by S L Gassick
“I don’t know,” Milius downed some of his hot tea, scorching his throat slightly, “I think Theus sees a change coming, he’s testing me. I don’t know what for but he hasn’t been the same recently.”
“He messed up. He just feels guilty.”
“No.” Milius put his tea onto the white table between them. “No, it’s more than that. Why would he put someone as inexperienced as myself in such a position of power?”
“What do you mean?”
“Controlling the army? I was just a pawn a matter of months ago and now I’m almost in charge? It doesn’t make sense. Along with trying to find the mole? I’ve hardly had time for both. There are a hundred people here who could do this. He knows that.”
Cyrene looked alarmed. “What are you trying to say?”
“I don’t think he wants me to find the mole, Cyrene. He knows this battle will take up all my time. But if he knows who it is, why is he protecting them?”
Cyrene stood up and knelt in front of him. She caught his eyes and placed her hands on his knees, then slowly raised her head and kissed him. Milius was shocked to finally feel her warm lips against his own and then suddenly fell back on his chair as she fell on top of him. They both laughed and lay in the grass in the warm night in each other’s arms until the sun woke them up again in the morning.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“What are we going to do?” Phin looked around discreetly trying to see where this voyeur was hiding.
“He’s outside. Up in the hills, Phin. Stop looking, you won’t see him,” Hemero stated without looking up while still unpacking. He was too tired to even care. He felt like his whole body was aching and was hoping Lirilius had already spotted that someone was watching, but he wasn’t too confident. Lirilius had been acting strangely and could have let his guard slip at any point.
“We have to get out of here!” Phin started to pack up his things again and begin to run out, but Nayakax stood up in front of him and looked him straight in the eye. He tilted his head slightly and slapped Phin on the face leaving a huge red hand print.
“What the hell, Naya?!” Phin shouted, “What was that for?”
“You were panicking when there’s nothing to worry about.” Nayakax sat back down. “They’re not even looking in here are they, Hemy?”
“No. Well not exactly. There’s one person monitoring all three windows. Rose’s room, Lirilius in the kitchen with Fred, and us. But they seem to be more interested in the other windows than ours. That’s why our beds are hunched together by the window, so they can focus their attention on us easily as we sleep. See?” Hemero pointed to some scratches on the floor. “These beds were moved recently.”
“I think we should rest.” Nayakax yawned. “It could be nothing, but if we start acting strangely then we could be in trouble.”
“And hitting me isn’t acting strange?!” Phin replied.
“I told you. They weren’t looking.” Nayakax lay back onto the bed as Lirilius walked in.
“Right, you two. Hop into that one.”
“What? How come we have to share?” Phin asked. Lirilius looked slightly pale and had blood shot eyes.
“Just do it! You two are close friends or something, aren’t you? Which is fine, but, I need my own space, Rose is a girl and if any of you want to take it up with Naya, feel free.” Lirilius tripped slightly and almost fell over, but catching himself on the bedpost, he steadied himself and began to undress.
“I’m not taking anything up with Naya,” Phin whispered under his breath as he climbed in to share Hemero’s bed. Nayakax stayed awake and watched what was happening, keeping one eye on the window.
“Something has happened to Lirilius. He doesn’t look the same,” he thought to himself. Lirilius blew out all the lights and collapsed onto the bed and within two minutes was snoring. Naya looked over to see Phin starting to fall asleep, but that Hemero was still awake.
“Hemy…” Nayakax whispered into the darkness.
“Yes?”
“We’ll take turns to keep awake, I’ll go first.”
“Good idea.”
Hemero turned round to go to sleep and was soon dreaming of riding a black horse through the vast green mountains. He was passing trees that were giving him shade in the burning light, but they were starting to strangle him and smother him until the only way he could cope was to hack them off with a sword.
Each swipe gave a crashing blow and made the earth quake with power. Hemero enjoyed it and began hacking away at the trees until the fields suddenly turned to sand and there was nowhere left to ride.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
“Milius!” A young knight came running up to him as he stood by Theus outside the library.
“What is it?”
“It’s Colum. He has told the soldiers to ride with him to meet the enemy before they get a chance to attack. A great number have decided to leave and they are gathering now.”
Milius marched past him before another word was uttered. As he made his way near the courtyard, he could hear voices cheering. As soon as he opened the door, he saw Colum holding up his sword as a large group were cheering him on.
“Colum!” Milius shouted, his voice ringing loud and clear through the masses. Everyone stopped and turned around. He marched up onto the tiny make-shift stage that had been built and addressed the huge knight directly; “what in Gaea is the meaning of this? Mutiny?”
“Mutiny? And since when have you been our leader? Jumping rank because the old man is fond of you!” The crowd cheered. Milius turned towards them.
“Theus, your leader, the one who has kept Norheath safe for all these years, chose me to draw up the plans for battle. I never said I was going to lead anyone. Theus is your leader, I have merely advised.”
“Oh, you advise do you?” Colum snorted. “And so what do you advise us to do young Knight of Gaea? All wait for everyone here to be slaughtered by these Undead?” The crowd started to get furious, Milius could feel their kyu’s getting heated and agitated. The crowd were gathering more numbers as students, teachers and locals came to see what was happening. Word had obviously spread fast.
“Enough!” Milius paused. “I was the first to see these Undead. I saw my entire squad, my friends die before my very eyes. Then get up again and try to kill me. You think you’re dealing with the enemy? Most of those things out there will be your friends, your colleagues, maybe the ones you love. And they will not stop until you walk alongside them. Wandering on the brink of life with the sole purpose of killing and devouring any living human. Yes I want you to wait! I don’t want anyone having to fight these things sooner than they have to.
Let me make something clear here, if you ride out to meet these things now, you will die. No question. I have devised a plan for every scenario and to make sure it succeeds, Theus and I need every single man to be on board. Otherwise you put the whole of Norheath in jeopardy. If someone else wants to get up there and think of a better battleplan, then be my guest.”
There was a pause and no-one made a sound. Milius turned round swiftly. “Colum?” Colum just stared intently with eyes of fire as Milius continued. “Well, go on then! You’re the one with years more battle experience than me. Is it experience or slaughter? I get confused. And I think you do too.” Colum growled. “Right, well go on and get yourselves killed. Explain to your families that if you come back, to make sure that they have the bottle to chop your head off, because you’re not coming back the same.”
Milius stormed off and saw Cyrene was watching. She looked slightly horrified. Milius was still fuming with anger and pulled her to one side. “I need your help.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to look after Aslo; he’s still shaken up since his questioning, and then come meet me outside these gates tonight. These men weren’t going to be led into a battle, they were going to be led into a trap. We need to keep tabs on Colum. It’s him. Colum is the mole.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIG
HT
Milius hid in the bushes looking out towards the faint glow coming from the little wooden hut in the distance. If his light was on, he must still be up, but what has he been doing all this time? Milius could hear Cyrene’s breathing and could smell her scent with every breath that he took. He timed it subtly so that when she breathed out, he would breathe in. It almost became a mantra and Milius had to keep shaking himself to make sure he kept awake. It had been dark for a while now and they had sat together like this, motionless, hardly talking but fully alert.
“How long have we been here now?” Cyrene spoke up. Her face was faint in the non-existent light but Milius could still make out the shape of her lips, her perfectly formed nose and bright eyes staring back into his.
“Hours. I haven’t even seen him move in there.”
“Then he must be …”
“Waiting – I know. But what for?”
The question was rhetorical, but after a long pause Cyrene answered.
“Maybe it’s just a friend. Maybe we’ve got this all wrong.”
“I don’t think so, Cyrene. His uprising was calculative; he wanted those men to march out to their deaths. He is not as simple as to pre-empt an attack like that, not with so few. That, and he nearly killed Aslo.”
“I know,” Cyrene answered, “the poor thing hasn’t spoken since the incident. I cleaned his wounds again today. It was unspeakable. I never knew anyone could be capable of such horror. It was sadistic.”
“Thank you for looking after him, Cyrene.”
“Don’t thank me Milius,” Cyrene smiled, “I wanted to. He is my friend too.”
“I just appreciate the help. Have you spoken to any of the parents yet? Nayakax, Rose, all that? We need them off our backs.”
“Yes, don’t worry. Nayakax’s parents think he has undergone some special training program to deal with the threat, I’ve told Rose’s parents that some of the children with healing kyu have been taken to learn about medicine on site as part of an emergency group, Rose had left a rather vague note anyway, and I take it your parents are still away?”
“Yes, I doubt they’d know even what was going on. They would only have just reached their destination by now, it would take them months to get back.”
“I’d like to meet them. Properly I mean, not just talking about Phin’s lack of attention in class,” she giggled lightly.
Milius felt that deep pull at his stomach, the same sensation as when he has survived a battle or when he first picked up his sword or made his first speech to his men. To him, this moment felt just as important in his life as any of those.
“Milius!” Cyrene suddenly grabbed his arm. The light in Colum’s hut had gone off while they were talking.
“Damn. Where is he?” Milius panicked. Maybe they had been heard and caught out.
“Look,” Cyrene pointed to the front door which Colum was now walking away from. “We need to split up, we have the strategic advantage, we don’t want to be found together.”
“Why not?” Milius asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Why don’t we want to be found together?” Milius looked sincerely hurt.
“Because… he could kill us?” Cyrene gestured with a finger slicing along her throat.
Milius nodded as a wash of relief clearly passed over his face. He watched her lips as she smiled. He could almost put aside the mission and kiss her right here and now, he felt his face getting hot and when she started noticing, he quickly broke through the bushes to flank Colum.
As he kept a good distance, creeping behind the huge tank of a soldier, he wondered what brought Colum to such lengths as to betray his people. Were they ever truly his people? He swore an oath to protect, like all soldiers and guards do, but Milius couldn’t think of one time he ever saw Colum look as though he was having fun unless it was driving a sword through another man.
It wasn’t something Milius would take pleasure in, but for Colum it had become a way of life. He always felt this huge, gruff man was isolating himself and if only he opened up a bit more, he could maybe start enjoying life again.
Milius’s mother had told him that every moment was a gift and it was perhaps this fleeting remark that made such an impact on him upon the battlefield, by daring to stare death in the face, he was cherishing life as he knew it. His parents might not agree, but then they never agreed with him on much. He missed them. He never thought he’d say it, but he did. He took a moment to look at the night sky and wonder where they could be right now, and more importantly whether they were safe.
He wondered if whilst they were away his father had still got his nine o’clock brew, if his mother was still doing her morning stretches or if they were arguing about what was the quickest route to take.
He wondered if they were dead.
But perhaps they’d still be doing that even after death? Could they even be here now with him? Sweeping through the forest on the chill of the night air surrounded by the country earth that bore them. Would they be brushing past Colum now, whispering secrets into his ear like he heard the dead would do in ancient stories.
All of a sudden, as if something indeed had been whispered, Colum stopped and looked up at a tree. Milius made a signal for Cyrene to stop and they held still. “He’s talking to someone, it’s his contact.” Milius could see someone in the trees, but wasn’t close enough to make out who it was. For a second, he got the ridiculous notion that it might be his parents.
Milius felt a rush of excitement; this was the proof he needed. Just then, Colum turned back around and started walking back towards them. They quickly took cover in the bushes and kept an eye on any movement in the trees up above them. Slowly, a figure moved away back in the direction of the Valhalla. Milius gestured for Cyrene to follow the shadow in the trees with him.
Without sparing another second Milius rushed through the thick forest as silently as the wind and saw the figure jumping from tree to tree in front of him. Milius got out his knife and caught up with him; whoever it could be was rather slow and not very graceful.
Milius jumped at the person’s back and in one swift move put the knife against their throat. Looking down he suddenly had to take a short breath for he would never in a thousand years have expected to see the face looking back at him.[DG35]
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Shui was getting a little annoyed that Delay was taking so long with everything asked of him, but then he was relatively new. Just as he was about to get up, the door shifted open and out from it emerged Delay dragging a chain behind him attached to a young, dirty, bearded, naked man. His skin had been cut to tethers, a bloody pulp of what once was a soldier. His clothes hung off him like they had been haphazardly thrown onto him as a cruel joke; a meagre, laughable attempt to hide what little dignity he had.
“Another fine specimen!” Shui announced with glee. The prisoner fell onto his knees, head bowed and did not move. Delay stood back and let Shui have his way. As he approached the prisoner, his mouth salivating, he suddenly noticed that there was no fear in this man, and was quite bemused. The fear is all part of the fun after all.
Then all of a sudden the man jumped up knocking Shui down and wrapped his chain around the Dark Clan leader’s neck, pinning his arms down with his legs.
“NOW!” the young man shouted. Delay dragged himself past Shui and got the coin from his desk. He held it in his hands and suddenly felt the surge of power. This was it, the revenge he had been waiting for.
“Whatever you’re going to do” the brave knight said, “do it now! I’m losing him!”
Delay suddenly felt panicked and realised he did not know what to do. There were thousands of voices in his head and it felt like trying to keep hold of a bolt of lightning. He did not feel what to do like he had hoped, instead he just held it in his hand and stared at Shui menacingly, then when realising he could do nothing he began to feel small and pathetic again. Whatever power this thing had, he could not yield it.
Then th
ere came a slightly strange noise from Shui’s mouth.
He was laughing.
Delay went to move towards Shui and clumsily dropped the coin as his head rolled back. But by the time he had rolled it back around again, Shui was feasting on [DG36]the neck of the young knight and in a few minutes had left him but a bloody mess. Delay backed away into the corner.
“Hmm! That has never happened before!” Shui stated whilst picking up the coin. “Looks like I’ll have to put this somewhere extra safe.”
Just then he reached to the back of his neck and with his fingernail, pierced his flesh like a scalpel and placed the small coin in it, then with concentrated kyu in his fingertips, like a blowtorch, he melted his skin back together.
“Not the most comfortable of places, but never mind. You certainly showed some bravery! Never before has a Delay turned against me. Looks like you were harder to break than the others! Never mind. Back to the dungeons for you.”
Delay gave out a cry that sounded like ‘no’.
“I think another two hundred years of torture should do it.”
“No, please!” Delay tried to get the words out. It was a sound of pure fear and anguish, garbled in what was left of his tongue and lips.
“Guards!”
“No!” Delay began to beg and made even more strange unrecognisable noises, his head rolling around everywhere. He had become a withering mess, he could not comprehend what was about to happen and he felt something snap in his brain. It was the rush of panic, anxiety and fear. It was madness. Pure insanity had caught up with him at last and tightened its grip upon what little was left of him. That’s when the real screaming started and the guards entered with haste.
“Take my new Delay away into the torture chambers again, he is to stay there for another two hundred years. He has been very unruly so make sure he gets extra beatings. And bring another three broken souls my way, tell them that one of them will be my new Delay, so they’d better be more grateful than the last one.”
