The Quest (Sanshlian Series Book 1)

by Dani Hoots

  “Pardon me,” he apologized. The man turned to face me. I slammed my palm into my face realizing why I shouldn’t be on this planet. It was the representative that I had gotten fired at the ball. I quickly turned away from him and pushed Rik to go faster.

  “Hey, wait a minute, don’t I know you?” he persisted.

  I kept moving, trying to ignore him.

  “Wait, I know who you are! Come back here!” he called after.

  “Rik, run!” I shoved him forward. He noticed the yelling and grabbed my arm and pulled me across the street. David followed.

  “Who is that?” Rik questioned as we ran down the alleyways, bumping into passersby as we went.

  “I got him fired from being representative,” I shoved past a group of strangers looking at us quizzically as we ran down the street.

  “You really do piss off everyone you meet don’t you?” Rik asked as he peered over his shoulder.

  “Not everyone,” I called out. “But yes, I tend to piss off most people I come in contact with.”

  The representative, I believe his name was Harrison, grabbed a few soldiers as he chased us down the alleyways. Vass wasn’t that large and we made many circles as he stayed right on our tails.

  “David, see if you can distract the guards, we will try to make a go for the house,” Rik suggested.

  David nodded and turned abruptly, making the soldiers follow him. The representative didn’t fall for it.

  “No, you fools! I want her! Fine, I’ll do it myself!” he screamed at his men that went after David.

  Rik and I made a few turns, trying to lose him in the confusion. We shoved people out of our way and into his, but that didn’t seem to help.

  Turning down a dead end, Rik let go of my arm.

  “Damn it!” he kicked an empty wooden crate sitting next to the wall.

  Rik went back to the road and peered around the corner to see if the representative was still following us. I saw the knife tucked away in his belt. Without him noticing, I grabbed it and hid it in my hand.

  Harrison came around the corner, huffing and puffing from all the running. It was a wonder how he had lasted this long. Without warning, I stabbed the knife I took from Rik into Harrison’s neck. His body hit the floor in an instant. I pulled the knife back out and handed it back to Rik after I wiped the excess blood on the dead man’s clothes. Rik took the knife back but not without hesitation. He looked frightened, as if he thought I was going to stab him.

  “That was quick,” he stated as he stared at me with either amazement or fear. I wasn’t sure which.

  “Fast and easy. That is how you are supposed to kill someone with a knife. No hesitation. You could learn a thing or two about that,” I emphasized as I searched Harrison’s body for any goods. I only found an ID card, nothing of value.

  “And become a heartless killer like yourself? No, thank you.”

  “Suit yourself.”

  David came rushing around the corner. “Hey, you guys,” he stopped as he saw the body. “Whoa, what happened here?”

  “I killed him. We better get out of here before anyone notices his body,” I peered down the street to see if anyone still followed David.

  “You didn’t need to kill him,” Rik finally commented. I knew it was coming.

  “He already pissed me off once a while back. Besides, I’m not the only one who has killed for this mission of ours,” I nudged Rik with a smile.

  “What are you talking about?” David saw Rik’s expression, glaring at me for mentioning this.

  “Rik killed one of the servers at the ball, didn’t you Rik?”

  “There wasn’t supposed to be anyone in the room. I couldn’t let him alert you, now could I?” he kept his stare on me.

  “Just as I can’t let that man tell others that we, more importantly I, am here,” I agreed.

  Rik glared at me for a second longer, and then turned towards the street.

  “Hey, what’s going on down there?” a voice called from down the street. Rik turned back into the alleyway.

  “I think we better get out of here,” I motioned to the escape ladder that went up to the roof of a building we were next to. Rik led us up the ladder and onto the roof. We watched as the representative’s men rounded the corner and saw their former leader dead. One man pointed up to where we were.

  “There!” a soldier called out.

  “Damn it, go!” Rik motioned us to start running. Gladly a lot of the rooftops in Vass were flat and easy to run on. Lucky for us.

  We ran across the rooftops, trying our best not to be spotted by the crowds of people in the streets. If they spotted us, there would be pointing and then the soldiers would be able to find us quicker. They didn’t seem to want to follow us up onto the roofs but tried to follow us from the ground to try to trap us. We had to come down sometime, this way they would be prepared. We kept low and looked for an easy way down that led somewhere where no one would see us.

  Running across the rooftops reminded me of Recar, except the buildings there were much taller and much more spread out. Here, it wasn’t hard to jump from building to building, but on Recar that was a different story. I had way too much experience that originated from Recar. I started to ponder on that thought when David motioned towards a way down.

  The three of us slid down the ladder and landed on the street. The crowd around the building looked at us questioningly as we crept down the street. Hearing the thunder of the soldiers yelling at people behind us, we decided to hide in one of the shops.

  We ducked inside a small shop that was close by. Out of breath, I peered around in the shop. Clocks hung everywhere. Clocks of every kind, tick-ing and tock-ing. I felt my eye twitch from this peculiar surprise. I just hoped that none of them hit the hour mark or there would be hundreds of little birds hooting.

  “That was close,” Rik whispered.

  I shook my head. “We aren’t out of it yet. David, watch the door,” I motioned. He nodded.

  An elderly man came out from the back and put on thick glasses that enlarged his eyes. “Anything I can help you with?” he combed his white beard with his finger.

  “No sir, just looking around. Quite a lot of clocks you have here,” Rik smiled kind heartedly. Suddenly all the clocks started hooting. My eyes started to twitch again, and I wanted to pull out a gun and shoot them all. But I didn’t; I was more civilized than that. Besides, I didn’t have a gun. I counted the time. One. Two. Three.

  “Yup,” the old man proudly said over the sound. “Built them all myself.”

  Four. It was already late afternoon now.

  I looked around again. The moment I saw clocks I was reminded of Jack. He would like this place. He had a fascination with clocks. A really odd fascination. I had told him he needed to talk to a psychiatrist about it. He said I needed one worse than he did. The topic of his clocks never came up again.

  Rik and I examined the clocks as if we were interested in buying them, so the shop owner didn’t become suspicious. David kept checking the window, seeing if anyone followed us. After a few minutes, soldiers ran by but none entered the store. Once it was clear, David motioned us to leave.

  “Thank you for your time sir, it was nice seeing all of your clocks,” Rik nodded to the owner.

  “Nice to have visitors. Have a nice day!” the old man called after us. Rik waved back at him as the door closed.

  I sighed. “Doesn’t his cheerfulness just make you sick?”

  “What? People who work for the Empire aren’t friendly?” Rik questioned as we raised our hoods and headed towards the edge of town.

  “Some are. I usually break them of that habit.”

  “I bet you do.”

  Ignoring his comment, I followed him to our old home.

  Our home was a few miles outside of town in a clearing in the middle of the forest. Our great-grandfather bought the land and started an orchard when he was young. He grew trees of every kind. Apple trees, pear trees, peach trees, the list went on
and on. My favorite had always been the cherry trees. When they bloomed, it always looked like it was snowing as the wind carried the petals across the orchard. Now the thoughts of the cherry blossoms were plagued with the memories of that night.

  We ventured up the hill and into the forest. It had always been a trek to go to town when we were younger. I remember having to take the wagon with all the produce we were to sell at the stores. Most of the time I stayed home since it took the better part of the day.

  “You think anyone ever bought it? Rebuilt it?” I inquired as we walked the path.

  Rik shook his head. “No, I checked a while back. No one wanted to. The only people that usually came through here go to Clar. They didn’t like how remote this house was. Besides, I heard Clar has been selling produce to Vass now.”

  “Clar? How did they bounce back so fast after the war?”

  “They were never attacked. Some of the citizens had been leaking information to the Empire about the resistance leaders. They spared their town,” he explained as he kept his eyes forward.

  So it had been them that told the Empire about our father, and the others in Vass. The people of Clar always hated the people of Vass. It had been a century’s long feud between the two cities. I guess Clar won in the end.

  We turned down the road that led to our home. No one had kept it up since the war. Grass and ivy grew over the path and we guessed as to where exactly it was. We didn’t need the path; we remembered where to go, where it headed to.

  Once we came to the end of the road, we approached our old abandoned home. Blackened wood pieces that still stood were covered in ivy. The roof was completely gone and most of the walls had disappeared with time. What once was a beautiful home full of life and joy now stood as a deathly reminder of what used to be.

  “Now, where is it?” Rik gestured to all the overgrowth as we stood by the back door of our home.

  I ran my hand through my ponytail. “Good question.”

  “You don’t know where it is?”

  “I have an idea. It’s been a few years, as you know. It could have moved, someone could have found it,” I suggested.

  “I doubt if anyone has been up here since then. Look at the overgrowth,” David added.

  I nodded. “Another point, it could be lost in all this overgrowth.”

  Rik rubbed his temples. “Just try to remember, okay?”

  I looked deep into the cherry orchard. Ivy had taken over this land, strangling the trees and leaving them there to die and rot. It appeared to be haunted, almost like setting in a scary story told to little kids around a campfire.

  I closed my eyes and placed my hand in my pocket, stroking the smooth surface of the pocket watch, trying to remember every step of that night. As the memories flashed back in front of my eyes, I began to step towards where I dropped it. Rik and David followed.

  I had replayed the events of that night every night when I was at the Kamps. I always tried to remember what I was fighting for so I wouldn’t give up. It kept me going. I remembered every detail as if it was happening again. I walked through the cherry orchard, letting my memories guide me. Leaves and branches covered the once cleared paths. Their crunching made my heart beat faster as it echoed around me, reminding me of all the gunfire from that night.

  Stopping, I opened my eyes and gestured to the surrounding area. “It should be in this general area.”

  “How can you be certain?” Rik started running his hands through the mush.

  “That night is engrained in my mind. It’s here.”

  Rik and David kept searching as I kept my eyes open to make sure no one followed us. I couldn’t be completely certain that no one had seen us go into the woods. Although, if they did, they probably figured we went to Clar. I wondered how much effort the people would put into finding who killed the representative. He had just been fired and I doubted if anyone liked him in the first place.

  “Here it is,” David held up the grimy key.

  “Will that still open the door? It looks pretty rusted and might break when you try,” I inquired as David stood up.

  “It will, trust me,” Rik stood back up. Deathly silence filled the air.

  “So,” Rik began. “I guess this is goodbye, sister.”

  “I suppose so,” I replied.

  I knew it would be foolish for them to take me along, but it would be even more foolish to try to kill me. I needed to know what Father had left us, if not for the Emperor, then for myself. Rik motioned to David, and they turned around and started to leave.

  “Wait!” I called after.

  Rik turned back. “Yes?”

  I let out a short breath, not wanting to admit that I wanted to find out what it opened. My orders were to follow them to what it opened, but finding Sanshli was practically nonsense. It was a waste of my time. I could just leave now and report to the Empire how crazy they were. But I was curious, curious to see what it opened. He could be lying to me, saying it was Sanshli so I would leave him when it really opened something important.

  Orders were orders. “I want to go. I want to know what it opens, what is really in there.”

  “How do I know you aren’t lying?” Rik questioned. “How can I trust you, Arcadia?”

  I shrugged. “You can’t. I’ve given no reason for you to trust me. But would you believe me if I told you I wanted to do this for Father? He left it for both of us and I want to at least see what he has left me.”

  “I thought you didn’t believe in Sanshli.”

  “I don’t, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to see what he left. How do I know it’s not something else, something that doesn’t have to do with Sanshli?”

  “What if it does?”

  “Then you get your craziness from him.” I jeered.

  “And where do you get your heartlessness from?”

  “Years of torture,” I said.

  Rik was hesitant about me wanting to help and I wasn’t sure how David took any of this.

  “You don’t have to believe me,” I began,. “But at least give me a chance. You owe it to me; I got you the key, didn’t I?”

  Rik glanced at David. David raised his hands. “I suppose it’s worth a shot. She has gotten us this far.”

  “Fine,” Rik agreed. “But if anything seems odd, don’t think I will hesitate to kill you.”

  I placed my hand on his shoulder. “Oh Rik, I would like to see you try.”

  We headed back down towards the town, deciding to make a quick-as-can-be effort to get across town, in case anyone saw us and recognized us from earlier. We didn’t want to go through that again.

  Darkness filled the sky as we entered the town. This made it much easier to get through town undetected. Candle lanterns hung on the doors of each shop that was still open. Most of the pubs were open, serving dinner and preparing rooms to lonely seamen coming in for the night. Most of the pubs in town also rented rooms out to travelers for extra cash.

  We made it back to the space-port without any more problems. It was silent, being late now not many traders would leave until morning. We ran up the ramp, checking behind us to make sure no one had followed.

  “What in galaxy’s name is she doing here?” Will pointed at me as we boarded.

  “Nice to see you, too,” I smirked.

  “She’s coming with us, Will,” Rik headed towards the bridge.

  “Why?” Will called after Rik. “She’s the enemy, she’s going to tell the Emperor where we are and then she is going to kill us.”

  “If my mission was to kill you I would already have done so,” I thought mentioning this would either help, or piss him off even more.

  His eyes narrowed. “I don’t care, I still don’t trust you.”

  David took his glasses off and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Will, she’s coming with us. Get over it.”

  “I don’t trust her,” Will stated bluntly.

  “I don’t care,” David retorted.

  “When she betrays us and kills
us all, don’t come crying to me,” Will stomped after Rik to help with the takeoff sequence.

  “I think he’s starting to like me,” I said to David.

  “What makes you say that?”

  “He didn’t threaten me this time.”

  “Good point. That is a plus,” David motioned to the dining area. “Wait in there; I need to talk to Rik for a second.”

  I nodded and went into the dining area. It was empty. Amanda must have been in the med room. Taking a seat on the couch, I pulled out my hairband and twirled it in my hand. Rik was beginning to trust me now, believing that I really wanted to find what Father had left us. I had him exactly where I wanted him.

  Chapter 9

  I waited in the dining area for someone to come and guard me, as they had before. I felt the shuddering of the ship as it began to ascend above the planet and into space. I held onto the arm of the couch to adjust myself for when the artificial gravity came on. Moments later it kicked on. Letting go of the arm of the chair, I leaned back and thought of what they could be discussing in the bridge. I presumed it was about me of course. What they were going to do with me while I was with them, whether or not they trusted me and what not. on

  The door to the corridor slid open to reveal Amanda. I straightened up, curious as to why she had come in here. I had rarely seen her on the trip between Anosira and Garvner and was surprised to see her so soon after leaving Garvner.

  “Amanda, to what do I owe this pleasure?” I stood up to greet her.

  Walking to me, she shook her head. “Cut the crap, Arcadia. What are you still doing on this ship?”

  “Excuse me?”

  Her face reddened with anger. “What are you still doing on this ship? You are the Emperor’s shadow, you don’t think for yourself, you don’t do things for yourself; all you do are things for the Emperor. This is a set up isn’t it?”

  I was taken aback by her accusations. They were true, yes, but until now she had been silent about them.