Age of Darkness (30 page)

Keimaro walked in the morning light with
Aladdin. He had pushed his fight with Yata to the back of his mind. Though,
after thinking about it overnight, Keimaro concluded that he would have to
formally apologize to his friend. Yata deserved at least that much.

Aladdin and Keimaro were heading toward the
castle, strolling through the lush green grounds of the nobles. Fortunately, he
could be seen in public with Aladdin since he was a noble. Keimaro couldn’t
help but stare in awe as he looked up at the massive structure that towered
over him and stretched past the clouds, vanishing into the sky above. The birds
chirped and sang as if this were the most pure of places in the world. He
glanced forward and saw Judal, escorted by several members of the Royal Guard,
walking from the large doorway of the front entrance of the castle.

“Yo, Riku!” Judal called, walking over and raising
an eyebrow as he saw Aladdin. He bowed with respect. “Milord.”

“At ease, Captain,” Aladdin joked with a
wink. “I was just having a small talk with my friend, Riku,” he said, toying
with the fine silks that he wore. “At any rate, I’ll let him go on to work.
When you’re done with him, please send him to my house. I’d like a word with
him after he’s off duty.”

“Yes, milord,” Judal said and watched as
Aladdin turned away and happily skipped off. He exhaled and straightened his
back as he turned to Keimaro. “I’m sure that you’ve heard about what happened
last night, right? The attempted assassination of the king by Keimaro Hayashi
and his group of bandits?”

“Yeah, I heard about it,” Keimaro said,
trying to pretend as if he were disappointed in the outcome.

The captain nodded. “Princess Aika has been
secured away in her chambers for the time being until Prince Darius arrives.
Meanwhile, we are meant to go and interrogate the would-be assassin we captured.
So, for today, you won’t be guarding the princess since she is under good
protection. You will need to guard the associate and ensure that she doesn’t
escape. We suspect that some of her friends will try to break her out of jail.
For now, just get some information out of her. I’ll take you to her.”

Keimaro’s heart leapt as Judal began to
lead him away from the castle. They walked on a cobblestone path, avoiding the
green grass, which looked completely untouched. He turned and saw three guards
standing around a side entrance to the castle, a small wooden door that would’ve
gone unnoticed on a building as big as this. The boy watched as the captain took
a turn from the path that circled the perimeter of the entire castle and
instead followed a side-path to the camouflaged door.

The undercover assassin raised his eyebrow
as he followed closely behind the captain. He watched as the door opened after a
swift nod of Judal’s head. Through the entrance was pitch-black despite the
bright daylight that was apparent outside. Looking through the doorway, Keimaro
thought that he was going to be walking down a staircase to the depths of hell.
His eyes were wide as he stared at the abyss before him, but he kept his calm
and watched as the captain passed through the doorway and down a small stone
staircase. His footsteps echoed until they began to fade as he got farther away.

Keimaro hesitated for a moment before he
followed Judal into the darkness, watching as the blackness encased him. The
door closed behind him and locked him into a world of shadows, as if a blanket
of black had been tossed over his eyes. He felt tempted to activate his
Shokugan so that he could see, but he restrained himself, wincing a bit
uncomfortably. He strained to see Judal’s outline and then blinked as light
flashed and a torch was lit.

The captain held it in front of him and
gave Keimaro a small nod, beginning to walk forward in the darkness. Without a
doubt, few soldiers were down here, wherever this hell was. It made sense: who
would want to stay in this darkness? It reminded Keimaro of the Forbidden
Forest. He shifted awkwardly as he listened to the echo of their boots thumping
on the cold stone ground. Using the light from Judal’s torch, Keimaro could see
cells with iron bars that separated the main hallway from crammed rooms filled
with people. In jails, he imagined that the cell-mates would’ve been fighting,
grabbing the bars, or yelling. But when he looked at the jailed people before
him, he saw only a lack of hope in their eyes, many of which seemed to be on
the brink of insanity. Some didn’t even look up to see the two members of the
Royal Guard walking through; instead, they stared at the ground blankly. They
seemed completely sapped of energy and hope after having been deprived of light
for so long. In fact, most of these people seemed like they would be normal.
They were probably just political dissidents or perhaps wrongly accused. Then
again, images could be deceiving.

Keimaro forced himself to look away from
the cells, knowing that in one of them he would find Lena. He just hoped that
she hadn’t been mistreated already, especially not the way her mother had been.
He would never forgive himself if she were forced to experience that. He held
his breath, smelling the acrid odor of urine. Then he coughed when he smelled
blood mixed in. By now, the hallways had more torches that were located on the
stone walls, illuminating the area. Keimaro could see that guards had beaten
the jailed to the point where they were almost dead, and it seemed like these
people were half-starved as well. Such unfair treatment made Keimaro sick to
his stomach.

Guards sat in chairs that leaned against
walls, half-asleep from the silence. Keimaro walked past one of the snoring
soldiers and sighed. He supposed that the man didn’t need to be too cautious,
since all of the prisoners were too weak to attempt to escape. Even if they did
escape, getting out of the noble district was near impossible without running
into a squad of guards or two. Since they were constantly starved and beaten,
it didn’t look like they were going to be escaping any time soon. Keimaro
snatched a loaf of bread off of the lap of one of the soldiers and stuffed it
into his pocket.

Finally, they reached Lena’s cell.
Fortunately, she was alone, but she seemed much more restricted than any of the
other prisoners. Chains connected her wrists to the wall. She was incapable of
moving five feet from the wall. Without magic, it was impossible for her to
even think of escaping. He saw her head drooping languidly before her eyes
flickered up to see Keimaro. She almost smiled but saw that Judal was there
beside him, and the hope was immediately wiped cleaned off of her face.

“We’ve tried to get information from her,
but she seems quite hard-headed. See if you can get anything from her,” Judal
said, opening the cell and nodding to Keimaro. He paused and then lowered his
voice, whispering so Lena couldn’t hear. “You seem like the type that can make
people talk. Just don’t kill her, all right? The king has ordered that she be
executed in public after we extract the information.”

Keimaro stared at the captain, shock
registering in his chest. He kept poised and nodded, continuing into the cell
and watching as the door creaked shut behind him. He advanced toward Lena, who
began to sob, tears streaming down her face. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t
hurt Lena. It didn’t matter who it was. He couldn’t do this to someone who was
defenseless like this.

“Just get it over with…,” Lena whispered,
sniffling. Her face was covered in bruises, and there were scrapes across her
cheek. Dirt caked her skin, and her clothing looked torn from multiple
beatings.

Keimaro’s lips quivered as he stood in
front of her and gulped, his hands shaking.
I can’t blow my cover. Judal is
watching. I have to do this.
“Why was your band of assassins going to
assassinate the king?” he demanded.

“We didn’t want to assassinate the king.
That wasn’t the plan.”

“Then what was the plan?”

Lena said the answer, but she was too
quiet. Judal couldn’t hear.

Keimaro raised his hand and slapped her
across the face with a loud crack as her head snapped to the side. “Answer me!”
he roared, tears forming in his eyes. “Louder!”

“It was to show Keimaro off. We wanted to
give him publicity so that it would instill fear in the government,” Lena
gasped, stifling back her cries.

“What else do you want to know?” Keimaro
asked Judal over his shoulder.

“Where are they hiding now? That’s all we
need.”

A surge of fear shot through Keimaro’s
body. Lena couldn’t give away that information. If she did, then everyone in
the mansion would be killed. It wouldn’t be only her life at stake. It would be
everyone’s. He slowly turned toward Lena and closed his eyes. If she told him,
then she jeopardized everyone’s life at Z’s mansion. But if she didn’t … he
would have to beat her until Judal was satisfied.
Damn it!

“Where are the rest of your crew hiding?”

“I don’t know.” Lena said weakly.

Keimaro raised his hand and slapped her
across the face once more, a bit harder, leaving a red mark. “Tell me the
truth!”

“I don’t know!” Lena cried, tears freely
streaming down her cheeks.

Keimaro brought his foot back and drove a
kick into her diaphragm. She lurched forward, her breath completely driven from
her lungs. He grabbed her by the hair and lifted her head, forcing her to look
him in the eyes. He was trying to be as gentle as he could with her, but he
could see the pain on her face. She was barely conscious. He swung his fist and
slammed it into her stomach, causing her to gasp once more. “Where the hell are
your damn friends hiding? If you don’t tell me, this will continue!”

“I don’t know where they are! We switch
hiding places frequently so that if one of us is captured, we won’t be able to
give away the position! Please…,” Lena whimpered. “No more….”

Keimaro stared into Lena’s eyes and
released her hair, allowing her to crumple to the ground. He stood, leaving her
in a heap. Then he turned toward Judal, who shrugged with a sigh.

“It looks like she doesn’t know. I would
cut off a limb or two, but I don’t think the king would like that. He was
rather vague on how much we could hurt her. At any rate, she looks like she
could hardly withstand last night’s torture anyway. That’s enough. Looks like
we’ll have to manually search for their damn hideouts, what a drag. Come, Riku,
I have to show you around the castle anyway, don’t I?” The captain opened the cell
door and began to walk off, leaving Keimaro to follow him.

Keimaro reached into his pocket and
squatted down on the ground, putting a piece of bread in Lena’s weak hands. He
tilted her chin up toward him, but she wasn’t looking at him. She was looking
through
him. “What the hell did they do to you?” he whispered, staring into her
eyes. He bit his lip and closed his eyes, trying to hold back tears. “We’re
going to get you out of here. I promise, we won’t leave you.” He closed her
fingers around the bread and quickly turned away, leaving the cell. He couldn’t
break her out now. That would blow his cover. In fact, he might not even get
away since Lena was currently in such a weak state. He closed the cell door
behind him and began to walk after Judal. His hands were shaking, stained with
Lena’s blood.

I
cannot
believe I just did that. I was torturing and beating my own friend while she
was in such a weak and vulnerable condition. The first person in this city to
accept me … and I hurt her.
His hands curled into fists, and his eyes
filled with fire.
I’ll make these guys pay for this.

***

Far away, on the borders of Sparta, a young
prince brushed aside the curtains of his war-tent, which was decorated in the
red and white of Faar. He walked out into the morning sun, which shined down on
him and gave his golden crown an even brighter glow than usual. He was wearing
his golden battle armor, which glittered in the sun, the flashiest suit that
one could wear. The one to slay this prince would inevitably become rich.
However, the prince was renowned throughout all of the kingdoms for his feats
in combat. Without a doubt, he was one of the most skilled humans with a blade,
and his leadership was well-earned, as many had said. He dominated even the
burly and organized Spartans in battle. He stretched, finding that their battle
against Sparta was going fairly well. They were pushing the enemy closer and
closer to their capital and took more land every day. With time, they would
dominate this empire.

The prince’s looks fit royalty. His curly,
brown hair was without doubt perfection, and he won the hearts of fair maidens with
his looks alone. His royal blue eyes could seduce the strongest of women, but
they could also be filled with such intensity that he made his enemies feel as
if they were naked before him. At the age of only twenty-four, he had claimed many
achievements as prince of Faar. His skin was tan from the many days that he
spent in the sun fighting beside his men and working with them. Unlike his
father, he didn’t believe in forcing all of the work upon his subjects. He
contributed his amount to help his men and therefore was treated as a brother
amongst his soldiers as well as their superior.

“Darius,” the prince’s squire announced,
walking forward with two guard escorts at his side as well as a small messenger
boy that stumbled behind them, “a letter has been delivered from your father.”

The prince raised an eyebrow, not expecting
to hear so soon from his father. Was it time for his father to pass, leaving
the throne to him? He chuckled at the thought and nodded, grasping the letter
in his hands and seeing the royal seal.
Still alive then, old man?

He ripped off the seal and flipped open the
letter, reading it swiftly. He frowned the more that he read. “My father is
drawing me back from the frontier of the Spartan-Faar war in order to deal with
a group of bandits within our capital? What am I, a law enforcer?” he snarled,
tossing the letter onto the ground in annoyance. “A single boy is threatening
his throne, and he needs to call
me
back in order to deal with the
issue? How frightening is this teenage boy?” he demanded as he looked at the
messenger.

“W-Well, milord…,” the messenger stammered,
“the boy isn’t quite ordinary. He has acquired magic, but it isn’t like other
magic that we’ve seen, sire. The magic that he has never tires him, and he can
keep using it! It also looks as if it’s a part of him. I’m not an expert on
artificial magic, milord, but this doesn’t look like it. I haven’t seen much
myself, but….”

“You think that his magic is real?” Darius
scoffed as he looked the messenger up and down and smiled. “Is that so? A boy
comes into the city, shooting flames about and kills a few of my father’s men
and the king has already wet his pants? How like him. Fine then, I’ll destroy
my father’s opposition within the empire and then finish the job here. Tell
General Killen to assume control over our forces until my return. Push toward
the capital, but make sure that he doesn’t rush toward the victory without me.
I’ll be back within the month after I eradicate this threat within our walls.”
He walked past the messenger and his squire, calling over his shoulder, “Fetch
me my horse and a squadron of men. We will deal with this quickly.”

***

“Ugh,” Keimaro muttered as he walked
outside of the castle after having spent the majority of the day exploring it
with Judal. Well, he supposed he had to be familiar with where everything was
if he was going to be living here. He sighed, scratching the back of his neck
as he saw the smile on Judal’s face. “What are you so happy about?” he muttered,
exhausted.

“The new guys always have a hard time at
first trying to comprehend how many rooms there are to memorize in this entire
place. Don’t worry, the hardest part about this job is knowing where everything
is,” Judal said with a chuckle. “But with all of the new threats appearing all
of a sudden, things could change quickly.”

Keimaro nodded as he turned and saw the sun
setting over the horizon, vanishing over the edge of Bassada’s wall. The bright
orange and red dispersed into the skies, filling the clouds with light. His
eyes twinkled as he stared with amazement at the breathtaking view before
turning to his captain. He hit his fist to his chest and bowed his head
slightly. “I’ll be heading to meet with Lord Aladdin now, if that’s all right
with you, Captain Judal,” he said, using the same title that everyone else used
when regarding nobles.

The Captain seemed rather surprised at the
respect that came from Keimaro and grinned, giving the recruit a nod. “As you
were, soldier. Go on. You wouldn’t want to keep him waiting. Make sure to be
back here tomorrow morning. I want to see if we can get some more information
out of the prisoner. See ya, Riku,” he said, giving a small wave.

Keimaro turned and felt a chill shiver down
his spine as he walked along the cobblestone path, making his way toward
Aladdin’s house. If he was correct, it should be the first house in the noble
district. Once there, he should feel safe. But, the thought of Lena being
tortured once more was disconcerting. The very thought that he would have to
beat his friend again made his stomach churn.

He blinked as he saw Aladdin’s house, a
flashy mansion with spiraling marble pillars that somehow managed to support
the red tiled rooftop. The building itself wasn’t as big as some of the other mansions
but was without a doubt still a reasonable enough size to leave the boy in awe.
Interestingly enough, he recognized this house. He had walked past it his first
time in the noble district. Keimaro walked up to the door, which was made of
some type of quality wood that gave it a hazel color. He grasped the golden
knocker and was about to hit the door with it when he heard the door click.

“Hmm?” he murmured as the door opened and
an old, bald man with squinted eyes poked his head through the opening.

The man had a face of wrinkles, and small
clumps of gray hair were formed just above his ears. Keimaro could hardly even
see the color of his irises for his eyes were so small. He was wearing a black
suit with a red tie and was clearly a servant of the house. “How may I help
you, sir?” the old man said with a raised eyebrow, holding the open door with
his white-gloved hand.

“I’m here for Aladdin.”

“His sire doesn’t see common soldiers just
upon request. You need approval from the house as well as some type of an
appointment if it’s on working terms. You cannot just come—”

“It’s all right,” Aladdin said with a warm
laugh as he walked from behind the butler and opened the door wide. He was
wearing a blue robe that was tied with a small white sash. His blonde hair was
wet, indicating that he had just gotten out of a bath. “Make yourself at home,
Riku. Yuri is in my room. My butler will show you there. Just make sure to take
off your shoes when you walk in, okay?” he said, walking away from the door to
go get dressed.

Keimaro blinked a few times and nodded,
taking off his boots and putting them on a mat beside the door where other
shoes were being displayed. He walked inside, and the door was closed behind
him. The butler didn’t seem surprised that Aladdin had just let someone into
the house without proper identification. He simply sighed and motioned for
Keimaro to follow him.

The entrance to the house was topped by a high
ceiling that seemed to stretch at least four stories tall. A shining chandelier
that emitted an array of various crystalline lights upon the walls hung from
the ceiling. A long pair of marble stairs climbed to the next floor. The butler
led Keimaro up the stairs and through a large hallway, filled with candles
within some type of transparent delicate paper bags that allowed for the light
to be distributed more vastly. He was led into a rather large room where Yuri
was sitting on the edge of the neatly made king-sized bed.

Yuri turned his head, his eyes lighting up
when he saw Keimaro. He waited until the butler had closed the door behind
Keimaro before he began to speak. “Did you find her? Is she all right?” he asked
quickly, getting up from the bed and walking to Keimaro.

The boy blinked a few times and nodded. “Yeah,
I found out her location. They intend on torturing her more than they already
have. It looks like she’s already at her limit, though,” he said with a sigh. “At
this rate, she will crack. I know that you think she’s tough enough that she
wouldn’t, but the things that they could do to her in that cell are endless,
and there don’t seem to be any laws that protect her against being tortured. We’re
going to need to get her out soon. They’re planning a public execution. I think
our only chance may be to rescue her on her execution day. Trying to get her
out of jail while this area is under such heavy lockdown will be near
impossible without getting caught. Even if we fought our way out using force,
there would be no way to escape without the guards eventually keeping up with
us since carrying Lena would weigh us down. She is in no position to move on
her own right now.”

Yuri’s fists were shaking, and his eyes
were red with rage. “So, what do we do? We can’t just let her get tortured
until the execution day! She could die by accident, and the pain that she’s
going through…”

“Not to mention the fact that she could
spill important information regarding the location of our base, which would
lead to the deaths of more than just a dozen. It would be hundreds,” Keimaro
said, rubbing his chin. “I don’t know a good—”

“We can break her out,” Yuri said
confidently, looking Keimaro in the eyes. “Tonight!”

Keimaro blinked. “Eh? Tonight? That’s not a
good plan! She just got in there! The security is tight and—”

“Who cares? They can’t be much worse than a
Bount! I’ll wear the mask, and I’ll get away. I’ll even enter werewolf form if
I have to,” Yuri said, closing his eyes. “I can’t stand the thought of Lena
being in a cold, dark cell, suffering. I know what it’s like. I don’t want her
to endure that hell! I’ll break her out; you won’t have to worry about a single
thing. All I’ll need is her location.”

“I can’t give you the location,” Keimaro
said, and he felt a pang of heat between the two of them as Yuri glared at him.
“You’ll get both of you captured or, even worse, killed. I won’t let you run
off to your—”

“Stop underestimating me!” Yuri boomed,
grabbing Keimaro by the collar of his shirt. He lifted him off of the ground by
an inch and brought their faces close together, glaring into the dark pools of
Keimaro’s eyes. “I am much more capable than you are. I don’t know why I ever
decided to put my trust into you on that mission last night. You almost got us
all killed. Lena is behind bars and is being tortured because of your mistake!”
he growled, shaking Keimaro roughly. “And you’re reluctant to giving me her
location so that I can save her from that pain? Are you kidding me?”

Keimaro’s lips were quivering, and he just
wanted to cry.
But if I give you the location … both of you will be….

“The true reason that Keimaro is incapable
of giving you her location,” Aladdin said, stepping through the doorway behind
them with a smile. He wore a fresh blue tunic and long, baggy, white pants that
looked like pajamas, “is because he isn’t sure whether or not he can put his
trust into you. I spent today researching the Hayashi clan background and
looked over some of the intel that Zylon has on you,” he said to Keimaro with a
wink. “In fact, he’s got quite a bit. Keimaro has trouble trusting people and
depending on them to get the job done. It isn’t because someone has let him
down before. It’s because he’s let down someone before.”

“What?” Yuri muttered.

“Stop talking,” Keimaro growled.

“He let down his little sister when he was
powerless to save her.”

Keimaro was silent and gulped, feeling
anger swelling up inside of him. Though, he had no idea what he was mad at. He
closed his eyes as he felt Yuri’s hand release the hem of his shirt. He stepped
away from his two companions. “I don’t intend to let down anyone ever again,”
Keimaro said, “and living my whole life in regret … I don’t want anyone else to
go through that. Especially you, Yuri. If you fail in saving Lena, and she is
killed, you won’t be able to forgive yourself. But that’s not all. I won’t
forgive you either. The risk is not one I am willing to take.”

Yuri stared at Keimaro for a moment, his clenched
fists dropping limp at his side. He was speechless. Keimaro sighed. He
understood the way Yuri was feeling more than anything. Yuri would keep
persisting until he found out. It was better off if Keimaro just told Yuri
where Lena was rather than forcing Yuri to have to go search for himself. In
the end, the werewolf was going to risk his life anyway.

“She’s in an underground facility beneath the
castle. There’s an entrance on the side of the castle; it’ll be easy to miss
because it doesn’t seem like it has high security. But trust me, once you
trigger their alarm, you’ll be surrounded within minutes,” Keimaro let out
without thinking. “Don’t expect me to come and save your life either. If I blow
my cover, the entire plan with overthrowing the kingdom will be finished. By
doing this, you’ll be doing it on your own accord. Don’t act today. Give it a
few days.”