The Four Territories: The Dark Assassin Book One

by Stevie Collier

  Something grazed his shoulder.

  “What in the four hells is that?” Esh yelled, quickly stepping away from the grotesque thing that had touched him. An older looking non-being male… or was it a female? Either way, the non-being had a large growing mass on the side of its torso with long strands of hair growing off of it.

  “Isn’t it beautiful?” asked Shten. “Asexual birth is really the most efficient way to give life… or should I say it is the most efficient way to create spiritless moving husks? Yes…” Shten nodded his head, now speaking to himself. “Yes, that is more amiable.”

  “Do you think those awful humanoids have showed up?”

  Shten looked at her and then closed his eyes. He bent down and put his ear to the ground. After a few seconds, he stood and said, “I do not feel their presence as of yet. Your trackers do not know this territory as well as I, and therefore, we may have beat them here by several hours.”

  Shten led them down the middle of the street while Esh and Dashine glared at the differently sized tents and huts in which the dead things sold goods or argued amongst themselves over gambled losses. It reminded him of Zel, except for the obvious reasons.

  The village was also filled with sorcery manipulators, more than Esh had ever seen! He watched as some snapped their fingers and drinks appeared in their hands, which they guzzled pointlessly for the liquid just fell through the holes in their bodies. Dashine grabbed his shoulder and directed his attention to a dead thing that had pointed his finger at an object, making it move without touching it.

  “Have you ever seen anything like it? The sorcery, I mean,” asked Dashine.

  Esh shook his head, unable to peel his eyes off some of the wonders these non-beings were performing and taking for granted. “No… Never.”

  “I couldn’t tell whether my father was pleased or happy with the discovery of my abilities,” she said. “I was fortunate to not have stood the trials that I have heard about.”

  “Yes… It is not amusing to wake with soiled clothing and an unwashed body from such a long sleep,” Esh said before realizing that he had just effectively told the beautiful female that he had woken up in his own feces. He wanted to slap his forehead and then remembered Barish.

  “Barish!” cried Esh. “Shten, we need to get him treatment!”

  Shten was busy shaking hands with one of the non-beings and didn’t pay any attention to him. This non-being was a particularly ugly one, with the top half of its head missing but with an intact jiggling pink brain. A corb landed on it and poked at it with its beak before snatching up a morsel of pink and flying away. The non-being didn’t notice.

  “Shten!” cried Dashine, pulling him away from his conversation. “Our friend needs help!”

  “Oh yes! My apologies.” He beckoned them with a hand. “This way!”

  It wasn’t long before Shten stopped in front of one of the larger of the tents. He bowed and pulled back one of the curtains, “My dreadful place of habitation is now yours, Princess.”

  Esh and Dashine entered and were met with all sorts of bubbling jars, alchemy glasses and beakers, and pieces of armor that had been tossed randomly on the ground. Esh recognized some of the ingredients he had read about and all of them had to do with the darker side of alchemy, potions and spells that required a host or blood.

  “Here, put this on him.” Shten said, picking up a helmet off the ground and shaking the dirt out of it. Something small and hairy with three fat tails fell out of it. The hairy beast turned to Shten and scurried up his leg, hiding itself inside of his chest cavity.

  Dashine moved some clutter off a nearby table and said, “Here, place him here.”

  They laid him as flat as possible but didn’t want to force any movement that might overstretch the frozen muscle. Esh then slipped the helmet over his head, along with other pieces of armor that Shten had found lying around his home. Before them now lay a crumpled young gladiator with a mixture of purple and red territory armor.

  “Now what do we do?” asked Dashine.

  “If my studies of your species are correct and still valid, it is not smart to warm him up at a very fast rate. Much better to ease him into it,” answered Shten, placing his hands out in front of him. “I am going to sleep now and as I slumber my body will raise and regulate this idiot male’s body temperature. Do NOT leave this tent.”

  “Why can’t we leave the tent?” asked Esh, but was given no response. Shten’s head had bowed and his eyes turned in opposite directions.

  Esh left the tent. He spoke with Dashine until he could see her eyes starting to droop. He asked her if she wanted to sleep and she refused. Then he asked her how she had been abducted from the Blue territory and just as she was about to reply her head dipped to her chest and she began to snore.

  As he walked the streets he found it strange that none of the none-beings took notice of him. He wasn’t dead, at least he didn’t think so, and surely these other things could have sensed something was off about him as he walked by. And yet, nothing. Not even a stare. One of the local merchants even offered him a free fizzing drink and some bread that was host to more than just yeast. He denied politely but the evil glare he got made him change his mind.

  “I’ll try the drink, thank you very much.” He lifted the cup of liquid in the air as a sign of respect and gulped it down. It was actually quite delicious and it reminded him how hungry he was, but definitely not hungry enough to try the bread.

  He liked this village much better than he did Zel. The non-beings seemed to be pleasant enough and slavery was non-existent. He was beginning to think he would have like to live here. That was, of course, until he overheard a conversation between two non-beings and how one of them had consumed their own brother. The non-being went on to say that he was enjoying him living inside of him.

  This was a little much for Esh and he thought he’d better try the Green territory before making any final decisions about where to live.

  He paused to see a tall non-being female, at least she looked like a female. These non-beings looked as though they had a particular humanoid sex, but if what Shten said was true, it didn’t matter whether or not they looked male or female. That wasn’t how things worked here.

  The tall non-being female was speaking to a pile of limbs, brains, and torsos; he realized that all of these bodily pieces had their own minds and that they could actually speak. Some limbs were more comprehensible than others, depending on how they had been asexually produced and it seemed that some were luckier than others having been born with an arm to pull themselves across the ground or born as a brain and able to roll oneself.

  He watched as the tall more complete non-being taught an important lesson on proper glyph writing. Esh was about to move along until he heard that they would be using blood as their ink. His curiosity got the better of him and so he hunkered down with the lot of body pieces to listen in on the lesson.

  His adventure to take in all that he could of the dead village turned to a search for food as his belly grumbled louder and louder. Every merchant or tent of goods he walked up to sold nothing edible, at least not to him anyways. He figured his best option would be to simply get something that was alive, kill it, and put it over a fire source.

  His eyes rested on a slimy long squirming worm thing with one giant eye at the end of it. It was on display in front of a merchant’s tent by the side of the street to attract customers. It preoccupied itself with slithering into odd knots, untying itself, and repeating the process.

  Esh had respect for this society and hated what he was about to do… he had no currency and would have to steal from this poor merchant. All assassins knew how to steal, it was one of the first things they were taught! If you couldn’t steal without getting caught how do you think you could possibly infiltrate an establishment to assassinate a target without being detected? Stealing was level one for all assassin training.

  Esh walked down the street and started his way back up but this time made sure he wo
uld walk right past the merchant’s display. As he approached he let his arm dwindle by his side, ready to snatch up the slimy worm. It saw him and raised itself, blinking rapidly.

  He was just about to reach out and grab it when he sensed something flying towards him. He tried to dodge but was too late; the dagger flew by him with a successful slash across his right bicep. He gasped and held his arm, his motion accidentally tipping the display so the worm was left lying on to the ground. He sprinted behind the merchant’s tent, trying his best to disappear from his unseen enemy, but his exit was blocked by three agents. Xep had found him.

  He turned to run the opposite direction but there were four more agents waiting behind him.

  Without pausing, Esh jumped and grabbed on to the top of the tent, pulling himself up.

  The chase was on.

  He jumped from tent to tent trying to place his feet perfectly where the beams had been situated to hold up the structure. He looked back to see no one pursuing him and to the normal humanoid this was have been a good sign… but Esh knew better.

  And that’s when he felt the poison take its effect on his heart rate. The rushing blood in his veins slowed and his vision became blurry. He reached his hands out in front of him to catch himself for he knew his feet would not make the distance of his last jump. His hands failed him and he hit the ground face first.

  No pain came from the poison that now flowed inside his body but this didn’t mean the poison was any less dangerous. However, it did help him narrow the list of possible toxins down to two. One that would kill him and one that would put him to sleep. He turned to his back with the last bit of energy he had. He called out for his Master but the only response was darkness.

  44 - Surprise Visitor

  He awoke in a suspended cage. He shook his head, trying to clear his mind. Blurry vision was a side effect of the toxin. His hands were not bound and so he thrust two fingers down his throat so that he could vomit anything that was still inside of him. The mixture of poison and stomach acid burned the inside of his mouth as it poured out of him and out through the holes in the bottom of the cage. He then pulled himself out of his leggings and urinated. His next plan of action would be to call upon his twin, but now was not the time; he needed to get his thinking straight first.

  He checked himself over and found that he had been almost completely stripped. His armor and helmet had been taken from him. There was a bundle of black in the corner of the room which must have been where they threw his belongings. At least they let him keep his under garments.

  Someone entered the room but Esh could only see the outline of him. He walked up to the cage and shoved a piece of plain looking bread through the bars. As he turned to walk away, Esh could have sworn he saw a certain key shaped imprint under the agent’s robe that covered his eco-suit.

  The cage bars were wide enough apart that he figured he could get his arms through if he really wanted to. He practiced shooting his arms through the rectangular openings. It was a tight fit and the cage bars squeezed hard against his biceps and triceps. It was a painful process but he worked through it. This would be his only chance of escape.

  He bid his time swinging the cage back and forth while trying to make the least amount of noise. His vision came back ever so slowly but it was not to the point that he felt confident in calling out to his Wisp just yet. He decided to take the bread from the bottom of the cage and give it a sample taste. He figured they had already caught him and kept him alive, why kill him now? Plus, the bread might help soak up anything unnatural in his body. He took a small bite but couldn’t help but stuff the rest into his mouth.

  Feeling a little bit better, he kept rehearsing his plan. He would let the cage come to a perfect stop, throw his body against the side while tugging at the top of the bars to create as much swing as possible. He would then shove his arms out with all his strength trying to get them out as far as possible.

  He did this over and over again until his muscles created their memory. A long time passed before the agent stepped back into the tent with another loaf of bread. The agent was a female and did not look up at Esh but kept her head down. It was highly embarrassing for any assassin to be taking such orders as to feed a prisoner. Esh kept his eyes closed and pretended to be asleep or in deep meditation. He knew his eyes weren’t quite ready to be trusted but his ears were. He listened for each step trying to predict the very best moment to spring the trap.

  Step. Step. Step. There! Esh flung himself from where he sat and rammed himself against the side of the cage. It swung just as before and hit the unsuspecting agent directly in the nose, spraying a small bit of blood into Esh’s face and mouth. Before the agent could flee backwards, Esh thrust his arms through the openings, setting a record distance. He gripped the agent’s throat and closed down on her wind pipe. With the mixture of pain and breathlessness, the agent became spastic and sloppy with her movement. If only she had realized that she could easily have cut Esh’s hands away with one of her daggers, but no… She gave into the panic, just as Esh had planned.

  Esh could feel the female’s pulsing veins beneath his grip until finally her movements slowed and then went calm. Esh picked her straight off the ground and wrung the neck a few times just to be sure she was dead. He then spit on the bar and used the saliva to slide his right arm down to search the female’s robes. The keys were easily accessible; he felt three attached to a metal ring jingling loosely in one of the inner pockets. Esh snatched them up and let the female fall lifeless to the ground.

  He held the set up to his eyes and even though they looked obscured and cloudy because of the effects of the poison, he could still tell that each of the three were different. No matter, he would try all three and surely one would do the trick.

  He slid the first one in the keyhole and tried to turn it. Nothing. He tried the second. Nothing. His heart started to beat faster, hoping that all of this had not be for nothing. He stuck the third key in and felt a sharp pain run through his right arm as if he had just been stung by something. The key wouldn’t turn and he kicked the door in a fit of rage.

  This was all his own fault. If only he’d listened to Shten’s warning and stayed put in his home. But no, he was too reckless. Perhaps he deserved to be in this cage meant for animals. Maybe he deserved to be caught. He wasn’t worth his Master’s training. He wasn’t even worthy of the title of assassin. Then what was he? Oh yes… A giant dumb animal in a cage.

  He felt eyes on him.

  “My Lord! He’s done it!”

  “If you wouldn’t mind, please keep your voice down,” said Xep’s voice coming through the tent’s walls. “Now our hostage is aware that he has been tricked. Are you sure he’s been stricken?”

  “Quite sure! Saw him flinch myself!”

  “Hmmm… Very well. I will call the Master.”

  Esh sat down holding his hand which had begun to swell and throb. Xep had used his training against him. He knew that Esh would devise a plan, he knew he would steal the key set, and he knew he would try them in the lock. The bad eyesight was just a mirage to make things seem worse than they were. To make him more desperate… and it worked.

  And who was this Master? He thought that Xep was working for his own terms or maybe even for the newly appointed king, but never a Master.

  Esh had a long time to sit and stew over the transpired events of his stupidity. Xep had taught him about powerful spells called banes or fool’s spells for only a fool would be so dumb as to get inflicted by one. Banes were uncommon and rarely used due to their difficulty to master. In order for a bane to work properly, the target must cast it on themselves, usually through the touching of a cursed object and cursing was a whole other route of difficulty in itself.

  What sort of bane would Xep want to cast on him? What part of Esh did he want to hinder or provoke? A bane, given the circumstance, just didn’t make sense unless it was some sort of truth spilling bane, but he doubted this. There were easier ways to get the truth out of s
omeone. But why go through all the trouble? They wanted the Princess, not him. What did they expect to get out of him?

  “Open the curtain,” ordered a rough old voice.

  Two hands from opposite ends pulled back the fabric and in walked a hooded, hunched-over humanoid. Behind him entered Xep with an apathetic face and both hands hidden in his robes.

  “I’ve done as you’ve asked, Master,” said Xep.

  “Have you?” said the hooded male.

  He looked around the room, grunted, and walked up to the rocking cage. He pulled back his hood revealing an ancient pale white face covered in wrinkles, moles, and liver spots with hair protruding from his ears and nose. His hideous features gave him the appearance of more ghoul than humanoid.

  With one blind eye that had grown a cloudy blue over the years, he examined the giant half breed. He had tall pointed ears, much taller than Esh’s, and both lobes held two non-being tongues as jewelry that granted him sight in this village. He kept his mouth open in a snarl, brandishing teeth that had been sharpened by hand, not by nature.

  He sniffed at Esh a couple of times before taking in one large breath. He exhaled and said, “Good work, pupil. He reeks of the odor of the dark energy.”

  Xep walked to the old elf’s side and didn’t even bother to give Esh a look. “I suggest we open a portal and leave this place immediately.”

  “So, now you are giving me orders?” asked the elf, turning his head slowly to Xep who, for the first time that Esh could remember, looked to be nervous.

  “No, Master Zygod. Forgive me.” Xep dropped to his knees and placed both hands on the ground.

  Zygod gave a pleased smile at Xep’s show of loyalty. He pulled back a foot and kicked him hard in the face. Xep didn’t move nor flinch but took the full strike. Blood poured from his nose and the side of one of his eyelids had torn slightly. “Learn your place.”