[The Anagolay]
I see them.
Lila and Sanim are hand in hand, sprinting to my general direction. I swing my bow to my back, take three steps down from the rooftop stairs, jumping the last rungs. As I land, a loud boom fills the air. The ground trembling. The source only a walking distance to this dwelling.
Tato bursts from the side door and mirrors my question. What the heck was that?
I fling the main door open. Dust and smoke fog the surroundings. Screams cut sharply to my ears as people ramble in a panic haze. The crowd that was so expectant of the show they were going to witness had become part of it.
Lila and the boy are closer.
I hurry them over with an impatient wave of hands. "Get in! Get in now!" She shoves Sanim to me and turns to scan Gaviel's post not long ago. This girl.
"He will be fine." Just as I say it another explosion rock us.
Who are setting them off?
I let Tato take Sanim and pull Lila when the establishments on the east catches my view. The merchant's store, where the captain was stationed with Lieutenant Hughes, collapsing apart towards the plaza's stage. I saw a number of people near it, including the captain and his lieutenant.
"Gaviel!" Lila yells, straining at my hold.
Idiots. Big idiots, all of us. We underestimated the Thraine.
"He is fine. Come on." - Clamping her arm, I drag her to the safehouse - "Elites are not that easy to kill."
Juba, dashes in from the side door.
"The gates are being closed. We need to go," he says in his clipped Faye'in. He did not lose his distinct calm tone making everything seem alright. I nod my head at him.
"This is Lila, the infamous Vanuyan. Sanim needs no introduction," I say. "Juba, Lila. Now, move."
It turns out that the help Gaviel was talking about was these two. Juba approached me yesterday on a tavern. I choked on the sight of Tato with him.
Juba Ha-el Simshiwe has that open, honest face. Laughter lines gracing the corners of his eyes and the sides of his mouth. A face of one that you would befriend. Though it is the only kind looking about him. He has leathery skin, short but masculine physique, boasting twice more muscles I do. Muscles yielding to brute force he now use to break us through the crowd.
We slip through back alleys, Juba on the lead, Tato and I on the rear. Lila is with Sanim murmuring introductions, telling him that we are taking him to his uncle. Apparently, he remembers her from Lur.
We rounded a corner, striding the road with the fazed citizens. Halfway, a group of local soldiers patrol the intersection before us and we slow our steps.
Luckily, I am still wearing their blue-dyed linen uniform.
Ahead, they stop Juba and the others for inspection. I pretend to check Tato, tapping him for weapons when one of them notices Sanim. And the weapons.
"Swords!"
Swords are unsheathed alright. I sprint straight to the soldier with the trumpet, hitting him with a dagger before he could warn others. Juba takes down two, blocking them from reaching Lila or the boy while Tato fights with another. Stepping in, I stab one with my Tanabas.
"Here," Juba directs.
I block and attack, slashing the last local soldier in his torso.
We run into a lumber shop, surprising the men working there. Using their back door, we burst into another street. Turning right, we stumble on a street crawling with patrols. We trace our steps back hurriedly but I hear someone noticing our retreat and a trumpet is blown.
"This way!"
Juba swiftly changes direction. We squeeze into a narrow alley, midway climbing over a wall. Somewhere in the city, another explosion occurs. We did not stop running.
Juba shoves anyone on his way. Men and women stumbles, falls, curses. It is riot. I keep looking over my shoulder, a gut feeling.
Soldiers caught on us, quicker than I thought. Curse it all. I spot a silver hair about them and Captain Erasmus himself.
"Go! Go!"
I cut myself off from them, scaling a wall to a rooftop. Looking down, Juba continues on foot. I remove my bow as Lila reveals herself on my side.
"There!" she points.
I fire. Three. Four. Maiming some of the locals with the Elites. I sprint on the row of rooftops, not waiting for a countermove. Leaping on buildings across. The battle drums are sounded in a far.
We mirror the route on the roofs as Juba and the others are below.
And Lila trips over her cloak. As I am already a few feet too far, I scowl back at her. "Come on."
A knife hits near her head. Followed by another. Foot soldiers have found their way in the roofs near us. I return fire, shouting for her to move.
Shards and splinters of wood fly. My arrows are countered with knives and we dodge. Uneven building heights on our side. I leap through the width of a light well of an inn. Lila is slow to follow.
Wind whipping my clothes as I scale the soaring stone buildings of upperclassmen and I take a glance of the city. There are fires amuck on workshops and important buildings alike. And there are explosions still occurring.
Bessilus, the capital of Aeon burns in destruction.
I jump to a veranda, to a lower one until I am back to the ground. I take the time covering my hair and face with a dark scarf, waiting for Lila to descend. As I look up she slips on the last balcony, screams and falls on the large, marbled trough directly below.
I start to go to her, halting at the dagger thrown near my feet. Lila gasps out of the water into the Elites waiting for us.
Gaviel is covered in patches of soot and dust, bleeding on his forehead. Hughes is in the same state more or less. So are Tyros, Erasmus and the others. Before, I faced only two Elites. This time there are fifteen of them.
"Fellas," I say.
Erasmus points his swords at her. "Get her out."
They want her alive, me not so much.
Gaviel does the order, holding a knife to her throat. He forces her to march, ordering his lieutenant to follow him while I unsheathe the Tanabas. Their blades are already drawn.
Like an arrow shot from a bow, Erasmus thrusts his rapier I barely block it. Attacks come at all sides as Tyros backs up his captain.
I take out the Anagolay dagger and with it, block from their onslaught however the other Elites are apt to murder me. I cannot defend forever. As the weapons clash, my back goes unguarded. Not missing a second, one elite slashes at my back.
I return the favor by slicing clean off the elite's arm. Tyros, immediate in action, slices my thigh.
"Ugh!" On my knees, I see from a distance Lila and the Captain turn around, dropping their pretense. Gaviel moves against Erasmus as he draws a leverage to hack my head.
A sudden blast of wind knocks me over.
For a moment, all I feel is my stinging body on the ground. Was it an explosion? My ears should be ringing but I can hear perfectly.
I sit up, coughing, trying to peer through dust thickly covering us. As it settles, I see rapiers and spears scattered on the cracked cobblestones. Captain Erasmus, his lieutenant, eleven other Elites are unconscious, sprawled away like they were slammed with a bull. Quite hard.
The girl stands alone amidst the wreck.
Hairs on my arms and nape rise up, both terrified and relieved. Openmouthed, I stand. Lila looks dumbfounded, frantic. Staring at her hands as if she did not know what she did. Gaviel, now covered with more dust he seems to be a monster incarnate, helps Hughes, wearing the most stupefied expression out of the four of us.
"I will explain later," the Captain says.
He throws me a glance and if I did not learn how to read him, I would be fooled by the boredom on his face.
Lila remains immobile until she staggers forward and Gaviel is on her side catching her. Almost like he knew it was going to happen.
"I'm fine, I'm fine." She weakly says, wiping the blood dripping from her nose. He holds her up as I make myself go near.
"Shall I ask what that was, or?" I start.
"No, don't." Lila says, gripping the Captain's arms to stand on her own. "Seriously. Don't mention it."
She does not have to tell me twice.
Almost at the same instant, Gaviel and Hughes stiffen. Heads tilting. Gazes to a direction. A moment later, I hear it as well.
Horses' hooves. Soldiers are coming. Of course.
"You need to go," he says to me.
"Wait," Lila says. She takes a leather case from her satchel and works her way on the Elites pricking them on the neck with darts. My darts. The case I used for my poisoned darts.
"Hey," I complain. "You stole it?"
When did she…?
"Borrowed." She tosses it to me after taking more.
"This will cover for you." Lila pierces Hughes on the nape. He faints face first. With a nod farewell, Gaviel is put to sleep.
She and I bolt right after that.
I tear open a shrouded door of a secluded house. Lila and I file in, panting laboriously. I do not have to look around to know we are on the meeting place for the others flock around us.
"What happened?" Juba asks.
"We got delayed by the Elites." I say between gasps.
"They have barricaded the city well and good. We cannot leave."
I nod. "We stay here, wait for the cover of night–" Tato gestures a question at me.
"No, we cannot surrender Sanim to the Thraine now, the Elites are here. Make no mistake, they will capture them. We wait for the cover of night and we cross the river to Asuelus."
Afternoon passes by as we patch our wounds and are sufficiently rested. Tato is having some kind of conversation with Lila in a table to my right, as I fill the strap in my armor with daggers. Attaching a thigh strap, the kid walks up to me.
"Sanim is sleeping," she says, making gestures to the bedroom on the corner.
"I know."
She has changed in dry clothes but a boy's tunic and breeches than a dress. "You alright?"
"Of course," I say. "Are you?"
"I saw a smoke at the stage," she mumbles. I meant the nosebleed but I did not interrupt her. "A dark, amorphous smoke and it only kept creeping on the floor near the throne."
Frowning, I pause from clasping my armor. "What are you talking about?"
"There was no fire." She shakes her head. "And before that, I felt – sensed a Mystic."
"Other than you, you mean…"
She smirks. "Of course." Then her brows knot.
"I did not see any smoke on the stage," I say, fastening the scabbard on my left. "And if there is more of your kind, our world is getting crowded. I mean you alone suffocate me."
She shakes her head again, leaning on the wall beside me. I spot the dagger she let me borrow strapped on her waist. It is a fine blade with polished hilt. Clearly cared by the owner before her.
"So, you and Gaviel…" I grin at her wickedly, remembering her reaction to Gaviel's safety hours before.
She glances at the dagger, back at me. "You're so insufferable."
"What?" I ask innocently. "Am I seeing things that are not there, like between you and… the captain?"
"Shut up," she scolds, blushing and I cannot help but laugh.
"If you are uncomfortable being teased then you should not wear your heart on your sleeve, kid."
Lila crosses her arms. Juba approaches us and I stop chuckling at the naked blade in his hand. I see Tato stand, alerted.
Juba runs a suspicious eye on Lila.
When we met he introduced himself as Gaviel's friend that I find unlikely immediately. The white paint tattoo on his forehead and around his neck, two horizontal and geometric patterned lines, tells me he is the second son of a chieftain. But what tribe I am not sure. Which I could only assume he is from a tribe residing beyond Kuraka Leonne mountain ranges. The three seclusive and oldest tribes.
Sighting them is like sighting a blue moon and their living arrangements makes them more unreachable yet here he is. How he met Gaviel is a mystery to me.
"Do you know what she is?"
I do a double take.
"Do you?"
"A cynosure of death."
Oh, I see what this is. "Sounds about right. You a Nenabus then?"
"You are a Gakaloai."
"Yes." If he knows what she is, he must have been told by Gaviel. "I hear stories. Or rumors. The Nenabus tribe are not very fond of the Eng't Urh."
"No." He says, without breaking eye contact. "Death follows their wake. The dark rules them."
Lila squirms beside me, shuffling her feet.
"And you. You are connected to her," Juba observes.
"Yes. Annoying really," I muse.
"You are a dead man walking."
"We are all dying." I sigh. I have just about enough of this. "Let me guess, you want some justice or revenge for whatever offense the Eng't Urh has done to you but the only one stopping you from doing so is your friend."
He clenches his jaw. Rage lights his kind face altering it to a malicious, provoked animal. Yet still, he does not make a move. Interesting.
How could a tribal prince be a friend to an Aeonnite and respect him enough to trust his judgement over his own?
Gaviel is more shifty than I initially thought he is.
"Whatever your tribe believes about their kind, she is not exactly what you expect, is she?" I decided to say.
Before he can answer, Lila steps up between us. "Your folklore is wrong."
We turn to her.
"I mean, we..." She clears her throat. "We can't lead you to your deaths. That's not how this works."
Juba subdues a minute later, removing the spite on his face. "No," he concedes. "Gaviel does not think so either."
He sheathes his sword, looking at Lila in a suspicious yet unhostile manner.
"The bridge is sprawling with patrols." He tells me. "Raids are close by."
I curse under my breath.
"We just have to make do. Slip in and out quietly." I glance at Tato. "Wake Sanim and get ready."
I lead them scaling again on walls and deserted rooftops. We manage to evade the patrols so far. I lower myself on an alley behind a dwelling near the bridge, helping Sanim next. Before the others can get down, voices reach my ears. Sanim and I dive behind a stack of firewood that rests on the side of the dwelling.
Two sentries carrying flared torches checks the alley. Satisfied, they walk away and Tato and the rest drops. I look at Tato to ask if we can sneak into the bridge without alerting the soldiers but he shakes his head.
"Screw it."
"Why don't we take the mountain pass?" Lila inquires.
"Juba has a contact on Asuelus. A Thraine that is willing to relieve us of Sanim and deliver him to his uncle on their capital. Denai is waiting with him."
Another batch of patrol comes and we scuttle around shadows to avoid being seen. Juba waves a hand to get noticed, wanting us to follow him. He steers us through a couple of houses with long strides, a man with a purpose stopping only on a grate.
"Get in," he orders.
Lila goes down the hole without second thoughts. I snort and at my hesitation Juba says, "Trust me."
I nod at Tato so he follows Lila and then Sanim. A moment later, we found ourselves on an abutment where the sewer empties under the bridge. I start. Juba knows an Aeonnite city and a passageway no less that I should have known. My stomach drops with trepidation.
"We swim across," Juba whispers. I can hear a lot of footsteps and voices above.
"One slight, tiny problem," Lila frets. "Sanim does not know how to swim and me…me either."
Before I could say anything, Juba takes Sanim carrying him on his back.
"You are with me." She nods.
Sword between his lips, Juba swims before us. After Tato, I dip on the water, grinding my teeth on the coldness biting my bones. Lila carries the weapons safe above the water, clutching my neck in one hand.
The river separating the two cities is wide and deep with a mild current. We are swimming pass the middle abutment as I hear a roar above.
"Check under the bridge!"
Curse it.
Juba is now at the last abutment with Sanim. I kick harder. Dozen thudding feet moves and I can glimpse the torches and lanterns. Reaching the last abutment, Tato helps Lila up while I get out of the water.
On my feet, I look for Sanim but he is nowhere to be seen. So is Juba.
Some of the soldiers have descended. I flatten my back on the wall, signaling Tato and Lila to hide. They run straight to the wall a few paces where I stand and disappears.
What–
A hand tugs me and I am plunged on a profound blackness.