by Ian Gregoire
With a nonchalant wave of the hand, Kayden neutralised the half dozen flaming orbs. Stoney faced, she said to the cultist, “Take me to your leader!”
PART THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
In Striking Distance
No words were exchanged as Kayden followed her reluctant Sanatsai guide through the woods, with Onyx floating behind her, carried along by the ‘unseen hand’. The black gelding still hadn’t regained consciousness during the quarter-hour they’d been navigating through the trees, but Kayden was now less worried about the well-being of her four-legged friend. He was still breathing and physically uninjured, so it was just a case of waiting to discover if he would suffer any detrimental aftereffects from being struck by a concussion orb. Kayden still felt guilty for not protecting him, but the incident had made her determined to save Onyx from harm in the future.
Keeping her senses tuned to her surroundings, she wasn’t prepared to rely solely on her eyes and ears to alert her to possible danger. She didn’t entirely trust the man she was following not to lead her into an ambush. If he believed her to be a threat to the self-styled Master Yosarian, his cooperation could be feigned in order to lure her into a false sense of security. If that was the case, Kayden needed to be ready to face any trouble that came her way.
A chuffing sound prompted her to look back over her shoulder, and she saw that Onyx was stirring. Coming to an abrupt halt, she called out to her guide, instructing him to stop while she checked on her horse. Kayden approached the black gelding just as his eyes fluttered open, but his panicked response to finding himself suspended in the air forced her to keep her distance. “Calm down, big boy,” she said firmly. “I’m going to set you down right now.” Employing the ‘unseen hand’ she manipulated the horse into an upright position and set his hooves on the ground.
The moment Onyx had a solid footing he calmed down, allowing Kayden to approach and retrieve the reins. She stroked his nose with affection, relieved that he seemed none the worse for his ordeal. He was spry and full of vigour. No one would ever guess he’d recently been hit by a concussion orb. She took a moment to readjust her two burlap sacks hanging over his rump, then she was ready to resume her march through the woods. Grabbing hold of the reins once more, Kayden instructed her guide to continue onwards while she followed behind, walking alongside Onyx.
A further half-hour elapsed, and Kayden was becoming more suspicious about where she was being led. It seemed unlikely that the four-man patrol she had encountered would have strayed so far from their commune. She cast out her senses, hoping to detect a possible ambush before walking into it. There was nobody lurking in the trees, but Kayden did sense the presence of several hundred people about half a mile southeast of her position. The sheer number of people more than suggested a settlement of some kind, which had to mean it was a cult commune, but her Sanatsai hostage was guiding her westward.
“Hey!” she called out to the man, prompting him to stop. “Your people are about a half-mile in that direction.” She pointed a finger at the presumed location of the cult commune. “So why are you leading me away from there?”
The evident hostility etched upon the Sanatsai’s stubbly face didn’t prevent him from answering.
“You asked to be taken to our leader,” he replied in a brusque tone. “Well, he’s not at my commune today. We have eleven communes dotted through woodlands in this area, and he never stays at any one for longer than a day. He should be at one of the communes about two miles west of here.”
“‘Should’?”
“I won’t know for certain until we get there.”
Kayden was aggravated by that answer. She questioned the wisdom of trusting a brainwashed member of a cult. Could she really rely upon such a person to take her to Josario? “If you are even thinking about leading me into some kind of trap,” she said, “remember what I did to your friends.”
The Sanatsai cultist glowered at her with pursed lips. “Oh, I haven’t forgotten,” he said in an undertone. “And when Master Yosarian finds out what you did, there will be a price to pay. He shows no mercy to his enemies, and I look forward to hearing you scream.”
“Keep walking!” snapped Kayden.
She watched her reluctant guide resume his walk, while she remained rooted to the spot as a dull ache in her abdomen provided an unwelcome reminder that she’d been stabbed the previous night. Onyx snorted then bobbed his head up and down, yanking the reins in her hands. With a smile she looked up at him. “You want me back in the saddle, do you?” she said rhetorically. “You must have read my mind. I don’t want to be walking around these woods on foot all day.”
Kayden clambered up into the saddle and urged Onyx forward at a trot. As they followed slowly behind the marching hostage, she couldn’t stop thinking about how much she missed Antaris campus, her friends, her studies, and above all else, Fay. She couldn’t wait to go back. But before that could happen she had to kill Josario, then bring back his severed head as proof she had accomplished the feat that no one else had managed, not even the legendary Fay Annis.
It wasn’t long before the hostage cultist had guided Kayden clear of the woods, out into open country. He promptly altered course, heading uphill in a southwesterly direction towards a line of trees in the distance. The early afternoon sun was high in the cloudless, blue sky, the temperature was warm and a gentle breeze was blowing from the north. It was a most pleasant day for horse-riding in the countryside, but Kayden was unable to enjoy the experience. The situation was too serious, and after almost two weeks of hunting her prey, Kayden was more than ready for it to be over so she could return to Antaris. Up in the saddle, she steered Onyx to follow in the footsteps of the reluctant guide.
Within a quarter-hour, they had reached the second woodland, and the beleaguered cultist continued to lead Kayden in a southwesterly direction. The ground underfoot had plateaued, so they were no longer moving uphill, allowing the Sanatsai to maintain a swifter walking pace. Still Kayden remained wary, frequently casting out her senses—as she’d been taught—in order to avoid walking into trouble. Eventually, she reached an area where, again, she was unable to sense anything, making it seem as though the woodland was lifeless. Based on the previous occurrence, she deemed it safe to assume that a wielder of Zarantar, capable of masking the use of their power, was concealing the presence of the cult communes in the woodlands. As before, Kayden invoked Yuksaydan to neutralise whatever was preventing her senses from penetrating the woods, and moments later she was able to detect five distinct clusters of people in different locations.
Each grouping numbered in the hundreds of people. The first was about a mile southeast of her present position, but she wasn’t being led in that direction. There was two further locations to the southwest, one of which was only half a mile away, the other about a mile and a quarter, but neither was her destination. The Sanatsai cultist was now walking due south, where Kayden could sense the two remaining groups, the closest just a mile away.
A mixture of anticipation and trepidation swept over Kayden. She had every reason to believe that Josario was present at this new location. The number of people whose presence she could feel was almost double that of every other location. Surely this implied the cult leader was there with additional followers around him for security. She would find out soon enough. Her guide had noticeably picked up the pace, and they would reach their destination in maybe a quarter-hour.
The journey through the woodland was uneventful, though Kayden kept her guard up at all times, in anticipation of trouble. She was less than a quarter mile from the presumed cult commune when it finally manifested. The cultist came to a halt on the trail ahead of her, so she tugged on the reins to bring Onyx to a stop.
“Why have you stopped?” she called out to the Sanatsai.
No response was offered. The cultist’s back remained turned to her as he stood rooted to the spot. Irritated, Kayden briefly pondered rendering the dunderhead unconscious with a concuss
ion orb, but her senses alerted her to an imminent Zarantar strike.
“Hey! Don’t even think about it,” she snapped.
Without warning, the gruff Sanatsai spun around, charging towards Kayden, but he was no longer a flesh and blood man. In an instant he had become a flaming, humanoid form, screaming as he sprinted towards his target.
Oh shit!
Kayden’s alarm spiked as she realised what was happening. Instinctively, she invoked Inkansaylar to induce a barrier sphere around herself and Onyx just before the Sanatsai’s body detonated. The translucent bubble protected Kayden from the force of the blast, as well as the smouldering blood and viscera of the fanatical cultist, but didn’t prevent her four-legged friend being spooked. Onyx reared up onto his hind legs, throwing Kayden out of the saddle, and she landed heavily on her back.
“Son of a bitch!” she groaned, unmoving.
Winded by the fall, Kayden couldn’t believe what had just happened. Not only had the cultist attempted to kill her, he had done so by turning his whole body into a humanoid incendiary orb, thereby sacrificing his life. Though he failed to take her with him, Kayden realised quickly that he had likely succeeded in alerting his fellow cultists to an approaching threat. By waiting until they were close enough to the nearby cult commune before making his move, the Sanatsai had ensured that everyone at the commune heard his scream and the detonation, making it next to impossible for her to arrive without being perceived as an enemy.
“Onyx! Calm down, boy,” said Kayden, worried that her agitated horse might trample on her. She scrambled back onto her feet and came alongside the black gelding to grab hold of his reins. “It’s all right. We’re both all right.” She briefly stroked his neck until he was pacified.
Thinking on her feet, Kayden knew she needed to reach the commune without delay. Given the circumstances, it was unlikely she’d be afforded the opportunity to persuade anyone that she was friendly and hoping to be recruited. Instead, she had to take advantage of the alarm and confusion that was no doubt occurring at the commune.
Bringing down her barrier sphere, Kayden swiftly remounted. Back in the saddle, she kicked her heels into Onyx’s flanks to urge him into an all-out gallop. He covered the ground at breakneck speed as Kayden rode him towards the location where she could still detect several hundred people. Within a minute, the swift gallop through the woodland brought into view a four-man checkpoint. All four men were similarly attired in well-worn dark leather fatigues, and armed with swords at their hips.
“Woah! Who goes there?” bellowed one of the men with his hand raised.
There was little doubt in Kayden’s mind that the armed quartet were followers of Josario, and she had no intention of stopping for them; she was too close to her objective. Invoking Yuksaydan, she lashed out with the ‘unseen hand’ to knock all four off their feet so Onyx could breeze past them without hindrance. A short while later she caught her first glimpse of the commune. Her view was obscured by trees, but Onyx soon burst into a vast clearing.
She had expected to come upon something akin to a farmstead, but she found herself entering what was essentially a village. The commune was dotted with numerous bungalows and other wooden buildings—big, small, and in between—while scores of men and women were milling about.
In an instant, all eyes were on Kayden, including a group of almost two dozen armed men who appeared to be readying for an expedition into the trees. She pulled on the reins, bringing an abrupt halt to Onyx’s blistering gallop with a call of, “Woah!” From beneath the hood of her cloak, Kayden peered at the hundred or more people. Glancing this way and that, she realised she had been impetuous in rushing headlong into the area. Dressed head to toe in black, riding a black horse, with her features obscured by a hood, it was obvious that everyone staring at her believed her to be a threat.
Fevered murmuring sounded all around her, then a lone voice yelled, “It’s the Destroyer! Protect Master Yosarian!”
Sensing multiple, imminent Zarantar strikes, Kayden invoked Makfayshulat and levitated out of the saddle while invoking Inkansaylar to create a barrier sphere around Onyx below her. As she ascended high into the air, dozens of incendiary orbs lanced up towards her airborne form. Her reflexive invocation of Yuksaydan deflected the volley of orbs back towards the ground, and the fiery detonations that followed caused the Zarantar-wielding cultists below to scatter and seek cover.
Kayden invoked Raytandushay, making herself invisible, then drifted steadily forward. Looking down at the ground, she wondered in which of the wooden structures Josario would most likely be. Her attention was drawn away from that thought when she, again, sensed multiple imminent Zarantar strikes. A barrage of incendiary orbs flew up towards her from several directions, prompting her to invoke Yuksaydan in response. Each of them blinked out of existence before they got close, but she was disturbed by the cultists’ ability to target her even though she was invisible.
Oh, of course! she thought to herself when she spotted a number of women on the ground, pointing fingers at her. Somehow, it had slipped her mind that Josario had been able to recruit Jaymidari from the Sisterhood into his cult. It didn’t matter that she was invisible to the Sanatsai unleashing incendiary orbs at her from below. Her inability to mask the use of her Zarantar meant that the Jaymidari contingent of Josario’s cult could pinpoint her position, and direct the attacks of the Sanatsai cultists.
With a sigh, Kayden ceased her invocation of Raytandushay. Now that she was visible once more, the group of armed Sanatsai she had seen preparing to leave the commune when she first arrived promptly levitated up into the air, drawing their swords as they drifted towards her. Kayden’s first instinct was to drift towards the oncoming attackers, but an aerial sword fight against twenty-plus men was a battle she would never win. Nevertheless, the closer she allowed them to come, the less she had to worry about Zarantar strikes from the ground—assuming the other cultists below didn’t want to risk hitting their comrades. Drawing her own sword, Kayden waited until the closest Sanatsai was almost within striking distance before ceasing her invocation of Makfayshulat. She fell like a stone towards the ground, and at the last possible moment she slowed her descent to land gently on her feet.
Before she could take a single step to initiate hostilities against the growing number of cultists surrounding her, Kayden found herself enveloped by an inertia field. Though her mind continued to function at normal speed, her body was moving in exaggerated slow motion, making her a sitting duck. If she didn’t neutralise the Jaymidari invocation right away she’d be captured or killed in a matter of seconds.
Invoking Yuksaydan, she was immediately alarmed that she felt no discernible weakening of the inertia field around her. She increased the strength of her invocation, and for the briefest of moments her body movements quickened before slowing down again, due to the sudden increased strength of the inertia field.
Maintaining her composure, Kayden realised she wasn’t dealing with the invocation of a single Jaymidari, so her continued effort to neutralise the inertia field was likely to be futile. Alone, the average Sanatsai had no chance of overcoming multiple Jaymidari working in unison. Though Kayden knew she wasn’t an average Sanatsai, there were hundreds of people on the commune, and even if only a quarter of them happened to be Jaymidari the odds of besting their shared invocations were insurmountable. Fortunately, she wasn’t completely helpless. While she couldn’t force her body out of the inertia field, her Zarantar was another proposition entirely. She just needed to identify the Jaymidari turncoats responsible for the invocation, then target them to break their concentration sufficiently for her to neutralise the inertia field.
Out of the corner of her eye, Kayden saw the group of women from whom the Zarantar causing her confinement was emanating. She initiated the strongest invocation of Yuksaydan she could muster, to push the ‘unseen hand’ forcefully beyond the inertia field towards the eleven-strong group of turncoat Jaymidari. The ground beneath the women’s feet e
rupted, taking them by surprise as they were bowled over. Immediately, Kayden felt a weakening of the inertia field around her. Again, she attempted to neutralise the Zarantar-induced impediment as more cultists closed in. The inertia field was unable to withstand the rapid intensification of her invocation of Yuksaydan, and it quickly dissipated out of existence. She was now able to move freely once more, but she had nowhere to go. Scores of cultists had surrounded her on all sides, including from above, where the sword-wielding Sanatsai who’d pursued her in the air were cutting off an aerial escape.
Rooted to the spot, Kayden’s mind was racing. She was forced to contemplate whether she’d be better served making a tactical retreat, and rethinking her strategy. But fleeing the scene wouldn’t be possible unless she was able to force the cultists to back off. She sensed an imminent Zarantar strike from above that intruded upon her ruminations, prompting her to glance up—just in time to see a trio of incendiary orbs hurtling down towards her. Reacting instinctively, she invoked Yuksaydan to neutralise the flaming projectiles before unleashing two dozen concussion orbs into the air with her invocation of Turmiraydan. She didn’t care to see how many, if any, of the aerial Sanatsai would be struck by her retaliatory attack. She turned her attention immediately to the numerous other cultists encircling her. If she was going to flee the scene, she had to make an opening for herself now.
Again, Kayden relied upon her invocation of Yuksaydan. She unleashed a 360-degree invisible blast that radiated outward from her, and knocked over everyone standing within a fifty feet radius. Fay had taught her how to utilise the ‘unseen hand’ in such a manner almost a year and a half ago, but this was the first time she’d had cause to use it in anger. However, she didn’t have the luxury of standing around to admire the effectiveness of the strike. She had to make a run for the line of trees beyond the furthest bungalow in the distance, and flee the commune.
