Nocturne melody, p.22
Nocturne Melody, page 22
part #3 of Night Wander Series
I shook my head and clamped down on the rage that surged in my chest at the disdain in her voice as she mentioned Ekt.
“He didn’t,” I said. “He died a Warden and with honor.”
“Honor?” she mocked. “What do you know of honor? He died like the worthless cretin he was. He served his purpose, and did me a favor by dying once he was done. Saved me the trouble of having to kill him later.”
“He died honorably,” I said again. “I will make sure your death is worthy of your station. Barely above the scum of the earth.”
She laughed at my words.
“You should consider joining Tigris,” she said, cocking her head to one side. “You’re resourceful, ruthless when needed, and cunning. We could use a mage like you. Why not be on the winning team for once? The Wardens are relics of the past. A forgotten group of misguided mages with delusions of grandeur.”
“All of them deserving of death, was it?” I asked. “Isn’t that what you told Ekt?”
Her expression darkened.
“Yes, Tigris is the future,” she said defiantly. “Groups like yours are the past. Things to be removed, discarded, and destroyed.”
“Like Ekt?” I asked. “You screwed with his mind so much, he didn’t know which way was up. On top of that, you put him under a blood bond?”
“Ekt was weak,” she said. “Look before you, Warden. Fix your eyes on true strength. With a word, I can unleash the might of this rummer army on you. No one can stand before the might of Tigris, before my might and power.”
Talk about delusions of grandeur.
Another amulet turned red.
I was amazed that the rummers hadn’t broken loose. It was a testament to the power contained in her amulet. As long as her amulet was functional, she would exert control over the army.
“What did you do with the people who used to live and work on this island?” I asked. “Where did you send them?”
“Send them?” she asked. “I didn’t send them anywhere.”
A cold chill gripped my chest.
“You didn’t,” I said, barely managing the words. “No.”
“Oh, yes, Warden,” she assured me. “The people of this island never left. They are standing in front of you, transformed for the better. They have more purpose in death than they ever had in life. They are now part of the blade of Tigris, to be used against our enemies.”
She had turned all of the people on the island. Hundreds of innocents had lost their lives to be made into rummers.
Another amulet turned red, only one left, before Frank started on hers.
I needed more time.
“Surrender, Mako,” I said. “I can’t promise you a quick death, but it will be clean, which is more than what you offered these sorry souls.”
“Surrender?” she said with a laugh. “You must be insane. I will kill you where you stand and bury you next to your apprentice. How is she, by the way? Has she started craving blood yet? Did she try to attack you?”
“Not yet,” I said, my voice dark. “I think she’s going to make a horrible rummer. Seems like the transformation just didn’t take.”
“Impossible,” she said. “I dosed her myself. She’s as good as dead.”
“Seems like you underestimated, again.”
I let the words hang in the darkness between us.
I saw the realization slowly dawn on her. Rage transformed her expression as she let it run freely through her.
“You didn’t,” she said. “It was the only vial of that particular strain. It took me decades to perfect, and you wasted it on that bitch of an apprentice? Do you know what you have done?”
“I made sure Koda stayed alive. That’s what I did.”
“You stupid fool,” she spat. “You’ve set me back years, decades. I’ll make sure you suffer before you die. As for your pet apprentice, I’m going to drain her dry and formulate a new strain from her blood. I’m going to kill her first, and make sure that the last image you see before I rip out your eyes, is her life fade before you, as I take her blood.”
The last amulet turned red.
“Sounds like you have anger issues,” I said. “I hear therapy is great for dealing with those unresolved childhood traumas.”
“Fuck you, Grey,” she said. “You’ll beg me to kill you before the sun rises. We’re done here. Kill him.”
Not one rummer moved.
“I said, kill—”
She turned to face the horde behind her.
Every rummogre and rummer remained motionless.
“Technical difficulties?” I asked, pointing at her amulet. “Maybe if you say it louder? Try switching it off and on again?”
“What have you done?” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “You’ve started the sequence of—?”
“Undoing,” I finished with a nod. “Five rummogres and your amulet, which seems difficult to remove by the way, means six amulets in total on a countdown to detonation. Should be a nice-sized explosion.”
“A nice-sized explosion?” she yelled. “You’ve killed us! This island will be blown apart! There are thirty more amulets linked to mine. It will set off a chain reaction that will tear this island to shreds. Nothing…nothing will be left.”
“That,” I said, forming Darkspirit, “is the plan.”
She formed several black obliteration orbs around her as the rummers began to screech.
“I may be dead,” she said with a smile of pure malice, “but I’ll stand over your corpse before I breathe my last.”
The amulet around her neck turned red and all hell broke loose.
THIRTY
Rummers were mindless chaotic creatures.
Shells of their former selves as humans with compassion and thought. They were driven by an insatiable hunger that triggered them into attacking anything with a pulse and a ready supply of blood.
In the absence of ready targets, they would, if frenzied enough, attack each other. These rummers had left frenzied hours ago, and were in a state of full-blown ravenous hunger.
They tore into each other as Mako released her obliteration orbs at me. I deflected two of the orbs, as a third punched into my side, sending me flying into a tree, which courteously stopped my flight with a bone-jarring thud, knocking the wind out of my lungs.
I staggered to my feet and headed back through the trees toward the fortress.
Mako gave chase.
“Where are you going, Warden?” she asked in a singsong manner. “There is no refuge on this island now. You’ve seen to that. I promise you, this will be your last night on this earth.”
She flung more orbs at me.
I ducked behind a tree as the orbs sailed past me, punching into the surrounding trees. I ducked and rolled to the side, as the tree I was using for cover was shredded by more orbs.
“Face me, Warden,” she called out. “At least die like a warrior.”
“Dying is overrated,” I called back and quickly moved locations.
A barrage of orbs disintegrated the location where I was standing. I could only hope that Frank and Koda were off the island. I stepped out into a clearing as Mako formed two short blades about two feet in length.
“Tired of running?” she asked as she closed the distance. “I promise to make this as agonizing as possible.”
I pulled up a sleeve of my duster.
Desperate times called for desperate measures.
I ran Darkspirit over my forearm, letting the blood flow freely.
“You’re insane,” Mako said as she watched me cut myself. “I’m doing you a favor by putting you down.”
I smiled at her, not entirely sure she was wrong.
Power flowed through my body as Izanami supercharged me. Mako laughed as our blades clashed. In the distance, in the back of my mind, I sensed the helicopters using a stealth approach.
They were too far away to make much of a difference.
Mako slid forward and thrust with one blade, while she slashed with the other. I parried the thrust, and mistimed the slash. She cut across my duster with no damage.
“What the hell?” she said as she lunged again, aiming for my neck. “How did you do that? Nothing stops my blades, nothing.”
I slipped to the side and deflected the thrust aimed at my neck.
“I have an excellent tailor, only uses top-of-the-line materials,” I said, forming a black orb and releasing it at her.
She slid to the side and rolled, slicing through the orb before it slammed into her. The orb exploded on impact, launching us apart. That was not the reaction I expected. Her blades had to have some runic component to get that effect.
The day was catching up with me.
I lay in the grass and looked up into the night sky. I willed my body to move, but it wouldn’t listen. I sensed her before she came into my field of vision.
“I told you,” she said between short gasps, “you’re dead man.”
I was tired, so damn tired.
Mako raised her blades and brought them down to bury them in my chest. I saw it happening in slow motion. The twin blades descended getting closer and closer to my body.
At the last moment, they changed direction and were blocked by a fan. Mako rolled back and brought up her blades in a defensive position.
A fan?
“What is this, nap time?” Koda said as she stepped to my side. “Were you going to let her turn you into a pincushion?”
“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked. “I told Frank to get off the island and take you with him. How did you get out of the vault?”
“You really thought you could keep me locked in a room? Me?” she asked. “The lizard is over there in the thick of things, frying everything in sight.”
I glanced over to the other side of the trees and saw electric arcs of energy fill the night sky. I should have anticipated Koda would find a way out of the vault—it was what she did, what she was gifted to do.
“You need to get off the island,” I said, getting to my feet and raising Darkspirit. “I’ll deal with Mako.”
“I got this one, old man,” Koda said. “I’m surprised you can still stand. You look like shit.”
“You got this?” Mako mocked. “I’ll slice through you—”
Koda disappeared from sight and reappeared in front of Mako, causing her to jump back.
“If I were you, I’d surrender right about now,” Koda said, forming her fans. “Since I know you won’t do that, I’m going to offer you an honorable death, even though you don’t deserve it.”
“You’re going to offer me?” Mako sputtered. “You insolent little bitch, I’ll gut you like a fish.”
“No. No, you won’t,” Koda said calmly. “You tried to kill me; it’s only fair I return the favor.”
Mako lunged forward, leading with a sword.
Koda closed a fan and swung it downward as she sidestepped the thrust. The fan crashed into Mako’s wrist, shattering it, and causing her to drop one of the blades.
Mako whirled around, using her forward momentum to rotate into a slash at neck level. Koda opened her fans and stepped inside the arc of Mako’s attack. She moved her hands in several semi-circular motions, the razor sharp edges of her fans slicing through Mako.
The last motion was at neck level.
Mako opened her eyes in surprise as she raised a hand to her throat. Blood began to seep through her fingers as she fell back.
“This…this doesn’t end here,” she said, gurgling blood as she spoke. “Tigris…Tigris can’t be stopped.”
Mako’s lifeless eyes looked into the sky a few seconds later.
“It ends here for you,” Koda said as Mako’s amulet turned orange. “Grey? Why is her necklace changing colors?”
“Oh, shit,” I said, with a sudden sense of urgency. “We need to get off this island—now. Where did you say Frank was?”
“Follow the lightning,” she said as we took off at a dead run. “Over there.”
She pointed to a clearing where Frank was firing arc bolts of energy and disintegrating rummers with each blast. The fact that he was so small worked in his favor. The rummers couldn’t catch him, and when they got too close, a bolt of energy removed them from existence.
“Frank!” I yelled. “Frank! We need to go!”
All of the amulets around the rummogres necks turned orange. Frank whirled around in a circle and teleported away from the rummers. He appeared next to Koda and me a second later.
“We need to go…now!” he said. “The amulets—”
“Noticed that did you?” I said, heading back to Mako’s body. “We need to take her body with us, before this island becomes a memory.”
“Grey, she’s dead.”
“I’m aware,” I said. “If we don’t do this, Division 13 will be all over our asses. It’s going to be bad enough we don’t have the origin strain to give them. Consider this a ‘stay off my back’ gesture. They’ve been after Mako for years. They’re going to want her body.”
I pulled out my phone and pressed a button.
“We’re fifteen minutes out,” Ronin said. “Hold tight.”
“Keep your people away from the island,” I said. “We are in the process of exfil off this island. Once we arrive somewhere safe, we’ll rendezvous and I’ll give you what you want, but do not allow anyone to approach, much less land on this island. Do you read me? This is a matter of life and death.”
“Loud and clear,” Ronin said. “You better be right about this, Grey. Or we are both done.”
He ended the call and I breathed out a sigh of relief. The last thing I needed was Division 13 coming after me because I managed to get a group of their operatives killed. They had a tendency to frown on ops that killed their people.
“Where exactly do you want us to teleport?” Frank asked. “It’s not like I’m a powerhouse on an island surrounded by flowing water. I don’t think I can get all four of us far, at least not far enough. Even if one of us is dead.”
I was out of ideas.
If we tried to hide in the vault, it would work—until the fortress was reduced to atoms. I didn’t know what the effects of the amulet blast would be, and I didn’t want to be in the area when it happened.
That’s when it hit me.
I raised my sleeve again.
“What are you doing?” Frank asked, alarmed. “Are you feeding it now?”
I stared at him, hard.
“You want to stick around and find out what a thirty-six amulet explosion looks like?” I asked. “Because Mako had thirty more amulets created that are connected to hers.”
“Thirty?” Frank asked, his voice filled with awe. “That’s going to tear everything apart.”
“Why does this sound like a bad thing?” Koda asked. “What are these amulets?”
“It is a bad thing,” I said, lifting my sleeve. “Izanami needs blood to port us out of here, unless either of you want to volunteer?”
“Does it need to be your blood?” Koda asked, looking down at Mako’s body and the pool of blood next to her. “Can you use her blood?”
I buried Darkspirit in Mako’s blood.
Dark energy surrounded us, wrapping all of us in tendrils of black energy, even Mako. The air crackled around us as I saw the amulet around Mako’s neck turn black.
“Oh, sh—” Frank started before the world shifted away in a cloud of black energy.
THIRTY-ONE
TWO DAYS LATER - THE CLOISTERS
“Are you sure this is the only way?” Koda asked as she lay in a bed. “I can always just donate blood.”
“Not according to Heka,” I said. “This has to be a combination cast. You ready?”
Frank twitched on the bed next to Koda.
“Stop being such a wuss,” Frank scolded her. “So what—it’s going to hurt? Life is pain, your Highness. Anyone who says different is selling something.”
Koda replied with a one finger salute and Frank laughed, twitching his tail all the while.
“We’re right here,” I said. “Heka can be rough around the edges.” I rubbed my temple at the memory of the last time she imparted knowledge to me. “But she knows what she’s doing. You’re doing a good thing here.”
“Yes, you are,” Aria said, entering the room with Heka close behind her. “This will save lives and thwart Tigris in one fell swoop.”
Koda flexed her jaw for a few seconds, before giving Aria a short nod. Heka stepped forward and leaned in close to Koda, whispering something in her ear. Koda glanced at me, laughed, and seemed more at ease.
She nodded again.
“Do it,” Koda said and closed her eyes. “Let’s get this over with.”
Heka placed her hands on Koda’s legs, while Aria moved to the other end of the bed, placing a hand on Koda’s head. They both began whispering and I felt the air become charged with power.
Koda’s body spasmed as she arced upward. Aria and Heka kept her on the bed as an orb of blood, about the size of my fist, floated up from Koda’s chest.
Aria gestured with a hand, and the orb floated over to Heka, who said something under her breath, causing bright white energy to lance through the blood orb.
When she was done, she whispered a word and sent the orb to Aria who did the same, except the energy she sent through the orb was silver. They repeated this process three times, before Aria reached out, absorbing the orb into her hand on the last pass.
