The lance thrower, p.31
The Nine Births of Carnage (Cross Academy Book 3), page 31
Rebuilding Wi wasn’t just about the reconstruction of the village. Roaring had decided to rededicate the settlement to God. That meant doing things His way, according to His will. Not according to an outdated tradition.
The Grand Chief sighed, not at all sure how God would feel about him continuing the tradition. Not at all sure how Cat would even feel about it.
“Cat,” he cut her off in the middle of another plea to stay home.
She blinked at the tone of his voice. “Y-Yes?”
“Would you marry me? If you had to.”
Silence swelled through the room like a bubble, burst by Cat’s sudden snort of laughter. “You know I’m unfit to be your wife. Why would you even ask me that?” She snorted again, her anger toward him easing away. “Besides, I thought you had a thing for that pretty teacher back in Babel?”
He did have a thing for the pretty teacher back in Babel. He’d even promised Marlo Jo he’d come back one day to marry her. But those had been words spoken in the heat of the moment. Words he’d meant but shouldn’t have said.
“I’m the Grand Chief,” he said slowly. “And she’s in another city, in another Region.”
“Okay, and?” Cat frowned. “You’re only nineteen. You can wait a few years and then see how things work out.”
He could. But he doubted Kifu Kato would give him a few years to pick out a wife. Naming Cat as his heir gave Roaring a nice excuse to hold off on things for now, but his Nuncle hadn’t dropped the issue entirely. He was dead set on continuing the Fire Tribe’s head family. He wanted another nephew, and he didn’t care who Roaring got him from.
“You didn’t answer my question,” he told Cat.
She shrugged. “I would do it if I had to. But if you’re going to intermarry, it should be Talon.”
He sighed. “She’s got something going on with that lieutenant.”
Cat fanned herself, her voice going high-pitched and swoony. “I know. What a hot catch that is.”
A very unwelcome twinge of jealousy flared up in his chest. Roaring swallowed it down. “Kato’s been bothering me about finding a wife.”
“Well, Talon’s taken. And I’m unfit. And I wouldn’t dare let you go back on your word to that pretty teacher.”
He ground his teeth together. It’d been a mistake to tell Cat how his goodbye with Marlo Jo had gone. He’d given her all the details during their journey to Wi, even included the part where he’d promised Master Jo he would come back and make her his wife. Cat had thought it was the most beautiful thing she’d ever heard. And now she was using that against him.
“You don’t get to make promises to a woman and then go back on your word.” She stomped her foot. “That’s not what Grand Chiefs do.”
Cat’s anger almost made him laugh. “Now you understand a Grand Chief’s duty?”
“I just don’t want to lose you,” she said quietly. “Something bad is coming, Roar. I can feel it.”
He felt it too. But hiding out in Wi wasn’t going to solve it or stop it.
“I’m coming back,” he said, crossing the room to pull his sister into a hug. “I promise. And Grand Chief’s never go back on their word, right?”
He felt her laugh into his chest. “That’s right.”
___ + X + ___
It took them a few hours to hike out to the burning area. They’d taken their time, moving carefully and cautiously through the woods. Grand Chief Roaring Fire, his hunting hound Chava, his Regiment Hunters—Ryko, Thunder, and Kifu Kato—along with Lord Razzle and a Priestess named Iyana. She was older with a tiny afro of curly hair and skin the color of dark chocolate. Roaring didn’t know the specifics of her blessing, but Lord Razzle had assured them that she could handle herself and wouldn’t slow them down. So far, he’d been correct.
The team was talented and swift. The village had been left in Cat’s hands as his heir. There was nothing to worry about, but Roaring couldn’t shake the feeling of unease that wrapped itself around him like a straitjacket.
They were less than a quarter of a mile from the first fire, the heat of the blaze was strong enough to make Ryko wipe sweat from his brow as he listened to the Grand Chief lay out their plans.
“We’re not here to attack. We’re here to observe,” Roaring said firmly. “Find out what’s started the fires and learn what we can about whatever has happened here.”
Lady Iyana raised her hand. “If I may, Grand Chief?”
“Go ahead.”
“If we can assure the area is empty, I can erect barriers around us to give us privacy during our investigation.”
Roaring raised a single dark eyebrow. “I don’t understand.”
“My blessing, it’s much like the Jo Clan’s, but instead of physical barriers, ours are spiritual. They are penetrable, but only to those we allow through. Whereas my cousin’s clan erects barriers that no man can pass through unless they remove the walls entirely.”
“Marlo Jo is your cousin?” That was the only detail he’d truly heard.
Iyana smiled. “She’s my little cousin, yes. I taught her almost everything she knows.”
“Grand Chief, Iyana’s blessing is what’s been protecting Wi from demonic attacks. She’s held a constant barrier around the village since my research team first arrived and cleared out the darklings,” Lord Razzle said.
Roaring couldn’t believe it. But he was thankful, nonetheless. It explained why they hadn’t ever been attacked during the reconstruction, though there had been plenty of demons lingering in the forest. But none of them had come very close to Wi.
Maybe that’s why the phantom hasn’t made a move, Roaring wondered. It can’t. Not without finding a way to get rid of the barrier first. He frowned. But what could the phantom want inside the village? It clearly didn’t want blood or death—it could’ve killed Roaring and his Regiment Hunters while they’d been out catching that buck. But it hadn’t made any such moves. It hadn’t even engaged them. It’d just made its presence known and disappeared.
It's taunting us, Roaring realized. Making us nervous.
Its tactic was working.
“Can you erect multiple barriers at once?” he asked Iyana.
She nodded. “My presence here will have no impact on the barrier surrounding Wi. The only way to remove it is if I take it down. Or I die.”
Roaring glanced around. If killing her was all it would take, then there was a chance the phantom wouldn’t be so friendly when it returned. If it returned.
“We’ll need to scout the area first, then we’ll move in,” Roaring said.
“I don’t sense any spiritual signatures,” Lord Razzle reported. “I’m sure it’s safe to move in now.”
“How can you know for certain?” Kifu Kato asked, but Roaring replied before the Priest could.
“He can sense spiritual energy; the same way animals can sense danger or someone’s presence. It’s something you’re taught at the Academy.” He frowned, wishing he’d stayed long enough to learn that handy skill.
Kato gave a firm nod. “I’ll still keep watch from here once you move in.”
“I’ll stay back as well,” Ryko said.
Roaring pat his friend on the shoulder. “We won’t be long. Keep Chava with you and signal if you see or hear something.”
“Of course, Grand Chief.”
Roaring let Lady Iyana and Lord Razzle take the lead, moving deeper into the forest as they used their Academy training to spiritually scope out the area. It was the first time the Grand Chief felt inadequate, realizing the limitations of his blessing and skill. Burning things to a crisp was certainly handy in battle, but it was useless in terms of observation and analytical tactics.
“Here we are,” Lady Iyana’s voice disrupted the Grand Chief’s thoughts. He heard her gasp as he stepped into the clearing; when he stood beside the older woman, he realized what she’d been gasping over.
Actually, he wondered how her only reaction was to gasp. He wanted to scream.
The camp around them had been burned to ash. Black scorch marks trailed the ground where grass had once rested, they looked like dark fingers, leaving claw marks over everything. A ring of trees had been burned down, leaving soot-covered stumps to enclose the destroyed camp. A fire in the center of the site remained alive and healthy, large flames licking at the sky. It was the only living thing in the camp.
Charred bodies lined the ground, men, women, children, all of them reduced to black bones and set out in what looked like a pattern.
“Who could have done this?” Lord Razzle asked, his voice shaking. It was strange and disconcerting to hear such a large, powerful man reduced to such a small, quivering voice. But even the Grand Chief had a hard time keeping his own tone steady as he replied, “You mean what could have done this?”
“A demon,” Thunder answered, staring at the burned carcass of what must have been a child. It was tiny, curled up in fetal position with its arms wrapped around its legs. Nothing was left but a black skeleton, leaving no real way to tell if it’d been a girl or a boy since it was so young.
“Even women and children,” Razzle whispered.
Roaring didn’t like the thought of dying first just because he was a man, but he understood the Priest’s sentiments. There was no need to explain the desire to protect a child, but, like any good Christian man, Roaring had been raised to value women the same way he valued silver and gold. God’s daughters.
They were precious things, meant to be loved and cherished as the weaker sex. Not mistreated and oppressed for being the weaker sex.
Roaring had lived for his three little sisters. Would have died protecting them in Wi before the Walls crumbled. And he wouldn’t think twice about dying to protect someone else’s precious sisters too, because he now knew the visceral pain of losing a sister. Though part of him hoped and prayed every day that Talon wasn’t truly lost. That she was alive and healthy and would be safe soon.
Unlike these people…
Roaring blinked at the bodies. “They’re arranged in a pattern,” he said.
Iyana nodded, stooping beside a charred skeleton. “How many bodies are there?”
“Thirteen total,” Razzle announced.
“Forming the letter ‘C’.” Thunder stood farther back, glaring at the skeletons. From her stance, and with her great height, she could see the pattern clearly. “Do you know what this means?” she asked.
“The letter?” Razzle shook his head. “It’s impossible to tell with there just being one.”
“Exactly,” Thunder said. “Because there wasn’t just one fire. There were multiple ones. And I’m willing to bet each of them is like this.”
Bile rose in Roaring’s throat, threatening to choke him. More fires meant more campsites. More burned families. More people brutally murdered to be neatly arranged in a pattern like a twisted puzzle of death.
Heat rose in the Grand Chief’s chest, his blessing reacting to his anger. Only the sound of Iyana’s voice called him from his thoughts.
“Grand Chief?” the old Priestess said.
Roaring glanced up to find her, Razzle, and Thunder squinting against the massive flames of the fire in the middle of the camp. It had grown ten times larger as it responded to his rising emotions.
Slowly, Roaring exhaled, calming the flames immediately. “Sorry,” he mumbled. “Let’s go check the other fires.”
It was easy enough to find the other campsites with streaks of smoke still rolling into the air, high above the forest trees. Just as Thunder suspected, the other campsites were the same. Each one filled with dead bodies arranged in the pattern of more letters.
Lord Razzle concluded the people had been nomadic, not any members of the team travelling with Captain Payne. “An entire clan,” he’d muttered once they’d reached the fifth area. By then, Roaring had seen enough, but they had two more to check—he was determined to pay his respects to the lost souls, and he wanted to find out what the bodies spelled.
While Lady Iyana rested, feeling tired from maintaining two different barriers at once, he went over the letters they’d found so far.
“C, G, R, A…” He glanced at his comrades. “Mean anything to anyone?”
Thunder shook her head. “Crag?”
“Garc?” Razzle guessed.
“The word isn’t complete yet,” Iyana reminded them, swiping sweat from her forehead with the black sleeve of her heavy cassock.
“Let’s get going, then.” Roaring turned and walked away.
It took them another hour to check the other two campsites, silently stalking through the blackened area. No one spoke as they gazed solemnly at the bodies. No one covered their nose at the reeking smell of death. They just stared in silence, praying internally, making quiet vows to find whoever had done this.
“The letter ‘A’,” Roaring said. “That’s the last one.”
“What does it spell?” Thunder asked.
C G R A E N A
Iyana scratched her head. “I don’t know.”
Roaring unsheathed his rahkai and carved the letters in the dirt.
Anger took over his face. “Whoever did this… they scrambled the word on purpose. They wanted us to visit each campsite. To see how cruel they truly are. To see how much death they can bring.”
“Not death.” Razzle knelt and slipped a small dagger from his sleeve, carving into the dirt as well. When he leaned back, the group gasped at the word he’d written.
“When there are this many bodies, these many victims… It isn’t death our enemy brings. It’s something else. Something darker.”
C A R N A G E
Roaring stared at the word unscrambled before him. He couldn’t believe it, even though the evidence was written right there. Nearly etched in stone.
“The Nine did this,” he whispered. “They wiped out an entire nomadic clan and left their bodies for us to find.”
“Which one of the Nine?” Thunder asked.
“It’s impossible to tell,” Iyana said, anger on her tongue. “But the message they left for us is clear. They are nearby, and they’re strong enough to take down a clan.”
What chance did twenty hungry people stand?
Roaring shuddered. They were in more danger than he’d thought. And they just sent away more than half of their forces—the half with all the talented, blessed soldiers.
He gulped. “Do you think Captain Payne is okay?”
Razzle shocked him by nodding. “I honestly do.”
“Why?”
“Because the Nine aren’t bloodthirsty killers.”
“How can you say that?” Thunder challenged. “Look around you, my lord!”
He calmly shook his head. “I don’t mean to disregard the death here. What I mean is, the Nine have never done anything without a purpose. If death was their goal, they could have killed Captain Payne and her team as soon as they left. They could have killed any one of us each time we stepped beyond Lady Iyana’s barrier. But they didn’t.”
Roaring frowned, though he had to acknowledge the sense in the Priest’s observation. The phantom he’d seen in the woods had done the same. Simply made its presence known and disappeared. It could have killed Roaring. Could have taken down the buck. But it hadn’t.
Was there a chance the phantom he’d seen earlier was actually a member of the Nine?
Roaring had no clue. The only Births of Carnage he’d ever met was Number Six who’d attacked Wi with her silver hair and her four swords, which she’d used to control the wind. He’d also seen Number Seven and the Red Face when they attacked Babel during the exams. If the Red Face even counts as one of the Nine. He wasn’t sure. But none of them had appeared as a phantom.
“Are there any members of the Nine Births of Carnage which take the form of a phantom?” Roaring asked. “Or a ghost?”
Razzle and Iyana both thought for a moment.
“I regret to admit,” Razzle said, “I have very little experience in fighting the Nine. I’ve only seen one of them in person. A woman who’d had her face covered by their classic, red-hooded cloaks.”
“I also have little experience with the Nine,” Iyana admitted. “But I can check the few records we have at our camp. We can even send a request for records via messenger hawk.”
“We will definitely have to report this to Babel,” Razzle said. “Maybe they will send Captain Payne’s team back to help us.”
“Maybe,” Roaring mumbled. He could only hope. For now, he held on to the fact that whoever had done this couldn’t get into the village.
“Can your barrier keep us safe?” he asked Lady Iyana.
She gave him a hesitant nod. “I can fortify it through prayer and fasting. But I’m not sure if it will be enough.”
“It’s been enough so far,” Thunder pointed out. “If the Nine wanted to get inside Wi, they would be inside Wi.”
Roaring nodded. That much was true. They had managed to get into Babel which had a spiritual barrier surrounding the city that was ten times stronger than anything Iyana could ever erect. If the phantom or the Birth responsible for this carnage wanted to get into Wi, it would have done so by now.
Which meant they were still safe. But it also meant they were at the whim and mercy of darkness itself.
“Let’s go.” Roaring sheathed his rahkai and turned back into the woods. “We need to send that messenger hawk. Immediately.”
31
Seduce
Seduce wiped his sweaty forehead as he watched Joy spit-shine a mug. She stood behind the counter of her bar, cleaning and grumbling complaints like she always did. Nothing had changed about the tavern since the prince had left weeks ago. He wasn’t sure if he was happy or sad about that.
“What did you do with all the supplies I gave you?” Seduce asked.
Joy spat into the cup once again, gave it a good scrub, and then set it on the wooden countertop. “I made stew and then stocked up my inventory.”
Seduce glanced around, taking note of the slanted door, the splintered overturned crates she used as chairs, and the rotted wooden tables. “You couldn’t think of anything else to do with the payment except buy grain and beer?”
