Destroyer of Worlds Page 12

  He was of average height, of dark complexion, clean shaven except for a mustache and narrow goatee, dressed in the baggy clothing preferred in the Zarger desert, and he wore a curved sword on his belt.

  All Rada really knew about wizards was that they scared her to death.

  “Hello, travelers,” the stranger said, cold but cordial. “Merry Holi.”

  “Merry Holi to you as well,” Karno replied, not seeming the least astounded at seeing a tiger turn into a man. “Inquisitor.”

  “Witch hunter,” the stranger corrected him.

  Rada had to stifle a cry as he identified himself, for the witch hunters were the near mythical elite of the Order of Inquisition. She’d heard rumors of them, everyone in the Capitol had, but never read anything about them, because every reference to that secretive group had been long since scrubbed from the Capitol Library.

  “Identify yourself, travelers,” the witch hunter demanded.

  “I am but a humble man of the worker caste, journeying with my wife to Apura for the festival.” Blunt Karno was a terrible liar.

  “A humble worker, eh? Which is why you do not quail before the tiger form, and why you stand there with a war hammer, overly confident.”

  “Workers have hammers too. They’re remarkably versatile tools. How may I help you, witch hunter?”

  “Leave the false identities to my order, Protector. Lies do not suit you.”

  Karno’s silver-inlaid armor was hidden in the bags on their pack horse, and the token of his office was on a chain hidden beneath his shirt, but there was no use denying his identity. “Very well. How may I help you, witch hunter?”

  “I am Khoja. I seek a fugitive. A woman.” He gave Rada a sly look as he said that.

  “And I am Protector of the Law, eighteen-year senior, Karno Uttara. And you should move along, for I have no fugitive here.”

  “Radamantha Nems dar Harban has been summoned to the Inquisitor’s Dome. It would be a grave violation of the Law for her to ignore such a thing. Even the Protectors must honor the summons of the Inquisition.”

  The Inquisitor took another step forward. Karno tightened his grip around the well-worn shaft of the war hammer, fingers so strong his callused skin made an audible creak like leather. The Inquisitor paused.

  “These are perilous times for your Order, Karno Uttara. You are not currently favored in the Capitol, as we are. Ashok Vadal has shamed you all. The judges doubt your loyalty. Should you stand against my lawful summons, word will get back to the Capitol. You may be doing great and irreparable damage to your Order. Think carefully on this, Protector.”

  “I was just telling my friend here how I have no head for politics.”

  “You are making a grave mistake.”

  Karno grunted. “This would not be my first. Now do your little tiger trick and scurry off. I tire of your threats.”

  “Forgive my overfamiliarity. I’ve been tracking you for weeks so I feel as if I know you.” The witch hunter spread his arms, a mockery of an apology. “When I was given this assignment I was warned that Karno Uttara was an unsubtle brute, but second in ferocity only to the Black Heart, which is why I brought a few of my brothers along to help.”

  “Saltwater…” Karno muttered as something orange and white slunk through the brush to their side.

  “Your reputation is also why I used up a precious fragment of black steel, to muffle the approach of our Inquisitors and the fifty warriors we drafted to aid us in Zarger.” The witch hunter snapped his fingers. The change was abrupt. Even Rada’s normal human ear could suddenly hear the sound of hoofbeats, out of sight around the bend, but closing fast. It must have sounded like thunder to Karno’s ear.

  “Ride, Rada!” Karno bellowed. “Go!”

  Her horse had leapt forward before she’d even had a chance to thump it, and she took off down the road. All Rada could do was hang on.

  “Get the librarian!” the witch hunter shouted.

  Seemingly out of nowhere, there was a flash of orange ahead of her. Another tiger! The mare stuttered to a halt, reared back and screamed, and Rada screamed as she was nearly thrown from the saddle.

  The tiger slunk toward her, eyes glowing with a greenish black light, teeth bared. It leapt!

  Karno’s hammer smashed it out of the air.

  The tiger went bouncing and rolling down the road in a cloud of dust.

  Karno appeared next to her. He grabbed her horse by the bridle and with a display of incredible brute force dragged the kicking animal down with one hand. Then he scooped up his hammer from the ground, and turned back to meet the witch hunter, who had drawn his sword and was charging their way. “I said ride.” He smacked her horse on the rump. She started to run.

  Another tiger pounced.

  Rada had not seen this one coming at all, but Karno had. Its claws nearly sunk into her, before they stopped inches away, seemingly frozen for an instant. Karno had caught it by the tail! She had enough time to see an almost human look of surprise on the beast’s face, before the Protector spun it around, and hurled it at the charging witch hunter. They collided violently, and man and tiger both were sent hard to the ground.

  “Yah!” Rada shouted, though her terrified mare needed no urging. They ran through the grass, going wide around the crumpled form that had been hit with Karno’s hammer, which was now in the shape of a gasping man clutching at his broken ribs, and then they bolted for Apura.

  Rada risked a look back over her shoulder just in time to see the mob of horsemen appear, dozens of them, swords raised, their mounts whipped into a lather, thundering down the road in pursuit of her.

  Between them stood lone Karno, blocking the path.

  Chapter 13

  “Faster! Go!” Rada urged her mare as she imagined tiger claws sinking into her flesh at any moment. She didn’t know who was more terrified, her or her horse.

  Karno was tough, but there was no way he could survive against so many warriors, and sure enough once Karno was occupied, some of them went after her.

  She lowered herself in the saddle as Karno had taught her. Though she’d gotten a lot of riding practice in recent weeks, she’d never gone this fast before. Despite that, each time she looked back, the horsemen had closed more of the distance. Their animals were the muscled black animals of the desert warriors, and they were much stronger than her mare.

  When she looked again, her pursuers were close enough for her to see some of them wore gleaming, fanged masks. Inquisitors!

  The Protector had distracted most of them, but the witch hunter had still sent five of his men to run her down. Karno had given her a proper dagger to use in case of an emergency, but she was no fighter. If they caught her she wouldn’t have a chance against one of them, let alone five!

  The city was near. Forests turned to pasture and farms. Instead of trees along the side of the road there were low stone walls to pen in livestock. It was getting dark, but there were people on the road ahead, wagons of goods, and farmers pushing carts, all of them heading into Apura, probably late arrivals to sell their goods at the festival.

  They didn’t see her until Rada flew past them at a gallop. “Sorry.” Men had to leap out of the way, spilling their baskets and bundles. “Excuse me!” A cart overturned. Melons rolled as a woman cursed her. “Sorry!”

  She had an idea, and as she passed by she reached out and smacked her hand against an ox’s backside. “Boo!” That startled the drowsy animal, and in response it bellowed and lurched, pulling its wagon off to the side. The merchants rose off their seats to shake their fists at her.

  Luckily the chaos she caused bought her some time, as the Inquisitors rode right into the snarl. They roared for the workers to get out of their way.

  Karno had wanted to avoid the travel checkpoints, but she was heading straight for one. There was no fancy gate on this road, just a small shack for the comfort of the warriors who manned it while they stamped papers and collected taxes. If she slowed down and tried to talk her way throug
h, the Inquisitors would surely catch up enough to yell for the warriors to detain her. So all she could do was stay low, hug her horse tight, and hope that the road guards weren’t alert enough to immediately fill her body full of arrows.

  The warriors were busy checking someone’s papers by lantern as Rada flew right past them. One of them had time to shout, “Hey, stop!” but luckily he didn’t throw his spear at her.

  There were three roads, so she picked the middle. Or more like she’d completely lost control of her frightened mount, and she just kept running straight. They rode hard into Apura, and Rada hoped she would be able to put some distance between her and the checkpoint. Travelers had to rush to get out of her way. The crowd thickened. There were people everywhere, men, women, and children. Her mare began to twist her head from side to side, suddenly blocked by bodies and unable to run.

  “Damned drunken fool!” an old woman shouted at her.

  “Slow down before you trample someone, idiot!” Someone had the audacity to throw a vegetable at her. It missed.

  Rada looked back. Lanterns were moving around the checkpoint. An Inquisitor was shouting at one of the guards and gesturing wildly. Another Inquisitor saw her atop her horse, because she stuck out above the crowd, and he pointed and yelled for his companion’s attention.

  She couldn’t stay silhouetted up here, so Rada dismounted. “Run away, girl.” It filled Rada with despair to see the confused horse trotting off with her saddlebags containing most of her worldly possessions, but then she turned and began to push her way into the mob. All Rada had left was the rough-spun clothes on her body, the knife Karno had given her, and the satchel which contained her two most valuable things, the black-steel Asura’s Mirror, and her reading glasses.

  Though terrified, she knew she had to keep her head. It was escape or the dome.

  The Inquisitors were heading her way, so Rada kept moving, pushing and shoving against men who were far heavier than she was. There were so many bodies pressed together here that the spring chill turned a damp warm. People were laughing, singing, and prancing about. A crowd of dancers created an opening for her, and she ducked between them, putting more bodies between her and the masks. There were so many people jostling around that her rudeness went unnoticed.

  The people of Apura were dressed much like she was, most of them in the simple garb of the average worker, but they were all stained with colors tonight. Brilliant reds, blues, greens, and yellows.

  Rada gasped as she was hit in the face with a blue cloud. The pigment dust got in her nose and made her want to sneeze.

  She’d forgotten about that part of Holi. They didn’t make a mess like this in the Capitol. Everything was bright and decorative there every day, and no first-caste woman would allow one of her fine silk dresses to be stained with indigo or turmeric. But Rada had read that the poor worker caste lived a drab existence mostly, so it made sense that their holidays would be extra colorful to compensate.

  The buildings in Apura were short by Capitol standards, only two or three stories tall, but they all had balconies, and on every balcony someone was either playing an instrument, or tossing handfuls of colored pigments toward the ground. So much of the colorful dust had been thrown already tonight, that the farther she pushed into the city, the thicker it became in the air. It hung like a pink swirling fog. And Rada was thankful for this small miracle, because it would make it much harder for the Inquisitors to see her.

  A parade of drummers was making their way down this particular street. The noise drowned out the shouts of the wolves snapping at her heels. Risking a glance back, she saw them, giving orders to the warriors they had just taken command of by virtue of their office. But she didn’t think they saw her. They were easy to spot because of their terrifying masks, so their presence was drawing the people’s attention, and then fear. Unfortunately, as she watched, one of them shouted a command, and they all removed their masks. Now they looked like normal men, and one woman. They would blend in and she would never see them coming.

  Karno had told her to hide. The Inquisitors were brutal, but she was smart, and more importantly educated. She’d once read a memoir about a Vokkan spy’s exploits in Vadal City, and she did her best to recall its lessons. She had to blend in. She could not attract the hunter’s eye.

  On the road the Inquisitors had seen a dusty woman dressed in a gray coat and desert scarf. So she wadded up her scarf and dropped it on the ground. Rada was of average height, and Vadal women tended to be tall, so she didn’t stick out that way. They wore their long hair down and loose, so she undid the band she’d used to keep her hair out of the way while riding and shook it free. Vadal women were renowned for their beauty, and in previous years that would’ve intimidated her, but due to her affair with Devedas, Rada had decided she was no slouch herself. However, it appeared all Vadal women could dance, twirling and swinging their hips with perfect rhythm. On that front, Rada was completely out of luck, trying to emulate them would make her look like a clumsy duck among swans, so she just kept walking.

  Reaching an intersection of five points Rada realized she needed to change her route. The Inquisitors would have to split up. She took the second right, toward the city center, and luckily it appeared that street was even busier than the first.

  It was common for the youth of the worker caste to engage in water fights on Holi, and a big one was going on here. So Rada gladly stepped in front of the giggling children throwing buckets of colored water. They seemed rather gleeful that an adult would jump into their game. She was quickly drenched, half purple and half green, but with wet clothes even more of the dry pigments were sure to stick to her. She’d be as camouflaged as the tigers had been in the forest. She glanced back, couldn’t spot anyone following her, and kept walking.

  Rada was unsure how long she wandered, trying to disappear among the masses, but the farther she got from the violated checkpoint, the better. She passed by stands of delicious food, though so tempting earlier, now her stomach was so restless that the thought of eating made her nauseous. If found, she’d be taken to that most dark and terrifying place that loomed over the Capitol…the dome. The shadow it cast on Mount Metoro warned everyone in the Capitol to behave or else. There were tales of underground dungeons and torture chambers, and many who were summoned there were never seen again. The fear made her chest ache.

  She reached an open area, which on normal days must serve as some sort of park or city gardens, but during Holi it was filled with huge tents belonging to performers. Men stuck torches to their lips and breathed out balls of fire. Acrobats leapt, flipped in the air, and rolled on the grass. There was even an elephant which did tricks, and a tiny man who balanced upon its trunk.

  Between the noise, and the colorful dust clouds, there should have been no way for the hunters to track her. She didn’t see anyone she took to be an Inquisitor. There were warriors, but they weren’t searching for her. They were with their families, relaxed, and enjoying themselves. So Rada leaned against a wrought-iron fence and tried to catch her breath. She’d not realized how hard her heart was beating.

  Karno had said that he would find her, except he was probably dead. Oh no. Karno. He was powerful, but there was no way one man—even a Protector—could fight fifty warriors and survive. The first time they’d met, he’d knocked her down and set his hammer on her chest because he’d thought she was an assassin or a witch, but they’d become friends. The thought of him dying made hot tears come to her eyes.

  Karno would not approve of tears. Get yourself together, Rada. What would that spy have done?

  He wouldn’t get complacent. That was for sure. So Rada dried her eyes, wiped her nose, and kept watching for threats…Which was when she noticed the woman looking right at her.

  Everyone else was watching the elephant, the fire-breathers, or the sword-swallowers. The young men were watching the female acrobats. But this woman had definitely been studying Rada. There had been a female among the Inquisitors. Was this her? It wa
s hard to tell now, because like Rada, her face was also smeared with pigment. In her case, a ghastly red.

  Their eyes met. The woman didn’t look away. Instead she began walking toward Rada with great purpose, roughly shoving children aside. Rada pushed off the fence and began walking along the park. The woman walked faster. Rada increased her pace. So did the woman. Rada ran. The Inquisitor gave chase.

  Rada fled as swiftly as she could, but she was a librarian, not an athlete, and the Inquisitor closed the distance quickly. Watching her pursuer instead of where she was going, Rada crashed right into someone. Since he was much heavier than she was, physics made him stumble, but put her on the ground.

  She’d bumped into a warrior, and this one wasn’t here to celebrate, but was rather obviously on duty. He was wearing armor, the steel plates painted that distinctive Vadal gray-blue, and intricately decorated with rings of bronze. He wore no helm, but had a spear in one hand, which he carefully kept upright so as to not poke the crowd.

  A look of mirth crossed his face. “Careful. I know the acrobats are a sight, but don’t break your neck.”

  There were two other warriors right behind him, similarly armed and dressed. Rada didn’t know much about their caste, but their armor was artful, more like what she’d expect to see in the Capitol than some common place like Apura. These were men of status, or more likely, servants of a man of status.

  Rada saw that the Inquisitor was nearly there, and quickly blurted. “Help me, Warriors! A fiend is trying to murder me.”

  The man she’d bumped held out one hand to help her up. He hoisted her from the ground. The expression on his handsome face indicated that he thought this was all some manner of holiday-related foolishness. “How much have you drank tonight, girl?”

  But one of his companions was more alert. This one was older, with a scar that split his chin, and he recognized Rada’s genuine fear. His eyes quickly snapped up, scanning for threats. He spotted the oncoming Inquisitor and put one hand on his sheathed sword. “Halt!”