The Undead Hordes of Kan-Gul (9 page)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“That was a pretty horrible thing to have to witness,” said Kancho back in the cell.

Neviah sat in the corner with Jysal. Jysal had stopped weeping on the way back, but the effect on her was obvious. Ran looked at Kancho. “We don’t have many options to work with here.”

“Escape is the only one that I can see,” said Kancho. “We certainly can’t wait around for that madman to kill us all one by one. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen my death coming at the hands of a beast like that while I’m unarmed. Even if we don’t make it out of here alive, I’d rather go out on my own terms than Kan-Gul’s.”

“Agreed,” said Ran. “We just have to make sure that we choose our moment carefully. Kan-Gul is no fool. He’ll be expecting something from us. I don’t want to get out of here only to walk into a trap.”

“As long as we don’t wait too long,” said Kancho. “Because I don’t think he will.”

Malkyr sat nearby. “Who will?”

“Kan-Gul. He’ll kill us all if we don’t do something.”

Malkyr shrugged. “Seems like our destinies have already been cast. I don’t see a way to get out of this place. Did you see that pit Vargul died in? There was no escape from there, either. Kan-Gul seems to have thought of everything.”

Ran frowned. “I don’t think your attitude is going to help us very much. If you’d rather stay here, then be my guest. But I’m not going to stop trying to find a way to get free.”

“Suit yourself,” said Malkyr. “I’m going to get some sleep.”

Kancho aimed a kick at his head. “I can’t believe I entrusted my life to you aboard that so-called ship of yours.”

“You leave my boat out of this,” said Malkyr rubbing the spot where Kancho had kicked him. “I did what I was paid to do.”

“You were paid to get us safely to the other side of the Dark Sea,” said Ran.

“Exactly. And here you are. You’re welcome.” Malkyr shifted his position and moved away from the rest of them.

Ran watched him go and frowned. Malkyr’s attitude was disturbing. And Ran didn’t like the fact that he wasn’t anxious to escape. Who would willingly choose to stay here?

“Forget him,” said Kancho. “We’ve got things to figure out. He’ll only get under our skin and make us less productive.”

“You’re right,” said Ran. He walked over to Neviah and crouched down. “We’re going to figure out a way to get out of here.”

Neviah eyed him. “How will you do this?”

Ran glanced at the door. “I’m not sure just yet. But we’re not just going to sit here and give up.”

Neviah nodded. “When you are ready, let me know. If it’s my destiny to die here, I will at least take many of the enemy with me.”

“Hopefully it’s no one else’s destiny to die here,” said Ran. “Try to get some rest for the moment.” He nodded at Jysal. “How is she?”

Neviah looked at Jysal and then back at Ran. “She’s never seen anything so terrible. So horrifying.”

“Probably not.”

“But she’ll be okay. Once her nerves calm down, she’ll be well enough to travel.”

“Good.” He moved back to Kancho. “Think of a way out yet?”

Kancho cracked a small grin. “Any plan will first have to start with that door. But I’m afraid lockpicking skills were not in the curriculum I was taught as a Murai.”

Ran eyed him. “I thought you might be Murai, but wasn’t sure given your appearance.”

Kancho sighed. “I was forced to adopt a disguise in order to escape Nehon. Otherwise I would have been hunted down and killed before I could get across the Dark Sea.”

“Why would that be?”

“I disobeyed a direct order from my lord. Such a thing is considered treasonous and punishable by death. My death, in this case.” He smiled. “It would seem that my karma is proving rather unescapable at the moment. But I’m resolved not to die before I can exact my revenge.”

Ran frowned. “What vengeance do you seek?”

“My daughter was taken by a band of pirates off the northern coast of Nehon. I haven’t seen her in months. There’s been no word of ransom. For all I know, she’s already dead. But I won’t stop until I find the people who took her and make them pay for their crimes. Naran was my real destination, but nobody would sail there, so I sailed with Malkyr, trying to get as close as possible to the port before heading south on foot.”

“How was your daughter taken?”

“She was sailing on a sloop to visit family and a coastal raider took them just offshore. But they turned toward Igul and disappeared into the fog. I asked leave of my lord to pursue the men who took her, but he denied my request.” Kancho shrugged. “I’ve spent weeks planning my escape. And my eventual vengeance. But now I’ve been delayed. And I’ve dishonored my clan at the same time.”

Ran clapped him on the back. “You’ve accomplished a lot, it would seem.”

Kancho looked at him incredulously and then broke into a smile when he saw Ran was kidding. “I suppose I rather have.”

“Let’s take care of this mess first,” said Ran. “And I promise to help you when we get out of here.”

“Why would you do that?”

“What?”

“Risk your life for someone you don’t really know.” Kancho shook his head. “That path is mine to walk alone. I could not ask you to come along.”

Ran said. “There are other people in Gakur who place value on family and making sure wrongs are righted. I happen to be one of them.”

“But you’re not Murai,” said Kancho.

“No,” said Ran. “I’m not. But Murai don’t have a monopoly on honor.”

“Having a nice talk are we?”

Ran and Kancho turned at the sound of the voice at the door. Through the bars they saw Kan-Gul’s smiling face. He looked gleeful, and it sickened Ran.

“What do you want?”

“Just curious as to whether you’ve had an opportunity to discuss my offer.”

“It’s not an offer,” said Ran. “It’s a demand.”

Kan-Gul shrugged. “Semantics don’t matter to me. Have you convinced Jysal to marry me yet?”

“No.”

Kan-Gul frowned. “Did you see the manner in which your friend was killed? The act of killing his physical body was awful enough, but the truly horrid aspect is that the man once known as Vargul now has no soul. He is well and truly dead, unable to journey to the afterlife or come back in another body. He no longer exists on any plane. Can you imagine the terror of such finality? Do you appreciate the final fate you all face?”

“You made it abundantly clear what would happen to us,” said Ran. “Why is she so important to you, anyway?”

Kan-Gul smiled. “Surely you have sensed her power. She is percolating with unbridled and untrained magical energy. It drips from her pores like some delicious wine. I can taste it emanating from her any time she is near me. Such power will prove useful to me.” He licked his lips. “She has other amenities as well and I will certainly avail myself of those. But her magic . . . that is power I shall have, and it will come in handy once my friends from the far north arrive.”

Ran frowned. “Friends from the far north?”

“Didn’t I tell you?” Kan-Gul smiled. “I’ve made an alliance with the large army massing up there. They are looking forward to conquering the lands in these parts, including Nehon and your beloved Gakur. With my magic magnified, it will be much easier.”

Ran couldn’t recall hearing any reports about large armies to the north. As far as he knew, the lands to the north were sparsely populated frozen wastelands. “What happens if Jysal refuses to marry you?”

Kan-Gul stared at Ran. “You will all die the same way Vargul did.” His face vanished from the bars.

Ran moved closer to the door and peered out. He couldn’t see much, but he sensed that Kan-Gul was gone. Ran looked back at Kancho. “I really cannot wait to kill that man.”

“You may have to wait in line,” said Kancho. “Is what he said even possible? Could he actually use Jysal’s power to complement his own?”

“It’s possible,” said Neviah from behind them. “It’s not an easy thing to do, but I’ve heard of others who have done it successfully. And as a result, their power was magnified exponentially.” She shook her head. “What such power would do for Kan-Gul is something I would prefer not to even think about.”

“We’re not going to let him do it,” said Ran. He looked back at the door. As much as he would prefer to not do what needed to be done, he saw no other way to get them all out of there and escape to freedom. And given that Kan-Gul had ably demonstrated his preference for death and mayhem, Ran knew he would have to be the one who led them out of this place.

He reached into his belt and extracted the only other thing that had survived the shipwreck and Kan-Gul’s magic: a long thin wire that had been sewn into the belt he wore around his waist. Ran felt Kancho’s eyes on him and looked up. “This might just work.”

Kancho’s mouth was grim. “You can pick the lock on the door?”

“I haven’t done it in quite some time,” said Ran. “But the skill was taught to me when I was a young boy.” This was a lie, of course; Ran was an expert at picking locks. But he hoped to stave off any questions from Kancho about his own background for as long as possible.

He moved closer to the door and peered out through the bars. Torches still flickered in the passageways, but he couldn’t see much beyond the cell door. And that was the truly risky part. If he got to work on the lock and a Chekhal guard happened by, they would take the wire and then Ran would have no other options left. But as risky as it was, Ran believed he had no other choice. So he set to work, snaking the wire first through the bars and then down to the lock itself, testing to see if it would reach.

He felt a moment of relief when he was able to reach the lock with the wire. He quickly withdrew the piece and nodded at Kancho. “It will work, I think. Provided I haven’t forgotten any of the things I was taught.”

“Who taught you how to pick locks?” asked Kancho. “Such skills are normally reserved for thieves and other criminals.”

Ran busied himself with fashioning the requisite type of pick he thought the lock would need. “My father’s brother was a common thief at one time. He hid out in our home after a robbery that he’d committed, and while there he took me aside and showed me the skill. Perhaps he wanted his nephew to become a thief like him, I don’t know. I was only a boy.”

“What happened to him?”

Ran shrugged. “He was caught by the Murai and boiled alive for his crimes.”

Kancho nodded. “Justice was served.”

Ran eyed him. “He was still family. I would have preferred justice be swift and deliver him to the afterlife a little quicker than six hours of torturous pain and eventual death.”

Kancho frowned for a moment and then nodded. “It is a rather barbaric form of punishment. He must have done something truly awful to warrant such a sentence, however.”

“I never knew,” said Ran. “Once he was dead, my family never spoke of him again.” He bent the wire again, forming it into the intricate shape that would perform the action. He held it up in the dim light and tried his best to eyeball it. Training had taught him a lot; back in Gakur, the teachers had made students pick locks while being suspended upside down over the side of a mountain. The ability to focus and shut out discomfort and danger ensured they could pick a lock confidently and in any sort of bizarre circumstance.

“Is it ready?”

Ran nodded. “I hope.” He felt another measure of relief that Kancho seemed to have accepted his explanation about his ability to pick a lock. Kancho might have been on the run and with his own death sentence hanging over his head, but if he knew there was a shadow warrior in the same cell with him, his honor might take over, and he might try to kill Ran with his bare hands.

It was not a fight that Ran wanted.

Fortunately, he was a very good liar. During his training, the teachers had taught all of the trainees how to lie convincingly, act, and disguise themselves. All of the skills were intertwined with each other. You couldn’t disguise yourself completely unless you truly believed in the role you were adopting. That took an extra bit of psychological skill to pull off, but eventually all of them had succeeded. Ran could almost believe Nakadai, the instructor who had taught him how to pick locks, was really his uncle. Even now as he worked with the wire, he saw Nakadai’s face in his memory, the older Shinobujin sitting on the stone floor surrounded by all manner of locks and picks, scattered metal bits and filings.

Back then, Ran had doubted his ability to ever pick a lock. Nakadai had first demanded to see his fingers.

“Show me what you have so I may know what I am working with.”

Ran had splayed his fingers, and Nakadai took each in his hands, prodding and eventually nodding to himself. “They are sufficient.” He had turned and picked up a padlock from the ground, before tossing it to Ran. “Open this lock.”

“I don’t know how,” Ran had replied.

“You don’t know how because you don’t try to see how it works in the first place,” Nakadai had scolded him. “Before you can pick a lock, you must understand how all locks function. Once you know this, opening them becomes a simple matter. Even for the most complex mechanisms. There is no gray in this skill. A lock is either locked or open—never sort of open or sort of locked. You must learn as many locks as possible and store that information in your head for when you need it.”

It had taken him years to absorb everything that Nakadai had to teach.

Ran held up the wire. The majority of it was still the long, slightly curved bit that he would fish out through the bars and down to the lock. But toward the end, the wire was bent into a series of peaks and valleys. “Time to test this out and see if it works.”

Malkyr came over when he saw the wire. “Do you think that will really work?”

Ran frowned. “What do you care? I thought you were just going to sit here until Kan-Gul feeds your soul to his monster.”

Malkyr shrugged. “I didn’t know you actually had a plan for escape.”

Ran sniffed. “I wouldn’t call this any sort of plan. At this point, it’s still very much a bad gamble.”

Kancho grinned. “I’d rather gamble on you than wait for a certain death.”

Malkyr nodded. “As would I.”

“Very well,” said Ran. “Then we will see if I’ve been able to remember my teachings.” He smirked. “Or else our future does not look as enjoyable as I would hope.”