Shimmer

by Matthew Keith

Chapter 18

  Alex clenched the base of a short, stone blade in his right hand. The weapon had long-since grown warm in his grip and his hand was sweaty, making it slip in his grasp. He flexed his fingers, trying to get a better hold.

  Tabitha was squared off in front of him. She smiled, recognizing his moment of self-doubt. How she was able to read him so easily, Alex had no idea. She stepped to the right, her blade held at the ready. Without looking down, Alex matched her step with one of his own, keeping her in front of him.

  “Good,” Tabitha commented, the warmth of the compliment never reaching her eyes or tone of voice. She was focused, intense, as she had been for the past fourteen days. “If you keep your opponent in front of you, it will be much harder for them to surprise you.”

  Alex knew this. He’d have to be an idiot not to. They’d been working on footwork for the past seven days, and he was sick of it. Tabitha’s training seemed to move at one speed only: super-slow-motion, and it was exasperating to say the least. Each passing minute, each day that she announced they would continue to train, he felt as if his father were slipping further away.

  Tabitha lunged suddenly. She put her right foot forward and Alex reflexively moved his left foot back and brought up his blade to parry. She brought her weapon around in a counter-stroke and Alex pivoted, angling his blade and his body to deflect her attack. He came back around and was crouched at the ready again before she’d turned back to face him.

  When Tabitha’s only response was a slight crinkling of the eyes, Alex growled and lowered his blade, angrily rising from his combat stance. They’d been over these moves again and again. He wasn’t learning anything new. Was she purposely delaying his training?

  “How long are we going to do this?” he demanded.

  This wasn’t going to be the first time he poured his frustration out on Tabitha. By now it was a daily event. But this was stupid! Why keep drilling him on the same things over and over if he already knew them?

  But he knew why. Or at least he thought he did: to keep him occupied until the rest of Domus was ready, that’s why, and it made him wonder if they ever would be. These people had no reason to go to war for him, not really. They lost nothing if they kept him there in the cavern, but they were certain to lose some of their people if they staged an assault on Rasmus.

  Perhaps it wasn’t fair for him to vent on Tabitha so much—certainly, she was only doing as she’d been instructed—but there was no one else. She was the only one he was allowed contact with. All of their training was done on a level patch of stone a short distance from his shelter which was convenient, but it kept him at the outskirts of the community. At first Alex had been a little disappointed, but remembering the way Sarah had reacted to him made him think maybe it was better if he didn’t go into the city.

  The people of Domus kept their distance, never once approaching him, staring curiously from afar. The only people who came close were the Core guard, those whose duty it was to stand a long, sixteen hour shift watching for anything that approached the Core. Twice per day, two groups of six passed Alex’s shelter. One on their way to the Core, and one coming back.

  As for Winston, Alex had not spoken to him since the day he’d offered up the suit in exchange for rescuing his father.

  “We will do this until I am satisfied you have the skill required to defend yourself,” Tabitha replied patiently. It was the same answer she always gave him.

  Angrily, he flung his weapon to the ground. Normally, Alex would just grind his teeth and continue training, but it had been two weeks. Two weeks! He could lunge, he could parry, he could block. He wasn’t a master, not by any stretch, but he could certainly hold his own.

  “You say that, but you never say when that will be! What do I have to do? What more can you teach me? You’ve shown me how to fight! We need to go after my father now! Before it’s too late!” Alex angrily balled his hands into fists and set his shoulders. “I want to talk to Winston!” he demanded. “I’m ready.”

  Tabitha met his glare impassively, still in a combat stance, patiently waiting out his tirade. It infuriated him.

  “I’m ready!” he repeated.

  Tabitha pressed her lips together in a thin line and glanced down at his blade.

  “A warrior would never disrespect his weapon in such a way.” She met his gaze squarely. “Your weapon must become a part of you, because it will be the difference between life and death in the tunnels.”

  Alex snorted, crossing his arms, and Tabitha rose to her full height. She stepped up close to him, the movement fluid, dangerous. Alex could feel anger radiating from her.

  “How many citizens of Domus have you seen without a weapon?” Tabitha asked him quietly.

  Alex realized he hadn’t seen any. Aside from little kids like Sarah, everyone carried a weapon at all times.

  “We are at war,” Tabitha told him through clenched teeth. “And there will never be a time when we are not. Our enemies would eradicate us if they could, and have tried many times. But we are strong, we are always ready, and so we have always prevailed.”

  Chastised, Alex lowered his eyes. He reached down and picked up his blade.

  “I’m still ready,” he mumbled quietly.

  Tabitha’s gaze became fiery, her body quivering with suppressed fury. “Do you understand what it is to be at war with opponents as relentless as the Nocuous?”

  “They have my dad!” Alex answered hotly. “It doesn’t matter who they are!” He fixed Tabitha with what he hoped was as steely a glare as she was giving him. “I am going to get him back.”

  After a brief pause, Tabitha said, “Come with me,” and strode away without waiting to see if he followed.

  Alex did a double take, watching her receding back. Was it that easy?

  “Are you taking me to Winston?” he called after her, hurrying to catch up.

  Tabitha didn’t answer or acknowledge that he’d spoken.

  They passed through the outer boundary of the city, cutting a wide swath to avoid having to go near the center. Down here in the bowels of the earth, Alex had no sense of direction, but assuming his shelter was located at the eastern boundary of the city then Tabitha was leading him to the northern boundary.

  They passed very few people, which Alex assumed was the reason for their circuitous route. Soon they passed no one at all. Wherever they were headed, it was a part of Domus that wasn’t regularly used.

  Finally, as they reached the farthest boundary of the cavern, the floor of the cavern sloped away, downward toward the outer wall. There, standing at attention with their backs to it, were a group of six Domus warriors. At first it looked as if they were simply loitering, but Alex knew better. No one in Domus ever relaxed. They were standing guard.

  “Are they Core guard?” Alex asked Tabitha.

  Still Tabitha didn’t answer. Instead, she strode to the guards and offered a salute, which was summarily returned.

  “My pupil claims readiness,” she stated flatly, her tone conveying the lack of faith she held in her statement.

  One of the guards glanced at Alex and pursed his lips. He looked back at Tabitha and nodded.

  “Please turn and take twelve paces from the wall,” Tabitha ordered Alex. “Then turn back to face us and wait.”

  Despite an overwhelming desire to ask why, Alex did as he was told. He counted off the paces and turned back around, noticing for the first time that the wall where the guards had been standing had six rectangular-shaped doors set into it at even intervals.

  Tabitha and four of the guards backed away, leaving the remaining two guards standing in front of one of the doors.

  Both guards stared back at Alex, their gazes impassive, as if they were sizing him up.

  Suddenly and inexplicably, Alex became very nervous. He looked at Tabitha, who now stood with the other guards quite some ways down the cavern wall.

  Movement from the door guards drew his attention back to them. They gripped the door’s handholds and beg
an pulling it open, stone grinding on stone as they heaved. Above the sound of the door being opened, Alex heard a low growl emanate from behind it, slowly rising in volume the further it was pulled aside.

  At first Alex thought the sound was from the guards grunting as they strained to pull the door open, but now he was sure it was coming from inside the cavern wall, from someone or something the door had been blocking.

  Alex squinted at the opening. It was pitch black inside. He couldn’t see anything except a rectangle-shaped opening into darkness.

  And then suddenly, with a blinding rush of movement and a savage snarl, a man loped out from the dark opening, running like a gorilla on all fours.

  His speed defied belief.

  He rushed straight for Alex.

  Alex clumsily brought up his blade and stumbled backward, but tripped over his heels and landed on his butt, his blade sliding away as he reflexively threw out his hands to break his fall.

  In the space of two heartbeats, the savage was in front of him and would have been on him if not for the collar holding it back. A thick rope was attached to the collar, anchored somewhere inside the dark place where the thing had been held prisoner.

  With an audible snap, the rope went taught and the man was yanked to a halt. As fast as he had been moving, he should have been pulled off his feet to land on his back, but instead he simply came to a savage, abrupt stop. He strained mightily against the collar, the rope holding him fast as his neck and face bulged with the effort of trying to reach his prey.

  Alex scrambled backward on all fours. He snatched up his blade and lurched clumsily to his feet.

  “What the hell!” he shouted angrily. “What is this?”

  “This,” Tabitha answered, cutting a wide radius in order to stay out of reach of the thing on the rope, “is what you say you are ready for.”

  Breathing heavily, his heart going a hundred miles an hour, Alex gaped incredulously at her. She was insane! He could have been killed! The thing continued to snarl and claw in a futile attempt to reach him.

  “This is a Nocuous?” Alex asked shakily.

  “Hardly,” Tabitha answered with a note of contempt. “This is a thrall, and a fledgling at that. We captured it near the Core nearly a month ago. There are five more caged within this wall.”

  “And you kept him here?” Alex gaped at the guards. “Are you crazy? Why would you keep something like this so close to Domus?”

  “To train,” Tabitha told him simply. “You are not the only one in this community not yet ready to wield a blade in combat.”

  “I am ready,” Alex protested.

  The thrall continued to growl and slaver, sounding exactly the way Alex imagined a zombie would sound.

  “That is good,” Tabitha told him evenly. “Because that is why we are here.”

  The guards took up protective positions on both sides of Tabitha and Alex.

  “Do you know how to kill a Nocuous or thrall?” she asked.

  At the sound of Tabitha’s voice, the thrall began to thrash anew against its restraint.

  “Can it understand us?” Alex asked worriedly.

  “Yes,” Tabitha answered without elaboration.

  Alex swallowed shakily. The thrall seemed to have boundless energy, supernatural strength that showed no sign of lessening. He eyed the rope that held it in check nervously, watching as it stretched taut, loosened, and then snapped taut again, over and over as the thrall struggled to break free.

  Tabitha and the guards remained perfectly calm, as if this demon-thing was commonplace in their lives.

  Alex blanched, realizing that it was commonplace for them. These terrible creatures were the reason for Domus’s existence. Of course these seasoned warriors wouldn’t be rattled by the presence of this creature. They had been fighting them for generations—centuries.

  Alex looked back at Tabitha, who patiently awaited his answer. “Alex? Do you know how to kill it?” she repeated.

  Alex’s gut clenched as he finally realized why she had brought him here—to test his resolve.

  “You cut their heads off,” he said woodenly, looking again at the thrall, looking directly at its throat. “You have to cut their heads off to kill them.” His hand unconsciously tightened on the hilt of his blade.

  “Or burn them,” Tabitha confirmed. “Preferably both.” She nodded at the thrall, indicating to Alex to proceed.

  Slowly, Alex raised his blade and took a step forward. The thrall redoubled its efforts, its ravenous growls rising in volume as it thrashed and pulled. He took a deep breath and looked it full in the face, realizing with a start that it was female. She was young. Underneath the grime and filth, her pale, contorted face might once have been pretty. She couldn’t have been much older than he.

  “I…” Alex looked helpless back at Tabitha. “It’s a girl... Isn’t there a cure?”

  “No,” Tabitha stated flatly.

  Alex began to tremble. This could be anyone. Tabitha said the Core lured people in, called to them somehow. It wasn’t this poor girl’s fault she’d been seduced by its power. Why did she have to die? And why did Alex have to be the one to kill her?

  “This is wrong,” Alex breathed. “How can you just kill her? She was one of you.”

  One of the guards grunted, a disgusted sound from the back of his throat, his contempt for Alex summed up without an actual word.

  “Her name was Susanne,” Tabitha replied severely. “She was a Core guard on her first tour of assignment.” Her mouth tightened into a thin line. “She let the Core consume her.”

  “And so you just kill her?” Alex asked incredulously. “You lock her in a cave for a month, letting her out only to cut her head off?”

  Tabitha faced him squarely, her eyes fierce. “Susanne was my friend. We played together as children. We trained together as adults.” Through clenched teeth, she said, “She would do the same kindness for me were I weak enough to have been seduced by the Core. We do not do this to her, we do it for her.”

  Tabitha stepped aside, leaving Alex to face the thrall—to face Susanne—alone.

  Alex moved to grip his blade in both hands, breathing heavily as he mustered his courage. One solid swing was all it would take. One heavy chop to her neck. A few seconds of his life and he could end Susanne’s. He flexed his fingers, adjusting his grip, and moved to raise the blade over his head.

  Susanne continued to reach toward him, grasping at thin air as if she could take hold of it and pull herself to him. Her thrashing became more agitated and she went into a frenzy. It was horrifying. She was a monster.

  And yet he still couldn’t do it. His arms hadn’t moved, as if his brain wasn’t sending the signal to put them into motion. Alex stared into Susanne’s eyes and clenched his jaw, willing his body to move, to obey him, but it wouldn’t. He just couldn’t kill her like this: defenseless and tethered like an animal.

  Defeated, he lowered his blade and turned to Tabitha. “I can’t,” he said. “She’s—”

  He never finished the sentence.

  With a loud snap, the rope around Susanne’s neck gave way and she launched herself at Alex.

  Alex stumbled and clumsily lifted his blade, but he knew he could never bring it to bear in time to defend himself.

  Susanne was nearly on him.

  Until Tabitha smoothly spun, a backhanded swing cleanly slicing through Susanne’s neck in a single stroke.

  Susanne’s body crumpled, skidding to stop mere inches from Alex’s feet, her head rolling forward to bump him in the foot, blood oozing from her neck and pooling on the ground.

  “Get the torches,” Tabitha ordered, turning away from Alex in disappointment.