Chapter 75 - Fighting Back

— Kaden —

‘Hey boss,’ said Mishka through the mindlink.

Everything was packed and we were ready to move. Jean-Philippe had sent us his plane, along with mine, and the helicopters, and all the cars, we had managed to move everyone pretty efficiently.

‘Tell me something good,’ I asked him.

‘Well, it’s pretty bad, but it’s information we want,’ he said. ‘We tracked the hit, it came from the Brotherhood,’

I thought a string of insults that Mishka got through the open connection between us.

‘It didn’t come from official channels though, so we can’t assume everyone there is on board,’ he said.

‘It’s still betrayal.

‘Yeah, and learning who it comes from now could have made us go after the whole lot of them. Which could be convenient if someone wants the Brotherhood out of the way.

‘You think they’re being set-up?

‘I’m saying I’m unsure and I don’t like acting on uncertainties.

‘Don’t worry. I won’t rush this. My priority is Ela, I’ll focus on the fuckers when I have her back home.

‘Gotcha.

‘You got the techies still with you?

‘Yeah, but I’m nearly done showing them around the channels. They’ll be able to continue on their own so I can go back to kicking ass. I want to kill something.

‘Tell them to keep digging as deep as they can, I want the names, the allies, their fucking underwear size, I want everything. I’m not going to be someone’s fucking pawn. I don’t just want the figurehead either. I want them all.

‘Got it, loud and clear.

I cut the communication.

I tried Elaeya again, as I did every hour or so.

Nothing.

I connected to Jaxx.

‘Tell, me you have something?

‘No—, wait.’ I lost communication for a few seconds.

I tried to be patient and not tap my foot annoyingly.

I could hear the tap, tap, tap, of my soles on the gravel.

‘We got something,’ he said. ‘A location, that’s where she’s been sent. If we’re lucky, she’s still there.

‘Brief me,’ I said. Then I felt my heart squeeze hard and for an instant I thought I was having a heart attack.

Sam was nearby. He saw this happen to me before, and dragged me out of the way before someone could see.

I saw his eyes gloss over for a brief instant, probably linking someone.

I felt my breath coming back slowly.

‘Boss,’ came Jaxx’s voice in my head. ‘I think I lost you there, you back?

‘Yeah, give me a minute then you can tell me,’ I told him.

“What’s happened,” asked Alik as he rushed towards us.

“Was it another heart attack?” asked Sam.

“Fuck,” said Alik.

“Is it the separation?” asked Sam.

I was taking a few slow breaths to get everything back in order.

“Wait, that doesn’t work,” said Alik. We both looked at him. “That has healed,” he explained. “It would take a long time to get you back there health-wise.

“But what about what I did to my soul for the ring? That has not completely healed, right?” I said.

“Wait, what?” said Sam.

“Give me a sec,” said Alik.

He put his hand over my heart, not unlike Elaeya has done before, but he started chanting a string of words in a low muted voice.

It took him a while, his eyes closed, until a slow smile spread on his face and he looked up at me, taking his hand away.

“It’s the ring,” he said. “She just used it. The fact that you haven’t healed is why it was so painful. If you’d been fully healed, it would have bothered you at best.

“Which means,” I continued his train of thoughts. “She’s alive, and fighting back.

“Something like that,” he confirmed.

I raised a finger at the men to shut them up before this conversation continued and reconnected to Jaxx.

‘Give me all you got,’ I told him.

— Tamarak —

“What’s been going on here?” said one of the jailers.

I had managed to put the collar back on the girl, now rendered useless, the lock damaged. If she moved around too much, it might just fall off, but she was still unconscious so I couldn’t warn her about it.

I had managed to hide her opal inside the palm of her hand again, while her sword was behind my back pressed against the wall.

The naga had returned to her original position as if nothing had happened.

The man came before me and started to kick me in the face and gut.

I used my arms and hands to block as much as I could, but I didn’t move less I’d reveal the sword.

It was bad.

My stomach was already killing me, all I could do was take the hit.

I dared a glimpse at the monster, as I saw the girl rose up silently, ten flick her left wrist, releasing the other sword in silence. I tried to keep my eyes on him, so he would not notice what was happening behind him.

— Elaeya —

I woke to pain.

For a moment, I was afraid of what had been happening. I could hear men panting.

As I came back to my senses, I realized most of the pain came from my neck. My side had been lying on a hard surface for too long with pebbles and I don’t want to know what, biting in my skin. My hand was throbbing too.

I could hear the hits and a few whimpers of pain.

I opened my eyes. He was being beaten.

I could feel the collar back on my skin but I could not feel the thorns digging in.

I moved as silently as I could. Took my sword out, the other nowhere to be found, and I slashed at the man’s neck.

My aim had been bad, my strength lesser than anything I was used to, but the blade bit easily into the man’s neck, stopping as it half-severed the spine, and he fell with a strange gurgle.

“What’s that?” said another who came to us.

I had no chains long enough to reach the bars. If he had any long-range weapon, like a gun, I was done for.

I switched the blade to my right, pulled my hand above my shoulder, and the second that the second jailer peeked around the corner in front of our cell, I threw the sword like a javelin. I was afraid to hit the bars, but it went in between, digging right in his neck, stopping him from crying for help.

He struggled a little and fell backwards.

The cell in front of us was not as deep and the woman in there could reach the bars, only barely.

She moved swiftly, got her hands on him and snapped his neck, careful not to touch the sword.

Clever, if she had, she would have been hit by a bolt of lightning.

The man beside me tried to move around and grab something behind him, but his arms and fingers were swollen like sausages and he struggled.

My sword fell from its hidden place, and I nodded my thanks.

I bend down and grabbed the assailant by the foot, dragging him closer. I looked into his pocket and everywhere until I found keys. I then took my shackles off. I went to my cellmate and took his off too, then collected my blood-soaked sword, looking at it curiously.

I tried to take the collar off again, but I struggle, he tried to help me but his fingers were clumsy. We did manage though and I dropped it on the ground in disgust.

I took the key to the cell and opened it.

The woman was looking expectantly at me, I obliged her and opened her cell.

“Do they have the keys of the collars around here?” I whispered after I unchained her.

“No,” she said.

I took my blood-stained sword and gave it back to the man, as I was sure he had done this to be able to wield it.

He took it and inclined his head to me.

“What is your name?” I asked.

“Tamarak,” he replied.

I reopened the wound on my hand and applied blood on the second blade. They both looked at me curiously.

“What is your name?” I asked the woman.

“Pavarti,” she said.

I tended the sword to her after I smeared it, handle first. She inclined her head and took it.

I went to the other cells one by one.

“We should leave now,” Pavarti whispered.

“I’m taking us all out,” I replied.

She didn’t argue any further.

Some cells were empty, some had bodies. I went in to a man lying on the ground.

“He is dead,” Pavarti said.

“He still breaths,” I replied.

“Not for long,” said Tamarak. “Can’t you smell it?

I could, but I couldn’t leave him this way.

Tamarak came and pointed the sword at the man neck. “Mercy,” he said.

The man looked briefly at him, understanding. He closed his eyes and extended his neck only an inch, probably all that he could muster with what little strength he had left.

I turned my head around as I heard the blade sink into the flesh.

Tamarak killed another one who had no legs or arms left and was pale as a ghost having lost too much blood, gangrene evident at the wound and the putrid smell unmistakable.

One man in a cage was released. He had been there for so long, he could hardly walk.

There was a little girl in another, alive but weak.

I found an old wheelchair somewhere and but the man in it, with the girl in his arm. He nodded in understanding at what I asked of him, and wrapped his weakened arms around the girl. I signed at Pavarti to wheel them.

She gave me the sword, I shook my head.

“I’ll manage,” I muttered. “Protect them.

She nodded.

I noticed a crystal on one of the wooded shelves near a small desk clearly for the jailers to use. I threw it on the ground, and took a mass from behind the desk against the wall. I swung it over my head and smashed it on the crystal.

They were blocking me. I had to find them all, so I could talk to Kaden.

The metal resonated in the stone floor as it hit. The shards flying in all directions.

They would hear this for sure. The others would come, but they would have come anyways.

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