A Creature of War, Book 6, CH03

The arch was from before, LRK had no doubt of that. Such a large structure couldn’t be built anymore, especially not out of metal. Some of the plating had been eaten away by the elements, but a lot was left. Like the tower in King’s Town, it hadn’t been destroyed for the material.

How long had it been since King’s Town? A few years, at least. LRK had trouble keeping track. He did know he was nowhere near as far west as he’d hoped. Escaping winter had sent him south, where the Celeste had far more temple for the size of the cities.

As he approached, he saw that nature was reclaiming the arch, vines climbed up the side, close to two hundred feet. Eventually, it would become one with the vegetation, or it would be pulled down by the extra weight and destroy the city that incorporated it into its eastern wall.

The city gate was in the center of the arch, which meant LRK could look up and consider all the ways it could be made to fall down and kill everyone waiting to enter the city of Tall Arches. He figured that unless it fell west, and destroyed most of the city, the debris would extend all the way to the bridge crossing the closest waterway. LRK could still see the signs indicating that the river had almost reached the arch a long time ago.

The guard looked him over with the same bored expression everyone got. Even those pulled aside and searched didn’t seem to make the guards look alive. All this had become too customary.

The guard had him unwrap the sword he carried in his arm, examined the leather strap over the cross-guard, made sure it couldn’t be undone easily, and allowed him through. This was an attempt to prevent sword fights in the city, and like every other method LRK had seen, this one wouldn’t work.

It didn’t matter if the blades were confiscated or the owner made to swear under the Celeste not to engage in sword fights. Someone, somewhere in the city, would find a way to get a sword and fight, usually killing his opponent.

As he entered, he overheard guards talk about the armed Keeper, the woman who wouldn’t tie her sword because she was under the Voice’s order to always be ready to defend the pious. They spoke with sneers and made it clear they thought little of her.

It couldn’t be her. He’d been south for too long. There was no way she could expect him to come here. It wasn’t even one of the largest city in this kingdom. This was just a stopover, since the main road west went through this city. His plan was to destroy the temple and head west.

But he had to know.

A few discreet inquiries confirmed she was human, older, and a handful of copper rings got him the name of the inn she stayed at; the Distant Traveler.

It was in the market district. One of the better inns, with a large common room, quiet at this time of the day, only a handful of people seated at the sparse tables. At one, an elk was already unconscious, a tankard next to his head.

LRK went to the bar and paid for a room. He dropped his possessions there and returned, passing the Keeper seated at the table by the stairs. She didn’t look up, reading a neat script on one of the page from the stacks on the table.

It was her. She was leaner, and her hair cut short, but he recognized her elemental signature, even after all these years. He ordered a tankard and leaned on the counter, watching the room, and her.

He was disappointed. He remembered her being more formidable, larger, imposing. Not this… normal. She flipped through the stack, took one out, compared it to the one she was holding, set it back in exasperation, and searched for another. When his tankard arrived, he asked for a second one.

This was idiotic. She was the enemy.

He took both tankards and headed for her table.

This would let him gather information.

Or get himself caught.

He was being an idiot.

He placed a tankard on the table, away from the parchments. “You look like someone who could use a drink.”

She glared at him, looked around, and it turned into a frown. “Who are you?”

“Rak.”

“Rak who?” she asked suspiciously.

LRK shrugged. “I’m from Soulsburg,” he answered, picking the name of a city he’d crossed months before.

She leaned back in her seat, the suspicion staying. “And what do you want, Rak of Soulsburg?”

“Nothing.” He indicated the parchments. “My ma always said reading was too hard work for most people. You look like it’s a lot for you too, even if you must to it a lot, with all the things you have to learn. I simply wanted to help make your work less taxing.” He turned.

“Wait,” She said with a sigh. LRK turned back to her. “I’m Keeper Antoinette.”

He gave her a bow of the head. “Well met, Keeper.”

“Well met, Rak of Soulsburg. Please forgive me my harshness. You are right, this has been taxing me.”

LRK indicated the chair facing her. “May I?” She nodded, and he sat. He sipped his beer, surprised it wasn’t the weak things most inn served. Paying good money had privilege.

He nodded to the sword leaning against the wall. Like the guard had said, the sword had nothing keeping it from being pulled out of its scabbard. “I didn’t know Keepers carried arm.”

She gathered her papers and placed them in a satchel. “We live in a dangerous world. Aren’t you armed?”

LRK smiled. “The gate guards were adamant I strap my sword. What’s the point in carrying it if I can’t defend myself? I’m just asking to be mugged.”

She nodded. “So it wasn’t just me they harassed. I’m part of the Voice’s Order Keepers. I travel from city to city, making sure the Keepers there follow the Celeste’s words.”

“I thought Keepers were always righteous.” He tried to keep his voice neutral, but he worried something slipped because she raised an eyebrow at him as she took a swallow. He stayed silent.

“Keepers,” she said once she put the tankard down, “are people. People will fall to temptation. It doesn’t have to be a demon, sometimes it’s simply weakness. If I can, I bring them back to the Celeste. If they’ve been corrupted, then I ensure they can’t spread it to the city.”

He nodded and drank. It was nice to know they had someone policing them. But she probably also believed a claim of corruption was the same as proof. He nodded to the satchel. “That what’s got you frowning so much? The Keepers here are doing things they shouldn’t?”

She shook her head, took another swallow. “Have you heard of Hilltop?”

LRK tried to place the name. He might have been there, but what he did recall was from stories he’d heard. “I think so. There was a quake there, some years ago. The temple there was destroyed.”

She shook her head. “It wasn’t a quake, it was a demon. It killed everyone in the temple first.”

“Ah.” As much as he wanted to, he couldn’t manage to sound concerned. She eyed him and he unsheathed the claws on the hand on his lap, finishing his beer.

“You don’t seem to care about what happened.” Her tone was neutral.

LRK placed the tankard down. “I’m sorry for the death and destruction, but me and the Celeste, we parted ways some time ago.”

“Why?” she didn’t move, but LRK thought he heard an edge to her voice. He realized he didn’t know how good of a fighter she was. She traveled alone, as far as he knew, so she had to be good enough to take on the bandits on the roads.

“Is it a crime not to follow the Celeste?” his voice gained an edge of its own. “Is that also what you do? Drag back those to walk away?”

“I’m just curious.”

He wanted to spit, but reigned in his anger. “The Celeste took my son.”

“I’m sorry.” She sounded honest. “How did it happen?”

“Fire,” he spat, and found he couldn’t stop there. “They tell us that the Celeste looks after his children, that he’ll protect them, so where was he? My son was an acolyte. He was going to be one of you. If the Celeste didn’t protect him, who is he going to protect?” He managed not to yell, but the anger was clear.

She looked down. “Sometimes—”

“The Keeper said that if Leo had been righteous, he would have been protected, so don’t say whatever you were going to say about bad things happening to good people.” The pain of the memory hurt more than he expected. He’d thought that after the years, he’d have put it behind.

“He shouldn’t have said that.” She looked in her tankard, then drained it. “How did you reply?”

LRK grinned, and he didn’t care how nasty it looked. “Oh, I made it clear to him what I thought of his words.” The Keeper’s screams help make the pain bearable.

“Good for you,” she said with a small smile, and he looked at her suspiciously. “He was wrong to say that. His role as Keeper should have been to offer comfort, not excuses and admonitions.” She looked in her tankard again.

“Do you want another one?” LRK asked.

She motioned to the innkeeper. “Let me. Soulsburg isn’t close to here. What brought you?”

Destroying all you believe in, LRK thought, but what he said was, “I couldn’t stay there after Leo’s death.”

The innkeeper exchanged the tankards.

“His mother?”

“She died years before. He was all I had left. Now I hunt.”

“What do you hunt?”

He shrugged. “Beast, bandits, criminals. It depends if what I need is food or coins.”

“Not easy work.”

“I was soldier before Leo came. I know how to wield a sword.”

“Have you ever been to Lakeside?”

LRK took a long swallow, using the time to decide how to respond. He decided on a small risk. He smiled as he put the tankard down. “I see what you’re doing.”

She raised an eyebrow.

“I’m Furrian, like most demons, so you’re trying to make me the one you’re chasing.”

“Why do you think that?”

“I happen to have been through Lakeside, and I heard the stories about dead Keepers, destroyed temples. You can say I’m the one who did it and be done with this work.”

She shook her head. “Saying you did it won't stop the demon from killing more of my brethren.”

“But it’d make your superior happy, wouldn’t it? It’d be easy to claim that’s a new demon.”

“My superior is the Celeste. He’d know I lied. I am not after this demon for some honor. I want it stopped because it is killing Keepers.” She took a long swallow of her beer and sighed. “Of course, now things have gotten more complicated.”

“How so?”

“Do you know of King’s Town?”

“That’s north. It’s the city with the spike with the ball on top, right? Haven’t been that far yet.”

“Keepers were killed there, but turned to ash. I suspected I might be after two demons now.”

LRK tilted an ear.

“One manipulates stone. That’s the one who’s been killing for years. But it was just a suspicion. There’s no way to be certain what demons can and can’t do. But I got the confirmation. There is two of them.”

“How can you know?” LRK was curious as to how she’s decided that.

“Have you heard of the Keeper’s death in Valleyfield?”

He shook his head. He’d killed them less than a month ago. He hadn’t expected the news to have traveled this fast.

“How about the ones killed in Sunkberry?”

LRK frowned, and it took him a few seconds to place the name. “That’s somewhere east of here.” The memory he had of the place was a collection of hut. He hadn’t been there since early after leaving Vee’s army.

“Yes, three months’ travel away from Valleyfield, on horseback.”

“Okay.”

“The death occurred two weeks apart. I just found out about the one in Sunkberry this morning.”

He almost told her it was impossible; he hadn’t been to Sunkberry yet. He covered his surprise by drinking. “Maybe it was just a coincidence,” he said.

She shook her head. “The temple was brought down, just like the other ones. Same method. The Keepers killed first, then the temple.”

“It’s a demon,” LRK said. “Maybe he can travel that fast.” Why would anyone destroy it? A private vendetta and make him take the blame? And how, the number of Furrians who had the level of power with stone needed to destroy a temple was small, even back in his time in the army. And since then, it was the rare Furrian who could do more than roll stones up a hill.

“No, it doesn’t travel that fast. If it did, why not do it before? I can trace its movement and it never goes faster than horseback. It’s how I was almost able catch up to it, but it realized it and stopped moving predictably, but it never moved faster.”

“How big is Sunkberry? If they have nobles, those have been known to get into fights with Keepers.”

“It left the same messages with the dead bodies, just like the others.”

It wasn’t him. It was the only thing he knew for sure.

“So either it suddenly became able to travel much faster, or it’s coordinating with another demon.”

“One with the same powers?”

She shrugged. “It has happened. We have records of families of demons, all with the same powers.”

Heredity. LRK remembered Chem talking about it, before she left Vee’s army. She’d always enjoyed science, since her powers were based on chemistry. She’d theorized the powers could be passed along from parents to child. She’s also expected the power to get ever weaker as they spread out, and that part didn’t seem to happen, but LRK had known a family of firestarters in Vee’s army. Four generations, each one able to manipulate fire. Not in the exact same way, but it was obvious they had the same powers.

Leo had gotten his water ability, but also different. Less powered in most aspect, but Leo had been able to make the water float in the air, which LRK couldn’t. Alaine hadn’t inherited any abilities.

If he had more children, would they also have powers? How close to his would they be? Not that he was ever having children. Losing Leo had been enough to teach him that.

She was looking at him expectantly.

“I apologize,” he said. “I was thinking of how horrible it would be if there was two of them.”

“Yes, especially if this is only the start. If more join them, this may turn very ugly indeed.”

He nodded. “I should leave you to your work.” He stood. Her words worried him more than they seemed her. What if this was that? What if this was someone else who was mimicking him, not to hide what they were doing, but because they too hated the Celeste, and what if that person didn’t have his code?

If someone else could destroy a temple with the ease he could. What more damage could they cause?

*

He was going to leave immediately. He’d gathered his things and headed for the gate. And then he’d caught sight of the spire. The temple stood, waiting for him.

It wasn’t important, he told himself. It would still be there when he was done with the copycat. The Keepers would wait for him to return.

By the temple still stood.

There had only been one time before he’d left a temple standing. No, three of them. King’s Town. It had been a logistical issue, but it had weighed on him for weeks afterward. The thought of them standing distracting him from the next one. If not for the winter chasing him south, he might have returned there and looked for a way to take them down.

This was only one temple.

But he had more pressing matters.

She’s going to laugh at you, a voice said in the back of his head. Running away from her. He ground his teeth. This had nothing to do with her, but the voice wouldn’t stop.

He changed direction.

The temple was much like every others he’d destroyed; stone and glass. The shape was different, but it was the materials that were important. There were two guards at the entrance and they eyed him, eyed the wrapped sword on his back, but didn’t stop him.

As always, he sat in the back and watched.

The keepers alternated at the pulpit. Three of them, with acolytes moving about in the backgrounds, replacing candles, adding oil to lamps, answering questions. Because they moved so much, LRK wasn’t certain of the count, four, five at the most.

Seven or eight of them. Nine at the most. This would be easy. Kill them in their sleep, write his message, and destroy the temple. But he couldn’t stay until then. The sword at his back was too distinctive. The guards would be looking for him to leave.

The inn was only a few streets over; small and overcharged, but he didn’t care. Bugs fled into cracks when he dropped his possessions in the room, then headed back to the temple.

The guards didn’t look at him twice.

This time, instead of sitting, he walked around, finding shadows he could hide in. There weren’t many, with the sun being high, but he had a sense of where they would form as it went down and sat by one of them.

When enough of the light was gone for the lamp and candles to be lit, the shadows became more pronounced, and it was simple for him to slip into one of them. Once he was sure no one had noticed him, he climbed the wall until he was out of the lights. He made a ledge and waited.

When Antoinette took place behind the pulpit, he paid attention. Would she speak about him? Had their conversations made her aware of the danger people were in. Would she give forceful warnings against the dangers of temptation?

No, her sermon was much like the others. Like the platitudes he’d had to listen over and over throughout many temples, as he waited for the time to come. He wondered if she’d sleep here, even with a room at the inn. He’d kill her if she did, and not if she went to the inn. He decided she didn’t matter.

Her sermon over, she stepped down. Another Keeper, a jaguar a few years younger spoke with her, indicating the door leading to the residence. He spoke too softly for LRK to hear, even with how all sounds carried within the temple, but his excitement was clear. He knew her to be important.

She shook her head. Made one of the blessing signs and left the temple.

The last sermon ended with the last rays of the sun. The acolytes escorted the people out and doused all but the occasional lamp. When they were done, two of the guards searched the nave with lamps of their own, illuminating every shadow on the floor where someone might hide. They even searched up, but their lamp’s light didn’t reach where LRK hid.

They left. As the jaguar said blessing at the pulpit, LRK heard the door being bared. They didn’t allow people in anymore. They fear the demon could come in the night, so they bared and guarded the doors. Unfortunately, those precautions didn’t help when the demon was already there.

When the last acolytes entered the residence, LRK climbed down and silently headed for that door. Listening, he heard voices, so he settled to wait.

Once there was only silence from the other side he opened it. He entered a dining room with a basin in a corner filled with water. Wooden bowls and plates were stacked on the small table by it. Cups were on a shelf over that. Seven of them.

Traditionally, a Keeper only had one acolyte, but sometimes they took a second. He’d seen that most often in the smaller towns, who only had one Keeper.

The corridor on the other side of the room had five doors on each side. Sleeping rooms. He felt for them and found only five of the rooms occupied. One of the room had three people on the bed. So much for Keepers and acolytes not sleeping together.

He peeked in the room and found it to be the jaguar’s, a boy and a girl on each side. The three naked, the smell of sex thick. The room had a plush carpet, a large bed in the middle of the wall, a large desk with expensive writing tools on it to its left. An open cabinet on the right had bottles and fine glasses in it. Tapestries line the walls. He’d suspected he was in charge here. Now he knew.

He closed the door. He’d be last.

He considered the others. How to kill them? He wouldn’t incinerate them. That would point Antoinette to closely to the deaths in King’s Town. He didn’t feel a need to see them die, so he settled on suffocating them.

He felt them trash, and one made it to the door, but he’d jammed close and the removed air extended to his side so when they pounded on the door they made no sound. Once he no longer felt the blood flow, he let the air back and entered the jaguar’s room.

In the still air, he picked up a scent he hadn’t noticed peeking in. Tears.

He lit a candle with the ambers in the fireplace and stepped to the bed. The girl was a dog, but the boy was human, and without the robes covering him, the bruises around his wrists were visible. The tears came from both of them.

He bit back the growl. He couldn’t wake any of them.

This changed things.

He blew out the candle.

These two weren’t just acolytes. They were this Keeper’s victims. How long had he been forcing them this way? Vee would know. He’d be able to read the damage done to them.

He couldn’t kill them.

He didn’t kill the victims, just the perpetrators.

How did he extract them without waking the jaguar? He could stop the flow of blood to the brain, but he couldn’t sense when he should stop. Could he risk knocking the jaguar out and waking the other two? The boy wouldn’t see him, it was too dark, but there might be enough light for the girl to make him out.

He decided to take a chance and stopped the flow of blood to the jaguar’s brain. If he killed him? Well, he was going to die anyway, LRK just wanted to have a talk with him first.

After a few seconds, he pulled the girl out of the bed, covering her mouth and standing behind her before she was aware of what was happening.

“I am taking you out of here, do you understand?” he whispered.

She trembled.

“I know he abused you, and I will make him pay. Do you understand me?”

She nodded.

“Good.” He pulled her Keeper’s robe over her head and led her to the corridor. “Stay here.” He went back inside and did the same with the boy.

He led them to the rear door and cursed when he felt the guard on the other side. At least it was only one. He wrenched the door opened and grabbed the guard by the neck, slamming his head on the wall. The man fell to the ground.

“You two leave. Run as fast as you can. If you have family go to them.” When they were gone, he dragged the guard to the other side of the alley and tied him up before returning to the temple.

He reached the jaguar’s room to find him exiting it, dazed.

“What’s going—”

LRK’s punch in the face send him back in. “I have a few questions for you. Do me a favor and force me to extract them out painfully.”

He couldn’t stretch this out as much as he wanted. He had no idea when the shift change would happen. But he managed to get enough answer to find out this jaguar had been here for decades, and he’d personally ‘trained’ over a dozen of acolytes. He’d always turned a blind eye to some of the doings among the nobles for similar acts, so long as he was paid for it.

The more he learned, the more enraged he became. She had played him. She didn’t stop them. She’d been here, spoken to him. He’d invited her in. She probably hid what they did. He’d thought she might be better, but she was just like them.

When he was done, his fists were covered with blood, and the jaguar’s face was unrecognizable. He carried him to the nave and hung him on the wall. He gutted him with his claws and wrote, in blood: ‘You lie, Antoinette, just like them. For it I am going to make you suffer.’

He wanted to go to the inn, to make her suffer there, but she deserved a greater pain. She was going to watch her church crumble, starting with this one.

He didn’t simply bring this temple down. He shattered each and every stone, then broke them again and again. Let her see what she was up against. Let her understand just how powerful he was. Just how hopeless her quest was.

What fell on him wasn’t stone, it was pebbles and dust. And he kept that moving with air, forming a fog of dust to cover his exit. He couldn’t see the people, but he sensed them, heard them, the fear in their voice, the awe.

Once in his room, he let the dust settle. He washed himself with the dirty water in the basin, changed clothes, gathered his things and left.

He’d screwed up.

Who else but him knew her name? But finding out she was no better had been too much. Now she knew his species, if nothing else. The innkeeper would recognize him. But it would be too late, and she couldn’t know where he was going.

He didn’t go to the gate, leaving that way would attract too much attention, if they even let him out. The destruction had to have been heard even there.

But it didn’t matter. The city walls were made of stone.