Alliance (26 page)

“
Foul criminals,” I
said, making no effort to hide the hatred and distaste in my voice.
“Unhand my brother, or be prepared to live the rest of your rotten
lives without your index fingers.”

One of the smugglers stepped forward.
'Twas an elfish woman, with long blonde hair done in elven braids
and a short elven blade sheathed at her side, but despite her
beauty, I knew her well enough to see the evil lurking within her
pitiless soul.

“
Apakerec,” said the
elvish woman, flashing a smile at me, although I knew she was not
happy to see me. “Long time, no see.”

I gritted my teeth, for I remembered well
this wicked woman and was not fooled by her friendly tone of voice.
“I wish it had been longer, Orelia.”

She did not look much offended by my
words, although when she spoke, she placed her hands over her heart
and put a show of pain. “I am hurt. You and I used to be so close
when you were a Smuggler. Don't you remember? I even recruited you
into the organization.”

“
On the basis that ye
could help me find my long lost sister, ye wench,” I snapped.
“Which, I will remind thee, ye failed to do. All ye had me do was
break the law and operate under the cloak of secrecy in order to
keep the Knights of Se-Dela from arresting ye, which they had every
right to do.”

Orelia's hands fell to her side and a
sneer appeared on her face. “Right. I forgot how stupid you sound
when you talk. You sound like you just walked out of an ancient
storybook.”

“
I speak the High Tongue
of mine forefathers,” I replied, “which I have inherited along with
mine brother and sister.”

“
The High Tongue.”
Orelia laughed. “I notice how you use 'my' sometimes instead of
'mine.' Not very consistent, are you?”

“
'Tis due to the
influence of outsiders like ye,” I said, somewhat shamefully.
“Otherwise, I would speak a more perfect version of the High
Tongue.”

“
Sure,” said Orelia with
a smirk. “Anyway, I am happy to see you, Apakerec. No deception
here. After all, if you hadn't come here today, all of this
planning and taking your brother hostage would have been for
naught.”

Mine eyes flickered over to Sura, who
still had not moved so much as one inch in his seat. He was so
still that I almost feared that he was dead, although when I
noticed his chest rising up and down slightly, I was reassured that
he was in fact alive.

“
Why did ye attack my
brother?” I asked, returning my attention to Orelia. “He has
nothing to do with ye. He is a noble priest of the Old Gods.
Attacking a priest of the Old Gods is a grievous offense for which
swift justice must be performed in order to correct it.”

Orelia smirked. “You didn't sound so
defensive of your brother when you told me about him. In fact, you
were quite angry about him, if I recall correctly. Angry enough to
say awful things about him that you probably would not want
repeated to his face.”

“
I was angry,” I said.
“I meant none of it. Even if I did, that gives ye no right to break
into my brother's house and hold him hostage on his own property.
'Tis a wicked thing, but I suppose I should not be shocked, knowing
how terrible ye Smugglers are.”

Orelia folded her arms across her chest.
“We only roughed him up a little. Want to see his face?”

Before I could respond, Orelia snaps her
fingers. One of the Smugglers—likely a new member, for I did not
recognize his face—grabbed Sura's hair and jerked his head up. I
grimaced upon seeing his face.

Sura's face normally looked somewhat like
mine, albeit with a stronger jaw and a wider forehead. Now,
however, it looked like beaten meat, with dried blood covering much
that was not already split open. His nose was broken and his left
eye was swollen shut. A drip of some liquid that I could not
identify from a distance leaked from his nose and fell onto his
lap. He did not appear to be conscious, for he failed to show any
signs of recognition in his eyes when his head was raised.

“
Sura,” I said. I glared
at Orelia. “What did ye do to him?”

“
Just roughed him up a
bit is all,” said Orelia with a smile. “Because Noman hasn't
forgotten you, Apakerec, or how you used your knowledge of us to
help the Knights of Se-Dela ruin our operations in this
region.”

I hesitated when she mentioned Duka Noman,
the leader of the Red Ring Smugglers. 'Twas a dangerous man—not as
dangerous as some, but dangerous enough that it was usually unwise
to anger him. I had not expected to hear from him ever again after
I joined the Knights of Se-Dela, although I perhaps should have
expected he would send someone after me at some point. I simply did
not expect him to send someone after Sura, however, which was the
most vile and wicked thing that Noman had done to me.

“
And I do not regret
it,” I said. “Ye must have known I was never a loyal member of your
petty little criminal gang. My allegiance has always been to the
Old Gods, first, and to my family, second.”

“
Noman doesn't really
care,” said Orelia, shaking her head. “He told me he wants you
dead. So excuse me if I don't show much interest in your principles
and goals.”

“
But that is why I left
the Smugglers and became a Knight,” I said. “The Knights of Se-Dela
offered me hard evidence of the location of mine sister, evidence
ye Smugglers failed to give me. Though I imagine ye must know that
already, as Noman is quite the well-informed man, is he
not?”

“
He
is,” said Orelia. “About the only thing he
doesn't
know is where you've been for the past two and a
half weeks. Even our contacts within the Order of the Knights of
Se-Dela didn't know where you were.”

I bit my lower lip. Two and a half weeks
ago I had gone to Xeeo in search of my sister … and found not only
her, but a new purpose for mine life, as well. 'Twas why I had left
the Order of the Knights of Se-Dela, for there was no way that the
Knights would ever understand what we at Reunification were
attempting to do.

“
Ye need not know of the
reasons for my absence,” I said, putting on a brave face so that
they would not sense any weakness from me. “'Twas private
business.”

Orelia shrugged. “Noman doesn't really
care. All he cares about is the fact that you've gone a full year
now without getting killed, even though that's what a dirty traitor
like you deserves.”

“
Yes, I did indeed find
it strange how ye avoided me when I was a Knight,” I said. “Why was
that?”

“
Because the Red Ring Smugglers can't just waltz on in and
kill any Knights we want to, obviously, even with our contacts in
the Order,” said Orelia. Then she leaned forward. “I noticed you
said '
was
a Knight.' Are you not a
Knight any longer? Who are you working for now?”

“
'Tis none of your
business, she-elf,” I said. “Or Noman's, for that
matter.”

Rage burned in Orelia's eyes like a
blazing inferno, but then she pulled back and returned standing
upright. “Fine, fine. As I said, Noman doesn't care and neither do
I. The point is that we have you where we want you, which is to
say, alone and unable to escape from this place.”

I looked around me. I had not noticed, but
as we spoke, Orelia's fellow Smugglers had been surrounding me.
Some stood by the sofa, others by the bookshelves, but none of then
left any openings for me through which I could escape. Even the
door was blocked off by a large human man, who looked like he might
have been part dwarf if his bulk meant anything.

All the while, the stink of super speed
filled my nostrils, though as far as I could tell, none of these
Smugglers were on the drug right now. 'Twas a tragedy; not because
I liked the drug, but their staying off the drug made them much
harder for me to fight.

“
I still do not see why
ye dragged my brother into this,” I said, addressing Orelia again.
“He had nothing to do with my bad mistakes, which is often what I
think of ye Smugglers as. 'Tis a great injustice to beat him
so.”

“
Because we knew you
would come back to see your brother sooner or later,” said Orelia.
She gestured at the man holding Sura's head up, who let Sura's head
fall down back onto his chest. “We originally came here because we
thought your brother might know where you went, but then we decided
to make ourselves at home and wait here until you decided to come
by and visit him.”

“
Ye knew of mine … testy
relationship with mine brother,” I said. “How did ye know I would
ever come back?”

“
We didn't,” Orelia
admitted. “It was more of a coincidence, really. While we were
interrogating your brother, our lookout came in and said he saw you
coming up to the mansion. We all hurried to hide in here so we
could work together to get you when you arrived.”

“
I see,” I said. “A
devious trick of yours, though I am not shocked, for I have come to
expect such deception from ye.”

“
Good to know you still
remember us,” said Orelia. “For a while there, I was starting to
think that you had forgotten all about us. Glad to see that my
fears were misplaced.”

“
It matters not whether
I remember ye or whether I forget ye,” I said. I nodded at my
skyras sword, the heat of its blade rolling over mine face. “I will
chop down each and every one of ye and then place your heads on the
fence outside as a warning to all who would dare to harm my
family.”

“
You certainly sound
serious enough to do all of that,” said Orelia. “Unfortunately for
you, Noman said that we're not supposed to let you have a fair
fight.”

She snapped her fingers again, and the man
who had grabbed Sura's head now drew a long, serrated knife from
his leather holster. He then placed the knife's blade under Sura's
chin, close enough that he could slit mine brother's throat if he
so desired.

“
You have two options,”
said Orelia. She held up two fingers. “One, you fight us, and we
kill your brother in cold blood. We don't really have anything
against him, but we know how much you care about him, so holding
him hostage is quite logical, wouldn't you say?”

I gritted my teeth. “What is mine other
option, wench?”

“
Option number two,”
said Orelia. A terrible smile came over her lips. “You drop that
dangerous-looking skyras sword of yours and let us tear you apart
piece by piece. I would have said you should also not scream, but I
know I can't really expect that from you, so I'll take what I can
get.”

“
Vile villains,” I
snapped. “Monsters, the whole lot of ye. Cursed from your mother's
wombs, never to—”

“
Does that mean you're
going with option number one?” said Orelia, interrupting me as
abruptly as if I had not been talking at all. “That's what it
sounds like to me. I mean, it's your choice, but that really
doesn't seem like a good choice to me, at least if you give a damn
about your brother's life anyway.”

I held my tongue, even though I had a
thousand other curses I wished to hurl at these foul criminals. But
I knew from experience that the Red Ring Smugglers were not the
kind of monsters to make idle threats that they failed to follow up
on. Nay, the Smugglers always killed who they said they would kill.
'Tis why I always worried about them coming after me when I was a
Knight of Se-Dela. Now it is clear that I should have been worrying
about Sura, who is infinitely less capable of defending himself
than I am of defending myself.

“
Nay,” I said. “I will
not be going with the first option. I spoke rashly
earlier.”

“
Option number two,
then?” said Orelia. “It would be a lot more sacrificial, you know,
maybe even sweet in its own way, although we elves tend to think
sacrificing your life for someone else is pretty silly. Still, I
know how you humans think, so I was just looking at it from your
point of view.”

I had forgotten how much Orelia rambled.
'Twas as annoying as a pebble in the heel of my boot, but I did not
allow her rambling to distract me. For Orelia was a cunning
she-elf, second only to Noman in the Red Ring Smugglers, and to let
mine guard down around her for even a second was to invite death
upon myself.

But I could not go with either option. I
did not want Sura to die, despite our estrangement, yet I did not
want to die, either, for I had a grand Mission ahead of me that I
could not abandon. I wished to reunite Sura with my sister and I,
and I could not do that if I were dead.

Yet, as I noted earlier, I knew that I
could not count on the Smugglers bluffing. If I fought back, they
would kill Sura without thinking twice about it. Even if I managed
to defeat them all, Sura would still be dead. 'Twould be a pyrrhic
victory, if even that.

“
We're waiting for your
answer, Apakerec,” said Orelia. She glanced at the Smuggler holding
the knife to mine brother's neck. “Or would you like us to choose
for you? Personally I think option number one would be the best, as
that would rid us of both of you, but—”

“
I am thinking,” I
snapped. “Please, give me a few more minutes in which to think this
over. Can ye grant me that much, at least?”

“
Well … fine,” said
Orelia. “But only three minutes. Noman doesn't want us wasting time
here, not when there are a lot of super speed shipments that need
to be sent out and other enemies of his that need to be
killed.”