by Alex Leopold
There was something strange about Cooper’s mannerisms that Riley couldn’t immediately place, then her sister gave a giddy laugh and Riley realized she was trying to be flirtatious.
This will only to lead to trouble, she thought.
“Lee!” Cooper startled when she finally noticed her sister.
“Aren’t you supposed to be in the market getting the supplies we need?” A testy Riley asked as she ran a hand across her forehead to wipe the sweat away.
Glancing down at her sister’s feet, she noted that Cooper had no goods with her.
“Have you even started?”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll get to it.” Cooper replied breezily, then pointed to the boy. “I want you to to meet Ellis! He says he can tell us our future!”
“How-dy.” The boy said, his voice taking on a lazy drawl. At the same time, his face broke into an easy going grin which he clearly knew had a disarming effect on people. It was working on Cooper, Riley saw, she was having a hard time keeping her eyes off him.
He tipped his hat to her as well and when he did a lock of his straight, jet-black hair spilled out and fell in front of his eyes. When he swept it back under his hat again, Cooper used the distraction to lightly dig her elbow into Riley’s side in a what about this guy gesture.
No question he was handsome. Tall, olive skinned with dark black eyes that hinted at an inner mischief. He had a look about him that made you think he enjoyed getting into trouble, a roguish irrepressibility. It was just the sort of thing Cooper would be attracted to, Riley thought. Riley, on the other hand, got the immediate impression he was also more than a little bit arrogant. He knew he was good-looking, and it made him all the more smug for it.
“Look at me surrounded by the two best looking girls in the market, must be my lucky day.” He added and his smile grew even wider from how charming he thought he was.
Cooper tittered as much from the compliment as from his dimples. Riley tried her best not to look like she thought him an idiot.
She turned to whisper in her sister’s ear. “You know we're not to be doing this sort of thing.”
Riley hoped Cooper would be reminded of the strict rules they'd agreed to while they were in here. Outside speaking to merchants to buy goods they weren’t supposed to talk to anyone.
Unsurprisingly, Cooper responded to Riley by sticking her tongue out.
“So how does this work?” She asked Ellis. “Do you have special powers or something?”
She was flirting. At least that’s what it appeared to be to Riley, but how would she know, neither girl had ever seen such a thing before. Certainly not from Mayat, the only other woman in their lives.
“Are you asking if I’m a crink?” Ellis replied with a mischievous wink but didn’t answer the question.
Instead, he fanned out the cards in his gloved hand. It was immediately clear they weren’t like normal playing cards. In place of values were intricate drawings depicting the full spectrum of a person’s fate, described by a single word or two. Wealth, family, war, death, were just a few of the ones that Riley noted but there were many more.
Ellis shuffled again.
“All you have to do is pick a card.” He said with that mischievous grin again. “Destiny will do the rest.”
He fanned the cards but now the backs of the cards were facing the girls.
“Who wants to go first?” He asked.
Cooper didn’t hesitate, her hand reached for the deck as quickly as a sharpshooter pulling his gun. Before she could choose a card though, Ellis pulled them away.
“I warn you”, he said teasing. “The cards don’t lie.”
Cooper gave him a puss-face and rested her hands on her hips before tapping a card with a finger. Ellis pulled it free from the deck to reveal a male and female clown surrounded by a circle of flowers. At the bottom of the card, it read: LOVE.
“Looks like you’ve got a hot date coming up, who's the lucky scoundrel?” He asked and there was something about his Cheshire Cat grin that suggested he was thinking about himself.
Cooper replied with a stunned expression and blushed crimson. Riley hid her amusement and picked her own card.
The card said QUEST and the clown was sitting on a horse with a sword raised high in his hand.
“A long journey in your future, perhaps? Where might you be going I wonder? On a mission for the resistance maybe?”
He was trying to be amusing but Riley could see the fixed way he looked at them now. He’s digging for information. He was hoping his light-hearted mention of the rebels would cause one of them to react in a way that confirmed his question.
Naturally Cooper did not realize any of this.
“The resistance?” Cooper said dismissively. “We wish! The only place we’re going back to after this is our farm.”
“And where is that?”
She would’ve answered too if Riley hadn’t interrupted. “Why don’t we pick another card?”
Cooper agreed wholeheartedly and so Ellis reshuffled.
Riley didn’t want to spoil Cooper’s fun by telling her what was really going on. They’d pick two more cards and then she’d tell Cooper they had to be going. She’d drag her away by her hair if she had to.
Cooper’s card read BATTLE and the clown was split in two, half-skeleton, half-warrior dressed in a military uniform.
“Now we’re getting somewhere.” Ellis said. “You’ve got a life-or-death battle in your future. You never told me you were a great warrior.”
He was probing, digging for information and Cooper was only too happy to oblige.
“Well, I am pretty good with a …”
“My turn.” Riley interrupted before she could say more.
Her card was almost identical to Cooper’s. It also said BATTLE and like Cooper’s, the clown was split in two, half-skeleton, half-warrior. Except Cooper’s card was red and Riley’s was black.
Seeing them prompted the boy to suck in his breath with surprise. It almost looked like he hadn’t been expecting that, as if he’d intended Riley to pick a different card.
"What is it?" Asked Cooper.
“It’s nothing.” He stammered as he scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
“They’re the same.” Cooper pointed out.
Ellis nodded without saying anything. He then looked like he wanted to be anywhere but where he was.
“So?” She pressed.
Ellis gave a sheepish grin.
"Well… They say, when these cards are picked together it means one day you’ll face each other in battle.
“And one of you will live and the other will die."
10
Kamran sprinted out of a back-alley onto the street near the old opera house where Metropolitan Fifteen's gateway was housed. The street was already crowded with the late afternoon traffic. Among the horses and carts, the city’s citizens trudged home from work in the last light of day, their ankles deep in thick smog.
Glancing back at the reflection on a dirt-smeared window, Kamran saw a brilliant flash of light appear. Out of it sprinted his pursuer, a man in a black cloak with a silver mask covering his face.
A Myrmidon.
Panicked, Kamran created the spark and hurled it over his shoulder before bursting into the crowd of commuters. His throw was poor and his pursuer ducked out of the lightning bolt's path with ease.
“Myrmidons! Myrmidons!”
Kamran cried out as he clawed his way through the lines of hot bodies. It had its intended effect. Bowed heads looked up with surprise at the mention of the Directory's boogeymen, and they saw four of them approaching, all with a sword in one hand, the spark in the other.
A Myrmidon spotted Kamran and hurled the blue electric bolt.
Diving out of its way, Kamran heard it crackle as it passed over his head. The crowd saw it strike an ordinary citizen in the chest, and for a second they all let out a collective gasp as they watched the man fall to the ground in an electrocuted seizure. Then panicked, th
ey scattered.
Rolling onto his back to clear himself from the path of a runaway carriage, Kamran saw a dark figure hovering a hundred feet above the streets above him. Surrounding the figure’s body was what appeared to be a dense, black cloud.
As he watched an explosive pain erupted from behind Kamran’s temples; someone somewhere was trying to break into his mind.
He needed to get out of the open. Through his blurred vision, he saw a mechanic’s shop he knew well no more than thirty feet away. Forcing himself to focus, he switched into it and knocked over a rack of tools as he stepped out of the teleport, the rich smells of oil and grease filling his nostrils.
“How'd you get in here?” The shop-owner demanded with wide-eyed surprise as he watched Kamran attempt to get up on his feet.
Before he could, a muscle spasm squeezed in his chest and Kamran sank back onto his knees. He was old, weak and unused to using his abilities to such a degree. If he did another switch like that he’d be in danger of completely exhausting himself.
“I said, how’d do you get in here?” The mechanic repeated himself but before Kamran could answer the shop window at his back exploded inward and showered them both in glass.
Clutching at his chest with one hand and badly slashing the palm of his other, Kamran got back on his feet and ran to the back door that led out into an alley.
What was he doing? He knew he couldn't outrun the Myrmidons. There were too many and they were all far more powerful than him. Even if he could find a place to hide, the Myrmidons would have snoopers with them. The telepaths were probably already monitoring his thoughts.
In a locket around his neck was a poison pill. He knew he should take it and quickly, there were too many secrets he had to protect. Yet, suddenly facing death, he realized how much he wanted to live.
He recalled that underneath an old hotel not far from him was a secret passageway that smugglers used. If he could make it underground, the snoopers would have a harder time tracking him.
The first arrow pierced his back by his shoulder blade and drove him off his feet into a stagnant pool of water. The second dug into the fat of his right thigh. He wanted to switch away but the arrow heads must’ve been dipped in sting and he felt his abilities become suppressed.
Looking up, he saw a Sekhem male approaching, a bow in his hand. Then he heard what sounded like the cries of dozens of voices. In the pool’s reflection, he saw the Myrmidon from the sky descending down into the street. The black cloud followed him, transforming into a congress of ravens as it got closer.
When the Myrmidon's boots touched the ground Kamran recognized him immediately by the way his silver mask reflected back the world in a red tinge. He was the leader of the Myrmidons and the Directory’s chief executioner. His name was the Controller, but everyone referred to him as, Control.
Kamran had heard a rumor the man behind the mask was only just a boy, barely into his twenties. He remembered thinking this news had not surprised him. Only in this nation, and only under the Directory could someone become so remorseless at such a young age.
Hopelessly, Kamran tried to escape by dragging himself away on his hands and knees. He only made it a few paces before his body was telekinetically shifted back.
When he was by Control’s side, the Myrmidon leader kicked him over so the two men could face each other. Kamran had a knife concealed in his coat, he used it to try and stab Control in the gut. The Myrmidon smacked the knife away with ease then twisted and broke all the fingers in Kamran’s hand. The old man cried out in wide-eyed pain, his torture reflected back to him in Control’s mask.
“Where’s Nakano?” Control tapped as he shook Kamran’s broken hand.
“I don't know.”
“Try again.” Control said as he reached for the arrow in his back and twisted it.
The other nine Myrmidons had all switched into the alley. Always there were ten. Like their leader, they were all young men and women of an age where their abilities were both sharp and limitless.
Kamran knew some of them, as much by reputation, as by the malevolent names they’d inherited when they’d joined the Archon’s secret army. The Ripper. The Flayer. The Ravager. The Worm. Control’s second-in-command was a particularly brutal individual called, the Hangman. He liked to torture people, if rumor was to be believed, liked to inflict pain. Not that any of the others were any better, they all lived to serve the Archon and executed his orders without protest or pity.
“Well?” Control demanded.
Knowing he was about to die Kamran had a sudden moment of clarity. The presence of the Archon’s right-hand man, one of the most powerful anomalies in the nation could only mean the Directory also believed the visions Nakano had stolen were true.
They believe she has the Oracle’s last prophecy, he realized. And after his back-teeth cracked the poison pill he began to laugh.
“She's safe and well out of your reach.” He croaked before his voice was lost in a coughing fit brought on by the venom.
The Hangman rushed to stop him but Kamran was gone before he could do anything. When he confirmed he was dead, the Hangman kicked his lifeless body across the alley.
“What happened?” Control asked.
“We must’ve tripped some alarm when we approached his house.”
“You were reckless. And now we’ve lost our best chance of getting Nakano back.”
“I can fix this!” The Hangman snapped back still incensed with his mistake. “He may be dead, but his memory’s not gone yet.”
“You won’t have long, maybe no more than a few minutes.” Their skin-reader told him.
“Then leave me to get on with it.”
"Very well.” Control said. “The rest of you. I want you to talk to your spies and informers. Then tear this city apart if you have to. I want to find out what happened to Nakano, and I want to know soon.”
As the others switched away, Control ascended back into the sky surrounded by his ravens, leaving the Hangman alone in the alley with Kamran’s corpse.
Removing his gloves, he spat into the dirt. He hated burrowing into the mind of the dead, it always left a bitter taste in his mouth. He'd have to find something though, if he failed it might cost him his life.
Tell me your secrets, he said as he placed the palms of his hands either side of Kamran's forehead and forced his way into the dead man's fading mind.
11
The day was drawing to a close. She was hungry and had slept poorly. Her hair was matted, her clothes and face filthy, and her body ached as it had never done before. Yet, Nakano didn’t reflect on these complaints instead she focused on getting moving again. Her final destination was close, she could feel it.
On a rocky outcrop with uninterrupted views of the land ahead, she dipped into her memories and focused on one of the first visions she’d witnessed from the prophecy. Of the Pathfinder sitting with his two daughters.
When she had it properly formed in her head, her eyes snapped open and she studied the horizon to the north, where the image was drawing her toward. Removing a compass from her satchel she made a note of the bearing before mounting up on her horse and setting off.
In the fading light, torches were lit throughout the souk and merchants began closing their stalls. There'd be no more trading for the day and everyone looked excited to blow-off steam, most congregating toward the saloon tents where musicians were already playing and the local hooch was good and cheap. As the crowds swelled, the story-tellers, food-porters, and pick-pockets started moving among them and the dogs began fighting for scraps at their feet.
“When are you going to talk to me, Lee?” Cooper asked as she followed Riley back to the wagon, the last of the day’s supplies slung over her shoulder.
Riley had been in a sulk ever since Ellis’ tarot cards had revealed that dire prediction of their future. He’d tried to brush it all aside as nonsense, but Riley hadn't wanted to listen.
“Why did you do that?” A furious Cooper had asked h
im as she’d watched her sister leave in tears. How could you be so stupid, she’d wanted to add but she’d had to catch up with Riley.
“I didn’t mean to.” She’d heard him call after her as she rushed away.
So now what was only supposed to be a bit of fun had gone and ruined the whole day.
This morning, Cooper had thought they'd be spending their sundown hours sneaking into the saloon tents to taste the local liquor while listening out for any news on the resistance. Perhaps someone would know of a daring raid or rumors of a growing rebel cell in the Borderlands.
Naturally, Riley would’ve reminded her that their father ‘forbade’ them from talking to strangers. Ultimately, she would’ve caved, because Riley could never say no to Cooper, a fact both twins knew only too well.
It would’ve been a night to remember, and before they’d arrived Cooper had even entertained the idea of letting some handsome stranger buy her a drink and try to charm her.
When she’d met Ellis she’d thought - hoped - it would be him. There was something about him that made her skin feel hot.
Maybe he would’ve asked her for a dance? Maybe he would’ve asked her for a kiss? As she stood there talking to him, she’d fantasized about what that might feel like.
What she hadn’t expected was that instead of finding out, she’d spend the evening watching Riley's heals and trying not to lose her patience. The whole thing was a mess.
“You’re being ridiculous, Lee!” Cooper called out as they trudged down a pathway. “There’s no chance I’ll ever kill you.”
“Though, I’m tempted to after you ruined this evening’s fun.” She mumbled under her breath.
“I heard that.” Riley said which caused Cooper to let out a tired groan.
