The wizard opened his arms in a peaceful gesture and smirked. “And here I was thinking you would be nicer. Maybe give us a welcoming gift. We’ve come a long way you know. Is it too much to ask for a little hospitality?”
Without hesitating, I responded.
“For someone who attacks an unarmed, weaker man—absolutely.”
I thought I saw something like appraisal in his gaze as he looked me up and down.
He grinned. “For your information, he attacked first. What’s your name, sweetheart?”
I hesitated, but Tykon did not.
He had managed to raise himself to a sitting position and glared at me hatefully.
“It’s Byanka,” he told the wizard. “And you can have her. Make her your bride. Take her in exchange for protecting us.”
Seemingly forgetting about me, the wizard turned to Tykon. “Protecting you?” he asked, one eyebrow raised.
Tykon nodded. “Someone of your power can only do two things, wizard: Protect or destroy. I’d prefer protection.”
The wizard seemed to reflect on these words for a moment. Then he cast a quick look my way. I was too stunned to react. Tykon was offering me up as collateral? As a peace offering?
“What do you hold over her to be able to ‘give her’ to us?” the wizard asked Tykon.
Tykon smirked. “She was promised to me and everyone else in her family is dead.”
I was speechless. His words were true, but the simple terms he used to describe the facts were startling, nonetheless. Why had I tried to save him again? I was struggling to remember.
I would have shouted, fought, cried for my freedom, but the hatred in Tykon’s voice and eyes told me clearly what would happen if I refused, and I had no hope of help from the other villagers if he tried to come after me.
My gaze drifted to the other wizard. She had seemed kind enough. She’d said she would heal Fywin. But now she was watching the situation unfold, not trying to step in. She was letting this happen. Didn’t that make her less good than she had appeared at first?
Or so I thought.
She was staring at her companion, eyes widened with surprise and incomprehension. But as though she sensed me looking at her, her gaze turned to me and I saw determination in it. She pushed her shoulders back and strode forward, grabbing the other wizard by the shoulder.
“Marcus,” she hissed. “What are you doing?”
The fair-haired wizard, Marcus, shrugged and laughed.
“I’m letting them present me with an offering.”
The dark-haired wizard shook her head, frowning.
“But why? This isn’t our mission! He can’t just give you a girl!”
Mission.
That word implied that they were here to accomplish something. It meant that someone had sent them. Someone even more powerful.
“I’ll do it!” I blurted out and stepped forward.
All eyes turned to me in a spout of absolute silence.
I gulped at the sudden attention, glancing about me to read the situation. It might be a spur of the moment decision, but my mind was made up. I squared my shoulders and stuck my chin out, a conscious movement designed to show my determination and to make myself feel what I wanted to project. Uncertainty still gnawed on me, however. I had no way of knowing if this would work out. All I knew was that there was a chance.
If I stayed here, stayed in Tykon’s reach… my life would be eternal torture, if he even let me stay alive in the first place.
“I’ll do it,” I repeated, to emphasize my point. “I’ll come with you and become the bride of one of you.”
I met both of their gazes, alike in their surprise, but different in what else they communicated. Marcus spoke of greed, curiosity. The other wizard spoke of concern.
“Under the condition that you heal my brother,” I continued and turned to Syanton to take Fywin back. He handed him over readily, his hand lingering on mine in a gesture of compassion and gratefulness. By going with the wizards, marrying one of them, I created a bond. The obligation, if not to aid and protect this village, at least not to harm it.
Provided they chose to accept me and my terms.
I cradled Fywin, his body limp and weak in my arms, much more so than I had realized earlier. His breathing had become shallower. I pressed him against me, suddenly scared about losing him all over again, and I looked at the dark-haired, kind wizard, pleadingly. If only she accepted…
“Well, what do you say, Lucia?” Marcus asked, grinning evilly. “Shall we take the little mynx?”
Lucia shook her head, sternly.
“We can’t,” she decided. She turned to me. “But we will heal your brother.”
She came forward and reached out to take him from my arms. I wanted to retreat like before, but the concern about Fywin’s wellbeing made me give in. Magic could heal him, I was sure. The village doctor, a man in close standing to Tykon, probably wouldn’t even bother to try. Not for an orphan with no money to speak of. Not when Tykon loomed over him, telling him to get rid of the nuisance.
“Please look after him,” I whispered, and Lucia nodded, before both of the wizards turned back toward the monster.
With that, Fywin was taken from my side, and I was left behind, standing beside Tykon in my dirty and torn wedding dress.
Suddenly, I was yanked by my hair and pushed to the ground. I screamed, more because of the surprise and shock than from the pain. Tykon was above me, his face a grimace of fury and hatred.
“You think you’re too good for me, huh?” he spat. “Well, no one’s coming to save you. No one wants you.”
I was terrified of the need for violence his entire posture portrayed, but I couldn’t look away from his eyes.
“Making me a laughingstock in front everyone,” he continued. “Actually raising a hand to me.”
Finally, I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to see how he was going to hurt me this time. This was going to be the rest of my life. I had nothing and no one to turn to. No one who wouldn’t take Tykon’s side, anway. “Well, now you’re going to pay.”
I felt his body move as he readied to punch. I was prepared for the impact, but the strike never came.
Instead, I heard a kind, but sharp voice. “I changed my mind.”
My eyes tore open to see Lucia towering over me, one hand gripping Tykon’s raised fist. Her stare was ice-cold.
“Huh?” Tykon asked stupidly.
“I changed my mind,” Lucia repeated patiently. “I will take her as my bride.”
She pushed Tykon off of me, and helped me up, her gaze softening the moment it met mine.
“You don’t have an issue with that, do you?” she asked Tykon sweetly, but he was too busy staring and trying to catch up with everything to give a coherent answer.
Lucia shrugged, put an arm around my waist, and led me gently away from the crowd, away from Tykon, and toward the silver bird. Toward my brother.
“You just had to take her,” Marcus groaned.
Lucia shrugged. “You’re the one who came up with the idea. Besides, it looked like she was in danger.”
“And what are we going to do with her now?”
I was only half-listening to their argument, even though it concerned me. Instead, I was trying hard to remember breathing. I was inside the silver monster. Actually inside of it. It wasn’t the guts I had expected, but rather a room with chairs bolted into the floor, a table, and shelves, of sorts. They were operated with some kind of strange mechanism and looked different to anything I had ever seen. The materials used for everything appeared to be metal, or some form of firm fabric. There was light here, as though sunlight was magically captured by stones in the ceiling that now shone down on us. At one wall, there was a large board with knobs, mounds and levers, all marked with strange, foreign symbols. There were also tiny flames inside the mounds that lit up periodically with different colors. Strangely, they didn’t seem to emit any heat.
I couldn’t tell what function it serv
ed. Was it some kind of magical toy? A show of power? Was it used to create more powerful spells, like the lightning blast Marcus had used on Tykon?
I strolled back over to the strange bed they had put Fywin into. It was like a cylinder, filled with a slimy blue liquid, but keeping his face clear to breathe. Some tiny magical spirits in the slime were meant to repair his body, Lucia had given them a name—nanobots.
I glanced back at her pacing back and forth, talking to Marcus, and wondered how many more creatures she commanded. And how she did it.
Was magic something I could learn?
But first, based on their conversation, I supposed I ought to make myself useful somehow. They had saved me after all, and were saving Fywin as well. Hopefully.
“What were you thinking, getting into a fight with that guy? You know they’re primitive.” Lucia’s accusation made me flinch.
Primitive.
Looking around, I realized it must be true to their eyes, but still, it was such a degrading idea. Besides, how could I be able to be useful to them if they had magic? How far did their magical power reach?
“He attacked first,” Marcus sulkily justified himself. “It’s called self-defense?”
He was lying across a large padded chair—a seat that already integrated cushioning, imagine that!—like a spoiled brat who didn’t want to face responsibilities. I’d seen the carefree attitude often enough throughout the years. Most recently from Tykon. Even though his attitude and posture left a bad taste in my mouth, I didn’t doubt the truth of his words.
Tykon had a tumultuous temper and could change his mind about things instantly without prompting and could act equally fast and recklessly. I doubted Marcus’ rebuke changed any of that, however.
“Fine,” Lucia sighed. She glanced at me and smiled, but it didn’t feel genuine. It was strained at the corners of her mouth, and didn’t reach her eyes.
“Byanka,” she called. “Are you hungry at all? Thirsty?”
I shook my head. I couldn’t eat at a time like this. Fywin still hadn’t opened his eyes, and I didn’t know the situation I was in. I doubted my stomach could handle the food if I tried.
“Then how about I show you the ship?”
“Ship?” I asked, before I could stop myself. “You have a ship?”
The river was close, so it wasn’t out of the question that there could be a nautical vessel there, but I had assumed their sole method of transportation had been the silver bird we were currently occupying.
They both laughed at my question. I wondered if I should feel stupid.
“You’re on the ship, genius,” Marcus teased.
I frowned. “The bird ate your ship?”
Before Marcus could give me another testy reply, Lucia was beside me, guiding me toward a wall that slid open sideways quietly. Magic.
“I’ll just show you,” she said smoothly.
Once we had left the room, she offered me his arm, and I took it gratefully. After everything that had happened, my body was exhausted. I could have happily laid down for hours, but my mind was restless, and curious about the new situation I was in. This was definitely better than what Tykon had had in store for me, but I wasn’t about to let my guard down just yet. I didn’t know the wizards, not really. Yet I had just promised myself to Lucia.
As she led us down a long, grey hallway with strange devices on both sides, I scrutinized her face.
She had shown me kindness twice. What was she hoping to get out of it?
She wasn’t a particularly pretty or handsome woman, but because of her aid when I needed it, she looked more beautiful to me than any other person I had ever seen before.
“Byanka.” She said my name slowly, deliberately, as though she were savoring each syllable. It sent a shiver down my spine and blood rushed to my face. She made my name sound like a secret code. A secret shared between only the two of us.
“Back home, we have that name too. Bianca. In my mother’s language, it means white.”
I was pretty sure my blush deepened to crimson.
White. Like my dress. Like the first fresh snow. Like the clouds. Things that encased beauty but were oh so fleeting. Like human life.
I wanted to say something, anything, but nothing witty came to mind. Instead, I decided to let myself be inspired by my surroundings. We had passed through the hallway and reached another room, the wall--or door, I supposed--which Lucia opened by magic again. It revealed to us a smaller room, made with a small, but luxurious looking bed, bolted down to the floor and a wardrobe. There were no windows.
“This is your room for as long as you’ll be with us,” she told me.
“Your words imply that it won’t be forever,” I noted. “Did you not want me as your bride?”
Now it was her turn to blush. She didn’t look me in the eye as she tousled her hair, trying to hide her embarrassment.
“It… It doesn’t really work for us that way,” she said, evading me. “We don’t do arranged marriages. We marry the person we love.”
I nodded. “It’s the same for us.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“Normally,” I added. “But I didn’t have much of a choice.”
A silence followed my words, where both of us focused on our own thoughts. Me, on my life, what it had been the last few months, and what it could have been if the wizard hadn’t saved me. Her, I hadn’t the faintest idea.
Suddenly, she grabbed my elbow.
“Come, let me show you somewhere more comfortable.”
I let her guide me through a verifiable labyrinth of hallways, all more or less looking the same, adorned with magical paraphernalia I couldn’t understand.
Finally, she opened a door and both of us slipped through. I recognized the smell instantly. It was the smell of plants and of earth. Then the sun stones came to life, along with the usual sounds of a forest, the chirping of birds, and there was even a little breeze that ruffled my dress ever so slightly.
I was looking at a forest. A forest with strange plants I had never seen before. They bore similarities to our own plants, of course, but the shape of the leaves and the forming of the bark were unfamiliar to me. I felt as though I had entered some kind of magical fairy land. I took a few steps forward, my feet relishing the softness of the earth compared to the hard ground everywhere else in the bird.
Everywhere I looked, there were flowers too, in colors straight from a rainbow. They brought sweetness to the musty scent.
Lucia glided in next to me and guided me through the forest slowly to give me time to admire it. We arrived at a seat next to a little waterfall in a brook where we sat down.
I was at a loss for words, despite all the questions racing through my mind.
“I like to come here every now and then. It brings me calm. It was designed for our mental health.”
I cleared my throat. “How is this possible?” I whispered. Magic. I reminded myself, expecting that’s what she would tell me.
“It’s quite simple, really,” she said instead.
I spun on her, not even trying to disguise my surprise and outrage. “Simple?” I echoed, trying to make sure I had heard her right. “You have an entire forest and sunlight inside your… giant bird! Nothing about this is simple!”
Lucia laughed embarrassedly. “Sorry, I see where you’re coming from. Let me explain.” She looked around us. “Where to begin…?”
“The light,” I suggested.
She smiled. “Alright then. See, it’s artificial. This isn’t trapped sunlight. It’s electricity that is transferred to this tiny wire and by being pushed into that small space, it creates heat, which makes the wire glow and ultimately distributes the light.”
My confusion must have been evident because she elaborated.
“It’s like very small lightning, you see? We can create it from energy we accumulate.”
I nodded. I didn’t really understand, but I got that she harnessed the power of lightning, turning it into a constant light sou
rce, rather than only a flash.
“We’ve modified the process a little, so it’s more like sunlight though. We do need to get Vitamin D when we’re traveling and the plants need it too. This whole place serves as a kind of oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange. It helps filter our air. There is an underground irrigation system that makes sure all the plants have as much water as they need, and the thermostat makes sure the temperature stays constant. The sounds you hear are actually recordings from animals on my home planet. We couldn’t bring any of them with us, of course. It’s just to make it seem more authentic.”
She might as well have been speaking another language. My blank face must have reflected all my lack of understanding because Lucia laughed uncomfortably and tousled her hair like before.
“Magic,” I concluded.
“Technology,” she argued. “It only seems like magic when you don’t understand how it works.”
I let my gaze wander over our surroundings. It was still magic, no matter what she said. I suppose this kind of thing was normal in her homeland, so she wouldn’t consider it fantastical. Perhaps they had different guidelines for what counted as magic.
“Can you teach me?” I ventured.
A flash of surprise crossed her features, but she caught herself quickly. “Some things, sure, but probably not today. We need to figure out what to do with you first.”
Her words worried me, and I clutched the skirt of my dress. My mother’s handiwork was ruined. It was dirty and torn, and barely white anymore. It saddened me to see what had become of it, but so much had happened today…
“Can’t we stay with you?” I asked, not daring to look at her.
She sighed.
“It’s not that simple. Besides, your home is here.”
Frustrated, I bit my lip and turned my head away.
Yeah. Some home it was. Forcing me to marry a man I despised, letting my brother almost die, selling me off to complete strangers.
“Byanka,” Lucia said gently. She leaned forward to catch a glimpse of my face, but I was hiding behind my hair. “Tell me about what was going on when we arrived.”
Space Bound: A Dragon Soul Press Anthology Page 22