Acclayne Book 1: The Game Begins
Chapter 11

“...soshe sat patiently in the shadows, waiting. Now, it is said that theDark Assassin of the East of Dolak are the most fearsome warriors onthe whole of Acclayne. They are virtually silent when they move; youcould hear a pin drop in a crowded room with more clarity. There isno warning when they arrive, you are simply alive one second, anddecapitated the next. In fact they are so elusive it is said thatthey en-robe themselves with the very shadows that they hide in...”Malcolm paused briefly for effect, Kaylaer had long stopped listeningto his stories, but much to his delight Alaina was still enthralled.“It is only the Emperor of Dolak who knows how to replace them, andonly she that they will serve. No one knows why this is so; but it isthought that she must have some knowledge about them that could putthem at risk, so they serve her without question. As you can imagine,by virtue of her assassins alone the Emperor of Dolak is an extremelypowerful woman, but the powerful get greedy and so she sent herassassins to the Glakyrian House of The Mother to steal our MotherAmulet. Now the...”

“...Sorry tointerrupt but; Mother Amulet? House of The Mother? Don't quitefollow.” Alaina was pleased with herself as she'd understood mostof Malcolm's stories pretty well, but her own interruptions wereannoying her as they ruined the flow of his story telling.

“Sorry, I keepslipping up, it's just that all of these myths are second nature tome; I forget you've never heard of them. Well, as you can imagine TheHouse of The Mother is the sacred place where we keep our MotherAmulet. Apparently there are a few of these Amulets in various placesaround Acclayne; symbols of the Ultimate Mother. According toAcclayne lore the amulets hold mystical qualities and bring thebearer of the amulet great power; of course the Emperor of Dolakwanted the power for herself.”

“I get the feelingthat this isn't going to end well.” Malcolm smiled at Alaina'scontribution, he wasn't used to getting so much attention, especiallynot from a woman. Not good attention anyway; he got plenty ofattention from Kaylaer and it usually resulted in some form ofinjury.

“Not as she wouldhave hoped, no. She had sent her five best assassins, yet even theywere unprepared to replace The Great Alaina of Corthus waiting for themamongst the very shadows they were to use to hide themselves. Shefought them off with ease; the only person ever to withstand such anonslaught. Throwing stars were hurled at her with immense precisiononly to lodge themselves into stone walls, their infamous machetescut through the air silently to be met with the ring of Alaina'stwin-bladed sword as she fended them off. Her mastery of her swordwas surely something to behold as anyone fortunate enough to haveseen her fight, and live, will tell you. She had the agility of adancer, yet the power of an Ox. She felled her opponents with ease;decapitating one after the other with her blades. All five of theelite Dark Assassin fell to her that day, and little has been heardfrom the Dolak Assassins since. Unfortunately the venerable keeper ofthe Amulet, chosen by the royal families of Glakyrie, was killed ashe tried to fulfil his purpose. It is said that it came into Alaina'scare, yet to this day it is not known what became of it. Somescholars say she took it with her to your world, others say she threwit to the sea so that no one would ever retrieve it, then there arethe few who say it is still in Glakyrie, waiting to be found.”

They walked in silencefor a while whilst Alaina digested what she had been told. Shewondered how much of it was actually true and how much was simplyhearsay. She had no doubt that her mother was a great warrior, Juneyherself had told her a few stories, but she had to admit that Amuletsand assassins did sound a little far fetched, even given her unusualsurroundings.

“So you're telling methat this Emperor woman went from being a massive threat to barely ablip on the radar just because she lost a couple of Assassins?”

Malcolm laughed, “LikeI told you earlier a lot of these stories are embellished but she wasa 'massive threat' as you put it, for quite some time, but most ofher power lay with her formidable Dark Assassins and training anotherfive women to that standard takes a fair amount of time.”

“Women?”

“Yeah, women. Why?”

“Well I just wasn'texpecting women is all, to tell you the truth I just kind of assumedyou were talking about men.”

“Why in the hellwould he be talking about men?” Kaylaer had zoned in on theconversation now and was walking alongside Malcolm. “Men areuseless pushovers who just get in the way.” To emphasize her pointshe pushed Malcolm roughly on the shoulder. He didn't retaliate. “Incase you haven't noticed, your mother was the greatest warrior thatGlakyrie has ever known. Was she a man? No. Women are stronger thanmen, faster, more... ah... ah...”

“Articulate?”

“Shut UP Malcolm.Accurate. More Accurate. We are the dominant sex here and don't youforget it.” And with that she spat on the ground and stomped off tojoin Juney at the front of their group.

“She's a realdelicate little flower isn't she?” Alaina whispered to Malcolm,rolling her eyes. He laughed quietly in response.

“Maybe, but she'sright; in the history of Acclayne all of the great warriors andleaders have been women. Not all women are stronger than men but agood deal are, a good deal are better at practising magic as well, soin that respect you are perhaps the more dominant sex. It's come tomean less these days, it's fairly peaceful and equal rights arepretty well-established but people like Kaylaer just wont let itdrop.”

“Perhaps she feelslike she has to prove something.”

Malcolm shrugged, hehadn't thought about it like that before; but that was probablybecause he was too busy being scared of her.

“So... if all ofthese great warriors are women, then why do we need to help out thisPrincess?”

“Well, traditiondictates that the women of the royal family take a more demure role.Though to tell you the truth very little is known about PrincessStella.” Malcolm shrugged; common knowledge again, Alaina supposed.

“Why's that then?”

“A few years ago theKing's younger brother; Prince Wesley, was brutally murdered.”Malcolm paused as Alaina drew in a sharp breath, “It was kept ashush hush as possible, but as you can imagine there's been a lot ofspeculation. We do know one thing for sure; Wesley's son, PrinceAlistair, was found at the scene of the crime.”

“No!”

“Yes, and ever sincethen the King has kept a watchful eye on his daughter; for fear ofanything happening to her: she very rarely makes any publicappearances.”

“And what happened toPrince Alistair?”

“Well 'officially'he's rotting away in one of the castle prison cells, but some peoplethink the King exiled him from Glakyrie entirely.” Alaina thoughtabout this for a moment;

“And what do youthink?”

“Personally; I thinkhe's rotting in the ground somewhere.” Kaylaer sneered.

***

Our conversationpetered out naturally as we climbed the hill. The three of us; thatis Malcolm, Methyn and I lagged behind, quite out of breath whileJuney and Kaylaer marched on ahead. I found myself panting with everystep upwards that I took and wondered when I had become so unfit. Imade sure I ate healthily, though I was quite fond of a takeaway nowand again. As a treat. Birthdays, Bank holidays... Thursdays... Okayso usually at least once a week, but I was a member of my local gym.At least I vaguely remember signing up at the start of last yearthough I don't think I'd been back since. Come to think of it mymembership must've expired by now. As I contemplated cancelling myDirect Debit payments, Juney and Kaylaer disappeared over the crestof the hill. The two girls had been ahead of us for the majority ofthe journey so far; Juney liked to keep to herself but Kaylaer hadoccasionally walked alongside Malcolm and I. Despite this she managedto ignore me pretty well. After three days I had learned very littleabout her, and what I had learned was thanks to Malcolm. For such adainty thing she seemed extremely aggressive, and I had said as muchto Malcolm. He merely agreed and told me that he had had bruises toprove it. Her dislike of him had been instant it seemed for she hadbeen this way for as long as he'd known her. Unlike a lot of childrenattending their school Kaylaer had come from the outskirts of Corthusand so had known very few of their classmates, though from whatMalcolm had told me she had soon made her presence known throughoutthe school; and whoever had at first deemed her a country bumpkin wassoon set straight. It was clear to me now; however, that Malcolm knewKaylaer by her reputation and persistent bullying rather than throughany meaningful social connection.

Malcolm was the chalkto Kaylaer's cheese. While I had learned that Kaylaer was a naturalwith what Malcolm referred to as 'physical magic', he was much morepreoccupied with learning as much theory as he could. As someone withinside knowledge he was proving invaluable to me. He had been quiteshy and reluctant at first, but with the amount of questions I wasasking he didn't really stand a chance. For me he was a little sliceof normality in an otherwise completely bizarre situation. He waslike any other young teenage boy I'd ever known; shy, awkward and hada habit of staring at my boobs when he thought I wasn't looking. Notonly that but he was small, smaller than me at least. I was beginningto feel quite dwarfed by everyone else. Even Kaylaer was about myheight and she must've only been about 15 if that.

Methyn was tallerstill. At least another foot taller than Kaylaer. I had wanted to askhim about the height thing, (I didn't like to ask Malcolm as I had afeeling it might be a bit of a sore point), but he liked to keep tohimself; choosing to lag behind the group rather than walk with us. Iwasn't too bothered by this; from what I could gather he was a bit ofa grumpy sod and I'd had enough dealings with grumpy old men to lasta lifetime thanks to the welcoming committee at the Palace. Well, Isay old but the truth was I couldn't quite pinpoint Methyn's age. Ifigured it must be something to do with that wavey time thing Juneyhad tried explaining to me.

Come to think of it,over the last few days I hadn't really noticed any difference in themovement of time at all, a day was just that; a day. It hadn't seemedany longer or shorter than a normal one to me. What was that about?When I had first arrived a minute had felt like an eternity. PerhapsI was becoming acclimatized... I turned to ask Malcolm if he had anyideas on the subject but as I did so we reached the top of the hill.In front of us, in the distance, was a massive city which I couldonly assume was Cortharen. I turned back; I could see Corthus in thedistance sprawling across the landscape like a jellyfish washed up onthe beach, with no idea how or why it had come to be there. Cortharenappeared to be built with purpose and structure; it stood against thelandscape rather than nestling within it. It was pretty impressive.

“Woah.” It seemedMalcolm was pretty impressed too.

“Yeah, I'd say so.”

***

Juney was not used tobeing followed so closely. She worked alone and she liked it thatway. At first she had found Kaylaer's insistence on walking aheadwith her to be rather irritating, but she had slowly found herselfbecoming used to the young girl's presence. They sat down on thegrass together now while they waited for the rest of their party tocatch up. Juney had expected that the pace she would set would be toofast for the group but Kaylaer's willowy form had travelled alongsideher with ease. For once it was kind of nice not to be the only one onscout duty; not that she intended on getting accustomed to it.

The sun was settingbehind the city of Cortharen. It was a while since Juney had visitedthe city. Inevitably her work brought her there from time to time butit hadn't done so recently. Visits to Cortharen usually involved abig job, and this was as big a job as she had ever had. She feltbubbles of anticipation well up inside her; the potential for dangerwas what she thrived on. The rush was like a drug to her; and knowingthat she was the most dangerous thing about this mission, well, thatwas perhaps the most addictive drug of all. She flexed her musclesand leant back casually on the grass; feeling the last of the sun'srays on her pale skin.

“I know what youare.”

Juney quirked an eyebrowin response; Kaylaer didn't talk very much while they were walkingand that suited her just fine. The downside was she inevitably hadsomething quite substantial to talk about in the evening; having hadall day to mull it over.

“And that is whatexactly?”

“You're a hit, aren'tyou?”

“I might be.”

“You definitely are;I can tell by the way you move.”

“Then why ask?”Juney kept her eyes closed as she lay on the grass. Kaylaer may havebeen a child but Juney did not believe in molly coddling someone justbecause they were young.

Kaylaer thought aboutit for a moment before replying: “I didn't want you to think that Iwas accusing you.”

Juney laughed. “Ifyou are right I could hardly accuse you of being accusatory could I?”She laughed a little more to herself as her comment was met bysilence. It was that moment that Alaina chose to sit herself down,quite heavily next to Juney. Her hand went to pinch her stomach butJuney's hand grabbed her wrist before she could even touch her.

“Aww, now how did youknow I was there?”

“I heard you, thoughfor a second I did think that maybe we were being attacked by a herdof Elephants.” She opened her eyes and gave Kaylaer aconspiratorial wink.

“Did you hell. I'mnot that loud.” Alaina snatched her hand away.

“I don't know, Ithink even the people in Cortharen might have heard you.”

“Shut up.”

Kaylaer watched theexchange with interest. Did this woman not understand who she wastalking to? In her eyes it was the equivalent of a mouse telling acat to piss off. It just wasn't done; unless you were a mouse with adeath wish. Luckily for her Juney seemed to be enjoying the back andforth. Kaylaer reasoned that having everyone fear you must becomequite tiresome; besides, Alaina was hardly proving to be achallenging verbal sparring partner.

Methyn joined the groupmoments later; visibly tired and slightly out of breath. He sat downnext to Malcolm and spread his gangly legs out on the grass in frontof him.

“Ah good you'rehere.” Juney turned on her side to look at him. “I was justtelling the others that I think we should bed down for the night;it's getting dark.”

Methyn looked towardsCortharen; it still looked lifetimes away to him. If they stopped nowit would just slow them down; he wanted to get home as soon aspossible. He missed the school, he missed his office, he didn't missthe students so much, but he did miss his bed and his sense of beingsomewhat in control of his own life. If getting back soon meanthaving to walk a bit further then he was willing to do it, no matterhow tired he felt. Besides, he was running low on tea bags.

“It won't be dark fora few hours yet.”

“Not completely dark,no, but it is getting there. From here onwards our journey is lessstraight forward; the risks are greater.”

“We told the King wewould make haste.”

“We also told him wewould bring back his daughter alive.”

“And we will.”

“Not if we're eatenby a nocturnal Sibbrat we won't.”

“A what?”

“You mean to tell mea Wizard of your calibre hasn't heard of the legendary NocturnalSibbrats of the Quinthessal Mountains?” Juney raised her eyebrowsand looked around the group. Their interest clearly piqued; all eyeswere on her. “None of you? Really? Well, you are probably betteroff. I've been unlucky enough to come across some of the creaturesmyself.”

“Y-y-you have?”Methyn was visibly shaking in his seat.

“Oh yes, they havelong, sharp teeth and massive claws and they're bodies are coveredwith thick dark hair. You can barely see them until they jump out atyou!” Juney noticed that both Alaina and Malcolm had turned quitewhite while Kaylaer seemed un-phased.

“Perhaps we shouldreplace somewhere else to s-s-spend the night?”

“Oh no, we're quitesafe here; no where for them to hide y'see...” Juney gesturedaround them; aside from the downwards gradient ahead there was verylittle else besides grass. “Besides, we're at a good vantage pointfrom here. I'll keep watch if you want to build your tents?” Juneyhad barely finished her sentence before Methyn was up and magicallyconstructing a tent.

“Best get it donebefore it gets too dark aye?” He laughed nervously. Alaina andMalcolm joined him in urgent construction. Kaylaer remained seatedquietly next to Juney.

“Ah...Everythingokay?” Kaylaer's silence amongst the group's frantic buildingunnerved her.

“Yeah... Um. Can Ishare with you tonight?”

***

Juney sat staring atthe glowing remains of their small camp-fire. Despite herpre-occupied appearance she was on high alert. She sat completelystill; body poised for movement at any time. She had made a habit ofsitting up later than the rest of the group these past few nights; itwas her only chance for some longed for peace and quiet, but tonightsomething didn't feel quite right. She hadn't noticed it before, whenshe had been walking alone at the head of the group, but since shehad been distracted by Kaylaer she had had the distinct feeling thatthey were being followed- though she had not seen any signs of atracker. This concerned her greatly.

The fire went outcompletely and for a few moments Juney sat motionless in thedarkness. She listened hard yet could only hear the gently rustle ofthe wind amongst the trees in the forest a way ahead of them.Satisfied she headed quietly into the tent.

It was then that shefelt it.

How had she not noticedbefore? She could feel it now more strongly in her tired state; astrong thrumming against her subconscious. She looked down atKaylaer. The girl looked so small now that she was asleep; her bigpersonality quietened by her dreams. In the darkness Juney could makeout the slow movement of her breathing; at some point she had thrownmost of the blanket off of her. A fitful sleep Juney suspected, notsurprising if she had that persistent thrumming to contend with. Fromunder her tousled blonde hair Juney could make out Kaylaer's jacket.As quickly and as gently as she could Juney pulled at it. Just enoughwas showing now that she could make out a small bulge in her pocket.She pick-pocketed the child with ease. She stroked the stone with herthumb; it was smooth and round for the most part except for one edgewhich was rough to the touch and felt almost flat. If she didn't knowany better then she would have sworn that she could actually feel itpulsing in her hand.

“So you've beenfollowing us have you? You naughty boy.”