FARHAYVEN: VENGEANCE (95 page)

     Initially the crowd was a buzz with surprise when they saw that Rake was amongst them. Then everyone became silent when Venom stood up and started to speak.

     “Headpersons, my fellow village people, brothers and sisters of our tragic fate; I thank you for coming tonight
!
I’ve always had the best interest of our villages in my heart and it’s still so as I speak today, so hear me well and consider my proposal fairly. The storm that had ruined our crops, destroyed our homes and killed our relatives and friends was no one’s fault. It was a random act of nature, therefore couldn’t be foreseen and avoided, so no one can be blamed. But when the citizens of a country suffer poverty, sickness and untimely death, the government is to be blamed
!
The government is to be blamed
!
Why
!?
Because poverty, sickness and untimely death
can be
avoided.
Should
be avoided
!
And if the government had put in place proper support facilities and structures to help its crisis-stricken citizens; poverty, sickness and untimely death
would’ve
been
avoided. But this
wasn’t
so
with
our
government. The government of the Kingdom of Free Falls has failed us. The kingdom has failed us, abandoned us and then,… attacked us
!
Attacked us
!
We, the people of The Ten Betrayed Villages, need to avenge ourselves. We, the people of The Ten Betrayed Villages, need to rebuild our lives on a land independent of this evil, corrupt government.  The promise of the Kingdom of Free Falls is dead
!
Rebellion is the only way
!
” he said.

     The entire cave erupted into a roaring cheer. Everyone stood up and clapped. Venom allowed his fellow village people to settle down before he continued.

     “Brothers and sisters of our tragic fate, I’ve designed a plan with which we’re to carry out this rebellion, if it’s to your choosing. To properly carry out a rebellion, as it is with any type of warfare, we require money, training and the willingness to die for our cause. I’ve no doubt about our willingness to die, for either which way, we’re all dead people anyway
!
As for training, our brother Oak Nomell will be our source of knowledge, if he’s willing. So that leaves the final factor, money
!
And I have a solution for that. Now bear with me, the answer that I offer is bitter, but practical…. The answer is to
kill
for money. Assassinations
!
The service of assassination will provide us with sufficient income to finance our rebellion and at the same time sharpen our combat skills. It’s a win – win situation
!
” he said.

     The entire cave went into an uproar. There were angry statements for and against Venom’s ‘answer’. Finally Rake Breven stood up.

     “My fellow village people
!
Brothers and sisters
!
Listen to me, please. I’ve suffered as you’ve suffered. Then I’ve suffered more than you’ve suffered. I was in prison for two whole weeks. The government showed no concern or care for me. No one came to see me and asked me about what had happened
!
No one had bothered to find out my side of the story
!
No one
!
And if it weren’t for Venom Collart, I’d still be rotting away in that prison. Venom freed me with blood money. He assassinated the mayor for it, but it got me out. So I say to hell with ethics
!
I say to hell with morality
!
Let us do what we need to get the job done
!
And the job is to avenge our dead relatives and friends
!
The job is to live free from the tyranny of this evil government
!
My brothers and sisters of The Ten Betrayed Villages, ignore
not
the truth that you yourselves know deep in your hearts. The promise of the Kingdom of Free Falls is dead
!
Rebellion is the only way
!
” he echoed.

     The entire cave went into another uproar, but pretty soon they all began to chant ‘the promise of the Kingdom of Free Falls is dead
!
Rebellion is the only way
!
’ Finally someone asked Venom to name their rebellion.

     “Ours is the rebellion of the poor. Ours is the rebellion of the oppressed. Ours is the rebellion of the ones who were victimised. And we’ll strike back
!
We’ll come silent and hidden, like a shadow moving in darkness; and we’ll be the sellers of death
!
We’ll be the sellers of death that comes from the shadows, and our blades will be sharp and merciless
!
We’ll be the ‘Shadow Deathmerchant Clan’
!
”

     The entire cave thunders with the sounds of cheer and excitement. The survivors of the tragic fate sing and dance and celebrate the embracement of their path, their destiny
!
And it is so that the Shadow Deathmerchant Clan is born.

THE STORY OF DAWN

     It is the
Wet Season in the Year 1181 of the Known Era
. A long caravan of approximately 700 men, women and children arrive at the base of a mountain range somewhere in Southern Falls Province. The leader of this caravan is none other than Clanmaster Venom Collart, and this caravan is none other than the Shadow Deathmerchant Clan.

     Scouts sent out by the clan had indicated that this place was a potentially good hideout. They had discovered a huge cave that was well hidden behind a huge waterfall which could serve as their new home. It was also well hidden because it was formed at the end of a long, winding tunnel. Founder Rake Breven had named this place ‘The Lair’.

     So with the promise of a new home that was more secure than the caves near Southverge Town, the Shadow Deathmerchant Clan had packed up and began their journey here. This journey was not just a relocation exercise. It was a severance of painful memories and a new beginning. They could no longer stay near their former homes and see other people build houses and work the earth at the farms which used to be theirs. They needed a new home to give them new hope.

     Over the next few months, the clan worked ceaselessly to transform The Lair into a liveable environment. Under Rake’s leadership, the cave was cleaned out, dangerous areas were marked and cordoned off, torch holders were inserted into the cave walls and living areas were divided and assigned. The clan then embarked on a decade long project to carve out a system of tunnels and small chambers to create living spaces for their families. Ventilation shafts and even a plumbing system of sorts were carved out to make it more liveable.

     Venom, meanwhile, chose to stay out of the way. He recognised that Rake was actually the better leader. He chose instead to concentrate on running the assassination operations and left the daily administration of the clan to Rake. Business was picking up so much that Venom himself was surprised. The clan was executing up to 30 assassinations a month.

     Three months after the clan had arrived at The Lair, tragedy struck. As per their usual practice, Fragrance Breven and a few clanswomen went out to the forest to pick wild mushrooms, fruits and vegetables. As Fragrance reached out to pick a fruit, she stepped into a bush and was bitten by a cobra.  Her companions ran back to The Lair to get help. Rake rode out to where Fragrance was, put her on his horse and raced to the nearest town. But it was too late. She was already dead even before they were halfway there. The only thing left for Rake to do was to turn around and return to The Lair. The Brevens rode out the next day in an easterly direction, and when they were about a day’s ride away from The Lair, they dug a hole in the middle of the forest and buried Fragrance there. Her grave was left unmarked. Rake was consumed by grief and was not able to work for weeks. Tiller stepped up to handle Rake’s responsibilities during this time.

     Four months later, Drizzle Breven woke up in the morning and started vomiting. Tiller became very concerned and wondered if his wife had caught a dangerous infection. But she assured him that she was not sick. She was just pregnant. Tiller’s jaw dropped and he sat frozen. Then he got up, kissed his wife on the forehead and ran out to tell his brother, Rake. Rake shook Tiller’s hand and congratulated him, and with the good news, the gloom in Rake’s heart lifted slightly. He had lost a wife, but now he was to gain a niece or a nephew.

     Eight months later, Dawn Breven was born into the world of Farhayven. Her time of birth was right at the crack of dawn, or so it was as indicated by the calibrated candles. As such, Tiller named his newborn infant just that, Dawn. She was a silent baby, and did not cry much. Tiller was overjoyed at first, before he realised that Drizzle was pale and unconscious. The midwife and the clan’s healers tried their best to save her life, but she had lost too much blood during the delivery. So yet again, the Brevens rode out to bury one of their own. Drizzle’s unmarked grave lay near Fragrance’s.

     The Brevens were not the only ones struck by tragedy. Pearl Collart had also died. In the darkness of The Lair, she had slipped and hit her head on the rocky floor. Venom just stood frozen when he discovered the body of his wife. Internally, he was full of grief. Externally, he could no longer show it. He had tried to cry, but no tears came out from his tear ducts. He had, over time, lost all ability to express his sorrow. Hay Collart, on the other hand, cried for three weeks. Pearl was buried in an unmarked grave somewhere in the forest. And just like the Brevens, her funeral was a private affair. Only Venom and his son were in attendance. And only they knew where her grave was.

     Tiller raised Dawn with the help of Rake. She was a joy to the both of them. The Brothers Breven alternated between themselves when they went for missions so as to make sure that one of them stayed back to take care of her. Occasionally, there were missions that required both brothers to participate, and in such cases Founder Eclipse Menox, who was a spinster, played nanny to Dawn.

     On the
30
th
Night of Fourth Month
of
Wet Season of the Year 1185 of the Known Era
, Dawn’s world changed. Both her father and her uncle had gone on a mission. They had left The Lair two weeks prior, and she was left in the care of Eclipse. Her uncle returned two weeks later, badly injured in the left leg. Her father returned lifeless, strapped onto the back of a horse. She was just of the age three, but she understood enough about death to cry over him. Then her uncle rode out carrying her and her father’s corpse to where her mother and her aunt were buried. There she sat down and watched her uncle dig a deep, rectangular hole in the ground and put her father in it. This was her first true encounter with death, and it was to be the first of many.

     From that moment on, Rake no longer went out on missions. He stayed back so that he could take care of Dawn. Besides, the injuries that he had sustained were serious enough that he ended up with a permanent limp. And he was removed from the ranks of the ‘Chosen of the Clan’, after a dispute with Venom.

     At the age of six, Dawn was required to attend training on how to become an assassin. She, along with a dozen other children, reported themselves to the clanmaster, who had taken over the teaching of the assassination arts from Founder Oak Nomell. Oak retired from teaching because he was getting too old, and he was sickly. He died a year later.

     The first thing that Dawn was taught in assassin training was to run. They ran throughout the entire system of tunnels in The Lair, and then outside in the forest, and finally, back again in The Lair. Then they would get an hour’s rest after which they would start running again. Dawn’s feet were full of blisters; and her legs and chest ached terribly. She cried and cried. So did all the other children. Venom was a cruel and strict teacher. Any disobedience by Dawn or the other children was punished with severe whippings.

     Dawn limped back to her family chamber after her first day of training. Rake had saved dinner for her. She ate heartily, and then limped to the bathroom to take a sponge bath. When she was done, she sat on her bed. Rake applied a medicinal paste to the bottom of her feet. He had expected for her to have injuries and had prepared the paste in advance. He explained to her that although the assassin’s training was tough and painful, it was necessary for her to undergo it. He explained that they were the Shadow Deathmerchant Clan. They were the people of the Ten Betrayed Villages and that the government had treated them badly. He explained that Fragrance’s and Drizzle’s death were indirectly due to the government, so she needed to avenge them one day.

     Rake kissed Dawn on the forehead and wished her ‘goodnight’. Dawn fell asleep almost immediately. She was exhausted from all the running that she had to do.

     Dawn was up before sunrise the next day to continue her training. There was no real way to tell time in The Lair, except through of the use of calibrated candles. And according to the candles, it was time to start the second day of training. So she hurried off to report herself to Venom, along with the rest of her fellow trainees or what she called her ‘batch’.

     Amongst Dawn’s batchmates was a girl named Joy Nomell. She was born to Oak and Whisper Nomell a month after Dawn was born. Joy was a cheerful girl, quite the opposite of Dawn who was moody most of the time. But both girls became good friends almost immediately. Dawn found Joy’s cheerfulness uplifting, while Joy found Dawn’s moodiness ‘grounding’, like a sort of anchor that prevented her from day-dreaming and fantasising too much.

     Also amongst Dawn’s batchmates was a girl named Flutter Pitten. Just like Dawn and Joy, she was a daughter of one of the Ten Founders. But she carried her lineage with pride, or more correctly, with arrogance. She deemed herself better than her ‘common people’ batchmates, and saw Dawn and Joy as her greatest rivals. Unlike Dawn and Joy, who attended assassination training because it was compulsory, Flutter attended the training because she wanted to kill
!
She wanted to kill to be the best at killing
!
But the truth was, she was smitten with Hay Collart, and she figured the best way to get his attention was to be the best assassin in the clan.

     Then there was Dart Sorrin. He was the grandson of Paddock Sorrin, former headman of Wheatparadise Village. Dawn and Dart knew each other since they were babies, for Dart’s family chamber was just a few paces away from Dawn’s. Dart was totally clueless as to why he was there. All he was told by his parents was that he had to report himself to Venom and the next thing he knew, he was being yelled at, spanked and forced to run all day long. He had actually asked Dawn when the training was to end. To his horror, she told him that it was to end when they reached the age of 15,
assuming
they survived that long. Otherwise, it would end for Dart when he was dead. He became pale and speechless after he had heard Dawn’s answer.

     Stack Clerren was the odd boy of the batch. He was born to parents who were originally from Forkwater Village, and the headperson for this village was Eclipse Menox. He was very mature for his age, and was very aware of his situation and the situation of the clan as well. He was against attending the training. He felt that being an assassin was morally wrong, no matter what the excuse was. He hated life in The Lair. He hated life in the clan. He wanted to get out. But he realised that he was too young and too unknowledgeable to do anything about it. His grandmother had always told him that the entire village had gone mad. He believed her, despite what his parents had said. He decided that he would play along, for the time being. But as soon as he could, he would leave The Lair and the clan for good.

     There was also a boy by the name of Grain Sillox. His parents were originally of Sunbright Village. He was a skinny, sickly boy. He was always sneezing and coughing. On the first day of training itself he had been yelled at by Venom many times and spanked quiet a few times for sneezing and coughing out loud.

     From the second week of training onwards, Dawn and her batchmates began training in the martial arts. They had also learned how to throw Airblades. Dawn took an immediate liking to the Airblades. She found that she could throw them really well. She had also learned how to fight using the staff and the sword. And she was also taught how to squash paper packets containing pepper powder and then throw them at her opponent’s eyes to distract them. She was also taught the art of camouflage, and she most often times found herself covered in mud and dirt in order to blend-in into her environment.

     Dawn is now of the age nine. She grips the wooden Airblade in her right hand. She grips the handle of her wooden sword in her left hand in a reverse grip. She crawls her way through the bushes under the cover of shadows. It is always done under the cover of shadows
!
Then after taking in a deep breath, she gets up to a kneeling position and throws her Airblade. The Airblade flies true, and smacks a girl at the back of her head. She screams out in pain. Then Dawn charges at the boy who is standing by the girl’s side. She manages to execute a Right Downwards Diagonal Cut at him. Her wooden sword slides across his chest smoothly, and he cries out in pain.

     Dawn stared fiercely at the pair whom she was facing. The girl was massaging the back of her head. The boy was doing the same for his chest.

     “Damn it, Dawn. Must you hit me so hard
?
” complained the girl.

     “Yeah
!
It’s just an exercise, Dawn,” complained the boy.

     “You were careless, Joy. And Dart, you were slow. You both deserved it. What were the both of you doing
?
Daydreaming or something
?
” countered Dawn.

     “Yeah
!
Dart was daydreaming of Flutter
!
” said Joy.