by Dawn Chapman
Noc hesitated. He was almost going to come to me, or stop the fight. I could see it. I forced myself upright, my splotch at 10. I was fine. I could deal with pain.
I didn’t anticipate her next blow would be so fast; she was quicker than I’d thought and within a second I was back on the floor, blood pooling around the arm that was trying to push myself back up.
My splotch went to 16.
Noc shouted, “Finished. Druella takes Katie.”
Oh, okay, I could at least stop pretending to be so weak now. I pushed myself up and went to shake her hand. She eyed over my offer and stomped away.
Noc reached into a pack, handing me a bandage which I wrapped around my arm. The blood flow at least stopped.
“I’ll take you to our healer. She should be able to sort you out.” He waved over to the other instructors and nodded towards me.
I guess he had permission to take me, as he held out a hand for me. Did he want me to take it, or lean on him? I didn’t know.
I stared at his outstretched hand.
“I won’t bite—you’re hurt.”
I wasn’t going to take it if that’s what he was insinuating, hurt meant weak. In the end, when he walked off, I followed. I did need looking at or the wounds would take a while to heal.
There was a queue for the healer, and Noc pointed to a chair. “You take it,” he said.
I glared at him. But as my splotch was creeping up, so I sat down and let my armrest. It felt better instantly.
Noc handed me some water, and my eyes met his. “You okay?”
“Thanks, yeah, I’ll be fine.”
When the person next to me went inside to see the healer, Noc sat next to me.
“You were playing Druella,” he whispered. “I saw it.”
I didn’t want to answer him, but I didn’t need to.
“Pain hurts,” I said and held out my bleeding arm to him.
“Yes, it does. So why didn’t you fight her properly? You should have nailed her.”
I watched him closely, waiting. “You know the answer to that already.”
He winked at me. “Yes, I do.”
The door opened and it was finally my turn. I’d be feeling better in minutes. That thought alone pushed me off the chair and into the healer’s office.
Chapter 9
Slipping on my boots and the rest of my gear, I managed to slide out without waking my roomie. I made it into the lounge without a squeaky board at all. Silence prevailed, and it was so nice. There was never a night without tortured screaming or exasperated pleasure in Gestal’s. I found my way to the small kitchen and nosed about. There was a variety of items, some were easy to know what to do with. Others I had no clue at all. I just knew my stomach needed something comforting.
I wondered how much freedom we’d get around here. This side of the Guild seemed very open, but would I be able to get in anywhere else?
Time to settle in for some classic snooping, I could use my gear and do my job.
My job.
That was why I was here. Not to settle into a Guild that would be better for me than anywhere else. No, I had to kill someone.
I left the kitchen and then the lounge, exploring with skill. Being careful where I stepped and what doors I tried. The main door out to the gardens where we’d all first met was secured; I’d not expected that one to be open. I needed a different way out.
Back to the bathroom I went, to a window.
Easy to manipulate, but it made it easier to see the wards surrounding the place. Mmph, was I going to be stumped so quickly?
No, I felt the pin under my shirt working. I reached out and touched the sides of the barrier, then slipped out.
The dark night surrounded me, and I felt much more at ease. The gardens, which I’d not really noticed much of earlier now stood out.
I moved through them carefully and stopped at some of the hedgerows. There were several poisonous plants around, which took me by surprise. Why were they growing poison? It didn’t make any sense. I’d seen several of the plants today, and thought I might be able to slip the plant into some of Maddie’s food. Gah, my plans sucked.
I stopped before the brightest of them, leaned over and touched the leaves. The information for it flagged up on my screen.
FORIT PLANT – HIGHLY POISONOUS WHEN BLENDED WITH WATER. WILL CAUSE AN AGONISING DEATH.
“Looking for a late-night snack?”
The voice behind me didn’t surprise me at all. The house wards were a warning system.
I turned to see Noc standing in slacks and a shirt, then I noticed his slippers. Pink and fluffy. I pointed and laughed.
“No,” I said. “I needed some air.”
His frown didn’t agree with my lines, but he didn’t question me further. “Need me to ditch the slippers, could grab a drink?”
That was when I really noticed him. Shaggy hair, decent bed head, muscular frame, and quite tall. High cheekbones, and oh my, did he blush?
I straightened myself up, “Is there an age limit here?”
“No. If you’re old enough to kill, you can drink.”
I nodded. I worried that he knew I’d killed someone, but he had let me stay here? I had a lot of questions to ask. Maybe the best place to do that was away from the Guild?
I blinked. Noc had different clothes on and no slippers. “Hey, that’s cheating.”
He waved a hand for me. “Come on. I know just where to take you if you’re a bit nervous.”
I wasn’t happy he thought that, and also wondered how I’d cope with alcohol in a game; Mum sure never let us touch it. Would I be as quickly inebriated?
I touched one of my daggers and drew comfort from it. I wasn’t ill-prepared. To get away from the Guild and my job for one night would be amazing. I wondered if I could relax. I’d try. Being thirteen and acting a little older wasn’t too hard, and I kinda liked his smile. He was cute.
I followed Noc back to a doorway and found the gardens separated by a kind of parking lot. There were a good few vehicles that looked like cars, but weren’t. Funky. The game was defo Sci-Fi as well as fantasy. The more I discovered about Puatera, the more I was fascinated by its creators.
As Noc led me through a few more city streets and past a few taverns I thought looked tempting, I made sure I noted exactly where we were heading in case we were separated. I wasn’t anywhere near familiar enough with this city to want to be out after dark on my own. If Gestal’s friends were anything to go by, there was a lot of nasty creatures out at night than there were in the daytime.
I saw enough flickering shadows to know that I was fair game. Noc turned to me. “Don’t let those shadows worry you. They won’t come near you with me here.”
I chuckled. “The big protector, are you?”
He grinned, though I saw a glimmer of something in his eyes. Mischief?
I saw where we were going before he pointed it out to me. A small building set back against two larger ones. It looked dark, and for most was probably scary. Definitely a place that was trying just a little too hard to be inconspicuous.
He didn’t go through the front door but continued around the back, where he knocked on a side door. A not-so-friendly burly green man opened the door. “Ahh, Noc, just in time. We were going to lock in for the night. Come on in.” He eyed me, and said, “Nice friend.”
The place looked like any usual type of bar, tables and chairs, candles and sweet lighting. There were several people milling about, a couple dancing to the tune of the pianist, and yet none of this was heard outside. I guessed magical wards kept the sound out. I liked it already.
The bar had two buxom maids behind it and one waitress serving the tables. She was so pretty, and yet just a tad more covered than those serving at the bar. I wondered why, but then noted how much younger she was. Maybe a daughter?
I followed Noc to the bar and he smiled. “Good to see the most beautiful staff behind the bar tonight.”
Wow, was he for real? They were older than
sin. I almost laughed, but the barmaids took it in their stride and had drinks poured for him in a heartbeat. He obviously came here quite often. The younger of the two looked at me. “And what would you like to drink, my dear?”
I looked around. It was nothing like the bars at home I’d seen when mum had taken us around one of the cities, eating at one of the finest restaurants. There appeared to be barrels of ale and bottles of spirits, but there weren’t exactly any brands I recognised or labels I could read.
I’d had wine before, and it wasn’t my thing. So, I asked. “Any vodka?”
She pulled down a glimmering white and silver bottle. “The only one in the house, if you like it, I’ll serve it.” She popped the top and poured out a shot for me.
Noc took hold of his. “To a fun night.”
We clinked glasses and I downed the drink. I expected something weird, my throat to burn, my head to go fuzzy. But, it slid down, smooth as a bell. It tasted of vanilla and ice cream. “I’ll take a beer as well, any local brew, the hoppier the better.”
She nodded, and Noc slid a few coins over to her. Crap. I hadn’t thought about him actually buying them. Now I felt cheap.
When she poured me the beer and a couple more shots, she placed them on all on a tray and Noc picked it up. “Shall we?” He wandered to a table where we could see the dancers and the players.
I sipped the beer and watched for a while; the couple dancing was mesmerizing. So graceful, her dress blue and red, with stitching of gold up the side, but what caught my attention was the colour of her hair. Red.
I tried not to panic that this was the leader of the Guild’s recruitment. What on earth was Noc doing bringing me here? I picked up one of the other shots and downed it.
“Seems like you needed to get out and relax a little.”
I glanced at him, the concern on his face evident, but there was something else.
“That’s my mom,” he added and kept my gaze. He waited for a reaction.
I didn’t give him anything. I simply turned back to watch her and her partner.
The man she was with was built strong. Much taller than she was, and had ebony skin. It was so dark it was as if he actually wasn’t there.
“The guy?” I asked.
“He’s not my dad. My dad was killed in a raid a few years back.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said. “My dad was killed in a car accident when I was a baby.” I cringed at my word choice. Cars seemed to be something very different around here.
But when I looked back at Noc, there was genuine sadness.
The music ended and the couple stopped dancing. They kissed, and I couldn’t help but feel the emotion that must have been driving them. Their love was so clear. I wondered what it would be like to fall in love, and glanced over to Noc. I’d never thought about boys that way. Never wanted to be kissed, but now I did. My usual fight had got up and gone.
Noc talked for most of the next hour or so, I listened to his childhood woes and some of his trials before he joined the Guild. I asked a couple of questions relating to his stature in the game; his affiliations lay heavily like his mothers, magical. I had no doubts about the strength he had inside him, but where did that leave me, now?
I looked around the bar, realising that a lot of the others had gone. Just two people sat at the bar, and the barmaids had been replaced by a man in dark clothing.
“What do you want from me?” I asked.
Noc reached across the table, tentatively touching my resting hand with a finger, I didn’t flinch. “Tell me there’s not something between us.”
His eyes blazed, but all I could think of doing now was running.
“I can’t think like this.” I pulled my hand away from his and covered my eyes, kneading the sides of my temples. The vodka hadn’t affected me, but the lights in here were drawing. No, it wasn’t that, I was being pulled in two different places.
A loud yell came from the side of the bar. It was Alia. “Get away from her. Now!”
The command had Noc push his chair back and me scrambling for my daggers, but they were torn from my hands no sooner had I pulled them free.
Chapter 10
I tried to focus, but it was as if there were fuzzy lights and music everywhere. Alia approached, her hands glowing as fiery red as her hair. Noc, however, took a stance in front of me, squaring off against his mother.
“Do you know who she’s working for?” Alia asked him.
“I have my suspicions,” he said. “Let me deal with this.”
“You’re serious? You brought her to the one place we relax and you suspect her boss?”
Noc shrugged.
“I’m not taking that as an answer, boy.”
It was the way she called him boy that bothered me. Was he that young?
“I feel sick,” I muttered. Noc turned to face me and I wobbled. Leaning over our table, I reached for my beer, but missed the glass and caught it awkwardly. It spun away from me and shattered on the floor.
The dark clothed gentleman rushed over then and he took hold of my hand, a sheer yellow glow around his fingers as they clasped onto me.
“Can’t you see she’s in agony?” he spat at them. “There’s no use fighting over who she works for now she’s here. Let’s get her into the dungeon and the eye out of her head. The wards here can’t mask him anymore. Then we’ll discuss what we do with her.”
He didn’t need to drag me anywhere, I was putty in his hands and with one lift I was up and over his shoulder, watching the bar and dance room upside down as it bounced in my vision. We headed down some dark stairs, and I was dumped off his shoulder onto a straw mattress in exactly what he said. A dungeon.
Not again, I couldn’t do this again.
Alia entered with two others. They brought a tray of different gemstones with them, and silver artefacts. The objects were placed around the room and a vial handed to me.
“Drink,” she said. “If you don’t let us do this, we’ll kill you.”
I looked into Noc’s frowning face as I took the drink.
“Give us a chance,” he said, so I did. I downed the potion.
The splotch in the corner of my vision jumped to 20, pulsing rapidly. Stinging spread through my body and I jumped up, trying my best to rip my clothes off and then rip at the veins as they stung.
Alia and Noc were at my side in moments, holding me down. I realised I had ripped off my clothes. When I saw the bright glowing fire spread through my veins. I screamed. “What is it?”
“It will chase out the demon residing in your body. You’ve been living within the walls of a Hamu, right?”
I didn’t know what that was, but as my body convulsed, dark lines spread from where the red was, almost trying to flee my body.
“Here, I’ll have to cut her wrist, let it bleed out.” The dark man said.
“Cray, if you get this wrong she’s dead,” Alia replied, looking to Noc.
“She’ll re-spawn though, right?” said Noc. "She’s a Visitor?”
Alia didn’t answer and the fear of not re-spawning hit me. Did they have the power to kill me for real? Or was this one of the damned glitches?
“Please, no,” I begged. But he came at me with the dagger anyway. The pain as he sliced through my skin took my splotch to 24. Thick black blood started to drip and then pour out of me.
“Burning,” I screamed. “Stop it, please!”
The burning didn’t stop though, and my splotch shot to 29.
There was something tugging at my arm. I wasn’t sure what but when I opened my eyes I saw that bright fiery-red hair. Alia was bandaging my arm and glanced at me as I moved. “Stay back. You need rest. I’ll be here. Close your eyes.”
When I closed my eyes again, everything felt weird. There was a clarity to my thoughts that I’d not had for a while.
“What happened?” I asked.
I felt her presence as she sat on the mattress with me. “What happened was the demon watching your every move was cast
out and destroyed.”
“Won’t he know?” I asked. “He’ll kill me, find me, torture me.” My breathing quickened; I sucked in breath after breath.
I felt her warm hand on my chest and calmed down. “He won’t know it was removed in here under the wards we have. He won’t know where you’ve gone, or what you’re doing. We’ll protect you.”
I felt that panic rise again. There was a knock at the door and when I opened my eyes I saw the face of the woman I was supposed to kill.
“How is she?” Maddie asked.
“She’s very weak, but she’ll survive.”
My heart sank. “She knows, doesn’t she?”
Alia moved her hand from my chest. “A lot came out while you were in the throes of being separated from your demon, yes. We’ll have some questions for you in a few hours, but rest some more.”
Alia stood and moved towards Maddie at the doorway. Noc was there too, and slipped in between them before edging towards me.
I heard Maddie and Alia converse for but a moment.
“Is she clean?”
“She is, but she’s been under a lot of pressure. I don’t know the lasting damage to her mind. Visitors are so different, hard to judge.”
“She’s a kid.”
“A very skilled kid. In this world, she’s a killer, Maddie. Remember that.”
I closed my eyes, couldn’t look at Noc. He took my hand, but I shied away. “I’m a killer,” I said. “Don’t.”
Noc had gone by the time I came around with all my faculties in place. I wanted to get up and run away, anything but be here, but after many sleepless nights and testing out the place—yes, including the security in the room—I knew there was no way out.
So I sat. Waited.
Thoughts of what had happened to me crossed my mind, and emotions pushed to the surface. I would have looked like a right child if I hadn’t forced in a breath and moved to a meditative position to steady my mind.