Chapter 11, Not what it seems
"There isn't much to plan," Slash said, raising his hands in an irritated movement, "he knows that we're coming, he'll be ready. We might as well teleport to the island."
"Not tonight," Schala cut in, placing her hand on the wizard's shoulder with a determined look, "we just came here, we need to rest. Especially Janus."
"Now, now, I'm not seven anymore…" the little brother said with an almost helpless smile.
"She'll keep regarding you as a little kid no matter what happens, as the rest of us probably should as well," Lai snorted with a smirk.
Slash heavily leaned his back against the back wall, below the broken window. That was as far away from the humans and Molor that he could possibly get. He wasn't scared of them, but he didn't like being among them either.
"And you are?" he grunted at Schala, the right side of his forehead sporting a frown as if he'd be raising an eyebrow if he'd had any.
"Schala, Janus' older sister," she replied, causing a small spasm to rip at Slash' left eye though he'd probably guessed that it was something like that, "this is Cered and Molor."
"This is going to give me a headache…" the Mystic swordmaster muttered under his breath, rubbing his forehead.
Janus was one inch from dropping a comment, but realized that nobody would know what he meant when talking about stupid headaches.
When he considered it though, now that he had had a handful of minutes to clear his head – and a cold shower of an order from Skeeza to wake him up in the form of Slash's unwanted help – he realized that having that particular headache might have been a great advantage. But he also realized that though he could call his teachers through the dimensions, calling to the other side of death would be a completely different thing. Getting another Flea's advice would without doubt help; but if the spirit wasn't watching what was going on, the wizard knew that he couldn't count on reestablishing contact. He could hardly count on his oldest mirror to step outside, look upwards and shout at the sky's inhabitants to lend a hand to another dimension.
Pressing the image from his mind he straightened up, trying to get a grip of himself.
"Alright, jokes aside," he said and looked around, "listen now. There are five assassins, apart from the mantis you all saw, there's a lizard, wolf, ghost creature and an invisible one. And all I know about that is that it seems to have at least four arms."
He directed the information mainly to his sister and Cered, who hadn't heard it nor seen the beasts before. The two nodded in silence, letting him continue.
"The thing is that they are all almost invincible when it comes to magic, the best you can hope for is to push them backwards with it and use shields to parry," the wizard went on, "so weapons are needed. I'd rather see you using a bladed staff like I do, Schala, but I don't have a spare one."
"Don't worry about me, I've had time to practice," the sister assured with a slight smile.
Janus held back a sigh; he did not want to bring her along. The mere idea of the assassins harming her sent a taste of bile through his throat. But the new, brave glistening in her eyes quite clearly informed him that she would not step back for anything he could possibly say.
He was of course worried about Lai too, but in her case he knew of the abilities and trusted them – as with the strength of Molor and Frog. He had little doubt in Cered either.
"Fine," he said, avoiding the argument he didn't want to start with Schala, "we can hardly count on them giving us a chance to stick to any plan they can figure out, but we can try."
Janus looked up at Slash. If they were to be allies, they'd have to try to at least communicate or they'd be stumbling over each other.
"Any ideas?" the wizard asked, somehow managing to keep his voice neutral.
The swordsman pursed his mouth at the idea to hold a war-council with humans, but stood up straight to remove his back from the wall.
"You know them best after all," he somewhat dryly told the wizard, but then nodded, "however, the only thing we can do is decide which one of them whom of us will try to concentrate on. We can safely assume that they will be together, as Flea isn't stupid enough to stay with his idiot one-at-the-time tactics in his situation. That much I will acknowledge him."
Though he tried to hide it, the bitterness was apparent in Slash's voice as he spoke of the traitor. Part of Janus was hesitantly trying to look closer into the Mystic's obvious distaste for the idea of killing one of their own, and trying to figure out why Flea was acting so strangely. However, a bigger part of him was screaming for revenge for the attack on Leene.
"The lizard is as I understand equipped with tough hide," Slash continued, "and though a little slow, the tail and the claws are highly dangerous."
"Yes, that's it," Janus agreed.
"How many legs does this one have?" the Mystic asked with a roll of his eyes.
"Six."
"Lovely."
"I will handle that beast," Frog cut in, folding his arms across his chest.
Janus hesitated for a moment, considering the offer. Then he nodded.
"Very well. The invisible one would be the greatest trouble, I believe…"
"Mine," Molor said without a doubt, his thin tongue tasting the air reassuringly.
They soon got it down to the grouping Schala-ghost, Cered-wolf, and Lai-backup since she didn't use melee weapons.
The mantis and Flea remained.
Slash and Janus intently watched each other, the air between them almost sparkling. The wizard had with little trouble guessed from the swordsman's badly hidden dislike that the Mystic didn't really want to kill his old friend, but he'd die before he admitted it.
As none of them would make a clear offer, Janus stepped up on the middle ground.
"Whoever gets close to Flea first," he said, testing.
Slash gave a dry half-smile.
"As much as I abhor the lack of precision," he said, "fine."
Translation: "Deal."
"Then we'll attack, when?" the wizard offered further.
Without hesitating, Slash answered.
"Sometime early in the morning. Any upper hand we can achieve counts, and Flea has always been a late sleeper. I doubt he'll have changed much in that regard."
"Fair enough."
It wasn't without a deal of irritated relief that Slash teleported out after the decision to get ready for battle by sunrise. He was dearly looking forwards to the next sunset.
King Guardia stood, giving his wife a hand. None of them could claim to have been active in the discussion, but after what had happened earlier that evening it had felt much safer to stay close by the best warriors of the land.
"I shall stay on guard, my liege," Frog announced, bowing briefly.
"You will need your sleep, Glenn," queen Leene kindly said, though in a still somewhat hoarse voice.
"To rest while my heart is worried for thy safety is not possible, I fear," the guardian immovably stated.
Janus was about to comment on the fact that Flea attacking again hardly was believable due to the "come and get me" taunt, but he realized that the crossbody was a little less than trustworthy. And anyway, he didn't have the energy to argue.
"We will spend the night in the healing quarters," king Guardia said, smiling a bit at Frog, "you can sleep in the same room, thus you both guard and rest."
"As thee wish, Your Majesty," the knight accepted.
"I will stay on guard as well, my liege," Janus said, making a somewhat sluggish salute.
He was regarded by all for a moment.
"Isn't it just South you salute to?" Lai somewhat gently said and grabbed his arm, "come now you big baby, you're going to sleep or I'll get you drunk."
Schala froze as she reached for her brother's other arm, giving Lai an incredulous look.
"Drunk?" the princess repeated, "Janus?"
"Wouldn't be the first time!" Lai smirked, ignoring her fiancé's groan.
"As fair as their looks appear to the eye, I am beginning to believe that women's souls are darker than a man can ever perceive…" Cered murmured to Molor and Frog, who happened to be closest.
He got an amused hiss from the snake and a brief, warning headshake from the amphibian. Then he got to feel that Lai had heard him, via a slap to the head.
The humans were trying to put up a brave face in the castle, but they couldn't really fight back the grim shadow hanging above them all. This battle didn't promise to get easy.
Slash and his clansmen were less secretive.
"Why, Skeeza!?" the swordsman exploded as he returned to the fortress, unable to contain his irritation any more, "isn't it enough that I have to kill Flea, what have I done to earn your wrath?!"
Suicide like arguing with his queen was normally not part of his disciplined mind, but he had built frustration for a few days and had enough.
Despite the time that had passed since his second disappearance, the other Mystics hadn't moved away from the magical circle of candles but patiently waited for their general to return.
"We need to keep an eye on those hot-heads," Skeeza calmly replied as Slash stepped out of the teleportation area.
"When they're doing our work-"
"Look me in the eyes and tell me you want Flea dead!"
Slash opened his mouth but the words were stuck in his throat. Skeeza whirled to her husband as fast as her condition allowed.
"That goes for you too!"
"Skeeza!" Ozzie snarled, but his grimace was constricted of hesitance.
"Admit it already!" the queen snapped, "damn, you're all idiots! Idiots!"
"How can we forgive him for attacking you and Leene?" the king roared, the smaller monsters scooting away from him in shock.
"For the last time, Ozzie…"
"Fine! But he attacked Leene in front of half the castle, we could have gotten the war started again for that!"
Before Skeeza could retort, her husband pressed a hand against his face and shook his head.
"By Lizard, I know you're right, but he can't come back now. He could have before, but now he's gotten himself too far within Lardon's dungeon! Himself and his pets!"
"But why is he doing this, and why now?" Skeeza snarled, but it was in a much softer tone than before, "he's been gone for a year and never made a sound, never let us know he was still alive!"
"Lardon take me if I know…"
"There is no way that I can save Flea, if that was your plan, Skeeza," Slash darkly said and crossed his arms, "I'd have to fight off those berserking humans and the snake. Janus and the amphibian wants to drink Flea's blood after the assault on Leene, and Lai is no better. Don't get me started on the others."
Skeeza sighed, shaking her head.
"You must understand that I am sorry, Slash, but you're our only hope. And Flea's, too."
At that, the swordsman just sighed. Deeply.
"Arrgh!"
Lightning bolts tore through the dark air, illuminating every last crack in the walls of the huge cave. The whips of electricity exploded as soon as they happened to touch each other, raining embers over the area.
The assassins nervously huddled together in a corner, or as cornerish as was possible since the area was rather rounded.
Flea's hands fell and he staggered backwards, shaking his head. The power of rage was draining, which allowed him to realize that wasting his powers would do him more harm than good, especially since it didn't even manage to ease the tight knot that was his mind.
His ragged breathing was the only sound heard apart from the distant whispering of the waves and the wind in the trees far above the cave. The darkness engulfed everything after the bright light had been extinguished.
Clutching his throat, Flea pressed his eyes shut and tried to ignore the metallic taste of blood in his mouth. It took him several seconds to realize that it came from the wounds on his lips, born from his frantic chewing on the soft flesh.
He spat in disgust, trying to wipe his mouth with the back of a hand. It didn't help, but he wasn't sure if it was just his mind playing tricks on him. To top it off, pain shot through his jaw as he touched the torn lower lip.
Trying to calm his ripped nerves enough to remember how to heal, the magician turned around and heavily leaned his right hand against the wall he had been standing by. As far back in the cave as possible. He felt somewhat safer there.
But his head refused to stop spinning, and after a few moments he gave up trying to organize it. He knew it would explode again at any given chance, and he was giving himself lots of thoughts useful for lighting the fuse. The taste of blood wasn't helping.
As he opened his eyes and looked up at the cave around him, he involuntarily shuddered. The empty space spread out above him, the dark ceiling and walls rising like demon's wings in their enormity. The hole high up there, the only source of light, seemed to be a coldly glowing eye that searched for a victim. And Flea felt very, very small.
Somehow, he never managed to figure out how, his close to hysterical brain remembered how to teleport. With a weak shriek the magician fled in a blast of light, reappearing in one of the much smaller caverns which connected to the main one via the tunnel to the surface. This one was the one he had been sleeping in lately; a heap of soft spruce twigs with a blanket covering them laid on the floor. But Flea wouldn't sleep, he couldn't sleep.
Punching the far back wall in a desperate attempt to satisfy the devouring whirlwind in his soul he only managed to draw more blood from his skin, tearing up his fingers and muscles.
More blood, more blood, wouldn't there be enough tomorrow? Or tonight? They'd come for him, soon, soon…
He could make peace with the mental picture of a pair of flaming red eyes that burned with hatred, and the heavy, gleaming Masamune. But the knowledge that the Slasher was calling for his blood hammered at Flea's writhing mind.
'Why him, why Slash, why them, how could… I didn't mean…'
Guardia was his born enemy, the kingdom and all its servants. But when his own people turned on him once more, Flea shattered.
He jumped as he heard a soft sound, but relaxed back in the tensed state from before as he recognized the gentle steps.
"Leave me alone!" he croaked and tried to push the furry paw off his shoulder.
"I don't think that being alone is what you need, Flea," the wolf beast carefully said in her snarling voice.
Flea wanted to reply, but he couldn't.
One by one the assassins sneaked in, even the ghost that had managed to mess up so completely in the Mystics castle. And eventually they got their master to sleep, tightly curled up with his guardians resting around him.