The Creakings of Iron
1703 Words
Kali rolled her bandaged hand around, trying to loosen some of the wraps. Her mind preoccupied with keeping her boiling anger in check.
Late. f*****g LATE ! Where the hell is she ?
She inhaled sharply, trying to focus her mind over the loud cries and chatter coming from the clinic.
"Ugh, I should've just went to Dr. Vaswani." She muttered quietly before pushing the clinic's heavy doors open and stepping onto the bustling streets of Pythia.
She traversed through a sea of people, ignoring the glares and dirty looks the commoners were giving her.
They didn't like the Royals, or anyone associated with the Royals using their resources. They believed it was a show of power, of pride.
To her it was mere efficiency.
She was however regretting her decision of parking the jeep blocks away from the clinic, as the sun was belting down harder than before and the swarm of people didn't seem to let up.
Her panic kicked in and her body seized up when she felt someone pull her out of the crowd and into an empty alleyway.
She slammed the person into a wall before seeing who it was, her vision blurred in fear and anger.
Memories she had buried away tugging at the edges, raring to burst out.
She could feel herself slipping into a frenzy, gold lighting arcing around her limbs and eyes.
Anne slapped her, loud enough that Kali could hear it's echo for seconds after it had happened.
Blood rushed to her cheek and to her brain, immediately bringing her back to reality.
She realized, that the person she was currently on the edge of choking the life out of was Anne.
Kali instantly let go of her, stumbling backwards.
"Jesus, Kali, I thought you'd be angry but murder for tardiness seems a little out of character." Anne chuckled, rubbing her throat. She nervously glanced at a shocked and shaken Kali. "I got the info by the way." She squeaked out, trying to alleviate the tension.
She held out the tablet, her arm quivering from the adrenaline pumping through her veins.
Kali grabbed the tablet wordlessly and stomped past her, deeper into the alleyway. She quickly scrolled through the data, shuffling past mounds of garbage, hidden from the public's eye throughout the intertwined alleyways of the slums.
Anne caught a flying tablet to the face just as she caught up to Kali.
"When I asked for a damn background sweep I didn't mean give me every little insignificant detail about her past." Kali said, making sharp turns and shifting through the maze of garbage as if she knew the alleyways like the back of her hand. "Who did the sweep ?" She asked.
"Uh..it was Matthias, from the third district headqua-"
"Let him know he's fired." Kali cut her off, before she could finish her sentence. "And also, give me the short version. How is she related to the Minister ? Girlfriend ? Mistress ? Hired Spy ?"
"Actually, Blackmail." Anne meekly replied.
Kali stopped at the end of the alleyway, a few feet away from the sidewalk and the bustling crowd. She grabbed Anne's arm and pulled her closer, "Blackmail ? With what ?" She asked.
"Her mother caught the Plescitium plague and, well he-"
"He found out didn't he ? and helped paid for her treatment ?"
Kali's grip tightened around her arm, her eyes, twinkling with manic rage.
Anne cleared her throat and wrestled her arm free before continuing.
"Yes, and he kept it under wraps. Either by bribes or by blood."
Kali stayed silent, her eyes focused on the cobblestone path below them, her mind, lost in thought.
Anne peeked around the corner, trying to find out where they were, her eyes landed on the jeep that Kali had driven away on, in a worse shape than before. "Maybe we should finish the patrol and head back, we only got like a few hours left before the ceremony and the event."
"I only need half and hour." Kali muttered.
"What ?"
"Nothing, do you know where this Beautician is right now ?"
"Umm...yeah, she has a small boutique on Wilson Street.
Kali tell me you're not planning anyt-"
"Can you handle the perimeter sweep alone ?" Kali asked, already speeding towards the Jeep.
"Wait WHAT ??"
Kali thrust the car keys into Anne's hand and smiled, "I have the utmost trust in you, see you at the Town Hall" she said, rushing past the jeep and into another alley, vanishing into the darkness.
Anne sighed, defeatedly before driving away.
Praying that she doesn't burn a city block down hunting for a supposed spy.
Kali wiped the sweat off her face, the shadowy alleyways had protected her from the searing sunlight but not from the heat.
Surprisingly the heat hadn't subsided in the last 15 minutes that she took to pass through the security and into Upper Pythia.
She snuck past them the same way hundreds of commoners do to get to the local black market.
The tunnel system, as old and grimy and unsafe as it was, it was useful.
She stepped onto the marbled and quiet streets of Upper Pythia.
Lines upon lines of high class mansions and buildings stood on each side of the road, missing the twisting and dark alleyways of the Central.
She kept her head low and sped past Kingsborough Avenue, counting the blocks as she went. Trying to premeditate the distance between her and Wilson Street, and how fast she could get in and out with the Patrolmen noticing.
The patrolmen, while glorified house guards, still reported to the Vanguards, and the Crownguard herself being spotted in the Royal District, away from the Royals she was supposed to guard, would be a controversy she didn't bother to shoulder.
She veered left, into a busy street, ducking into the only place with a crowd to avoid the guards which had took notice of her suspicious jog towards Wilsons.
She hurriedly pushed her way past the bakeries and the jewelry shops.
That's when she heard it again. The nervous click-clack of a pair of heels, the impatient gait and the rhythm of the sound.
Kali swerved behind an ice cream stall as she heard the sound grow closer to her.
She peeked around the corner to see the beautician with a scared look on her face, hurrying towards a boutique on the edge of the marketplace.
Kali stood in front of the tall apartment building, the ground floor being the boutique.
the words 'Quod Decus' were plastered in gold letters marking the boutique's place on the street. The paint chipped off, and the sign covered in dust.
It's age given away by the condition of disrepair the building was in.
She ducked into the small alleyway beside the building, her hand gliding across the exposed bricks of the wall.
She stopped short at the edge of the wall and pressed her palm deeply into the cracks between the bricks.
She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, grabbing the dagger she kept hidden in the lining of her uniform.
She made a small puncture on her fingertips, letting the blood flow down through the cracks.
She pressed her fingers deeper into the crevices and whispered, slowly and carefully enunciating each syllable clearly.
"Praeuro"
Sparks flew throughout the cracks and the bricks, emanating a slow rattling and cracking noise.
Followed by the part of the wall, stained by her blood crumbling away at her feet.
She closed her fist, sighing softly and stumbled into the dark backroom illuminated only by the flickering light bulb in the middle of the room.
She grabbed onto a stack of boxes to stabilize herself.
Every time, Every f*****g time.
Her eyes landing on a door, light leaking through from the gaps in the doorframe. She creeped towards it slowly, making sure not to make any noise as she planted her ear on the door. Trying to make sense of the loud mumbling coming from the other side.
She heard shuffling. Then she heard a voice whispering, "Yes...Yes sir..."
Kali assumed the voice to be of the beautician's. She peeked through the keyhole, but couldn't make out more than the back of somebody's head.
She recognized the hairstyle however, a simple bun kept in place with a wooden decorative hairpiece.
"Yes sir, I planted it. You can track her." The voice on the other side said, a slight tremble in her voice."
Perhaps she jumped to a conclusion, but it was a conclusion nonetheless.
Kali took and step back and limbered up. Before slamming her boot into the door and ripping it off of it's hinges.
Kali vaulted into the room even before the door fell, tackling the shocked woman to the ground.
"Shh" She muttered before wrapping her palm tightly across the woman's mouth.
Kali heard footsteps coming towards them, she tried to shrink deeper behind the counter she was, trying to keep her hostage silent.
She quickly clenched her fist, nails digging into her skin and drawing blood.
She flattened her palm against the floor, and pictured the old and weary sign at the front.
"Rasparci"
She felt the words slither out of her lips and through her, materializing outside and shredding the sign to pieces.
The footsteps stopped, suppressed by the sound of metal creaking and slamming into the road.
She peeked around the counter to see the lady hurrying towards the front of the store to check out the commotion.
Kali slammed the beautician's head against the counter and grabbed her chin tightly.
"Alright, Lady. If I hear, a single f*****g noise out of you. I'll break your spine in half." Kali could feel her heart beating out of her chest. "Am I clear. ?"
She nodded.
That was all the confirmation she needed, she wrapped her handkerchief around her mouth and dragged her out of the room and into the dark storage space.
She had a lot of questions, none of which she could spare to ask in this vulnerable place.
Kali called for backup and a jeep. So she waited, she would bide her time.
Like everything else in her life, she would bide her time.
- Writer
