Acclayne Book 1: The Game Begins

“...so she sat patiently in the shadows, waiting. Now, it is said that the Dark Assassin of the East of Dolak are the most fearsome warriors on the whole of Acclayne. They are virtually silent when they move; you could hear a pin drop in a crowded room with more clarity. There is no warning when they arrive, you are simply alive one second, and decapitated the next. In fact they are so elusive it is said that they en-robe themselves with the very shadows that they hide in...” Malcolm paused briefly for effect, Kaylaer had long stopped listening to his stories, but much to his delight Alaina was still enthralled. “It is only the Emperor of Dolak who knows how to find them, and only she that they will serve. No one knows why this is so; but it is thought that she must have some knowledge about them that could put them at risk, so they serve her without question. As you can imagine, by virtue of her assassins alone the Emperor of Dolak is an extremely powerful woman, but the powerful get greedy and so she sent her assassins to the Glakyrian House of The Mother to steal our Mother Amulet. Now the...”

“...Sorry to interrupt but; Mother Amulet? House of The Mother? Don't quite follow.” Alaina was pleased with herself as she'd understood most of Malcolm's stories pretty well, but her own interruptions were annoying her as they ruined the flow of his story telling.

“Sorry, I keep slipping up, it's just that all of these myths are second nature to me; I forget you've never heard of them. Well, as you can imagine The House of The Mother is the sacred place where we keep our Mother Amulet. Apparently there are a few of these Amulets in various places around Acclayne; symbols of the Ultimate Mother. According to Acclayne lore the amulets hold mystical qualities and bring the bearer of the amulet great power; of course the Emperor of Dolak wanted the power for herself.”

“I get the feeling that this isn't going to end well.” Malcolm smiled at Alaina's contribution, he wasn't used to getting so much attention, especially not from a woman. Not good attention anyway; he got plenty of attention from Kaylaer and it usually resulted in some form of injury.

“Not as she would have hoped, no. She had sent her five best assassins, yet even they were unprepared to find The Great Alaina of Corthus waiting for them amongst the very shadows they were to use to hide themselves. She fought them off with ease; the only person ever to withstand such an onslaught. Throwing stars were hurled at her with immense precision only to lodge themselves into stone walls, their infamous machetes cut through the air silently to be met with the ring of Alaina's twin-bladed sword as she fended them off. Her mastery of her sword was surely something to behold as anyone fortunate enough to have seen her fight, and live, will tell you. She had the agility of a dancer, yet the power of an Ox. She felled her opponents with ease; decapitating one after the other with her blades. All five of the elite Dark Assassin fell to her that day, and little has been heard from the Dolak Assassins since. Unfortunately the venerable keeper of the Amulet, chosen by the royal families of Glakyrie, was killed as he tried to fulfil his purpose. It is said that it came into Alaina's care, yet to this day it is not known what became of it. Some scholars say she took it with her to your world, others say she threw it to the sea so that no one would ever retrieve it, then there are the few who say it is still in Glakyrie, waiting to be found.”

They walked in silence for a while whilst Alaina digested what she had been told. She wondered how much of it was actually true and how much was simply hearsay. She had no doubt that her mother was a great warrior, Juney herself had told her a few stories, but she had to admit that Amulets and assassins did sound a little far fetched, even given her unusual surroundings.

“So you're telling me that this Emperor woman went from being a massive threat to barely a blip on the radar just because she lost a couple of Assassins?”

Malcolm laughed, “Like I told you earlier a lot of these stories are embellished but she was a 'massive threat' as you put it, for quite some time, but most of her power lay with her formidable Dark Assassins and training another five women to that standard takes a fair amount of time.”

“Women?”

“Yeah, women. Why?”

“Well I just wasn't expecting women is all, to tell you the truth I just kind of assumed you were talking about men.”

“Why in the hell would he be talking about men?” Kaylaer had zoned in on the conversation now and was walking alongside Malcolm. “Men are useless pushovers who just get in the way.” To emphasize her point she pushed Malcolm roughly on the shoulder. He didn't retaliate. “In case you haven't noticed, your mother was the greatest warrior that Glakyrie has ever known. Was she a man? No. Women are stronger than men, faster, more... ah... ah...”

“Articulate?”

“Shut UP Malcolm. Accurate. More Accurate. We are the dominant sex here and don't you forget it.” And with that she spat on the ground and stomped off to join Juney at the front of their group.

“She's a real delicate little flower isn't she?” Alaina whispered to Malcolm, rolling her eyes. He laughed quietly in response.

“Maybe, but she's right; in the history of Acclayne all of the great warriors and leaders have been women. Not all women are stronger than men but a good deal are, a good deal are better at practising magic as well, so in that respect you are perhaps the more dominant sex. It's come to mean less these days, it's fairly peaceful and equal rights are pretty well-established but people like Kaylaer just wont let it drop.”

“Perhaps she feels like she has to prove something.”

Malcolm shrugged, he hadn't thought about it like that before; but that was probably because he was too busy being scared of her.

“So... if all of these great warriors are women, then why do we need to help out this Princess?”

“Well, tradition dictates that the women of the royal family take a more demure role. Though to tell you the truth very little is known about Princess Stella.” Malcolm shrugged; common knowledge again, Alaina supposed.

“Why's that then?”

“A few years ago the King's younger brother; Prince Wesley, was brutally murdered.” Malcolm paused as Alaina drew in a sharp breath, “It was kept as hush hush as possible, but as you can imagine there's been a lot of speculation. We do know one thing for sure; Wesley's son, Prince Alistair, was found at the scene of the crime.”

“No!”

“Yes, and ever since then the King has kept a watchful eye on his daughter; for fear of anything happening to her: she very rarely makes any public appearances.”

“And what happened to Prince Alistair?”

“Well 'officially' he's rotting away in one of the castle prison cells, but some people think the King exiled him from Glakyrie entirely.” Alaina thought about this for a moment;

“And what do you think?”

“Personally; I think he's rotting in the ground somewhere.” Kaylaer sneered.

***

Our conversation petered out naturally as we climbed the hill. The three of us; that is Malcolm, Methyn and I lagged behind, quite out of breath while Juney and Kaylaer marched on ahead. I found myself panting with every step upwards that I took and wondered when I had become so unfit. I made sure I ate healthily, though I was quite fond of a takeaway now and again. As a treat. Birthdays, Bank holidays... Thursdays... Okay so usually at least once a week, but I was a member of my local gym. At least I vaguely remember signing up at the start of last year though I don't think I'd been back since. Come to think of it my membership must've expired by now. As I contemplated cancelling my Direct Debit payments, Juney and Kaylaer disappeared over the crest of the hill. The two girls had been ahead of us for the majority of the journey so far; Juney liked to keep to herself but Kaylaer had occasionally walked alongside Malcolm and I. Despite this she managed to ignore me pretty well. After three days I had learned very little about her, and what I had learned was thanks to Malcolm. For such a dainty thing she seemed extremely aggressive, and I had said as much to Malcolm. He merely agreed and told me that he had had bruises to prove it. Her dislike of him had been instant it seemed for she had been this way for as long as he'd known her. Unlike a lot of children attending their school Kaylaer had come from the outskirts of Corthus and so had known very few of their classmates, though from what Malcolm had told me she had soon made her presence known throughout the school; and whoever had at first deemed her a country bumpkin was soon set straight. It was clear to me now; however, that Malcolm knew Kaylaer by her reputation and persistent bullying rather than through any meaningful social connection.

Malcolm was the chalk to Kaylaer's cheese. While I had learned that Kaylaer was a natural with what Malcolm referred to as 'physical magic', he was much more preoccupied with learning as much theory as he could. As someone with inside knowledge he was proving invaluable to me. He had been quite shy and reluctant at first, but with the amount of questions I was asking he didn't really stand a chance. For me he was a little slice of normality in an otherwise completely bizarre situation. He was like any other young teenage boy I'd ever known; shy, awkward and had a habit of staring at my boobs when he thought I wasn't looking. Not only that but he was small, smaller than me at least. I was beginning to feel quite dwarfed by everyone else. Even Kaylaer was about my height and she must've only been about 15 if that.

Methyn was taller still. At least another foot taller than Kaylaer. I had wanted to ask him about the height thing, (I didn't like to ask Malcolm as I had a feeling it might be a bit of a sore point), but he liked to keep to himself; choosing to lag behind the group rather than walk with us. I wasn't too bothered by this; from what I could gather he was a bit of a grumpy sod and I'd had enough dealings with grumpy old men to last a lifetime thanks to the welcoming committee at the Palace. Well, I say old but the truth was I couldn't quite pinpoint Methyn's age. I figured it must be something to do with that wavey time thing Juney had tried explaining to me.

Come to think of it, over the last few days I hadn't really noticed any difference in the movement of time at all, a day was just that; a day. It hadn't seemed any longer or shorter than a normal one to me. What was that about? When I had first arrived a minute had felt like an eternity. Perhaps I was becoming acclimatized... I turned to ask Malcolm if he had any ideas on the subject but as I did so we reached the top of the hill. In front of us, in the distance, was a massive city which I could only assume was Cortharen. I turned back; I could see Corthus in the distance sprawling across the landscape like a jellyfish washed up on the beach, with no idea how or why it had come to be there. Cortharen appeared to be built with purpose and structure; it stood against the landscape rather than nestling within it. It was pretty impressive.

“Woah.” It seemed Malcolm was pretty impressed too.

“Yeah, I'd say so.”

***

Juney was not used to being followed so closely. She worked alone and she liked it that way. At first she had found Kaylaer's insistence on walking ahead with her to be rather irritating, but she had slowly found herself becoming used to the young girl's presence. They sat down on the grass together now while they waited for the rest of their party to catch up. Juney had expected that the pace she would set would be too fast for the group but Kaylaer's willowy form had travelled alongside her with ease. For once it was kind of nice not to be the only one on scout duty; not that she intended on getting accustomed to it.

The sun was setting behind the city of Cortharen. It was a while since Juney had visited the city. Inevitably her work brought her there from time to time but it hadn't done so recently. Visits to Cortharen usually involved a big job, and this was as big a job as she had ever had. She felt bubbles of anticipation well up inside her; the potential for danger was what she thrived on. The rush was like a drug to her; and knowing that she was the most dangerous thing about this mission, well, that was perhaps the most addictive drug of all. She flexed her muscles and leant back casually on the grass; feeling the last of the sun's rays on her pale skin.

“I know what you are.”

Juney quirked an eyebrow in response; Kaylaer didn't talk very much while they were walking and that suited her just fine. The downside was she inevitably had something quite substantial to talk about in the evening; having had all day to mull it over.

“And that is what exactly?”

“You're a hit, aren't you?”

“I might be.”

“You definitely are; I can tell by the way you move.”

“Then why ask?” Juney kept her eyes closed as she lay on the grass. Kaylaer may have been a child but Juney did not believe in molly coddling someone just because they were young.

Kaylaer thought about it for a moment before replying: “I didn't want you to think that I was accusing you.”

Juney laughed. “If you are right I could hardly accuse you of being accusatory could I?” She laughed a little more to herself as her comment was met by silence. It was that moment that Alaina chose to sit herself down, quite heavily next to Juney. Her hand went to pinch her stomach but Juney's hand grabbed her wrist before she could even touch her.

“Aww, now how did you know I was there?”

“I heard you, though for a second I did think that maybe we were being attacked by a herd of Elephants.” She opened her eyes and gave Kaylaer a conspiratorial wink.

“Did you hell. I'm not that loud.” Alaina snatched her hand away.

“I don't know, I think even the people in Cortharen might have heard you.”

“Shut up.”

Kaylaer watched the exchange with interest. Did this woman not understand who she was talking to? In her eyes it was the equivalent of a mouse telling a cat to piss off. It just wasn't done; unless you were a mouse with a death wish. Luckily for her Juney seemed to be enjoying the back and forth. Kaylaer reasoned that having everyone fear you must become quite tiresome; besides, Alaina was hardly proving to be a challenging verbal sparring partner.

Methyn joined the group moments later; visibly tired and slightly out of breath. He sat down next to Malcolm and spread his gangly legs out on the grass in front of him.

“Ah good you're here.” Juney turned on her side to look at him. “I was just telling the others that I think we should bed down for the night; it's getting dark.”

Methyn looked towards Cortharen; it still looked lifetimes away to him. If they stopped now it would just slow them down; he wanted to get home as soon as possible. He missed the school, he missed his office, he didn't miss the students so much, but he did miss his bed and his sense of being somewhat in control of his own life. If getting back soon meant having to walk a bit further then he was willing to do it, no matter how tired he felt. Besides, he was running low on tea bags.

“It won't be dark for a few hours yet.”

“Not completely dark, no, but it is getting there. From here onwards our journey is less straight forward; the risks are greater.”

“We told the King we would make haste.”

“We also told him we would bring back his daughter alive.”

“And we will.”

“Not if we're eaten by a nocturnal Sibbrat we won't.”

“A what?”

“You mean to tell me a Wizard of your calibre hasn't heard of the legendary Nocturnal Sibbrats of the Quinthessal Mountains?” Juney raised her eyebrows and looked around the group. Their interest clearly piqued; all eyes were on her. “None of you? Really? Well, you are probably better off. I've been unlucky enough to come across some of the creatures myself.”

“Y-y-you have?” Methyn was visibly shaking in his seat.

“Oh yes, they have long, sharp teeth and massive claws and they're bodies are covered with thick dark hair. You can barely see them until they jump out at you!” Juney noticed that both Alaina and Malcolm had turned quite white while Kaylaer seemed un-phased.

“Perhaps we should find somewhere else to s-s-spend the night?”

“Oh no, we're quite safe here; no where for them to hide y'see...” Juney gestured around them; aside from the downwards gradient ahead there was very little else besides grass. “Besides, we're at a good vantage point from here. I'll keep watch if you want to build your tents?” Juney had barely finished her sentence before Methyn was up and magically constructing a tent.

“Best get it done before it gets too dark aye?” He laughed nervously. Alaina and Malcolm joined him in urgent construction. Kaylaer remained seated quietly next to Juney.

“Ah...Everything okay?” Kaylaer's silence amongst the group's frantic building unnerved her.

“Yeah... Um. Can I share with you tonight?”

***

Juney sat staring at the glowing remains of their small camp-fire. Despite her pre-occupied appearance she was on high alert. She sat completely still; body poised for movement at any time. She had made a habit of sitting up later than the rest of the group these past few nights; it was her only chance for some longed for peace and quiet, but tonight something didn't feel quite right. She hadn't noticed it before, when she had been walking alone at the head of the group, but since she had been distracted by Kaylaer she had had the distinct feeling that they were being followed- though she had not seen any signs of a tracker. This concerned her greatly.

The fire went out completely and for a few moments Juney sat motionless in the darkness. She listened hard yet could only hear the gently rustle of the wind amongst the trees in the forest a way ahead of them. Satisfied she headed quietly into the tent.

It was then that she felt it.

How had she not noticed before? She could feel it now more strongly in her tired state; a strong thrumming against her subconscious. She looked down at Kaylaer. The girl looked so small now that she was asleep; her big personality quietened by her dreams. In the darkness Juney could make out the slow movement of her breathing; at some point she had thrown most of the blanket off of her. A fitful sleep Juney suspected, not surprising if she had that persistent thrumming to contend with. From under her tousled blonde hair Juney could make out Kaylaer's jacket. As quickly and as gently as she could Juney pulled at it. Just enough was showing now that she could make out a small bulge in her pocket. She pick-pocketed the child with ease. She stroked the stone with her thumb; it was smooth and round for the most part except for one edge which was rough to the touch and felt almost flat. If she didn't know any better then she would have sworn that she could actually feel it pulsing in her hand.

“So you've been following us have you? You naughty boy.”