It was another sunny day when Raya and her team of guards set out for their meeting. The abandoned building where the gang would meet them was hidden in one of the shadows from the scattered clumps of clouds in the broad blue sky. As they walked toward it, Raya glanced past Avri at a small dining patio. Were any of Rama’s guards there, waiting incognito? If they were, their disguises made them invisible to her eyes.
The meeting place for the ambush was an empty shop, long out of business. Its windows were boarded up, but it had three doors—at the front, back, and side. With its chipped grey brick roof and nearly collapsed wooden porch, the derelict building was situated between other hovels and a wide, half-collapsed warehouse. This was the edge of Massed Alley. Unlike the edge of the Norzeen District—where the outer fringe and its view of green hills and distant estates sold for fortunes—no one could afford to renovate the ruins here.
Axar opened the front door for them, and Dondar led the way in. When Raya got inside, she saw cobwebbed tables, empty shelves, and a toppled wooden shelf. The interior held no sign of another soul. “We’re here first,” Benn said, as he looked around. He righted a table. “’Suppose we wait.”
So they waited. Axar pulled a chair out from the wall and sat down in the middle of the room. Dondar folded his arms and leaned against the doorframe while Avri pulled out a knife and started sharpening it. The armed commoners that had accompanied them spread out near the bartering counter.
After a moment, Avri started to ask, “Do you think—”
“Don’t ask it,” Benn said.
Avri looked at him and thought about why she shouldn’t ask what she was going to ask. Raya guessed it was, “Do you think Ramas’ guards are out there?” It was wise not to ask it. Not two minutes later, an enormous man covered in tattoos strode in from the side door. Avri quickly sheathed her knife while Raya stepped forward to speak to their tall guest. The stranger had three spider tattoos crawling up his neck and onto his cheek. He looked at Raya with blank grey eyes and crossed his arms.
“Thank you for meeting with me,” Raya said, holding out her hand. It was a bold lie to shake someone’s hand when their capture was the goal. The dark-haired fellow simply stared at Raya from his stony face and didn’t say a word.
Another man strode out from behind the enormous stranger and looked at Raya with a charming smile. He had sandy brown hair and a thin scar across his bearded cheeks. He reached out a muscular arm to clasp Raya’s hand. “And to you. You’re even prettier than they say,” Domeran quietly replied.
Axar—who had stood up at the newcomer’s entrance—and Avri visibly relaxed after Domeran let go of Raya’s hand.
The quiet bodyguard stepped back toward the side door, where another guard had entered. Others followed—Domeran’s specified ten. The king of the underworld himself seemed the least menacing of them all, but the sword on his hip was chipped and its grip was worn. This was a man who could use it as smoothly as his flirtatious tongue.
“I must admit, Raya Ganner, that I am surprised we have not spoken sooner,” Domeran said. “I’m curious about just one thing. Where did you go for that year? The revolution fell apart and you were gone. Right up until the Mage Kings died….”
Raya shrugged. She couldn’t tell the truth—that the revolution had turned on Axar and caught her in the middle, forcing her and her friends to Journey across distance and time—but she needed her lie to be vague enough to keep Domeran’s attention. “I was busy planning,” she said carefully.
Domeran chuckled loudly and crossed his arms. “If you’re telling the truth, then you’ve totally ruined the follow-up. You should have been ready to seize power. But I suspect you’re lying. The Mage Kings put pressure on the leaders of the revolution, so you went into hiding—”
A thud hit the wall nearby, shaking it from the outside. It was a body collapsing against it. Shouting followed and then the clash of steel rang out. Immediately, chaos erupted inside the run-down shop. Domeran’s guards went for the exits while Domeran sprang his own blade free. A few of his men stepped toward Raya, while Raya’s guards sprung into action to defend her. Raya yanked out her own sword, just in case.
Then a sudden screech filled the room. Unable to pinpoint its source, Raya clutched her ears. Fingers pressed to drums did little to ease the agony, and a cry of her own was soon freed. Domeran, only a few feet in front of Raya lost hold of his sword, like Raya had, and fell to his knees as the piercing whine reached a new crescendo. All the guards had fallen down except that big brute with the spider tattoos. Everything was grinding to a halt as the torturous howl echoed through the empty shop.
Axar, somehow, moved just fine. He stepped out from Raya’s squinting peripheries, his drawn sabre gently sweeping along with his brown tabard. He advanced on Domeran without looking at Raya.
Domeran’s boulderlike guard strode ahead as though the sound didn’t phase him. Seeing his protector move unhindered, Domeran smiled. Was the guard deaf? The big man swung his sword at Axar, but Axar held out his hand and a torrent of wind swept past Raya. The man’s swinging blade stopped as though it had sliced into a slab of wood. Axar ran the man through without pausing, and then stood before Domeran’s deafened, kneeling body.
Raya, her ringing ears sending fiery needles into her brain, tried to cry out, “What are you doing?” but she doubted it could be heard over the sorcerous screech. This wasn’t part of the plan. This was never part of the plan.
Domeran moved one hand from his ear, screaming as he did so, to clutch at Axar’s white trousers. It didn’t make a difference to the magician. Axar plunged his blade in above Domeran’s collarbone and the gang-lord was dead before he pulled it free.
With a raise of Axar’s fist, the tormenting din at last subsided. Its aftermath was a deathly silence. Raya couldn’t hear the spider-tattooed mercenary choking as he died, but she could see that he was. When her hearing finally started to come back, all she could hear was Avri speaking like in a chant: “… I’m sorry, Raya, I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Raya, I’m sorry…”
“We weren’t supposed to kill him!” Raya blurted, but Axar didn’t even look at her.
Axar slowly started to kneel, as the City Watch guards burst in the door and proceeded to pull the dazed criminals into their custody. Avri’s mumbling took on more definition as she said, “I knew he lied once, but I kept waiting for a second. Why did I wait? I’m sorry, Raya….” The smallest smile touched Axar’s lips, but it was soon replaced by the point of Sergeant Utrin’s sword. A guard pushed Raya down and held her against the cold, sandy floor boards. Soon enough, they were all at the Sergeant’s mercy. Of course, Raya wasn’t sure if Axar was ever truly at someone else’s mercy.
Utrin looked around them, his sword pointing to Domeran’s dead body for a moment. “What’s the meaning of all this? We were supposed to capture Domeran.”
Raya was speechless still. “I don’t… I—”
“But now’s he’s dead,” Axar said. His voice was clear, not pained or confused. “I’d like to speak with Ramas.”
“And he’ll want to speak to you,” said Sergeant Veraclese. The other captain stood closer to the door, as though he was somewhat chilled by what he had found inside the abandoned shop. He looked at Sergeant Utrin and gave an order to their soldiers. “Bring them all! We’ll have to sort out this mess….”
For a moment, Raya considered fighting back. Maybe they could overwhelm enough of the guards to escape—she had some of her best fighters here, after all. She hated the thought of fighting the City Watch, but what choice had Axar left her?
The magician himself stood up calmly and passed his sword, hilt first, to the nearest guard. “Take good care of it,” he said to his armoured escort and walked toward the door under their supervision.
If Raya fought back, would he even let them run from the shop? And then what? What of all Raya’s people back at the inn? They could not face the City Watch in the battle they would provoke if they attacked the guards here and now.
When the warriors of the Watch bade her stand, Raya did so. She surrendered her dagger and her bow, and followed as they led. Behind her, Dondar and the others were forced to follow suit. Their fate was now entirely up to Commander Ramas. Raya marched into the blazing sunlight outside and glared at the back of Axar’s head.