Dark Hounds
Part 2
Mia had taken Cat off to the bathroom so she could pull herself together
and the Ronin Warriors were waiting for whatever was coming with little
patience. "When are they going to get down here?" Kento demanded, "we got a
fight to win here."
"We need information we can get from Cat if you'll just hold on Ken,"
Mia said, from the doorway. "Why don't you go get your self a snack to pass the
time?"
"Good plan," Kento agreed, and went off in search of edibles. Upstairs
Cat was trying to pull herself together. She had a job to do and dammed if she
was going to fail now. "I guess if I'm gonna do this I better to it right I
just hope I have everything I need." she decided and with a last look in the
mirror she went down stairs to face her fate. Thankful for the mage kit in she
always had in her purse Cat headed for the living room and her stuff. A quick
rummage through the bag produced the pouch she wanted. She nearly ran into
Kento who was coming out of the kitchen and together they preceded to Mia's computer
room where the others had gathered. "Look who I found," Kento declared,
propelling Cat into the small room before turning and shutting the door behind
him. Everyone was already gathered in here and Cat sighed well there was nothing but
to continue as she had begun. Cat sat down on the floor and upended the pouch
in front of her. Quickly she spread the black cloth out and laid the glowing
star orb that had come from Kor, a short slender bladed knife, the dragon,
microphone and ear piece from her thought jack, and a stump of candle upon it.
This completed she looked up at her audience.
"How much do you know?" she asked them.
"Not much'" Mia admitted' "just what I found on the computer."
"Then I will begin at the beginning," Cat thought back on the tale Kor
had told her that first night when she didn't know if she really believed in the
powers or not. "This is the tradition passed down from it's first speaking by
the greater dragon of old I tell it now in this the breaking of trust and the
sharing of truth. This is not the only world and in the days when such things were
still held truer than they have become there were many gates in the world and between worlds. When the dark under the stars held no fear for those that knew them but
then the true dragons that watched, slept and the cold ones came into this world
through the gates and there was war among the eldest dragons and the cold ones
from the land beyond the gates. When the battle was finished the evil had been
driven back into the other lands but it could not all be removed nor the great gates
sealed against it. The last of the true dragons went to the mages of the world
and they agreed that they needed men to guard the gates since there would be no more
dragons. The great dragon and his old allies created the second line of
dragons. There were only so many that had the talents to become the second dragons and
the numbers do not grow save when a new gate is created. Now the chosen were
scattered each to a greater gate or a place where lesser gates had been and where there
was a risk gates might be built again. These new guardians kept the word and
traditions given them by both the mages of old and the first true dragons. We
are a solitary people, usually we do not come into contact with each other except at
need or when the keeper in area is nearing the end of there life span. But as
power calls to power another will come to receive the training and take the
trust oath." Cat stopped and closed her eyes she could hear Kor and see her hands as
she reached for the knife and held it up "with fire and steel," Kor had said, "I
give you this, first of much knowledge and bind you to the trust, break it without
need and the wrath of ages shall be called upon you for none break oath with a
dragon." words out of the past that had no use here. She was not swearing these warriors
to the trust, she was breaking the trust. Cat opened her eyes, they were all
staring at her. "Any questions?" she asked into the silence.
"The ear pieces," Mia broke the silence, "what are they for?" Cat ran her
fingers over the dragon laying on the cloth
"they are mage made," she explained, "they connect us to each other and
to the guidance of the stars that we call the eyes of the skies. After the old
belief that the dragons became stars and were still capable of watching and
lending aid."
"You said there were only so many so where do you get new dragon ear pieces?"
Sage asked quietly. Cat was a bit surprised that he had hit upon that subject.
"Well as far as I understand when the old master of an area dies the set
is passed on to the next keeper and so on." She told them.
"Could you find Kor's set?" Rio interjected.
"Yes," Cat sighed, "if I were to cross onto that plane I could find it." It
did not escape her that Rio had said Kor's set not Kor. Well she did not have
much hope of finding Kor alive but still she had her hopes. The star orb Kor had
sent winked at her, it was still glowing brightly. Something prompted her to pick it
up and she rolled it between her hands. "There's not much else I can tell you I
was only fully inducted as of this afternoon."
"Inducted?" there was no missing the question in Rowen's voice. He had seized
upon that immediately.
"Yes given the dragon, by which I was fully sworn to the order and the trust
of truth." Which I have just broken, her mind added.
"Where was this gate at?" Kento wanted to know "all this history is all
well and good but we got a fight to win."
"I can take you there I know all the gate locations." Cat told him quietly.
She drew her legs up and rested her forehead on her knees. She could hear the
others arguing about what they should or should not do. Somehow Cat could not rouse
herself to pay attention to their debate and she slipped away into an uneasy
sleep. Mia was the first to notice that Cat was no longer with them and she decreed
that any and all planes would be put off till the morning. Kento who had opened his
mouth to argue was silenced by a glare from Mia. They managed to rouse Cat enough so
that they all made it upstairs where Mia put Cat in one of the empty rooms and sent
the Warriors off to bed with a glare much like the one she had used on Kento. "Why
do I always end up feeling like a baby sitter when ever disaster strikes?" she asked
herself as she went into her own room and closed the door behind her.
Kor awoke with one of the worst headaches ever in a position that was almost as
uncomfortable as that time she'd come home at 5am and been so exhausted she'd
fallen asleep in the apartment's stairwell. She tried to move and then realized why she
was so uncomfortable. Her hands had been shackled together behind her back. She
was also chained to the wall by means of a leather and metal harness that came over
her shoulders like a dog's harness. Further testing of the contraption proved that
the chain between her hands was in some way fastened to the harness. Kor swore
violently her headache adding to her already impressive vocabulary. It was not completely
dark in this prison and from what little she could see it was just your basic cell.
Kor stood up using the wall for balance and tested the chain holding her to the
wall. It was depressingly short and Kor began to pace at the end of it to try and stretch
some of the stiffness out of her muscles. There was she noticed a slight depression in
the floor at the exact limit of the chain as if many feet had paced this same arc
back and forth in the near dark. It was not a comforting thought.
First light came much sooner than Rowen would have wished but there was never
any piece for heros as long as there was evil in the world. He was still the last
one up even at the unholy hour of seven o'clock. The others however didn't seem to
mind, Sage of course liked, the dawn. They were all, Rowen decided, just a bit cracked.
He discovered, when he emerged from the kitchen coffee in hand, that Sage, Cat, and
Mia were already deep in their strategic planning. Rio and the others were watching
them with disinterest.
"Look who's finally up," Sage declared. Rowen simply growled at him and came
to look at the map spread out on the table.
"So," he asked, "what's the plan?"
"Well," Cat said, pointing to a spot on the map "the gate where Kor disappeared
is here and it was, as I recall, guarded."
"Great," Rowen muttered, looking at the map "but that still doesn't tell me
what the plan is."
"I say we just go in there and beat the crap out of whoever this is." Kento
broke in thumping hie fist on the table. Rio seconded him. Sage and Rowen both shook
their heads.
"We don't have enough information to make a frontal assault feasible." Rowen
said with a shrug.
"As much as I hate to, I think I have to agree with Kento," Cat added, quietly
"there's only so much we no and none of it's useful I can find out more but that
kind of thing takes time."
"And where," Sage asked her, "is this information going to come from?"
"You forget," Cat said with a smile, her first Rowen thought since last night
"observation is one of the thing I was trained in the dragons aren't fighters
first after all we're watchers and guardians we usually don't have to deal with really
big things, just watch the gates."
"Then let's go already!" Kento cried, ready for action.
"We might as well," Rowen conceded, finishing off his coffee. With that they
headed off into the city. There was no dark cloud over the city as there had been when
Talpa had tried to take it but the streets were still and empty. Cat, who was driving
Kor's jeep, looked around. This was the way Kor had described the city as looking
almost two years ago when it had been Talpa trying to take over the mortal realm. Cat
had come up with, what she thought would probably be the best strategy. There were
all kings of things in the back of this jeep among them were a pair of walkie
talkies. Ahead of her Mia pulled over and she and the guys got out. Cat followed her off
the road, it was time for last minutes planing
Sage had protested that to do so was bad planning but Cat had gotten around
him. Kor was her teacher as well as her best friend and the gods be damned if she was
going to sit here and let them tell her what she would and would not do. Cat one of
the walkie talkies beside her was driving in as close as she thought was safe before
proceeding on foot to the gate. She saw the alley in which she intended to leave the jeep and
pulled into it. Getting out of the jeep Cat sent a quick prayer to the skies and
levered the false floor of the jeep up, down there she knew was where Kor kept her weaponry.
Cat had a certain crossbow in mind that was a personal favorite. Well balanced,
strong, and. light it would be good to have. Cat inspected it before laying it on the
concrete
while she rummaged for some crossbow bolts and a quiver to put them in. That
accomplished she slung the quiver over her shoulder and picked the crossbow back
up. Street level was, she decided, unsafe. Given that it would be best to get up to
the roof or high road as Kor had called it. Stifling her emotions Cat gathered the
energy around her, left by the people that had, before today, been every where and
jumped. She made the top of the building easily, it was after all only about four stories
high. Looking out over the silent city Cat took a deep breath and set off in the
direction of the gate.
The bolts on the outside Kor's cell clanged ominously and she stopped her
pacing. Her captor stood in the light from the hall. Kor still could not see his face
but she had a feeling she did not want to.
"How are you finding your accommodations?" He mocked her as she lunged him
only to be brought up short by the chain tethering her to the wall. "The Master
has certain things he would like you to tell me." The suit of armor informed her,
"it would be in your best interests to tell me swiftly and be done with it."
"I'll tell you nothing," Kor snarled, "nothing not now not ever."
"We'll see about that," he laughed and signaled to a pair of soldiers in the
hall. "Take her to the inquisitor," he ordered, and turning left her alone with
this new threat. One of the soldiers unfastened her from the wall while the other
restrained her and then each of them took an arm and between them they propelled
Kor down the hall.
The inquisitor it turned out, was little more than a master of torture and
exploitation of human weakness. This Master wanted what Talpa had almost gained
for himself the fusion of his world and her's. Why that hadn't been immediately
obvious Kor
couldn't fathom. After all what else would a mad man /demon from the neither
world want?
He had questioned her closely about destroying the barrier between the worlds
but she was NOT going to tell him how to do that, never. Unfortunately the inquisitor
did not take kindly to having his questions ignored. Or being personally insulted for that
matter, Kor reflected. He had expressed said displeasure with a whip. Kor had a
feeling that she was never going to get rid of the scares that this would leave. Already her
blood was hardening along with the shreds that the back of her shirt had become.
Tomorrow the inquisitor had gleefully promised her more of the same. Wishing for just a
little light Kor resumed her pacing, it was all she could do as she waited for
her tormenters to return with some new way to make her life a living hell.
Patience was not one of Kento's virtues, Sage decided, as he listened to the
others complaints.
"When are we gonna get going?"Kento asked, for like the hundredth time "I'm
starving."
"So you keep telling us," Sage muttered, "you can shut up about it now." Sage
hadn't meant for Kento to hear him.
"You wanna start something pretty boy?"Kento had heard apparently. Sage's own
patience was worn thin and the though of taking on Kento was not as daunting as
it usually was.
"Maybe I do," he told the bigger boy, "why would you care?" Things might have
gotten ugly if Mia hadn't heard them and come over to break it up.
"Stop it both of you, Kento there's some sandwiches in the car." Kento bounded
off to get his snack and Mia turned to look at Sage. "Sage,"
"What?" Sage growled in no mood for one of Mia's lectures. However all she
said was, "get a grip," before leaving him alone. Sage sighed and rubbed his
temples, he was starting to get a headache. Was nothing going to happen? Waiting was
definitely hell, doing was better but as of now there was absolutely nothing to do. Well
he could always meditate, folding his legs under him, Indian style, Sage leaned against
the wall and did exactly that.
Cat looked on the gate from a building across the street from the one Kor had
used. The guards were still in place but now there were others patrolling the
streets and roof tops. The warriors were going to have a fight to get here unless. No,
Cat reminded herself, you can't do that, or can I? That would be by far the
simplest answer. Geting them this far would be no problem and then they would just have
to deal with the gate guards. It really was to bad she couldn't just open a gate
strait into the dynasty but that was one of the things Kor hadn't taught her yet. Deciding
that speed was better than caution she pulled out a crossbow bolt and drew the line
for her pass through.
All of the warriors, that were still on this plane of thought, jumped as Cat
stepped out of thin air into there midst.
"Well?" Rowen asked, recovering first. Cat grinned like her proverbial
namesake after swallowing a canary.
"Brace yourselves," She told them, "cause we're out of here." With the bolt
that was still in her hand she began to draw a complicated pattern on the
cement.
"What are you doing?" Rowen wanted to know, as Kento and Rio went to prod Sage
back into consciousness.
"Magik," Cat told him, not glancing up from her pattern. "Who's coming with
us?" The other four warriors and Mia had now gathered around.
"Well," Rio thought out loud "I don't think that you should go Mia."
"Of course not," Mia growled, not at all happy at being left behind "I mean
I've only saved your butts three or was it four times."
"I think Rio's right," Rowen said, "after all we don't know anything about
where we're going, and I also think that you, Cat should stay with her."
"Who died and made you king of my life, Rowen?" Cat wanted to know, standing up
and turning around as she threatened him with the bolt still in her hand. "Do
you want my help or not?"
"If you go with us, who's going to be here to keep the soldiers in line?" Sage
wanted to know "can't you and Mia handle that?" Cat and Mia both glared at Sage
but kept quiet.
"Have it your own way then." Cat sighed and faced the pattern again, with the
crossbow bolt she drew some lines in the air and then stepped away from her
creation. "In you go, the dynasty gate will be on your left, watch out of the guards."
Cat and Mia waved good buy to the warriors who with many skeptical looks crossed
throughthe pattern and walked out onto a roof someplace else.
The gate was indeed on their left and there were also the guards Cat had warned
of. Kento rubbed his hands together. "Lets do this thing," he declared.
"To arms," Rio agreed and the Ronin Warriors jumped off the roof to engage the
enemy in battle.
"Well now what do we do?" Mia wanted to know after the warriors had gone.
"What do you think?" Cat asked her, "we go after them of course, somebody's got
to be there to save their asses." Mia nodded thinking of all the times that
doing so had been necessary in the past,
"Well least we don't have to deal with Yuli," Mia said, "now that would be
annoying."
"Yuli?" Cat asked, puzzled.
"Yea, he's this weird little kid that got lost from his parents and tagged
along with us. He had the most annoying voice you have ever heard."
"Well what happened to the kid?" Cat wanted to know.
"Who knows," Mia shrugged, "and who cares, we've got Ronin ass to save." On
the note Cat and Mia followed the warriors across the portal and into this new and
unknown danger.
Kor was beginning to wonder if her tormenters had found something else to
occupy their time when the bolts on her door shot back again. It was not the helmed
man again nor the inquisitor, just a pair of guards. The repeated their earlier
performance and removed her from her cell. This time Kor ended up in a small dim room
dominated by a large desk behind which was a grim looking women.
"You have been summoned to the Master." this women recited with distaste, as
though she had done this many times. "Through there," she said, pointing to a
small door "is all you need to clean yourself up. You're to put on the clothing left
there for you." The women waved her hand at one of the guards who promptly removed
Kor's harness and the other guard shoved her towards the door. Kor went, there was no
point in resisting. She was outnumbered, and anyway the prospect of a bath was
tantalizing.
Hot water was Kor decided a wonderful thing, it went a long way to making her
feel alive again. The wheals across her back had opened when she had pulled off
her shirt, and inadvertently, most of the scabs that had formed. Now however they
had closed up again and as the bath was getting cool, Kor was thinking about getting up
and seeing what sort of clothing had been left for her. She found the aforementioned
clothing laid out for her on a chair near the door. It was a lovely shade of green but it
looked, to Kor's horror, like something from I dream of Jenni or Arabian nights. "This
is," Kor muttered, as she donned the garments "turning out rather like a bad cliche.
What with the whole harem girl thing, but I guess that's what I get for being
kidnaped." Now dressed Kor went to the door back to the office like room and, not knowing
what else to do, knocked.
"Are you quite finished?" the women on the other side asked, "if so you had
best come in." Kor did as she was bid. Once back in the room the women looked
her over as the soldiers put the hated harness back on. However when they led her
out, they did not turn in the direction of her cell, but went in the opposite
direction.
The guards at the gate were not a problem. The Ronins just jumped down on
them from above and finished them off. The Hounds however were not so easily
defeated. Cye was against hurting the things but after one of them tried to
take his arm off he changed his mind. After the dogs had been dealt with Kento
opened the doors, again. They all passed inside and turned to look back.
"You better close the doors Kento," Rio pronounced.
"Why?" Kento wanted to know.
"Cause that's the way we did it last time." Rio told him with a shrug. Kento
agreed and pushed the doors closed.
"I bet," Sage said, pointing towards a large fortress "that that's where we
want to go."
"I would not be surprised," Rowen agreed.
"Well," Kento cried, almost bouncing with impatience, "what are we waiting
for? Lets go." Cye grinned at Kento's antics and they all followed him off
towards the fortress looming on the horizon.
"They shut, the door," Mia exclaimed indignantly, "they never shut the doors
at my house, Never." Cat gave the door a kick and it swung open. "How did you
manage that?" Mia wanted to know, shocked.
"I'm a gate keeper, I can always get in, no problem," Cat told her with a
shrug, "and mine is not to question why, I just go with the flow."
"Good philosophy," Mia agreed and she stepped through the gate.
"Doors, doors, doors, doors," Cye was talking to himself again.
"Would you shut up about the danm doors already?" Kento wanted to know, Cye
had been going on about the doors for way to long and it was getting annoying.
"The least they could do is have a map like they do in airports," Rio observed,
looking around the huge hallway. The hallway was lined with doors and seemed to
go on forever.
"You know," Sage said, "I get the felling that we're going around in circles."
"Great, just great," Rowen sighed, "can this get any worse?"
"Do you really want to know?" Sage asked him.
"Actually, No," Rowen admitted.
"So," Rio wanted to know, "now what do we do." Rowen and Sage both shrugged at
a lose for ideas.
"Why don't we just start trying doors?" Kento suggested. Since nobody had a
better plan that was what they ended up doing. All the doors on the right side
of the hall were blank walls or went down to dead ends. However the doors on the left
side had more to offer. Some of the doors hid pits, others dead ends, or creatures, in
standard hunted house style. Finally Rio opened the correct door.
"Guys," he called, "I think I've found the right one."
"What makes you say that?" Cye inquired, coming to look over Rio's shoulder.
"Oh," was all he managed after taking a good look at the hall on the other side of the
door. Before them was a short hall leading to a pair of huge double doors. On each of
the other two walls were other simpler doors.
"Bingo," Kento said. Of one accord the warriors moved across the hall and
stood before the great doors.
"Do we knock?" Sage wondered, "or can we just go in?"
"We go in," Rio declared. The others nodded and Kento moved forward to push
the great doors open.
This, Kor decided, must be the throne room, after all it was kinda grim and
dark and there was a throne in it. Sprawled around the throne were more of the huge
hounds that she had seen outside the gates. On the thrown was the person who could
only be the Master. He to was armored and helmed like his huntsman, who now stood
behind his chair. However he was greater in size then any man had a right to be. As his
hounds towered above mortal dogs so this creature towered above his servant. The
soldiers on either side of Kor bowed down taking her with them perforce.Kor could feel the
great lords eyes on her, and she did not like the sensation, not one bit. Then the Master
spoke and Kor found herself wishing for her dark cell or even the benches of the
inquisitor.
"Ah what a pretty little prize indeed," the creature known as Master said, more
like hissed actually Kor thought, suppressing a shudder. "But that harness is
not fitting at all, I can't have something so unseemly on such a pretty piece." He waved a
hand and His huntsman came forward with the new collar for his prize, it was a thick
golden ban fastened to an equally heavy chain. The two soldiers held the struggling girl
as His huntsman removed the coarse thing that had come from the dungeon, and fastened
the new collar around the girls neck. "Now that's better," he smiled looking her over,
"come."
Kor had no intention of going near that thing, but the huntsman had other ideas.
With a sharp jerk on the chain he pulled her away from the guards and towards the
Master. "I have heard that you refuse to tell the secrets of the portals, no?" It wasn't really
a question and they both knew it.
"You heard right," Kor spat at him backing to the full extent of the chain.
Which the huntsman now passed to the Master. With another jerk he pulled her closer.
"Well that's a pity now isn't it? No matter there are those coming who's
safety you would, I think, trade that information." He sneered at kor knowing his shot
had hit home as she winced.
"They will destroy you," Kor shouted, raising her chin in defiance. "And
anyway I will never give you the secrets, never." Ye gods Kor thought to herself I sound
like some mindless heroin from some bad fantasy.
"I'm sure they would like to," the Master smiled, not a pretty sight, "but I
have something they will hesitate to attack." Kor looked up at him is plan unfolding
itself before her eyes. "You," the Master laughed, "my pretty little prize indeed you
shall shield me and I will take their power and then when I have broken your mind I will have their world as well." So saying he pulled her up to the foot of the great thrown the dogs parted before her and closed behind her with much snapping and growling. Kor knew now that there would be no easy escape, and the Master seeing her despair laughed.