The trio of mutated humans were of different forms. One was tall and completely hairless, with sinewy limbs and flexible movements. There was one that was thick—that was the best way to describe it—and seemed to be very dense and heavy. The third looked like a mix between a human and some kind of dog. Honestly, that one looked to Sam like a werewolf from all the old horror movies. The hapaki was a little larger than Skitter, with a permanent scowl on its face and overlarge teeth and claws. It was spitting and hissing like a mad raccoon as it came toward him, looking like it was ready to jump on him.
They all reached Sam at the same time, the tall one striking with its long claws before the others. Sam moved to the side and struck the thing’s forearm with his stick. The sound it made was the same as clacking two hardwood poles together. The deflection caused the creature to stumble past him and Sam took the opportunity to crack his weapon on the back of its bald head, with a sound like a wooden mallet hitting a concrete block.
As the first creature stumbled past and rolled to keep from falling on its face, the thick creature attacked, moving relatively slowly, but inexorably, forward. Sam stepped to the right to evade the creature’s swing and was almost raked by the werewolf’s claws. He was able to pivot and turn just enough to evade the claws as he saw the hapaki creature in mid-air coming right at him.
Not thinking, acting on the training he had been doing for the last year and a half, Sam continued his pivot and let his knees collapse, twisting his body clockwise and ending up in a classic twist stance, legs tangled around each other but keeping the body stable, as the hapaki narrowly missed his head and flew past him. Sam knew he couldn’t play the defense game for much longer or they would get him. He wasn’t sure if their claws or bite were poison, but at the very least they looked filthy and able to cause a nasty infection. He didn’t want to be struck.
Untwisting his body by rotating counter-clockwise, he spun quickly and threw out his sticks, catching the thick creature on the ear with a crack and striking the thin one in the neck with a sickening crunch. The thick assailant seemed to be dazed for a moment, so Sam went after the hapaki creature, which had landed and was turning to go at him again. Sam batted its claws away, swung his foot in front of him in an arc, then forcefully brought it down in an ax kick. His heel contacted the creature on the top of the head and there was a breaking sound as its skull was subjected to a force greater than it could take. The mutated hapaki twitched once and then was still, but Sam hardly noticed because the werewolf had joined the fray.
It came at him with a fury that was unbelievable. It swiped quickly with its claws, snapped with its teeth and bounded around Sam, trying to find an opening in his guard. It was all Sam could do to strike the thing’s arms to keep its claws away from him. He saw in his peripheral vision that the thick creature was shaking its head and starting to look at him and the thin creature was doing some motion that looked like it was winding up for a strike.
Sam emptied his mind and felt the song of battle more fully. Instantly he knew what to do. The next time the werewolf swung at him, he ducked under the swipe and moved to his left, striking as hard as he could with his stick on the creature’s ribs. He heard them crack just before it howled in fury and pain. Sam was already moving on to the thin creature, though, striking upward with both sticks and connecting with its jaw as it was striking at him. So powerful was the double strike that its jaws clacked shut, cutting part of its tongue off in its teeth and shattering the lower jawbone.
While the thin creature was reeling, Sam twisted, did an aerial cartwheel to gain momentum and landed to translate all his force into a double-downward strike to the head of the thick creature. The porzul wood, as hard as steel, vibrated in Sam’s hands so violently that he almost lost his grip. It had the intended effect, though, crushing the skull of the mutation. The creature dropped.
As he spun away from that strike, Sam saw the werewolf turn to swipe at him again. He ducked, then straightened both knees to thrust his body upwards while swinging the sticks diagonally upward, contacting the crotch of the creature with so much force it was lifted off the ground. It howled again and Sam took the opportunity to crush its windpipe with one of his sticks as he rotated to lend force to the strike. The furry beast collapsed with strange gurgling sounds, trying to breathe but unable.
The only creature of the four that was still standing was the thin creature with the broken jaw. It was coming at him to attack again. Sam saw an opening and thrust once of his sticks straight forward, projecting his rohw as he did so. The strike, and the energy he sent through it, went into the creature’s chest, found the heart that had once been human, and burst it, ending the threat.
Sam looked around and saw that Nalia and Rindu were just finishing up the last few creatures. She made quick work of them with her shrapezi, lopping off limbs or heads, but Rindu seemed to be moving around his attackers as if they were standing still. He would strike in several locations, causing brief flashes of rohw to be visible to Sam, and then the mutation would drop. Sam was pretty sure they were dead when they fell. Inoria and Emerius were just coming up to them, having run out of targets to shoot at.
“I think we should leave now,” Inoria said. “We still have Tingai to catch and I don’t really want to fight any more of these things. It’s kind of creepy. They may have been my friends or family.”
Everyone agreed and the party ran through the gate through which they had come, toward the waiting rakkeben and Oro. They reached the beasts, mounted, and headed around the fortress to the road going east. They still had to catch Tingai.
There was no pursuit.
Chapter 31
A shadow slipped through the soldiers. Whether they were sleeping or wide awake, chatting with their friends or scanning the area because they felt uneasy, none saw the moving patch of darkness. At least, those who did wouldn’t recognize it or be able to describe it.
Vahi smiled a wicked smile. These humans were so limited. He could have slit the throat of any one of them and just disappeared, no chance of being caught. He was born to do it, quite literally.
He was one of the bhorgabir, the race of genetically created assassins, the most potent living weapons created at that time. Or at any time, really. All of the unnecessary parts were distilled out and what was left was superbly adapted to the purpose for which they were made.
The bhor thought about how his ancestors had been created from raw human genetic material, how they had been engineered. They were completely hairless, for one thing. Historians had speculated this trait was added for the simple reason that hair could get in the way and distract. Anything that could affect focus on the mission was undesirable.
They were also made to be strong and flexible. In fact, they were three to five times as strong as humans, and faster. Their skin had the consistency of leather and was resistant to all but the sharpest blades. Even sharp blades were less effective than their enemies would hope, since in addition to their thick skin, the bhor healed much faster than humans. Vahi looked at the humans he evaded so effortlessly with derision. His was a superior race, even if they were relatives, in a way.
Whether by design or as a side benefit, the bhor retained their human genitals and ability to reproduce. The small number of the assassins that survived the war reproduced and a community consisting solely of the bhorgabir was begun. Because their reproduction rate was not high, however, the community was still small, numbering just above two dozen.
The young bhor were trained in the arts of assassination as they matured. They received the same training and were expected to perform in the same manner as the bhorgabir that were first created during the war. Because of this, when a bhor as old as Vahi, twenty years, was contracted to eliminate a target, he was just doing what he and all of his ancestors had trained to do for hundreds of years.
He sometimes jokingly referred to it as a “family business.” It seemed incongruous to some that a mutation, a creature that lived only to kill, would ev
en have a sense of humor. But the bhor came from human stock, were extremely intelligent, and tended toward a dark view of the world. What better soil for the root of humor to grow?
Vahi made it to the largest tent in the camp, through rings of guards that looked progressively like they knew their business and were skilled at their jobs. He finally stopped just in front of the tent, stepping out of the shadow he was using as cover. The two guards at the door of the tent hardly flinched. They were good, these two. Of course, they had seen him do the same thing several other times, so they were not as surprised as they could have been.
“Is she in?” Vahi said in his low, hoarse whisper.
“Yessir,” one of the guards said. “Tingai is in there with her.”
Vahi hissed through his teeth and headed into the tent.
As he made it through the foyer of the tent—who ever heard of a tent needing an entryway?—he caught his reflection in a mirror. His bald, pointed face stared back at him. He wore no clothes other than a kind of breechcloth that covered his private area. His thin, pale body moved with a purpose, muscles shifting visibly under his thick skin. He didn’t need clothes. Temperature didn’t affect him and clothing got in the way of his free movement. The little clothing he wore kept his private parts from being vulnerable to being grasped.
He opened the flap to the main chamber of the tent and scanned the room out of habit. Tingai, pale, greasy-haired, and stooped, stood next to Ayim Rasaad at a map table. It struck Vahi as odd that Rasaad looked so young to be in charge of so many men, to be an up-and-coming ruler. Then again, he was only twenty and he was the leader of his community of bhorgabir, so maybe it was not so odd.
Rasaad, nearly a foot shorter than Vahi himself, was still tall for a woman. The tattoos swirling about on her bald head almost seemed to move in the shifting brazier light. He supposed if he were human, he would find her attractive, with defined features in her face and a perfect physical form, attesting that her power was not limited to the mental energies she possessed. But he wasn’t, and the darkness that seemed to surround her at all times would be too strange in an intimate situation. He preferred darkness, but this was something else. He couldn’t define it, but it was too peculiar, too dangerous. He chuckled inwardly. Too dangerous for the most dangerous creatures on Gythe. That was saying something.
He stepped up to the two, eyeing Tingai with disgust and turning to address Rasaad. Tingai’s little jump when Vahi was suddenly next to him made the bhor smile.
“Did you kill Dr. Walt?” Rasaad asked.
“No.”
“No?” she looked into Vahi’s eyes, no mean feat for a human. “Nothing else? Just no?”
“No, I didn’t kill him,” Vahi said.
“That has been established,” Rasaad said. “Please enlighten me as to why he is still alive.”
“It was an error in my judgment,” Vahi said, noticing Tingai smiling at him. The moron obviously thought Vahi would be uncomfortable with the situation. He was wrong. “I spent a few days tracking the man, learning his habits. I wanted to make sure I was not noticed, that he was found dead and they would not know you were actively working against them.
“The night I had chosen to carry out the deed, he was up late, conversing with some long-lost friends who had arrived. I waited in the library it was his custom to study in and, most nights, sleep in. When he finally arrived, one of his companions sensed me.”
Ayim Rasaad’s forehead crinkled. It was a strange sight. Her eyebrows climbed her bald pate. “You were…sensed?”
“Yes. I waited until a time that Rindu Zose was not in the fortress because I wasn’t sure if he could detect me. He was gone, so my plan seemed to be progressing accordingly. Unfortunately, the two long-lost friends were also Zouyim. One, an older man, probably a master, sensed me.”
“And…?” Rasaad was starting to get irritated, he could tell.
“We did battle, but with two Zouyim and a skilled warrior who is the acting leader of the forces of the new government, it was advantageous for me to escape. I may have been able to defeat all of them, but I think not.”
“So, you failed,” Tingai said, eyes bright in his revel.
“I was not able to complete the mission at that time. Dr. Walt is now guarded at all times. I thought it best to ask you if the mission parameters have changed. They know I was there, but they do not know my connection to you. I can return and finish the job. I didn’t see the delay as significant.”
Tingai’s smile started to lessen as he realized that Vahi was not ashamed of his “failure.”
Rasaad looked pensive for a moment. “I think not,” she said. “Let the old man play his games for now. There is something more important I want you to do. You chose correctly in coming back. Let me explain to you what I need.”
Vahi nodded slightly. Tingai’s mouth had turned into a thin line. The bhor decided to make it worse for the man.
“Don’t you have corpses to play with, undertaker?” Vahi said to Tingai. “The grownups have things to discuss.”
Baron Tingai opened his mouth to retort, but Rasaad lifted her hand. “Tingai, we’re done. You don’t need to stay for this. We’ll discuss your current work later.”
The man bowed his head, turned on his heels, and shuffled off, casting a baleful glare at Vahi as he did so. Vahi’s opinion of the man’s lack of common sense was reinforced. Trying to challenge a bhorgabir in any way wasn’t wise. Some bhor would have killed the man by now, just because he needed it. The scientist was lucky that Vahi didn’t normally kill unless it contributed to a mission’s success. Or if the mission itself was to kill, which was normally the case. He turned his attention back to Ayim Rasaad as Tingai left.
“Here is what you are going to use your formidable skills to accomplish…” Rasaad began, and Tingai left Vahi’s thoughts altogether.
Chapter 32
Sam watched Emerius reading signs in the trail. He wondered what the man was looking for. It was obvious that the bulk of Tingai’s forces went this way. There were no other roads and it would be evident if that many people had gone through the thick forest lining the roadway. What information could the hunter glean from a hard-packed dirt road?
“Are you listening to me, Sam?” Rindu said.
“What? Oh, I’m sorry Master Rindu. My mind was wandering. What were we talking about?”
“Would you like to go and ask Emerius what he is looking for? I know that you are curious. Perhaps when you have satisfied your thirst for knowing, you will be able to pay attention to the lesson at hand.”
“No,” Sam said. “I’m sorry. Please, let’s continue.”
“Very well,” Rindu said. “Have you seen a flock of birds in flight, Sam?”
“Yes.”
“And have you noticed anything interesting about the way they act?”
“Act?” Sam asked. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
Rindu looked at him blankly. “Do you see anything out of the ordinary in the way they fly compared to when they fly alone?”
“They fly in formation, in a kind of V shape,” Sam said, holding out two fingers pointing upward. “Is that what you mean?”
“Yes, that is correct. They fly according to a certain pattern. Within that pattern, they act as one. It is beautiful to behold a large group of birds flying in such a way, almost as if they were of one mind, of one body.”
“Drafting,” Sam said.
“Pardon me?” Rindu responded.
“Drafting. The birds, when they fly in a V formation like that, do it to allow the first bird, the one at the point, to set the pace and to do most of the work in cutting through the air. The ones behind are taking advantage of his draft, so it’s easier for them to fly. On my world, people ride in machines that are powered by their legs, called bicycles. They ride in formations much like the birds. One rider will do the work at the front and then they rotate out so another can take up the work. They continue to do this so that, as a whole, less effort is
expended to cut through the wind.”
“That is fascinating, Sam,” Rindu said, “and I thank you for sharing this information with me. But you are missing my point.”
Sam was disappointed with himself. “Oh, sorry.”
“The point I was trying to make is that the birds, although not as intelligent as humans, still act in harmony and unity, by instinct alone. This is the rohw at work. Do you understand?”
“Yes, I think I do.”
“Good. Take heed of the birds and other animals. Much can be learned thus. Animals often act in harmony with the rohw, not because they are masters at vibrational energy, but because it is embedded within them to do so. They think not, so their thoughts do not distract them from acting rightly.”
“I’ll try, Master Rindu. Thank you.”
“Be more like an instinctual animal, Sam. Find the energy of all things and act in harmony with them and you will be successful.”
Sam thought about it for a moment. Rindu was silent, watching him.
“Master Rindu,” Sam said, “why do I have so much trouble with this harmonics thing? I feel like I understand it and that I’m applying what you’re teaching me, but you keep telling me I’m not acting in a harmonious way. I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong.”
“It is not that you are doing anything wrong,” Rindu said. “I am just trying to teach you to go beyond your current understanding and skill, so you may become more than what you are. I believe that you are having trouble because you have learned many things, have had some success, and you have trained for more than a year while you were gone in Telani, away from me.
“These things are good and I am proud of your accomplishments. However, there comes a time in training during which a student…”
Rindu looked thoughtful for a moment, and then spoke again, “Rather than tell you, I think it would be advantageous for me to relate the idea in a story, so that you may draw your own conclusions and learn the lesson for yourself.”
Harmonic Magic Series Boxed Set Page 76
