Beyond the Hell Cliffs (23 page)

Raegith drank deep and then gave it back to her, looking her over more closely as she dipped the cup and drank from it.
  No sooner had they finished their drinks before a shadow appeared in the doorway of the cell.  Raegith jumped off his bed and turned, bracing himself for some sort of retaliation after his win, but there was no warrior standing before him.

Waiting just outside of his cell, staring at him with wide, violet eyes was a Lokai girl with a dirty and sullen face.  Her white hair was short and matted and her skin was tight against her cheekbones.  Like Helkree, she wore the rags of an unclaimed female and she looked nervous and twitchy.  For a moment, Raegith and Helkree just stood there exchanging glances with the scared girl.  When she did not speak or move, Raegith finally broke the silence.

“Would you like to come in?” Raegith asked.

The girl jumped and looked at him as if she had not even seen him there the entire time and was surprised at his presence.

“You… you speak my tongue?” she asked.

“Great, a Jun
ie!  Hell if we’ll ever be able to figure out what she wants… wait!  Did you just speak her language?” Helkree looked at him with astonishment.  “You can speak the Junrei’sha tongue?  How the hell can you speak that?”

“Did I just speak a different language than I normally do?” Raegith asked.  “What in Fate is a Junrei’sha?”

“Junrei’sha?” the girl repeated, getting more excited by the second.

“What the hell are you, Raegith?  The Junrei’sha
are a weird group of Lokai who speak an outdated language and have weird, outdated religious shit they do.  They’re weird and rare and nobody likes them… and how the hell can you speak their old-ass language?”

“I just seem to have a talent for it.  What do you think she wants?”

“Well, you just won a whole loaf of bread and she looks like a walking skeleton.  I don’t have to be able to speak a dead language to figure this one out, but I guess you could always ask.”

“You speak Junrei’sha?” the girl asked.  She was leaning over the threshold of the cell, but did not enter.

“Yes,” Raegith answered, waving her forward.  “I do.  Come in and sit down.  Tell me why you came looking for me?”

The girl darted inside the cell and sat down on the bed, looking out of the cell as if someone might be coming after her.  Raegith looked as well, wondering what was going on.  He turned back and the girl was looking at Helkree anxiously.  She was fidgeting and making Raegith more nervous.

“Helkree, can you leave us be for a moment?” Raegith asked.

“Wow, you learn the way of the Pit fast, don’t you?” Helkree chuckled.  “Just go easy on her. 
As tiny as she is, she’s likely to faint just from seeing it.”

Raegith rolled his eyes as she left.  She could be very antagonizing.  When he turned back to the girl after Helkree had exited the cell, he saw her pulling her shirt over her head and standing up to approach him.  Her stomach was sunken and her ribs protruded against her skin.  Her pointed breasts were barely raised against her chest.  Strangely, she still had muscle definition that looked out of place for a Lokai girl.  She placed her hands on Raegith and reached up to kiss him, but he stopped her at the last minute.

“Please,” she begged.  “You will give me bread and I will do… things for you.  Please, I have nothing else to trade.”

“Stop… just stop and sit down,” Raegith said, moving to sit her back on the bed.

The girl flinched away and looked at him with the same scared look she had at the doorway of his cell.  She steadied herself immediately and then calmed and laid back against the bed, waiting for him.  Raegith backed up and looked at the poor girl, so desperate for bread.  Then he sighed and reached over for the loaf, breaking a piece off and handing it to her.  She propped herself up on an elbow and looked at him curiously.  When he waved it to her again, she reached out and snatched it, shoving it into her mouth hungrily.

“Thank you
,” she said after she had finished.  “If… if I could have another piece, you can have me for the entire night.  I won’t fight, I promise.”

“What?  No, just… just, here, take another piece.” Raegith handed her another hunk of bread, which she ate quickly with a curious look.  “Why are you so hungry?  Do you not eat during the day?”

“The mush is unclean,” she replied with her mouth full of bread.  “I cannot touch it; it is not The Path.”

“You have not eaten the gruel at all?  How long have you been here?”

“For three of the events like today,” she replied.

“Three Gulags?
  You’ve been here for three months without eating?” Raegith asked, appalled and embarrassed at how unbearable his hunger pain felt after three weeks.  “How have you survived so long?”

“Water is powerful enough to sustain me, along with meditation.  If I keep my soul clean and pure, like water, then I will survive.  That is The Path.  It is difficult in this place.  I have no energy left.”

“So you decided to trade flesh for food?”

“I am desperate,” she replied.  “The Lokai and Urufen think my
kind are foolish and would only humiliate me.  Of what the Rathgar might do, I am scared.”

“I am from the north.  Are you not scared of me?” Raegith asked.

“I am terrified,” she replied

“I am of the Kingdom of Rellizbix.  I was, anyway.  Now I am of nowhere.  Do you know of Rellizbix?”

“They are the Destroyers,” she said.  “They are the reason my people have vanished from this land and why all here are dying.  How can you be of the Destroyers, yet speak our language?  What demon are you and how long will you toy with me before we finish this deal?”

“A demon?
  You think I’m some sort of demon?” Raegith asked, chuckling.

“I know it,” she said, causing him pause.  “I can see it inside you.  I am only waiting for it to come out.”

Raegith looked her over.  She had not bothered to cover herself and she looked so helpless.  He reached out to touch her and she shuddered, but kept her calm.  Then he reached further and pushed her discarded shirt into her hands.  She looked at him suspiciously.

“I’m not doing this.  You’re going to have to find some other way of repaying me for the bread.  Some way that doesn’t disgust you.  You see a demon inside me, but I can see something in you as well.  You loathe me and I will not take any woman who loathes me.  That’s not how I am.  Now go.”

“Why?  Why are you doing this?” the girl asked.  “I have nothing else to give you.  What else could I do to repay you, other than this?”

“Teach me how you managed to live with the pain of starvation for three months,” Raegith answered.  “Show me what hidden power you have that
lets you defy the weakness of your own body.”

“I offer my body to you and you instead want to learn from me… of The Path?” she asked.  “That is very unlike… anyone.  None else here are willing to do that.”

“Well, I’m a bit more open-minded than most.  Maybe that’s what’s going to elevate me above all the other grunts in this place.  I’m willing to do what they are not; I’m willing to learn.”

“The Path would not wish me to turn away any soul willing to learn,” the girl said. 
“Even an enemy.  For bread, I will trade in knowledge.  I will teach you of The Path and all the arts that I know.”

“I am Raegith, though most refer to me as ‘Grass-hair.’”

“Raegith, the Grass-haired Demon,” she said, smiling.  “Very well, Raegith.  I am Noriko of the Junrei’sha.  We can start your journey to The Path by…”

“Whoa, easy, Noriko.  I just got done fighting and I’m tired.  We’ll start tomorrow.”

“Oh… oh, of course!” she stuttered.  “I did not mean to… I will leave now.  Thank you for your kindness, Raegith.”

It did not take long for retaliation to come.  The first time it was in the meal line.  He was taken by the arms and dragged out into the yard, where two Rathgar that claimed vengeance for Hugar proceeded to beat him unconscious.  It must have taken longer than they thought, because the main attacker looked as if he were frustrated at the end.  The second time it happened, a week later, Raegith smiled at him the entire time.  The third time, they made the mistake of trying to beat him after the third story had been released into the yard.  That time, Helkree was with him.

When the two Rathgar henchmen tried to take Raegith, Helkree turned into a hurricane
of teeth and fury.  She grabbed one of the Rathgar and before he knew what was going on, she had pulled him over backwards and jammed the handle of her spoon through his eye socket.  Raegith turned on the other one and hit him in the throat immediately, then kicked him hard in the knee, breaking it.  The prince dropped down on the wailing Rathgar and pummeled him in the face, screaming any insult that came to mind while Helkree used a stone bowl to smash the other’s face in.

Before either could take the next step in the brawl, a dozen armored Rathgar flooded the area and tackled Raegith.  He did not even struggle as the guards subdued
him and Helkree and dragged them off to a cell deeper inside the Pit.  For a few hours they were beaten and yelled at.  Then the head guard came down and addressed them.

“My name is Captain Gomar,” he grumbled.  “I hope you two have had enough time to think about the chaos you’ve caused.”

“Not really, Captain,” Raegith laughed.  “I’ve been way too busy getting tickled by your underlings.  I haven’t been able to think about a damn thing.”

“I don’t like smart-asses,” the Captain said.  “You want to cause a
fuss, I’ll show you why even the mighty Torga fears me.”

It took a few days before Raegith was able to walk back to the meal line.  The torture he was given by the guards was horrendous, but when he walked into the meal area on his own, everyone went silent. 

“What, no lessons for me today?” Raegith finally asked.

“Are you insane?”
An Urufen man hissed.  “You’re barely able to carry yourself and you’re picking a fight… with the whole prison?  You fight anyone here and you’ll be right back in the dungeon, getting the piss taken out of you again.”

“Does it look like the piss has been taken out of me?” Raegith replied.  “The worst Rellizbix had to offer couldn’t beat the fight out of me.  You don’t have anything in this whole fucking prison that could.”

“You want to get on the bad side of Captain Gomar, that’s your funeral.  I’m not chancing it.  Gulag is next week.  We’ll be waiting to give you your next lesson there.” One of the Rathgar that had assaulted him and survived was standing up at one of the tables.  “I, Ganzorg, will personally give you this lesson.”

“Yeah, be ready for a lesson yourself,” Raegith said and turned around, leaving the meal area without food.

“You’re not ready to go so long without food yet, Raegith,” Noriko said as they sat together on the floor of his cell, cross-legged and breathing deeply.  “You’ve learned the theory of The Path very quickly, but you lack focus.”

“It’s hard to focus on this shit for long periods of time,” Raegith replied.  “I’m young and energetic; I can’t sit still this long.”

“You said that you spent most of your life in the same spot.  How is it so hard now?”  Noriko took his hand and placed his palm between her breasts.  “Feel my lungs.  Breathe as I do.”

“You breathe too slow and soft.  You spend ages breathing out and longer breathing in. 
My lungs burn doing that.”

“That is why you must focus,” Noriko replied.  “When your heart is calm your lungs will follow.  A master of breath can submerge up to
his upper lip in water and breathe without making the slightest ripple.”

“I don’t understand how that shit is helpful at all,” Raegith groaned.

“Understanding comes much, much later, Raegith.  For now, just trust me and quit complaining.”

“Your hair looks nicer now,” Raegith said, noticing how much healthier she looked now that she had eaten and bathed.  “Everything looks nicer now.”

“Before your mercy, I was afraid to venture too far from my cell.  I did not have the energy to waste travelling to the bath.  I am ashamed of my prior uncleanliness, but the Path did not abandon me.  It sent you to me.”

“I don’t know about that;
you’re the one who came to me, throwing your skinny ass around like a…” Raegith joked.

“Focus!” she hissed. 

Raegith was not completely recovered by the time of the next Gulag, but two days before it began, he found himself in the dungeon once more.  The Captain had him taken from his cell and shackled to a wall below the Pit without ever explaining why.  He was not beaten, but neither was he fed.  For two days he stood, unable to sit down or rest against the chains that held him to the wall.  During that time he pondered why he was there.  It could have been any number of reasons.  Maybe his last Gulag had pissed off the wrong people and the guards were just making sure they were avenged.  For whatever reason, Raegith was not released until the morning of the Gulag.

The guards forcefully cleaned him up, paying no heed to his bruises and rashes and then gave him fresh clothes before pushing him out into the yard to join the others.  Not a word was said to him by any of his handlers, but he saw satisfaction in the eyes of
the Rathgar warriors in the Pit.  Helkree came to him and helped him walk closer to the mound as Noriko looked down at him from the third story of the cells.  She never ventured down to the arena.  Many of the other inmates stared at him, some with anger and some with intrigue.  Some even beheld what might have been pity.