Green Eyes

Jared felt a stinging pain lance across his face, forcing his puffy eyes open. Above him stood Mara, arm poised to slap him again. She relaxed when she saw he was awake.

“Welcome back to the land of the living,” she greeted.

Jared sat himself up against the back wall of the cell, grimacing painfully with each move. He wondered if his ribs were broken; breathing was certainly uncomfortable. Gingerly he probed his chest and while it was painful, it was not excruciatingly so. Probably just bruised then, he concluded silently.

His head was still ringing slightly, suggesting the he may have a concussion. But he was cognizant, so that was a good sign. Jared found his vision slightly obscured by his swollen eyes and guessed that his face probably looked like a bad peach.

Looking up, he appraised Mara. She was standing although Mara appeared to be favoring her right leg slightly. Her face was a mottled combination of blue and black and one eye looked swollen shut.

“You look awful,” he commented as he tried to stand, groaning miserably as he did so.

“You’re not going to win any beauty contests yourself,” Mara retorted.

“I think I may have detected an unforeseen flaw in our plan,” Jared grimaced as he came over to her. His ribcage was on fire, but his legs at least worked fine.

“Oh?” Mara cocked an eyebrow as Jared worked the key Zebulun had planted in his cuffs out.

“I think we may have gotten ourselves too beat up to fight,” Jared answered as he clicked open Mara’s iron bonds which she quickly shook off.

“Nonsense,” she held her swollen head proudly. “We’ve been through worse.”

“We were 20 years younger then,” Jared reminded as he held out his wrists expectantly.

“We’re not much older now,” Mara replied. “Our curious aging process, remember?”

“Right,” Jared winced. “I just hope it helps. Now get these cuffs off.”

“First,” Mara attempted to flash him a wry smile. With the bruises, it didn’t work so well. “Tell me if you like Jael or not.”

“You really want to do this now?” Jared growled.

“No time like the present,” Mara returned mischievously.

Jared opened his mouth to reply when he heard the sound of heavy boots stalking down the cell block towards them.

“Showtime,” he tried to return the smirk, which he was sure looked more like a hydra’s grimace.

“Don’t think you’re getting out of this,” Mara snapped as she quickly unlocked the shackles.

“What are you doing in there?” demanded a guard.

“Why don’t you come in and find out,” challenged Mara sweetly.

The man must not have been very bright because like an idiot, he opened the door.

“Keep it qui—” he stopped short when saw the two sets of cuffs lying on the floor.

“Oops,” Mara stuck out her bleeding bottom lip, trying to look apologetic.

“Back against the wall!” yelled the guard, lowering a spear at the former slave and taking three steps forward.

It was a fatal mistake. In closing the distance, he reduced his reaction time and Jared sprang into action. Ignoring the searing pain in his chest, he bounded forward three steps before leaping into the air, spinning around a roundhouse kick that slammed into the back of the guard’s neck, shattering it. An instant later, the guard dropped to the ground, dead.

“Oh that smarts,” Jared winced as he took several shallow breaths.

“Quit your whining and let’s go,” Mara picked up his sword and tossed Jared the guard’s spear, making sure to also grab the keys.

“Fine, next time you can take out the bad guy,” Jared growled as he took the weapon.

They didn’t have to wait long. Footsteps echoed through the stone dungeon as a half dozen other guards, mercenaries Jared guessed, came running towards them.

“Shall we dance?” he offered to his sister.

She flashed him a wicked smile in return.

The pair stood their ground for a moment as the six thugs bore down on them. Then with a powerful flick of his wrist, Jared flung his spear into the center of the mob. Maybe it was the adrenaline of the moment or simply muscle-memory, but as the battle was joined, Jared and Mara seemed to lose their pain.

Racing after his launched projectile, Jared landed a flying kick into the man who had been impaled. Removing the weapon, he rolled twice and popped up to face two mercenaries who were attacking him.

Mara didn’t need to have been told the plan. After Jared had neatly divided their opponents, she charged after the three to her right. At the last second, she dropped to a slide between two of them. She grabbed one man’s calf which swung her momentum around. As she pivoted, she slashed her blade through the other man’s knees, slicing through the ligaments as if they were string.

Planting her left foot hard on the ground, she popped up, simultaneously flipping her brace into a face-plant. A moment later, she cracked her foot down on his neck. The final man tried a wild slash at her, but Mara coolly ducked out of the way before spiking him with her blade.

Jared had taken care of his two remaining opponents and was waiting for her, resting his spear over his shoulders.

“That was a good warm-up,” he commented dryly.

At the end of the hallway, they found a large chest. Taking the keys, Mara found the right one and popped it open. Inside were their weapons, which the pair gratefully strapped on.

“Nothing like having your own sword,” Mara observed, tossing the guard’s now useless weapon aside.

“Agreed,” Jared nodded as he fingered his own blade again.

They hobbled up the stairs and out into the main hallway of the Bats headquarters.

“This is strange,” Mara noted the empty hallway.

“Do you think they sounded the alarm?” Jared questioned.

“It’s possible,” Mara narrowed her sapphire eyes, scanning the passageway. “But I don’t think so. I imagine they try to have as little business go on here as they can. Still, they could be setting up a trap somewhere so we should be careful.”

“No, you think?” retorted Jared sarcastically. “I was planning on marching down here blindfolded, banging on pots and pans the whole time.”

“Shut up,” Mara shot him an evil glare.

“Come on,” Jared waved her as they started down the hall.

“You never did answer my question,” Mara whispered to him.

“About liking Jael?” Jared grumbled.

“No, about the unicorns in the stables,” Mara sardonically answered. “Of course about Jael.”

Jared sighed. He knew there was no way he was going to get out of this one. “You already know the answer to that question,” he told her. “I don’t have feelings for her. Don’t think I haven’t thought about it, but every time I do, I start to…”

“Think about her?” Mara guessed.

“Yeah,” Jared nodded as he and Mara poked their head into a room. It was empty, save for several large piles of gold, silver, and jewels.

“Jared, that was 20 years ago,” Mara pointed out as the crept further down the hall.

“I know,” Jared acknowledged. “But some wounds go too deep to ever heal. I just can’t imagine myself trusting anyone like that again.”

“I understand,” Mara sympathized. “I think it’s stupid, but I under—”

“Whoa!” Jared hissed, holding her back as he peeked around the corner again.

“What is it?” Mara hissed back.

Jared took another quick look. “I’d say 20 or 25 bad guys standing in front of a big door at the end of the hall.”

“Think that’s where the big man is?” Mara questioned.

“I can’t think of what else it would be,” Jared replied. “They’re not guarding the treasuries. We’ll table this discussion for later,” he added. “Right now we have more important things to worry about.”

“Agreed,” Mara nodded as she looked around the corner.

As Jared had said, there were roughly 20-25 mercenaries standing guard over something, presumably the man in charge of the Bats.

“This should be fun,” she remarked.

“At least it will give us a challenge,” Jared concurred. “Divide and conquer?”

“My thoughts exactly,” Mara replied. “I’ll go high, you go low.”

“One, two, three,” Jared counted and they burst around the corner and charged towards the mercenaries.

Jared ran left while Mara sprinted down the right side of the corridor. Immediately the mercenaries turned to face the new challengers. Some were armed with spears, others swords, and a couple with clubs.

As they closed the distance, Mara leapt up and ran a couple of long strides along the wall, alighting behind the group. Meanwhile Jared slowed to a stop, tapping his blade to his forehead.

Had these been trained soldiers, they would have known to all attack Mara first. But they weren’t; they were mercenaries and accustomed to fighting on their own. So half of them turned to face Jared and the other half turned to attack Mara.

This was exactly what the twins had been anticipating and wanting. Jared slowly retreated several paces, pulling the unwitting fools with him, dividing the company. When he felt a sufficient gap had been created, he struck.

Springing forward, he batted away one spear and drove his elbow into the bearer’s larynx, crushing it. A millisecond later, he whipped his sword around, decapitating another merc. Parrying a sword strike, he kicked in another man’s knee and then spun around to block a woman’s double-bladed attack.

Releasing, he swung his blade around with blinding speed, bisecting her at the waist. Sensing another attack from behind, he stepped left, pivoted, and struck off the offender’s head.

By now the man whose knee Jared had destroyed was trying to stumble back to his feet. Before he could react, Jared ran his blade across the man’s neck.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jared saw a spear get thrust at his side. Stepping back, Jared caught the errant weapon in his left hand and pulled it into another mercenary. Then he split open the man’s head. Another woman tried to attack him from behind, but Jared side-stepped her high-handed strike and then proceeded to cut off her head.

That left three. The one man with a club tried to bash Jared’s head, but the clumsy weapon had no defense and soon the mercenary found himself impaled on Jared’s sword. The two remaining women, one a Form IV user and the other a Form III, tried to charge simultaneously.

Jared stepped left to face the Form III mercenary. Just as she closed the distance, Jared jumped high and left, driving his right foot into her shield. The sudden force pushed the woman into her companion, causing both stumble. Bouncing off the wall, Jared slammed his full weight into the Form IV’s head, crushing it. Then maneuvering behind the final merc, Jared stabbed her in the back. He looked up just in time to see Mara finish off the last of her opponents.

“That was fun,” she commented between pants while she wiped the blood off her blades. “Ohhh, my leg hurts!” she added with a wince.

“Quit your whining,” Jared retorted with a dry smile. “Come on, we’re almost finished.” Mara stuck her tongue out at him.

Jared ignored it and the pair placed their shoulders on the big double doors. With a silent count, the two leaned back and then slammed into the doors with everything they had. It burst open, spilling the twins into a large, office like room.

“I must say I am impressed by your skill getting through my guards,” a large man who looked mildly surprised greeted from behind his desk. “But you should’ve taken the chance to escape instead of coming here.” He gestured left and right.

To their irritation, Jared and Mara noted an archer standing against each wall, an arrow pointed at their hearts.

“Well played,” Jared admitted as he and Mara stepped forward, drawing the aim of the archers with them.

“But alas,” Mara added as they took another couple of steps forward. “Not played well enough.”

“Stop!” demanded the boss.

Jared and Mara ignored him and took another step.

“I said stop or they’ll shoot,” he repeated, clearly getting nervous.

Jared and Mara did stop. Then, they flinched like they were going to attack. On cue, the archers fired their arrows.

But the twins were no longer there. They had dropped to their knees and the bolts sailed harmlessly over their heads.

Almost harmlessly. Jared and Mara had placed themselves directly between the archers and so when they ducked, the archers ended up shooting each other. With a soft thud, the bolts pinned them to the walls.

The boss’s eyes were wide with terror as the two stood back up, blades drawn and glaring. He tried to get up from his desk and run past them, but Jared grabbed him and threw him to the floor.

“Who are you?” he stammered out.

“We are many things,” Jared answered in his cold, low voice. “But tonight, we are your reckoning.” With that, Jared drove his blade into the man’s heart.

“That was pretty easy,” Mara sat down on the desk.

“What would you expect from a bunch of hired swords?” Jared casually responded, wiping his sword clean.

“I suppose,” Mara shrugged. “So where is Zebulun?”

“Here,” the new Bats leader answered as he stepped past the bodies. “Wow, you guys are thorough.”

“We pride ourselves on being able to deliver,” Mara replied, arms crossed.

“Is he, uh, dead?” asked Zebulun.

“See for yourself,” Jared gestured to the body.

“So what now?” Zebulun questioned as he sat down behind the desk.

“You establish your control over the Bats,” Jared answered. “How you do that is your problem. We took care of the boss for you.”

“What we expect in return is that you leave us and the innkeeper Jael alone forever,” Mara repeated the terms of the agreement.

“And we also expect full restitution to be made to her inn for stolen and damaged property over the years,” Jared added.

“Full restitution?” Zebulun protested. “That wasn’t part of the original agreement.”

“Would you prefer we come back?” Mara’s voice was glacial.

Zebulun glanced over at the dead former boss. “Full restitution is fine,” he acquiesced.

“Good,” Jared said as he and Mara stood to leave. “You have two days to deliver.”

“Two days, right,” Zebulun confirmed wondering what he had just gotten himself into.