The Ancient's Vendetta

Chapter 6: Silent Assassin

“Wake up Remy, Remy, Remy…”

Remy’s eyes shot open, but instead of being greeted by the embrace of a warm blanket, he was met with the shock of ice on bare skin. Remy blinked, the early morning’s sun’s rays were visible, but something big obstructed the light. He couldn’t tell what it was so he took a step back, right into a puddle of frigid water. He yelped, hopped on one foot, then tripped, falling backwards and landing squarely on his back. From this vantage point the obstruction became clear, it was a giant Cedar tree.

This wasn’t the first time Remy found himself sitting at the base of this tree, over the last five months sleep walking had become somewhat of a pastime. More often than not though, he ended up right here staring at this tree.

“Remy, Remy, Re…”

“Yes, I’m here!” Remy hoarsely replied.

Monty’s voice emanated from within the forest, “what are you doing?”

“Waking up…I suppose. How did you know where I was?”

“I don’t know where you are, but I’ve inserted tiny speakers and receptors into most of these trees. I’m talking through all of them. You could be almost anywhere in the forest and still hear me. So, where are you?”

Remy closed his eyes and shook his head, “right, of course, how could I forget the ‘talking forest trick’- I’m at the cedar tree again, I really should start sleeping in my shoes. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“You may want to hurry back, before you do some irreversible damage to your skin, it isn’t warm out there.”

Remy smiled and nodded at the tree as if he was face to face with his uncle. They continued to talk as Remy walked back to the cabin. As he walked through the trees, his uncle’s voice seamlessly passed from tree to tree. Monty had created a talking forest.

Then, Monty hissed, “stop walking.”

Remy’s foot froze mid stride and his eyes flicked across the trunks of the trees. Slowly he lowered his foot, flinching at the sound of a snapping twig. His head snapped to the left then he slowly walked in the direction of his gaze.

“Help, please help”, the words were faint. Yet the hairs on Remy’s neck stood. With each step he took towards the plea, the faster his heart beat and the dryer his mouth felt. Remy stopped to take a deep breath.

“Monty, I’m going to check it out.”

“That isn’t a good idea Remy, you should wait for one of us.”

“I don’t know where I am Monty, whoever is out here is hurt, we can’t afford to wait.”

Remy waited five heart beats before he continued but Monty never responded.

Monty raced around the house shouting for Pyotr or Joaquim, or both. At the sound of his name Pyotyr stood up from behind the open refrigerator door. He slammed it shut and jogged towards Monty’s increasingly panicked voice. Joaquim had just finished showering and opened the bathroom door just as Pyotr went by.

“Where are you going in such a hurry, Pyotr?”

“Uncle M’s calling, he sounds upset.”

“Well hold on P, let me get some clothes on man.”

Pyotr just kept jogging. “Nice, I’ll just catch up”, Joqauim mumbled under his breath as he rushed to his room to change. When he was finally ready he ran out of his room to find Pyotr who was still in the living room arguing with Monty.

“Monty, why did you leave the comms room? How much time has passed since you last spoke with Remy, where is he?”

“Maybe fifteen minutes…I don’t know where he is! Maybe we should find Priya.”

“Uncle, we don’t need her. Let’s just try contacting Remy again.”

In agreement, they rushed off. The soles of their hurried feet had just reached the basement stairs when the front door flew open.

Remy stood there supporting the full weight of a disheveled and haggard woman. Her face was covered in tiny cuts and slightly discolored by bruises that engulfed her right eye. A deeper laceration cut diagonally from her navel to the highest rib on the left side of her torso. Her rather expensive clothes were ruined, there were tiny rips in her canvas pants, and the right elbow was missing from her wool shirt.

With some effort Remy was able to get her to the couch in front of the massive fireplace.

“That’s a great idea Remy!” Monty said, as he attempted to start a fire.

When Priya entered the room she saw all of the men scurrying about, but her amusement turned to concern when she saw the woman lying unconscious on the sofa.

“Who is that?”, she said. Turning to the sleeping woman, eyeing her suspiciously. There was no response, Priya raised her eyes and scanned her son’s faces. It seemed no one knew anything, so she turned to her brother, “is this smart?”

“Smart - no, but it’s happening. I don’t see a clear way out of this.”

Pyotr feeling he and his mother finally agreed on something spoke up, “it’s odd that we found her like this, right?”

Joaquim threw his hands into the air, “whether or not it’s odd is irrelevant at the moment. We are currently doing the only right thing there is to do, helping.”

Remy folded his arms over his chest and stroked his chin with his right ring finger and thumb. “We can’t do anything until she wakes, except maybe get her some water.”

If not for this strange visitor this would have been an entirely normal day. They left her on the couch, and all day she slept. But, after 12 hours, as sunset turned to dusk, the woman stirred and then slowly sat up. She stretched her hands high above her head, grimacing at the gash in her side. Reflexively, her hand shot to her wound and she was pleasantly surprised to find it cleaned and bandaged. Though she didn’t say thank you, in fact, she said nothing at all for a very long time.

As the days grew longer and the temperature grew warmer, their mute guest remained. Though, she was still silent. Despite her lack of verbalization, she’d become indispensable to Monty, though not everyone was pleased with her extended stay.

“It’s been four months, when is she leaving”, Pyotr asked as he sipped his coffee.

Remy’s mug was on its way up, “where would she go?”

“Don’t know, don’t care, Remy.”

“I like her here”, Joaquim said with a mouthful of food.

Pyotr smacked the spoon out of Joaquim’s hand, and a wrestling match started. Milk and cereal flew through the air and covered the kitchen floor. Steady beads of water dripped off the kitchen table, contents of a spilled glass. The room was literally a slick mess. Remy doubled over at the sight of his brother’s wrestling match, how they repeatedly attempt to gain leverage and fall down again and again.

Remy stopped laughing when their guest walked by, she was carrying a mug of something over to Uncle M in the study. Pyotr and Joaquim noticed Remy’s change in mood and stopped wrestling. Remy looked at his brothers, “we still don’t know her name, what should we call her?”

Joaquim, who was currently laying face down on the floor, rolled over onto his back to stare at the ceiling, “I like Ophelia”.

Pyotr sneered a bit, what’s wrong with, “hey you? I like that one.”

Remy clicked his tongue, “I like Nedra, what do you guys think?”

Priya walked into the kitchen giving it a once over and raising a brow, “that’s a cute name. I suppose it’ll do until we learn her real one.”

The sun was setting, but the lamp in Monty’s study provided adequate enough light for him to continue his research on the pending battle. Just outside of the lamp's illumination, over Monty’s right shoulder Nedra quietly watched Monty sip from the recently delivered mug. After a few sips, a soft cough bubbled its way up from Monty’s lungs and escaped his lips, it was quickly followed by a flurry of coughs increasingly stronger and more violent.

“This cough is getting quite bad”, Monty said aloud.

There in the border of the lamp’s light and the room’s darkness, Nedra’s lips curled into a wicked smile.