KGWrites

Alyx

The Oasis, Winter District, Kingdom of Aldiron

Alyx leant back in her chair and let out a long, contented sigh, followed by a rumbling belch. It had been nearly a week since they had sold the candlestick and she had saved the princess on the Tide Road. Really the pair should probably have been saving their coins for emergencies, but with the coin purse she’d liberated from the princess’ belt as they’d ran, they had enough to afford a couple of little luxuries. She hadn’t sold the ring though, as much as it would fetch. It was still tucked inside a pouch at her side, not even James knew about it yet.

Across the table from her, James was eagerly eating away at the last few scraps of chicken that clung to the bone of the leg. Moments like this were rare for the Cobalt siblings, but they certainly still happened. Their luck only changed this well maybe once or twice a year, the rest of the time they lived off savings and nearly nightly excursions into the Autumn District or, if they were together, across the wall into the Spring District. But this was no time to think of how bad things could get, especially not whilst they were so good. Alyx took a long swig of the tankard in front of her, the wine inside was fruity and sweet, it tasted divine.

Around them, the Oasis was beginning to quieten down for the evening, most of the tradesmen were packing away their goods and everyone else was either leaving or was making for the taverns for a drink. Alyx could see Sigmund lounging on the bed of a cart at the far end of the square near his home, he was talking and laughing with several other regulars and merchants who frequented the Oasis. She wasn’t all that surprised when his eyes flicked over to her, and he grinned and nodded his head slightly in greeting. Of course he’s noticed we’re here. She returned the smile warmly and nodded back. Then Sigmund returned to his conversation, and it was as if nothing had happened. Alyx chuckled quietly to herself and swigged her ale again.

“What?” James asked her with a chuckle all of his own, a happy smile gracing his face. Alyx shook her head.

“Nothing, just thinking, this is what it could have been. Us like this in the Oasis, every day, no thieving, no avoiding guards, no being scared of every shadow. Warm food and good wine.” James gave her that smile again and cocked an eyebrow.

“Be honest Alyx, the wine is fair at best. And it will be, someday. We’ll not be in Winter forever.” He said with a certainty that almost made Alyx believe him. But it was a tone she’d heard before, James was reassuring himself more than her. And this sentence was something that James had been repeating to her for years now. When the two of them had lost their parents she’d only been eight, old enough to remember but not to fully understand everything that she’d lost. James however, had been twelve, he’d understood everything that had happened, everything that had just been taken from them and he’d been left alone, bleeding from his missing two fingers and with a terrified little sister to look after. So, whilst Alyx had come to know her new life as well as her old and accepted that she needed simply to keep moving or be lost, James had sworn to avenge everything, to regain their old lives and to kill the man who had put them in this situation. Aaron Trident.

“Someday maybe, but right now, I could use another drink.” Alyx said with a grin, trying to take James’ mind back to something happier. It seemed to work as her brother smiled and pushed himself up in his chair and caught the attention of one of the girls serving out drinks. As he ordered, Alyx relaxed again, tipping the last few dregs of her drink down her throat. Sure, she thought, we have one hell behind us, probably another in front of us too, but right now, in this moment, life is good.

And then a voice cut through her bliss and burned it upon a pyre. There was only one man with that voice in the Winter District, the tyrant of Winter himself. Spyder Xeros.

“You little bitch!” Spyder bellowed in rage and Alyx winced. All life in the Oasis seemed to freeze, smiles slowly fled from faces and drinks were lowered. Alyx was suddenly very aware of the weight of her dagger strapped along the back of her waist. Spyder had sounded very close, and looking around, Alyx could see plainly that he was. In a small clearing of people Spyder stood over a young girl who cowered on the ground. She had dark black hair, tangled and knotted around her head and her blue eyes were wide with terror. The big man was advancing on her, his face screwed up in rage. Looking more closely, Alyx could see that the girl had a large coin purse clutched to her chest as she scrambled backwards through the mud away from him. The crowd parted to let her pass and Alyx prayed that it would close again to cut off Spyder, but it never did, no-one wanted to get between Spyder and his prey. Then the girl’s back hit a wooden post and she could retreat no further. Alyx watched as Spyder’s hand closed tightly around her ankle and he hauled her up so that she dangled from his grip by one leg.

“Give it back girl, or I’ll make this hurt a lot more.” Spyder snarled, his free hand gripping the hilt of his mace so tightly that his knuckles went white. But the girl didn’t let go of the coin purse, she simply squirmed back and forth in his grip, fighting hard to get free. Spyder growled in rage and clenched a fist, before he slammed it straight into the girl’s stomach. She groaned out a strangled sound and Alyx felt sure she would throw up, but still held the purse tight to her chest.

And then, like magic, Sigmund was there, pushing himself up to Spyder’s side and speaking quickly into his ear. Alyx couldn’t hear the calming words and bargains Sigmund was saying to him, but the Oasis’ owner was speaking quickly.

But this time Spyder could not be tamed. Instead, he dropped the girl to the ground where she lay, writhing and coughing in pain while Spyder turned to face Sigmund. Before the merchant could say another word, Spyder pressed his hand into the middle of his chest and shoved. Hard. Sigmund was caught off guard and he fell, sprawling in the dirt. When he sat back up and began to stand, two of Spyder’s cronies seized him beneath the arms and forced him back down, slamming his face into the muddy ground. Spyder drew the heavy steel mace from his belt and levelled it at Sigmund’s face.

“Don’t interfere old man, or I’ll smash your skull as well as hers.” Spyder growled as Sigmund fought to free himself from the men’s grips. Across all the Oasis, no-one even dared to breathe, let alone move or interfere.

Except the Cobalt siblings.

As soon as Spyder had thrown Sigmund down, both Alyx and James had exchanged a silent, grim, agreement and had scrambled from their seats, sprinting together straight for the clearing of people. Alyx had fallen slightly behind her brother, but it wouldn’t matter, they were heading for different targets.

James burst through the crowd first, flying elbow first into the face of the man who held Sigmund’s right arm and sending him stumbling away with a cry of surprise and pain. Then James turned to face the other man, who was still reacting to the sudden attack. Alyx didn’t get a chance to see what happened next though, as at that point she herself leapt out of the crowd, tucking into a roll that brought her to her feet between Spyder and the young girl. She caught the girl’s eye and gave her a cocky wink and lopsided grin to reassure her. Although Alyx wasn’t sure how effective it was, she was shitting herself.

Spyder was far taller than Alyx herself, she wasn’t short but he himself was at least a head taller than her, possibly even more. He was also far more muscled, Alyx was no weakling, but her muscles came from pulling herself up walls and in through windows, or from running away from her foes. Spyder was a fighter, his muscles came from throwing punches, breaking bones and swinging his mace. Which was another thing Alyx would have to deal with, even a glancing blow from that weapon could break bone. The solution was simple in theory, don’t get hit by it, but it was far harder in practice.

With a bestial roar Spyder flung himself at her and swung his mace in a wide sweeping arc that threatened to take her head clean off. Alyx dropped below the blow and heard the weapon whistle through the air above her head. The swing overbalanced Spyder slightly and Alyx came up with a punch to his side, just below his ribs. It was a blow that would have doubled any other man, but Spyder simply grunted in pain and swung his elbow back, catching Alyx full in the face. She sprawled backwards into the dirt, her back slamming hard into a wooden post. Alyx’s vision exploded with colour, and she sat for a second, blinking to clear it, before she remembered where she was and instinctively threw herself to the left, rolling away. Not a second later the wooden post was shattered by the blow of Spyder’s mace, filling the air with splinters of wood.

Slowly Alyx’s vision began to clear as she blinked tears from her eyes, and she could see her surroundings again. James had taken down one of Spyder’s cronies and now stood alongside Sigmund and a couple of others that their bravery had inspired against the remaining five. The young girl had swept up the coin purse she’d stolen and was now carefully doing the same to the unconscious man. Spyder himself was stomping towards Alyx, his mace held tightly in his grasp. Alyx’s mind raced, she knew her best chance at beating Spyder was to remove that mace from him, while he still had it, she didn’t want to be near him at all.

Alyx was out of time.

Spyder reached her and raised the mace over his head, meaning to bring it down and break her in a single blow. She did the only thing she could think of, she tucked into a roll and moved straight at Spyder, passing between his legs before she rolled onto her back and lashed out with a kick. It caught Spyder behind his knee and he stumbled forwards, giving Alyx time to scramble to her feet.

What he did next however, she hadn’t been expecting.

As he spun to face her, Spyder lashed out with the mace, forcing Alyx to leap back to avoid having her ribcage shattered. Then Spyder began to advance, every step forward accompanied by a powerful swing of the mace and a nimble yet desperate dodge from Alyx.

Eventually however, Alyx spotted the opportunity she’d been looking for.

As the mace swung past her downwards, Alyx stepped forwards, inside its reach and grabbed Spyder’s wrist. With a snarl, Spyder swung his other fist and Alyx snapped her head back just quickly enough to avoid the punch. Not wasting a second her free hand swept behind her and drew her dagger from its scabbard. She knew she couldn’t kill Spyder, which would bring Trident’s wrath upon the entire district, so instead she did the next best thing. She brought the blade in a wide arc that left a long slash across Spyder’s chest, not deep but it bled plenty, then she drove the dagger downwards, into the gap between the bent metal blades that made up the head of the mace and the long steel hilt of the weapon and twisted. With a grunt of pain Spyder stumbled back, but the mace, now attached firmly to Alyx’s dagger was wrenched from his hand. With a heave Alyx threw away her dagger, dragging the heavy mace behind it, across the open space. The two weapons splashed through the mud, settling at the edge of the crowd, out of reach.

Now it was even between her and Spyder, no weapons, just fists.

Alyx wasn’t quick enough to avoid the next blow however, she had been too focussed on getting the mace away from Spyder. His fist slammed into her gut like an iron hammer, lifting her off her feet and slamming her back down to the ground. But she reacted quickly kicking out at his knee as she landed, forcing him to drop into a kneel before he could make use of his advantage. Then she rolled away and scrambled upwards, gasping in great heaving breaths. Spyder stood as well and lowered his head before charging straight at Alyx.

She dived to the side, barely avoiding crashing into a wooden stall as Spyder charged past. Then he spun and swung for her again, a punch which caught her in the side of the head as she stood and turned to face him. Light exploded behind her eyes and she stumbled back, miraculously keeping her feet under her.

Alyx tasted blood, feeling involuntary tears beginning to stream from her eyes and knew that she was in bad shape. Spyder had successfully landed two blows to her face and another to her chest, all that on top of the battering she had taken from hitting obstacles as they fought meant she’d need to end this, and soon, or she’d risk burning out, at which point Spyder could simply kill her with ease.

Her heel caught on something, Alyx didn’t see what, and she fell, sprawling in the dirt. Instinct set in and she rolled away, right as a heavy boot slammed down where her head had been. The dull thud it made seemed to echo through Alyx’s head.

Somehow, she managed to get her feet under herself, and she stood. Spyder was almost on top of her already, and she barely had time to prepare herself before he swung another punch.

Guided by pure adrenaline and instinct, Alyx ducked and then she surprised even herself when she lashed her hand out and gripped his arm, before she leapt around him and wrenched, twisting his arm around behind his back. She felt it dislocate at the shoulder with an audible pop, Spyder screamed, and Alyx placed a kick to the back of his knee as well, forcing him onto the ground where he lay, writhing with pain. Above him, Alyx bent double, sucking in deep gulps of air, each gasp accompanied by a searing pain across her chest, before she forced a cocky grin to her face and spat a scarlet splash of blood down onto Spyder’s face.

“Thought you had me for a while there.” She said, taking a long, painful breath. Already she could feel the pain from the beating beginning to radiate through every fibre of her body. She looked around. Every eye in the Oasis was on her and Spyder, all but two of Spyder’s men were on the ground, either unconscious or writhing in pain. The other two knelt with their hands on their heads, James and Sigmund standing over them like guardians, both wielding confiscated weapons. The little girl had seemingly very effectively gathered all the fallen men’s coin purses and was busy emptying them into Spyder’s larger coin purse so that she could carry it easier.

Movement beneath her caught Alyx’s eye and she looked down to see Spyder prop himself up enough to look her in the eye, his face discoloured with pain and rage, blood streaming from behind his teeth.

“You bitch! I’ll heal, and I’ll come back, and I’ll split the skulls of every bastard here who fucking dares fight me! And then, I’ll find you! I’ll find you and I’ll break every bone in your fucking body. I’ll make it slow, slow and so very fucking painful. So, no one else will ever get the balls to challenge me!” He spat. Alyx just shook her head with a smile. Then she very slowly pointed a finger at Spyder.

“You. You think you’ve got the biggest balls in the district?” Then she shook her head, a confounded look appearing across her face. Though her eyes remained cold. A fucking kid you bastard, a little girl. She looked down at Spyder and tilted her head questioningly.

“Where are they?” And then Alyx Cobalt slammed her boot down as hard as she could between Spyder’s legs. Beneath it, she felt something, or rather a couple of somethings, crush.

Spyder Xeros, tyrant crime lord of the Winter District, screamed.

The Oasis, Winter District, Kingdom of Aldiron – An Hour Later

Sigmund’s men had thrown the whimpering Spyder and his men out into the street and then ushered anyone who didn’t work in the Oasis out soon after. Most of the traders had retreated into their respective homes, closing doors and shutters tight, which left Sigmund standing out in the square with Alyx and James. The young girl who Spyder had been after was also still sat in the square, counting out her hard-stolen coin on the top of a barrel. It was hard to tell her feelings on what had happened, but she seemed calm enough from Alyx’s point of view. Sigmund was looking lost at best, defeated at worst, but Alyx knew he had a plan. Spyder or Trident coming for the Oasis had been inevitable really. They wouldn’t tolerate anyone else operating in their territory. Sigmund would have put a plan in place for the day when it happened.

James, meanwhile, was not handling things quite as well, he was pacing backwards and forwards, arms folded across his chest, occasionally stopping and looking like he was about to say something, before shaking his head and continuing to pace instead. Eventually Alyx decided she couldn’t handle that anymore.

“James, will you relax?” She asked and James whirled to face her, but the question seemed to have done anything but relax him.

“Relax? Relax? After what you’ve just done? Spyder isn’t some random street thug from the Winter District Alyx, he’s not like you or I. Spyder is one of Aaron Trident’s right-hand men! You know? The man who literally owns more than half of Aldiron? Sure, we’ve slipped his notice up until now, but I have a hunch that a man like him might notice when one of his best men gets his balls broken!” Alyx flinched away from James’ rant, wincing as it pulled at her injured chest. She looked James straight in the eye.

“It’s not like I had a choice, we had to save the girl, save Sigmund.” Alyx replied, working hard to hold her voice even in the face of James’ anger. James nodded, conceding that she had a slight point.

“We did, but you’d already managed that Alyx. No need for anything else.” Alyx laughed bitterly at that.

“He deserved a lot worse James, a hell of a lot worse. I gave a little bit of justice back for what he’s done over the years.”

“Alyx, that justice is going to make everything so much worse. You’ve brought Spyder’s, maybe even Trident’s wrath down upon the entire Winter District! He’ll tear the place apart now.” James yelled, running his thumb over the bumps that had used to be his fingers, as he always did when he talked about Trident.

“No, he won’t.” Sigmund’s voice came from where he was sat on a bench of one of the taverns, gently dabbing at a deep purple bruise that was forming around his left eye with a damp cloth. James looked over to their former mentor, incredulous and began to splutter, struggling to find a response to Sigmund’s dismissal. However, the man waved a hand to silence her brother’s impending rant.

“Trident’s been sniffing around and waiting for a chance to seize the Oasis for months. All today’s done is speed the bastard up a bit. He’ll come down on us hard, true, but he won’t destroy us. The profit from this place is too much to pass up based on one disturbance. He’ll use it as his excuse, get the Oasis under his direct control no one else gets to operate unless they work for him.”

“He’ll still come for you.” James countered and Alyx nodded in agreement. Trident wasn’t exactly known for his mercy, if he got his hands on Sigmund after this… Alyx shuddered and closed her eyes for a moment, hoping to will away the nightmares that had suddenly risen to greet her.

“I stuck to the Oasis’ rules, Spyder started the fight, he endured the consequences. Trident’s not going to be able to deny that. I’ll hand over the Oasis as a balm to soothe any bad blood, and then I’ll be gone. I’ve made arrangements for the day Trident comes for me. I’ll be out of Aldiron and set up somewhere along the coast before the month is out.” Sigmund responded, his voice sure and steady, already set to his path. But Alyx had been watching his eyes carefully and for a second, there had been something else flashing through them. Worry, Alyx thought, no, not worry, doubt. Realisation struck her like falling into icy water, first shocking her, then as she struggled against it, it overwhelmed everything.

Sigmund isn’t sure it will be enough.

She wanted to scream, cry and yell at Sigmund to just go, to leave and get as far from here as he can. But she didn’t. Alyx Cobalt didn’t cry, that was the rule. The one thing she’d told herself every single day that she and James had been slumming through the Winter District. No matter how bad things get, no matter who gets hurt or what goes wrong, Alyx Cobalt doesn’t cry. Scared little children cried, Spring District children cowering behind their parents cried. But if you cried in the Winter District then it had already beaten you, and Alyx wasn’t about to let that happen.

James cried, only occasionally, and only when he thought Alyx couldn’t hear or see him. But it wasn’t the Winter District that made James cry, it would never beat him. No, James cried because he could remember what came before the Winter District, and those memories tore apart his very soul every time they surfaced.

But neither Cobalt sibling would cry today. They understood the rules. Sigmund had made his choice, it was the part of The Chase, and the siblings couldn’t change that.

Alyx remembered the day that Sigmund had told her and James about The Chase, a few years before.

“It’s the rule of the Winter District, the way of life down here.” He had said to them, sitting in front of the firepit in his house.

“In Winter, we’re constantly on the run down a long and twisting road. And behind us is The Gravekeeper, the God of Death. They’re chasing us all the time and every trip, every stumble that we have, they catch up a bit. But this road we’re on, our life, has twists and turns, junctions where we must choose a path. The junctions are every choice we make here. Could be a mark, or a job we undertake, hell it might even be the streets we walk home down. But at every junction we must choose a path, and sometimes those paths give us a head start, put us ahead of The Gravekeeper. But sometimes they can be a trap, and they’ll be upon us before we know it and there’s nothing, can be done but keep trying to run.”

 “Can you outrun The Gravekeeper?” Alyx had asked him, full of hope and her mind flashing with images of daring escapes. Of a cloaked and cowled figure of darkness bursting through a door as she made a quick dive through a window to escape. But Sigmund’s face had soured, and he’d shook his head.

“Outrunning them is the one thing we can’t do. Sooner or later The Chase always ends the same way. The Gravekeeper catches up. The trick to The Chase is being ready to welcome him when he does catch up.”

Alyx knew that today Sigmund had come upon a junction in his Chase. He could have let Spyder have the girl, continued on with his daily business and simply tried to put the unpleasantness behind him. Or he could have done as he had and stepped in to stop Spyder. The choice he’d made had clearly brought The Gravekeeper down upon him. A Gravekeeper that, beneath its cowl, would wear Aaron Trident’s face. But looking at the man now, Alyx knew that despite this, Sigmund would make the same choice over again if he needed to. Sigmund could never abandon a child to the mercy of the Winter District, he hadn’t when Alyx and James had needed him.

Alyx looked at the girl sitting on the barrel, long limbs folded as she silently watched the three of them. She couldn’t be more than eleven, perhaps twelve at the most, but her hunger panged frame gave her features a thin, sunken quality that seemed to age her. She was pretty, still childlike, lacking the scarring or overall weight that a life as one of the many gutter rats of the Winter District inflicted. Alyx thought of herself at that age, small and wiry, still relying heavily on James for protection but already coming to grips with the harshness of the District. This girl seemed to possess that resolve, but without a cunning and protective older brother to watch her, she’d quickly fall prey to bandits, or worse.

“If the Oasis is to go,” Alyx began carefully, watching Sigmund’s reactions, expecting him to scold her for even suggesting that. But the man’s shoulders just sagged slightly, like her saying it had made it real. “Then what will become of the girl?”

The two men stopped to look at the small figure sat on the barrel, who looked at them in confusion.

“Me? Can’t I just take this money and go?” The girl asked, her blue eyes narrowing and beginning to scan her surroundings. Looking for exits, Alyx realised. James laughed, but there was no merriment to the sound.

“You’re welcome to try. But you just stole from Spyder Xeros and his men, he’s not going to let that slide. He’ll be after you now. Just like us.” James said, shooting a sidelong glance to Alyx, who clenched her jaw and glowered back at him, no matter how much he scolded her, she was still sure she’d done right.

Then James straightened, his eyes narrowed and his lips slightly parted. Alyx recognised his thinking face instantly and tilted her head, trying to fathom what was going through her brother’s mind. Then James looked from the girl to Sigmund.

“You took us in once, kept us under your wing and taught us what you know, kept us both alive while we were just dumb kids scrambling around in the mud. Have you ever seen rawer talent than she showed by getting up to Spyder amongst all his men like that?” He asked and Sigmund shook his head, although he narrowed his eyes in slight confusion.

“I admit she’s impressive, but there’s not even going to be an Oasis soon, no way I can take her in like I did you two.”

“I’m not asking you to.” James said firmly before turning back to the girl on the barrel.

“What’s your name?”

“Lillian.” She replied, still looking at him uncertainly. James walked over to the barrel and extended his three fingered hand.

“Well Lillian, my name is James Cobalt and the woman over there with the ugly nose, is my sister Alyxandra, but we call her Alyx for short.” Alyx chuckled, James only called attention to her nose, which was flattened and scarred across the middle from a bad fall during a rooftop chase, when he wanted to embarrass her. Lillian laughed with her for a second, and without hesitation or even the slightest look of revulsion, gripped James’ damaged hand and shook it. Already used to dealing with scars and horror, Alyx thought grimly, in normal circumstances it wasn’t a good thing for someone so young to be so accustomed, but in the Winter District it would serve her well.

“You’re a good little pickpocket Lillian, and with some more experience you might just have what it takes to survive in the Winter District, but now you’ve got Spyder Xeros on your tail and you definitely won’t survive him alone.” James was saying.

“So, how would you like it if Alyx and I took you in and taught you a bit of what we know? Seeing as we’ll be dodging Spyder ourselves now anyway?” James asked and Alyx had to work hard to maintain her composure. James had been adamant for years that the two of them should only care for themselves and leave others to their own business. Their problems are their problems, he would say, they don’t help us with ours and we don’t help them with theirs.  

But Alyx couldn’t argue that with him now, not here.

Lillian turned her eyes to the sky, thinking for a moment. Then a small smile played at the corners of her mouth, and she looked James in the eye and nodded.

“I think I’d like that.” She said, her voice sure and determined. James nodded and helped her climb down from the barrel. Alyx let a reassuring smile spread across her features. And yet, behind it, she couldn’t help but think that between the fight with Spyder and now taking in Lillian, the Cobalt siblings had passed a junction on their own Chase. And now The Gravekeeper was catching up.