by Sam Sea
"fine, you help me get these people to the monastery like you suggested, and you have yourself a deal."
“I can come with you…” Les spoke in a sleepy voice, his eyes still shut though.
"No, you stay behind. You are one of them claws. You may recognize them when they strike. I want you to stay close to the children. Protect them. Fuck the rest."
Mikka then turned to Derran. "Cut the spaceshit! You know exactly where your priest is don’t you?"
Derran pulled Mikka aside and, instead of an answer, took out a dark glass bowl.
"You know how to work these, don't you?" he asked her.
"Point him to me..." she answered him.
Derran pressed the bowl, moving it around and suddenly faces of priests in their cloaks started to flash inside the bowl. "This one…" he said as the face of Father Vi suddenly flashed.
"Where did you plant a tracker on him?" Mikka asked as her hands extended to take the ball.
"It's inside of him. Behind his ear. He cannot hide from us."
Mikka chuckled. “Old ECI tricks, I see…”
Mikka felt the weight of the ball in her hands for a second, and then with her finger, she circled the face of the priest, again and again, until it got so small that it became only a yellow blinking dot. "He is heading west, not north. He is already way out of the town."
"Well, you better hurry then. He needs to talk. " he reminded her.
Ch
apter 21 – The Rotten Apple
Mikka and Ronnich galloped out of Three Rivers to the road that was going around the mountains and then curved suddenly to the right, going west. They took spare horses with them and after riding them hard into the night, they changed their mounts, tying the two exhausted ones to the tree off the track.
"Maybe on our way back, they will still be here. A little bit of rest will do them good." Ronnich said.
"There are no orcs here yet... Everything seems very quiet." Mikka smelled fresh night’s air.
It was a clear night and moon was there to show them the way.
“So peaceful…” Ronnich commented.
"Yes, it usually gets like that, just before all the hell breaks loose."
“Do you need to rest?” he asked her.
“No.. I want to ride through the night. It is the only way to catch up with him tomorrow.” Mikka thought about the trip back, knowing that all of them are going to depart the city in the morning.
She looked into her glass bowl and saw the yellow dot, only slightly out of the circle’s center. "He is still about twenty miles ahead of us. But is not moving. I think he has stopped for a night. Probably feels confident that he ran away. If he only knew his Grand Master as well as I do…"
"It seems he is sticking to a main road. I know a short cut. We can run through the forest and meet him before he makes it to the Waterfall bridge."
“Don’t talk, just ride and lead the way…” Mikka told him, not ready to delay their pursuit not even for a moment.
They nudged their horses off the trail, and Mikka followed Ronnich.
They made it to the bridge at almost the perfect moment. As Mikka looked at her ball, she figured the priest was almost upon them, and the priest came out of the forest to the clearance before Mikka had a time to finish drinking water. But he was not alone.
Two guards, dressed in silvery armor and flying the flag of a giant hound, were in front. Six other ones were behind him.
Ronnich positioned his horse across the road, and lifted his hand up. Mikka moved her horse away, almost leaving the road, hiding her hand under her cloak.
“Under the order of the duke of Sirnia, we commend you to move!" The man up front yelled at Ronnich.
"This is still Kartar, and no duke of north has right to order here."
"We have agreement with your king..."
"No, actually you do not. My king as well as the king of Vartira want to see that man taken to Three Rivers.”
"He is under our protection."
"He is under nobody's protection. His master, the Grand Master of all, wants to see him. And you will be wise to obey that."
The sergeant seemed a bit taken back by what he heard, but then the priest leaned over to the sergeant and whispered something to his ear.
"I am under the direct order of my liege, the duke of Sirnia, to bring the priest..."
Before he could finish explaining his orders, seven inches of light-blue steel plugged his forehead, connecting his eyebrows one to another. As his body jerked backward, ready to collapse, Mikka threw two more knives at the soldiers closest to him, piercing both of their necks.
“All this talk… We have no time to lose…” she yelled. As all of them turned to look at her and understand that the real threat came from her side, Ronnich jerked his mount forward and his huge sword suddenly appeared in his hand to unseat two guards, one right after another.. The banners came down, and two rear guards instantly mustered their horses around and fled toward the forest.
Mikka decided not to give a chase, but pulled the rains out of priest's hands, and restrained her horse which scared with the sign of fighting huffed backward and sideways.
"Hi there priest, or whatever else you want to call yourself. Remember us? So it seems that we are going to have a talk with you after all.
"You are the devil!" The priest succeeded in shrieking as Mikka pulled him down and with a sudden move of her dagger made one of his ears fly away from his head.
"You say anything like that again, and I'll cut the other one off, just as easily, understand?"
Dumbfounded, the priest reached for the place where his ear used to be, feeling blood running already down his neck. "I did some bad things in my days, yes, it is true..." she continued to tell him in a quiet voice. "But you have outdone it all, and I would like nothing better than slice your eyes out as well."
"Please..." the priest begged.
"The Grand Master wanted to talk to him first..." behind Ronnich reminded her, but she could tell that he was trying hard to keep his face straight.
"Well, we better then go and see the Grand Master then," Mikka said as she placed side of her boot between the priests teeth, and in one powerful kick knocked many of them out. None of them seem to have any poison capsules inside.
"Never liked that guy from the first second I saw him," she said as his body dropped unconscious to the ground.
"Sure glad you never felt the same way toward me." Ronnich was grinning, still trying to calm down his restless horse.
Mikka calculated that they had at least hundred miles to cross to catch back with Derran. That should take them well into the morning. She laid the priest's unconscious body over his horse and tied him hard, skin breaking hard, under the mounts belly.
“You want to keep on riding through the dark?”
"It’s light enough. Drink some of this, and you will stay up.” She gave him a thick pinkish liquid that tasted sweet and sour at the same time.
“What is that?” he asked as he emptied the bottle.
“The potion that will keep you up for days, gives you energy and stamina… Drink of gods, if you want to call it as such.”
“It is already making me feel better, fresher…”
“Yes, it does that. But when you crash, you crash hard…” she said to him although she was certain he did not understand what she meant. Well, he’ll find out soon enough.
“So we do not stop until we reach them."
"They will probably go to the town of Eirkon... There is a castle there where they can stay overnight... and it should provide for a good defense if they are attacked."
“Lead the way…” Mikka told him.
Ronnich proved to be right. They made their horses fly as much as the darkness allowed them to do, through the mountain trail, stopping only at the place where they left their horses. They made a sharp turn to the north as the road to the right would take them back to the city.
As they cleared the last mountain top, and
came to the point from which the whole valley could be seen, they found a river of people traveling on the road snaking in the distance toward the town of Eirkon.
It was obvious that the estimate of tens of thousands were too conservative. Hundreds of thousands of people were traveling, the road almost full with carts and women and children.
They rode their horses to join the exodus, and saw the squad of fifty king's solders providing for their rare flank.
"Where is the Grand Master?" Ronnich called on to them as soon as he could be heard.
They pointed forward, and Ronnich and Mikka pushed their tired horses onward. Less than a mile away, they saw a figure in a wavering white robe riding toward them.
"You are traveling way too slow, priest." Mikka told Derran as he met her half way.
"We go as fast as we can. We cannot leave all these women, children and old behind." Derran answered as he rode to the horse behind Mikka and lifted the head of one of his top priests. Instead of greeting and explanation, he only got painful murmuring, cursing and hardly understandable threats.
"What have you done to him?" Derran looked to see Mikka completely disinterested in providing any explanation.
"You have no time to lose,” she told him. “If there is a way to reverse the toxin of the poison, you have to know about it right away..."
"Yes... You are right. We'll take him to the nearest post. There is a small castle, only about an hour of riding away. We sent the troops away to prepare for our arrival already."
"Also, you know we are stretched too wide. If they attack you during the night, it will be a blood bath." Ronnich added.
"Luckily they are not organized at all..." one of the sergeants that rode to them joined in.
"They are not organized well yet,” Derran corrected him “We are assuming too much. We have to think that whoever is doing this will organize them…
“The priest was riding in the protection of the Duke of Sirnia…” Mikka added.
“ How many men can he summon and call to attack you?” Derran started to worry. “ If this is all his doing, then you will face a real army soon."
Cha
pter 22 – The Dagger in the Back
The little prince was in the window of the Eirkon castle looking at the people constantly arriving, wondering where all of them would be placed. He was still observing them when he saw Mikka, Ronnich and the grand master ride in with the priest laying over the horse. He recognized his robe right away. As they came closer, and raised the man up, he saw parts of his face.
It's him. It must be him. He raced past his room guards, down the hundred of stairs to see the priest being carried away to the library. He wanted to see his face and sneaked through two other soldiers before the hands of another one held him from racing to the study.
"Be careful, lad, you are not allowed in," said the voice of a solder, towering above him.
"It's him!" he screamed, seeing the priest's face just before they closed the door. "He was the one to use red lotus... and turn everyone into monsters…"
Derran stepped in front of the prince. “So he is the one?”
“Yes…” Satorius was certain.
“Red lotus you say, huh?”
“Yes…”
Derran patted him on top of his head. “Why don’t you go upstairs to your room and let us talk to this evil man…” he told him and showed the guards to close the door.
The conversation was coming that no boy of his age should witness.
"Why, why did you do it?" he turned to his priest suddenly.
The man laughed. "You understand so little... What did you think, that you could just come in here and in a matter of few years become a grand master… It was my place! It was meant for me!”
"I gave you life... I made you who you are... You could have had it all. Why couldn't you just listen to me?"
"You gave me nothing!" the bitterness spit out of every word the priest said. "I deserved to be the Grand Master! I worked my whole life for it! I-"
"So, that's what it is? Just a vanity, jealousy and folly ambitions? That's why you decide to kill millions?"
"It was not supposed to happen like that... They were supposed to do it while we were all safely locked in the monastery... But you... you ruined it all. They had to rush everything!"
"You told them we were coming for the Master of Black Claws."
"Yes... That's why they were ready..."
"Of course they were ready... Except they could never guess what she could do..."
Derran paced in front of the seat in which Zi was sitting. “I need to know what can be done to stop the poison…”
“There is no cure…”
Derran looked deep into his eyes.
“Even if there were, don’t you think they would never tell me…”
"It's very hard for me not to take your life right now... Who gave you the poison?"
"Why does it matter? It's too late now anyway..."
Derran walked over him and pressed his staff on his abdominal. The fire leaped from it and the priest shrieked in pain.
"I have no time to loose, so talk..."
"It's too late anyway..."
"Who?”
"Don't you know, the almighty Grand Master does not know-"
The second bolt of fire caught the priest in his crutch, and his whole body twisted in pain, hands bleeding trying to get out of the rope.
“Bring me my bags. I'll get answers from you one way or another."
"The shadows... they came to me during my sleep. They talked. I listened. I thought it was all dreams. I thought of them as ghosts. But when I woke up, there was a powder, red powder of red lotus..."
"What exactly did shadows tell you?"
"That the powder when mixed with water cannot be seen... that it had a power to turn a man into a monster who kills with no regret. With one sip of water, it starts transforming the person. In three months, the man transforms completely and then you can control him anyway you like.”
“How much poison was given to you?”
“Five barrels.”
“Are there any left?”
“No, we used them all..”
The priest chuckled in pain. “It’s too late. You think that Three Rivers is all that has been poisoned?" the priest laughed again. "Oh, no... I gave poison not only to Black Claws... all five kingdoms have been infected."
"Where... where is it safe then?"
"We know where it is safe..." Mikka stepped in. "He was being taken by Sirnian guards."
“So you made a deal with the duke of Sirnia?”
“Yes, he saw it wise to join our cause.”
“It’s no cause, it’s madness… Has the water in the monastery been poisoned?”
“No… although I thought about that first… they are all fouls to love you there… fouls…”
"I want to know the names of those priests who conspired with you... You will give me those. I will not give you peace until you do. Name them!”
“Nobody knew exactly what this would and could do… nobody even father Rovic… they are all stupids. They helped me without ever knowing what was happening…” he laughed crazily, without control
Zi’s laugh would not stop, and Derran finally had enough. "You are a pure evil... I should have seen it, but I did not. Your sweet mouthed me but you will not deceive anyone anymore..." His staff lighted just for a bit, but Zi’s whole body puffed and turned completely to dust.
They all stood there for a long time look at the dust settling down, the dust that once was Zi. All except Mia. She lazily walked over to Les. "I guess if we go through the Sirnia again, you'll get to see your old friends back."
"I can't wait." Les answered, but his wide-opened eyes could still not stop staring at the falling dust.
"What do you think," Mikka approached Derran as he moved to the corner to sit down and think. "Who are these shadows? Who gave him the poison?"
"I do not know..."
"It d
oes not seem like anything out of this world."
"No, it does not."
"So it seems that you are not the only one who found this place..."
Derran just breathed heavily in and out until he could compose himself enough to continue talking. "We need to find them whoever they are. If they can do this here, they can also do it everywhere. Just imagine what that would do to all life as we know it..."
"It may be the end of us all."
"And we need to find the antidote... Red lotus.. someone must know about it."
"You won't find it here..."
Derran looked at her with his eyes begging.
"I'll do what I can. I'll help you... but you know the price. But first, I need to solve my own problems..."
"Your problems will be solved when we get to the monastery. I've already promised you that. We need Val here... We need help." Derran said. "We need to find whoever did this, chase them no matter in what hole of dark space they hide."
"Yes, Val could do that for you..."
"So tell me exactly, what is it that know of Val coming here?" he suddenly changed the subject completely, obviously tired of thinking about problems he could not solve.
"His bio-signal trailed off once it got into this system. He probably had bad maps too. But there are only three possible planets he could have landed on. I do not think the other two can support life anyway. He is looking for someone."
"Do you know whom?"
"No... nobody willing to sell information knew either. But he did communicate with the Palace and the wife of Senator Sulivaro..."
"Senator Sul?" Derran was taken back. "He is missing?"
"He was on a transporter that got destroyed... I bet Val went to look to either find him or his remains..."
"That makes sense... Especially if senator's wife asked for it..."
"Why would that matter?"
"Over seven hundred years ago, he was his first wife..."
Mikka nodded in understanding. “Knowing Val, I can hardly blame her.”
"I guess I missed a lot of it since I came here… But, if Senator Sul landed here, I would have known..."
