When the Last Moon Sets ch. 5

When the Last Moon Sets ch. 5

Chapter 5

Zetsumei stood on the deck of the ship. His opponent was a giant with a muscular build and holding a large sword in his left hand. The two circled each other waiting for the other to strike. Zetsumei’s five foot body was puny compared to his opponent’s eight or ten.

“You need me to protect you from someone I can step on? You’re pathetic Jebb.” The large man said in deep voice. His sword was long with serrated edges on the blade’s drastic curve.

“Shut up Breedle, just do what you were hired to do and kill the boy!” The cowering man shouted from behind the giant. He wore gilded green robes that covered his whole body.

“All right, fine, Boss.” The large man said as he brought his sword over his head. He brought the sword down heavily on the ship which rocked from the force of the blow.

Zetsumei stumbled on the rocking ship struggling to keep his balance. “Oh crap…” He hissed when he notice the large man charging at him and rocking the boat even more. The man’s foot managed to find its way to the boy’s stomach, sending him off the ship and splashing into the water.

“There boss, he won’t bother you anymore.” The large man said.

“Good, now come on, Breedle. We must find the buyer for those young ladies.” He went for the ramp leading down to the docks. To his surprise the young man he had just seen fly into the water was standing at the base, his clothes were soaked and he was breathing heavily.

“Persistent little flea, soaking wet you probably don’t even weigh as much as my boot.” The large man taunted.

Paying no attention Zetsumei jumped at him, putting all of his weight into a kick to the man’s stomach. The man didn’t budge. The boy pulled the pouch of powder from his pocket and threw its watery contents into the man’s face. Nothing happened and Breedle grabbed the boy’s leg and threw him aside into a light post, the sound of bones breaking echoed in the quiet night.

“Pah, what do you think a little green water is going to do?” Breedle asked.

Zetsumei coughed and choked on air and blood before saying: “Enough…” He clutched his sides. His clothes had a faint red stain to them.

The man grabbed him by the head and lifted him up off the ground. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” He asked, laughing. The skin on his head started burning and peeling away. He threw the boy to the side and dropped to his knees screaming. He tried scratching the pain away but only made it worse.

“Jebb Roox… You need to die…” Zetsumei said as he held his right hand close to his still dripping wet clothes.

“You, you’re not human are you? You’re hand. It’s burning but you--…?” Jebb tried to talk but he was too shocked but more fearful than anything else to speak. He paid almost no attention to his still screaming bodyguard.

“I’m more human than you are… That’s for sure.” The boy replied darkly.

“No… No! Get away from me!” The cowardly man cried and he started running. He ran for blocks before running into a large dark building. It was empty with no torchlight or fires. Not even a lantern was burning in the dark.

Zetsumei lurked up in the rafters, concealed in darkness. “I told you that you need to die.” He said, moving around just below the high ceiling. He still held his hand to his clothes, trying to cover his burning skin with the water still in his clothes.

Jebb Roox was fearful of his life. He pulled a small crossbow from below his robe. “Come on now assassin! Are you too much a coward to fight me?”

“Cheap taunts won’t buy my attention.” He replied almost mockingly from the rafters. Jebb fired a crossbow bolt at the ceiling, it whistled through the air before getting caught in the wood below Zetsumei’s feet.

“Tell me boy, do you anything about this world?” Roox asked as he loaded another bolt into his crossbow.

“What are you getting at?” The boy asked as he ran along the rafters silently, careful not to fall.

“The moons of the world, what do you know about them, Assassin?” The fearful man asked, waiting for an answer.

“The nine moons, what about them?” Zetsumei asked. Jebb fired another bolt at the ceiling, it whistled then was stuck in the ceiling.

“They each stand for something different: The first stands for birth. The second is life. The third is peace.” He loaded another bolt. “The fourth is war. The fifth is love. The sixth is rage. The seventh is vengeance. The eighth is sin. And the ninth is death.”

“What are you trying to say you worm?”

“I’m the worm but you’re the one that’s hiding in the dark.”

“I’m not hiding!” Zetsumei jumped from one of the rafters and threw a knife down at the man. It was caught in his hand. Howling in pain the man tossed the crossbow away. He pulled the knife from his hand and covered the cut with his other hand.

“All right, fine. Just kill me. I know you’re only trying to scare me. You’ve done it, I’m afraid. Now just kill me.”

“No, you’re not afraid of me, you’re only afraid of dying.” He threw another knife this time it plunged into the man’s bicep. He ripped it out and covered that wound as well.

“You’re job is quick death’s, Assassin! You’re going against you’re code.” The man was starting to panic. He looked around frantically at the ceiling.

“That may be what I’ve sworn to do but I’ll make an exception for you.”

“Why? Why do you hate me so much, Assassin?” The fearful man asked.

“You were going to sell innocent women into slavery, that’s reason enough for me.”

“Hasn’t it ever occurred to you that that’s all women can be? Slaves to us, that all they want to his give us pleasure?”

“That thought’s never crept into my mind and you should die for even trying to convince me.”

“You hold to your beliefs, Assassin. That’s reason enough for me to hate you. I can give you anything you’ve ever wanted, all the women you could ever need. I could pay any amount of money but you aren’t even giving it a thought.”

“You’re nothing but an insect, Jebb Roox. You think you can buy your way out of anything, even death. But you won’t be so fortunate with me.”

Zetsumei was on the floor now, standing a few paces behind the cowering man. His hand still cluthing his wet clothes. Jebb turned and jumped back and fell to the ground. He panicked, he started kicking himself away. He still held the wounds. The man backed himself up against the wall.

Slowly walking toward the cowering man he drew another knife.

As a last resort the man asked one final question: “What about the last moon, Assassin?”

“There are only nine, what are you talking about?” He gripped the man by the neck with his still burning right hand held him up against the wall, choking him.

Gasping and filling his lungs with shallow breaths he muttered: “The last moon is one that stands for rebirth. That one is what lights my path, Assassin.”

“How fortunate for me, that means I get to kill you again.” Zetsumei whispered into the man’s ear before plunging his last knife into the man’s stomach and pulling it up to his neck. He let the body fall, the warm red blood spilled from his body.

Zetsumei wandered back to the boat, the whole way he mulled over the thought of the moons. Breedle had dragged himself off the edge of dock and into the water, the burning had stopped but he had drowned himself.

“Hey, the three of you can come up now. Everything’s clear up here now.”

He walked down below deck. The three women were gone with no sign of where they went. “Oh, what the hell, they couldn’t wait for me to tell them to come up.”