Chapter Eleven
The journey to Onaga's palace was a treacherous one. It seemed as if the Tarkata swarmed around the palace, nestled as it was amongst the mountains, like bees defending their hive.
Twice they were almost caught when a patrol smelled something wrong, but Jade or Kenshi quickly dispatched them at a distance with a boomerang or thought. The Tarkata had finer senses than any human, and they had to take the most roundabout route the whole way for fear of being detected.
Their main liability was Min, who-while well intentioned-was totally ill-suited for stealth. He was trying his best and only nearly exposed them a few times by making noises at inappropriate times. Despite his lack of stamina, he was holding up well and did not complain once when they continued through the night without stopping to rest.
Jade led them along the ridge of mountains until they faced the south side of the palace. "There is a secret entrance underneath the temple. It will take us directly into the dungeons," she said, pointing down at their intended destination.
Frost couldn't help but think it was a bad idea to start out where they would probably finish.
Jade carefully pushed aside a small boulder and crawled into a space that looked barely wide enough to accommodate Kenshi's wide shoulders. "Last one to enter, pull the stone back into place," came her muffled voice.
Min eyed the hole with intense distrust and shivered. "I don't like small spaces," he whined. "And there's no way we can take our packs in there."
"Well, I guess we'll have to leave them behind," Frost said. "Now get in!"
"If you'd like, you can stay out here and be killed by those beasts," Kenshi said, shoving him towards the entrance and crawling in after him.
LiXue and Frost stared at each other a few moments before the smaller woman gestured for Frost to go ahead. She wasn't too thrilled with the tiny space either, but at least there was a chance to survive if she followed the others.
Once LiXue had hidden the entrance, the entire passageway was black. She felt ahead carefully until she touched Kenshi's ankle. "We're all inside," she informed him. Jade must have heard her because the whole line started inching their way slowly ahead.
"There's a steep drop ahead," Jade warned them, after which Frost promptly skidded down it uncontrollably, landing with her face in Kenshi's backside much to her embarrassment. The rest of the way was uneventful except for the few scraped palms and knees and occasional bumping of heads on the ceiling. Finally a trickle of light came filtering through the small space.
Jade carefully removed a grate and placed it on the ground, slithering out of the shaft like a snake. Min tumbled out after her, with the rest quickly following suit, albeit more gracefully. They replaced the grate and moved quickly through the halls, hiding in the shadows whenever one of the many guards passed on patrol.
Finally, they slipped into the small room, hidden behind a series of false walls, where the Queen of Edenia paced, waiting for her trusted retainer to arrive. She smiled benignly as they entered and rushed to greet the new arrivals graciously.
The queen bore an uncanny likeness to the Bride of Frankenstein; especially if the bride was into purple fetish gear, in Frost's humble opinion. She was seriously beginning to wonder if Edenian women ever wore pants or anything besides lingerie. While their clothes were beautiful, they didn't seem very practical to fight in.
Her thoughts were broken by Queen Sindel greeting her warmly, although a quiet sorrow lay in the queen's pretty features. Here was a ruler who seemed to have seen much in her long life span.
"Have you learned anything else?" Jade asked eagerly of her queen.
"Not much," the queen replied sadly. "I fear we may never have enough knowledge to be truly prepared."
"What do we know now?" Kenshi asked.
"Onaga has been reborn into a body that is not his own. His body lies deep within the tombs beneath this very palace," Sindel said carefully. "We now possess the incantation for the resurrection ritual. If we can force Onaga's soul back into its intended vessel, we may be able to slay him while he retains his mortal form."
"That sounds complicated. Where do we come in?" Frost asked, unsure of what they could do to help with any sort of magical ritual.
"The Tarkata would overwhelm us if Onaga called for them. We need time to perform the ritual," Sindel said gravely. The implication of her words was clear.
"You…you need us to be a distraction," Min said quietly.
The queen looked vexed but nodded sadly. "I am afraid to ask it of you, it will not be an easy task."
It wasn't just a hard task, it was one that was nearly impossible to complete successfully. To take on a few Tarkata had nearly killed them, and now they were supposed to lure as many as possible into a fight. It was suicidal.
Min was the first to answer. "I will help you," he said, shocking Frost.
LiXue affirmed her commitment next, "Better to die a warrior's death than to die cowering before the Dragon King."
"If you truly believe Onaga will kill us all if he succeeds in uniting the realms, I will fight." Kenshi's jaw was set in grim determination.
All eyes were on her now. She had come so far, and now she was supposed to sacrifice herself? They had no idea if Queen Sindel's plan would work at all, even if they were a successful distraction. But if the fate of the realms truly hung in the balance...
There may be no Earthrealm to go home to if she refused to help. "I'll do it," she said, trying to hide the quiver in her voice.
Queen Sindel's smile turned to relief. "There may be hope yet."
For such an amazingly simple plan, it was going to take some incredibly complex maneuvering to carry it out successfully. The basics were easy to follow; break into the Dragon King's lair, wreak havoc. The trick, of course, was to not die painfully in the process.
They had parted ways with the Queen and her servant as soon as they had left the chamber where they met, and now they slunk off to what could be their doom as the royalty of Edenia marched off to save the universe. It hardly seemed fair.
None of them had asked for this. Min should still have been sitting in his quiet home, pondering the mysteries of the village. LiXue should have been practicing her martial arts in the barracks, preparing to keep the village safe from outsiders. Kenshi should have caught up with Sifu and be hurrying to the rendez-vous point.
But they weren't. Instead they were all preparing to lay down their lives to try and buy some time. All because one day she decided to take something she knew she shouldn't have.
Beside her, Min was fidgeting with the ties on his robe as they walked.
Of all of them, he was the least likely to survive, and he knew it. "Min, " she whispered. " Why are you doing this?"
He paused, and licked his dry lips. "Because someone has to," he said simply.
LiXue was signing something to him on his other side. "She says you shouldn't blame yourself if we should die. We all chose this."
"No, you didn't," she whispered violently. "You were thrown into this when I showed up on your doorstep."
Min smiled sadly. "We could have left at any time. We chose this path. I, for one, intend to follow it until it ends, one way or another."
"Wait," Kenshi whispered. "Someone is coming."
They leaned back against the wall, trying to blend in with the shadows as best as possible. A figure dressed in red with his face wrapped in black slunk past, with the flickering image of a man following after him. The hairs on Frost's arm prickled when they passed by, like she was crossing a graveyard.
"Ermac," Kenshi said. "I can sense them. But there was someone else..."
Min was staring wide-eyed. "I think it was a ghost."
"Ermac is made up of many souls, you may have been sensing his many beings." Kenshi looked concerned. "I don't understand what he is doing here, he used to work for Shao Kahn, but I helped free them."
"Maybe he decided to throw in with Onaga too," Frost suggested.
"No, they were too anxious to be free. I don't understand any of this anymore." Kenshi looked at the ground. "I wish I knew where they were going."
"Down to the dungeons it looks like," Frost reported. "Maybe they'll attract some of the Tarkata too."
The double doors leading to the Dragon King's lair loomed ominously ahead. Ornately carved, they wouldn't have been out of place in the Forbidden City, if only they weren't guarded by two hideous beasts.
"On my mark," Kenshi said, his blade was already out and to the ready. "One..."
Frost drew a trembling breath and squeezed Min's arm hard.
"Two..."
LiXue's face was set in a fierce mask.
"Go!"
All four charged at the surprised guards who had no time to react before Kenshi's steel severed neck from shoulders. The other three threw their weight against the barrier, forcing it open just enough to slip through before it clanged shut behind them all, trapping them with the Kamidogu.
The Kamidogu stood on six altars, glittering strangely in the light emanating from the lava pools. They were beautiful in an unearthly way, and a part of Frost was saddened that they must be destroyed. Outside the great chamber, they could hear the Tarkata gathering and trying to force open the heavy doors.
Kenshi struck the nearest kamidogu, a blue rectangular one, with his sword, but it merely rebounded, leaving a nick on the edge. They hadn't thought about how they would destroy the Kamidogu before charging in.
How does one destroy the artifact that controls the portals of a realm? Do you smash it against the ground? Smite it with your sword? Cast it into the fiery depths from whence it was forged? They had no idea, and they had seconds to find out.
LiXue lashed out with her whip at a green and blue Kamidogu, but it was only knocked from its holder. But when Min grabbed a purple one from its place and dashed it to the ground it shattered into dust, sending up a plume of plum colored smoke.
Frost tried to follow suit, but the red horned one she chose merely bounced. There was some sort of pattern to it; they just needed to figure out what it was. She flung a ying yang shaped kamidogu into the lava, but it bobbed along peacefully like a rubber duck in a bathtub.
Kenshi stormed over and struck the blue and green kamidogu, causing it to crack and shatter like the one Min had destroyed.
"That's it!" Frost had a burst of inspiration. "Min destroyed Outworld's. That one must have been Earth's. We need someone or something from the realm to destroy its Kamidogu."
"We don't have people from the other realms!" Min said shrilly.
"Then we'll have to take them to the other realms."
"How?" Kenshi yelled over the noise at the door.
"Well, what good are things to control portals if there are none nearby? I bet the portals are somewhere in the palace." It was getting hard to hear anything over the commotion.
"But how do we get out of here?"
"Ask her if she can freeze things!" Frost ordered Min.
"What do you need her to freeze?" Min asked.
"Everything! Anything! When they finally break open the door, just freeze everything."
The doors were buckling under the strain, and the nervous energy coursing through her body was almost too much to bear. She snatched the nearest Kamidogu-the red one she had tried to dash earlier-as Min and LiXue did the same with the blue square and yellow horn. Kenshi
fumbled for a moment, and then fished the final Kamidogu out of the lava with the tip of his katana.
Frost concentrated as best she could, closing her eyes and trying to think of nothing but cold and ice. Dimly she heard the doors cave in, and she opened her eyes to the same sensation she had felt when she had fought her first Tarkatan.
The beasts seemed to be moving in slow motion as her friends forced their way through them, Kenshi awkwardly cutting a path through them holding his sword with one hand, and LiXue spinning her whip, catching any who tried to fill in the gap. Frost charged in after them, knocking several Tarkatan down by just force alone.
Apparently the guards hadn't been expecting their prey to burst out of the chamber, because they were making their way down the corridors still clutching the Kamidogu before half of the Tarkata realized what was going on. The confusion they left behind would have been funny if they weren't running for their lives.
"Where do we go?" Min screeched, trying to keep up with the faster three.
"I don't know, your guess is as good as mine!" Frost yelled back. The Tarkata were beginning to organize again, following them at a distance.
Kenshi grabbed them all and practically threw them down a side hallway as another group of Tarkata rushed past chasing an older man in white. "Who the hell was that?" Frost asked as Tarkata flew past, not noticing the group hiding not a yard away.
"Does it matter?" Kenshi asked. "Maybe they'll all start chasing him instead."
LiXue peeked her head around the corner, and waved at them to continue. Without any clue to where the portals were it didn't matter which way they went, and LiXue made an arbitrary left turn. The Tarkata were still searching for them, they could hear footsteps tromping around above them and in the distance, but it seemed as though they had bought themselves some time.
They ran past a set of dark, wooden doors set with silver, and Frost's Kamidogu vibrated so hard she dropped it in surprise. It hit the floor
with such a clatter, she half expected to see the Tarkata come running. The other Kamidogu were glowing brightly, casting a rainbow down the hall.
"This must be it," Min said, looking up at the doors. The silver embossing was some sort of circular pattern, forming a repeating ring around the double pull rings. He grabbed a hold of one ring and yanked with all his might, but nothing happened. Frost ran over to help him, and even their combined weight did nothing.
Someone grabbed her waist, and she felt cold fingers bite into her skin as LiXue added her pull. Kenshi stood back, and Frost wondered why he wasn't helping when she saw the ring begin to glow a telltale teal. The door slowly creaked open, as they yanked, praying they would get it open before they were found.
Kenshi slid closer, and Frost could see he was biting his lip so hard it bled. "I can't do this much longer," he hissed through clenched teeth.
"Just a little farther, but be ready to run," Frost whispered back, her voice strained from the exertion. The door slid open a few more inches. "Go!"
The door slammed shut just as Kenshi finished slipping through, almost clipping his heel, and he cursed quietly.
They were standing in a massive chamber, with six large rings. Four of them were filled with a brightly colored light, while two stood dead and cold. "Those must be the portals for Earthrealm and Outworld," Min said, disappointment making his voice sound sad. "I hope the rest of them are color coded."
"Think of it as a cosmic game of Go Fish," Kenshi said sarcastically. "Just choose correctly the first time, I doubt we'll have time to do this again."
Frost looked down at her Kamidogu, quietly shining its blood red light on her chest. "Why do I get the feeling the angry looking portal is mine?" she asked.
A loud crash at the door sent them scurrying towards the portals. LiXue charged towards the yellow portal and threw herself through it like she thought she had to crash through. Min and Kenshi went next, Min screwing his eyes tightly closed as he stepped through. All that was left was Frost and the red portal. "Bonzai," she whispered to herself as she gingerly stepped through.
