by Sarah Thomie
“What are you planning to do?” First Son asked them, hoping they would not bite his head off like the last City Elves they liberated.
“We are City Elves, and we have heard stories about Wood Elves, along with this experience.” The woman became their de facto leader. She swept her long, light brown hair back over her shoulders. She stood tall, her blue eyes glittering with worry. “I do not know what we are going to do now.”
“If you need a safe place, our Clan can take you all in,” Ursus offered. “It is not like the cities, but if this City Elf can learn how to live in the forest with us, maybe you all can, too.” He then also added, “But if you prefer something else, I am sure we can figure out an arrangement. Maybe a village for City Elves where they can be protected by both of our Clans.”
The woman looked to the other City Elves. “We do not want to stay slaves.”
“Wood Elves do not have slaves,” the males all said at once.
The woman looked to me. “Is that true?”
I nodded. “I came to the Moon Clan after running from my former master. They accepted me as one of their own. I will never allow anyone to own my life again.” I smiled. “I like my freedom too much.”
“Freedom…” She sounded wistful. She shook her head and looked to Ursus. “We will go with you and make plans on whether we will stay with the Wood Elves or make our own establishment.”
“Sounds good to me,” Ursus replied. “We will leave whenever your people are ready. It is less than a day’s trek—"
“It will take a day and a half,” I interrupted him. “City Elves are shorter than Wood Elves. Since they are not used to walking long distances or in the woods, it will take longer to get there.”
Ursus looked to the City Elves then back to me. “So, you are not just abnormally small?”
I growled. “No. Keep teasing me, and you will kiss the dirt.”
He made a face to the City Elf woman. “Do all City Elves have large bravado?”
She laughed. “Would not know. We have to keep our true personalities secret, lest the humans decide that we are no longer useful to them.”
“What happens if you are no longer useful?”
“If we are lucky? We are sold. If we are unlucky…” I told him, my voice trailing off. “That is why my former bastard of a master decided to torch the buildings where the City Elves lived.”
“City Elves are property. So, if someone loses them to, let us say a fire, the kingdom will compensate that master for the loss,” the City Elf woman explained.
“Then why would you not fight back? I mean, you already have the worry that you will be killed if you are no longer useful, on the whim of a human,” Ursus asked her.
She hesitated. “I have only been whipped once in my life. It was the worst pain I have ever felt, including bones breaking and childbirth. The fact that your City Elf is covered in lash scars is a testament to her willingness to take the pain. If I never have to feel the whip in my back again, then it would do anything to stop it.”
“Ursus, you have never had to feel what it is like. She is right in that it is the worst pain you can imagine.” I hoped he would understand.
He looked contemplative, then grabbed the whip from the ground. “Whip me.”
“What?” the City Elf woman and I asked him at the same time.
“I need to understand what you two are talking about, to understand why City Elves would choose bondage. If we are to help them, then I need to know how I can connect with them.”
“You do not have to—"
I cut her off. “Are you sure? Are you absolutely positive that you need to feel this to understand their plight?”
“Yes.” He did not hesitate.
I looked at the City Elf woman. “Get your people away from here; I do not want them to see this.” She nodded and gathered them up. “We will meet you in the large stone building over there.” I then pointed to the building standing alone at the edge of the village. The other City Elves followed her. I looked to First Son and Howling Wolf. “I am not going to ask you two to help me. Maybe you should go with the City El—"
“Not a chance,” Howling Wolf interrupted me. “Tell me what to do.”
“Ursus, pass your axe to First Son.” I waited for him to comply. “Strip off your top.”
He took it off and threw it at the ground.
“Knock the wind out of him.” My voice was cold.
First Son punched Ursus in the stomach, Ursus’s breathing to become ragged. “Grab him and bring him with me.” The two Moon Clan Elves lunged forward and grabbed onto Ursus hard enough he could not fight. They carried him to where the whipping pole was. By the time he was chained to it, he was finally able to breathe again. “Last chance, slave. Comply with your master or feel the taste of the leather.” My voice was even, despite the anger and rage I felt for myself for doing this to a friend.
“I will never comply, human,” he growled at me, as I stood behind him.
I readied the whip, but Howling Wolf took it from me. I gave him three fingers for three lashings, a regular occurrence for most City Elf punishments. I pointed between Ursus’s shoulder blades. Howling Wolf’s eyes widened, but he nodded.
“I am sorry, Ursus,” I whispered
“Just—"
The whip whistled through the air; it slammed into the spot between his shoulder blades. He screamed in pain, grabbing onto the chains that held him. The next lash went a bit to the left, then the third to the right. His skin was covered in sweat and blood, dripping down his back. He was having problems pushing through the pain to breathe. I did not warn him about the secondary burns from the sweat getting into the wounds.
“Leave him there.” I pulled the two Moon Clan Elves away from the area. “Take his axe and shirt and go to where the City Elves are. Send the City Elf Matriarch back here. She will know what to bring.”
They looked like they were going to argue, but I shook my head in a warning. They did as I said, leaving Ursus and I. I sat on the ground, watching the blood start to clot, but every time sweat encountered the wounds, his breathing was pained. The City Elf woman came over to where I was.
She sucked in a breath as she saw Ursus’s back. “You really did it.”
“He is a stubborn ox, so he would have found a way to do this. At least me doing it means it would not get out of hand. Did you bring the kit?”
“Yes, your Wood Elf males said that I would know what to bring.”
We waited until Ursus’s breathing evened out, telling us that he was unconscious. “Well, time to get him down. I just wonder what his partner is going to say when she sees his back.” I stood up to unchain him.
“He is married, and he chose to do this? Why?! Why would he mar his body like this just to feel the pain?”
“I have lived with Wood Elves for over five years now. Trust me when I say that the males tend to forget that they are not all-powerful Gods of the forest.” I put him over my shoulders and down my back to carry him. “Go ahead and get the chains undone so we can get him fixed up.”
She took the chains from around his wrists, dropping him onto my back.
“We may forget that we are not forest Gods, but I know a former City Elf who forgets that she cannot take on the world without help.” Howling Wolf pulled Ursus off me.
“I had him,” I grumbled.
“You were about to collapse from his weight, my little Snow.” He blew me a kiss, then walked to where the City Elves were.
“They are nothing like the stories say they are,” the City Elf woman mumbled.
We moved to where the other Elves were. “No, they are not. That is why they need your help. City Elves don’t trust Wood Elves because of those stories. They trust me even less. But if a Matriarch trusts them, then the City Elves are more likely to trust them. The Wood Elves will help teach everyone how to live out here and offer protection. In exchange, the City Elves can become a trading post and neutral territory for the Clans. It will be a lot
of work, but I am hoping that one day, the City Elves will be free from their bondage forever.”
“I want that, too.” Her eyes became misty with tears.
“Then let us fulfill that dream, Matriarch.”
“Have you heard of the Reckoning?” she asked me.
I nodded. “It is our oldest myth, a creature of the Goddess who avenges those under its protection.”
“I have always wondered if there was some sort of truth to it, or if it was always a myth to give us hope during dark times,” she mused out loud. “How do you get over the fear that has been ingrained in us for so long? That terror of what would happen if you got recaptured.”
“I never did, truthfully. You see, I was caught after being with the Wood Elves. I thought that I would never see them again. The thing I was able to learn is that we protect our own. They found me and saved me. They could have decided that I was not worth it, or that the threat of capture was too great. They never hesitated in coming for me,” I explained. “I still have nightmares and wake up in a cold sweat, thinking I was back under the humans. It took a while for the Wood Elves to convince me that my life is worth just as much as anyone else’s.” I opened the door.
“Is that why you have a name?” She started to work on Ursus’s back, as I handed her the herbs Sparrow gave me.
“No,” Howling Wolf answered her. “She has a name because she killed a bear that attacked the village.”
The City Elves looked between Howling Wolf and me, their jaws dropped.
“She was given a warrior’s name because of that. Normally, our females get their names when they start their yearly blood.”
The Matriarch and the other City Elves flushed in embarrassment.
“Howling Wolf, it is not polite to talk about that in mixed company.”
“You do with the gossip girls,” he pointed out.
I raised an eyebrow at him. “Are you female? Did you grow breasts and lose a certain part of your anatomy?” He was about to answer when Ursus started to stir. “Do not move. The Matriarch is getting you fixed up, so do not move unless you want to reopen the wounds.”
“This is what awaited you every time you rebelled?” Ursus whispered.
“Yes. Would you be willing to fight, knowing that the humans outnumber you and that pain is what awaits if you failed in your rebellion?” I asked.
“No, I would not.” He looked at me from where the Matriarch was working. “No wonder you throw your life with reckless abandon. Glad she is yours, because I would have probably throttled her for how much she puts you through.”
“Done,” the Matriarch told him. “The skin is still fragile, so if you retear them open, you will scar up more than just the lash lines you will get from this.”
“Then how is Snow’s body covered in scars that are not just lines?” Ursus asked her while Howling Wolf and First Son helped him sit up.
“Because we started healing your back quickly. Part of the punishment is to leave the Elf hanging from the chains. And if the Elf is female…” She tried to figure out how to say it without being blunt.
I did not have that problem. “Half Elf children are rarely created from love.”
The Wood Elf males stiffened at that.
“My scars are worse because every time they tried that with me; I fought them. I made sure their hands became slick with my blood. I made damned sure that every time they looked at their bed, they would see the blood they spilled. Then they would see it while they were looking to rape another Elf. Most human males cannot keep those images from their heads, so they would not use a City Elf woman that way after me.” I shook the memories off. “But enough about that kind of talk. She has agreed to become the Matriarch of the City Elf settlement. So, First Son and Cristata will have to figure out how to make that happen.”
“Speaking of Cristata, how are we going to explain Ursus’ wounds to her?” Wolf asked me.
I put my palms out in front of me. “Do not look at me. He gets to explain it to his partner about it, since it was his idea.”
“How long until he can walk?” First Son looked at the Matriarch.
“A few hours. That will also give us long enough to take any supplies the humans left,” she answered, giving a silent command to a couple of the City Elves. “Speaking of them, what do we do with the bodies?”
“We leave them for the creatures of the forest. With the rain, their blood should wash away, ” First Son told her.
“At least some good will come from the humans being here,” the Matriarch mused.
“Besides freedom?”
She grinned, showing a sadistic side that matched mine. “The predators will be too full to worry about us.”
Chapter 18
“Sparrow!” I called out.
“Sh!” She grabbed me and hid behind a building.
“What is—" She covered my mouth with her hand.
“Quiet! They will hear you!” she whispered sharply.
I used my hands to ask her who.
“First Son and Wolf. They have been sneaking around and have been very secretive lately. They are planning something.”
I signed that they are always secretive because of their jobs.
“Do you know what they are planning?”
I shook my head.
“Then it has nothing to do with their work.” She bit her thumb, keeping an eye on them.
I whispered, “Why do you not just ask them?”
She looked at me, shocked. “What makes you think they would tell me?”
“I know that they are planning on going up to the City Elf settlement for a couple of days with a few warriors to teach the City Elves how to protect themselves.”
She jolted and grabbed my shirt. “They have been spending a lot of time up there recently. Did you not say that their Elder is a woman?”
“Not Elder. Matriarch. Age is not a factor in City Elf leaders,” I corrected her.
She freaked out. “What if First Son is falling in love with her?”
“Why would he?” I asked her, hoping she could see how absurd that idea was.
“She is a strong leader. From what some of the warriors said about her, she carries an air about her that fascinates them. What if First Son finds her fascinating, too?”
“They like her because she is something new and shiny. Remember how they acted when I first got here? Same kind of thing. Once I was no longer a new toy to play with, they stopped looking at me like that.”
“They leave you alone because you kept kicking their asses, then Wolf claimed you as his,” she grumbled.
“Look, Sparrow. You know that this is ridiculous, correct?”
“But the warriors talk about her with awe. They say that she is delicate, but strong willed. She is beautiful with her shining light brown hair and blue eyes. How can I compete with that?”
“You do not have to. First Son—"
She covered my mouth as the two males came over, each carrying a heavy sack, “Good morning, Sparrow, Snow.” First Son smiled. “What are you two up to today?”
Sparrow spoke first. “I have to help the ladies with the…washing.” She practically ran away, leaving the three of us.
“What was that about? It is not a washing day.”
“She is just having an off day.” I looked at my friend as she escaped into the throng of Clans mates. “So, what have you two been up to?”
Howling Wolf showed me what was in his sack. “Winter is coming, so we wanted to make sure the City Elves had things to keep them warm over the cold months. The males there already know how to chop wood and make a fire, but these pelts should help them conserve their dried wood.”
First Son showed me his. “I asked the gossip girls to help put together things that they think the City Elves would need to get started on making things, so they can start their trading post.”
I picked up some of the different fabrics and remembered something. “You should also see if any of them have yarn, since a lot
of City Elf females usually weave things in their off times. It helps pass the time faster when the nights are long. And it allows them to gossip like the gossip girls do over their cooking.”
“That is a great idea! I will see if they have anything.” First Son went back to the village.
Howling Wolf looked at me and grabbed my hand. He led me to a tree that the villagers planted a few years ago for me. We climbed on top of our home. “Now what did you not want him to know?”
“Sparrow is worried that the Matriarch is catching First Son’s eye.”
“What?” He apparently was not expecting that.
“She thinks that because the Matriarch is fascinating to many of the warriors that visit the City Elf settlement, that First Son thinks so, too. She is not listening to reason when I tried to explain that they like her because she is something different than them, just like I was. Add in that a few of the warriors are young eligible males, and I could see why they would decide to stay in the settlement to help protect it.”
“My sister is an idiot sometimes.”
“No, she is not. She is just a woman in love who does not see that First Son only has eyes for her. I just hope she does not do anything stupid that would jeopardize that. I know how she feels sometimes. Even though I know that you love me, it is hard seeing how some of the women in the village keep hoping to steal you away.”
“They what?” He gaped.
“They brush up against you, touch your arm while they talk to you, ask you to help when with something they can do themselves to get your attention. If you had shown any of them anything more than the kindness that you carry, I would be in Sparrow’s position. Then again, if you ever showed any inclination of wanting to be with someone new, I would step aside for them. But I know that you only have eyes for me.”
I could see the wheels in his head turning, as he realized what I was talking about. “If another male tried to take you away from me, I would kick their ass in a Test of Taking.”