Beyond the Hell Cliffs (47 page)

Chapter 44

Raegith and Noriko both lay in a field of short grass on top of the Yamada, the mountain that was home to the Junrei’sha.  Above them was a cloudless sky rivaling any he had seen in Rellizbix.  It was here, in this peaceful, plentiful land that the faithful of the Path were allowed to live out their days with training and meditation.  It was a reward only for the most worthy.  It was a life that Raegith had always wanted.

“Yours is a different test from those born atop the Yamada, as I was,” Noriko explained on Raegith’s first night there.  “For those seeking us out, a Test of Discovery is required.  When you learned of your need for the Path, I helped prepare your mind and body, but I worried for your soul.  Through this test of finding and reaching us, you have proven yourself worthy of living among us and receiving the Path.”

Raegith thought back on that journey five years ago.  It encouraged him that he had attained something for himself through his own endurance; but it also nagged at him that the Junrei’sha thought nothing of the strife in the lands below them.  Those that did not pass the test or were never tested to begin with were not even worthy of their time.  Atop that mountain, in the paradise of the Junrei’sha, those who had proven their worth freed themselves of all mortal concerns and distanced themselves from all others.

“So what are we doing today, Master?” Raegith asked as he
looked over at the Lokai girl.  “Hopefully more combat training.  The other stuff is still boring to me.”

“Raegith, you have already
mastered most of our techniques,” she replied with an uneasy smile.  “To be able to use Arrow Fist in such a short amount of time… it is proof that the Path is working through you.  Our way is to strengthen weakness and soften strength.  The Path is like stringing a bow: bringing down the higher, raising the lower, until they meet and balance each other.”

“Okay, so I’m balancing out a weakness today?  Which one?” he laughed.

“No, Raegith, today I am balancing out my weakness.”

Noriko and Raegith had grown very close over the years he spent training on the Yamada with her.  She had taken him as her pupil, a right that had been granted to her by the Elders upon her return from her pilgrimage.  She was a Master of Junrei’sha now and had waited for two years without taking a student; waiting for Raegith to come to her.

From the moment they had begun their training together, both of them dressed in sturdy robes and worked the gardens in the warm sun. Raegith had submitted himself to the Path and devoted himself to her.  Why wouldn’t he?  She was beautiful, kind and had made it clear that she had saved everything of herself for him.  They even lived in the same quarters and sleep within inches of each other. 

Yet each time he stroked her side or tried to kiss anything but her cheek, he was rebuked.  Not since he had first lain with Onyx had he gone so long without taking a woman and it ate away at him daily.  It also took focus away from his instructions and shined it upon those he left behind in this journey.

His moments of peace never lasted, even after five years in a land free of troubles.  He was never without food, his thirst for knowledge was satiated in the libraries and his need to train his body was met by the other students who sparred with him.  He was accepted among the people; there was no cage around him.  Yet instead of feeling relieved or content; no matter how many times Noriko or the Elders insisted he was above the problems of the Greimere now, he could not give up on his friends.  He could not give up on the suffering denizens of the Greimere.

“Raegith, even now, after several years with the Junrei’sha, in the most perfect place the Path could provide
, your mind remains distant.  You are distracted all of the time… and it is beginning to distract me.”

“What’s wrong with us both getting distracted for a few hours?” he asked.  “It could be good for… training.”

Noriko sat up quickly, but did not look at him.

“You tease me because you think it does nothing, Raegith!” she hissed.  “You think I don’t have desires, as you do?  You think I am immune to loneliness and that makes it alright to take out your frustrations on me with mockery.”

“Who’s mocking?  I mean it every time I propose to distract you.”  Raegith reached out to her hips, but when she went to brush his hand away, he quickly grabbed her and pulled her into him.  “Why can’t we?  I’m ready.  I’ve proven myself worthy to be here; to follow the Path.  There’s nothing I’ve learned that forbids us being together.

“Five years, Noriko.  I’ve been all yours for five years now.  I haven’t given that kind of commitment to anyone.  At any time you could have rolled over and merely touched
me and I would have been yours.  It’s you who is mocking me, I think.”

“Your soul is still impure, Raegith,” Noriko answered.  She was rigid, but she lingered in his embrace.  “You want me to satisfy your lust, not to make a coupling as the Path intends for us.
”

“Bullshit, I want both!  You’re just afraid.”

“And why shouldn’t I be, Raegith?” she yelled.  “You’ve made it clear that you will not stay with us here.  This place is a paradise, one that you have earned rightly.  You have a home here, you have food and knowledge and community.  You would have me, all to yourself, if only you would cleanse your soul of vengeance and lust and stay with us.”

“And what of those that are depending on me?  You would have a man who just leaves behind his friends; abandons them to a dying land as they wait for my return?”

“Forget about them, Raegith.  You cannot save them,” Noriko said.  “If they were worthy, they would be here among us, but they are not!  We all get what we deserve, Raegith… you cannot save anyone but yourself.”

“That’s how you see it?” Raegith asked, letting her go. 
“Even after your time out in the world?”

“Especially after my time in the Greimere.
  I saw nothing but those who would kill each other for small benefits and the strong dominating the weak.  You were a shining spot among grime, Raegith, that is why I chose you!  They don’t deserve you… I do!”

“So, I guess we’re at an impasse, then,” Raegith replied.

“Not exactly.”

Noriko reached out, lightning quick, to strike Raegith at the neck.  He was able to block the shot, but Noriko was relentless.  He had fought her several times before, always easily overcoming her, but now it was as if she were a different person.  Overwhelmed, she got through his ducks and parries and hit him at the side of the neck, hard.

Raegith faltered, losing focus and stability with the stunning blow and Noriko took the opportunity to land an open palm to his chest.  He felt his feet come off the ground and for a moment he was weightless.  Then he impacted with something hard and his vision blinked out.

He faded in and out of consciousness as he felt himself being dragged.  When he woke from the darkness, he was kneeling in the center of a small, circular stadium big enough to fit all of the Junrei’sha
. 

In terms of a population, the Junre’sha
were very small.  Only a few hundred men, women and children lived on the Yamada, in the sun and green pastures that the Path provided for its chosen people.  There were Urufen, Rathgar and Lokai among them, many of whom he had meet and become friends with.  They were all there, in their white and grey robes, and in the middle of them stood Noriko.  On either side of her were Lokai with long, white beards and withered skin.

They were the Elders and keepers of the secrets of the Junrei’sha and he had never seen them outside of their temple in the five years he had been among them.  As Raegith knelt, chained to the ground before the highest figures in the Junrei’sha, he wondered if the Elders were there to oversee his execution.

“Raegith, the Grass-haired demon,” one of them announced.  “We have gathered here to exorcise of you this monster that lies inside of your soul… to cleanse you of the stains inflicted upon you by the terrors of this world.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Raegith yelled.  He turned to Noriko and flashed a smile.  “You’ve been holding back on me in practice.  How dare you.”

“Master Noriko is one of our finest students and is in line to be the next Elder of the Junrei’sha,” the Elder informed him.  “Her power with the Path is immense, as is her graciousness.”

“Graciousness?
  She knocked me out and had me dragged to this execution ground after inviting me here in the first place!”

“I would never allow you to be executed!” Noriko said.  “Do you still not understand, Raegith?  You are the one that I have chosen; I will have no other.  But until your soul is cleansed; until your doubts and distractions are washed away, the Path will give us only a fruitless coupling.”

“Fruitless coupling?” Raegith scoffed.  “Okay, I take offense to that.  You have no idea about my ‘couplings.’  My ‘couplings’ are mind-blowing, ask the scary bitch at the bottom of the mountain.  You probably heard her screams from up here…”

“You mated with the Witch?” one of the Elders asked, appalled.  “For Path’s sake, why man?”

Noriko sighed, covering her face.  “He was like this in the Greimere, Elder.  He’ll do it with anyone.”

“Hey!  Anyone who’s willing, mind you,” Raegith countered.  “Let’s make that clear.  Also, there’s an age and, sometimes, a weight limit.  Other than that, no, I’m not picky.  In fact, I’ve gone so long without it, I might even be willing to fuck one of you guys; but you’ve got to let me go and there’s no eye contact…”

“I’m convinced, Master Noriko,” the Elder said to her.  “We will now start the exorcism.”

The Elder turned to the gathered crowd.  “My children, those worthy of the Path, let us focus on cleansing this man so that he may better become one with the Path and join us.  This is Noriko’s chosen mate
and he has proven himself worthy.  We must sacrifice our will in order to help him, as he is one of us.”

“What the hell are you going to do to me, Noriko?  Be honest,” Raegith asked.

The Junrei’sha around him began chanting as they all stood as the Elders concentrated their power on him.

“I’ve known there was a demon inside you since you found me in the Pit, Raegith.”  At that moment she looked as she did when he first saw her: alone, trembling and desperate.  “I thought that I alone could help rid you of it, but I am not strong enough.  When we are finished here, Raegith, you won’t be burdened with this attachment you have to the Greimere and those trapped within it.  You will be free of lust and vengeance and will be at peace… maybe for the first time in your entire life.  Then we can be together… then the Path will allow us to create life.”

“Create life?  You want a baby?” Raegith asked, dumbfounded.  “Noriko, you’re Lokai and I’m Twileen.  I don’t think it works that way.”

“You are proof that two differing races can create life, are you not?  I believe in the Path, Raegith… and I believe in us.”

“And you would erase parts of me in order to get what you want?  You would mold me into something else and be okay with what you’ve created?”

“You will still be Raegith, only without the demon inside you that burns away at you constantly
.  I would have you at peace or no other way.”

The chants took on a physical form as light blue mist appeared and swirled around him.  The Elders finished their incantations and opened their eyes to reveal electric, glowing orbs behind their lids that crackled with energy.  Between them, a ball of light started off the size of a bead and expanded at a rapid pace.

“What’s going to happen, Noriko?” Raegith asked, eying the ball of light.  “What do I do?”

“You fight, Raegith. 
Whatever you find in there… you fight it.”

The ball became the size of a small tent and then shot forth.  Raegith caught a glimpse of Noriko’s face before he was enveloped in the light.  She was terrified.

Raegith sifted through the books in his library.  They were all there; all familiar.  He did not even have to pull them down to know what they
held within, he had read them all so many times.  It was his only time killer and time was his greatest enemy inside that keep. 

Forster’s Keep was large enough for him and the guards kept it clean enough.  He would truly feel like
royalty if he weren’t constantly reminded of being a prisoner.  As he dragged his young finger across the spines of the books his mother stocked his library with, he hit a patch of exposed parchment.

He shook his head as he remembered what it
was.  Not long into puberty, his desires were driving him mad and after screwing up any chance of interacting with a real girl, he had turned to sketches.  He didn’t pull the parchments out, embarrassed by their contents even though he was alone.  They were horrible sketches, anyway; extrapolations of what a beautiful woman looked like based off nothing but imagination and the faint memories of the young girls his mother worked beside.  He wondered if all young boys felt like this or just the ones that had been raised in a brothel, but he had no other friends to discuss it with; only the guards who were under strict instruction to speak with him as little as possible. 

Raegith looked around, making sure that he was alone, even though he already knew there was no one else with him.  Then he grabbed the parchments and pulled them out anyway.  Just a glance; just enough to get his blood hot, he was so damned bored.