‘A little more time . . .’ Adri murmured.
‘You should hurry,’ Fayne said calmly.
‘There had been absolutely no pressure by the poison so far,’ Adri complained as he stirred. ‘This isn’t fair.’
Maya’s body, however, was really giving signs. The corruption was taking effect, something had to be done soon if she was to be saved. Cursing and complaining, Adri prepared the Dreamer’s Brew using all his brewing skills, all the shortcuts he knew. Risky things had to be done, like substituting ingredients and not waiting long enough for a certain section to stew properly—there was no time to make the brew the way it was supposed to be. And then it was over and he was pouring the boiling concoction into a crude wooden bowl. Gray looked at the grey, swirling mass for a second before emptying it directly down his sister’s throat. Adri slumped down with his back against the cauldron, extremely tired, but watching Maya, as did the others. Extremely slowly, her irregular breathing returned to normal.
Gray and Adri breathed out deep sighs of relief.
‘Paakhiyaad. That was as close as I’ve seen it go,’ Fayne said. He sat down as well, a rare sight. The other two were dead tired; they hadn’t been sleeping well on their travels, and after this particular rush of events, Adri and Gray felt quite dead themselves. However, they were quite interested in what the assassin had to say, in spite of their fatigue.
‘Nostalgic,’ Fayne said, looking at all the cuts and slashes across his chest and arms. ‘This place brings too many old memories. I was brought up here until my padar took me away. He was human.’
‘Then?’ Gray asked.
Fayne remained silent.
‘Well, wasn’t that a lot of information,’ Gray said.
He’s funny, the white haired one.
‘Yes,’ Adri said.
‘You agree?’ Gray said, surprised. ‘You actually agree with what I have to say? Well isn’t that a—’
‘He wasn’t talking to you, myrkho,’ Fayne said.
Gray stared at Fayne, and then at Adri. Adri looked at him, then looked at Fayne.
‘It was the only way I could get the vampire hunter’s body,’ Adri said. ‘There was no other way for me to get Maya back.’
‘You gave him control,’ Fayne said. ‘During the fight.’
‘No!’ Adri protested. ‘I just used his powers. We would have been dead anyway.’
‘Wait, wait!’ Gray exclaimed, his eyes bulging. ‘There’s another guy inside of you? Like inside you? Who’s talking right now?’
‘He can’t talk,’ Adri said.
Oh really now? What is this supposed to be then, the little Angel on your left shoulder?
‘I mean he can’t talk to you,’ Adri corrected himself.
‘But he talks to you?’ Gray asked, horrified. ‘You two keep having little conversations all day?’
‘He’s helped me out at times,’ Adri said defensively.
‘Wraiths are dangerous, and you of all people should know that, pashlin,’ Fayne said. ‘I was afraid of this and now it has happened. I would kill you here and now, but it seems we need you to find the Devil Mask.’
‘What are you after, Adri?’ Gray asked, unmoved by the assassin’s words. His eyes were narrow, his tone accusatory. ‘I mean, I’ve been watching you, man. You are facing death again and again. You’re going to any lengths to save my sister, but that’s not it. You want something from my brother, and you want it really bad. That’s why you’re going through with all of this. What is it? What are you after?’
Fayne and Gray were both looking at Adri. Fayne had his mask, but Adri could imagine the assassin’s expression within. Gray wore his expressions of distrust pretty openly. It was an ugly sight to see. Adri took a long breath. He could not manipulate any more. He was tired, and perhaps, just perhaps, these two deserved to know.
‘A Horseman is after me,’ Adri spoke.
Fayne did not move. Gray’s face changed to confusion.
‘An ancient, powerful entity,’ Adri explained.
‘Which one?’ Fayne asked.
‘Death.’
‘So-so this Death,’ Gray asked, raising his hands, trying to slow the pace of the conversation. ‘What does Death want from you?’ He paused. ‘Okay, stupid question. But why is Death after you?’
‘The Horseman wants my soul. I do not know why.’
‘Something does not add up, Adri,’ Gray said. ‘Death wants your soul. Okay, so basically Death wants to kill you, right? If you’re going to my brother because he has a way out, isn’t it a little extreme? As in, you’ve already faced death—literally—too many times during our journey!’
‘It’s bigger than just me. It’s something else. Death used some specific words when it met me, and I think someone is setting me up. But it’s not me I’m really worried about; this conspiracy is moving towards a direction I don’t like. There is something more to this whole business, something I don’t know. And I am not going to die without understanding why my death is needed.’
‘And that is why you wear the Ai’nDuisht,’ Fayne said all of a sudden. ‘It was evident that you were hiding from a dorelshelahaurkhaayen, a being of great power. But now it is clear.’
‘Yes,’ Adri said. ‘I am on the run.’
‘So if I stick with you, I have chances of meeting Death himself,’ Gray said drily. ‘Aren’t you quite the exciting person, Adri? You personally know a Demon of shadow who just appears, not to mention that the leader of the Free Demons wants you over for coffee.’
‘Ba’al is another story,’ Adri said. ‘But Chhaya, he was the first Demon I ever saw in my life. I was a boy then.’
‘Yes, sidestep the Demon Commander,’ Gray said. ‘He’s only the most powerful Demon in Old Kolkata.’
‘I am not apologising here,’ Adri said, grim. ‘This is not a confession. This could’ve been within me all my life without you knowing. You—both of you—have been through a lot because of me, and Maya is battling it out because of me. Saving her is my responsibility, Fayne’s job, and your duty—and if this unites us then maybe you deserve to know what I have been going through, and why I am here.’
Gray nodded slowly. ‘How can my brother help you?’
‘He has something I need.’
‘What thing?’
‘Something that will grant me an inside view to whatever is happening to me, and why the Horseman is after me.’
‘What is the thing?’
Adri paused. ‘Your brother wouldn’t want you to know,’ he said at length. ‘And without asking him I can’t tell you anything.’
Gray slumped back against another cauldron, and no one spoke for a while.
How truly interesting, the Wraith spoke slyly. It seems I have quite the gift for choosing the right bodies. Adventures galore!
‘This isn’t a game, Wraith,’ Adri mumbled.
‘Hey Wraith,’ Fayne said, looking at Adri. ‘I know you can hear me. You even think about taking over the Tantric, and I will gut you.’
Oooh. I’m scared, the Wraith crooned.
‘You know what my blades are made of, vampire hunter,’ Fayne said further. ‘You keep your end of the deal you made with the pashlin, and you keep it well.’
Yes, eternal peace is so much preferable than rotting forever in a carcass, which your future would definitely seem to be.
‘He said yes,’ Adri said.
‘He better have,’ Fayne said.
‘What are your blades made of ?’ Gray asked Fayne. ‘I mean, how many of them do you carry? I can never see a single one either on your person, or hanging from your belt—and yet they seem to jump to your hands—’
Fayne’s hands held the customary red dagger and Gray stopped mid-sentence.
‘A dark ritual,’ the assassin said. ‘In Ahzad, before we are trained, we are assigned to certain disciplines. Call them fiditeii, classes if you will. Specialisations. These define the alkhatamish, the assassin, his path, and his modus operandi.’ He looked down
at the metal rings all over his arms and chest. ‘These are not rings. They are hilts.’ He pulled at one of the rings, and to the others’ horror and fascination, a handle followed, after which the familiar red blade came into view as he pulled it out.
‘I am an alkhatamish of the human sheath,’ Fayne said.
‘All of those are daggers?’ Adri asked, unable to contain himself.
‘The sheaths have been burnt and welded beneath my skin which has regrown after. I carry the longer daggers on my back and chest, and the shorter ones in my arms and legs. The human sheaths are never separated from their weapons.’
‘How does your body take it?’ Gray asked, eyes wide.
‘It hurts all the time. But you forget I am a half-breed. I can take pain better than most. My body does not reject it because of a blood curse performed on me at Ahzad—the essence of my daggers runs in my blood.’
‘Which means you can actually create the daggers from your bloodstream,’ Adri said.
Fayne nodded.
‘His body makes the daggers?’ Gray asked, incredulous.
‘My daggers are of anti-life essence, something which now runs in my blood. If I replace a thrown dagger with an empty hilt, my blood solidifies on it and forms a new weapon. That’s what my daggers are made of. Solidified blood.’
Powered with anti-life, the Wraith hissed. Not good at all.
‘And thus the same daggers take down witches and Demons alike,’ Adri said. ‘Interesting.’
‘This was not a secret,’ Fayne said. ‘Anyone with a keen eye and a good knowledge could have known this.’
‘No, but you still said something about yourself. That’s a start!’ Gray said.
‘Don’t get used to it, myrkho,’ Fayne growled.
Adri thought about it as Gray and Fayne kept bickering. Fayne had revealed a lot about himself in a short time. Was it because he was spending more time with them? It was easy to get fooled by a professional such as the assassin, and obviously he could not be trusted beyond a certain point. But Adri noticed how Fayne had talked about his weapons only after Adri had revealed his true motives the best he could. Maybe Fayne would only give his trust if he could trust in return. Adri had no intentions, however, of being friends with Fayne—the manipulative side of him, however, was kicking in and telling him what a good fighter Fayne was—but, they were going to journey together for a while now and he could not have the assassin think he was not to be trusted because of the Wraith inside. Not only was it a question of being mistrusted, something Adri was used to, it was also a question of when the assassin might decide that Adri was no longer needed.
You are thinking a lot, aren’t you? I can feel it, but I can’t quite hear you. Frustrating.
‘You’re not meant to hear this,’ Adri said.
But I’m SO sure it’s interesting!
Adri ignored the Wraith. He looked around, fascinated by the fact that they were actually resting in the Heart of the Hive. ‘We should start moving,’ he told the other two. ‘This is hardly the safest place around, and I don’t know how long that Demon will actually stick around.’
No one disagreed. They were all extremely tired, but that could easily be overlooked for now.
‘There were paralysing agents in the witches’ cuts,’ Fayne said, standing up. ‘Not enough to knock me out, but I am slowing down. I suggest we not meet any Dynes on the way back.’
Adri nodded and reached for his bandoliers, starting to reload his gun.
You might want to change into a new shirt. Your tattoos keep amplifying my energy too much for your shirts to survive. Call it my little joke, if you will.
Adri grunted and groped around in his bag for another shirt. Fayne bent down and picked up Maya, slinging her over his shoulder as he usually did. Gray had a flesh wound in the back where the witch had clawed him. He hadn’t said anything about it so far, but Adri called him over and bandaged the wound. Then Gray went looking for his shotgun, which was lying somewhere in the darkness. It was not long before they were ready to move out. Chhaya was not back yet, and they started to retrace their steps.
The journey to the Lake of Fire took another day, but they were a little more relaxed now that the effects of the Whisper of Dread had been delayed. Even the assassin seemed more casual with the others, although his alertness never slackened. He was a machine, an instrument merely meant to be wielded, Adri came to think over the next few days that they travelled together. Fayne’s personal opinions and desires would never conflict with his missions; in that way he was a mercenary, a soldier of fortune. He was deadly, yes, and Adri knew without him they could not have survived so far. He had respect for the assassin’s skill, but it ended there. Ahzad had done things to him that could not be done to mere people—apart from the killing machine he had been sculpted into, there were other things that disturbed him about Fayne. He slept standing up, for example. The assassins of Ahzad were trained to sleep vertically so they could be ready for a fight the second their eyes opened; even their sleep was a cursed one as the assassin would be up at the drop of a hat. Almost anything woke Fayne up—things like the wind changing its course. It was a weird sight, Fayne leaning against a wall or a tree all night, straight as a pole. Asleep. The mask too, was tough to get used to initially, but now Adri had begun to imagine that as Fayne’s face—plain and bug-eyed. Fayne did open up a bit more over the journey, and his stories were fascinating even for Adri who had known another assassin from Ahzad.
‘There were eight of us. Eight. And he was alone, right there,’ Fayne pointed to a tree in the distance.
‘He was a whipmaster,’ he continued. ‘We saw his weapon from a long way off, but we didn’t know how expertly he could use it. Sawwrat lost an eye from that whip and the six others lost their lives. Six assassins of Ahzad killed by a young village boy.’
‘How’s that possible?’ Gray asked.
‘Angel. That mieserkha was an Angel. We didn’t know; the contract-giver had not revealed this, and perhaps did not know it herself.’
‘What happened to him?’
‘Am I not alive here, myrkho?’ Fayne asked, irritation in his voice. ‘What do you think happened to him?’
‘Ah. I know so little about Angels,’ Gray said.
‘What’s there to not know? They are political beings who will only work for a certain selfish reason, which they will conveniently mask under the greater good excuse. They joined the territory wars some time ago on MYTH’s side because I’m sure the government is offering them something big in return. And they don’t like Demons. A Demon is an Angel’s natural nemesis.’
‘What do they look like? I mean, how did all you assassins see just a village boy with a whip while he was actually an Angel?’
‘They are protected,’ Fayne replied. ‘There is a certain magical formula built to guard them on earth. It doesn’t allow anyone to find them, except their siblings.’
Gray frowned. ‘Explain.’
Adri eavesdropped on them shamelessly. Gray was being given information; vital information that Adri wanted to keep hidden, information that might lead to unpleasant revelations and the complete destruction of his plan. He tried to keep himself as nonchalant as he could.
Their journey was a rather long one. The Hive was in what had earlier been central Ballygunge—they had to go northeast to reach the Lake of Fire. It was safest to approach from the south, which was where MYTH fought from. The Free Demons fought from the north, beyond the Lake. The nearest northeast route, Broad Street leading to Rifle Road, took them to Park Circus.
They passed through an intersection, deserted like all the rest. Gray recognised it; in New Kolkata this very intersection was always clogged with traffic, overcrowded, busy. For a second, this connection affected Gray.
‘Is all of Old Kolkata this empty?’ Gray asked, looking around. ‘Where is everyone?’
‘Hiding,’ Adri said. ‘The few people who still live in these parts, are hiding. Most have left this area. There’ll
be even fewer people near the Lake. The Settlements are all down south, or out of the main city’s perimeter, that’s where people go to survive.’
‘I wouldn’t want to live here,’ Gray said.
‘It’s war. Does bad things to a place,’ Adri mumbled, lighting a cigarette.
‘Who’s right? In this war?’ Gray asked.
‘Beg your pardon?’ Adri said.
‘Who do you support?’
‘Me?’ Adri asked, taken aback.
‘Yes, you. You’re not with MYTH anymore and now the Demon Commander wants to meet you. Are you with the Free—’
‘Childish. I am on neither side. Both the parties are destroying the city in an attempt to destroy each other. The city has taken a lot already, the last thing someone should do is try and claim ownership. MYTH has a city of its own, it should be happy with that. If it has to expand, expand southwards, for heaven’s sake. But no, the government eyes the Old City and brings in the Angels as allies to boot. The Free Demons are no less—damaging half the city in the name of protection. They should not even be claiming territories in the first place—the city has always been generous with space. There is enough space for everyone, they can always roam free like their ancestor Demons did.’
‘I’ve been hearing a lot about Angels lately,’ Gray said.
Adri cursed himself. ‘Yes?’
‘You think I could meet one?’
‘They are quite well-hidden.’
‘Always wanted to meet an Angel.’
Hahaha, the Wraith chuckled.
‘What’s so funny?’ Adri mumbled.
His innocence. He’s like a child. I would love to see his coming of age, and reality’s bite along with it.
Adri was having a problem along the journey. The ring finger of his right hand was beginning to itch, and frightfully so. He spent half his time itching away, until the finger had become too swollen and raw to itch anymore. Even then it bothered him, but he could not find a reason why it was happening. The Wraith blamed it on the weather when he wasn’t laughing about it, and Gray and Fayne had nothing helpful to say. Fayne did act all knowledgeable once when he ground up a mixture from leaves to help stop the itching, but it did not help.
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