seawater. They could also naturally breathe underwater and swim faster than anything else in the ocean.

  “Do you two think fish have unsettling eyes?” Neil asked at dinner one night. He’d always been invited to eat with them in their special dining room.

  Alex picked up a fish from the center of the table and flicked its mouth open and shut to mime speaking. “Why don’t you love me, Mamba?” he asked through the fish. “Don’t you think I’m pretty, Mamba?”

  “Stop it,” Serena giggled. “You’re going to scare him away.”