by Kate Sander
The Captain drew his sword. "I agreed to bring you here because you promised me riches. You shook my hand. I do not want to follow the Ampulex. We've seen what they do to people." His crew nodded gravely in agreement. "But you said that you had riches beyond my wildest dreams. You said that and shook. Now is the time to produce the gold."
"Or what?"
"Or die."
Senka laughed. Hard. Her sides hurt, her breath caught in her chest. Tears were pouring down her face and snot was coming out of her nose. Hearing the small creak as the row boat was lowered behind her and that she'd successfully created the diversion, she stopped and wiped her eyes.
"Sorry," she said. "I haven't heard a joke that funny in a long time. Listen, it's been a blast, but we're not going to stay here."
"You owe me riches."
"I was clearly talking about something money can't buy," she said, deadpan. The change from manic laughter to zero emotion caught the entire crew off guard. The Captain tried to keep her gaze, but was so uncomfortable that his sword shook in his hand. Kai growled and raised his hackles. "Clearly, I was talking about your lives. I can kill each and every one of you. And it would be fast. It would only take a minute. Maybe two."
"That," he said, using his sword to point at her necklace. The one that had Jules' ring on it. "And that bow you have. Then we will call it even."
Senka smiled at him.
"It seems we are on two different sides of this debate."
She charged him, so fast and so powerfully that he couldn't even flinch before she was on him. Grabbing him by the throat, she pushed him until his back was against the mast. One handed, she pushed him upward until his feet were well off the ground. A clang echoed over the deck. He'd dropped his sword.
Clawing at her hand, his lips turned blue. He tried to talk, but nothing could come out. The crew looked around themselves, terrified to move. Kai faced them and growled, threatening anyone who would attack her while her attention was elsewhere.
"Now, I'm giving you one chance to take my offer," Senka said. "I think it was a pretty good offer, don't you?"
Fish lips and claws, that's all she'd reduced the Captain to.
"What? You don't think so?"
"Hey!" A call from behind her.
Senka twitched and said without turning, "I told you to go on the row boat, Eris. I've got this covered."
A thump and tinkle as Eris tossed a small bag full of gold onto the deck.
"I have it covered," Eris said. "That's enough to cover our trip twice over, isn't it Captain?"
He could barely manage a small nod.
Senka sighed and dropped him. Gasping and groaning, he gulped air.
"Good enough for me," she said. Turning with Kai she strode towards Eris. "Let's go."
They hopped over the side of the deck and, using a rope, lowered themselves down to the waiting rowboat. Kai actually liked the water and he just jumped off the deck, preferring to swim beside the cramped row boat the couple hundred yards to shore.
Senka didn't meet anyone’s eye as she took her seat in the boat. Which was fine, because no one wanted to look at her anyway. Tory and Ujarak rowed in silence. Akira was sitting at the front, hanging over the edge and letting her hand skim over the water.
The tension could be cut with a knife.
"So," Tory snapped, not able to take it anymore. "Your plan all along was to just not pay him what you promised."
"You saw me make the deal," Senka snapped back, "on Anzen. You were there. Never crossed your mind to wonder where I was keeping this gold I was promising him?"
"I'm not your damn mother," Tory said. "I figured you had some in your bag."
"You figured I had twenty gold pieces each, with an extra ten for Kai, just being hauled around in this tiny ass leather pouch I have around my waist? Really? You thought that?"
"I didn't know what your plan was."
"Oh, you didn't figure that this was my plan all along?" Senka shot Tory a look, who avoided looking at her. "Really? Yeah, you're acting all high and mighty now because you don't have the balls to do what's needed."
"Guys, stop," Akira whispered from the front of the boat, only to be ignored by the two women.
"Don't think that your new homicidal tendencies are normal," Tory shot back. "Killing everyone on board a ship when they helped us in the first place. Have you no honour?"
"Honour doesn't win wars," Senka said.
"Guys, stop it," Akira said, louder this time. The squared off women neither heard her nor did they care. Ujarak kept rowing with his head down and Eris kept her eyes on the disappearing ship behind them.
"You don't have to kill everyone because you have this fucked up view of the world," Tory yelled. "At one time, you would never have killed anyone in cold blood like that."
"And look what fucking happened," Senka yelled back.
Kai had made the beach now around fifty yards away and was shaking himself off like a dog.
"ENOUGH!" Akira screamed from the front of the boat.
Both women fell silent and stared at the eleven-year-old. Panting, eyes wild, she stared at them. "This is what they want. This is how they win. We're going ashore and we know that the Ampulex have been here recently. And all you guys can do is fight about some stupid gold?"
Chastised, Tory and Senka hung their heads.
"Did either of you notice that smoke billowing on top of that cliff?" Akira asked, pointing behind her.
She wasn't lying. A line of thin, black smoke was rising into the clear blue sky from somewhere on the cliff. "Maybe we should discuss that and the gold later? I'm here to kill the Ampulex, not die because you guys are being stupid."
Senka and Tory nodded. Senka shot her a look and Tory avoided eye contact.
Apparently this wasn't over.
The row boat beached on the sandy shore, coming to a slow stop. They all jumped out, grateful to be on dry land. Ujarak and Tory dragged the row boat onto the shore. Kai was sunning himself in the sand, completely ignoring them. Typical.
The ship that had brought them there was a speck on the horizon. They were stuck in Anzen.
Still avoiding eye contact with the rest of them, Senka made her way across the beach to see Kai.
She heard the twang of a fired bow the same time that Kai did. Senka snapped her head as Kai sprang to his feet, growling. The arrow dug into the sand harmlessly at her feet.
"Where?"
Kai answered her by growling towards the edge of the beach. A roughly hewed path was carved along the side of the cliffs in cut backs. A swish of a cloak around the farthest turn told her what she needed to know.
"Go," she barked at Kai. "Don't kill."
Kai bounded away. The others finally figured out what was going on but Senka was long gone, tearing up the hill behind Kai as fast as she could.
A scream from above made her smile. Taking the last three cutbacks hard, she turned to see Kai cornering a young man against the rock.
"No, no, no," the man was saying to Kai as he growled at him.
Senka took off her bow and notched an arrow.
"Talk," she demanded. "Now."
"I'm from the village close by named Shamrock," he stuttered, not taking his eyes off Kai. "We were out fishing. When we came back our village had been attacked. Everyone was dead or taken. I was sent to guard the beach. Please don't kill me."
Senka lowered her bow, "Kai.”
He stopped growling and looked at her, then continued up the hill towards the top of the cliff. He'd let her know if anyone else tried to get the drop on them.
"What's your name?" she asked, walking up to him, hearing the others running up the hill.
"Gilly," the man said shakily.
"Hey Gilly," Senka said. "I'm Senka. That was Kai. The others are Ujarak, Tory, Akira and Eris. We're here to help."
The white-faced man nodded, still pressed against the cliff. Senka strode past him. "The village is this way?"
He gave a quick nod.
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Senka strode by him, leaving him to be collected by the others. Needing to be alone, she ran quickly up the rest of the cut backs to join Kai at the top of the cliff. It wasn't long before she saw the town.
It wasn't burning.
A pile of bodies was.
The smell of charred flesh filled the air, making her gag. Men and women were dragging people out of the town, with their faces covered with fabric to hide the smell.
Kai whined and Senka patted his head. They strode through the smoke, with Senka careful to keep one hand over her face and the other held out in front of her with no weapon visible.
She didn't want to have to kill these people. Whatever Tory said about her, she wasn't a monster.
"Halt!" a woman yelled. Others dropped the bodies they were carrying and scrambled desperately to find weapons.
Senka put her hands above her head.
"I'm not going to hurt you," she called through the acrid smoke. Not needing to point out that she could have killed them all before they found their weapons, she added, "unless you are Ampulex. Then I have to kill you where you stand."
"We are not," the woman said, standing her ground and brandishing a sword that was too long for her. "They have killed and taken our entire village. They are now our sworn enemies."
"Then you are my ally," Senka said. Kai growled, making his presence known and the five frail defenders’ eyes widened.
"How can we trust you?"
"I could have killed you easily," Senka said, shrugging. Striding forward, she picked up the nearest body and heaved it onto her shoulder with a grunt.
The dead man was heavy, but Senka was strong and had a point to prove. She hauled the body the fifty feet to the burning pile and heaved him off her shoulder, being careful not to look at his dead eyes.
"Go find your family in the spirit world," she said softly.
"Senka," Ujarak called from the top of the hill. "Senka, where are you?"
Senka jogged back to the five defenders, standing exhausted over their dead friends.
"My friends and I will finish this for you," Senka said to them. They wearily nodded. "Go, find some food, and get some rest. We will meet you in the town."
"Bless you," the woman said. Her compatriots nodded their agreement and walked, shoulders slumped, towards the quiet, broken town.
"Over here," Senka yelled at the four dark shadows in the smoke.
Ujarak, Tory, Eris and Akira walked up, coughing and eyes watering in the smoke.
"I gave the villagers a break," Senka said, nodding towards the four dead at her feet. "I told them we'd haul these to the fire for them and meet them in the village." Heaving a large woman onto her shoulder, she walked away without another word.
Ujarak and Tory followed her with two others, with Eris and Akira taking the shoulders and feet of the smallest, barely a teenager.
It didn't take long for them to unceremoniously drop off their cargo and return to the village of Shamrock.
"Gilly stayed back to guard the beach," Akira said softly as they walked towards the solemn village. "He's not doing a very good job."
"He just doesn't want to see his family and friends burn," Senka answered.
Akira nodded and stayed silent.
The five that Senka had relieved were standing by a mound of rubble in the center of the village. Others were working at clearing the rubble. A large man was kneeling by an even larger, dead woman. An arm was sticking out of the brick and stone, and Senka's stomach dropped.
The man turned and nodded as they joined him.
"My wife," he said, wiping his eyes. "They killed her. Big Mamma was the leader of this town. I don't know why they would do this."
Ujarak clapped the man on the shoulder.
"Hans," a man called from the rubble. "We've gotten through. There's only one man here. He's dead."
"Who is it?" the large, grieving man answered.
"Jules."
Ujarak went white and Tory gasped.
Senka's heart dropped into her stomach and her hand went instinctively to the ring around her neck. The ring that Jules had given her, all those years ago. There was no way it was her Jules. Langundo was a large country. There were probably tons of men named Jules.
"Aye," Hans said, rubbing his forehead. "That'll mean they got to Titus then."
"No," Senka said. She scrambled up the rubble, desperately trying to prove that it wasn't her Jules. Her Jules was alive and well somewhere away from all this shit. He wasn't dead under a pile of rubble in the middle of some piss town named Shamrock. There was no way the universe would be this cruel.
Reaching the man clearing the rubble, Senka fell to her knees and screamed.
Her Jules was there. His eyes stared up at her, but didn't see. Would never see again.
Separated for years, Senka always held out a shred of hope that she'd see him again.
The love she thought was lost swept through her as she stared at the cold, dead face of the man who taught her kindness. The man who taught her that a team was always better than going it alone. The man who'd loved her unconditionally, despite her many flaws.
Her Jules.
Cold.
Dead.
Kindness, goodness, love and hope left her in that instant.
All that was left was rage and pain.
She'd kill them. She'd kill them all.
18
Titus
Fog.
Thick and dense, it swirled around him, blocking his vision.
Not that the Forsaken minded. He didn't really mind anything. Mother's voice would fill his head and tell him what to do, and the Forsaken would listen.
Existence was easy. And the Forsaken didn't mind. He didn't mind at all.
He didn't feel the soles of his feet blister and slough off because of all the walking. He didn't feel his knee pop out of place when he fell down the small ravine early in his trek. He didn't even mind when it was popped back into place.
Fog and mother.
A simple way to be.
"Take this crown," Mother's voice filled his head.
A King's crown, oddly familiar, floated towards him on a pillow.
The Forsaken picked it up. It was heavy in his hands, the thick gold shimmering with a source of light that the Forsaken couldn't see.
Your father's crown.
"Now, place this crown on your King's head," Mother said.
The Forsaken hesitated. The man's head that popped into his vision, only a foot away from him, wasn't the King.
Your father is the King.
"My father is dead."
Then your brother is the King. This man is an impostor.
The fog started to clear. They were on a balcony that Titus recognized. Solias. They were standing in the castle of Solias. They were standing where he grew up. Roald, Malin and himself. That didn't make any sense. Frowning at the crown in his hands, he blinked, trying to remember.
"No," Mother said. "I'll show you your mother again. I'll show your uncle raping her over and over. I'll show him killing her. You will beg for her death again, but I won't grant it. You'll beg for your own death, but I'll make you keep watching it for years to come, until your soul withers within your body."
Titus looked at her and was lost in her eyes.
"You don't want to see that, do you Titus? You know it happened, and that you did nothing. You want to forget that you didn't help your mother, don't you?"
Titus nodded, "I do," he said hoarsely.
Thick fog reappeared, smothering everything.
"Place the crown on the King's head."
The Forsaken did as he was told.
"Now, take this crown and place it on my head."
The Forsaken took the smaller silver crown, and placed it on Mother's head.
"Bow."
The Forsaken took a knee and bowed his head.
He didn't hear the gasps of the crowd beneath the balcony, the remainder of the population after the wars and fami
ne ravaged the nation.
There was fog and only fog.
And silence.
And peace.
Part II
“It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.” - William Blake, Jerusalem
19
Senka
"It's impossible," Vick said angrily. "It's totally impossible. I've attacked that city before and it was a disaster, I'm not doing that again. I'm not putting my guys in that position."
Senka shot Tory an exasperated look.
Vick was supposed to be the go-to guy. After organizing the revolt against the last false King, he'd helped save as many civilians in Solias that he'd been able to. For that, he was a hero. But his current plan of hiding and hoping that the Ampulex would just pass them by were the thoughts of a broken man.
And Senka wasn't having any of it.
"Look," she snapped, "with Hans and the other fishermen from Shamrock I have thirty-five fighters. Thirty-five. FIshermen." She took a swig of her tea. "You're sitting on a thousand-"
"A thousand people," Vick said. "Would you actually listen to me? I have a thousand people. Many of whom are sick, injured from our last attack, or children. I have maybe seven hundred and fifty fighters."
"I thought you said the Ampulex would only defend themselves," Tory said, trying to keep the peace around the fire. They were camping in the plains a half day’s walk from Solias, the walled castle city in Langundo. Vick had a good idea to hide their numbers, and sent every person to start a fire spread out from each other. They'd hoped that the Ampulex would think they had far more soldiers than they actually had, leaving them alone to treat the wounded instead of trying to flee to the forest. It had worked, for now. Or the Ampulex didn't see them as a threat at all. Either way, they were here.
Lucky us, Senka thought.
"The last time we attacked," Vick said. "But my scouts saw tens of thousands enter the city from the west less than a week ago. There's no way they are just going to stand there this time. They're prepping for war. And rumour has it that their leaders are here this time."
