This story is protected under international and Pan-American copyright conventions. Please remember to donate to Nifty if you're financially able to do so.
MY WEBSITE: http://slckismet.blogspot.com/p/books.html
My email: kavrik@hotmail.com
My art: http://slckismet.blogspot.com/p/my-artwork.html
Forum discussion thread: http://slckismet.blogspot.com/p/discussion-board-for.html
Drawings of Kian are on my art link above.
A MAP of the world is on the FORUM link above.
My other stories and writing samples are on the Website link above.
Chapter 32
In the pandemonium created by Kahket's wrath, the magic paralyzing Talen and I fades enough that we are able to break our invisible bonds. I struggle to my feet but it's too late to stop her. Kahket unleashes the vial from inside the box and presents it to Zandine, who I've heard some call "The Lord of Illusion." He drinks the contents utterly, discarding the glass container with a simple toss where it shatters into a hundred pieces against the thick stone bricks.
Zandine's transparency fades. I swear my eyes deceive me but the ghost becomes flesh. Bones first...a white frame fades behind crimson red. Muscle knits together and forms sinew and then finally skin.
Aghast at the transformation, for a single moment in time Zandine resembles a towering humanoid devoid of skin. His white eyeballs resemble boiled eggs without lids; his teeth burst through bloody gums, and a skull is enveloped by red veins that swarm upward from arteries like the vines of an alien plant.
I swallow, mouth agape, and the spit drying in my mouth.
"Tethyr's teeth," I swear.
His nimbus intensifies, filling the end of the hall with an unholy violet light. Kahket cackles and the storm outside the windows fills the night with a hundred lightning bolts.
It's a mesmerizing thing to see a god emerge from nothingness into flesh and blood, even with the screaming of dying men who shriek and call out for help in the fires that consume them.
Gods...what nightmare is this? Only a short time ago I lived enslaved to the drug Eros. Now I'm awakened from that slumber into a horrific new reality that makes the other pale in comparison. I'm born into a place where Evil incarnate walks the land and burns the very rocks into slag beneath his feet.
And Zandine IS wickedness.
I feel the control and presence of his all-powerful mind pressing against my own with more pressure than the worst headache I've ever experienced. It drops me onto my knees once more. I know that He is supremely terrible and malignant and that I live only because I'm an insect beneath his notice. In truth, only seconds pass yet they seem like hours. Zandine's body emerges whole; the earth quakes and rolls. In the streets, people run from their homes as the streets tear themselves apart swallowing everyone unlucky to be caught flat-footed. Brick walls come crashing down, bridges collapse, and people die horribly...crushed under tons of rock.
Tempest Mountain spews forth a river of blazing death.
Zandine casts about the room with his eyes. He levitates Kahket before him in a violet bubble, runs his fingers down her naked sweaty body, and she loves it. With his other, he makes a gesture of dismissal. A roar the likes I've never heard before causes vessels to burst in my nose and eyes. Blood drips down my face, and I scream in anguish. People trapped in the stone bleachers drop dead, heads explode like watermelons struck by a cudgel. And then the building around Talen, Angelaria, and I detonates with a terrible boom.
Angelaria falls against me, and I grab hold of her as we fall. I can't see anything, but I feel rocks, heavy stones, and falling bodies slam into me on the way down into the dark. I slam painfully into rubble, try to protect her from the force of falling objects using my armored body. I think Talen lands near me in a tuck and roll, only to be pummeled by more of the falling dead.
For a full minute, I can't see anything. The world has vanished in a cloud of smoke and flickering lightning.
But then, I spy movement and glance in that direction. It's Mordred. He pulls himself to his feet, using his cloak to cover his face. I pull myself out of six inches of rubble and leap in front of him. At first he doesn't see me, so I extend the blades of my right arm with an audible ~RING~ and gut him where he stands.
I can feel the knives cut through to the quick of his spine.
A river of blood rushes out of him. It's hot and drips in pools on the broken ground.
My blades are so sharp, and I acted so quickly that Mordred only becomes aware of me because of the blades protruding from his chest. At first, he's obviously stunned. When he realizes that he's a dead man walking, he buffets me with his fists.
"Your raping days are over," I announce to him.
"W-what the--?" Mordred staggers and he grabs a hold of my helmet with his giant gauntlets trying to wrench it off. I thrust the knives deeper into his body, glaring at him through the glass. "F- fuck you," Mordred whispers, his life bleeding out all over the ground. Then I let him slide dead from my cibrian blades.
That's how scum like him should die...not with a bang but with a whimper. Nothing to be remembered or celebrated in song.
"I don't think so," I say to him, even as the light fades in his eyes.
I wish I had the time to piss on his corpse. But I don't have time for anything now. I need to find Talen. I need to make sure he's okay and then see if Angelaria still lives. And somewhere in all this, Constantine may also live. If so, I should kill him too. And then I can claim Bloodbane all for myself.
"You can let Constantine live," a voice says inside me.
But another LOUDER voice says, "I can't. To do so will just invite him to come after me...to come after my loved ones. He has to die here."
Kahket's silver laugh rings out over the city, and it draws my eye but I fail to see her for all the smoke, debris, and burning fires.
At last, Talen emerges from the dust and in his hand is the Eye of Blood. Only instead of red, it's of course clear now. To think, all this time I'd been carrying around the blood of an ancient and powerful dragon is mind-boggling. I've never even seen a dragon before. I didn't know they had a city, or a goddess. As for the Eye of Blood, I'm sure it still has whatever I need from it in order to find Bloodbane, but its color was a thing of beauty. I miss it as surely as all assassins must, because with time, we grow fond of the scarlet color.
"Where did you find it?" I ask him.
"I was the best pickpocket in Clothol," he says. "I managed to get it during all the chaos." Then he deposits it in my open palm.
"Thank you," I say to him. Then I hug him and put the jewel away in an empty belt pouch.
I rub my arm as I walk over to Angelaria. It feels like I've got a fracture, but I can't be sure without getting out of my suit. As for Angelaria, well she's lying in the mud unconscious and bleeding from her head. All things being said, I think we're lucky. We got showered by broken glass, rocks and some falling timber. My armor absorbed most of that, but it probably could have been much worse.
I settle down next to her and take some water, wet a cloth, and wipe down her face. After a minute, she coughs and glares at me through bloodshot eyes.
I pop my visor. "Do you think you can stand?" I ask her.
"Maybe," she says, taking the water bottle from my hand. She takes a long drink from it. Nearby, a moan emerges from underneath huge slabs of granite. Following the moan, I expect to find one of the men from the stands that watched us while Kahket brought the walls down. I locate the source of the noise quickly, brace my back to a portion of wall, and push it out of the way. There in front of me is my former master.
Constantine.
He's quite helpless, trapped underneath a heavy slab of granite and some wooden beams as thick around as my chest.
"Kian! Free me," he commands.
I shake my head, swallowing hard. "Not until you tell me where the other pieces of the puzzle are. How can I find 'Bloodbane'?"
His eyes narrow in anger. "I thought you didn't believe in the sword, you fucking bastard. Free me, or by the gods in heaven and the devils in hell I'll hunt you down and kill you with my bare hands you little shit!"
"That's not really how you should talk to someone who's in a position to save you," I say. I sit down on top of the rubbish that has him trapped while the sound of thunder plays somewhere off in the distance, beyond the veil of smoke and fire.
He coughs up blood. "Get off of me you faggot!"
"That was uncalled for," I tell him. I take one of his hands, grab my knife, and then smiling, I cut one of his fingers off.
"FUCK YOU!"
I cut off another. He gnashes his teeth at me; his eyes hold nothing but hatred.
"I would never have harmed you," Constantine utters through a wave of pain. He spits out blood and dust and looks terribly thirsty. "I treated you better than any student, and this is how you repay me!"
I put the knife away and give him a swallow or two of water from my jug. "That's true, but only because you were going to kill me later. As soon as you got back from all this...if I'd chosen to stay in Clothol, you would have come into the dojo and killed me. You'd have killed Talen too so don't even try to deny it."
He laughs. "You're a better assassin than I thought. There's hope for you yet. Yes, I would have killed you and that cock-sucking boyfriend of yours and anyone else that knew you and might possibly know of the jewel. I would have killed them all. But Kian, yours would have been a quick death, I promise. That's 'cause I liked you."
"I never liked you. I feared you, and you had the opportunity to change that. You could have been a father-figure to me. But instead you beat me and made me live thinking that each day might be my last." I pause to study his face, but I see no remorse there. No...there would never be remorse. Not in a face like his...a face that's seen so much killing. "I want Bloodbane. You're going to help me get it," I say. "In exchange, I'll let you live."
I'll never tell you," he moaned. "You're not worthy of such a weapon."
"All right. So we're gonna be this way are we?" I ask. I hold out the knife. "I'll cut your throat, I swear it."
"You don't have the GUTS!"
I swallow, staring at him. "Last chance," I say back to him. "Let me be utterly clear...this is your last chance at life, Constantine. Tell me what I want or I will kill you."
Constantine stares up at me, a smirk crossing his face. "I've lived decades and never heard those words. When I saw how pretty a boy you were, I thought there's no steel in this lad. There's no guts in him unless you talk about the ones that get filled over and over with cum from a better man's balls. But I was wrong. I see the devil in you, Kian. And where I go, you'll soon follow. We may even be mates in the fires of Hell. I'll see you there, if you've got the nuts to go through with your promises. Hell's never seen a man like me," Constantine brags. "Here's a promise for you, my apprentice. I'll find a way out of the pit. And when I do, I'll kill you. I'll kill everyone you love."
"You're an asshole," I say. "And I'm no longer your apprentice." Then I slit his throat. Constantine is a strong man, and it takes him many seconds to die. He gurgles and clutches at me as best as he can with his remaining fingers. His blood flows down over my boots. After he's dead I grab his pack and search his body for anything else that might be useful.
I move off, carrying his pack over my shoulder and negotiating the haze to where Angelaria and Talen wait for me. Talen's wiping the blood from Angelaria's face.
"She'll mend," he says. "Did you help any others?"
"No, but I killed Constantine. This is his pack. But even if he has the other two pieces, whatever they are, I don't know how to use them."
"The other two pieces should be a code book and a map," Angelaria replies. "Here...let me see what you found." She reaches for the pack when an earthshaking explosion knocks over two buildings followed by a fountain of emerald fire. I spot a glowing bubble floating above the city.
It's the sorceress Kahket.
"Find them!" she demands. "Bring me the body of Constantine!" Her face is livid with rage.
"We've got to get out of here and fast," Talen declares.
"I agree."
The air is gray.
Ash sifts from far above the streets of Soulwarden, fine gray ash that's heavy like powdered rock. Blazing rocks of red fire fall down onto rooftops and smash through glass. Pandemonium is everywhere and we're in the middle of it all.
I wander into an alley on my left; Angelaria and Talen follow me there. She collapses, breathless, and I soak a cloth with water for her to hold over her mouth. I turn my eyes upward and watch flaming droplets fall out of the sky. In the distance, I recognize the cathedral of Moh-Dehll burning to the ground. That brings some comfort to me. I hate that place and want to murder everyone in it. If I ever see that corrupt priest who hosted the Timeron Knights again, I'll make sure he remembers me before I geld him, twig and berries.
"Thank you," Angelaria says, "for killing the bastard that raped me."
"You're welcome," I say to her. "I didn't mean for that to happen."
She's silent for a moment. "I know."
Beneath us, the stones begin to move. They rattle and the walls on either side of us turn red and begin to liquefy. Talen takes a step back urging me to get to my feet. But it's Angelaria who rises first on her own accord to stand between us.
She grabs my arm and then Talen's and says, "She means to raze the city to the ground."
I look around and can hear the frightened screams and despairing wails of the multitudes. They are only indistinct shapes now...those nameless ones that move to escape the horror...that flee on foot away from the chaos and away from the encroaching death. Their shadows are flickering ghosts of blackness in the ash. I can make out no landmarks, and there's so little light that my even walking, my finding a direction, is a perplexing thing.
"How are we going to get out of here?" I ask Talen. "I've no ideas. The fire's everywhere."
Indeed, as the rocks begin to melt the temperature starts to soar, setting the corners of Angelaria's dress to smoking.
Angelaria holds us tightly for a brief moment and then I hear her speaking, pronouncing words that are strange, alien, and they roll off her tongue with ease.
Her magic has returned!
I feel something cease my guts, and there's a loud ringing in my ears.
A wall of lava swallows the wall behind Angelaria.
But the heat vanishes. I can breathe again.
I look at Talen and Angelaria; they waver next to me, and I keep them from falling over. My feet are firmly planted on emerald moss and there's trees all around us...large, lush trees. Talen pops his visor and stares at me in amazement. His mouth forms a small "O" as he breaks from my grip and climbs a tree, scrambling up the ropy entanglements like a monkey.
"Kian!" he calls down to me. "We're leagues from Soulwarden! I can see it, but barely. It's a glowing cloud on the edge of the horizon."
"How did you do that?" I ask Angelaria.
She swallows, exhaustion evident on her face. "My magic returned just in time but still, it's difficult. I actually didn't think I could do it--not with three people. The spell had to be worded just right or I might have killed one of us. But we were dead if I didn't try, and I feel I owe you some amends."
She plops down onto the moss. I hear Talen scrambling down. I turn in time to see him walk out on a limb directly overhead where he jumps, finishing with a graceful front flip and touching down perfectly on the spongy earth.
I waste no time to stride to his side. He stares at me a moment, and he knows what's coming because he's smiling.
I French kiss him.
After we part, he whispers, "What took you so long? I wanted that kiss five minutes ago."
I grin. "The best things come to those who wait."
"Tease," he says. And then he kisses me, forcing me down onto the moss. After a moment, he stops and turns to Angelaria. "Thank you for saving our lives."
"You're welcome," she replies, watching us make out for a few more seconds.
"Can you walk?" I ask Angelaria. It's hard to concentrate with Talen licking my ear and placing kisses at the corners of my mouth. But he stops soon, realizing I want to talk. "It's important that we move away from this place."
"Where are we going?" Talen asks, rolling off of me and onto his back. "I mean, we can't just start running aimlessly."
I rub my tongue on the roof of my mouth thinking. It's weird how my tongue ring has become so second nature that I don't even think about it anymore. I think I'd feel naked without it. I unsling Constantine's pack and rummage around inside. My hands close around a box.
I pull it out, inspecting it for details.
The box is an unbroken masterpiece of carvings and meticulously placed jewels with polished and gleaming surfaces. It's heavy and has no hinges.
I examine its surface carefully, prodding for secret catches with a small pin that I remove from my tool belt. The box is most certainly trapped, and I don't want to become a victim to Constantine. I really don't want to see him again this soon, and he needs no opportunity to avenge himself on me.
I also think Constantine is right. Somehow it's not the last time I'll see him. Sure, I cut his throat and left him for dead in the ruins of the Guildhouse of Assassins in Thorn, but he'll find a way out of Hell. If anyone can, it's Constantine. I just hope when we meet again that I've learned a thing or two and can beat him without the assistance of a collapsed building.
I'm amazed when I find the trap. It's an exquisite little needle fired from a small aperture on the side of the box. I remove it from its gold casement and carefully, placed it out of harm's way inside a small bottle I keep for just such purposes.
But how am I to open the box?
Talen sees me staring at it. He reaches past my shoulder and twists the thing in his hands. It pops open then, revealing a velvet interior that cradles a book and what appears to be a map.
My boyfriend is so intelligent. I turn and gaze lovingly in his eyes. "I'm not even going to ask how you figured that out. You're so much smarter than me."
"I know," he replies, then kisses me on the nose. "And you're so beautiful. Together we make quite a pair."
He thinks I'm beautiful. That brings heat to my cheeks and I can't stop from smiling. I know I get told I'm beautiful or handsome all the time, but it really only counts when it comes from Talen. I love him so much.
I reach inside and take hold of the map, unrolling its furled yellow parchment and staring at the strange lines revealed there...at the ancient symbols and places. Talen gives it a go but after a minute indicates that he doesn't understand what he's seeing.
"Can you read this?" I ask Angelaria.
She squints at the symbols and then reaches inside the box, removing the leather bound tome. She pops the clasp open and studies the ancient pages, occasionally looking back to the map for a reference point. She does this for some time, staring at one and then the other, turning the pages carefully.
"It's incomplete," she declares after about twenty minutes. "It tells you everything to find the sword, Bloodbane, except where to begin."
I reach inside my jacket and pull out the clear ruby. I hold it before her, watching her stare at it awkwardly. She reaches up and takes it into her hands. "It's marvelous," she says with wonder. "How on earth did you come by it?"
"It's a long story."
She locks her eyes with my own. "Perhaps you'll tell it to me sometime."
"Sure," I say.
She lowers the jewel to the parchment, trying to read through it. That obviously doesn't help things at all. Next she tries a spell, but nothing is revealed in the magic that's unleashed. Finally, she holds it up to the light of the silver moon.
"Oh," she says, parting her lips. "I think I've found something. Let me see your spyglass."
I curse myself for not trying that. I don't know how many times I climbed onto the roof of the Clothol Guildhouse over the years, but it was a lot. And each and every time I did, I lay with my back against the shingles and the jewel between thumb and forefinger staring up at Mondath. But suddenly when things matter, it's precisely what I don't do.
I feel around in my possessions and realize I no longer have the spyglass I used on Ja-Mir's boat. Talen, however, pulls it free from his pack. "I stole it because I kind of figured it'd be useful."
Angelaria takes out one of the lenses and replaces it with the ruby. She has to do a bit of jury-rigging to get it to work. Then she looks through it. "Oh yes," she comments, "This is extremely clever."
She lets me take a look. I see fine bubbles, like pinpoints. They originally strike me as flaws in the surface of the jewel. Am I supposed to see something here?
"So?" I say to her, hoping for a better explanation.
"They're constellations. That sky is visible on only one place on Wynwrayth."
"Where?"
"In the Balsora desert. I've seen it before. It lays several hundred leagues on the other side of the Icewall Mountains in the land of the Balsoran pyramids and the ghosts of the sandy wastes. If we go there, I believe I can find the starting point of our trail."
"It's decided then," Talen says. "We go through the Icewall Mountains."
"It's not as easy as that," Angelaria declares. "There's only two passes through the mountains. One is to the far north. The other is to the south."
"Which is closer?" I ask her.
"The one to the south. It's near the city of Varkir, which is only a few days from here. But it's a much harder trek across the mountains. I can't teleport us to Balsora. My magic can only go a short distance and teleportation is risky. Additionally, those who know how to look for it can follow us by the trail of magic I leave behind. Kahket is one of those people, and now she's the wife of a flesh and blood god. She'll want Bloodbane to give to one of her generals or to secure it from being used against her or Zandine."
"What does that mean exactly?" I ask.
"A flesh and blood god can do anything. They aren't bound by the cycle of faith like Tethyr is. They don't have to act through their followers, but do anything that they want to do."
"If they're flesh and blood," I say, "does that mean they can be killed?"
Angelaria says nothing. She shrugs helplessly.
I look at Talen.
"South," he says then. "Definitely south."
I nod and set out with my companions at my heels. I pick out a path through the jungle with care, all the while listening to the distant rumble of Tempest Mountain. It sounds so angry. But even as I recall seeing Soulwarden buried under ash and lava, I'm aware that it's also a funeral for the old me...the me that was afraid and intimidated and taken advantage of by older, stronger, and smarter men.
I'm no longer that person.
I'm no longer the Assassin's Apprentice. I'm a Black Dragon rising and soon the rest of the world will know the calling card of the silver rose and tremble when they see it.
THE END
Here ends book one entitled "The Assassin's Apprentice." I hope you enjoyed the story. I'm tentatively thinking of making a copy available for quick download with better editing and to clean up some parts. I might also include a hand-drawn map. If I do, I shall rename it "The Nightshade's Apprentice."
I shall post book two entitled "Black Dragon Rising" in a couple of weeks for free here on Nifty. A big thanks to those of you who've written me during this project and given me input. I already have "Black Dragon Rising" completely done so I'll be able to post regular chapters at the rate of one per week once I feel like doing so.
In the meantime, could you please check out my other writings at http://slckismet.blogspot.com/p/books.html and support me if you can!