FARHAYVEN: VENGEANCE (67 page)

     Now Ray felt troubled. It seemed that the Shadow Deathmerchant Clan was very well connected.

     “Allies _ of them, who are they
?
” asked Ray curiously.

     “Serpentians, certain Aridyte tribes and some of the pirate clans,” replied the assassin.

     “Alliance _ what an unholy of this
!
Hire _ who does of this to you
?
” enquired Ray curiously.

     “All sorts of clients. We work for the highest bidder. But only our clanmaster knows the identity of our clients. Whoever they are, one thing for sure is that they are rich, richer than all you pathetic government scum,” replied the assassin.

     Now came the most important question of them all. It was Ray’s most personal question.

     “Identity _ of this, who is the one who hired your clan to massacre the Fire Elementhars 15 years ago
?
” asked Ray.

     “That clown
!?
He calls himself Baron Chessmaster
!
He didn’t pay us in full
!
Claims that we botched up the job
!
I don’t know if the clanmaster had sent someone to ‘give him a permanent rest’, if you know what I mean
!?
No one double-crosses the Shadow Deathmerchant Clan, especially if that someone is a soft-spoken bureaucratic worm who likes to litter after himself. He pretends to be rich, that one, but we’re sure he’s not. His clothes are flashy, but made of cheap materials. Haven’t seen him for a while. I’m sure he’s dead,” answered the assassin.

     ‘Baron Chessmaster’, so that was the title of the true murderer of Ray’s order. But he doubted that Baron Chessmaster was a true ‘baron’, for such a title was no longer used in Fallsian society. It was no longer used even in Serpentian society. The Aridytes never bothered with titles. So the word ‘baron’ was just an expression of ego. It was a fake belief of grandeur that gave comfort to a small, pathetic criminal mind.

     Ray forced his mind back to the business at hand. He looked at the assassin. The assassin was starting to look very cocky. Things were working well for Ray.

     “Baron Chessmaster _ of him, what else can you tell me
?
” he asked.

     “Nothing much. He’s a loser
!
Like I said, he didn’t pay us in full, so I would like to kill him myself
!
The trouble is, he always had his hood on, so no one could really see his face. Why do you bother about him
?
… You’re the one, aren’t you
?
You’re the survivor, aren’t you
?
Yes, you are
!
No wonder you are interested in that worm
!
Well, sorry, I can’t help you
!
I don’t know anything else about him
!
” answered the assassin.

     Ray remained calm. But deep down inside, his heart sank like a rock in a pond. He did not show this to the assassin, though. He needed to hide his emotions from his opponent.

     “Lair _ yours of this, where is it
?
” asked Ray.

     “Go to hell
!
You’ll never find it. You’ll never find The Lair
!
” answered the assassin.

     “The Lair _ of this, tell us its location, so that we may be there and face your great number of assassins and your allies; for the sooner we meet them, the sooner we shall be killed and you shall be free and your vengeance quenched and satisfied
!
” Ray pointed out logically.

     “No, we’ll kill you when we are good and ready, and your death shall be a painful one,” promised the assassin.

     Ray took a deep breath and paused for a while. There was still one aspect that had to be investigated.

     “Prince Patrum _ you people failed miserably to kill of him. Upset _ I am sure your client was of this when your clanmaster told him of your failure. Punished _ were any of you of this by your clanmaster to ‘appease’ this disgruntled client
?
” asked Ray.

     “I wasn’t part of that operation. I wouldn’t know anything about it, especially not about any punishment. I never saw the client. I don’t even know if or when he was ever in The Lair. This client, Lord Destiny or whatever he called himself, was stealthier than us. He must have sneaked into The Lair when we were all sleeping or something. The only thing I know is that he paid us well. 3,000 gold coins for the prince’s head. When that operation failed, the clanmaster became furious. I’ve never seen the clanmaster so furious in my entire life
!
But I never saw anyone getting punished. Why are you so bothered if anyone got punished or not
?
” answered the assassin.

     Ray smiled at the assassin, but did not bother to answer his question. Ray just tapped his fingers on the table while he organised his thoughts. Finally, he decided that he had no more questions to ask.

     “Agree _ the only thing that I do of this with you is that politicians
are
filthy, corrupted leeches,” said Ray as he got up, turned around and left the room.

     The rhythmic sound made by crickets was the only thing that killed the cold silence of the interrogation room as the assassin sat there bounded in chains and all alone, wondering what fate would befall him next.

     Clover, who was in an adjacent room, listened to the entire course of the interrogation and recorded down on paper the assassin’s answers. She then proceeded with Ray to the pond’s administration building, which had been officially named ‘Sollenthar Command’. The administration building was a single storey wooden building made of thick, sturdy logs. Within it was a general workspace connected to three small offices and a storeroom. They went into the middle office, which was Ray’s. Clover’s office was to the right of Ray’s while Serene’s office was to the left, when viewed from the back of the offices to the front. Inside the office, they found Serene seated in front of Ray’s desk. Spirit, together with Lance, was seated on the floor in a corner of the office. Lance was reading a story book, a habit that he had picked up from Clover.

     Clover sat down next to Serene, facing Ray.

     “Learn _ what can we do of this from the assassin’s answers
?
” asked Ray.

      Serene paid close attention to Clover as she was not present during the interrogation.

     “Learn _ master, we did of this of several things. Firstly _ of this, the Shadow Deathmerchant Clan were originally a clan of farmers whose land was flooded and crops were ruined and who chose to rebel against the government when they were taxed. Secondly _ of this, they do have a political agenda of their own, thus they are highly motivated and far-sighted in their plans. Thirdly _ of this, they are frustrated and angry, thus their lack of guilt in carrying out assassinations. Fourthly _ of this, they have strong finances and are well stocked in supplies. Fifthly _ of this, they are well-trained and well prepared and could soon launch an open rebellion. Sixthly _ of this, their lair is somewhere in a mountain or mountain range. Seventhly _ of this, they have many strong but evil allies. Eighthly _ of this and lastly, only their clanmaster knows who their clients are and their clients are rather wealthy,” replied Clover.

     Ray leaned back in his chair. What was the significance of all this information
?

     “Check _ I shall do of this with the Agriculture Ministry and with our own records to find out about the flooding and its related protests, and hopefully we shall be able to ascertain the true identity of this clan and the location of the Ten Betrayed Villages, for they would have established The Lair near there or at least within the same province,” said Serene.

     “Agree _ I do of this. Check _ do of this also for the name of the related Provincial Governor and his deputies, for their mismanagement of that situation had brought this trouble upon us and King Patrum may want to take disciplinary action against them,” instructed Ray.

     “Do _ I shall of this,” acknowledged Serene.

     A thought occurred to Clover. It was more of a concern, actually.

     “Training _ master, we should also step up ours of this because the Shadow Deathmerchant Clan is bigger and stronger than we thought,” Clover pointed out.

     “Agree _ I do of this, Clover,” said Ray.

     “Training _ I shall advice King Patrum and the recavians to increase of this and of military recruitment as well,” added Serene.

     “Proceed _ do of this as soon as possible. Reports _ all the ones of these which concerns the Shadow Deathmerchant Clan, their victims and the nemesis or rivals of these victims, particularly the wealthy ones, Serene, I would like for you to retrieve them from the military records and hand them over to Clover and her subordinates for analysis, for these could give us a list of suspects who could have been the clan’s clients,” instructed Ray.

     “Understand _ I do of this, Minvian Iddell,” replied Serene.

     “Mention _ of this, the assassin did of Serpentians, Aridytes and pirate clans; which means that either the Shadow Deathmerchant Clan has agents travelling to contact their allies or their allies have agents travelling to contact them; so random road blocks should be set up to try to arrest some of these agents. Patrols _ the Provincial Guards should increase theirs of these in the forest areas as well. Monitor _ the harbours are to be done of this as well,” suggested Clover.

     “Arrange _ I shall do of this with the recavians,” accepted Serene.

     Ray nodded his head, pleased with the plan that they had come up with. Finally, after 15 years, he was making serious headway in his quest for vengeance.

     “Interrogate _ how long more need we do of this to the prisoners
?
” asked Clover.

     “Interrogate _ we shall be doing of this for at least a month, just to make sure that we have learned everything that is possible to be learnt from them,” answered Ray.

     Serene nodded her head in agreement. Then the Cousins Genox got up, bowed and left Ray’s office to carry out their assigned tasks. Spirit, meanwhile, had just awoken from his long late-afternoon sleep and wondered what matter of importance it was that had got his pack-mates scurrying around in such as hurry.

     Hot burning flames in the shape of a long solid shaft soared through the early morning air, its sharp and pointed tip bursting through a solid piece of human-shaped hardwood and exploded into a fireball as it slammed into a second piece of wood behind the first one and reducing it to pieces, on this day, the
15
th
Day of First Month of Dry Season
. Lance expressed his pleasure with a wide grin, having just executed an intermediate level spell known as the Advanced Heat Spear Spell.

     Standing next to Lance, Serene executed the same spell as well, but the flaming spear that she generated was not sufficiently solid and exploded at the first target instead of penetrating through it to strike the second. All around them there were Sollenthars practising the same spell. Convian Sayson was not doing too well, either. His spell smashed his first target to pieces as well, instead of penetrating it. Ray was moving all over the place, shouting out instructions to the Sollenthars and reminding them to stay focused.

     Spirit, as usual, had his tongue out and wagged his tail, monitoring the pathetic progress of his pack-mates, with the exception of Lance, of course.

     Minvian Clover Genox was not at the Spell-casting Range, as this place was to be known. She was in her office at Sollenthar Command. Two tall stacks of files lay on either end of her desk. A glass of iced coffee was placed to her right, which she sipped occasionally while reading reports of agricultural failures and natural disasters occurring between 15 to 40 years prior. Her cousin Serene would have been there to help her go through these reports, if was not for the morning training session that she had to attend. Clover had mastered the Advanced Heat Spear Spell earlier on. As far as she was concerned, the Advanced Heat Spear Spell was not much different from its water element counterpart, the Frozen Trident Spell, except that the Frozen Trident cannot penetrate its first target to strike on its second target.

     Feeling tired, she put down the file that she was reading and took another sip of her iced coffee. She closed her eyes momentarily and drew in deep breaths to relax. Thoughts of floods, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions came to her mind. She was raised in a warrior family, with the strictest of warrior traditions and ideologies, and had never given much thought to floods and other natural disasters as she was never really affected by these, until now. It never occurred to her that the sweet rain that brought the nectar of life could, in excess, also bring ruin and destruction that resulted in the creation of a criminal element in her society, a criminal element so notorious that many hundreds of men and women had lost their lives to it.