Book I of III: The Swords of the Sultan (44 page)

Lydia then added, “Do not fight us but come
voluntarily.”

“We will not come—after all, we need to get
as far away from here as soon as possible,” Baltor declared.

Nearly six seconds later, Lydia finally spoke
by promising, “If you will not come before the High Council
voluntarily, then the majority have already voted that you are to
come involuntarily, alive or dead! So if you insist on fighting,
I’d have the princess take some steps back, as she’d become
absolutely worthless to the Guild if she were to accidentally
die.”

At the thought of Brishava dying, Baltor
said, “Step back, Brishava.”

She took several dozens of steps back until
she was outside the perimeters of the torchlight, and then she
stopped so she could watch.

“Baltor, before I have my thieves take you
down, I am going to declare the charges brought against you by the
Guild, just in case you should happen to die while we’re trying to
apprehend you…

“Number one—you showed a non-member the
secret location of the Guild. And number two—you revealed the
secret identity of another member of the Guild to a non-member,
especially a member of the High Council! You know the penalties for
such violations of your most sacred oath.”

To the thieves behind her, Lydia replied,
“Kill Baltor slow, piece by piece—but keep the princess alive!
She’ll be worth a hell of a lot of money upon her safe return!”

As the four-armed thieves moved in front of
Lydia and took their positions, the first held out a steel
quarterstaff, the second pulled out his stiletto from his boot, the
third drew out two of her daggers from her belt, and the last
unsheathed the long sword that had been hanging on his back.

Because of Brishava’s presence, Baltor dared
not let loose the beast within—after all, he didn’t want to
accidentally kill her.

Therefore, as he began to take steps forward,
he simultaneously began to twist and twirl his sword rapidly around
his body using one or both hands—the speed and the song of the
sword was so astonishing that three thieves had stopped in their
tracks to watch in awe. Even Lydia looked mildly impressed.

Only one thief continued, the thief with the
stiletto, but immediately found that he was looking at his own
headless body for about twenty seconds after his head had stopped
rolling for ten seconds.

The man with the quarterstaff slowly drew
closer, as he expertly twirled the staff around his own body with
one or both hands nearly a dozen times, and then stopped it in the
ready position, with the quarterstaff resting four inches in front
of his body.

With pure wrist control, that man flicked his
quarterstaff straight down in front of him, intending to make it
slap the top of Baltor’s head and knock him unconscious—Baltor,
however, had already safely rolled to the right, along with an
upward slice of his sword.

Baltor’s sword had completely sliced through
that man’s entire left side in the abdominal area! As blood began
to gurgle from the man’s mouth as he unsuccessfully tried to say
something to Baltor, so too did blood and guts spill out from his
wound. A second later, which was a second before his body and his
metallic quarterstaff crashed hard into the ground, this man was
dead.

Loud, ringing sounds continued to reverberate
throughout the cave tunnels, thanks to the quarterstaff that
continued to roll away. Meanwhile, the woman twisted and twirled
both daggers around her body quite expertly, as she taunted, “You
think you’re quick? I’ll show you quick! Come on!”

Baltor smiled sweetly in response to her
threat, yet remained in the defensive position.

Without warning, the woman threw herself into
a forward roll, and even before she had risen back to her feet, she
hurled her first dagger perfectly aimed for his heart.

Baltor simply slapped the side of the dagger
with his sword at the very last second that caused the dagger to
stick into the ground—his sword was once again in the ready
position.

Even though he heard the woman growl, he also
saw her flick the last dagger in her hands at him, as if it was
simply a dart—a dart that was flying straight toward Baltor’s right
eyeball.

A nanosecond before this dagger
penetrated—Baltor again slapped his sword into the incoming dagger,
which caused the second dagger to deflect off the wall to his
left.

He threw her another sweet smile, and asked,
“Would you like to throw that third dagger you’ve got in your belt
at me? This time, I must warn you, you will painfully find that
very dagger plunging into your own heart—without it even so much as
having touched either of my hands even once!”

Without pause, the woman ran away, along with
one of the thieves who bore a torch. The two remaining thieves, one
being Lydia and the other a man bearing a torch, did not approach
closer—they were both in shock.

“Leave, or I will be forced to kill you all,
even though I don’t want to,” Baltor promised.

After a short pause, Lydia said with quite a
bit of anger, “Even if you should happen to kill us, the rest of
the Guild will eventually track you down and—”

Baltor interrupted, “Perhaps, but I seriously
doubt that they’ll be able to take me down, much less kill me.
After all, I lied to the High Council about one thing my quest—I
did find the rod. And not only is it very magical, yet it has even
given me the strength, speed, and power of four men!”

Lydia’s face looked in total disbelief, as
she asked, “What are you talking about? When I saw you not even
twelve hours ago, you were weak as a baby!”

“
Ahhhh
,” Baltor replied, “but that’s
because I have only had it for a very, very short time. Yet every
day and night that passes, I become that much stronger and more
powerful!”

As Lydia didn’t believe even one of his
words, nor did she want to hear anymore of what she believed were
lies, she said, “By the order of the High Council, I command you to
surrender both your weapon and yourself! I will give you one more
chance.”

He replied, “No.” He then slowly began to
take steps backward while always remaining in the ready position.
Without looking back, he soon found Brishava’s wrist with his free
hand and said, “Let’s go, my love.”

As he began to head down the tunnel, still
facing his enemies the whole way through, he observed that though
they kept their distance, they continued to follow.

Before long, out of his peripheral vision,
Baltor spotted a ladder that led up. He told Brishava, “Climb up
first. I’ll be right behind you.”

She did.

Just as he had reached the fifth rung, he
stopped, looked over at Lydia, and said, “My Mistress, you turned
my life around many years ago. You gave me direction where I had
none. It has all led up to this date—this moment in time.

“Please, just let us go, and you’ll never see
me or my beloved around here again, though you’ll always have my
gratitude and friendship for everything.”

As Lydia pulled out her own dagger, she
barked, “I can’t let you do that! You violated your oath and
brought none other than the daughter of the Sultan here, and told
her who I am—you must be punished for your crime…by death!”

Immediately she leapt at Baltor. Even though
her speed was exceptionally fast—his speed was much faster, as he
had already jumped off the ladder and safely rolled out of harm’s
way.

Lydia’s target wasn’t Baltor, however, it was
the ladder—immediately she yanked hard on it, which caused it to
collapse to the ground. Fortunately, Brishava now stood on the
street above.

Meanwhile, Lydia said, “Let’s see how your
little princess behaves on her own, for once in her life. It is now
time for you to die!” With a look of hatred firmly implanted upon
her face, she leapt again at Baltor, while arching her dagger in
for the attack.

He easily defended the attack, and though he
could have just as easily turned the defense into an offensive
strike and killed her, he didn’t. Instead, he rolled several times
backwards, and once he had regained the ready position, he pleaded,
“Please don’t fight me, Lydia. Don’t make me unleash the power of
the rod upon you!”

She paused.

“All we wish to do is leave and go far—far
away. Forever!”

Most surprisingly, Lydia immediately tucked
back the dagger into her belt. Still facing him, she sighed and
then ordered the last thief still standing nearby, “Put the ladder
back up.”

Right away that thief began to lift the
ladder back up to the grate. Meanwhile, Lydia’s face had turned
sympathetic, as she sighed, “I’m so sorry, Baltor. I don’t know
what came over me—you’re right. Am I forgiven?”

She began to walk closer to Baltor and extend
out her arms, waiting for a hug.

In turn, he sheathed his sword back, extended
his own arms to hug her back, and then said, “Of course you
are.”

It wasn’t until they were fully in that
embrace that Baltor felt her dagger plunge deep into his back!

Instantly the “vompareus beast” fully emerged
with a howl that seemed to shake the very foundations of the city,
causing a gust of wind so strong in the tunnel that the torch the
thief was holding literally went out, enshrouding the area in utter
darkness.

It
grabbed Lydia, pulled both her and
the dagger even deeper into him and then bit just as deeply into
her neck—Lydia screamed in horrific pain. Meanwhile, the remaining
thief, after having heard the echoing howling, became scared of the
lurking monster and jetted as fast as he possibly could through the
pitch-black tunnels, while stumbling quite often in the
process.

As Baltor drank, he heard the sounds of
footsteps coming down the ladder. He stopped drinking and then
quickly looked up—it was Brishava, and from somewhere up above, she
had somehow acquired a lit torch.

Before she had the chance to look below, he
had already thrown Lydia’s body over his shoulder and zoomed into
the darkness. About one hundred feet away, he stopped, but as he
watched the blood continue to flow from her jugular vein, and he
felt his stomach growling for more—he continued to feast. Lydia’s
memories and knowledge continued to surge into his brain.

He not only learned all her master thievery
skills and personal history that was exactly as she had told him,
surprisingly enough.

Yet he also became quite surprised to learn
that she had fallen in love with Baltor upon his declaration and
challenge to the High Council to overthrow the Sultan two nights
ago. Yet when Lydia had first seen Brishava and Baltor yesterday
morning, she became confused by Brishava’s feelings for Baltor,
though he was obliviously out of it.

If that wasn’t enough, when the High Council
had convened and made the vote regarding Baltor and Brishava
earlier this afternoon, Lydia, Tricia, and Bayema were the only
three who voted that Baltor only be brought in alive to explain his
actions, but as always, the majority won.

As Baltor came close to finishing feasting on
Lydia, he came to discover the most shocking piece of information
about her, which news also made him feel very sad. Only a few
minutes earlier, when Lydia had heard Baltor call Brishava “my
love,” Lydia realized that Baltor was now in love with Brishava and
no longer with her—she felt hurt, betrayed, and worst of all,
unloved. Except by the Guild, with whom she was going to
continuously lead and obey the order to kill Baltor if he
resisted.

Baltor, at the end of dinner, actually began
to feel quite a bit guilty that it was too late to save Lydia’s
life—every bit of blood was gone.

Brishava had apparently not seen Baltor, or
his vampire act, or his vompareus body, as she timidly called out,
“Baltor, my beloved, are you still there?”

For the next minute or so, she kept calling
out his name with fear growing in her voice each time.

He, while also trying to sound weary even
though he felt incredibly strong, answered, “I’m coming. Hold on a
minute, please.”

He dropped Lydia’s body to the ground, pulled
out his sword, chopped her head off precisely over the bite marks,
and then put his sword away.

Her memory banks had also revealed to Baltor
that she carried her identification paperwork on her at all times,
underneath her shirt—he immediately took those papers that
fortunately didn’t have a drop of blood on them.

He then took off his own shirt and looked
over his shoulder at his back—the dagger wound had not only healed
up, yet there was no evidence of even a scar, at least a physical
one.

“I’m on my way,” he replied, just after he
had tossed the bloodied shirt onto the ground and then proceeded
back to the entryway.

Once there, he could see that Brishava looked
awfully frightened, and that there were tears that had just stopped
flowing from her puffy eyes upon having just seen him emerge from
the darkness.

Her fears appeared to be only semi-relieved,
as she cried, “Baltor! Are you all right?”

Baltor answered, “Not really.”

She hurriedly checked all over his body, yet
after having found no visible wounds, she asked, “Where does it
hurt?”

“In my heart, really.”

She walked around him twice more before she
said, “But I see no wounds on your chest or back.”

“The wounds that I speak of are not
physical—they are emotional,” he said with quite a bit of
sadness.

“Why?” Brishava asked, “Were you close to
Lydia?”

“Yes, I was,” he answered with a deep sadness
to his voice. “I’ve known her longer than I’ve known anyone else,
including my own parents!”

Before she could ask any more questions, he
shook his head, and then he added, “I will explain later. For now,
we must get going, as there are already others looking for us.”