Chapter IV

The stream of unconsciousness rushed over his memories, and detached one from the haziness…

"You miss her, don't you?" Tob asked, his eyes showing pity.

Lich nodded, and turned his head northwards, leaning forward lazily on the rail.

"I just wish that - well, I know it's impossible, but," Lich paused, shook his head as he looked downwards, then at Tob, "I have the power of Mana inside me - a tremendous amount of it - yet I just can't click my fingers and - whoosh, big cloud of smoke - she's here."

"Have you considered going to her?"

"Every waking hour, Tob, every waking hour," he sighed. "But will I return?"

Tob nodded, and followed Lich's gaze northwards.

"You know, you could sneak in…"

"I don't know if you can detect Mana fluctuations or not, but I am like a huge, towering mountain. I could be detected from six miles away with the power I hold. Why do you think Markior has a hard time sleeping? With his presence, mine, and the base's, this place is like a beacon for miles and miles away! And if I were to even get close to Ulrezaj's lair - who knows what lies in store?"

Tob considered this for a moment, as he watched Lich sigh, and look back towards Ulrezaj's lair, somewhere over the horizon. Was that a tear forming?

"I could get her back for you - for a price…"

Lich's arms were suddenly gripping the top of Tob's carapace. "Anything you ask, I would fulfil."

Tob could see the desperation in his eyes…this was going to be easy.

"Even if it was back on Yamauchi?" he asked.

Lich nodded.

"Good. You may or may not know that us Koopas hold family honour, and do not like it to be disgraced. The B'ralkus, fifteen years ago, were once the governing family of the state of Ket'nalkok, which is basically the mountain range to the north of the Koopahari. My uncle was travelling along one of the mountain roads, when a sniper from the Gr'tokoru family shot him with his rifle. He was in a car at the time, with his son, and my father…car swerved, fell off a cliff, exploded into flames."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Tob."

Tob waved a chelonian hand, dismissing the comment, then continued: "So, as my father is dead, this makes me the heir to Ket'nalkok's governance. The Gr'tokoru govern now, so I joined the KBT to get away from them - killing an agent is punishable by death, and family banishment, so he wouldn't dare try.

"That is, wouldn't have dared try. Now, as I've been a certain number of months without signing in, my membership is void as I'm considered killed in action. So, I'm open to attack from the Gr'tokoru. So, that's where you come in: You kill the Gr'tokoru, I become governor again, and this is in return for getting Riu back. How does this sound?"

"Deal," Lich said, shaking his hand.

“Dy…Dy…come on, wake up…”

Lich’s eyes opened as he groaned, but as he was about to turn over, thoughts like laser pulses resounded in his brain.

Koopas. Va’kotiku. G’rekt outside. KBT.

Lich was suddenly fully alert as he took in the dark room and asked quietly, “Midnight?”

“No,” was Ark’s dreaded answer.

Lich was crestfallen for a moment before the fear set in again. “What’s happening?”

Ark quickly moved to a corner of the room and got on hands and knees. He tilted his head and peered at the floor, before raising his right arm and fervently pointing downwards.

As Ark retreated, Lich took up Ark’s former position. There was a small hole in the floor that looked directly over the bar. He could see two G’rekt soldiers talking to Karkok, who got out the ring of keys.

“Gultogultogulto!” Lich swore in a whisper as he got up. “He was stalling us, Ark! Why didn’t you tell me that we had to leave?”

“I wasn’t sure,” he said as he shook his head.

“Grr!”

Lich turned from him as he heard the footsteps on the stairs.

“Ark!”

He turned back to find that his brother had disappeared.

“Ark?”

“Over here!” came his voice from a shadowy corner of the room.

Lich tiptoed towards the corner, then was grabbed around his arm and pulled towards the wall. He turned and placed his back against it, still with Ark’s invisible grip on his arm.

“Hegeratu! Thongs!”

Lich took a step forward, but Ark tightened his grip as he took a few steps and leaned, holding his Spear out. In the dim light in front of them, nothing could be seen except a shadow dragging Lich’s footwear across the floor.

When they had arrived and Lich had slipped them on, there was a jangle of keys at the door. They held their breaths as the door opened and the two soldiers walked in, followed by Karkok who conveniently stood between them and the brothers.

The soldiers looked around the room before what appeared to be the superior officer pulled the curtains sharply aside. The Yoshies miraculously stood in a shadow, yet still the Koopas could not find them, who were now peering under the beds, pistols at the ready. The superior officer placed his hands on the bed Lich had been sleeping on, and frowned.

“Someone’s been here, Vat’kiuk,” he said in a cold voice.

“Yeah, I know,” Karkok lied in a casual tone. “Left just before you came.”

“The bed’s still warm. How do you explain that?”

There was silence save a menacing clicking noise. Lich rubbed his eyes with one hand, Ark tightening his grip.

“I said, they left just before you came,” Karkok held to his reason, though even Ark, with little knowledge of Koopan, could pick up the nervousness.

“We’ve been here for twenty minutes, talking to you for most of them. It shouldn’t be so warm.”

There were a few more clicks.

“And it definitely wasn’t a Koopa sleeping here either. The impression’s far too large. A human or a Yoshi has been here, and according to the city emigration controller, whom I spoke with just before we came, the only non-Koopas in today were two Yoshies, together, this afternoon. Why is there only one impression, and why is it still warm, and why haven’t any Yoshies been spotted since this afternoon? Explain, or I shall have to begin extraction.”

“I have no idea.”

“You own and run this place – surely you know what your customers are up to.”

“I respect my customers’ privacy.”

Karkok was whacked across his cheek with the butt of the officer’s pistol, Lich wincing.

“This is Bowser’s Realm – there is no privacy! Where are the Yoshies?!”

“I don’t know!” Karkok replied, rubbing his cheek.

The officer wrenched the ring of keys out of Karkok’s grip and gave them to the other soldier. “Check the other rooms.”

The soldier saluted and exited the room.

“Close the door behind you!” the officer called, annoyed.

The door shut.

“Now, Vat’kiuk, I will ask you one more time. Where – are – the – Yoshies?”

“I don’t know.”

“If you don’t know, then surely you do know why they left while we were here. We didn’t see them, and you’d better hope that the soldiers in the square did.”

The officer pulled out a walkie-talkie and pressed a button.

“Did you see any Yoshies within the last half hour, over?” he spoke into it.

“No, over,” came the reply.

“Thank you, over,” the officer said, then put it away, turning his attention back to Karkok. “You are harbouring them, then,” he snarled.

“No!” Karkok replied.

“Yes, you are. You’d have to be. I don’t think warm blankets with a Yoshi imprint and no Yoshies seen before or during our time here quite adds up to your story. Now, for a final time. Where. Are. They?!”

“I don–“

The door opened and the soldier returned, remembering to shut it behind him. “Not in the other rooms, sir,” he reported.

“Then they’re still in here!”

“That we are,” Lich spoke.

If time is like a river, then the river became a glacier over the next few moments. As the soldiers turned to the source of the noise, a laser and a daser were fired simultaneously, one at each. The lesser soldier fired his gun as he turned.

When the glacier subsided and became a river once more, there were three dead Koopas on the floor.

Lich slapped his hand to his face and shook his head. “May Shade take you to Paradise, Karkok.”