Bacorium Legacy (15 page)

Still he allowed himself to turn his head and steal a glance. Emila was walking with her bow in hand. He had seen her take out the bow a few times during their trip from Forga, but he had never actually seen her use it. Interestingly, he noticed she had no quiver.

She noticed him staring and she gave him a small smile. He turned back around.

Luca couldn't possibly return that smile.

“W-whoa!”

Rael cried out as he tripped on a stray vine and fell forward. Brand spun around and grabbed his arm before his hand hit the ground. With a groan, Brand pulled Rael back up to his feet.

“That was close,” Brand said with a sigh of relief.

“What do you mean?” Davik asked him.

In response, Brand kicked at the foliage where Rael's hand would have landed. There was a strange flower-like plant hidden there. Brand's kicking had woken it, and the flower opened up, revealing several rows of teeth, in a mouth large enough to fit a human limb and deep enough to swallow it.

“A leg eater,” Rael muttered with a heavy frown. “How in the world did you notice it was there?”

Brand shrugged. “I just did.” He drew his sword and drove it down into the leg eater's mouth. The thing shrieked in pain, thrashing about and biting uselessly at Brand's scimitar. Green ichor stained the blade and the ground around it. Brand twisted the sword and the leg eater made one last pathetic sound, then it moved no more.

Brand pulled his sword out, and wiped the blade on a cloth he produced from his pocket. “Watch where you're going, okay? They like to plant themselves near roots and places where things trip easily.”

They paid more attention to where they went after that.

After some time, they made their way deep into the forest and came to a large clearing. Brand stopped here, and turned to face them.

“Alright, the ouroboros shouldn't be very hard to find,” he told them. “If anything, it should find us. But it would be preferable if we could surprise it instead. Now it doesn't have legs like other monsters - it slithers across the ground by moving its body left and right. This leaves a pretty distinctive trench shape in the ground. Keep an eye open for that.”

“We could split up,” Davik suggested.

“No,” Brand said immediately. “A party of five trained fighters will have no problem with an ouroboros, but there's no way to split up without sacrificing our defences. A group of only two would be vulnerable. The last thing I need tonight is to return to the temple with the bloody clothes of a dead student.”

He said that last sentence firmly, staring directly at Davik with a look that gave no room for argument. Davik didn't look particularly pleased about this, but he didn't press the issue.

“We'll check the lower part of the woods first,” Brand continued, pointing off to the east. “That's the place where we're most likely to come across the ouroboros. Any objections?”

There were none.

“Then let's go.” And with that, Brand marched off.

There was something different about the way he now spoke, Luca thought. A degree of his carelessness seemed to be gone. No, not carelessness. From the moment they had left, Brand had been nothing but careful. The incident with the leg eater had been proof enough of that. Whatever was bothering him, it was something else.

As they went on, the path grew increasingly wild, and with the limited visibility of the night, they were having a hard time keeping their footing. Davik seemed to be having the most trouble, as he fell behind to the back of the group. As they made their way down into the lower part of the forest, a few bushes rustled and a few small creatures scurried away from them into the night. No goblins, or any other monsters that would dare to attack them, appeared, which bothered him. So Luca brought this up.

“Hmm,” Brand muttered. “No doubt because of the ouroboros. The goblin population tends to drop whenever they appear - easy prey, after all.”

“Still, we're not exactly being quiet,” Luca said. “Surely, something this deep in the forest would have come by now.”

“We work pretty hard to keep our monster population down around here,” Rael explained. “It's a good way to test the abilities we learn.”

They reached the edge of a small cliff, which led down into a small valley, through which a shallow stream ran. The ground below was treacherous and covered in a thick layer of leaves, but they were able to make their way down rather easily. As they reached the bottom of the steep hill, the clouds parted to allow the moonlight to shine through. The valley was illuminated by silver light.

A memory worked its way to the forefront of Luca's mind. He remembered waking, not even two weeks ago, in that dusty room in the inn of Forga. He remembered Emila opening the door, and how she looked illuminated by the silver moonlight.

He turned around to look at her, wondering if she would look the same now.

He froze.

There was fear in Emila's eyes. Davik stood behind her, one hand clasped over her mouth, the other holding a sword, the blade of which was pressed up against her throat. Her bow was on the ground some distance away.

Luca immediately reached for his sword.

“Don't,” Davik said. “Draw that blade and she dies.”

With a great force of will, he did not draw his weapon. Davik's voice had drawn the attention of Brand and Rael, who turned and saw what Luca was seeing.

“Davik...” Brand hissed. “What is the meaning of this?!”

“Here's what's going to happen,” Davik said, ignoring Brand's words. “All three of you are going to slowly unbuckle the sheathes of your swords and set them on the ground. Then you're going to take a few steps back.”

“Davik...!” Brand growled.

“Do it!” he said, pressing the blade up to Emila's neck. “I'll kill her, I mean it.”

Luca could feel a faint tingling against the skin of his own neck, as he saw a single bead of Emila's blood roll down Davik's sword. He did not hesitate. He undid the buckle of his father's sword and dropped it on the ground.

“Good,” Davik said. “Now you two do the same.”

Brand undid his own sheath and set the scimitar down on the ground. Rael hesitated a moment more, but he did the same.

“Good,” Davik said. “Now take a few steps back.”

“C'mon,” Brand said to Luca, as he placed his hand on his shoulder. He took a step back, and Luca did the same.

Luca never took his eyes off of Davik.

“Davik, why are you doing this?” Rael asked him after they had taken five steps away form him.

“I guess you wouldn't know, would you, Rael?” Davik said. He took his hand off of Emila's mouth and held her by her arm. With the sword still pressed up against her neck, he led her forward until they had stepped over the weapons. He kicked a few leaves over them.

“Not everyone knows about it, but I keep my ears open,” Davik said to Rael. “The emissary from Sono is on his way here, to take the temple's three best students to T'Saw. Acaria is becoming a problem, and Zaow wants a hero like Lodin to beat him. Well, I mean to be that hero. Not Luca here, and certainly not that damn brother of his!”

Emila gasped.

“Davik!” Brand exclaimed.

He chuckled. “What's it matter now? It was a stupid rule - he was going to find out sooner or later.”

“What the hell are you saying?” Luca demanded.

“Ash! You know, Dori's apprentice? He's your brother. The second son of Lodin. The one he abandoned in order to train you. Everybody here at the temple knows about it, but Allma set forth an order that nobody could say anything of it to you, save for Dori or Ash himself. Not that they would - Ash is a pathetic weakling, and Dori's an old drunk.”

“Enough,” Luca spat. “I won't have this conversation while you're holding a blade up to Emila's throat. Let her go first.”

Davik laughed again. “Not a chance. You see, there's two ways this is going to work. The first option is that you cooperate with me. You three stay here, and get eaten by the ouroboros. The girl and I will go to the top of the valley, and watch you die. After that, I'll let her go. She can go on with her life, and I will go on to be the hero that saves Sono from Acaria.”

“And the other option?” Brand asked in a flat voice.

“You could try to find some way out of this,” Davik said. “And I kill the girl. Her blood will seep into the ground and the scent of it will wake the ouroboros and its spawn, who are sleeping right under your feet. With my earth magick, I can escape from this valley in seconds. You three, on the other hand...”

“You think nobody will suspect you if you come back alone?” Brand demanded.

“Accidents happen all the time,” Davik muttered. “Especially to those who sneak off after hours to do dangerous things. It'll be a tragedy, for sure. But I'll be a hero to the temple, for slaying the monster that took your lives.”

“You honourless cur!” Rael shouted.

The boy smirked, but a slight twitching betrayed his nervousness. “Not all of us can make it in this world with honour. Not all of us are born with the natural talent that Luca and Brand have... You're just an unfortunate casualty, Rael. Just like this girl here. It's just Brand and Luca whom I meant to die today. It was the perfect opportunity - the overconfident pair stole out on a hunt hours after the gates closed. How could I pass it up? I need to get them out of the way, if I am to have any chance of being chosen as Sono's champion.”

“Some hero you are,” Luca spat, his mana rising up in spite of himself from the sheer anger he was feeling. “Holding a girl hostage. Murdering those who pose a threat to you through trickery and deception...!”

“Shut up!” Davik shouted. “Cut off the mana, or I'll kill the girl right now!”

Luca forced the energy to subside. It resisted for a moment, almost as though it was fighting against him. And indeed, he felt the overwhelming desire to use his magick to rend Davik into a thousand pieces. But he couldn't do a thing while he held Emila. So he forced his mana down until he couldn't feel it at all.

“That's better,” Davik said, letting out a sigh of relief in spite of himself. A bead of sweat ran down his face.

“It doesn't matter what you do now,” Luca said to him. “You crossed a line by threatening her. I will kill you for this. I swear it.”

“You misjudge the situation,” Davik said. “Right now, there isn't anything you can-”

It was at that moment that Emila made her move. With her left hand, she grabbed Davik's sword, which was millimetres from her neck. She pushed back against Davik, forcing the surprised boy backwards. As his back hit a tree, Emila drew up her free hand, revealing a dagger formed of ice mana. Davik cried out when he saw this, and he let go of his sword and tried to run. Emila thrust the dagger back as best she could, and it drove through Davik's right hand, pinning it to the tree behind them.

Davik screamed in pain. Emila jumped back, tossing Davik's sword aside and scrambling away from him. Blood dripped from between her fingers.

Luca rushed to her side. “Emila! Emila, are you okay?”

She was trembling, but she nodded.

“Luca, here!” Brand said, tossing him the sheath that contained
Siora
. He caught it in midair, drew the blade, and tossed the sheath aside. His eyes locked onto Davik, who wore an expression of pure terror.
 

“L-Luca, no!” Emila called to him.

But there was no stopping him, He marched slowly up to Davik, who struggled uselessly to free his hand from Emila's ice-dagger. He looked down at him for a moment.

“Pathetic,” Luca said.

He reached down and picked Davik's sword up from the ground, and he tossed it into his lap. He jumped a bit when it landed on him, but he had simply given him his weapon back, rather than drove it through him.

“I swore I would kill you,” Luca said. “I never break an oath. But I'm also not a coward like you. So I'll give you a chance to save your life.”

And then Luca swung down his sword through Davik's wrist, severing it from the hand that was nailed to the tree.

Davik screamed in pain and rolled away from the tree, clutching the stump where his right hand had once been.

“Get up and fight me,” Luca told him, with no trace of mercy in his voice.

“Luca, please don't do this...” Emila pleaded to him. But her pained words were as the wind's whispers to his ears. He heard nothing. He was not a person at this moment, but a killing force. His target was the one who had deceived them and threatened to hurt the girl whom he owed his life to. Nothing would stop him now, not even the one whose honour he claimed to fight for.

Davik struggled to his feet. Blood flowed freely from the wound Luca had given him. Without quick medical attention, he would die from blood loss. Medical attention he couldn't possibly get out here. He had already killed him. But he wasn't going to simply let him bleed out in the woods. He had a code of honour he would not break, and part of that was giving enemies a quick death over a slow and painful one. That meant Davik would receive mercy that he didn't deserve.

Davik held his sword with his left hand, which was clearly not his good one. He attacked Luca three times, with clumsy strokes befitting a child more than the trained warrior he had claimed to be. Luca met each blow with ease, noting the fading strength in each swing. After the third, Davik barely had enough strength left to lift his sword. He would be going into shock soon - that was all Luca could get out of him.

Luca ended it then. He swung his father's blade in a clean stroke, cutting open Davik's throat. There was the briefest moment of shock in his eyes, before he fell to the ground, blood pouring out onto the leaves.

Emila gasped, and turned away from the death before her.

Davik's body had already vanished, leaving behind only the robes he had been wearing.

Silence took the valley. Several minutes passed. The scent of blood hung in the air.

Finally, Brand stepped forward, picking up Davik's clothes and folding them up, sighing heavily as he did. “I'll let Justia know what happened to her student. C'mon, let's get back.”

“What are you going to tell them?” Emila asked.

“The truth,” Brand said. “There's no need to cover up what happened, nor would I wish to.”