Chapter 15

  Gimi Ni

  Kivaan moved at the steady pace he knew he could keep to until nourishment was required. Behind him, the Chuho prowled at his back and flanks. Their physical form was at vast odds with their physical might and stamina. Jiriou had refused to have anything to do with either of them when he awakened, and even Oniwa was reluctant to come near. The girls represented a level of the supernatural that was strange and unknown even in the Outpost Realm, which was a place of tangible and observable curses and blessings.

  The Queen of the Night lit their path with her coy luminescence, pilfered from the Lord of the Day while he looked elsewhere. Her strength was its greatest at this point in her cycle, but so was her trickery. Kivaan preferred to use her silvery light rather than her death shroud. Enemies took greater care when there was little to no light, but were easily lulled into a false sense of security when there was some visibility.

  Thickets of Hunter’s Snare and Bleached Bone hugged the side of the path, in many places almost overgrowing it. Much of it had been newly cut back by the band of invaders that Kivaan now pursued, and the fresh, unhealed wounds in the vegetation told Kivaan that they were very close indeed on the heels of the enemy.

  “I heard the enemy speak of your brazenness in striding out into the clearing and formally introducing yourselves before asking for their identification,” chuckled Kageyu, smoke dribbling from her lips. “Do you mean to do the same tonight?”

  “I am a knight, not a brigand,” Kivaan replied curtly, without looking at her.

  “If the princess will not have you, perhaps I shall make a case for you to receive my hand,” Hajuyu giggled girlishly. “A Chuho would make a remarkable bride for the first son of the Second Guardian.”

  “Are there not more useful things we could speak of?” Kivaan growled. “If indeed we must speak at all?”

  “It isn’t fair, sister,” complained Kageyu, ignoring Kivaan with the practised skill of a younger sibling. “You were born only hours before I was, why should you lay claim to a warrior of Lord Kivaan’s quality?”

  Kivaan held his peace. It was clear the Chuho twins cared little for the opinions of others, least of all those whom they were currently engaged in teasing. It struck Kivaan that perhaps Kageyu would make either a fantastic or atrocious match for Jiriou. They could drive each other insane for years and years to come.

  “Dear sister,” said Hajuyu loftily – and Kivaan could hear the smug smile in her voice, “this has nothing to do with my seniority, but simply with making my move first. Perhaps you should have spent less time frightening the peasants and more time showing the Lord he could take you seriously.”

  “Sister! Dear sister,” spluttered Kageyu, “how could you talk to me so discourteously in front of Lord …”

  “Once again, I am not a Lord,” Kivaan sighed, unable to remain silent any longer. “Silence! Please! There is presenting ones self as an honourable adversary without guile, and then there is being heard coming from an entire watch away.”

  “Such a dignified air of command,” sighed Hajuyu dreamily.

  I shall be lucky if I am deemed fit to wed the daughter of a minor Lord of Red Sky, never mind the First Guardian’s only daughter. Even the princess’ handmaidens will be well above my station. It matters not. None of this is important now. I will retrieve the princess and take her to her father. Then I shall return to my father and serve him as best I can by doing what he wishes, and marrying who he wishes.

  Kageyu sniffed and then hissed. “We are nearly upon them. I smell the stagnation of White Towers.”

  Kivaan came to a stop and went down on one knee. The girls, too, came to a standstill, standing demurely on either side of him. Hajuyu’s golden eyes stared up the mountain path with a quietly fierce determination, while Kageyu hissed sibilantly at nothing.

  “Will you truly go with me into this fight?” asked Kivaan quietly.

  “Of course,” Hajuyu affirmed daintily. “This is more our battle than it is yours.”

  “Hardly,” Kivaan said sternly. “You are handmaidens, and I a knight. I left Oniwa and Jiriou behind as they will have no answers for the foe before us. I do not claim to command you, which is why I have not ordered or denied your presence. But do you follow Jiaduni or trust in your own strength?”

  “We follow Jiaduni with all of our mind and heart,” Hajuyu said lightly with a little tilt of her head. “As does the Princess.”

  “Then it is well,” Kivaan murmured. “Whatever Jiaduni has in store for us tonight, may we meet again in his courts one day.”

  Hajuyu and Kageyu bowed deeply and spoke as one. “Let us serve our Creator faithfully.”

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  Rising to his feet once again, Kivaan breathed out slowly. Now they would not stop moving until they were either victorious or defeated. This was where his path had led, after all these years. He looked up at the stars, sparkling in the endless field of darkness above.

  Do I wish I could read their tidings as Tsukio does? Would knowing my fate change what I am about to do? Ah. I must move, before I lose my nerve.

  He took one step, and then another, and as he moved into a quick march, each subsequent step became easier. His destination – whatever it might be – became a matter of when, rather than if.

  Jiaduni … let her still be alive. Whether by my life or death … let me preserve her life and send her back to her land unharmed. Strengthen my arm for this battle.

  The silver-veiled terrain moved past, climbing suddenly in the same way it had before he arrived at the scene of the handmaidens’ execution. There came a place where the path passed through a dense thicket of Hunter’s Snare, ably hiding whatever lay beyond. He slowed only enough to allow himself a moment to judge quickly the numbers and positioning of the encamped invaders, noting that many slumbered under trees and around a fire that had been lit in the middle of the clearing. What guards there were leaned against their spears or conversed in hushed tones, their attention not on their duty.

  Typical of those who cannot fathom they may be pursued or challenged.

  “Awake from your sleep, infected degenerates,” Kivaan called out over the clearing. He pulled his blade from the air as the agents stumbled into readiness or started from their sleep with shouts of warning or panic.

  The Blade of Jiaduni spat and hissed as if made of molten rock, the very air around its rippling blade shivering at its passing. Its drawing alone lit the clearing as if dawn had broken over the mountains. The agents cried out in alarm at this strange new weapon. Some fled immediately, howling into the darkness, while other screamed with rage and threw themselves upon Kivaan.

  “Time to die!” cackled Kageyu on his left hand, her putrid smoke billowing forth and enveloping a small group of warriors who had thought it prudent to attack together. Instead, they died together, coughing up blood and collapsing slowly as they clawed at their throats.

  Hajuyu did battle with a serene sort of beauty, as if she were above it all. In battle she used a fan, that she flicked open and closed, whisking it through the air with quick slices and jabs that directed Kageyu’s smoke as if it were a pet serpent on her leash.

  Kageyu (fore) and Hajuyu (back) work together to destroy their foes.

  AI-rendered work based on original hand-drawn concepts by T. Sharp

  Kivaan left the handmaidens to their own devices, instead cutting his own path directly through the centre of the camp. He cast aside assailants as if they were children armed with bundles of straw. As Madari had said, the close quarters engagements ensured he must see the loathing and horror written in their eyes behind their masks as they went to their doom. They screeched like animals as they were cut down, their blind hatred of this unassailable power making them claw at him until the very end. It was the first time Kivaan had encountered such obscene distaste for another living creature, and he found it deeply unsettling.

  This is how they see those who disagree with them? he wondered. This is not something our nations will come to terms on through diplomacy … how much longer can we have peace in the Outpost Realm? Is war coming? Realm-desolating war?

  A masked woman strode from the only tent in the camp, her body thinly clad in silks that hugged her like a second skin. Her mask had only a single eye-hole in it, but the eye that glared at Kivaan through that portal swirled with magical spite. Reality seemed to be trying to rush away from him like the Black Sea was known to do before the devastating waves that followed the greater quakes. The woman’s hands moved hypnotically as she weaved whatever charm she had chosen to attack him with.

  She is pulling at the darkness, Kivaan recognised, studying her movements. She must be the charmer who bound the Chuho and the Princess.

  The woman faltered then, her arms and legs tensing defensively. Kivaan could feel the weight of the oppressive darkness she was knitting about him, but the light of his blade kept it at bay, as if he were travelling under the Queen of the Night’s deathshroud with only a lantern in his hand. With wonder, Kivaan hefted the blade in his hand higher and the darkness retreated still further, its seamstress also taking an involuntary step back.

  “Yield,” Kivaan commanded.

  “Never,” hissed the woman, turning to flee.

  And then Kageyu leaped across the clearing, landing directly behind the masked woman in a spray of dirt and grass. When the cloud of dust settled, Kivaan saw the pair standing there, one behind the other … Kageyu’s left hand forced straight through the woman’s back and out of her chest. Even then, a pair of knotted and sickly arms had sprouted from the charmer’s shoulders to attempt holding Kageyu back, but they were even now no more than a pair of smouldering stumps. Hajuyu stood at Kageyu’s side, her hand up as if to stop an oncoming attack, a golden sigil hanging in the air as it crackled and rippled with light in much the same way as Kivaan’s blade did. There was a brief pause, and then whatever foul creature had been aiding the charmer erupted from her destroyed body and fled shrieking up the mountain path, leaving only the stench of decay and sickness behind it. The charmer collapsed into a heap, no hope left for her now. Kivaan turned away from the scene to ensure all enemies had been accounted for.

  He found himself standing before the tent the charmer had emerged from, blade still at the ready, despite no discernible enemies remaining. Kageyu was taking an unhealthy pleasure in ensuring no enemy remained alive, but Kivaan hesitated at the tent’s entrance. He had lost track of the Infected that he had cut down, but he was afraid to answer the question of what had become of the Princess.

  Move. Move before you become a rock.

  “Princess,” he spoke, his voice firm but his tone apprehensive. “Princess, are you there?”

  There came a half-breath from within, choked off by a sob.

  “K-Kivaan?” returned the imploring voice, hardly daring to believe this was reality. “Is it truly … how can this be?”

  “May I enter?” he pressed urgently.

  “Yes … I suppose you must,” came the Princess’ subdued reply.

  Gimi ni: translates to ‘present darkness’, although if literally translated it would be along the lines of ‘now’s darkness’.