Chapter 10

The sound of steel clanking and panic hung in the air, as people ran frantically for their lives towards the only exit, they were running from their seats toward the entrance, trampling the ones that moved slowly but they were cut down easily anyway. Some lied askew on the mosaic floor as their lives and their blood ebbed away from them, some were emancipated from their lives as their bodies just came apart cell by cell, some had their guts spilled onto the floor by the cold, ruthless assassins that had no faces. Cold and calculated, intent on destroying everything in the state of kalithia. How many hearts were broken this day, how many lives shattered, how many were Dying, they were dying needlessly?

Kay had managed to rally some of the stout and the Young into some sort of defensive line, men, and women who knew full-well twas better to die on your feet.

They stood back to back packed tightly as if even light found it challenging to move amongst them. ūna was standing with them on the frontline; she took down man after man, she was beautiful and fearless, almost as if she were thriving on the anarchy.

kay fell back to a sheltered position, he grabbed Bieber and pulled her by her arm close, he asked fuming “who did you tell Bieber!” She thought to herself why is he so ignorant all the time, she felt she would like to inflict some misery upon him at times, he was unbearable.
“He shouted whom did you tell B?” She retorted “no one!” On a note of sarcasm.
“ you better get to the villa and see that the Sprite is ok!” He said, “ how will I do that?” She replied placing her knuckles on her hips and squaring off to him, he looked to his left, and there stood ūna “can you do it, Pa ’mina?” He asked, “make me a path?” She nodded and gripped her staff firmly she looked at Bieber and said, “keep tight with me!” Bieber answered, “I’m with you my good lady Witch!” To which ūna gave her a dirty look.

She started moving forward as she mumbled, swinging her quarterstaff, chanting low as if she were muttering to herself, the Rhythm growing faster two soldiers were in front of her as she scythed them down and returned to san ti stance, Bieber was behind her. “Bell-Biv-Devoe,” She said as she raised her staff and struck it into the ground.

There was a sudden rush of air as the men in front of her were blown over like pieces of straw, ūna stifled them returning to their feet as she whirled around and knocked them down like skittles, one by one, each time they tried to get back up.

Bieber slipped through the gap and made towards the sanctuary of the temple, she looked back and hoped they’d be ok, after all, she wasn’t entirely heartless.

She looked towards the tall pillars of the Temple, knowing full well that no blood could be shed on consecrated ground. It would be easy just to wait it out there, but she thought about the little Sprite, and she cursed her change of heart, as she set out into the dark starlight path towards the villa, putting her mask on so no one would recognize her.

The walk up to the villa reminded her of her younger days when life was simpler; she recalled moving about trying not to be seen, creeping through the under grove boundaries of the small coppices That were dotted about her old home. It was where she honed her panache for being covert and being unseen.

being in view and being unseen was much harder, a much more delicate skill.

She remembered the sometimes stern lengths her parents went to keep her and her sisters from absconding and going to play in the side streets with the other children, before the civil war in a more eloquent time. Oh, how she would play, running up and down the picturesque scenic streets of karmarthen city, without a care in the world.

Her memory cheated …sometimes it was an image clear as crystal, but most of the time it was like the reflections of herself on the wrong side of wet windows smeared and impossible to accurately see. In Quietness she found herself thinking that her biography was that of a pariah, but her dreams ,perhaps weren’t as empty as her conscience indicated.

At school, she had great promise, but it was her pride and vanity that impinged on her ability to follow lessons, teachers thought it was because she was perhaps too intelligent. She had been told that she was a disappointment and that she hadn’t realized her potential, but the ministry saw something within her and began her apprenticeship in spycraft at kings’ college in karmarthen.

That was a great time for her! A shared experience, passion and adventure, when Naivety was a comfortable blanket.

She remembered the friendships made, and that final day at her passing out parade at karmarthen province, it was gloriously sad, as she knew the friends she had made she could never see again. It was dying, when she really thought about it.

she got to learn the lesson of spycraft that friendships die.

It was a skill pretending to be your friend. Being part of your life, being invaluable to you. People may say “how would I cope without you? “ but at the end of it you are only a mark, an enigma to unwrap, the superficial, the pretentious, mix in the right circles, and you get earmarked for a particular case.

She earned for herself notoriety and the name sweet misery, after her first case in which she seduced a man and jilted him on the day of his wedding when she had accomplished her mission.

The particular case, ah yes,
The Grand Marshall Of Mercia, had been under reconstruction, which was a codeword for torture. She was to be his friend, his best friend, his confidant, perhaps even his concubine if required. Anything to remake his mind, win his trust, and when the time was right? When she had found out what made him tick, when he had outlived his usefulness, he would be thrown to the wolves.

She remembered how broken he was…Kay was. The Ministry wanted to know? What he’d done to the emrysis defense grid.

It was the only reason he was alive.

Some said Li kay was a very bad man. He had organized a coup and murdered the Tai Tsar, some said the king of Mercia had succumbed to madness and depravity, that he truly deserved it, he was committing genocide on his own people at the behest of his advisor, a rancid old Oracle and changeling some called the knightmare.

she recalled li kays, first night at the villa it was springtime, and the moonflower fields were freshly sewn, and the primsies Had started to show their yellow crowns over the burgundy of the camomile lawn, the air was thick with fire flower pollen, it made her eyes itchy. She recalled how he was, a walking zombie.His face was swollen, and lips were split, he couldn’t stop breaking down in tears. She wondered if he could even remember his own name? He would often stagger around in curved motions dragging his broken body in circles around the floor and he was looking for something, maybe it was his peace she often thought. She did pity him, poor thing, no rest, no peace for him.

She imagined what it would be like to torture a man? They said Li kay begged them to kill him. Such was the sting of the pain technicians.
He must’ve had some sort of charisma though because one of the pain technicians assigned to his case, got too close, he was neutralized, Of course, they probably made it appear like a suicide. he’d gone soft, The sympathetic technician, his peers, saw that he wept periodically
As if somehow he’d become so disenfranchised, he didn’t believe in what he was doing anymore.

Then came the day the Sprite appeared. Everything seemed different, kay was different, it was as if just being present she made things better, somehow purer, and that you could wash away the stain that stayed with you, she saw it in kays eyes, the afternoon after Tempest retreats, like something had been reborn, and telling her the secret should have made her assignment complete but it just left her feeling cold, was it really that simple what he did ,to the emrysis A.I … she remembered his trial vaguely the advocate-executioner defending him a man as black as coal, a man called Tum Jai, resigned his Commission. Why? Intel said it was a matter of conscience, whatever that meant.

Bieber had arrived at the villas gates, they were big and imposing, and they cast a long shadow in the moonlight, a guard at the gates, did he know what was instore.

“Halt He said as he drew his sword!”
And without hesitation Bieber let her conductor’s baton slip from her concealed sleeve pocket.
And whipped it around and connected with his wrist, there was a crunch Bieber knew she had shattered every bone in his wrist, she smiled mockingly, “you’d better get that seen to if I were you!” The man ran away at haste holding his wrist. “Don’t worry!” She said, “it will hurt a lot more later!” As the man winced as he ran, he was apparently in great discomfort

She turned her head and watched him disappear into the night, “I hate it when they do that!” She said to herself. Her baton was a long thin rod that was constructed of heavy metal; it looked like the baton you’d use to conduct an orchestra, an easily concealable weapon the spy equivalent to li kays wooden fan.

Bieber called “Ourainne, is the Sprite here?” Ourainne replied,” I’m sorry mistress, I’ve been Instructed to not, divulge any information about her!”
“Oh great!!! Whose orders were those?!”… Kay, she thought… he’d done it, “Great!!!” she said, “I’m assuming since you’re not saying no that she is here …somewhere!”
She logically deducted “but where?” She stewed over the problem, as she thought to herself if I were the Sprite where I would be?

“Ourainne turn all the lights low minimal lumination.”
The lights went dim all over the villa, it suited her as she began to cross the lawn staying out of the light and moving in shadow.she could see the silhouettes of the soldiers. Why had they come here she thought, had someone learned about the Sprite, or had they discovered that kay had told Beiba the secret? Had Kay been right about a leak in the ministry.
Or was this a Royalist plot and what would be the point there’s no strategic or military significance about the place.

“Ourainne turn on the crystal viewer in the observatory, and turn up the volume on the astrology wizard!” She commanded the big crystal ball in the observatory crackled and came on, and the computerized wizard assistant started its narration Bieber waited in the bushes and when the soldiers rushed past her, she quietly with haste made for the front door.

At the threshold of the front door, she adjusted the red plant that conspicuously concealed the saber that was hidden there, which she’d always knew about.

“That’ll do nicely!” She said to herself, as she unsheathed the saber.

Creeping down the dim lit hallway; she felt a draft as she headed down towards Brownies bedchamber, trailing a long shadow as she snuck quietly down the hall and through into the ground floor. The bottom level was empty, and even though the Room temperature was frigid Bieber was perspiring as she could feel the tension in the air.

She tipped toed into the inner sanctum as if she were treading on eggshells, it was then she spotted a slither of blue cloak protruding out of the tall pampas grass screen, that was adjacent to the copper bathing cauldron… The little Sprite had eluded them but was hiding for her life.

“Psssssstttt!!!!” She called out. Bieber could see Brownies head bob up as the grass parted and she saw two vulnerable brown eyes peeping out of the grass, like two shiny black buttons staring, so close but seeming so far away, with her lip ever so gently beginning to quiver.

Moving as quietly as she could she joined the Sprite in the tall pampas grass as she stepped into and beyond the screen that was there for modesty purposes. It was scratchy, and it shed its seeds onto her clothing “thank goodness your safe!” she whispered as she removed her mask looking around checking if the coast was clear. Brownie hugged Bieber and it was as if her heart was going to burst.

From the above level
They could hear the faceless men in masks talking “have you caught the Whistle Blower Yet?!”
“No, sir …it seems we have lost the scent!”

“Keep looking!” The commander ordered his men

Bieber knew that it was highly unlikely that both would escape she was running through strategies in her mind,
“ sprite !” She said earnestly “I’m going to make a diversion!”

“I want you to get out of here, and to safety…there’s a green door no one knows about behind the vine privet, in the garden!” She said making eye contact, so she knew she understood.
The Sprite looked back at Bieber as her eyes began to brim with tears. She began to sniffle “what about you!” She asked ? Bieber brushed it off “I’ll be fine!” She tried to think of something to say, her usual line of subterfuge wasn’t working “get ready sprite, please there is no more time!!” She barely finished her words as she began to break down, and a tear rolled down her cheek!

Then there was silence as the pair of them looked into each other’s eyes…Brownie began to speak ,softly at first “it is a far better thing I do than I have ever done, it is far far better rest I go to than I have ever known.!” Bieber thought the sprites words were strange, but in a way, they struck a chord with her, she straightened up and saluted her. “get ready ” she said, “ …and don’t look back!!!!” She added as she moved into the center of the room and into plain view , she threw off her cloak to reveal she was clutching the saber which sparkled in the moonlight.

She saw Brownie exit through the paper screen into the garden and into the night as she wailed “hey, hey!!” waving her arms to distract the guards. The masked men descended the spiral staircase and encircled Bieber; there must have been eight men wearing masks. They were drunk on the lust to spill blood and chomping at the bit.
Bieber stood in the circle of the angry men; it was a standoff.
“put the weapon down !!” they commanded her, “you’re outnumbered!” she remembered Likay once again, she began to smile, as she raised her weapon and began to brandish it.

The sound of steel clanking faded into echoes.

 

They said it would be invisible, like jumping into an invisible current, that carries you away.

It was hard to see the faces of Kay & ūna they were here, but they were merely shadows …but it was too late anyhow. Bieber spat dark red blood from her lips; it ran down her face and neck. kay said, “try not to move!”
Her body was broken, her legs were no longer legs just two dead appendages that had been broken beyond repair,
Her belly had holes poked into it and blood gushed out of every orifice… like a stream that washed its way south. she panted heavily.

“ I’m cold!” She said with her last breaths; Kay was cradling her head “I’m sorry B!” Kay said in an attempt to comfort her “I can’t see you anymore.” She said as her vision closed down and only sounds remained

Kay carried on speaking “I’m sorry I didn’t get here soon enough, I’m sorry I never took the chance to say all the things I should have said but did not say!” Bieber clutched his hand and said, “sprite safe!”
As her eyes went lifeless and her breath simply ceased.
Kay continued “I’m sorry I… I… never told you!” He kissed her forehead and closed her eyes.
She looked peaceful at last.

her body began to degrade as pixelated embers started to stream into the sky, “goodbye!” he said as her body came apart cell by cell and was gone.

Ūna looked at kay she thought it was strange he looked like he envied her.