Destiny (13 page)

“And dead they will fall. Don’t doubt that, Nocean.”

“Of course, my lord, your powerful army will take the city, led by generals of unequaled courage and experience. But the wounded animal, trapped, without any means of escape, must not be underestimated. Cornered and wounded, in its fury it will ravage whoever tries to take it in its last stand. Many more than those which would initially be expected in a situation like it…

The General looked at Sumal thoughtfully.

“Our friend the spy is warning us that if we try to take the city alone we’ll suffer massive losses,” Count Volgren said with a sarcastic smile.

“I simply want what’s best for our allies…” Sumal said, his voice as subtle and soft as a whisper carried by the warm summer breeze.

“Hah! What he wants is for us to wait for his army, which is about as slow and unappealing as the forest slugs. Listen to me carefully, Nocean, the city will be ours and your army will still be days away. Do you hear me?” Odir said.

Sumal nodded and lowered his gaze.

“I don’t think you fully understand all the implications of our Nocean friend’s good wishes,” Count Volgren said.

“What didn’t I understand?” the General asked in annoyance.

Sumal looked at Volgren, keeping his expression as neutral as he could manage.

“You see, General, what our spy is implying in a veiled manner is that by the time the grand army of the Nocean Empire arrives in Rilentor from the South it’s very likely that the city will already be ours, but the losses we’ll have sustained will be so many that we might be left in an awkward situation…”

For a moment the General looked at Volgren without understanding. Then realization struck him. Odir’s face turned red with fury.

“They wouldn’t dare! Those vermin wouldn’t dare…!” he cried shrilly to the heavens.

Sumal said nothing, but remained firm and unimpressed.

“I’ll kill any Nocean who sets his eyes on Rilentor! You can tell your Lord that! I’ll gut those treacherous cowards myself!” brayed Odir in a fury.

Count Volgren put his hands behind his back and took a few paces in a circle while apparently meditating his answer.

“What does your lord Mulko suggest?” he asked abruptly, fixing his eyes on Sumal’s.

Sumal breathed out. For a moment he had feared the General would skewer him there and then.

“My Lord suggests an alliance to besiege and take the city. A joint attack by both armies to crush the Rogdonian resistance with massive military strength. With the forces of the Norghanian army, plus those of my venerated Lord, the city is doomed. It could be taken in a matter of a few decisive attacks. The assaults would be combined, but of course each kingdom would lead its own troops…”

“Of course…” Count Volgren agreed. “And once it’s been taken? What does your lord suggest?”

Sumal relaxed his shoulders and sweetened his tone. This was the key moment, he had to make Volgren take the bait.

“My Lord suggests an equal and honorable division for the conquest of the city. Half the city for the Nocean Empire and the other half for the Kingdom of Norghana.”

“That’s bullshit! We’re already here, we can take the whole city!” protested Odir.

“Relax, General. Sumal, tell your lord Mulko that if he wishes to make a deal he has to grant me the Royal Palace and the upper part of the city.”

“But that’s where the riches of Rogdon are… and the royal family…” said Sumal.

“That’s my final offer,” Count Volgren concluded, and folded his arms.

Sumal bowed deep. “You are a great negotiator,” he said.

“And you, spy, are too cunning. I expect an answer by dawn.”

“You shall have it,” assured Sumal. Turning on his heels, he left the tent.

He went out and turned to the right, avoiding the guard at the entrance. He stopped outside, bent to tie his boot with apparent lack of haste and listened hard.

He heard Odir raging: “You’re not thinking of accepting an offer like that, are you!”

“When you’re dealing with snakes you have to know the right moment to catch them and cut their heads off. Otherwise you risk being bitten and dying.”

“But victory is ours! Rogdon is at our mercy!”

“The south of the kingdom is already in Noceans hands, and their armies are heading towards us. They’re a week away. What do you think will happen if they get here and find we’ve taken the city but we’re weakened? What do you think Mulko will do?”

“He’d attack us…”

“Exactly. He wouldn’t think twice about it. We’d have to pull back and they’d take the whole west of Tremia.”

“Damned treacherous Noceans!” cried General Odir.

“We’ll play the game. With one eye on the Rogdonians and the other on the Noceans. We have no other option. And when the opportunity arises… and it will arise… we’ll attack them. There won’t be a single one of those desert snakes left alive. Rogdon will be for the Norghanians, even if we have to impale the last Nocean the deserts send us.”

“Hah! Let’s drink to that!” said the General.

Sumal straightened up very slowly. With great stealth he went away from the Norghanian command tent, blending in among the thousands of soldiers stationed on the plain. A smile crept over his face. Everything was going as his Great Master Zecly had planned. Soon those Norghanian brutes would be nothing more than fodder for the vultures, and the flags of the Nocean Empire would crown Rilentor.

“Quickly, we must get to the Temple!” cried Kayti, pointing to the great lake. She was aware that they had to enter it in order to escape from the Tiger Warriors, and they had to do this without delay or they would be lost.

They had been traveling all day at a forced march, crossing forests, wading lakes, fleeing from their slant-eyed pursuers. Lindaro was breathless, so pale he looked like a corpse, and the purple half-moons under his eyes suggested that he would not be able to keep up much longer. Hartz reached the lakeside carrying Sonea slumped over one shoulder like a sack of potatoes. The librarian had stumbled a while before, her limited strength spent. The little scholar had a prodigious mind, but her body had never been exercised. The Assassin and the Masig brought up the rear, both being used to that kind of effort; they had barely broken into a sweat.

But the one who really worried Kayti was Komir. The Norriel did not seem like himself; he kept stopping to look back. The encounter with his pursuers seemed to have affected him. He seemed in shock.

“How do we get there?” Yakumo asked by the shore.

“The… medallions…” Lindaro said brokenly in an exhausted voice.

Lasgol came out of the thicket and joined the others.

“I’ve located them. There are more than twenty of them, and they’re close to our trail. They’ll soon be here.”

“Tiger Warriors?” Yakumo asked.

“Yes. But there are more with them, three in dark clothes… three… like you… Yakumo.”

“Dark Assassins…” Yakumo repeated, nodding. “We have to disappear at once or we’ll all die.”

“I need to know who sends them. I want justice for my parents. I’m staying. I’m going to fight,” Komir said, staring at the forest behind them.

“We can’t take them on, there are too many of them. They’ll kill us. I can assure you, Norriel, we won’t survive,” Yakumo said, with such conviction that no one doubted it.

“I’m not running any more. I’m here for justice and this is where I’m going to get it,” he said with determination.

“The three Dark Assassins, even without the help of the Tiger Warriors, will have no difficulty in finishing off our group. Believe me, I know. We can’t fight them, not like this, it would be suicide.”

“This isn’t the time, Komir,” Lindaro put in. “There’ll be a better moment later on, when we’re better prepared. Here and now, as Yakumo says, it’s suicide, and you don’t want us, your friends, to die, do you? Let the Light guide your heart, my friend.”

Kayti could see in Komir’s face the struggles of his mind and heart. It seemed the sight of the Tiger Warriors had brought back all the pain of the events which had set him on his quest and all the disappointments which had followed. She looked at Hartz in alarm, and he gave the trace of a nod.

“We have to reach the Temple of Air!” Kayti urged.

“I have an idea!” said Sonea. She went up to Iruki. “Give me your hands, trust me.”

The two of them held hands and looked at the lake before closing their eyes.

“Concentrate, and summon the whirlwind,” Sonea said.

Iruki opened her eyes in surprise. “Are you sure, Librarian? It’s a dangerous spirit, better not to wake it up. It’s better not to bother such powerful spirits, at least not without a great Shaman to help. It could kill us all if it turns against us.”

Sonea made a gesture of disagreement. “It might be dangerous, yes, but I’m sure it’s the only way to get into the Temple, and then out again. It’s like a door, we must call on it, summon it. Trust me.”

Iruki nodded, and both of them focused on the task.

Lasgol and Yakumo moved forward, went down on one knee and readied their weapons. Some seven hundred paces away two Tiger Warriors appeared at a run.

“Get a move on, they’re here!” urged Kayti.

Iruki’s medallion flashed intensely blue, and immediately, as if in response, Sonea’s flashed white. The water in the lake turned rough, and a storm started to form over the blue mass. Hurricane winds appeared from the center of the lake, propelling a sequence of strong waves against the shore. The blue sky vanished behind a threatening darkness. Lightning fell from the dark sky into the wild waves.

“Five hundred paces, they’re coming close fast” Lasgol cried behind them.

Kayti stared at the lake; a giant whirlwind began to form in the midst of the great storm. Deadly lightning lit up waves of unbelievable height, and the colossal whirlwind began to swallow sea and sky as it came closer to the two Bearers on the shore.

“Four hundred paces!” Lasgol cried in warning. He aimed carefully, murmured something, and let fly two simultaneous arrows, which struck the first two Tiger Warriors. “Hurry up!” he yelled.

Iruki and Sonea were still deep in concentration, drawing the whirlwind to the shore. For a moment it seemed to Kayti that the cyclone was the personification of the god of the wind, performing a dramatic dance over the lake.

“A little more, it’s nearly here!” said Lindaro, his hair waving wildly in the wind.

Two arrows whistled through the air and brushed against Yakumo in passing. He avoided them at the last moment with an extraordinary twist of his hips.

Lasgol fired two arrows at stunning speed and felled the enemy archers.

“The rest of the group are on their way!” he warned urgently.

Komir tried to step forward, but Hartz held him back.

Kayti noticed that the great whirlwind, instead of moving towards them, was now motionless, very close to the shore.
Why isn’t it responding to the call of the Bearers? What’s happening?
A translucent flash from Komir’s medallion caught her attention.
It’s Komir! He doesn’t want to leave and he’s pushing the whirlwind away with his medallion without even realizing it!

“Come on, come on!” urged Lasgol, shooting arrows at the approaching warriors.

Kayti realized they were not going to make it.

“Hartz, it’s Komir! He’s pushing the whirlwind back! You have to stop him!”

Hartz looked at her with doubt in his eyes, then at his friend.

“Stop him or we’ll all die! He’s not even aware he’s doing it!”

Komir was in a trance-like state. “Let’s fight, Hartz, like the Norriel we are. Let’s face the enemy, you know they deserve to die for what they did…”

“Stop him, Hartz,” Kayti begged. “Do it for me!”

Hartz put his big hands on Komir’s shoulders and looked into his friend’s eyes. With great concern, he said:

“No, not this time, my friend. You’re wrong, you’re condemning us all to death. You heard Yakumo, we can’t fight Dark Assassins, much less when they’ve got twenty or so of those Tigers with them. Think it over. Our lives are at stake. Come on Komir, think about it, it’s suicide. I’m your friend, I’ve always been on your side, would I lie to you? Why?”

“I know you’re my friend, the best of friends, but they’re here… within my reach… I must bring about justice, for my parents.”

“What you think is justice, my friend, is just plain revenge. You justify it to yourself by calling it justice, but right now, what you want is nothing more than revenge, not justice.”

“They killed my parents, Hartz. It was them… and they’re coming here now…”

“I know. And I promised I’d help you find those responsible and bring about justice. But this isn’t how to do it. This way would lead us to death. You know me, there’s nothing I like better than crushing skulls! Do you think I’d pass up the chance of a good fight? But I’m telling you, this one would be our last one. We’d all die here. We’d all die because of your thirst for revenge.”

Hartz’s words touched Komir. Had they been spoken by any other man they would not, but this was Hartz, and Hartz always spoke from the heart. If Hartz died because of him, he would never forgive himself. Komir began to realize his friend was right. He looked into his friend’s big brown eyes, filled with worry, and felt he had been wrong, completely wrong. The rage in his heart died out, and common-sense once again reigned in his mind.

“You’re right. I’ve been a fool, and I almost got you all killed.”

“Don’t you worry, tomorrow you’ll get me out of some other mess,” Hartz said with a broad smile. “Today it’s my turn, tomorrow it’s yours.” He patted him on the shoulder.

Kayti breathed out heavily with relief. She turned and saw the whirlwind reach the two Bearers and swallow them.

“All in! Let’s go!” she shouted.

In a moment they all hurled themselves into the vortex of the whirlwind. Lasgol, who was covering them from behind, did so an instant before the enemy reached them.

Everything turned cloudy, and they lost consciousness.

Kayti woke with a terrible headache and an unpleasant dizziness. Something crimson caught her eye as she tried to clear her head. Lasgol and Hartz, already on their feet, watched Yakumo as he knelt. The rest of the group were still unconscious. When Kayti managed to get up she saw the origin of the crimson hue: it was blood… the blood of a Tiger Warrior, who lay dead on the ground with his throat slit.

“We were lucky that Yakumo woke up before he did,” said Hartz with a gesture at the body. He came up to her and kissed her forehead.

Kayti felt true love and affection. She remained lost in thought, surprised by how much that simple gesture meant to her. She loved this giant, and that filled her with happiness, even there, surrounded by danger and death. Perhaps all the more so because of it. How fortunate she had been to meet the big Norriel while she was following the sacred quest ordered by the Custodian Brotherhood. Now she prayed to the gods that her mission would not turn into an obstacle to their love. She had to carry out what she had sworn to do; her mission was important, not only for the Brotherhood but for the future of mankind. But she was not being honest with Hartz, she was not telling him the whole truth, she could not… however much she might wish to… and that put their love at risk. Kayti knew this, and she suffered bitterly in silence, since losing Hartz as a result of that betrayal would destroy her.

“He must have reached the whirlwind at the last moment,” Lasgol said, looking at the Tiger Warrior.

“Let’s wake the others so that we can go on,” Kayti said, leaving the warmth of Hartz’s embrace and banishing those dark thoughts.

A few moments later they were all awake, trying to recapture the emotions they had felt. Komir said nothing, but he looked lost in thought.

They went quickly to the funerary chamber, it was spotless, covered with Ilenian inscriptions. The walls shone with a faint luminescence. In the center was the great sarcophagus of polished white marble in which rested the mummified body of the Ilenian King of Air.

They stood round it, and Kayti turned to Komir.

“Komir, can you open the passage to the portal?” she asked, gesturing at the sarcophagus.

The Norriel’s eyes seemed unfocused.

“Passage? What passage? How is it activated?” Lindaro asked excitedly.

“Under the altar,” Kayti said.

Komir raised his head and looked at Yakumo… “Before we do, I need some answers from this… Assass… foreigner…”

“I don’t think this is the right moment…” Lindaro began.

“I have avoided confrontation with the enemy as I realize I was wrong. But if I’m not mistaken, Yakumo has some answers that I really need and are overdue.” he said, and put his hand on the pommel of his sword.

Hartz came to stand next to his friend, showing his support.

Iruki narrowed her eyes and tensed, but Yakumo remained calm. The others did not seem to know what to do in this awkward situation.

“You and I are not enemies,” Yakumo said neutrally, his eyes on Komir.

“That I hope is true, I really do,” Komir replied. “You belong to their race, don’t you?”

“Yes, I do.”

“And you serve their Queen, the Dark Lady…?”

“I used to… I’m what you would call a deserter… I didn’t report after my last mission. I abandoned my duties and left with Iruki. If I’m captured I’ll be tortured to death and it will be a terrible, painful one, because such is the punishment for my disloyalty.”

“Why did they send you to Tremia? What for?”

Yakumo looked at Komir and let his shoulders sag.

“I belong to an Order of Assassins which the Dark Lady uses to achieve her ends. I am a Dark Assassin, as you know, and I was sent to this continent to carry out missions for my lord Isuzeni.”

“And who is this Isuzeni?” Komir asked, sounding more interested.

“Isuzeni is the High Priest of the Cult of Imork, Lord of the Dead, and First Counselor to the Dark Lady. He’s the most powerful man in Toyomi after the Empress. He’s her strategist, a brilliant and ruthless man, and a powerful Sorcerer. He commands the Empress’s armies, and he’s the one who has prepared this invasion during years of undercover operations.”

Komir’s eyes were now fixed on Yakumo, as the information he was providing was extremely interesting. He continued searching for answers. “About eighteen years ago three men like you, three Dark Assassins, were sent to Tremia to kill a baby. What do you know about that?”