All-Knowing Novice, page 20
“You think?” Taryn rolled his eyes, then rolled up the sleeve of his robe to give her access to it. “Hey, I guess you will get to use the last of those bandages after all.”
Fan Shun snorted. “Please. I have ten more rolls left. Did you really think I’d only bring twelve, with you around?”
Taryn thought about it for a moment, then shrugged. “Fair enough.”
Chapter 18
TARYN AND FAN SHUN followed the river upstream for three hours, at the very least. When they finally reached the end of the path, what awaited them was a fifty-foot-tall waterfall. There was a narrow strip of rock on either side of the rushing water, from which they could climb to the top.
Taryn looked down at his left arm and flexed his hand a few times. The pain was certainly there, but it was dull, as if it were several days old instead of merely a few hours. It was something he’d noticed even before they’d left the forest. His wounds were healing much faster than they used to.
Thank the divines for Eco. Taryn snorted to himself. He’d known how useful Eco was, he just hadn’t realized the convenience of its passive boosts.
“Can you make it, or do you need me to carry you?” Fan Shun asked. And rather than mocking him, Taryn knew that she was being serious. She was concerned about the number of injuries he’d sustained since they left the city.
“I think I’ll be okay,” Taryn assured her.
“All right, if you say you’re good to climb, I’ll believe you. Just... I know the Eco makes you feel invincible, but you’re not. You heal faster, that doesn’t make you any more durable. You fall off that wall and land on your head, you’re still going to die. So, before we start, I want you to be sure of what you’re doing. Are you sure?”
Taryn swallowed nervously. Was he sure? He certainly thought so. The pain was noticeable, but it wasn’t restricting him in any way.
He took another look at the height of the wall and the position of possible handholds.
Taryn ignited his core and shifted. The process was painless and near instantaneous now, taking only a moment for his lupine body to overlap his human one.
Once the shift was complete and Taryn was looking at the wall through the eyes of a wolf, he shakily nodded his head.
Looking down, he noticed that the claws on his feet had burst through the ends of his shoes, something that hadn’t happened before.
Taryn twisted his head in confusion and stared at his ruined shoes.
“Taryn?” Fan Shun asked, curious as to what had captured his attention. When she noticed his shoes, she realized what he was focused on. “Oh, don’t worry about that. It takes a few shifts for the transformation to fully settle. Have you noticed any other differences?”
Taryn wanted to try speaking as a test. He remembered seeing the shifter teacher speaking during her demonstration at the awakening ceremony. Divines, but that feels like a whole other life. He shook his head. He opened his mouth and attempted a simple greeting, but all that came out was a low rumble in his throat.
He frowned, his lupine face drawing up into a scowl. If he wasn’t able to talk in this form, then it wasn’t as convenient as he thought it was.
“So far, I’ve only noticed two differences between your first shift and now.”
Taryn looked at her and waited for her to tell him what she saw.
“For one, you’re taller. Which is a pretty common side effect of the shift. Most Wild Eco users grow upwards of a foot. It doesn’t look like you’re any different; you look like you’re around seven feet tall now. The second thing I noticed was... Well, look at the back of your foot.”
Taryn did as she asked and looked at his heel: a single metallic claw had grown from his heel. Much like the claws on his toes, the heel claw was about four inches long and curved sharply downwards. It was only thanks to the slight arch of his heel that he didn’t have to hear it clicking across the stone as he walked.
He held his leg out, submerging it within a pillar of light, and was stunned at how his claws shined like well-polished blades. He did the same with the claws on his hands, and though there were shorter, they shined just as much.
He walked over to the waterfall and placed his palm against the rock wall. He flexed his fingers and smiled as his claws dug into the stone as if it were flesh. That takes care of the need for handholds. He kicked the wall with his right foot, jamming his claws deep into the stone, then lifted himself off the ground. Once he reached as high as he could, he extended his right hand and grabbed the wall with his claws and kicked the wall with his left leg.
He alternated in this way several times and marveled at how easy it was. If it was like this the whole way up, he’d have no difficulty at all.
He pushed off the wall with his right hand and rotated his body so he could look at Fan Shun... Only, she wasn’t on the ground anymore.
“What are you looking at?” Fan Shun asked from above him.
Taryn blinked in confusion. He looked up, only to see Fan Shun sitting at the top of the rock wall, her legs dangling over the side.
She waved at him and beckoned him onwards. “Let’s go, I don’t want to waste any more time than necessary.”
Taryn grumbled to himself and jammed his claws a little deeper into the wall than he meant to. He scaled the wall as quickly as he could, each alteration coming faster than the last as he grew comfortable with his form. Grandma did say I needed practice. This may as well be part of it.
He reached the top a few minutes later. Fan Shun stood over him with her left hand outstretched. Taryn gratefully accepted the gesture and allowed her to pull him up. However, Fan Shun didn’t let go of his hand once he was on solid ground; she turned it over and inspected it from all angles. She paid extra attention to his nails and remarked on the metallic sheen they held. “It’s remarkable.” She grabbed a strand of her hair and pulled it loose. “You used them to pierce stone.” She dropped the hair, and the strand fell apart the moment it touched the nail on his middle finger. “And yet they’re still razor-sharp.”
Taryn pulled his hand away and glared at Fan Shun. He made a quiet growling sound and pantomimed her grabbing his hand.
Fan Shun laughed and nodded. “Yes, I won’t do that again. You have my word.”
Taryn motioned for her to proceed, and the two continued moving down the path. Just like at the bottom of the waterfall, there were two paths: one on either side of the river. The paths were seemingly identical to one another, so neither Fan Shun nor Taryn saw a need to cross the water to continue.
They walked for two hours more before they found what they were looking for.
Finally arriving at the end of the path, Taryn and Fan Shun emerged from the tunnel into an open cave. However, this was nothing like the cave they first entered, no, the ceiling was easily a thousand feet above them.
Before them stood a wall, much like the one that protected Haven City... Or rather, this was the wall that protected Haven. The base of the wall was much darker than what they were used to, no doubt because this portion had not been exposed to Rala’s light for the last thousand years.
“Hey, Grandma?”
“Yeah?”
“Did the map say how we were supposed to get in?”
“No, I don’t think it did.”
Taryn and Fan Shun stood in silence. Neither knew what to say, nor how they were going to get through the wall.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE map doesn’t say how to get into the ruins?” Gu Qigang exclaimed. He grabbed Gao Feng by the collar of his robe and lifted him off the ground. Gao Feng kicked pitifully, but he was unable to break free.
“Stop it! You’re killing him!” Xia Yawen screamed. She opened her mouth to yell again, but Xia Wei covered her mouth with his hand and pulled her against him. She struggled, and if her limbs hadn’t been shackled, he never would’ve been able to hold her. But Xia Wei knew that he couldn’t let her antagonize them again—her face and body were already bruised from the last time.
“The girl is right,” Duan He muttered. “Let him go. I’m sure this wasn’t his fault, was it?” Duan He directed both his gaze and the question at Gao Feng, who shook his head as much Gu Qigang’s steel-like grip would allow.
Gu Qigang tossed Gao Feng across the room, his body flying into Xia Wei’s and Xia Yawen’s arms. Though they managed to catch Gao Feng, the siblings were knocked off their feet by the impact. The pair landed on their backs, and Gao Feng rolled off of them and along the floor for several feet.
Gao Feng broke down into a coughing fit and grasped at his throat as he fought to breathe. He quickly redirected what little liquid Eco he possessed into healing his injured neck: the single drop of Eco moved into his throat and went to work.
Moments later, Gao Feng’s neck made cracking sounds as the Eco finished healing what damage it could. The moment the Eco was used up, it evaporated and was expelled from his body as a red mist, which drifted out of his mouth.
That single drop of liquid Eco had taken Gao Feng sixty-four days to create, and yet it wasn’t enough. Gao Feng sucked in a much-needed breath and ended up coughing and choking instead.
He still couldn’t breathe properly; he would’ve needed two—maybe even three—more drops of Eco to completely heal what had taken Gu Qigang only a few moments to cause.
Duan He observed the wall for a moment longer, then turned and moved to Gao Feng’s side. “Get up.” He grabbed Gao Feng by his hair and lifted him to his feet. Gao Feng struggled, but everyone knew there wasn’t anything he could do. If Duan He or Gu Qigang wanted to move him, he would be moved. It was inevitable.
Duan He dragged Gao Feng to the wall and let him go so his back would be against it. “Who knew you were coming?” Duan He demanded.
“Just my uncle—” Duan He grabbed Gao Feng’s jaw and shook his face from side to side. He stared into Gao Feng’s terrified eyes as pitch-black claws slowly grew from his fingertips and he dug them into Gao Feng’s cheeks.
. He trailed his claws down the left side of Gao Feng’s face, leaving scarlet trails of blood in their wake.
“We both know that’s not true. Answer the question.”
“I’m telling the—” Gao Feng cried out as Duan He pierced the claws on his index and middle fingers through Gao Feng’s cheek and stuck his thumb through his open mouth.
Duan He closed his fist around Gao Feng’s cheek and lightly tugged on it, forcing screams of agony to erupt from Gao Feng. “Lie to me one more time.” He lightly tugged on his cheek with every word, letting Gao Feng know exactly what would happen if he didn’t tell the truth.
With tears streaming down his face and blood pooling in his mouth, Gao Feng said, “The Patriarch.” His words came out slurred, but it was relatively simple for everyone to understand what he was saying. “He knew... I was seeing... Yawen. He... convinced me... it would be... good for the clan if she failed.”
“You traitorous snake!” Xia Yawen hollered. “How could you do this to me... to us!? I thought we were going to run away together.” It took everything Xia Wei had to keep his shackled sister from ripping Gao Feng’s head off.
Duan He pulled his fingers from Gao Feng’s face and dropped the boy. He cleaned his fingers by wiping them on Gao Feng’s robe. “It would seem that in the spur of the moment, I left the wrong pair as bait. Maybe the Tian and the old woman could’ve figured out a way to get in,” Duan He muttered.
Xia Yawen stopped struggling at his words. “Bait?”
Duan He looked at her, a blank smile on his face.
Her eyes widened in horror as she realized what he meant. He hadn’t left Taryn and Fan Shun behind just to get them out of the way, he’d left them behind him as bait for any Eco Beasts that were nearby.
“Why?”
“Why not? Despite my certainty that we would win, I didn’t feel like killing the creatures on my own, and I didn’t trust Gu Qigang to do the job quietly. Easier to attract them to the area with a few drops of Eco and wait for them to catch the scent.”
He’s dead? Xia Yawen didn’t want to believe it. Memories of her time with Taryn flowed through her mind: their first meeting at the New Year’s Festival, he was wearing a faded gray robe with his hood pulled down low when she bumped into him. She’d contemplated having him dragged away and beaten for touching her, but something about the way he looked at her made her want... What did she want?
He made her laugh with his sharp wit, and he fascinated her with his research into Eco and the childlike wonderment he expressed every time he talked about it.
She was sad the day her mother found out and forced her to stop meeting him.
She’d been so focused on Gao Feng and the recent date they’d gone on that she’d gotten careless and didn’t realize that she was being followed. Her mother had realized she was seeing someone, but the only person they’d seen her with was Taryn. She was “asked” never to see him again, or else she would no longer be fit to become the next matriarch. That “honor” would be passed to her younger sister, an outcome she couldn’t allow.
Not because she didn’t believe her sister could do the job, or because she wanted the position more. She just wanted her sister to have a life outside the clan, something the matriarchs weren’t allowed. The clan decided who they married, the clan decided how many kids they had and when, and the clan decided when she was done and when a successor was to be chosen.
At first she’d thought about bringing her sister along and taking her with her as they fled the city. But the moment her mother heard that she was planning to leave the city for her coming-of-age quest, Xia Yazhu was placed under constant supervision, and they were no longer allowed to speak to one another.
The one time she tried, her sister had denied her, telling her she would never leave the clan, but she wouldn’t tell either.
So, Xia Yawen gave up. And now, not only was her sister cursed to become the next matriarch, but Taryn was also dead.
Because of her, and her actions, two people were dead, and one was as good as dead.
Xia Yawen slowly looked up. Duan He hadn’t moved since he’d spoken, and Gu Qigang wasn’t paying attention.
She flexed her arms, and the liquid Eco within her body rushed to answer her call. The muscles in her arms gained definition and size as the Eco passed through them on their way to their next destination. She flexed her arms again, and the shackles creaked in protest.
Her legs gained definition as liquid Eco passed through them. She spread her legs and strained to push them further apart, and the chains there also groaned in protest.
She brought her arms and legs together, sucked in a breath, then threw them wide, snapping her shackles and freeing her arms and legs. She burned through half of her liquid Eco to do so, but she hoped what she had was enough.
She leaned forward, folding her body as low to the ground as possible, then she began to run. She grabbed Xia Wei’s arm as she passed him and threw him over her shoulder.
She ran as hard and as fast as she could, hoping it would be enough to get her out and back to the city, where she could tell them what had happened.
She didn’t make it twenty paces before Duan He grabbed her by the hair and slammed her head against the wall. “Stupid child. Did you really think that would work?” He peeled her off the wall and dragged both of them back.
“Didn’t you say something about me almost killing them?” Gu Qigang was entertained by the violence. He rarely got to see Duan He lose his composure, so any time he got the chance, he pushed him in that direction.
“Yes,” Duan He agreed emotionlessly.
“Just don’t think it’s very fair, that’s all. You get to kill them, while I’m forced to hold back?”
“Yes.” Duan He dropped the unconscious form of Xia Yawen and the shouting Xia Wei on the ground.
Duan He stepped to the wall and placed his palm against it.
“I don’t know, seems kind of hypocritical to—”
Duan He was suddenly standing in front of Gu Qigang. His right arm had completely shifted into a massive thing of dark fur and muscle. His hand—sporting seven-inch razors on each finger—wrapped entirely around Gu Qigang’s head.
Duan He rotated his body and flung Gu Qigang at the wall.
Gu Qigang didn’t have time to scream before his back hit the wall. At the moment of impact, yellow scripts appeared on the wall and formed a barrier, protecting the wall from attack. They were only there for a moment, but that let Duan He know that they were more complex than anything he’d seen in his two hundred and sixteen years of life.
Gu Qigang’s body battled with the yellow scripts until eventually the already weakened scripts failed.
Gu Qigang’s body broke through the scripts and impacted the wall beneath. The wall exploded, three-thousand-year-old stone and mortar collapsing under the force of a flung human body.
“See, Gu Qigang. I said you’d find us a way in.” Duan He chuckled. He stepped through the hole in the wall and was the first to lay eyes on the ruins: collapsed buildings of stone, tile, and glass. Paved roads with oddly shaped lanterns hanging from metal poles that dotted the streets. And, most eye-catching of all, at the center of the city, looming over every other building, was a rectangular stone structure that was easily five hundred feet tall.
The top of the structure had glass windows on each side. All four windows had intricate designs inlaid within them—three of them depicted an insignia from one of the three clans of Haven City.
The fourth window depicted a circular design with spiked ridges around the outer edge and two claws extending from both the top and bottom of the image. At the top of the image was the head of the reptile.
“The Tian clan was here.” Duan He burst out laughing at his luck. Never mind the clan’s treasures, if he could get his hands on whatever the Tian had left here... He knew he’d be unstoppable. Even if it wouldn’t increase his own, personal power, the price of such an artifact would be incalculable.
