Chapter 52: Poisoning
Daemon hesitated for a fraction of a second. He looked at Victoria, then the murder hole, then Victoria again. "Two minutes", he said finally. "Kristian, you stay with her. Katelyn, you cover me."
Victoria shook her head, but she did not protest. She sat down on the ground, leaning against the wall, and Kristian took a strip of cloth from his bag to wrap her hand. The blood immediately soaked the fabric, but the pressure stopped the bleeding. Victoria closed her eyes, breathed deeply, and waited.
Seeing Victoria injured, Daemon felt his blood run cold. The arrow lay on the ground, its blackened tip still wet with the young woman’s blood, and the veins on Victoria’s hand were beginning to turn a dark color that slowly crept up along her wrist.
A poison was spreading, tracing a network of dark lines under her pale skin. Daemon immediately knelt beside her, grabbed her hand gently but firmly, and inspected the wound. The edges of the injury were already swollen and a bitter smell emanated from the blood flowing between her fingers.
"She has been poisoned!" growled Daemon between his clenched teeth. He released Victoria’s hand with care, then raised his head toward the darkness from where the arrow had come.
Victoria, despite the pain, sketched a smile. Her injured hand rested on her thigh, and she looked at it almost with detachment.
"I do not like that guilty expression", she said in a calm but slightly breathless voice. "It reminds me of bad memories."
Daemon did not reply. He jumped to his feet, his katana already drawn. "I will find the antidote!"
Without waiting for a reply, he quickly leaped onto the trail of the attacker. He activated the Second Sense of Sword, that technique which multiplied his perception and speed beyond human limits. The air around him distorted slightly, and his body became a shadow racing through the dark corridor. He crossed the first room in three strides, then a second, the walls flashing past him like blurred lines.
The attacker, or rather the attackers, had already covered a considerable distance. There were two of them, men dressed in dark outfits suited for quick movement, short bows slung on their backs and quivers full of arrows with black tips. They were running toward an exit located about fifty meters away. But Daemon was much faster.
Before the two men could get any further, Daemon was already upon them. He landed in front of them, his katana tracing a silver arc in the air. But he did not strike with the blade.
Instead, he delivered a violent kick to the chest of the first man, slamming him against the stone wall with a dull sound of cracking bones.
"Wait!"
The second man tried to draw his bow, but Daemon was already on him. He grabbed him by the collar, lifted him off the ground and then pulled him back toward the first, the two bodies colliding in a noise of fabric and metal. Daemon dragged them to the main room, throwing them to the ground at the feet of Kristian and Katelyn.
They were Chi users, there was no doubt about it. Their bodies emanated a faint chi resonance, and their movements, though clumsy under fear, still showed traces of martial training. Their outfits bore the emblem of a clan that Daemon immediately recognized: the Bow Clan, a secondary family specialized in ranged shooting. But they were not used to acting alone, much less against the Sword Clan.
Daemon violently lifted them, one in each hand, shaking them like dirty rags. "Answer! Why is the Bow Clan attacking the Sword Clan in such a vicious way?" His voice was low, almost a growl, and his fingers tightened around their collars with a force that cut off their breath.
The two men remained silent. They exchanged panicked glances, but neither opened their mouth. Their eyes went from Daemon to Victoria, then to Kristian, then back to Daemon, but they did not speak.
"Are you deaf?"
Daemon slapped them, one after the other.
"We do not have all the time!" he shouted, his voice echoing against the stone walls. His right hand trembled slightly, not from fatigue, but from the anger he was desperately trying to contain.
Kristian approached calmly. He placed his hand on Daemon’s shoulder, a firm but gentle pressure, and looked him straight in the eyes. "Calm down", he said in a composed voice. "You know very well that clans are not allowed to kill each other. If you hurt them too much, it will be you who will have to answer for it."
Daemon turned his head toward Kristian.
"Really? I only follow the rules when no one is risking their life because of me."
His blade came out of the sheath with a metallic scrape that made the two prisoners jump. The firelight danced on the polished steel, and Daemon’s expression was such that the two men became afraid. Their faces fell apart, their eyes widened, and their legs began to tremble visibly.
"I hope you are not deaf... Otherwise..."
The first one spoke, his voice choked with fear. "It is the Venom Clan... They are the ones who asked us to follow Lady Victoria..."
Daemon narrowed his eyes. "The Venom Clan?"
Behind him, Victoria coughed. Katelyn was beside her, bandaging her hand with a clean strip of cloth. The blood had soaked through the first layer, and Katelyn was adding a second one, tightening firmly to apply pressure on the wound. The black veins on Victoria’s wrist had progressed slightly, but they seemed to have stabilized for now.
Victoria raised her eyes toward Daemon, her face pale but her gaze still clear. "The Venom Clan has always had a grudge against the Magic Clan", she said in a weak voice. "It is me they were targeting, not you."
Daemon clenched his fists. "Those bastards..."
He turned back toward the two prisoners. Without a word, he gave each of them a violent punch to the face. Their heads snapped back, blood spurted from broken noses, and the two men collapsed to the ground, groggy. Daemon tied them back to back with a rope he took from his bag, their wrists bound so tightly that the skin whitened around the knots. He dragged them against a pillar, where they remained motionless, half unconscious.
Kristian stood up, turned toward the group, and took a deep breath. "Well... given that Victoria has been injured, I take full responsibility for — "
"But what are you talking about?" Daemon cut him off, his voice incredulous.