Kida and Destiny landed in the outskirts of Gerse in the middle of the morning. The whole night before they had steered by the light that shone from the lake to the west. For some reason, the light had made Destiny uncomfortable, although Kida kept going on and on about how beautiful it was. Destiny was just glad it was day now, the brightness of the sunlight drowning out any strange glowing.
Gerse had grown since the last time she was here. With the beautiful weather of this time of the year the tourist season was in full swing, so the town was full of people. Most of the activity was concentrated around the lake, but the boutiques and small craft shops lining the main street of town also drew quite a crowd. Among the gayly dressed tourists in their flowery dresses and pastel fabrics, the man in the black cloak stood out like the proverbial sore thumb. When Destiny spotted him, she grabbed Kida’s arm and pointed.
“Look! Black cloak, there!”
“You think it’s Midas?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised. Let’s go!”
Destiny weaved through the crowd easily, soon catching up to the man. It was pretty clear before she ever reached him that it wasn’t Midas. The man was the wrong height and build, for one, and there was no sign of the trademark dragon-headed cane. Instead, the man carried a large wizard’s staff. Even so, Destiny had to be sure, so she reached out and grabbed his shoulder, stopping him short and spinning him around to face her.
Sure enough, the man looked nothing like Midas now that she was closer. He had dark hair and brown eyes with a spark of amusement in them, and was handsome in a conventional way. He held his staff in front of him defensively, but relaxed it almost immediately when he saw who had grabbed him. Destiny held his attention for just a moment before his eyes flicked over to Kida, and his entire expression changed. His lips widened into a grin, his eyes brightened, and he stood up a bit straighter.
“Well hello there…” he said in a low voice. He looked her up and down, not bothering to be subtle.
Kida just glared at him. It didn’t seem to phase him, which Destiny found rather hilarious.
“What might two beautiful ladies such as yourself be doing in a town like Gerse?” he asked, making it very clear he thought little of the place.
Destiny didn’t miss the fact that he had included her in his compliment, but before she could respond Kida had spoken.
“What might a arrogant little man like yourself be doing in a town like Gerse?” she quipped, twisting the end of the sentence to imply that Gerse was far too nice a town for such as he.
For a moment, Destiny almost thought they were going to come to blows, then the man burst out laughing, the tension in the air evaporating as quickly as it had formed.
“Touché. Well played, I have to say. My name is Ares, I’m here in town visiting my uncle, he owns the magic shop a few blocks over.”
Kida still seemed to be annoyed, so Destiny answered. “Nice to meet you, Ares. I’m Destiny, this is Kida. Oddly enough, we’re also here to visit your uncle. Not that we knew he was your uncle…” she paused for a moment, then shook her head and continued. “We’re running an errand, we have a package to deliver to him.”
“Ah, you must be from Anaxagoras, then. Uncle said he was expecting something. Come on, I’ll show you where his shop is!”
Before Kida could protest he had set off down the street, leaving the girls no choice but to follow.
“I don’t like him…” Kida muttered, so quiet even Destiny could barely hear her.
“What, because he complimented you?”
Kida didn’t answer, but Destiny knew the answer was probably yes. Destiny knew Kida probably felt her character had been called in to question, or some such nonsense. True, the man - Ares - had come off as a bit of a lech at first, but for some reason Destiny didn’t so much mind. It was clear, to her at least, that he’d just been joking with them. At least, mostly joking.
He was walking quietly in front of them now, glancing back every so often to make sure they were following. They ducked into a small side street, then into an even smaller alley before Ares stopped in front of a unremarkable little wooden door and knocked.
“Is this a magic shop or an illegal operation?” Kida asked dryly.
Ares laughed and shook his head. “No, this is just the back door. Easier than fighting the crowds around front, believe me.”
A few minutes after he knocked, the door creaked open and an elderly man stepped out, peering at them over the top of wire-rimmed glasses.
“Eh? What’s that? Ares, who be these two?”
“Uncle, this is Destiny and Kida,” Ares answered, speaking very loud and enunciating clearly. “They have a package from Anaxagoras.”
The old man’s face, which until now had been twisted in an unpleasant grimace, suddenly broke into a wide smile. “Ah! Ye must be the two Zadkiel sent with me herbs, yes?”
Kida glanced sideways at Destiny, clearly trying her hardest not to laugh.
“Yes, sir, that’s us. Here, this is for you,” Destiny said, neatly preventing Kida from having to speak through her stifled giggles. Fortunately, the man didn’t even seem to notice Kida’s predicament, although whether that was due to the distraction of the package, or just to his poor hearing, Destiny didn’t know.
“Excellent, yes, excellent! Thank ye dearie, I’ve been waiting on these quite a while now… yes, yes, this will be excellent…” The old man continued to mutter to himself as he turned and went back inside, shutting the door behind him with his foot.
Destiny looked at Ares, then at Kida, then all three burst into laughter.
“He, without a doubt, is the best old man I have ever met!” Kida managed to gasp. Maybe it was just the release of tension after all the disturbing events of the past weeks, but somehow their laughter just kept going. Long after the only moderate hilarity of Ares’s uncle had subsided, the continued to laugh at each other. The giggles would subside, then eye contact would be made and they would start right back up again. Finally, when oxygen deprivation began to be a serious issue, they managed to calm down to just mild, occasional chuckles.
“Oh that felt good…” Ares sighed. “I haven’t laughed like that in ages.”
“Me neither,” Kida said. Any animosity between the two seemed to have been forgotten in the sudden and rather surprising development of a budding friendship. Ares looked from one to the other, then stood up straight from where he’d been leaning against the wall next to the door.
“Would you ladies like to stay with me? My uncle’s house is not far from here, and he almost always sleeps above the shop, so there’s plenty of room. That is, if you didn’t have other plans. I understand if you want to get back home to Anaxagoras…”
“Are you kidding me?” Kida interjected. “We have no intentions of going back hom until we’ve had a little fun out here in the world. Gerse is as good a place as any to start! Right, Destiny?”
“Sure. We’d be glad to stay with you as long as you’ll have us,” Destiny replied, somewhat more sedately.
With that decided, Ares led the way to the two story townhome that his uncle owned. After they had dropped their stuff and had a quick lunch, they set out for an afternoon of shopping. While Gerse was nothing compared to Lumo Bay or Blowin, it did have quite a nice array of antique and knick-knack shops. They returned that night with lighter pockets and heavier bags.
The guest room had bunk beds, so Kida and Destiny shared the room while Ares slept upstairs in his uncle’s room. The novelty of sleeping in a strange bed in a strange house, which normally would have kept Destiny up for a while, was drowned out by the exhaustion from their busy day. The moment she fell asleep, she found herself once again in a dream. There was an all-too familiar ring of blue fire around her, but things seemed more out of focus this time, like she was looking through clouded glass.
A voice spoke, but she could not tell which of the shadowy figures outside the ring of flame was the speaker.
“Friends will betray you… family will turn away… but Wor Clan will never leave you. All you have to do is kill her, and you can join us…”
Destiny could only nod. “I understand. When the time is right, it will be done. I need more time to prepare.”
“The sooner the better. We will not wait forever… do not fail us.” The voice seemed irritated now, almost impatient.
“I understand,” Destiny said again. “It… It will happen before the end of the week.”
“You have three days..”
Before she could reply again, the scene blurred even more, into darkness, and she awoke with a startled gasp. Kida rolled over in the bunk above her, but otherwise there was no indication she had noticed anything amiss. Destiny stared up at the slats of the top bunk, fighting to calm her breathing. Maybe she should just do it now. It would be so easy. A pillow over Kida’s face, or a katana to her chest… the mere thought of it made Destiny shudder, and she realized something. There was no way she could do this herself. She simply didn’t have the willpower, the guts, to do it. She couldn’t see how she could ever bring herself to kill her childhood friend… but the clan. The Wor Clan, they had called themselves. The promise of power was alluring, as was the mystery of their nature. Who were they? What did they want with her? Why did they want Kida dead?
Those questions, and others, chased circles around her mind. Sleep evaded her for the rest of the night, her thoughts a jumble of questions and plans for the deed she was to do within three days time. It seemed impossible one moment, all too easy the next, inconceivable the next.
The next morning, Destiny was out of bed with the sun, going for a short jog around the neighborhood to clear her head. When she returned she found Kida sitting at the table with Ares, eating breakfast and chatting companionably. They both looked up when she came in, questioning looks on their faces.
“Just went for a jog. I’m going to go wash up and change, be right down,” Destiny said quickly, and escaped into the guest room before they could engage her in conversation. She couldn’t deal with talking to Kida right now, not after her dream.
She showered quickly and dressed in clean clothes, packing the rest of her belongings and new purchases away neatly. True, they were probably not leaving for another few days, but Destiny wanted to be ready in case circumstances required a hasty departure. When she re-emerged into the dining room, it was with a cheerful mask firmly in place, all thoughts of murder shoved neatly to the back of her mind.
“So!” she chirped, grabbing an apple and joining the other two at the table. “What are the plans for today?”
“Well,” Kida said. “Ares here tells me there’s a pretty decent dojo in town. We though we might stop by, see if we can get some training done. I’m getting a little rusty with just you to spar against.”
Destiny wrinkled her nose at Kida, but managed a laugh. “Sounds good to me. I wouldn’t mind a bit of a workout.” It would be nice to just be physical for a day, focus on training her body rather than her mind. And maybe a training accident would work… No, she couldn’t think about that.
“Well, if we’re all agreed, I say we set out as soon as we finish breakfast,” Ares said.
Destiny held up her apple. “I can eat on the go.”
“And I’m done, so let’s move it!” Kida said, standing and taking her empty bowl to the sink.
They spent a few minutes gathering their various weapons and gear for training, then once again the two girls followed Ares as they set off for the dojo. It was only a few blocks away, so they were there within a few minutes. It was a rather unassuming building, but once they stepped inside they found the familiar raised training floor, the air filled with the sounds of sparring and martial arts practice.
Destiny slipped her sandals off at the corner of the floor and stepped up onto it, immediately scanning the people there for someone she could train with. In the shadows towards the back, she saw something that set her heart racing. A tall, powerfully-built man was stretching in preparation for his work out, wearing nothing more than a pair of loose pants. On his arms, snaking around them up to his chest, were two tattoos. Dragons, one red and one blue. With a shock of recognition, she realized it was the same man she had seen in her dream, the first one. He was the one who had seemed to be in charge. This was not a chance she could pass up.
She approached him, bowing politely when he looked up at her. The look in his eyes banished whatever else she had intended to say - it was anger, bordering on rage, and recognition, much as she had felt upon seeing him.
“Excuse me, sensei,” she began, using the term of respect just to be safe. “I was wondering… may I train with you?”
The anger seemed to drain from his eyes a bit, and the muscles he had tensed eased slightly. He must have been afraid that she would confront him, or betray his identity, but she now had no intention of that. Frankly, the man scared her like nothing else, but she also felt an odd respect for him, along with a strange familiarity.
“What would you like to train?” His voice was low and rumbling, with an odd accent that she couldn’t quite place.
“I am reasonably well versed in Okii-Yuri, sensei, but I still have much to learn. Would you teach me?”
He seemed to consider her words for a moment, then smiled. The expression held no humor, though - it was just the barest twitch of his lips.
“Very well. You seem an apt pupil. Ready yourself.”
She bowed again and moved into stretches of her own, feeling her muscles loosen and warm up as she moved. The moves and blocks of Okii-Yuri ran through her head as she prepared, and she found to her delight that she could remember them perfectly. Actually carrying them out was another thing entirely, but she felt reasonably confident in her abilities. Okii-Yuri was defensive, after all, and she was gifted with the speed and agility of the cat race.
When she felt she was ready, she turned to face the man again. They exchanged bows, then he beckoned for her to take the first attack. With a will, she stepped towards him, raising her arm to strike a blow. Before she could blink, he had grabbed her arm and whipped her around, sending her tumbling towards the floor. With reflexes bred through long practice, she tucked and rolled, coming up on her feet just in time to see his foot whipping towards her. She barely dodged it, skipping backwards in a fight to regain her balance. He was fast, preternaturally so. Certainly faster than her. She had chosen her training partner wisely.
Over the next several hours, Destiny found her every muscle worked to its limit. The tattooed man pushed her hard, forcing her to repeat techniques over and over until she could execute them flawlessly, without thinking, with a speed that, while far from equal with his, was still more than enough to stymy most average opponents. By the time he stepped back and bowed once more, signalling the end of their training session, she felt drained - but in a good way. Her mind was spinning and her muscles were sore, but the adrenaline and endorphins from the excercise coursed through her veins, leaving her feeling almost giddy.
“Thank you, sensei. You are an excellent teacher.”
“You are a willing pupil, young one. You still have much to learn, but you have skill, there is no doubt there.”
Destiny felt an unusual glow of pride at his words. For some reason, his respect meant more to her than it should have. Then again, he was the leader of a clan she now desperately wanted to join. No assassin could fight like that, they had to be ninjas. Perhaps they only wore masks for safety’s sake, to hide their identity from their enemies. And if they wanted Kida dead, there must be a reason. She must be a threat to them in some way. Who was she to question them, really?
“I thank you for your words, sensei. I hope to not disappoint you.” Destiny lifted her head and met his gaze. She saw clearly that he understood the double meaning behind her words. She would not fail him now. He had entrusted her with this task, and she would carry it out with honor.
Ares called her name from across the dojo and she glanced over her shoulder at him, mouthing that she would be there in a moment. When she turned back around, the man with the dragon tattoos was gone. Destiny could only shake her head and sigh, and mutter under her breath.
“Ninja…”
No comments:
Post a Comment