Chapter 5: Yoren Dok

  The group rested in the ruins for another day before setting back on their way to Trinixo. Unlike their first encounter, when Corin had spent a majority of the time asking questions to Nanaua and Zhi, now it was their turn to ask questions.

  “So when you are hungry, you kill food and then prepare it yourself?” Zhi asked.

  “That is the common way of doing things. Sometimes we are lucky and are able to bring down a large animal that can feed a large number of people. Sometimes we fish from the rivers and eat whatever we catch,” Corin replied.

  “That sounds so exhausting,” Zhi replied with zero enthusiasm.

  “Who is the strongest warrior on your island?” Nanaua asked.

  Corin thought about it for a while. “Probably Axtelos.”

  “I shall challenge him to a duel to test how strong your warriors are,” Nanaua stated.

  “I don’t think that is a good idea,” Livia interjected quickly.

  “He is that strong?” Nanaua asked incredulously.

  “No, that is not the problem, Nanaua. Having faced you in combat once, you would probably defeat him even disarmed. You see, the problem is that while he is a capable fighter, he does not handle losing well,” Corin laughed.

  “He and Corin have sparred many times before. The outcome was almost always the same. Corin would end up disarmed. But one-time Corin disarmed him. We all teased him about it, but he did not take it well. He refused to do anything until Corin faced him once again, wouldn’t eat, sleep, or drink,” Livia said.

  “To this day, he refuses to acknowledge that he has ever lost. He pretends as if that never happened,” Corin said, grinning.

  “Hmm, I was hoping to face a worthy challenge on the surface,” Nanaua added, quite disappointed.

  “Will you bring your armor with you Nanaua?” Corin asked. He saw that she had discarded it in a corner of the room, away from the rest of her belongings.

  She looked at him with a glare.

  “What?” He asked.

  “Your weapon punched a hole in it,” she began. “I have no way of fixing it here on the surface, and that armor is that of a Lord’s Protectorate. I no longer serve in that role.”

  “Ah that makes sense,” Corin said. He did feel somewhat guilty about shooting her, but then again, she was ready to kill him.

  “Have you ever encountered titans?” Zhi asked them.

  Corin and Livia eyed each other.

  “We have,” Livia replied.

  “What was your encounter like?” Nanaua asked eagerly.

  “We survived. Others did not,” Corin replied while looking away.

  Zhi recognized the sensitivity of the topic and asked about the weather of Trinixo. Throughout the night, they continued their line of inquiry, anxious to know everything they could about the surface world. By the time they had settled into sleep, it was only a handful of hours until the sun crept through cracks in the wall and woke them up.

  “So how do we return?” Zhi asked.

  Corin and Livia took point and led them to the entrance of the ruins.

  “Ah, there it is,” Corin said as he eyed the crack he and Livia had come in through.

  He and Livia went outside. It looked the same as when they had come in, but it felt like an entirely different world now.

  Zhi joined them, walking awkwardly around the pair as if she had just learned to walk. She looked at Corin and Livia.

  “I’ll get used to it.” She smiled weakly at them and looked back at Nanaua. “Is there something wrong, my dear?”

  “The ground. I have never set foot on it,” she said as she observed the world outside the ruins. She looked petrified of stepping foot outside the palace. Livia walked up to her.

  “Hold my hand,” Livia said, reaching out. Nanaua took it, closed her eyes, and followed her cautiously.

  They took several steps until Livia brought her to a halt.

  “Open your eyes,” Livia said.

  Nanaua did so slowly. She stared all around her at the dirt underneath her feet, at the trees around the structure, at the various animals that flew around chirping, at the great blue sea that stretched out in front of them and to the large island across it. Zhi stood next to her.

  “What do you think?” Livia asked them both.

  “Truly marvelous,” Nanaua replied.

  “Is that Trinixo?” Zhi asked, pointing to the large island across the sea.

  “Yes, that is our home,” Livia said.

  “Incredible,” Nanaua muttered.

  “Come, we need to secure passage back,” Livia said.

  “Is there a ship here?” Zhi asked. “I have heard of those.”

  “Well, we have something like that,” Corin mentioned as he led them all to the shore.

  Nanaua and Zhi were very curious to see the strange ritual that Corin undertook. Submerging himself in water, shortly followed by the two sirens coming out.

  Corin tried his best to come up with a plausible story for the sirens. He knew he could not lie. All he said was that the two strangers were friendly and needed to return to Trinixo with Corin and Livia.

  “Are they dangerous?” Nishandra asked.

  “They mean no harm to you or us,” he replied.

  Nishandra and Gavlin seemed to believe him and pursued no further explanation.

  The voyage back to Trinixo was as unpleasant as the first one had been for Corin. He held onto the craft with all his might and kept his eyes closed. The others did not seem to mind. Livia, Zhi, and Nanaua held a conversation throughout the trip, but Corin was too preoccupied with surviving that he did not worry himself with the details.

  Upon reaching the group, they bade their farewells to the sirens.

  “If anyone asks, could you please not mention seeing these two?” Corin mentioned to Gavlin.

  Gavin eyed Nanaua and Zhi suspiciously.

  “I do not know anyone who would believe that furtives fell out of the sky in a dragon temple,” he replied before going back into the sea.

  The group began their long trek to Corin and Livia’s home in Ankur. It was not long for Nanaua and Zhi to discover the realities of crossing wild terrain.

  “Why do I feel as if I am moving through such thick, warm air?” Nanaua asked.

  “That is what we call humidity. This is a result of our living so close to the sea. There is a lot of water vapor that stays in the air, and it acts as sort of a blanket of warmth,” Livia explained.

  “More like a blanket of unpleasantness,” Nanaua replied.

  This was the first of many questions.

  “What is making that noise?” Zhi asked.

  “That is a wild boar,” Corin replied.

  “What about the chittering coming from the trees?” Nanaua asked.

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  “Those are cicadas. They’re small bugs,” Livia replied.

  “Interesting,” Nanaua replied.

  “When will the cikides be quiet?” Zhi asked.

  “Cicadas. And they will stop in several months,” Corin answered.

  “How pleasant,” she replied with heavy sarcasm.

  “What are these things that are flying around us, and why do they keep pestering us?” Nanaua asked.

  “Flies,” Livia replied.

  “Do they ever stop?” Zhi asked her.

  “Nope,” Livia said.

  “Ugh, this is worse than I could have imagined,” Zhi said.

  After more time crossing the terrain, it quickly became clear that Nanaua and Zhi were not accustomed to the rigors that came with it. At first, they began to lag behind Corin and Livia. Then they began requesting short breaks. Those breaks started becoming longer.

  It was one of those breaks that the group found themselves in now.

  “How much longer are we going to be walking before arriving at this village of yours?” Zhi asked Corin near the end of the first day as she sat down. “It will soon be nightfall.”

  “It took Corin and me five days to make it to the shore,” Livia replied.

  “Five whole days? Of walking?” Zhi asked shooting up now, in a bewildered tone. Her eyes went wide with disbelief.

  “Yes, but we also went at a faster pace,” Livia replied.

  Zhi buried her face in her hands and took a deep breath. She walked over to Nanaua and embraced her.

  “This is horrible! I should have stayed in the temple.” She complained. “I would rather have died than have had to bear all this walking. I don’t think I have ever walked this much in my life. It is so boring. I have seen the same tree about a thousand times already! And those stupid cikidees—”

  “Cicadas,” Livia corrected her.

  “Yes, those cursed bugs are driving me crazy. I hear you chirping enough! And the flies don’t leave you alone. I would rather be sacrificed than endure another second of this!” Zhi added one arm holding onto Nanaua and her other hand making a fist and shaking it at the air.

  “My dear, surely you don’t mean that?” Nanaua asked as she held onto Zhi.

  Zhi took a breath. She wrapped both arms around Nanaua and looked at her with warm eyes and let out a heavy sigh.

  “Nanaua, sometimes I have to speak about my frustrations,” Zhi replied. “If not I’ll go crazy.”

  “Wait here for just a moment!” Corin told them. He quickly walked out near the camp and returned with two round objects in his hands.

  He split both of them and portioned them out to Livia, Zhi, and Nanaua.

  “Thank you,” Livia replied warmly.

  Zhi and Nanaua looked at the strange fruit in their hands.

  “It’s called an orange. Enjoy!” Corin smiled as he sat down and started eating it.

  Zhi and Nanaua both stared at Corin and Livia in abject confusion and proceeded to repeat their hosts’ behavior.

  “What a curious item. It is very delicious! It must be very hard to find this delicacy,” Nanaua said gleefully as she bit into the fruit.

  “Not really. They are very common here. They grow on a lot of trees,” Livia said.

  “Look.” Livia got up, walked a short distance to a tree, pointed out an orange hanging from a branch, and picked it off.

  “By all that is sacred,” Nanaua’s eyes grew with excitement.

  Nanaua ate the rest of the orange in two more bites and got up. She started going from tree to tree, picking out as many oranges as she could.

  “We will come across more of those on our journey,” Corin called.

  Nanaua either did not hear him or ignored him. She was too busy grabbing as many oranges as possible.

  “They are somewhat enjoyable,” Zhi replied while finishing the orange.

  “Well, one more push today and we can rest for the day,” Livia added as she tried to get the group back on track.

  “Ugh. Fine,” Zhi mentioned as she got up and started following them.

  Nanaua was too busy eating one orange after the next and did not bother commenting.

  They reached their destination for the night. Lighting a fire now required no effort from Corin or Livia, as Zhi could start a fire with a simple incantation and a quick hand gesture.

  “Maybe I am more suited to this camp thing than I assumed,” Zhi said, smiling at the fire she started.

  Corin and Livia eyed each other and laughed.

  He broke away from the camp to hunt for food. Nanaua was eager to join him, but her heavy steps alerted the animals to their presence and sent them running before they had a chance to strike. Corin asked her to watch from a distance as he finally brought down a deer.

  Upon bringing back the animal, Nanaua took a keen interest in Corin’s ability to quickly gut it and strip it of its pelt. She studied every single one of his cuts, while Zhi did her best to ignore the gory display that occurred right next to her.

  Once the animal was prepared and cooked, all ate in rapt silence. It was the most they had eaten since they had left the temple, and they were extremely hungry. Shortly after the group quickly fell asleep, exhausted from their long trek throughout the day and less eager than they had been the previous day to start this journey.

  As the group progressed through their trek back to Ankur, they were able to find a rhythm. Livia and Corin decided they ought to take a different route than the one they took in to avoid major towns and avoid attention to themselves and their new companions.

  One night, Nanaua insisted on bringing down an animal herself for their food. Her first efforts did not turn out well at all. Upon trying to pull the bow, she drew with such strength that the wood split in two, lodging one or two splinters in Nanaua’s eye. Irate and undeterred, Nanaua grabbed her pike and heaved it at her prey.

  The only positive from Nanaua’s methods was the relatively quick death the animal suffered. That was what Corin told himself as he cleaned the creature that was almost cleaved in half. Nanaua overlooked the brutal nature of her methods as she boasted to the camp of her hunt. The one most disturbed by her retelling was Zhi, who gently asked Nanaua to let Corin handle the hunting in the future.

  ***

  Nearing the end of their fourth day on the trail, the group noticed something that caught their attention. A tall cloud of black smoke could be seen billowing up in the distance.

  “That should be Grial,” Livia mentioned to Corin.

  “It must be,” he replied, concerned.

  They stared in silence, unsure of what to do.

  “But such a large fire, what could have caused it?” Livia asked him.

  “It does not look like a titan attack. We would have heard a dragon coming by, and Grial is too far inland for a leviathan attack,” Corin replied.

  “It’s Zifors,” Zhi chimed in, staring at the black smoke in the distance.

  “Zifors?” Livia asked.

  “Yes,” Zhi started. “Tonatiuh’s cadre of trackers and hunters. They are trained to track down any escapees from his palace. One of their squads must be on this island searching for us.”

  “So they burn villages to the ground?” Corin asked, anger rising.

  “They don’t care about casualties. All they care about is results. They’ll go village to village on this whole island, burning them to the ground until they find us,” Zhi replied in anguish. “This is because of me.”

  “It doesn’t matter why they’re doing it,” Corin said. “We need to go and help them.”

  “You’re right. I won’t let this destruction stand. Let’s go,” Zhi urged them.

  The group headed toward the smoke. As they neared the village, the clouds of smoke only grew thicker. Close enough, they saw various structures set aflame.

  The first building they came upon was untouched by the flames. Two figures clad in armor approached the structure with lit torches.

  Corin and Nanaua ran up to them.

  “Sulla, the dragoor! It must be them!” cried one of the men.

  The man named Sulla reached for his waist, preparing to grab a horn.

  Corin swung at him with his blade. Sulla dropped the horn and reached for a sword.

  “You idiot!” Sulla gloated to Corin. “You made our job so much easier. When we bring back the Onsiel, we’ll be handsomely rewarded!”

  “Sulla, help!” the first man cried out.

  Sulla and Corin looked at him. The next thing Corin saw was a large pike ramming through his breastplate, the sharp end punching through his back.

  “Cowards!” Nanaua shouted at the impaled man. She put her foot into the man’s chest and pulled out the pike.

  The man fell dead onto the ground.

  “Marius!” Sulla shouted at his dead companion.

  Corin swung at Sulla, who saw Corin’s strike coming too late. Corin struck him in his elbow where the armor did not cover him. Sulla yelled as he fell to the ground and dropped his weapon.

  As he fell to the ground, his helmet came off. Corin saw a man’s face staring back at him.

  “You are a human aiding the dragon’s pursuit of furtives? You subject this town to the torch?” Corin shouted at Sulla, whose face was contorted in pure hatred.

  “You are nothing!” Sulla yelled as he grabbed a knife from his boot.

  Corin ran him through with his blade before he was able to get up.

  Nanaua looked at the dead men. “These are Dok’s men.”

  “Who is that?” Corin asked.

  “He is a Yoren, a leader of one of the Zifor squads. He is especially known for his ruthlessness,” Nanaua said.

  “We must hurry!” Livia urged them as the surrounding blazes roared and intensified.

  They continued to the town square. All around were rows of burning homes. Outside these, they could see charred corpses, mangled bodies, and the various victims of the Zifors.

  “We’re too late. Those heartless bastards,” Livia moaned.

  “We might not be able to save all of them, but we’ll make sure we avenge them,” Corin shouted.

  “Over there! Some stragglers,” someone shouted at the group.

  Corin saw four warriors clad in metal. The one who shouted was a head taller than the rest of the attackers.

  “Leave the large one to me!” Nanaua shouted. She ran up to the large one while the other three went at Corin.

  The one coming toward him from the left was hit with a bolt of lightning. He dropped dead instantly. The one in the center paused upon seeing what happened. BANG! The shot connected with him, and he crumpled to the ground.

  “It’s them!” shouted the remaining assailant. “Alert Yoren Dok! Hurry!”

  He shouted at the one facing Nanaua. Corin closed the distance to the remaining one and thrust. The attacker parried and attempted to retreat, but a wall of flame emerged from behind him. The moment of surprise gave Corin an opening. He thrust once again and ran the attacker through. Corin kicked the man back into the flames, his screams filling the air.

  “How does it feel now? Damned coward!” Corin yelled at him in anger.

  “Testor, I see they found a use for you!” Nanaua shouted as she pounced at the last surviving member of the group.

  “Damn you, Nanaua! You always thought you were better than everyone!” The foe’s helmet had been removed. Corin could see he was another dragoor, with blue scales. He held a longsword, which he barely swung in time to avoid Nanaua’s furious onslaught.

  Nanaua swiped his sword away. She hit him in the face with the butt of her weapon, and he fell to the ground.

  “Because I am better than you!” She brought down her pike, slaying the dragoor.

  “Are there more?” Corin shouted.

  “Each of the Zifor squads is made up of at least twelve. We have yet to see their captain and his guard,” Nanaua replied.

  “Let’s hurry!” Zhi urged them.

  They went to the town square and found what remained of the populace. They were huddled, kneeling, in the center of the square with the six remaining Zifors surrounding them. Corin counted about thirty townspeople. The majority of them were women and children. The other Zifors had yet to notice Corin and the rest of them.

  “Can you take them out, Zhi?” Corin whispered.

  “I don’t think so. I might hit the others in the center,” she replied.

  “Damn it, what do we do?” Corin asked.

  “I’ll distract them,” Zhi replied, and she stepped forward.

  “My love—” Nanaua started, but Zhi held her hand up.

  “Please follow my lead,” Zhi said and walked to the crowd in the center of town. “Are you looking for me?”

  All the men who surrounded the townspeople turned to look at Zhi. As soon as they realized who it was, they walked in between the townspeople.

  “You cowards!” Zhi shouted at them.

  “What’s wrong? You could easily burn us all to the ground!” shouted one of the men gleefully.

  “I presume you are the Yoren,” Zhi said.

  The man moved forward, though still in between the villagers. His attire was different from the rest. His helmet did not cover his face and it had a long braid coming from the end. His breastplate had yellow adornments with a bird emblazoned on it. His face was crisscrossed with scars, and he sported a hideous smile.

  “Let’s find a different vantage point,” Livia whispered to Corin and Nanaua. They began moving.

  “Yoren Dok at your service, Onsiel,” the man with the scar replied to Zhi.

  Nanaua, Livia, and Corin moved opposite Zhi. All the Zifors had their backs turned to them.

  “Now, I was told you escaped with the help of a dragoor. Where might your friend be?” Dok asked Zhi.

  Nanaua gnashed her teeth.

  “She did not survive the fall,” Zhi said while looking away from the Zifor.

  “She did not? Gaius, kill one of the villagers,” Dok shouted while staring at Zhi.

  One of the men took out a sword and dragged a woman in front of Zhi. He was about to strike her down.

  “Wait!” Zhi’s voice broke.

  Dok raised his hand, and Gaius stopped.

  “Nanaua, come. We have been discovered,” Zhi yelled.

  “Leave that slime, Dok, for me. I will take care of him myself. When I raise my hands, strike,” Nanaua whispered to Corin and Livia.

  She went around the buildings and came out from where Zhi had made her entrance. Dok saw Nanaua, and his hideous smile grew.

  “Much better, Onsiel. You have already caused so much misery on this island with your ill-conceived escape,” Dok continued. “You, dragoor, throw us your weapon.”

  Nanaua did as ordered and threw the pike. It landed right at Dok’s feet.

  “I won’t need it to deal with you,” Nanaua muttered under her breath.

  “Let them go. You have us!” Zhi shouted.

  “Ha! Great suggestion. I’ll let the townspeople go, and you won’t incinerate us the second they leave? Is that what will happen?” Dok giddily replied. “I think we’ll keep them around to make sure you behave.”

  The townspeople trembled as they observed what occurred around them. They could not understand why these furtives would do this to them. The cruelty of titans was expected; the cruelty of furtives was not.

  Corin readied his pistol. He had two shots. There were six men, counting Dok, among the townspeople. Livia had to reload her rifle between shots. They would have to be quick and accurate.

  “I’ll take the fourth one after my two shots are up,” Corin told Livia, who nodded.

  “Gaius, prepare the fire to signal the alert. We found the Onsiel and her protectorate,” Dok barked.

  Nanaua raised her hands.

  Livia did not hesitate, and neither did Corin.

  BANG! The first to fall was Gaius. BANG! Corin shot the man closest to him and Livia. He hit him dead center. BANG! Corin’s second shot flew wide of its target.

  “Damn!” Corin yelled as he sprang into action.

  The remaining Zifors realized something was afoot.

  “Start killing the townspeople!” Dok shouted, panicking.

  Corin ran straight at his target, the one he missed. As the man raised his blade to strike one of the townspeople, Corin ran his blade through the man’s back. He gasped in surprise. Corin pulled out his blade and moved on.

  “Hurry, get out of here!” Corin shouted to the townspeople.

  He heard Nanaua shout. She had already closed the distance between herself and Dok. Before the other two Zifors could act, Zhi conjured up a huge gust of wind. It knocked the two remaining Zifors back to the ground. The townspeople swarmed the two men who had been threatening their lives mere moments ago. The angry mob enacted its revenge quickly. Their cries of pain did not last long.

  As Nanaua approached Dok, he frantically swung his blade. Nanaua easily avoided the swing, grabbing his hand and breaking his arm.

  “AARGH!” Dok shouted.

  Nanaua punched him in the face, dropping him to the ground. Dok scurried back fear clear on his face.

  “Wait!” Yoren Dok said. “I’ll go back to Tonatiuh! I’ll tell them you died! Please you won’t have to keep running!”

  “You always disgusted me,” Nanaua said as she got on top of him. She began pummeling his face with her fists.

  Soon, Nanaua’s fists were hitting the wet dirt where she had splattered his head. She stood up and stared at the surrounding townspeople. Their gazes wandered from Nanaua to Zhi to Livia and to Corin.

  “You all need to leave. More of them might come!” Livia shouted.

  “More?” The murmurs quickly began to ripple through the crowd. The townspeople began to scatter, and eventually Corin and the rest were the only ones left.

  “Will there be more?” Corin asked Nanaua.

  “Not for a while,” Nanaua replied. “All Zifor squads act independently. They normally do not communicate unless their mission is complete. It will take some time, perhaps a week, but eventually Tonatiuh’s court will realize something is amiss.”

  “What then?” Livia asked.

  “By then we will want to have as much distance between us and them as possible,” Nanaua replied.