Chapter 28

The cleric needed a few days to prepare, but as soon as he was ready, Elric met with Mandalee’s family and led them away from the village to the spot where Mandalee and Shyleen had first met. Since it was a special place for them, he reasoned it might help them to forge their new bond. In truth, he didn’t know if it made any difference, but he’d never done this before and was happy to grasp at any straws that might even remotely help.

Elric asked Mandalee and Shyleen to stand within a circle that would contain their essence. Mandalee’s father wanted to be the one to do it, so with a great deal of effort, he persuaded the grass to grow slightly in a large ring. When Mandalee confirmed Shyleen was within the boundary, since only she could see the leopard, Elric began reading from his old, fragile books, working this forgotten magic. A silvery glowing ball of light emerged from Mandalee’s body and hovered in the air for a moment, then slowly, gently, it began to pull apart into two halves, like a giant soap bubble splitting in two. Only it didn’t split. Not completely. A thread remained between the two halves. A tether that Mandalee could use to reclaim her soul, any time she wished. She vowed she never would.

Golden light spread from Shyleen’s partially manifest body, growing in the opposite direction.

“Do you, Mandalee, fully consent to give a half share of your soul to Shyleen,” the cleric asked, ritualistically, “in full knowledge and understanding of what that means?”

“I consent gladly,” she answered.

Turning to the glow of golden energy that marked Shyleen’s position, he asked, “Do you, Shyleen of the Pantheon, fully accept the terms of this gift, in full knowledge and understanding that this soul still belongs to Mandalee, completely, forever?”

“She says she fully understands and vows never to try and take what is mine.” Mandalee translated.

Turning to her parents, he asked, “And do you swear that your child has your full support to do this?”

“I swear,” her Dad answered. “I just want my daughter,” he stressed the word, “to be happy.”

“So do I,” her Mum agreed. “People have treated her horribly, where nature has never judged. If this action means her seeking a life away from our village, away from us, then so be it.” Turning to Mandalee with tears in her eyes, she added, “I just pray you’ll visit, sometimes.”

Mandalee smiled through her own tears, mixed emotions welling up inside her and overflowing. “I will, Mum. I promise. Thank you for letting me do this. I love you both.”

“Are you ready?” Elric asked.

“I am,” Mandalee confirmed. “We both are.”

Accepting their decision, the cleric completed the spells.

The golden light ended its journey into Mandalee’s body, and one half of the silver bubble flew into Shyleen, while the other half returned to its original home inside Mandalee. The tether between them faded from view, but both could still feel it. They always would. From the perspective of the three onlookers, a great golden leopard shimmered into the circle beside Mandalee. She was now fully manifest, truly a part of this world.

For her part, Mandalee found that not only did she retain all her own feelings and emotions, but she could also feel everything Shyleen felt. Shyleen confirmed that went both ways. Their bond was unbreakable, and no matter how far apart they were, they each always knew where the other was and how they were feeling.

*****

That was how they found each other in Eastcliff, gentle reader, and how they always would in the future. Even in my time, a thousand years later, their bond is as strong as it ever was. Quite simply, it is a part of who they are.

Even as she reminisced with Shyleen, that day, Mandalee realised it had been quite a while since she had made good on her promise to her parents. The last time had been about a year before she met Catriona again and began her adventure with Daelen. Now that she’d skipped more than two years, she was keen to head for home again, soon.

She just hoped her parents would still recognise her after so much time and so many changes.

*****

Mandalee’s reminiscence was abruptly cut short, however, when her friend suddenly got up, fur standing on end, ears and tail twitching.

The White Assassin instantly sprang to her feet, drawing her dragonclaw daggers. She didn’t understand what danger Shyleen sensed, but she would never doubt it.

‘What’s wrong?’ she asked. ‘Did you see something?’

‘Actually, I am more worried about what I don’t see.’

Shyleen explained that she had spent most of the last two years with Mandalee’s friend, Windell. Though they couldn’t communicate as such, they had nevertheless developed an understanding. He had journeyed North with her, the past week, realising why the leopard had taken off in such a hurry.

‘When I sensed you were close, I put on an extra burst of speed, and I knew Windell could not keep up. Still, I would have expected him to be here by now. Perhaps I should not have left him alone. I worry something has happened to him.’

“We’ll find him,” Mandalee assured her, confidently. After all, when the White Assassin and Shyleen were on the hunt together, nothing could stop them.

Before they could make a move, though, Windell stumbled into the clearing, bleeding from an alarming number of lacerations that looked like knife wounds.

“Look—!” was as far as his warning got before a young woman of about eighteen, wearing brown leather, burst out of the trees behind him and swept his feet from under him, sending him tumbling to the ground. Since his hands were bound behind him, he had no way to break his fall. He cried out as he landed hard.

“That’ll teach you to try and escape!” the woman growled. “Now be quiet!” She brought her bootheel down sharply and knocked him unconscious. “That’s better,” she sighed. Glancing over to Mandalee, she spat, “And you can wait, too. Don’t worry, we’ll get to the fighting all in good time, but first I want you to know exactly who it is that’s going to be killing you today.”

“Or I can kill you without ever knowing your name,” Mandalee suggested with a shrug. “Yep,” she decided, “I can live with that.”

Invoking her super-speed, she sprinted across the clearing with deadly intent. It was only a hundred yards or so, she could do that in the blink of an eye. Far faster than this girl could do anything more to Windell, but before she could touch her, it was like she slammed into an invisible wall, bouncing off painfully, and crashing to the ground.

“Try that again, and I slit his throat!” the young woman warned her as Shyleen ran to Mandalee’s side, guarding her friend while she got back to her feet. “Aww,” the girl mocked, stroking her dark brown braid with one hand and threatening Windell with a sword in the other. Mandalee couldn’t understand how she’d managed to draw it without her noticing. “Finally reunited with your mangy cat, only to die so soon afterwards. It’d be quite a tragic story, really...if you weren’t a cold-hearted murdering bitch who was getting what she deserved!”

“What are you talking about?” Mandalee demanded. “Who have I murdered?”

“Well, yes, I guess it must be hard to keep track,” the girl considered. “After all, there have been so many, haven’t there? But you never forget your first, isn’t that what they say? OK, I think that normally refers to your first love, not your first murder, but you obviously love murdering people, so for you, I guess it’s the same thing.”

Mandalee’s every instinct was to strike her down. She didn’t care what deluded notions she had in her head. All that mattered was that she was threatening Windell. Regardless of what crime she might imagine her guilty of, Mandalee wasn’t going to let her get away with threatening an innocent life. Still, she had to keep her head. Rushing the girl once had achieved nothing, and she wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice. If this girl really did want to try and kill her, she would have to move away from Windell. Then she would lose her advantage.

Mandalee sheathed her daggers and sat down. Shyleen, taking her lead, did the same, appearing to relax, while still being ready to pounce at a moment’s notice.

“OK, if you want to keep talking in riddles, go right ahead,” Mandalee remarked. “I’ve got all day. Anytime you want to come right out and say what you’re obviously dying to tell me, I’ll be right here.”

“Ask me my name,” the girl ordered her.

“I’m a cold-hearted murdering bitch, remember? Why would I care about your name?”

“Ask me!” the girl demanded.

“No,” Mandalee replied, calmly.

Visibly frustrated, the girl pushed the sword closer to Windell’s neck. “I’ll kill him if you don’t!” she screamed.

Mandalee shook her head. “No, you won’t. That’s the trouble with one hostage. If you kill him, there’ll be nothing holding me back.”

“You think I’m scared of you?” the girl scoffed.

“I think you’ve taken a hostage rather than fight me.”

“I told you, I want you to know who I am before I kill you.”

“And I told you I don’t care who you are. Is it just me, or is this conversation going around in circles?”

“Fine, have it your way. The name’s Nalani!” the young woman growled. “I’ll carve it on your corpse!” Quick as a flash, the girl swapped her sword for a pair of knives, stepping away from where Windell lay, effectively relinquishing her hostage.

“Still don’t care,” Mandalee replied, standing and re-drawing her own daggers. “Finally ready to fight?”

“Oh, you have no idea how ready I am. I’ve been training for years, ever since you murdered my father.”

“Your father?”

“I thought you said you didn’t care about names!” Nalani snapped, stepping closer. She and Mandalee began circling each other, patiently, looking for an opening.

“No, I said I didn’t care about your name,” Mandalee returned. “His name I’m interested in.”

“My father was a great wizard,” Nalani said through gritted teeth, “working hard with cutting edge magic, pushing the boundaries of progress, working for the greater good to make the world a better place.”

Mandalee feigned a yawn. “I said I was interested in his name, not his life story.”

“His life story was a lot shorter than it should have been, thanks to you,” she snarled, but the White Guardian continued to look bored until she finally spoke the name, “Irius.”

That name had an impact, causing Mandalee to hesitate for a fraction of a second, giving Nalani the first strike. Mandalee dodged aside quickly, avoiding any damage, but Nalani was relentless, forcing her to remain on the defensive. The girl was good, Mandalee conceded. There weren’t many fighters who could knock the White Assassin back on her heels. Still, the truth was, she was holding back.

Irius. In a way, Nalani was right: he had been her first kill, although it was far from murder.

*****

You might remember the incident, gentle reader. It was years ago, long before the Guardianship, before her ‘mission’ to stop Daelen StormTiger that morphed into helping him against Kullos. My mother had just moved in with Dreya the Dark and Aunt Mandalee was a novice demon hunter, trying to make a name for herself. Her break finally came in the form of a contract to kill a Greater Demon that was terrorising and slaughtering people in an innocent village near Compton. She had been worried about it because demons like that were almost always summoned. That was why she had asked Cat, her best friend, to help her. Except my mother had been distracted, so she never registered her plea.

Mandalee and Shyleen went to fulfil the contract, thinking they had backup when they really didn’t. Slaying the Greater Demon had taken almost everything they had…and then the enraged wizard showed up.

That was the day Shyleen saved Mandalee’s life, very nearly at the cost of her own. Mandalee had got lucky – the wizard got distracted at the crucial moment when Daelen whooshed overhead, rushing to fight another of his great battles. Mandalee took full advantage and slew the wizard. The first wizard, the first person, that Mandalee had ever killed.

That wizard’s name was Irius.

*****

Mandalee regretted nothing about that day. Catriona’s failure to be there when she really needed her tore apart their friendship for a while, but she had since forgiven her, and now their bond was stronger than ever. They were sisters. Mandalee would protect Cat with her life, and she knew that Cat, in turn, was the one person who would never, ever let her down again.

Now it turned out that Irius had had a daughter, Nalani. By the looks of her, Mandalee thought, she must have been about twelve, maybe thirteen at the time. No older than Mandalee had been when she first met Shyleen. Now she was all grown up, with a toned body, sporting lean, lithe muscles that spoke of dedicated training. Dedicated, it seemed, to revenge on the one who ‘murdered’ her father, although it was no such thing. Mandalee became an assassin only after that day, and then she only killed to protect the innocent. Ironically, innocents much like Nalani had been before she got it all twisted up in her head and her heart.

As Mandalee was assessing her opponent’s body, Nalani was apparently doing the same. “Look at you!” she taunted. “All suited up, looking like you’re a real woman now!”

Mandalee was parrying everything Nalani threw at her. It wasn’t her usual style – she didn’t typically give people a second go at killing her – but she wanted to give this girl a chance. None of Nalani’s physical strikes had so far landed, but that verbal blow struck home. She had thought she was done with comments like that.

“I was always a real woman!” she shot back, defensively.

Nalani’s lip curled as she tried to reopen an old wound. “That’s not what I heard,” she jeered. “‘Mandalee’s the Man’, that’s what I heard!”

“Where did you hear that?” Mandalee demanded. She used to get that all the time when she was growing up. She had considered changing her name, but she realised that would be giving in to the bullies, and it wouldn’t stop them, anyway.

“I know all about you,” she replied. “Know your enemy. That’s how I’m going to beat you.”

“I don’t want to be your enemy. Please just stop,” Mandalee implored her.

“Oh, is this the part where you say how sorry you are, I forgive you, and we become best friends?”

Mandalee shook her head. “I won’t apologise for killing someone in defence of myself, my friends or innocent people. Your father’s demon was going to slaughter your whole village and probably half of Compton if I hadn’t stopped it.”

“Lies!” Nalani screamed. “My father was a good man. He was doing great things, and you murdered him because you liked it!”

“Someone had to put a stop to what he was doing,” Mandalee asserted, trying to get Nalani to accept the truth. “That someone was me. The demon was all I was after in those days. I would have just walked away, but Nalani – he attacked me. Nearly killed Shyleen.”

“Yeah? Well, someone needs to have that fleabag put down, and that someone is me!” She threw an arc of flames at Shyleen, but Mandalee used her super-speed to throw herself in their path, relying on her magically resistant body armour to protect her.

Mandalee and Shyleen were both seeing red, now. They had given her a chance; she wouldn’t get another.

“Oh, big mistake, Nalani!” she snarled. “Now it’s two against one.”

“Actually no,” Nalani refuted. “It’s two against two.”

From the treeline, there came a low growl and a lioness prowled out into the open. Mandalee couldn’t understand it: how could she not know it was there? The animals were always her friends. She could hear their chatter all the time. Why had they kept this from her? Before she could wonder any more about that, however, she saw and felt something from Shyleen that she never had before. She was cowering before this strange lioness. Cowering in fear.

‘What is it, Shyleen? What’s wrong?’

By way of answer, she named the lioness, ‘Pryshia’.

It took her a moment, but then Mandalee remembered. Shyleen had run away from the other gods. The ones who hurt her and cast her out, and Pryshia was their leader. Queen of the gods. Now she was here, and Shyleen was terrified.

“You see?” Nalani smirked. “I’m a Cleric of Nature, too. Just like you. Only better!”

‘Don’t let her bully you, Shyleen,” Mandalee reassured her, ignoring Nalani’s taunts, ‘It’s different now. You have me.’

Snapping herself out of it, the leopard agreed, ‘You’re right. Let’s get them.’