I crushed a mound of cooling soot from the ash of the volcano in my hand. It was rough, almost burning to the skin. I liked it.
"They were here," I said over my shoulder to Baraka. Without looking, I knew he was getting a smell of the ashen city, ruined by the eruption. Foundations that had outlasted the lava poked through the black mass like bones in a graveyard. No one could have made it out alive. Baraka inhaled deeply, coiling and shifting his head in every direction.
"Three, maybe for four attackers," Baraka gathered. "They've gone to the East."
"Are you sure?" I spat under my veil. I needed him to be sure. I turned to look at him as he got another trace of the scent. His arms, bulging, veined and too big for anything but fighting, hung loosely at his sides. His nails were long, much like his teeth giving away his Tarcatan genetics. He was menacing to stare upon as his nostrils flared sporadically, bred to kill and destroy. He carried death with him, in the stench of the air. I was pleased to call him my ally. Checking the sides of my veil to make sure it was secure, I gestured for him to get on with it.
"Yes," he finally said. "To the East. I'm sure."
We started back down the hill away from the village, my heels sinking in the steaming sand. Suddenly, Baraka came to a hard stop and I followed suite. My senses hadn't fully reached their keenness, but I felt a distinct change in the air. I stilled myself and silenced my breathing.
It was quiet. But someone was out there.
Baraka shifted, and with an animalistic impulse, took off toward the surrounding woods. I strolled leisurely after him, like an owner carelessly looking after a dog, sure he would catch whoever it was. I glanced down briefly at my nails. Lengthy and strong, they were starting to come to a point, very sharp points. Tarcatan points. They were becoming as deadly as my Sai. I put my hands behind my back, dismissing the thought and found Baraka, snarling over what seemed to be an Edenia scout.
Young, maybe in his teens, the scout cowered beneath Baraka's threatening bite with his forearm raised as his only means of protection. I laughed at this. As if his slender, meatless arm could save him. As if he could go against Baraka with any weapon and survive. Baraka grabbed the scout by his pale purple collar, the official color of Edenia, and snapped at him like a rabid hound.
"Enough," I said. Baraka threw him back to the ground and I straddled over the terrified boy. Kitana must have sent him on this suicide mission. He had no idea what she had gotten him into.
"What are you doing here?" I demanded.
"Please." The scout shook his head, already denying what wasn't even spoken yet. "Wandering. I'm just a wanderer."
I touched the silk of his Edenia vest, and with a quick motion, cut a slit through it with the tip of my nail. He tried to crawl away from me, but Baraka, who stood behind me, yanked the scout by the feet until he was returned beneath my crouch.
"Please," the scout whined again. So young. His blue green eyes begged for me to let him go, but not until I got the answers I wanted.
"Tell me what you're doing here and you go free," I offered.
The scout looked between Baraka and I, weighing the possibility that we actually would let him go, but he shortly realized it didn't matter. He had no choice. "I w-was sent by my superior, in Edenia. He said the order came from higher up."
"Why?"
"I was told to find the veiled woman and her beast." Baraka growled behind me, but the boy continued, "I was sent out when our other scouts returned, just after the eruption."
I snagged him up by the collar. "Your scouts took someone who belongs to me, two of them. Did your scouts bring them to Edenia as prisoners?" I asked.
"Prisoners?"
"It was an Edenian and a sorcerer! Did you see them?" I seethed.
"Yes," the scout nodded his head incessantly. "I think so – Y-Yes. Princess Kitana ordered them to the dungeon on their arrival."
"I knew it," Baraka sneered, stomping his boot into the mush of sand.
"I wouldn't put it past my sister," I replied, rising. "She plays as dirty as the rest of us. She took them, hoping we'll follow."
"Sister?" the scout repeated with confusion. Then, his eyes widened with enlightenment. "Princess Mileena?"
"I am not the princess anymore!" I corrected harshly. The idea of ever being sided along Kitana made my blood hot with rage. The entire realm of Edenia had been brainwashed by her beauty and slanted policy, and I, cast out like a traitor the moment they found out what I was. But I knew her true agenda, to wipe out anyone she saw as a threat and expunge the realms of Outworld and the Nether. Kitana was no more a righteous princess than she was a damned, jealous tyrant. This I knew for sure.
"What do we do?" Baraka asked, hungrily eyeing the scout. "And with him?"
"We're going to go get Tanya and Ermac, then continue our quest as planned." I flicked my head toward a tree. "Tie the boy up."
Baraka dragged the boy from under me who raked his hands through the dirt to get away.
"But don't hurt him," I added sternly. The boy looked up, both surprised and relived, and Baraka, pissed. I knew Kitana was spreading rumors through the realms about me, nasty ones of tasteless and meaningless killings, about how my Tarcatan nature had already taken over. She didn't know anything. At least if the boy lived, he would get word around that I was not as menacing as my sister preached.
If I was going to kill someone, it'd be to send a message.
I glanced over my shoulder at the scout as Baraka dragged him along. "Someone will find you within an hour or two. But, I can't have you warning your precious princess of my arrival, not yet. I prefer the element of surprise."