Vedek

“He’s staying up there?” Legion gawked as they hustled down the tunnel.

“Cole is finding his heart.” Frost answered cryptically.

Vedek cast a look back at the shadowed light coming from the tunnel’s entrance. Already, they had broken from Cole. He forewarned them about the Keep being prepared for their attack, which drove everyone to equip their favored weapons. Frost lingered on the edge of fully shifting as he hefted his club.

Odile’s bedroom was virtually untouched from the last time Vedek had been there. The only items returned to their proper place were the scattered shelves Frost and Azeroth had used to make a blockade. Carefully, Onakie unlatched the door to let Vedek listen to the halls.

“Soldiers coming from the right. Still plenty of time route them. Nothing to the left.” He tightened his eyelids as he focused his hearing further. “I think most of them are on the floor below.”

“Kelmin will be on the ramparts.” Onakie growled. The quickest path there was to the right. “He’s mine to kill.”

She singled out three soldiers in their group. “They’ll follow me. Dirk, you lead the remainder to Ghetsis. With luck, I’ll get this done in time to join you.”

Dirk soured at the proposition, but did not question it when time was of the essence. As they split apart, Vedek watched Onakie until she vanished around a corner. It wasn’t long until they split apart, Vedek watched Onakie until she vanished around a corner. It wasn’t long until his ears picked up on her violent greeting to the soldiers sent to secure the tunnel.

Vedek remembered the quickest route to the throne room. It was through the sitting room with the large windows. That room had been mended since he last saw it. It had to be, for how much it had been thrashed in the fight to save Fellior. Through those wide windows they caught a brief glimpse of the pitched battle outside. Waves of dots representing soldiers ebbed into each other in seven distinct patches. They weren’t far from the city limits. Vedek caught the glint of iron arrowheads being nocked in the archer’s towers.

He pried his eyes away from the battle to descend the adjacent stairwell with the others. They came to a dimly lit hall. At the far end of it was the throne room. The strike team quickened their pace further. Except for Frost, who slowed to walking speed. He was sniffing the air.

“Halt!” He shouted.

“Don’t tell me you smell tecuani.” Azeroth shouted back to him.

“No. This smells like...sulfur?”

Vedek cocked his ears upward. He heard the hiss of a fuse reaching its end. His scream for them to run only just preceded the explosion. Debris rained on them. An avalanche of stone and wood clogged the hall. Vedek pulled himself from the rubble. His senses felt dulled, most of all his ears, which rang like temple bells.

Nearby, Frost surfaced. He shot to his feet, ready to fight.

“Bréag, Frost, one of you answer me!” Dirk called from the other side of the impasse of debris.

“We’re alive.” Vedek shouted back. He had to take a moment to breathe against the wall.

“Praise the sun.” The relief in Dirk’s voice was palpable. “We’re alive as well, thanks to your warning. Listen: we don’t have time to budge this blockade. You two will have to find another way. Either that or join with Onakie’s group.”

Frost voiced that he understood. He helped Vedek to his feet. His hearing returning, Vedek caught the trail of the remainder of the strike team closing the distance to the throne room. Frost and Vedek took turns checking the ableness of the other before pressing on. The only path remaining was the stairwell. From there they could navigate to the balcony that overlooked the throne room.

Azeroth. Legion. Cole. Onakie. Dirk. Vedek didn’t like being separated from so many he knew in this moment.

Misfortune turned to misfortune when they returned to the sitting room. Almost immediately, a black object bounced off of Vedek’s head. He could only comprehend it for a second before it spewed black smoke in his face.

Holding back his impulse to cough, Vedek hurled the smoke bomb out the open balcony doors. The initial blast of smoke dissipated quick enough for Vedek to see the outlines of two tecuani with glowing war paint.

“I suppose it was pride to expect the same tactic to work twice.” Cuixmala said.

“This is a familiar scene.” Chamela chuckled when he realized who they ambushed.

“Only the two of you? Either that trap was effective, or a disappointment.”

Frost snarled at the pair. “This is the Spirits’ will. A second encounter. I’ll tear you each to shreds!”

“Are you sure it won’t be a second cycle of what happened before?” Cuixmala taunted. “You even brought us another elden to throw over the rail.”

“You will not touch him!” Frost roared. He ran straight for the duo.

Completely in control, the tecuani brothers feinted to the side. Frost careened into the opposite wall. The stone cracked where he impacted. Vedek fired two arrows. He knew one struck its mark from the snarl that followed.

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“You’ll pay for killing Fellior!” Vedek found himself shouting.

“Brother, handle the faeling.” Chamela ordered his younger sibling. “I will take the western cousin.”

Cuixmala growled his approval. The smoke was thin enough that Vedek could see the knives coursing towards him. He rolled aside and returned fire. Cuixmala rushed to close the distance, upending furniture with his enhanced shifted strength. Vedek sprinted to the edges of the room. At the other end Frost and Chamela were exchanging blows.

A dagger’s edge grazed his left temple. He couldn’t focus on Frost. Not when a predator was bearing down on him. It was impossible that he could fight Cuixmala at close range. All he had was a bow, arrows, and his

own obsidian knife.

He needed more distance than this room allowed. Behind him was the closed door to the dinning hall. To his left was the hall that led to Odile’s room.

He chose the balcony.

Firing an arrow ahead of him to shatter the glass, Vedek dove through the window onto the thin balcony. Cuixmala had not predicted this and had to scramble to recapture his momentum. Vedek took his eyes off the tecuani. The sheer keep wall required his attention.

Clenching an arrow in each hand, he took to the wall like a mountain climber. The castle stone was old and with enough effort Vedek could force his arrows into the slight cracks formed by weathering. He measured his breathing, absorbing himself in the careful task.

His focus was faltered when he realized that Cuixmala was below him, clinging to the wall with his retractable claws. Twice he swiped just close enough to brush the sole of Vedek’s boot.

Far afield, Thezzus’ forces pressed against the city barricades.

Vedek reached his destination. The small balcony he had once eavesdropped on Fellior and Kelmin from. Compared to climbing with arrows, pulling himself onto the ledge was easy. Cuixmala leapt the final distance to the balcony. His furry hand gripped the railing as he struggled to pull himself up. His claws scraped shallow grooves into the stoneworking. His right claw caught Vedek’s arm. Vedek could feel the hook-like talons curl under his skin.

Shouting in defiance, Vedek hammered the arrow he was holding into Cuixmala’s left hand. Blood sprayed from beneath the palm as the arrowhead pierced clean through. Cuixmala relinquished both the railing and Vedek. Through miraculous speed, he recaptured a grip on the balcony before he could fall further.

With time to flee, Vedek rushed down the hall. He would have stayed to finish Cuixmala, but when the tecuani pulled away he shredded Vedek’s bicep. Muscle and tendon were easily visible through the flowing blood. Quick as he could, Vedek checked each room he passed. He prayed he would not stumble across more soldiers. On the seventh door he came upon what he was looking for, a bedroom, the same he slept in as a guest. That was a coincidence, he just needed linen to make a bandage with. He tried not to think about the cost of the sheets he was tearing, but mending his arm was the most pressing issue.

Outside the room he heard a low growl. Panicking, Vedek dove under the bed. The door was forced open. From his viewpoint Vedek observed two padded feet pace the room.

“Amarok aren’t the only Nahual with strong noses.” Cuixmala’s words dripped venom.

With a single thrust, the bed was thrown aside. Vedek rolled to his left. It was a lucky guess that spared him Cuixmala’s attack. He tucked into a ball to keep low and avoid additional strike. With his knife he cut the rope that held the crystal chandelier in place, which crashed over Cuixmala’s head.

Vedek broke free from the room at breakneck pace. Cuixmala was not far behind him, practically pouncing from the walls to catch him. In a fluid motion, Vedek reversed his direction and slid underneath Cuixmala as he lunged over him. Longstep had taught him well. There was a flight of stairs nearby. Vedek slid down the railing and burst through the door at the bottom.

He was in the kitchen. In the oven a fire boiled a forgotten pot of stew. In the center was a thick table dusted with vegetable peels. Hanging from the rafters were hunks of meat of varying breeds. Pork, lamb, oryx.

An idea dawned on Vedek. He snatched every piece of meat he could fit in his arms and threw them on the open fire. Sausages and haunches sizzled on the flames, filling the room with intoxicating smells. The table was heavy, but Vedek managed to overturn it. From there he left the tip of his bow just barely visible from behind the table, then concealed himself the best he

could adjacent to the door to the stairs.

The seconds he waited for Cuixmala were filled with a thousand terrified beats of Vedek’s heart. Outside the kitchen Cuixmala purred with satisfaction once he made the weighty leap to the bottom of the stairs.

“Oh elden, That barrier won’t protect you.”

All too eager, Cuixmala launched himself at the overturned table. The table shattered under the strike, but there was no elden to be caught on the other side. His opponent confused, Vedek tackled into Cuixmala. For a brief moment Vedek face was enveloped in the coarse fur on Cuixmala’s chest. Claws raked his backside, then retreated when Vedek sank his knife into Cuixmala’s pectoral. Vedek pushed himself away from the tecuani. His intent was not to get a killing blow. He had seen Frost survive too many similar blows while shifted. In Vedek’s sweaty right hand were the pull chords from the smoke bombs in Cuixmala’s bandolier.

In the moment it took Cuixmala to understand this, Vedek dove for his bow. The smoke bombs detonated and the room was choked by layers upon layers of blackened smoke. Cuixmala had trained himself to navigate in the darkness of his own smoke bombs, but not so many at once. Vedek could hear the tecuani attempting to find Vedek by smell, but by this point the

roasting meats masked all other scents.

Vedek nocked two arrows simultaneously. The low glow of Cuixmala’s iridescent paint became visible through the thickened smoke. He was snarling. Reaching out for wherever Vedek could be.

Vedek didn’t hesitate. He let both arrows fly. There was a roar, then a crash as something large fell upon the oven. Vedek held his breath, his eyes embedded to that faint glow.

As the smoke phased away. It was clear that he had won. Cuixmala was dead with a snarl on his face, along with the two arrows embedded there.

Knowing he was safe, Vedek exhaled.