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~*~ TDT2: The Blood Debt ~*~

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Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

Posts: 7,994 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
“Arwing!” he gasped in a rough voice. He rose, staggered toward her, and she flinched involuntarily backwards. The boy’s blood painted his rapidly heaving torso in a slick crimson mess and was splattered across his face in feral stripes. She felt like she was going to retch. He was fearsome, awful, and terrified her. “Arwing,” he repeated, more softly, his voice breaking, “I – I had to – he attacked me – he was the son –“
“Stop,” she moaned, turning away and wiping her face with her hands. It was more for herself than to stop his guilty babbling, however. Her mind felt numb. She knew Maston was right; she knew that the boy attacked him, and she knew that the boy would have been killed somehow eventually. They had no choice. But looking at the destroyed body of the child, all of these things were forgotten. How could the man she loved have done such a terrible thing?
“Please,” he whispered. Please what? Forgive him? Forget what she had seen? Don’t hate him?
“You’re hurt,” she said curtly, and forced herself to take a step toward him. Tearing a strip from her threadbare shirt, she pressed it to the wound, careful not to touch his skin. She wasn’t sure how much of the blood on him was his or the boy’s. “We’ll have to bandage it later,” she declared, avoiding his eyes. “Just hold that there for now.”
“We have to go back,” Maston said raggedly. “Issavan must have gone the other way.”
“No,* Arwing replied firmly. “Let’s wait and see if anyone shows up here.”
“We’ll meet them on the way back if they followed us.”
“You need to rest. You are in no condition to fight,” she ordered, in a tone that brooked no argument. She guided him out of the room and settled him in the armchair.
“It’s no big deal,” he grumbled. “It’s just a small cut.”

21-Sep-2008 20:14:34

Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

Posts: 7,994 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
“I know,” was all she said, before moving to sit on the bed, so his back was to her. She couldn’t look at him now. She sat stiffly, hands gripping the edges of the mattress, leaning slightly forward with her head bowed.
The silence stretched for a few moments, each listening to the other’s uneven breathing, before Maston spoke. “Arwing,” he tried to begin again. She knew he felt obligated to explain, but she couldn’t hear it.
“Don’t.”
He hung his head. They were saved another awkward silence only by the arrival of Kzahar, who barreled into the room with his swords drawn. “Maston? Where is he?* Taking in his bloodstained figure, he snarled, “Did you kill him?”
Maston lifted his head, but made no move to rise. “What are you doing here?” he asked dully.
“I followed you,” Kzahar hissed, *to make sure I get my chance at Issavan. Did you kill him already?” He took a half-step toward his fellow warrior, anger bubbling over. “If you got to him first, Maston, I swear…”
“No,* Arwing answered for Maston “He wasn’t here.”
“Then why are you just sitting here?” he demanded.
“We needed a break.”
“A break?” the enraged man spat with obvious contempt. “We’re five people trying to capture the castle of the Emperor and you’re taking a BREAK? We don’t have time for this, you fools!”
“Kzahar…” Arwing met his gaze, holding it for a long time, trying to convey everything she could not bring herself to say.
He relaxed slightly. “What happened here?”
“It doesn’t matter.” She shook her head firmly, even as Maston cast a mournful look in the direction of the hallway that Kzahar couldn’t miss. He walked over and peered through the doorway, then gasped audibly, whirling to face Maston.
“Zamorak! What have you done, Maston?”

21-Sep-2008 20:14:57

Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

Posts: 7,994 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
“What I had to,” he replied automatically, but the words lacked their usual defensiveness. His tone was hollow, defeated, like his weary body that hunched over in the chair. “That’s the firstborn,” he explained softly.
“And you murdered him?”
“He did*’* want to-“
“You can’t just go killing children until we talk about it!” Kzahar began to raise his voice in a chiding tone.
“He was attacked! Good Gods, Kzahar, what kind of man do you think he is?”
Kzahar sent a long look in the direction of the cowering warrior. “I’m not sure I know,” he answered coldly.
His words seemed to shock the life back into Maston, who lurched to his feet, swaying a moment before advancing on Kzahar. “I did what I had to!” he roared. “You think you wouldn’t have done the same thing in my position? You think you’re so morally right?” Maston had snapped. “The boy attacked me, ******! He would have killed me! He was no better than his father, and it doesn’t matter how old he was, he was ready to be a cold-blooded murderer all the same. It’s kill or be killed! What would you have had me done, Kzahar? Captured him, brought him out for a public execution? Would you have swung the axe? He had to die; better he go down fighting!” He reared back and swung a fist into Kzah**** jaw before the other man could react. With the force that went into the punch, Kzahar reeled backward onto the ground.
Kzahar lunged upward from the ground, tackling Maston backward. They crashed into the armchair, sending it sliding backwards as they rolled onto the ground. Arwing heard a crunch as Kzah**** fist connected with Maston’s face. “You don’t get to make decisions on your own like that!” he bellowed back. “Not something that major! You may think you’re in charge, but you’re not our leader, Maston! Nobody asked you to be, and you’re clearly not capable of it!”

21-Sep-2008 20:15:15

Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

Posts: 7,994 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
“Enough!” Arwing shrieked. “Stop it, both of you!” She wrapped her arms around Maston’s formidable torso and dragged him backwards. “Can you two stop fighting long enough to help us win this battle? Issavan’s still out there! Kzahar, cut him some slack! None of us like what we had to do here, and I saw it. He had no other choice except to be killed! It’s terrible, but this is what we got ourselves into. Now we have to finish it. Maston, get yourself together, because we need you. We have to go back and take the other pathway. One of us should go check on Lil and Adrian.”
“Lil!” Kzahar exclaimed, choking on her name. “She followed me – she must have gone the other way! She’s with Issavan, alone!”
“Let’s go.” Arwing led the way as they sprinted from the room and back into the corridor.

21-Sep-2008 20:15:30

Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

Posts: 7,994 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Lil had no idea how long she had been walking down this corridor. All she knew was that there were no signs of Maston, Arwing, or Kzahar. Either she was way behind, or they had all picked the other path. She was beginning to wish she had, too; there were no signs of Issavan here. She found it hard to believe he would have, or could have come this way. The walls had narrowed inward until she couldn’t straighten both arms out to either side. How could a man of Issavan’s considerable girth come this way? The torches had ceased being lit a ways back, leaving her in complete, stifling darkness, so thick it felt fluid, so black she could not see her hand right in front of her face. It was terrifying, suffocating, to lose her vision. Where was she going? How would she see danger in time to defend herself? She had stopped running and now inched forward with her truncheon drawn, almost afraid to breathe, alert to any sound. How large of a head start had Issavan gotten? How much time had she spent arguing with Kzahar, that he had spent escaping? The questions whirled and pounded in her head; she had lost all sense of time and space. All Lil knew was the icy terror that made her hands shake uncontrollably. She was utterly, completely alone.
“Kzahar?” she called softly, trying to control the tremors that shook her voice. “Maston? Arwing?”
No answer but a shrill echo. That was it; she was giving up. She spun on her heel and began to walk back the way she had come. What a fool she was – by now, they had probably found Issavan, Maston would have killed him, they’d all be in the throne room wondering where in all hells she had been…
Suddenly her nerves prickled, and she stopped instantly. There, again, a faint shuffling noise. Barely audible. She tipped her head, focusing all her energy into locating it. It came from behind her, up the passage. Once more she whirled about and began to jog lightly, trying to keep her boots from slapping on the stones.

28-Sep-2008 22:51:22

Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

Posts: 7,994 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
“Kzahar?” she exclaimed again, louder this time.
The shuffling became louder, and faster too, almost a frantic pace. As she neared, she began to hear the sounds of a struggle – whispers, stifled shouts. “Quit it, you fool,” hissed an all-too-familiar voice.
“Hhllppp!” came the muffled cry once more.
“I said shhh!” There was the sound of a blow being struck, and a grunt of pain.
Lil slowed her pace and tried to calm her racing heart. Issavan. She’d found him, and all the others had gone the wrong way. She had him all to herself. She would be the one to kill him. A smile stole its way across her lips. Creeping forward, the warrior rounded a corner, and a small circle of light appeared, revealing Issavan, facing forward, his body filling the whole of the passage, dragging Emmaris’ body backwards down the corridor. One hand was clamped firmly over the writhing scholar’s mouth, the other still gouging the knife into his throat. Blood drenched the front of the scholar’s fine silk shirt.
“You!” squealed the Emperor, spying Lil as she tried to sneak forward. “Stop, or I’ll kill him.”
Lil rolled her eyes. “Go ahead.” She met Emmaris’ terrified gaze. “I care nothing for traitors.”
Emmaris spasmed in fear, almost breaking free, though a new wave of blood pulsed from his throat. Issavan’s hand slid to wrap around the man’s abdomen, holding him still. “Lil! I did*’t betray you!” he gasped.
The mad king’s face glowed orange in the light from the torch on the wall. Beyond him, Lil saw the silhouette of a door, and light in the room beyond it. Her eyes drank it up greedily after being in the pitch dark, and she was transfixed for a moment. When she tore her eyes away she was temporarily blinded, and realized the Emperor had inched away from her. She darted closer, brandishing her weapon. “Stop, Issavan!” she snarled. “You’re not going to escape.”

28-Sep-2008 22:51:42

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