As soon as
she rounded the first corner away from the cave, Hecate became visible
again. She knew the Knives would simply be wearing their infrared
goggles so invisibility would serve no purpose except to deplete the
suit’s battery supply. She had to warn the baby’s mother, protect
the child. Tropic had been an honorable man, both ally and enemy,
and for that reason alone she would have protected the girl. Helene’s
duplicity had only added fuel to that fire and speed to her feet.
Through the tunnels she ran. Up and down, left and right, heading
for an exit on the far side of their island. From there, into Red
River and then Founders Falls where she knew the baby and her mother
resided. Hecate rounded a corner and ahead, perhaps thirty yards,
stood a Knife mercenary. The woman looked up and saw Hecate at almost
the same time. She said into her communicator, "I have her," then,
drawing her sword, rushed forward to battle.
Hecate never slowed down.
She ran towards the guard, her sword at the ready. When she was only
ten or so feet from the soldier, she dropped and slid on her knees
across the worn, marble smooth tunnel floor, her sword extended. The
blade slipped between the guard’s legs and, with a flick of her wrist,
Hecate slapped the inside of the woman’s knees with the flat of her
hard steel.
The guard yelped in pain and surprise. Her right leg splayed
out to the side and her left crumpled, sending her crashing forward.
As her head dropped, Hecate struck, her left fist sinking into the
side of the woman’s face. She continued her slide, throwing her shoulder
into the unlucky, unconscious guard, rolling over her, driving her
into the hard ground. Hecate somersaulted up, landing on her feet
and streaked down the tunnel without a backwards glance.
She heard
the echo of voices and the scuffling of boots as she ran, twisting
and turning through the passageways. She rounded a corner and ahead,
near a crossway - two tunnels intersecting, dividing into four directions
- stood four of her brethren. Hecate continued on, knowing her only
advantage was surprise and speed.
The sound of her footfalls caused
the women to look up. Shouts of "Traitor" and "Here" rebounded off
the close stone walls. Two rushed forward, one drawing her crossbow,
the other reaching to her belt.
Hecate saw the bright silver of the
caltrops as they arced through the air. The four sided spikes landed,
bouncing on the ground between them, their sharp points always up
ready to pierce the feet of any attacker. She never slowed her headlong
charge. Just before she reached the caltrops, Hecate launched herself
into the air, angling toward the wall to her left. She heard the twang
of the crossbow firing and somersaulted in midair.
Twisting, she felt
the arrow pass at her side, so close it ripped the hard fabric at
her midsection. Hecate landed on the wall, pushed off and swung her
left leg around into a roundhouse kick. Her foot connected, striking
the caltrops thrower behind the ear. The woman stumbled, falling unconscious
into her partner beside her. The Knife assassin landed in front of
them and, as the mercenary fell forward under the weight of her stunned
comrade, Hecate struck the falling girl directly under the chin with
the point of her knee. Her two adversaries fell senseless to the floor.
Hecate stepped over them, drawing her sword and facing the remaining
two. She held her blade high, at arms length, the shinning steel between
her eyes. The Hand of Artemis regarded the two women and growled,
"Fight or flee, Sisters. I am pressed for time."
The two women gripped
their swords tighter and looked at each other, concern in their eyes.
With a sharp intake of breath, they screamed their battle cries and
attacked. Their blades flashed in the reflected light of the tunnel,
slashing left and right at Sister Hecate.
Hecate held her ground,
her sword blocking and parrying their thrusts and swings. The tightness
of their surroundings worked to her advantage and her sword danced
between her attackers. She blocked the sword-stroke of the mercenary
at her right, pushing hard against the blade and driving it back with
a hard clang, giving herself an extra second to deal with the woman
at her left.
Hecate swung her sword to her left, lightly parrying
the woman’s attack. She knew what would happen next. The Knife mercenary
recovered from the block and attacked quickly, sending her sword around
in a wider arc, slicing at Hecate’s head. Hecate bobbed down, the
sword passing harmlessly overhead. When she rose, she was on the outside
of the woman’s guard. Hecate simply reached out, her right hand grabbing
a handful of the woman’s hair and, with all her strength, pushed the
Knife mercenary’s head into her partners. The heads collided with
a loud hollow knock.
Hecate didn’t relent. She pushed forward, driving
the dazed women’s heads into the unmoving rock tunnel wall. The sound
of a wet smack filled the rocky conduit. The two Knives of Artemis
fell.
And Hecate ran on.
She careened through the tunnels, feeling
the imaginary breath of her Sisters at her back. But the way was clear.
The path rose up in front of her, leading now closer to the outside.
Once she rounded the curve ahead, Hecate knew it was only another
30 or so yards to the exit, the wood planked door marked ‘KEEP OUT’
on both sides. She sped around the final corner and skidded to a stop,
her eyebrow raised.
Blocking her path, not ten yards away, was the
new girl she had trained this morning. The wild one, she thought.
The girl held her sword up, gripping it so tightly her knuckles turned
white. Hecate grinned and held her sword higher, her head low, eyes
gazing up, her lips curled slightly at their corners.
"Do you really
want to fight me, Trainee?"
"I will do what I must," the girl answered.
Hecate smiled to herself. Impressive. She nodded and moved her right
foot back. The girl flinched. Hecate grinned and raised her blade
so that it was now back over her left shoulder. Her right elbow was
pointed directly at the young girl facing her. "Well, then. I suppose
I only have one last question." Hecate moved her right foot forward
slowly and was now in the classic pose of the samurai. "How much pain
can you stand?" With that pronouncement, Hecate ran forward screaming.
The girl shrieked and turned to flee, running headlong into the stone
wall of the tunnel. She crumpled to the ground. Hecate stood over
the unconscious woman and shook her head. "When I return," she said
under her breath, "we’ll spend some extra time working on bravery."
The Knife assassin turned and trotted the few remaining yards to the
underground exit. She pushed the planked door open and rushed out
into the dark night of the island. She stopped short. Sabine, her
daughter, stood twenty five feet distant, blocking her path.
Sabine
stood, her back straight. Her left arm stretched down her side, in
her right hand her sword glimmered in the moonlight. She held it to
the side, away from her body, its razor tip angling to the grass.
"Mother," she said quietly.
Hecate stared at the young woman, her
right eye squinting and her lips pursed. Slowly, she brought her blade
down, placing its tip in the ground. She stood, her left hip cocked
supporting her weight, her hands resting on the pommel of her sword.
"Daughter," she replied, her voice a rough whisper.
"I do not wish
to do this."
"I know, child."
"But it is my duty."
Sister Hecate smiled
at the girl. "I understand." She paused, tilting her head to the left.
"Will you promise me something…if you can?"
Sabine raised an eyebrow.
"If I can."
Hecate nodded. "Open your eyes and your ears. Things here
are not what they seem. Listen to the words spoken around you. Trust
only your true sisters and give them this message. Can you do this?"
Sabine regarded her mother for a long moment. Finally she nodded twice
and said, "Very well. I shall do as you ask." The young woman stared
at the Hand of Artemis, shook her head and sighed.
"Mother."
"Daughter."
Sabine attacked, flashing across the ground so quickly Hecate barely
raised her sword in time. The weapons clanged against each other,
sparks lighting the night. Hecate was immediately on the defensive,
her blade blocking each thrust at the last possible second. Gods,
the girl is fast she thought, watching as the speed of her daughter’s
sword left a trail of light like a sparkler in July.
Hecate danced
backwards, trying to stay just out of reach of Sabine’s weapon. She
planted her feet and saw her daughter swing, angling towards her head.
Hecate moved to block, but at the last possible instant, the girl’s
blade changed direction, shifting down. NO! Hecate felt the sharp
biting in her arm and backflipped out of the girl’s range. Damn, she
cursed silently, quickly examining the cut in her bicep. Her sleeve
reddened with blood but she could see the wound was not deep. But
she knew her arm would soon stiffen with pain.
Her eyes darted around
the landscape, trying to find any advantage. They were in a grassy
field, dotted here and there with boulders and rock formations of
every size and shape. Hecate kept her distance, looking, looking until
at last she saw it. A round boulder, about the height of her waist,
not to far in the distance. Its top was smooth and it was not too
wide across.
Hecate began to move toward it, always facing her daughter,
her blade at the ready, reflecting the moonlight as it lit their battlefield.
She stopped, her back only a few feet from the rock. The Knife assassin
sighed and dropped her guard.
Sabine leapt to the attack, her sword
streaking down. Hecate blocked left and right, her sword dancing in
the night air, allowing herself to be driven back. Finally she felt
the boulder behind her. She blocked another relentless blow from her
daughter.
Hecate waited for Sabine to commit to her strike and then,
with no warning, the Hand of Artemis threw herself backwards over
the rock. Her feet came up, extended to their full length and kicked
Sabine under the chin. As soon as Hecate’s feet hit the ground on
the other side of the rock, she launched herself over it again, this
time rolling sideways, her legs spread and stretched out. The dazed
Sabine was already charging in and Hecate’s foot hit the girl’s sword,
driving it into the ground. Before Sabine could recover and back away,
Hecate landed in front of her and with a slice of her blade struck
the young woman in the side of the head with the flat of her sword.
The girl took two steps backward and halfheartedly tried to raise
her weapon. Then her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed,
falling to the ground, unconscious.
Hecate ran forward and caught
the girl before she struck the earth and gently laid her on the soft
grass. The assassin whispered in her daughter’s ear. "Another lesson
for you to learn, my child. Age and cunning will always overcome youth
and skill." She began to hear shouts and footfalls coming from the
other side of the wood planked door. The Hand of Artemis leaned over
and kissed her girl on the forehead.
"Tell your sisters I love them,"
she whispered and ran, bounding across the field, down the hill and
into Red River.
Helene, followed by her guards, several other Knife
Sisters and Sabine’s sisters Vicca, Nakita and Drea, burst through
the tunnel entrance and into the night air. Sabine was starting to
roll over, attempting to get to her feet. Her sisters rushed to assist
her, their strong arms supporting her.
Helene scanned the scene, her
head moving as her eyes searched the field. "Where is she? Has she
escaped?" she asked the dazed girl urgently.
"Yes, moments ago," Sabine
winced, her hand holding the side of her head.
"How is this possible?"
Helene snapped, the anger evident in her voice.
Sabine snorted. "How?
Because she’s Sister Hecate and I’m me."
Helene sneered. "Or perhaps
you just let her go. Perhaps you didn’t fight with as much…conviction
as you should have."
Sabine stared at the Knife leader, her brow furrowed
and her teeth clenched together. She shrugged off the helping hands
of her sisters and crossed to stand mere inches from her accuser.
"You question my word? My duty? My honor?" Sabine straightened, the
sword in her hand now pointing to her feet, her wrist turned inward.
Behind her, the three sisters positioned themselves, their hands gripping
the long knives sheathed at their belts.
Helene sighed and rubbed
her forehead, her hand moving to pinch the bridge of her nose. "No…no…of
course not." She sighed loudly and looked up at the girl. "It has
been a very trying day. If someone had come to me and told me it would
end like this I would have called them crazy and a liar." She smiled
crookedly at the Knife soldier. "I am sorry, Sister…please…forgive
me." I will deal with you when the time is right, tramp, Helene thought
behind her grin.
Sabine regarded the Hand of Artemis. Open your ears
and eyes. She nodded, a slight incline of her head and said, "Of course.
As you say, it has been a…very trying day." She stepped back and sheathed
her sword.
Suddenly, from the tunnel entrance, three more of the Sisterhood
appeared. "Ahh, Daphne," Sister Helene acknowledged one of the women,
a tall, dark haired girl with a sideways ’V’ shaped scar on her left
cheek. "What are our losses?"
"None, Sister," Daphne answered matter-of-factly.
"None?" Helene exclaimed incredulously.
"There are some cuts, several
bruises and there will be quite a few headaches in the morning," she
glanced at Sabine, the red welt where Hecate had struck her already
darkening, "but we lost no one."
Helene raised an eyebrow and turned
to look out in the direction the assassin had escaped. She stared
for a moment at the empty horizon and the twinkling lights of distant
Peregrine Island. Helene exhaled and shook her head. "How very sloppy
of her." She turned to the women surrounding her and started off back
into the tunnels. "Come," she called over her shoulder, "We have a
mission and there is much to plan." The gathered Knives of Artemis
followed their leader underground.
Except for four. Sabine, Nakita,
Vicca and Drea remained under the starry sky.
Vicca watched as Helene
and the others disappeared into the dark passage. "Sloppy, she says,"
she whispered as she absentmindedly rubbed the crossbow attached at
her side.
"Unwise, unwise," Silent Nakita said shaking her head. Sabine’s
twin rarely spoke. Her voice was a hard rasp.
Drea looked up at Sabine.
"This is not good, is it? Not good at all."
Sabine stared in the distance
to where Hecate had disappeared into the river. She glanced briefly
to her side as her sisters came to stand beside her. "No," she said
sadly. "Our new leader does not realize that all our lives have just
been spared by the best we have." She frowned. "There are dark days
ahead, my sisters." She turned and they followed as she lead them
to the tunnel door. "Our mother had a message for us." As she vanished
into the passage she could be heard saying to her sisters, "Oh…yes…and
she said she loved us all very much."
*****
Far away and close, in the present, past and future, in a marble castle
high on the cloud shrouded top of a mountain a woman stood before
a pool of black water so calm its surface could be mistaken for glass.
The woman was tall, near seven feet and a gold circlet rested on her
brow. Her breastplate was of intricately etched gold and was inlaid
with blood red rubies. Her well muscled abdomen was bare and the skirt
she wore was made of hard leather leaves, the type the ancient warriors
used. From the tips of her sandaled feet to the top of her dark hair
a nimbus of crackling white energy surrounded her.
Artemis frowned
and waived her hand over the black pool. Suddenly, reflected on its
darkness, were the activities on the Knife island. Her hand moved
again and the scene shifted to a dock on Peregrine Island. A hand
grasped the wood planking and the Knife assassin hoisted herself up.
Not wasting a moment, she sought out the closest speedboat, loosed
its moorings and, tying the ignition wires together, roared off into
the river. She shook her head and, waiving her arm once more, the
scene changed to an apartment in Founders Falls. She saw a small child
sleeping in her crib, her red skin and jet black hair belying her
ancestry. The picture shifted and she saw the baby’s mother sound
asleep, not suspecting the events to come.
Artemis tugged on her lower
lip, deep in thought. Finally, with a sad expression, she waived her
hand across the pool. The water rippled and the scene shifted once
more. It was a farm house, long and with a thatched roof. Light flowed
from its wood bordered windows and from inside could be heard the
happy sounds of talk and laughter. The picture moved inside to show
several people at a table, eating, drinking, the boisterousness of
their conversation filling the home and spilling out, wafting across
the land.
Artemis’ gaze was drawn to one in particular. The man had
a look of joy on his face, and contentment in his eye. His blonde
hair lay flat now, no longer the spiky locks he had in life. He still
sported the small goatee on his chin and his body was still hard and
muscular.
Artemis smiled sadly. The only difference was that he was
happier in death than he was in life. She shook her head and, with
a flick of her hand, the picture in the pool ceased, leaving only
blackness. Artemis turned on her heel and disappeared before she took
two steps. But her voice lingered, hovering over the scrying pool.
"I am sorry, Dread One, but I fear Paradise is lost to you."