Pilgrim 2, page 13
He knew from growing up around the city that they hosted elaborate events every season along these boulevards, celebrations drawing in people from as far as Odval, near the Outer Regions. Further to the west, several miles from the hotel they would be staying in, was the Diyu Brotherhood, which extended up Mount Laksh, the buildings once belonging to monks long before heaven fell.
There was a very real chance that Danzen would be able to see the compound from their bedroom at the hotel, that was, unless it was obscured by gray clouds, which was not uncommon for Mount Laksh.
It wasn’t often that the former assassin was nervous. Yet he couldn’t help but feel apprehension as they grew closer to the hotel, Danzen sensing how close they were to the place he had grown up, where he had learned to kill indiscriminately and with incredible precision.
The carriage came to a stop. Jelmay finally sat up, the cat now morphed into his human form.
The driver opened the door and Jelmay and Kudzu stepped out, both surveying the area before they motioned for Danzen to follow. He carried his armor, his bags, and his Blade of Darkness, Astra at his side as always. The former assassin quickly made his way inside, leaving Kudzu and Jelmay outside to finish up with the driver.
“Now there’s a face I haven’t seen in a while,” the man behind the counter said as soon as he saw Danzen.
“Terru.”
“Danzen,” said the owner of Sunyata’s Bountiful Grace, a heavyset man with a bald head, large ears, and a thin mustache that extended to his chin. “It has been years.”
“I was wondering if you would still be here.”
“Where else do I have to go?” Terru asked, laughing at his own statement. “I’m guessing you want your usual room, right?”
“If it is available, yes. I also have two guests with me.”
Kudzu entered first, with her bags and sword, the woman nodding curtly at the hotel owner.
“I haven’t seen you travel with a female companion in a long time,” Terru said, taking in the white-haired woman with her elven ears.
“Please, our room. We traveled overnight and are in need of rest.”
“Certainly, certainly.” Terru moved to a cupboard, where he procured a key.
Jelmay entered holding the package of food that the driver had given them last night at the outpost. “You didn’t tell me we had food, Pilgrim.”
“This must be your third guest.” Terru returned to Danzen with the key to one of the rooms upstairs. “The room only has two beds.”
“That’s fine.”
“I have another room down the hall that has three beds, but the view faces the alley.”
“We will take my normal room.”
“Right, you know best.” Terru turned to the three. “Will there be anything else?”
“Breakfast,” Jelmay said as he peeked into the package of food. “As much as I want to eat stale bread, a hot breakfast would be better. Can you have one delivered to our room? Also, we are going to need to rent three horses. Spare no expense, I can afford it.”
“Of course, my lord, all that can be arranged.”
“Good,” Jelmay said as he strolled past Danzen. “I’m famished over here.”
****
Food eventually arrived, Danzen immediately familiar with the peppery spice that they used in Sainshand. There was nothing in the initial bite, the spice slowly growing in his mouth, causing his eyes to water and nose to start running by the second bite. Jelmay, who was back in his cat form, looked like he had been sobbing; Kudzu, who had kept her human form, continually wiped her eyes.
“I don’t know if I like this,” she said as she examined one of the oily slices of sausage.
“Yet you continue to eat it,” Jelmay told her.
Once the three were finished with their meal, Danzen relaxed onto one of the beds, hoping to get some rest. Kudzu did the same on the opposite bed and Jelmay decided to head out, Danzen reminding him before he left to be extremely careful, to make sure no one followed him back to the hotel.
“I’m just going to the bank,” Jelmay said. “Someone has to fund this trip.”
“Are you ready for tonight?” Kudzu asked once Jelmay morphed back into his human form and left.
“We will scout the place, make plans, and then return in the morning. Yes, I’m ready.”
“I believe I will go in my fox form tonight. Are there places where we can hide my robes and my armor around the Brotherhood, my sword as well?”
Danzen nodded.
“Good. That will give me that option too. We may end up having to leave the things behind, which I am fine with. I am partial to the robes, but there will be no sense in going back for them.”
As he stared at the ceiling, Danzen tried to mentally go over the layout of the Diyu Brotherhood, its five buildings, every nook and cranny. He found himself in an odd, dreamlike state in which he was able to glide over the compound, the more vulnerable positions highlighted, Danzen recognizing new ways of entries only to forget them once he fell asleep fully.
He woke several hours later once Jelmay entered the room again, the shifter yokai immediately moving back into his natural state. Danzen had long since noticed that the bakeneko was able to conjure clothing as well, which was something that Kudzu wasn’t able to do, Jelmay back in his little vest, a shifty smile on his face.
“What did you do?” Danzen asked him, almost feeling like it was a question that Kudzu would have gone with. She was still asleep, her back turned to the two of them.
“I just made us a lot of money,” Jelmay said.
“I thought you were going to the bank.”
“I did go to the bank, and then I visited the nearest tavern, where there was an intense, but highly illegal card game going on. I spent several decades perfecting the art of counting cards, and just like that,” he said with a snap, “I was able to double the money I took out of the bank.”
Danzen sat up, his eyes jumping from the door to the window. It was an option if they needed to escape, the window opening onto a metal water container surrounded by vertical planks of wood. He had used this exit before, once when he thought he’d been followed back to the hotel. It turned out just to be Soko, toying with him.
“We have a couple more hours till it gets dark; I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to get hungry again,” Jelmay said as he took a seat on a chair in the corner of the room.
One reason that Danzen liked this particular room was that it felt very anchored, a bed in each of the corners, a table against the wall across from one of the beds, two chairs in front of it, an additional chair against the wall, and then finally a dresser across from his bed. There was a restroom as well, but was only accessible via the hallway.
Jelmay got out his money and began stacking the bills. He licked his fingers and counted the money once again before dividing it into three rolls, two of which he tucked into the pockets of his vest. “That one is for you,” he said, nodding to a fat wad of kip.
“Why?”
“Just in case we get separated somehow. I know you are apprehensive about what is supposed to happen tonight and tomorrow, and while I have confidence that we will get through it—at least I haven’t foreseen anything that would tell me otherwise—we should probably be prepared to get separated. I’m not too worried about Kudzu; she can just turn into a fox and run back to Genshin Valley. But you can’t do that.”
“I have money.”
“In a bank account, right? I believe you told me that at some point.”
Danzen nodded.
“And to get that money you would have to show your face. This is just in case you need to sneak your way back to the Valley and need some cash. And before you say no, I’m well aware that you can just use your Demon Speak power and have a few people cart you back on a palanquin. But you don’t like using your power, so this will make it so you have some funding.” Jelmay nodded to the money. “Well, come on then, take the money.”
Danzen made his way over to the table. He sat across from the bakeneko and eyed the kip. Finally, he took it from him and tucked it into an inner pocket. “Thank you for your concern.”
“It’s not even my money,” Jelmay said with a snicker. “The money I had in one of my accounts here was all stolen from a guy who had made his kip in the slave trade. Maybe you have heard of him, a man named Palmo Mipham. He died a few years back, just left a daughter I believe.”
“Sumi,” Danzen said, not at all surprised to learn that Jelmay had somehow been involved in the man’s affairs. “I know of him. And I’ve met his daughter.”
He didn’t get into the story of his final contract, or how that played out two years ago. He had actually told Jelmay the story before, but never had revealed the names. It was weird to think that the bakeneko had stolen from the man while he was alive; this reminded Danzen yet again of how connected their world could be, from a shifty yokai to a wicked businessman and even to the man’s estranged daughter, who now held her father’s Sunyata talisman.
Kudzu stirred, and when she was up, Jelmay went downstairs and ordered food.
It came an hour later, meat pies with that familiar Sainshand spice, along with a small keg of ale. Jelmay drank some, Kudzu and Danzen sticking with water. The sun began to set, and as it did, Danzen kept gazing out the window, where he could see the Diyu Brotherhood several miles away, lit at the base of Mount Laksh.
The three rested after they ate, Danzen seated on the floor against the wall, Kudzu and Jelmay taking the beds. As it grew closer to midnight, Danzen prepared for their scouting mission. He put his armor on, including the helmet he had taken off the sugawara.
Once Kudzu was up, she morphed into a fox and crawled out of her robes, allowing Danzen to pack her clothing into the bag that Jelmay had given her. Danzen carried her sword as well, sheathing it around his waist so it pressed on top of Astra.
Jelmay was the last awake, and once he saw that the two were ready to go, he quickly got out of bed and equipped his sword too, leaving his circular shield behind.
“You’re taking that too?” he asked after he saw Danzen adjust his Blade of Darkness, which was now strapped to his back.
“I went to a lot of trouble to obtain this weapon; I would prefer not to leave it behind.”
“Suit yourself,” Jelmay said as he made his way to the door. He was just about to turn right, to go down the stairs that led to the foyer, when Danzen stopped him.
“We will go this way,” Danzen said as he stepped out into the hallway, Kudzu following him. He closed the door and locked it, the former assassin leading the two of them in the opposite direction, to the end of the hallway, where they found the door that opened onto a stairwell that opened to the outside, the three horses Jelmay had rented waiting in the courtyard below.
Danzen approached the first horse and placed his hand on its neck, the horse letting out a soft snort. He unfastened the reins and mounted up, Jelmay doing the same. They trotted out of the hotel, moving faster as they approached the edge of the city, Kudzu running at their side.
It didn’t take them long to cover the distance between Sainshand and the Diyu Brotherhood’s compound, Danzen constantly scanning the horizon for patrols. He felt that it was a good sign that they didn’t have anyone out, which signaled to him that they hadn’t been alerted of his presence. If they had, he was certain that the roads connecting the city to the Brotherhood would be lined with everything from mercenaries to city guards.
They slowed about a fourth of a mile away from the compound, Danzen leading Jelmay and Kudzu to a small ravine with trees on either side, stars glittery above.
They tied the horses up to one of the trees and moved out on foot, keeping low as they approached the steps that led up to the first building, the same steps Danzen had been placed before as a child.
“Tell me there’s a faster way,” Jelmay said as he eyed the steps, which were lit by a lantern every fifteen feet or so.
“There is.”
Danzen guided them to the left, where he found some grooves among the stone walls.
He started to climb up it, falling into his old self, the countless hours he spent learning about using one’s natural surroundings for entry and exit. He pulled himself up onto a ledge, looking down to see that Jelmay was only halfway there. The bakeneko eventually reached him, Danzen now seeing that Kudzu had found a different way, the white fox trotting alongside the stone stairs until she discovered a path that wouldn’t be accessible by humans.
“This way.” Danzen continued forward, from one ledge to the next until they were almost above the Brotherhood. This didn’t last long, and eventually they were even with the walls that surrounded the first structure, Danzen noticing that there were a few guards out, but nothing that signaled to him that they’d been discovered.
Once again, they scaled up a wall using protrusions invisible to someone who hadn’t spent years in the compound. From there they transferred onto the first building, where they crouched on the rooftop, Danzen noting that everything was in place.
“I don’t understand why we don’t just do this now,” Jelmay said. “Killing him in his sleep will be so much easier.”
“It’s because of them,” he said, motioning toward one of the courtyards, to several men with large, burly dogs circling around them.
“There has to be… Thirty of them,” Jelmay said. “Maybe more. I hope Kudzu is…”
A few of the dogs started barking. Danzen saw something white slip into a shadow, the owner of one of the dogs telling them to quiet down.
“And they leave every morning?”
“The grounds of the Diyu Brotherhood are patrolled by local militia. As soon as the sun comes up, they move through the cavern there,” Danzen said, pointing to the left-hand side of the compound. “It exits on the other side of the mountain, where they live in a village surrounded by waterfalls. These men have been doing this for generations, raising their young to perform the same task, and in doing so they are not only shielded by the mountain, but also by the Brotherhood itself. But they will leave in the morning as they always do.”
“So that’s it, then? Everything is set?”
“It appears nothing has changed; the instructors will be in that building there,” he said, pointing to the right, to the tallest building which had been cut out of stone and seemed to tower over the compound. A few of the rooms were lit inside the building, and there was a giant flag on the top, beating in the wind.
“So what’s your plan, then? Just sneak around and meet him in that building?”
“We will continue along that path there,” he said, motioning to the left again, Jelmay squinting for a moment until he saw a pathway seemingly cut into the rock. “We’ll come around there, and go from that spot there,” Danzen said, pointing to an overhanging rock ledge, “to that window.”
“You plan to kill him in his bedroom?”
“He won’t be in his room. He begins every morning meditating in one of the chambers below. That window will get us two floors above the chamber. I will continue downward.”
“What about me?”
“You will stay here,” Danzen said, motioning toward the gate, “hiding in preparation to attack. If I’m detected, there will be an alarm. Kudzu will be with you, and she can go forward and quickly discover where I have been found. You will be my backup.”
“Is that what I signed up for?” Jelmay asked, a hint of disappointment in his voice.
“I told you I could do this alone.”
“Yes, you did, but there would be no fun in that.”
“If I do this correctly, the two of you won’t have to do anything. I will simply meet you at the front, where we climbed up those first rocks. We will ride back to town from there. Before we set off in the morning, we should arrange a carriage, or simply buy the horses and continue on our way. I don’t know how long it will take for word to reach the city. Since my teacher is one of the highest, if not the highest, members of the organization, they may keep it secret for a while, which would be to our advantage.”
“But if they start sending out search parties, we’re in trouble,” Jelmay said. “Got it.”
“We may need to travel back a different way if that’s the case, but it is easy to hide once we are away from the cities, which is something I’m sure you’re familiar with.”
Jelmay smiled. “It’s easy to hide from humans, that’s for sure.”
“Not always, but sometimes. Come, let’s find a place to hide Kudzu’s things.”
.Chapter Four.
They reached the hotel safely, Danzen leading Kudzu and Jelmay to the back entrance. They hadn’t been spotted on the way back, and everything seemed to be moving in the right direction.
There would be an end to all of this sooner rather than later.
Jelmay took one of the beds, and Kudzu offered the other to Danzen, who declined, letting her sleep while he cleaned his weapons.
It was interesting running his hand along his Blade of Darkness, the dark shadows of the room swelling around its tip. He had to be careful; he knew the shadows were razor-sharp, that they had learned that they only revealed this power when they were thrust forward.
Danzen ended up cleaning his armor as well, and polishing the helmet that he had taken off the sugawara. The metal was black and it almost looked like it had been made alongside the armor, Danzen glad that Selden had suggested he take the helmet with him. He tried it on again, the piece finally starting to feel like it belonged to him.
Perhaps he wouldn’t trade it in the end.
After his weapons were cleaned, and his armor was ready, the former assassin sat with his back against the wall focusing on his breathing, the room bathed in murky shadows.
