Threads of Vengeance

Part 1 Chapter 12

Rizal’s Castle, Syral

Maya pulled a lever behind a large portrait of Rizal, where he stared down condescendingly at the room's occupants. A grinding noise appeared and slowly the carpet on the floor sagged down at a particular spot. She nodded to the men accompanying her and they pulled it up to reveal a hole. One by one her men entered the hole. She took a deep breath and punched Rizal's portrait, tearing a hole through his long arrogant nose and jumped down the entrance to the secret passage.

The entrance opened up to a cavern with torches mounted upon the walls. The was a small door on one wall. Maya tried to open the door. The door was locked from the other side.

“Open it,” she commanded.

Her soldiers broke down  the wooden door, ripping it off it's hinges. A disgusting odour emerged from beyond the broken door. Soldiers grabbed torches from the walls.

“Wait,” said Maya. “Bring me some Syral soldiers that have been captured.” One man bowed low and hurried off. A little later, he returned with four or five men, hands tied behind the back and a cloth around their eyes.

“Send them ahead,” she ordered. They would make baits for any traps set up ahead. The men were shoved through the doorway. One resisted, but a prod on his rear from the business end of a sword convinced him to leap inside. The men with torches, followed soon after after whom Maya entered and finally the remaining men to watch her back.

The torch light spilled into the darkness, revealing that they were in the sewage tunnels.

“Yer majesty, maybe ya should stay on the outside,” a soldier hesitantly spoke up. “This ain't no place fer an empress.”

The others voiced assent.

“It's fine. Let's go,” said Maya, and that was that. The discussion ended.

The stepped into the flowing water and walked down the tunnel. Eventually it let to an intersection

that split up into three different paths. Maya had her men split into groups. She joined one and headed right, allowing the others to choose their paths. They made their way in silence, trying not to breathe in the stench as much as possible. There seemed to be no traps. All of a sudden, a shout, followed a scream of pain echoes down the tunnel from up ahead. The men with her increased their pace.

“Careful,” whispered Maya., but she too followed suit.

A little later an echo flew through the tunnels, “I'm out of arrows...arows...rowss.

As time passed, sounds of fighting started coming through the tunnels. Initially very low and distant but as they moved further, the noises grew. When they finally arrived at the source of the sound, they were greeted by the sight of Rizal, fighting a long haired man wielding Aara. Rizal’s face looked somewhat odd, but that was probably the torch light.

The man wielding the Aara seemed taken aback by the sudden appearance of the light. He was severely injured noted Maya. It was a surprise that he was still standing. He closed his eyes and continued fighting. His, weapons and the way he threw himself at enemies without regard for himself brought back memories. Ones she was not particularly fond of.

A very young Maya crouched behind a large bush and stared at a large courtyard where a dark man with even darker hair, swung at his sparring partner with an Aara in each hand. His sparring partner, wearing heavy armour was armed with a long sword and a shield in his off hand. He crouched beneath his shield and blocked the attacks. He lifted his own weapon and swung powerfully yet rapidly at the dark skinned man who wore no armour but it was fultile.

With the grace of a dancer and the speed of the wind, the darker man weaved through the attacks and brought his Aara across before the shield could come up. The Aara expertly made their way in between the helmet and the chest piece, sinking into soft flesh. Blood spurted out and the man collapsed. Maya closed her eyes tightly. A melodious laugh sounded.

“Did you enjoy it, Maya?”

Maya opened her eyes to see the dark man looming over her. Her face paled. He bent down to her level and raised his hands. She flinched, but he merely lifted her into the air.

“Well? Did you enjoy it?” he asked.

She nodded hesitantly. And then shook her head. He looked puzzled “You liked it and disliked it?”

She nodded.

“Don't you ever talk?”

She half nodded and half shook her head, unable to decide how to respond.

“They told you not to talk to me, didn't they?”

She nodded. He gave a small, sad smile and put her down. She fled the moment she touched the ground. Moving her small legs as fast as they would go.

Maya pushed the memory out of her mind, just in time to see Rizal's hand turn into a pointed spike and hurtle towards the long haired man's throat. His eyes were still closed and he did not see it coming. She drew a deep breath, drawing energy from the crystal in her eye socket and touched the water at her feet, concentrating hard. Walls made of frozen water sprung up around the man, and the spike embedded itself into one of them.

Rizal snarled and turned towards her. He drew back his arm and lashed it out towards her. She drew in more energy from the crystal and poured every ounce of concentration she could muster into the water. The water around Rizal rose and froze around him, encasing him in a solid ice prison. She lifted a palm and closed it into a fist. From the casing around Rizal, hundreds of spikes grew inwards and pierced into him. He let out a scream that was in no way human and fell silent. Forever.

Maya's legs turned to jelly and she nearly collapsed, but a soldier grabbed her arm and steadied her. She gazed at the wall of ice she had created to protect the long haired man and sighed. She knelt down shakily and focused her will at the walls. They turned back into water and collapsed with a splash. The man was lying unconscious. One more person emerged from the darkness. He had a short hair cut and large vicious cut from shoulder to hit diagonally.

“Who are you?” he asked, crouching down and picking up the man on the ground with a grunt.

She regarded him for a moment, unable to decide if he were a friend or foe. Finally, she decided that any enemy of Rizal was a friend of hers.

“I'm Maya,” she said, choosing not to reveal her full identity, not that it was very hard to guess. Still, better to show a little caution she decided.

“Help him,” she commanded a soldier. Turning around, she headed back in the direction she had come.