[05] Elite: Reclamation (54 page)

Kiri turned, put her finger to her lips and beckoned to her companion, who likewise lowered a series of strung up marsips to the ground and crept forward.

Hunting in the forests of Daine was illegal, but all the onlies did it. It was the only way to supplement their food supply. Stealing from traders in the city brought you quickly to the attention of the guards. It had to be done sparingly.

They dared not go too far into the forest. Stranger creatures lived within and there were other hazards too. It wasn’t just the animals you had to concern yourself with. There were many traps for the unwary. Sand and bogs featured aplenty and, according to some of the more wild accounts, there were even plants that took a fancy to flesh.

The flit seemed unconcerned with their stealthy approach, quickly finishing its meal. Nothing was wasted; even the extremities of the Narg were consumed. The flit turned and seemed to be looking at them. Kiri wondered how she appeared to the gaze of those three tiny faceted eyes, set like sapphires in the creature’s angular head. Small wonder flits were admired when their eyes looked like jewels. Kiri was entranced. Funny how all the animals had three eyes and her kind had only two…

Without making a sound she managed to get within a few hands of the creature and paused there, bracing herself against a shade trunk, watching it.

‘Isn’t it pretty,’ her companion whispered in delight. ‘I’ve never seen one so close.’

Tia had been Kiri’s companion for many rounds. Kiri had found her after her parents had died in one of the plagues that occasionally beset their lands. Just a child, Kiri had looked after her, teaching her how to survive in a city that neither wanted nor acknowledged their existence. Onlies; unseen, scraping a living via theft and cunning.

Kiri smiled briefly, admiring the beautiful delicate creature.

The flit remained unmoved for a moment before Kiri saw its antenna rise up as if sensing something. A moment later she too heard a noise. People somewhere close. Annoyed, she looked over her shoulder, searching amongst the trunks. She couldn’t see anyone, but voices were getting louder. She cursed under her breath.

The flit extended its wings, one a pair at a time. The fore wings low, the centre pair held horizontal with the final rear pair held high. It was poised, ready to fly.

‘No, don’t go…’ Kiri whispered.

Voices were loud, accompanied by the crashing sounds of clumsy footsteps trampling vegetation underfoot. Guffaws and giggles shattered the quiet of the forest. The flit’s wings disappeared in a flurry of movement and it spiralled upwards, disappearing into the canopy. Kiri turned in anger as a group of three boys stumbled into the small clearing. It was a group of three brothers from the city. She’d seen them before.

‘Watch your shadow, you snuts!’ she called out.

In their haste, the boys hadn’t noticed Kiri and Tia until almost walking straight into them. The younger two stumbled back against the shades in fright at her sharp glare. The other boy was bigger, stronger and less intimidated. Kiri could see he was carrying a wooden sword, his hand resting protectively on the hilt. It was no toy, but a practice weapon, properly weighted and balanced. Tia caught sight of the sword and sidled behind Kiri, holding her arm nervously.

‘What you doing here, slums?’ he said, sizing them up, spying the sets of dead marsips on the ground. ‘Hunting again? ‘Gainst the law, as you’ve been told before.’

‘Look to your own shade,’ Kiri retorted. ‘Might ask you the same thing. We were here first.’

‘You can’t order us about,’ one of the smaller ones said impulsively. ‘You’re not a priestess.’

‘Not yet,’ Kiri fired back. ‘But I will be. And then when you displease me I’ll drag you to the temple, cut out your heart and eat it in front of you. Slash! Squish! Yum!’

She mimed stabbing the small boy with a knife, licking it and then wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. Kiri laughed as the boy cringed in fear and yelped. The bigger boy pushed in front of him, defensively.

‘You won’t be a priestess,’ he sneered. ‘You’ve got no line. Got to be noble, everyone knows that.’

‘Don’t need one,’ Kiri retorted, facing off against him. She was a head shorter than the chunkier boy, still awaiting the growth spurt she knew was due. Kiri felt Tia’s warning tug on her arm.

‘Kiri, let’s go, we can find other food…’ the smaller girl pleaded.

Kiri pulled herself free.

I’ll be scorched before I give up my prey on account of this snut…

She stared fiercely up into Choso’s blue eyes, ignoring the short blonde hair, muscular arms and stocky torso before her. Tia backed away, leaving Kiri facing Choso alone.

Kiri could tell Choso wasn’t used to the onlies standing up against him. She’d seen him intimidate others. It wasn’t going to work on her, even if his father was captain of the temple guard.

He’d never cornered her before; the other onlies always fled like marsips at the first sign of trouble. Not her. She defied and taunted the family children, letting them chase her down streets to get caught in ingenious traps, piles of refuse cunningly rigged to fall down or into a pack of starving rabid carns.

She saw Choso run his eyes over her thin and lanky frame, topped an unruly matted crop of black hair tied up on her head with a dirty cord. He grimaced at her grimy skin and tatty mix of stolen clothing, only then meeting the gaze of her fierce hazel eyes.

Kiri had been chased around the city, always skulking, stealing food brazenly from the traders. She knew Choso’s father had been tasked with clearing the streets of her and the rest of the illegal youngsters. Most of the time it appeared he’d largely succeeded. She, and others like her, raided the city during the sleeping. Where they went other-times had always been a secret. Not any longer. Life was going to get even harder now Choso knew where they hid.

‘Be thinking you can fight your way in then, slum girl?’ Choso laughed, poking her with an outstretched finger. He walked around her and she stood still defensively, looking at him as he paced. ‘You wouldn’t last a spell in the arena.’

‘I could beat you now, city mulch,’ Kiri snapped back, spinning around face him.

Choso pushed her hard and she stumbled backwards, losing her footing. Before she could react he’d grabbed her tunic at the scruff of the neck and hauled her back to her feet, roughly pushing her up against the smooth trunk of the nearest shade, her feet dangling in the air. The impact hurt her back. The sword was in his other hand, pointing at her face. She grabbed at the arm holding her, unable to move it, struggling against his superior strength. He lowered her to the ground, but kept the sword at her face.

Kiri heard Tia screech in fear. The other two brothers laughed.

‘Learn her, Choso!’ one shouted. Choso grinned cruelly in response.

‘I’m thinking you need to know your place, slum,’ he said, jabbing her cheek with the point of his sword and jolting her against the shade. It might have only been a wooden sword, but it hurt like fury. She rubbed her check, seeing blood on her fingers. She could feel it dripping down her cheek and neck.

Her eyes narrowed.

‘I do,’ she whispered under her breath. Choso frowned, leaning in closer to hear her, wrinkling his nose at the odour rising from her dirty clothes.

She brought her knee up as hard as she could, driving it into Choso’s unprotected crotch. He screamed in agony, letting her go and dropping his sword.  As he leant forward Kiri punched him directly in the throat, with a short sharp yell. Choso’s cries were choked off and he fell to his knees. Kiri nonchalantly pushed him over with an outstretched foot. She backed away, standing next to Tia.

‘Told you.’

Chose was trying to gasp out some words, she couldn’t make them out. His brothers were at his side, trying to help him up. Choso struggled to make himself heard, howling out his pain and indignation. Kiri caught his eyes as he managed to look up with murderous intent, his face suffused with anger, bright red and sweating, desperately trying to regain his feet.

He croaked out something. His brothers didn’t understand and leant in closer.

Kiri caught the next words.

‘Get them,’ Choso panted out, furiously impotent.

Kiri looked around at Tia. The small girl was quaking with fear, her eyes wide. Kiri motioned with her eyes. Tia nodded.

Kiri turned her attention back to the boys. The next youngest brother picked up the sword and stepped towards her. Kiri warily circled back. The boy swung clumsily at her head and she ducked, the wooden sword striking the bark of a shade with a dull thud, showering her in splinters. Kiri jumped aside, only to be blocked by the other brother. He swung a punch at her which she narrowly avoided. Then there was a gap between them.

It took us a long spell to catch those marsips…

‘Now!’ she yelled to Tia. The other girl disappeared into the undergrowth as fast as the marsips they’d been pursuing.

She ran too, following in the direction Tia had fled.

They had a head start and both were good runners, you didn’t last long as an only if you couldn’t run. Unfortunately, the boys behind her were equally fast, and after gaining a little of a head start Kiri could sense she wasn’t outrunning them. She lurched between the shade trunks looking for the easiest way forward, legs pounding with exertion, outstretched branches whipping painfully past her.

She heard an abrupt shriek ahead. Before she could stop she ran too quickly up a rise, she came to a damp outcrop, lost her footing and slid down the other side, smearing herself in mud and winding herself as she hit the bottom, rolling onto her front. Tia was already sprawled in the mud before her. She saw the two brothers reach the top of the rise and make the same mistake. They came crashing down alongside her.

Kiri jumped unsteadily to her feet, struggling for breath. Tia seemed to have been badly winded by the fall, she’d only managed to get to her knees, gasping for breath. Kiri spied a sturdy branch on the ground and grabbed it, brandishing it in front of her, stepping between Tia and their pursuers. The two brothers circled her warily, preventing her from leaving. Both were now grinning at her predicament. Choso appeared at the top of the bank and awkwardly swung himself down, still gasping in pain.

‘You’re proper droughted now,’ he said with a grimace, grabbing the wooden sword from the brother to his right. Kiri watched as he swung it experimentally. He seemed to know what he was doing. The sword whistled as it passed through the air.

The other two brothers circled behind her. Kiri raised her branch in defence, sidestepping and trying to keep them away from Tia.

‘Tia!’ she hissed, from between clenched teeth, unable to spare a glance down at her companion. All she could hear was the poor girl gasping and wheezing. Maybe she was hurt.

Kiri had no idea whether Choso had received any real training in the use of a sword, but she was painfully aware she had none whatsoever. She’d heard tell that a barbarian from Drem in the shadeward had once knocked the head of slave clean off with nothing but a wooden sword. It wouldn’t do to underestimate it. She kept her eyes focused on the tip as Choso waved it about.

She saw his eyes flicker from right to left and sensed rather than felt the two brothers closing in on her. Quickly as a flash she spun, dealing both of them a sharp whack to the head with her branch, both yelled and fell backwards.

Choso’s yell brought her attention back and she raised her branch in defence just quick enough to block a blow to her torso that would have easily broken a rib. Her arms trembled as she deflected the impact, the branch vibrating painfully in her hands. Choso turned and swung his sword down on her, aiming for her head. Again she blocked it. Choso twisted the sword in a peculiar way and Kiri found the branch wrenched from her hands. It splattered into the mud a few hand lengths away.

Choso didn’t hesitate. He stabbed forward at Kiri’s unprotected chest, aiming to skewer her neatly through the heart. Kiri threw up her hands defensively, but it was too late.

‘No!’

Kiri felt herself jolted aside, away from the deadly thrust of Choso’s sword. Choso yelled, driving the sword forward. Kiri fell into the mud, rolling, trying to turn her head to see. She heard sharp impact, a gasp that turned into a horrid gurgle.

Eyes, widening in horror and pain, caught her own in realisation. Hands that spasmed uncontrollably, knees that buckled. Redness, stillness. Too much redness…

A pounding in her ears. Rage and anger at the merciless of the world.

Choso pulled his sword back abruptly. Tia fell backwards to the ground, lying on her back, staring in to the forest canopy. Kiri ran to her, heedless of the danger.

‘Tia!’

The girl’s face was pale, her breath bubbling red in her mouth. Blood trickled out. She choked trying to say something, her body convulsing. Her hands flailed around for a moment before Kiri grasped them tightly. There was blood everywhere. Tia’s eyes looked into Kiri’s in terror before their gaze suddenly froze, looking past Kiri, sightless and empty.

Her body was abruptly still. Kiri found she was shaking and unable to stop herself.

How long she was immobile she wasn’t sure, but the cracking of a twig on the ground nearby brought her back to the present. She looked up, seeing Choso slowly stepping towards her, his sword stained with blood. Tia’s blood.

‘I didn’t mean to…’ Choso stammered. ‘I was only trying to scare you…’

Kiri’s face was suffused with rage. She looked up furiously.

‘Murderer!’ Tears streaked her face, burning hot.

She let go of Tia’s hands, hating the way her arms dropped lifelessly into the mud. She caught sight of her branch and grabbed it, brandishing it in front of her and stalking towards Choso, her thoughts only of revenge.

Choso backed away from the insensed expression on her face, but she closed with him.

‘Enough slum! Or… or I’ll do the same to you!’ he stammered.

Kiri was oblivious. She swung viciously at Choso. He only just managed to deflect the blow. Kiri attacked again, swinging wildly with the branch, screaming out her injustice on the figure of hate before her. She beat him down, her strength mindless and irresistible. Choso stumbled back losing his footing. She raised the branch, aiming a blow at his head, aiming to kill if she could.