The Druid's Spear (Ascent of the Gem Bearers Book 1) (10 page)

“Those deaths are not your fault and it is ridiculous to think otherwise.”

“I don’t understand. How could he have mistaken John for me?”

Rin brushed her hair from her face. “Ludovicus would have hunted by scent. Perhaps an article of clothing…”

From the way Kenzo—
sama
fell to the ground, she figured that was it. A mournful wail came from him. “
Iie
! We switched jackets at the diner. That’s all.” With his face buried in his hands, he mumbled, “A misplaced coat.”

Sobs filled the room as the Descendant wept. Rin studied the reaction, neither offering condolences nor advice.

Tambo has been right. She glanced at her friend and saw his nod. This seed of Rhychard was in need of protection, the kind only she could give. Those tears and each gasping sound he made proved it. Perhaps this is what the Elder meant. The only one capable of doing it was her.

When the man’s sorrow was spent, Rin squatted in front of him.

“Kenzo—
sama
, tomorrow we begin training.”

He jolted. “Training? What do you mean?”

“If you want to protect yourself, you must know how to fight. Ludovicus is merciless. He will come for your life again. You must be prepared.”

“Why does he want to kill me?”

“That is something for the Elder to reveal at a time of his choosing.”

“Why can’t you just tell me? You know the answer, don’t you? Does it have something do with this?”

He tugged a small pouch from the pocket and rolled out the blood gem. A hitch caught in her throat as she studied the stained blood gem. As Rin met his gaze once more, she mentally shook her head at how clueless he was about this item.

“
Hai
, Kenzo—
sama
.” She nodded toward the object. “It has everything to do with that.”

Rin awoke the next morning with the peculiar words the Descendant had spoken to her when he’d awakened on the trail on her mind.

“You’re the angel.” She stood before the mirror and assessed her features. The most unusual thing about her was the color of her eyes. Amber gold. Other than that, she found herself to be an average-looking woman. She took in the length of her hair, which came to the small of her back. There wasn’t anything spectacular about that, either. Dark red.

Why she was thinking about it she didn’t know but there were more important things to worry about. Rin shrugged off the effect of his words. It must have been the pain and the result of being thrown into an electric grid that made him speak so.

She buttoned her vest, and patted the wrist bracelets she was never without. They were embedded with dark blue stone. Considering those stones, she turned her mind to other things. Seeing the blood gem of legend in the hand of the Descendant had almost sent her to her knees in reverence. The importance of what it meant to their battle with Ludovicus could not be overstated. It was history. It was power. It was life. It was death.

The memory of him calling it a geode made her pause. His ignorance astounded her, although she knew there was no way he could have known exactly what the blood gem was. Over the past two hundred years, the whereabouts and properties of it had been hidden so the races of men wouldn’t discover it again.

Rin sat on the chair in her small cave room and watched the shadows from the firelight above her flicker on the wall. There was much he did not know and there was much to do to prepare him for the ultimate confrontation with Ludovicus when it happened.
Senpai
had given her the choice to train the man. She’d wanted to refuse, but when she saw how pathetic he was and heard Tambo’s wise counsel, she relented. It was the only way to protect him. After all, this man had spent his entire life in the dark about the nature and way of things. That underneath the trappings of modern civilizations, myths and legends roamed the earth.

For her, modern civilization was the myth, the veil from the real world. Hidden behind a curtain where intelligence was praised and emotion mere excrement of the mind. But perhaps people needed the illusion of technology to hide from the ugly truths of themselves.

Mankind was a derelict creature masquerading as human.

She turned away from her morose thoughts and headed out of her room. The passageways that lined the cave were numerous. At intervals, fire torches lined the way. The closer one came to the center meeting place where Rhychard—
sama’s
juusha
came, the fire torches were replaced with lighting. A modern use, but then she’d be the last to say electricity was an invention of evil.

She continued angling the labyrinthine course, and passed by a small inlet that led to the Elder’s compartments. Alderic came out of it.

“Good morning, Uchida-san
. You are looking well today.” From the pleasantness on his face, it seemed he’d forgotten last night’s hostilities. But then, that was Alderic.

She decided to meet him on the same footing. “
Domo
,” she responded to his greeting. “Is the Elder well?”

He flexed his fingers. “
Hai
.”

Rin nodded. From the state of his hair she knew he’d been with one of the women in the community. The braid had unraveled, and that was a typical sign he liked to use to show off his prowess. Which, more likely than not, was the cause of his good humor. Some of the women among the
juusha
were more than willing to share his bed in whatever capacity he wanted. Alderic knew this and used them as they gave themselves to him.

He saw her looking at his hair and gave a smirk. “Well, Uchida—
chan
,” using the intimate honorific as his father would, “anytime you want to unbraid my hair, you have but to say the word.”

A laughed erupted from her mouth. “I’d rather eat dirt.”

Alderic shrugged nonchalantly, but she knew it was a farce. Had she assented he would have taken her then and there. Although a good friend, he couldn’t stand the fact that she had no desire for him. “Where are you off to?” He fell in step with her.

“
Senpai
has asked me to train the Descendant.”

He stopped her with a large, meaty hand on her shoulder. “You?
Otousan
asked you to train him?”

“He suggested I do.”

Alderic’s brow came forward into a V. “Are you sure you did not request this task because of your interest in this man?”

Her mouth dropped open. “Of course I’ve taken an interest in this man. He’s the Descendant. Any woman among the
juusha
would. For that matter, even Ludovicus’
juusha
would do the same.” She shrugged his hand off her shoulder. “If you are referring to a romantic inclination, you speak nonsense.”

“Don’t you think I would have been a better choice to train the Descendant than you?”

Rin suppressed a groan. Alderic was an able warrior, strong. What he lacked was emotional distance from his actions. Often, he started more fights due to his child-like propensity to prove something.

“
Otousan
always had a soft spot for you. As do I,” Alderic murmured as he yanked affectionately on her hair.

“Perhaps,” she acknowledged with a nod. The Elder treated her like a daughter. She attributed that to the fact she was an orphan he’d cared for since her childhood. So perhaps his affection was more fatherly than what one expected. “But in this case, he wanted the best warrior of his people to train the Descendant, not the one with the biggest—”

“I am aware of your skill, Uchida-san
.” Alderic stepped back, hand outstretched in a gesture of acquiescence. “Very well. I’ll speak no more of this matter unless I need to.”

At his tone of graciousness, Rin arched a brow. “As if I care.’

She continued on her way, leaving Alderic behind. She felt his eyes watching, but she dismissed him.

Entering the main meeting area, she saw the Descendant standing there, staring at the mouth of one of the sub-exits. His back was toward her but he turned when he heard her entrance. “Good morning.”

She nodded, walking to him. “Kenzo—
sama
. We’ll begin training.”

Rin led him toward the entrance to the sub-exits. The cave system in the mountain was massive, with hundreds of meters of explored territory, and many more still unpopulated. As she started down the passageway, hearing his footsteps clop behind her on the gravelly way, she turned her mind to the steps she’d initiate to begin.

Rin wondered if he’d be up for the task.

Ken faced Uchida-san
. The sun brought out the beauty of her features, casting brilliance on the dark sandy skin and the stark contrast of her dark red hair. The amber gold of her eyes had lightened to honey under the light. In the leather pants and vest over a short sleeved shirt, her figure was lithe and slender.

“Kenzo—
sama
?”

Her voice startled him out of his survey of her. “
Hai
?”

“I would want you to tie my right arm behind my back.”

Ken took a step back, rubbing the watch on his wrist. “Why?”

Her eyes held his, a strong glance of authority in them “Because I said so. Your training begins now.”

“Look, I don’t want to do this. I don’t hit women.”

Rin’s eyebrow arched. “Indeed? I’m glad to hear that. However, do as I ask.”

She pulled out a fair sized length of rope and he went about the task of tying her right arm to the back loop of her pants.

Once completed, he faced her again.

She tugged at the restraint. “Good.”

Ken heard something behind him and turned. The gorilla stood behind him, the dark brown marble eyes staring at him with a strange gleam.

A wild, impossible thought made him swallow. “Tambo is not going to…join in our training, will he?” Ken asked.

“Not yet. But later. Tambo, go sit over by the rocks.”

The animal rose and lumbered over to the spot. The hair on his back shimmered in the sunlight.

“I’m looking forward to that,” Ken quipped as he turned back to Rin.

She didn’t crack a smile.

“Now, Kenzo—
sama
, I want you to hit me.”

Ken backed up. “
Iie
. I already told you I don’t hit women. I don’t want to hurt you.’

“
Omoshiroi
,” she muttered. He wondered what she found so interesting about his refusal. She backed away from him until she stood about ten feet way. “I want you to hit me.”

Ken stared at the woman. She sounded like the representative for women who thought getting hit by their men was for their own good.

“Fine. But you asked for this.”

He went to stand in front of her. When he reached her, he balled his fist and struck her.

The next moment, he was on the ground, the prickly grass stinging the side of his face.

He didn’t even remember how he got there.

“What just happened?”

Uchida-san
stood over him, her hair falling forward in front of her face. “I asked you to hit me. Get up and try again.”

Ken got up, wincing from pain.

“What did you do? I didn’t even see you raise your other hand.”

“I swept your feet with my leg. Now, try again.”

He balled his fist to once more hit her but she bent, sidestepped him and whacked him on the back of his head.

“Ow!”

This was starting to get irritating.

“Kenzo—
sama
, hit me.”

He whirled around, coming at her from the side. Easily she sidestepped him, and with her free hand, grabbed his arm and twisted it around to his back. He yelped at the pain. Then he found himself on the ground again, the grass against his back, the blue sky before him.

“Get up.”

He didn’t want to get mad. But he couldn’t help it. How could this slip of a woman get the best of him? With her hand tied behind her back, no less?

He pulled himself to his feet but before he rose fully, he sent a short jab to her stomach.

“Ah!” she groaned, bent over.

Something rumbled, vibrating the ground. For a moment, Ken thought it was an earthquake. Then he looked up and saw the giant gorilla loping fast toward him. The face was a mask of beastly rage.

“Tambo, get back. I can handle this!” Uchida-san
called to the gorilla.

Ken watched with wonder as the giant gorilla stopped mere feet from him. The hair along its body trembled, the lips snarled. Those hands could tear him from limb to limb.

“Go on. I got this, Tambo.”

Tambo snorted, but made his way back to the rock where he sat, watching Ken in a glare of anger.

“
Yoshi
, Kenzo—
sama
. You finally hit me.”

“Well, I didn’t want to but—“

Her fist landed into his jaw, rattling it. His teeth cut into the inside of his cheek and he tasted blood. Then she jumped in the air with the gracefulness of a crane, whirled, and kicked him in the gut with her leg. He doubled over, almost afraid he’d vomit from the force of the impact. Then a sharp jab to the back of his neck sent him tumbling to the ground. A fluid line of blood and saliva dribbled from his mouth and landed on the bright green grass, like a macabre scene from Christmas.

He didn’t move for a long moment, the pain wracking his body. A dull sense of rage encapsulated him. He’d seen the movies, but real life took a different perspective to it.

Having a woman who was less than half your size kick your butt was humiliating.

Finally, he stood tall and stared at her. Uchida-san
had somehow untied the rope from behind and it lay on the ground. How long had he been dazed? She slapped her hands against her thighs and then cracked her neck.