Shroud of Lies

Chapter 3

Blood ran down Scrapper's hands as she furiously pounded the stone upon the lizard's fragile skull. Its body twitched a few times before it was finally still, and she handed its bleeding carcass over to Morteo, who swallowed it in one gulp.

"You know you could've killed it quicker and cleaner." a voice piped up from behind her.

"I know. I just enjoy watching the little things suffer." Scrapper huffed in annoyance, standing to face the youngest two of her brothers.

"As do we. Speaking of which..." The other one, Nyko, piped up with a wry smile, his hands behind his back.

Fynik, the first of the two to speak, sneered and approached Scrapper with a couple slow footsteps. He nodded to his twin, and Nyko produced a noose from behind his back and the two of them charged at Jessamine, trying to herd her into a corner. As the large rocks closed in on her, she used her speed and agility to push off of the rocks, sailing over their heads and landing behind them unscathed. However, they had predicted her move and with a short flick of his wrist, Nyko had the noose around her neck and was looking down at her with a triumphant grin. Jessamine coughed and tugged at the hard cable around her neck, realizing that she was at her brothers' mercy.

"Tie her arms." Nyko said, his orange right eye glinting in the light of the hot desert sun, his other eye which was blue being as cold and calculating as its mismatched counterpart. Fynik pulled rope from his belt and bound his little sister's hands and feet as tightly as he could. Nyko then released the noose and asked his twin, "Iron Viper?"

"Iron viper." Fynik agreed with a cold sneer, and Nyko threw her over his shoulder and carried he back to their family blacksmith shop. They then pulled out an iron rod and placed it in the fire until its tip was hot enough to char flesh.

"You two are making a big mistake." Jessamine said coolly as she rubbed her bound wrists over the sharp edge of a sword that she had hidden under the table, obviously used to this routine. Once she had secretly freed her wrists, she used her legs to rotate the hidden sword and kick it out from under her, causing it to hit one of the twins, though she wasn't sure which, causing a horrible gash on his heel. He stumbled into his brother, causing the unharmed twin to burn himself badly with the hot poker. The confusion of their scuffle gave Jessamine just enough time to free her legs and arm herself with a pair of knives.

"Make one more move and you'll be hurt enough to visit mother." Jessamine growled, clambering onto the anvil to give herself an advantage in height. Fynik and Nyko cowered in the corner, and she relished in their defeat.

"You'll pay for this!" Fynik howled, cradling his burned arm. She could tell it was Fynik because his orange eye was on the left side of his face.  It was at that exact moment that the door opened to reveal Xolt standing just outside.

"Is my sword ready?" He asked, looking over at her two brothers seething in the corner.

"Oh, uh...follow me!" Scrapper said, taking him to the back room of the shop.

"Who's your boyfriend?" Nyko taunted. In an instant, Scrapper was at his throat bearing a horrible snarl.

"I will kill you." She growled under her breath.

Xolt shot her a funny look, and then she realized that in her effort to keep her brother from giving her away, she had given Xolt a bad impression.

Scrapper dusted herself off, giving her brothers a threatening glare. She then took Xolt into the back room where she had hidden his sword and slammed the door behind them. Scrapper then carefully retrieved the parcel and said, "Now, listen carefully. Nobody in this town must know about this sword."