The Wrath Of the Forgotten (7 page)

That didn’t matter now. All that mattered was that Tov didn’t get caught. In the hustle and bustle of the mid-day shift change, the imperial guards had been careless for only a few moments. To Tov’s great fortune, he managed to slip in. Now that he was in, he was stuck. As good as he was, if Tov was discovered, everything his masters planned for would be for naught.

Tov peeked around the corner. The long corridors went on forever and had countless rooms attached to each one. How was he going to find the
one
specific room he needed in this maze of decadence?

Something moved at the far end of the hallway. A pair of guards exited a room, but they moved away without looking in his direction. When everything returned to a state of utter quiet, Tov slipped out and took cautious steps. Every time he heard a distant echo, he stopped where he stood and crept beside the closest wall. Once he felt safer, he resumed his trek. The room he sought was right across from a statue of a duck. Why in the hell would these stupid humans have a statue of a duck in a palace anyway?

The minutes melted away as Tov causally crept along the corridors. Eventually, he found the statue of the duck. Without pausing, Tov gently pushed open the door across from it and moved inside.

Darkness filled the room, with only several beams of light entering through the breaks from the curtains blocking the windows. A large canopy bed sat in the middle of the chamber. Several large couches lined the walls. As he had been informed, the doorway leading to a balcony stood across from where he entered. Tov moved over to one of the couches and sat down. The room was utterly still.

Tov touched his armband. It had been constructed from gold and had an oval yellow gem embedded within it. Slowly, Tov channeled his magic into the stone. It glowed with a faint hue, and casted oblong shadows on the wall. Tov sent his thoughts into it and imagined a specific person.

Meet me. I have news for you.

Tov rested his hands in his lap. He kept glancing at both doors. Several minutes later, the door to the room opened up. A young woman with black hair entered the room. She wore an elegant white dress with various luxurious adornments woven into the fabric. When considering the majority of human women, she was taller than most.

She narrowed her magenta colored eyes. “What are you doing here?”

Rather than stand, the woman moved over to an adjacent couch and poised herself on it as if it were a throne.

Tov eased back in his seat. The softness of the cushion felt great against his weary back muscles. The sense of comfort sent vile spasms reverberating through out his torso. “Do you think I want to be here? I loathe the level of decadence your kind squanders. Do you know how many of your own kind sleeps on the streets every night? It sickens me.”

The woman crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m on your side. Why do you think I’m serving the Masters? I want balance too.”

Tov said, “That’s your only redeeming quality, human.”

The woman’s lower jaw clenched. “You know my name, creature.”

“I don’t care to use it,” Tov replied. “If you’ve read the lore, then you know what I am. If you were half the devotee you claim to be, I’d think you’d be giving me more respect.”

“I am being respectful. You need me, and the Celestial Ones can’t succeed without agents like myself. Respect goes both ways!”

Tov reached into a side pouch and pulled out a slender scroll. “Onista has fallen. It’s now time for you to fulfill your part of the plan.”

Her eyes opened wide. “The ogres are truly vanquished?”

Tov leaned forward in his seat. A satisfied grin split apart his face. “I’m the one who led the charge against them. What have you done for the Masters lately?”

She looked at the door, and then turned her attention back to him. “I keep them informed. I risk my life every day for them! Don’t you dare for a moment discount my sacrifices.”

Tov tossed her the scroll. “Your sacrifices have not been forgotten, even by me. Can you blame me for hating your kind?”

A long moment of silence lingered in the room before the woman’s shoulders slumped. “I’m not like my ancestors. I’m not like the others. I support you, and I support the Celestial Ones.”

Tov advanced for the second door. “Good. They’re going to ask you to do something very difficult. I hope you’re ready.”

The woman regarded him for a moment before she unrolled the scroll. She studied its contents and then winced. “I suspected they would ask this of me. When should I do it?”

“Not yet,” Tov said. “Just be aware that you’ll be required to perform the act very soon. Within the month no doubt. What you can do now is destroy all the records containing lore about them.”

The woman nodded. “I understand. It shall be done before the week’s end.”

Tov opened the door. A gentle breeze caressed him. The azure sky stretched overhead. “Be careful, human. I may hate your kind, but you have done well in the many years that you have served the Masters. You are indeed highly valued.”

The woman chortled. “I should hope so. After all, I’ve been promised so much for what I’ve given and what I intend to give.”

Tov peeked back at her. “The end is coming. Be ready.” He summoned his wings and flew off.

“THERE IT IS,”
Apisa whispered. “The Kluflu Clan base.”

For the last few blocks, the number of residential buildings had dropped considerably. An army of warehouses and various factories swarmed the roadsides. Odd, non- food related odors permeated the air. Consistent, distant, muffled noise resounded like thunder. The only people who moved on the street were factory or warehouse workers. Whenever someone else got closer to Nori, they averted their gaze and increased their pace. None of the girls mentioned anything.

A large two story house sat in the middle of a ring of walls. The walls had been painted white, which matched the building. A brown tiled roof sat atop the structure. Two warehouses crowded the outer walls of the complex. A pair of men stood in front of a large circular opening in the wall. They both wore silk long-sleeved jackets and baggy slacks. One of the men had a shoddy spear in his hands while the other had a worn-looking hatchet hanging from his belt. They spoke in hushed tones, but laughed gruffly. In terms of age, they appeared to be slightly older than Nori. Both of the men could have benefited from a good shave.

Nori gripped his war club in both hands. “I can probably get up to them and take them out before they could raise too much of a commotion.”

“You’ll do nothing of the sort, you savage ruffian,” Rayko said. “Allow me to take care of the guards. I’ll do this with sophistication and grace.” She flourished her hands for a moment and stepped out in front of the others.

Rayko closed her eyes. Her rainbow diamond tattoo glowed brilliantly for a moment. The air rippled with unseen energies, and it even felt thicker against Nori’s skin. Out of nothing, several figures emerged into being, as if they had merely stepped out of the shadows. Each of the women had incredibly elegant silk robes clinging to their lithe forms. The silk hugged their bodies a little too well, for each and every perfect curve or bump pressed through the thin fabric. The women wore delicately applied make-up that accentuated the slant of the eyes and the prominence of their cheek bones. Crimson lips formed subtle pouts. Their finger and toe nails had the same color as their lips. Lastly, each of the women wore sandals on their feet.

Nori’s cheeks burned wildly.

The three women stood poised for only a moment before they walked around the corner and moved toward the guards.

“W-wait,” Nori said. “It’s dangerous for them to go out there. Those men could hurt them.”

Rayko rolled her eyes and shook her head. Apisa openly chucked, and even Flara smirked behind the hand that she had raised to her mouth. Nori just watched the trio of women. They pranced up to the pair of guards, as if out of a dream. The guards stiffened upon their approach. Rayko’s tattoo continued to faintly shimmer, and she stared intently at the women as well. After several long seconds, the women scampered away from the guards. The pair of men chased after them instantly.

“How delightful,” Rayko said. “They’ll be busy for a while. We can go inside now.”

Nori held up a hand. “Whoa! Wait a second. What about the women, we can’t just leave them?”

Rayko placed her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes at him. Her upper lip quivered into a feral snarl. “That was an illusion, you simple-minded fellow! That’s what I do after all, I’m an illusionist! Not only that, I’m the most skilled illusionist in all of Jadai. None can match my prowess.” Rayko beheld him as if he were a lowly kitchen slave, and then maneuvered around the corner.

Flara didn’t hesitate to follow Rayko. Apisa paused for a moment and whispered ever so slightly, “I told you Flara wasn’t the one for you to worry about.”

Nori tightened his jaw so that his lower molars pressed up against his upper ones. His grip on his tetsubo had become so great that his knuckles shook slightly. Nori followed behind them and scanned the area for anything he could smash. Rayko and Flara moved into the circular opening in the wall first. Nori’s heart lurched upward closer to his collar bones. He ran faster and managed to enter the inner garden as Rayko made her way to the front door.

The interior garden appeared quite serene. A gravel path ran between two fairly large coy ponds. Fish shapes swirled beneath the water’s surface while lily pads floated above them. Trees with white and pink blossoms growing on their branches surrounded the fish ponds. A wide wooden deck surrounded the perimeter of the house.

Rayko and Flara stopped in front of the wooden double doors.

“S-should we go in through the front?” Flara asked.

Nori stepped up onto the porch and positioned himself between them. He gazed down at Flara and completely blocked Rayko from view.

“Get your diseased, filthy posterior out of my face, you wretched creature,” Rayko said.

Nori narrowed his eyes and kept his voice as gruff and authoritative as he could. “If we are going to do this, we’re going to do it my way. I’m the one trained in combat and in guardianship. We should try and find a side entrance or something. And I’m going first in case something happens, okay?”

Flara shrank before him ever so slightly and averted her eyes. “Um… o-okay.”

Nori whirled around, but made sure not to knock Rayko over in the process. Her demonic stare of disapproval haunted him from his peripheral vision.

Nori lowered his stance and moved his feet slowly along the floorboards. When one foot moved forward, Nori planted all of his weight on the other leg. Gently, he eased his front foot onto the floor, and then he transferred his full weight on to it. Nori swung his back leg forward and repeated the process as he moved about. The girls copied his movements, which made their group look more like a trio of young girls mimicking their older brother, or perhaps their father due to Nori’s exceptional size. Thank the light that despite their silly appearance, they didn’t make any noise.

The deck zig-zagged along the side of the house, but it stopped at a side entrance on the right side of the building. Nori held up his hand and gazed over his shoulder to see if the girls would indeed halt.

Rayko and Apisa had grins while Flara had an impish smirk plastered on her face. When they noticed that he had his attention on him, they softly snickered into their hands.

So… they were making fun of him. Great, just great.

Nori leaned in and pressed his ear to the door. Nothing. He gently placed his hand on the wooden frame of the door and slid it to either side. The door moved more so in one direction, so Nori opened it cautiously. As he did so, he peeked inside.

A narrow hallway ran about twenty feet before it came to an intersection. Nori swallowed to moisten his throat. He gestured back to the women and slowly entered inside. Silence filled the house. Entryways to rooms opened up from the hallway every five or ten feet. Unmade bedrolls and furniture sat in the rooms. Nori stopped at the corner of the intersection and glanced back to Flara and the others.

His voice came out in a harsh whisper. “You do realize this is probably going to end in bloodshed, right?”

Flara’s shoulders bunched up a little and she winced. Tears formed in her eye lids, but she nodded.

Apisa held up her fist. “I’m more than ready to do some blood spilling, if it’s needed.”

Rayko said, “Blood spilling is so barbaric. I’ll do what needs to be done, but I won’t be the reason any one loses their life.”

Nori turned back around and stared down the hallway. Just as he was about to move out from the safety of his spot, the front door started to move. Anxiety spasms erupted within him as he placed his back against the wall. He locked his gaze on the front door, but he wildly waved at the girls with his free hand.

The girls ducked into one of the rooms. Once they were completely within, Nori took several stealthy steps to join them. Nori crouched closest to the doorway and held his tetsubo at the ready. Though none of the girls said anything, the air vibrated with their combined sense of panic. Nori pressed his tongue against the roof of his mouth.