Hitomi watched the recruits marching off towards the village for a moment and then turned away. The Lokai villagers were starting to arrive at the barracks to start work that morning and Hitomi did not like training where they could see her. She did not pack water or even stop by her shack for a bite to eat on her way into the forest of Hardshrooms, treelike mushrooms with hard, wooden stalks.
As she got closer to her training area, she could already hear Naoko. The petite Lokai girl was already warming up, going through the exercises that Hitomi had taught her. As Hitomi approached, Naoko stopped and turned, smiling at her.
“So what are you trying out today?”
“I’m working the spear and sticking with it,” Hitomi said. “I’m done trying to get anywhere with the other weapons and I’m clearly more proficient with it than anything else.”
“The spear is basic, practical and has a long reach,” Naoko said. “It suits you.”
“And you can teach me how to use it?”
“I can show you the principals of it, but mastering it will be all up to you.” Naoko walked over to one of the Hardshrooms and pulled a crude, makeshift spear, little more than a sharpened pole, off of the stalk. “My grandfather showed me all of the hunting weapons, but once I realized my skill in archery, I focused on it and ignored the other skills. If we could have captured one of the guards and forced him to…”
“I don’t want to learn how Rathgar use spears,” Hitomi interrupted. “I may be a brute compared to other Lokai, but I still have grace. Show me the basics, whatever you know. After that, I will make this weapon my own.”
“You’re already in charge of training a group of almost three dozen warriors, running with them everytime they go out. You personally oversee their sparring and even sleep out in the open with them even though you have a perfectly good house. Now you want to spend an extra three or four hours a day, on top of all of that, so you can master the spear? Aren’t you overdoing it a little?”
“I’m a Helcat, Naoko, just like you will be some day,” Hitomi replied. “In the Pit, it was enough for me to be the best hand-to-hand fighter next to Grass-hair, but we’re not in the Pit anymore. Kimura is already a natural at that Shadow Walking shit Kensei teaches. Fenra is faster than any riding beast and Indie is strong enough to use an ox as a projectile weapon. You and Magda are both being vetted by the rest of the Helcats as soon as Helkree returns just based off of the talents you already have. If I stay at the level I’m at, I fall behind everyone else in terms of usefulness.”
“And you think Helkree or Grass-hair will discard you if that happens?” Naoko asked.
“It doesn’t matter. I won’t let that happen, regardless of the consequences. That is my pride as a warrior and as a Helcat.”
After a few hours in the forest, the two of them exited and made their way to Hitomi’s house. The two room building was old and seated at the far end of the village, closest to the developing barracks, but Hitomi spent only brief periods of time there, preferring to be outside training or overseeing the recruits. Naoko had been allowed to move her things in and it was more her home than her senior’s at that point.
As soon as Hitomi opened the door, she was greeted with a familiar face.
“Grass-hair?” she asked, blurting it out as she entered the house quickly.
“Still no sign,” Kimura replied. She was sitting in the corner of the room, dressed in black clothes and eating a flap of dried mushroom. “Sorry to get your hopes up by coming here, but I have news you need to hear. Where is Indie?”
“At the forge,” Hitomi said, closing the door and going to the water basin to wash her face. “We can go into town after I eat… if you haven’t devoured everything here.”
“Don’t bother, I’m not staying for long.” Kimura looked at Naoko, who just stood there. “Hey, kid.”
“Good to see you, Kimura.”
“Give me the news and I’ll pass it along to Indie this afternoon,” Hitomi said.
“I hear Beretta is doing better with the Gimlets out in the desert,” Kimura said. “There are almost a thousand Gimlets out there already, swarming the damn thing with scrap and knickknacks. The vestiges of the Empire, in the Citadel, have started to take notice. General Greela is still alive and in command. This growing city is a threat in his eyes. He might send a raiding party.”
“And where did you hear this?”
“Goji and I infiltrated the Citadel. I just got out after spending months inside, blending in and making contacts. It wasn’t easy. Greela has turned that place into a larger version of the Pit. His Guards do whatever they want and the people are little more than slaves. People have started disappearing, too. Anyone who gets out of line is put down hard. With so few Rathgar men left, the general keeps a desperate grip on the people.”
“If he’s so desperate, then what makes you think Beretta and her city of fools is in any danger?”
“There are rumors that Beretta and the Gimlets are working on a weapon similar to the ones the men from the north used years ago to sack the Citadel. I’ve been to the Gimlet City to see Beretta and the rumors are completely baseless, but Greela is scared shitless of the possibility that they might have one of those weapons. His generals have managed to reason with him, so far, but he’s growing increasingly volatile. It’s only a matter of time before he does something drastic.”
“You gathered all of this information in just a few months?” Hitomi asked. “Is this some kind of Naga trick?”
“Not really,” she replied. “I was a consort for one of the higher-ranking guards. I had access to the entire palace every night as soon as the idiot fell asleep.”
“Oh, so when your shadow skills fail you, at least you can fall back on your whore skills.”
“Indie is too fat, Magda is too ugly, you’re too manly and the kid is too frail,” Kimura shot back. “I’m the only one suited to the task.”
“Manly?!” Hitomi roared. “My tits are twice the size of yours, whore!”
“Yeah?” Kimura laughed. “So is your dick!”
“Naoko, lock the door!” Hitomi yelled, stretching her arms out and cracking her neck to the side.
“Oh, bring it on, shemale!” Kimura said, lighting to her feet and facing off against Hitomi.
Ten minutes later the three Lokai women were sitting around the wrecked house, passing around the remnants of a broken bottle of rice wine that had managed to survive the brawl between the two Helcats. Hitomi was nursing a bite mark on her arm and had one eye closed. Kimura’s face was swollen and she gripped her side and grimaced with every breath. Even Naoko, who simply failed to get out of the house fast enough, was not unscathed.
“Well… that took me back,” Kimura said, easing up to her feet. “Two years of training with Goji and Kensei and I still can’t beat you unarmed.”
“Yeah, I’ve still got that,” Hitomi sighed. “As long as no one ever comes at me with a weapon, I should be fine, right?”
“What kind of attitude is that from a Helcat? Grass-hair won the battle at Shimada Village without ever holding a weapon.”
“I’m not Grass-hair. No one is when it comes to bare-fisted power,” Hitomi replied. “Torga was the only one who could beat him by the time he left the Pit and that was years ago. When Grass-hair left for the east, there was no one in this land who could match him unarmed. We are the ones who are supposed to protect him from the armed threats.”
“Come join Goji and I,” Kimura said. “Lokai were meant to be assassins, using agility and stealth to fight. You’re not so clumsy that you couldn’t be a Naga.”
“Thanks, but I’m learning my own weapon. When Grass-hair returns, I will not fall behind in my duty to protect him.”
“I know you won’t, Hitomi.” Kimura reached down and gripped her sister-in-arms by the shoulder. “We might need your strength before he returns, though.”
Then she walked out the door and was gone.
Naoko fidgeted with her empty mug. “Boss
, what should we do about Beretta and her village? If what Kimura said is true…”
“Greela doesn’t have the men to spare raiding a village of Gimlets,” Hitomi replied, leaning back in her chair. She paused for a moment, thinking about the Infernal and the charge Raegith had given her to start a scrap and research facility for the Gimlets. Beretta was a destructive force, but living as a pet to the Emperors for three centuries gave her the instincts of a livestock animal. She was only as good as her preparation.
Hitomi got up from her chair and turned toward the door. “Come on, Naoko. Today we start working on siege defense strategy.”
Chapter 44
Raegith and Noriko both lay in a field of short grass on top of the Yamada, the mountain that was home to the Junrei’sha. Above them was a cloudless sky rivaling any he had seen in Rellizbix. It was here, in this peaceful, plentiful land that the faithful of the Path were allowed to live out their days with training and meditation. It was a reward only for the most worthy. It was a life that Raegith had always wanted.
“Yours is a different test from those born atop the Yamada, as I was,” Noriko explained on Raegith’s first night there. “For those seeking us out, a Test of Discovery is required. When you learned of your need for the Path, I helped prepare your mind and body, but I worried for your soul. Through this test of finding and reaching us, you have proven yourself worthy of living among us and receiving the Path.”
Raegith thought back on that journey five years ago. It encouraged him that he had attained something for himself through his own endurance; but it also nagged at him that the Junrei’sha thought nothing of the strife in the lands below them. Those that did not pass the test or were never tested to begin with were not even worthy of their time. Atop that mountain, in the paradise of the Junrei’sha, those who had proven their worth freed themselves of all mortal concerns and distanced themselves from all others.
“So what are we doing today, Master?” Raegith asked as he looked over at the Lokai girl. “Hopefully more combat training. The other stuff is still boring to me.”
“Raegith, you have already mastered most of our techniques,” she replied with an uneasy smile. “To be able to use Arrow Fist in such a short amount of time… it is proof that the Path is working through you. Our way is to strengthen weakness and soften strength. The Path is like stringing a bow: bringing down the higher, raising the lower, until they meet and balance each other.”
“Okay, so I’m balancing out a weakness today? Which one?” he laughed.
“No, Raegith, today I am balancing out my weakness.”
Noriko and Raegith had grown very close over the years he spent training on the Yamada with her. She had taken him as her pupil, a right that had been granted to her by the Elders upon her return from her pilgrimage. She was a Master of Junrei’sha now and had waited for two years without taking a student; waiting for Raegith to come to her.
From the moment they had begun their training together, both of them dressed in sturdy robes and worked the gardens in the warm sun. Raegith had submitted himself to the Path and devoted himself to her. Why wouldn’t he? She was beautiful, kind and had made it clear that she had saved everything of herself for him. They even lived in the same quarters and sleep within inches of each other.
Yet each time he stroked her side or tried to kiss anything but her cheek, he was rebuked. Not since he had first lain with Onyx had he gone so long without taking a woman and it ate away at him daily. It also took focus away from his instructions and shined it upon those he left behind in this journey.
His moments of peace never lasted, even after five years in a land free of troubles. He was never without food, his thirst for knowledge was satiated in the libraries and his need to train his body was met by the other students who sparred with him. He was accepted among the people; there was no cage around him. Yet instead of feeling relieved or content; no matter how many times Noriko or the Elders insisted he was above the problems of the Greimere now, he could not give up on his friends. He could not give up on the suffering denizens of the Greimere.
“Raegith, even now, after several years with the Junrei’sha, in the most perfect place the Path could provide, your mind remains distant. You are distracted all of the time… and it is beginning to distract me.”
“What’s wrong with us both getting distracted for a few hours?” he asked. “It could be good for… training.”
Noriko sat up quickly, but did not look at him.
“You tease me because you think it does nothing, Raegith!” she hissed. “You think I don’t have desires, as you do? You think I am immune to loneliness and that makes it alright to take out your frustrations on me with mockery.”
“Who’s mocking? I mean it every time I propose to distract you.” Raegith reached out to her hips, but when she went to brush his hand away, he quickly grabbed her and pulled her into him. “Why can’t we? I’m ready. I’ve proven myself worthy to be here; to follow the Path. There’s nothing I’ve learned that forbids us being together.
“Five years, Noriko. I’ve been all yours for five years now. I haven’t given that kind of commitment to anyone. At any time you could have rolled over and merely touched me and I would have been yours. It’s you who is mocking me, I think.”
“Your soul is still impure, Raegith,” Noriko answered. She was rigid, but she lingered in his embrace. “You want me to satisfy your lust, not to make a coupling as the Path intends for us.”
“Bullshit, I want both! You’re just afraid.”
“And why shouldn’t I be, Raegith?” she yelled. “You’ve made it clear that you will not stay with us here. This place is a paradise, one that you have earned rightly. You have a home here, you have food and knowledge and community. You would have me, all to yourself, if only you would cleanse your soul of vengeance and lust and stay with us.”
“And what of those that are depending on me? You would have a man who just leaves behind his friends; abandons them to a dying land as they wait for my return?”
“Forget about them, Raegith. You cannot save them,” Noriko said. “If they were worthy, they would be here among us, but they are not! We all get what we deserve, Raegith… you cannot save anyone but yourself.”
“That’s how you see it?” Raegith asked, letting her go. “Even after your time out in the world?”
“Especially after my time in the Greimere. I saw nothing but those who would kill each other for small benefits and the strong dominating the weak. You were a shining spot among grime, Raegith, that is why I chose you! They don’t deserve you… I do!”
“So, I guess we’re at an impasse, then,” Raegith replied.
“Not exactly.”
Noriko reached out, lightning quick, to strike Raegith at the neck. He was able to block the shot, but Noriko was relentless. He had fought her several times before, always easily overcoming her, but now it was as if she were a different person. Overwhelmed, she got through his ducks and parries and hit him at the side of the neck, hard.
Raegith faltered, losing focus and stability with the stunning blow and Noriko took the opportunity to land an open palm to his chest. He felt his feet come off the ground and for a moment he was weightless. Then he impacted with something hard and his vision blinked out.
He faded in and out of consciousness as he felt himself being dragged. When he woke from the darkness, he was kneeling in the center of a small, circular stadium big enough to fit all of the Junrei’sha.
In terms of a population, the Junre’sha were very small. Only a few hundred men, women and children lived on the Yamada, in the sun and green pastures that the Path provided for its chosen people. There were Urufen, Rathgar and Lokai among them, many of whom he had meet and become friends with. They were all there, in their white and grey robes, and in the middle of them stood Noriko. On either side of her were Lokai with long, white beards and withered skin.
They were the Elders and keepers of the secrets of the Junrei’sha and he h
ad never seen them outside of their temple in the five years he had been among them. As Raegith knelt, chained to the ground before the highest figures in the Junrei’sha, he wondered if the Elders were there to oversee his execution.
“Raegith, the Grass-haired demon,” one of them announced. “We have gathered here to exorcise of you this monster that lies inside of your soul… to cleanse you of the stains inflicted upon you by the terrors of this world.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Raegith yelled. He turned to Noriko and flashed a smile. “You’ve been holding back on me in practice. How dare you.”
“Master Noriko is one of our finest students and is in line to be the next Elder of the Junrei’sha,” the Elder informed him. “Her power with the Path is immense, as is her graciousness.”
“Graciousness? She knocked me out and had me dragged to this execution ground after inviting me here in the first place!”
“I would never allow you to be executed!” Noriko said. “Do you still not understand, Raegith? You are the one that I have chosen; I will have no other. But until your soul is cleansed; until your doubts and distractions are washed away, the Path will give us only a fruitless coupling.”
“Fruitless coupling?” Raegith scoffed. “Okay, I take offense to that. You have no idea about my ‘couplings.’ My ‘couplings’ are mind-blowing, ask the scary bitch at the bottom of the mountain. You probably heard her screams from up here…”
“You mated with the Witch?” one of the Elders asked, appalled. “For Path’s sake, why man?”
Noriko sighed, covering her face. “He was like this in the Greimere, Elder. He’ll do it with anyone.”
“Hey! Anyone who’s willing, mind you,” Raegith countered. “Let’s make that clear. Also, there’s an age and, sometimes, a weight limit. Other than that, no, I’m not picky. In fact, I’ve gone so long without it, I might even be willing to fuck one of you guys; but you’ve got to let me go and there’s no eye contact…”
“I’m convinced, Master Noriko,” the Elder said to her. “We will now start the exorcism.”
Beyond the Hell Cliffs Page 43
