by Mia Archer
Sarai looked out over the burned ruins of Choikal. Ruins that looked like skeletal fingers clawing for the sky in the darkness.
The shouting picked up. Clearly someone down there was excited about something. A fitful flickering light rounded a corner in the distance and she saw a party of people dressed in the uniforms of the witch school.
Her eyes narrowed. They had a full party. Guards. Mages. Witches. The full retinue that came when the mages came to the village as part of the Choice, but there were so many of them. Not to mention they were two days early for the Choice.
Green mist gathered out there in the city, but it parted around the party. As though the unquiet spirits wanted nothing to do with the magic that had put them there.
And as she looked she almost felt that she could see them up close. Like merely concentrating on them was enough to draw them closer.
She frowned. That was new as well. She thought it must have something to do with the magic. And as she looked she could see them pointing at her. Maybe they could do the same thing she was doing.
Maybe they could sense the magic within her.
“They see us,” she said, a note of alarm coming to her voice.
“What?” Tiafa asked. “How could you possibly know that?”
“Just trust me on this,” she said. “We need to get out of here. Now.”
The party from the witch school broke into a faster trot. Kwarks called out in the night. Clearly the large birds didn’t care for being out in the charred city ruins. From the shouts the people were making they didn’t care for the experience either.
“Oh no,” Tiafa said. “They do see us. What could…”
She trailed off. When Sarai turned to look at her friend she could see her looking her up and down.
Normally that would’ve sent a shiver and some heat running through her. Especially considering what they’d done with each other this night.
Not now, though. No, Tiafa’s stare made it abundantly clear to her exactly what it was the mages were looking at when they shouted and picked up the pace. They didn’t need to use special vision or some strange mage ability to pick her out from a distance.
They could see Sarai from the glow. From the criss-crossing lines that ran all over her body. Maybe she didn’t know exactly what was happening here, but from the way they were coming for them it was clear they had a pretty good idea of what had happened to her.
And she didn’t think anything good would happen when that group reached the tower. At least not if they were still there when the mages arrived.
“We need to get out of here,” she hissed. “Now.”
Sarai quickly gathered up her clothes. She looked at them for a moment and then decided she didn’t have time to throw them on. No, they needed to leave.
She felt something pulsing deep within her again. Not quite as intense as when she’d been with Tiafa, but intense enough that it felt like there was something that needed to be released. The mist gathered around them again, and it was almost as though she could hear voices in that mist speaking to her. Beckoning to her.
As though they wanted to do her bidding. She thought of stories where spirits and demons pretended they were under someone’s control. Right up to the moment that they revealed it was all part of a plan to steal someone’s soul by ripping it out through their back end.
Not that she had much of a choice if she wanted to get out of here fast. An idea formed in Sarai’s head. She wasn’t sure if it would work, but it was the only chance they had.
She grabbed Tiafa around the waist and pulled her over to the opening that had almost killed them just a short while ago. A seemingly short span of time that felt like an eternity after all they’d done in here this night.
No, they’d been distracted with each other for quite some time.
“Um, what are you doing Sarai?” Tiafa asked. “Because that’s sort of the scary hole in the floor that almost killed us earlier.”
“Trust me,” Sarai said, not even sure if it would work.
She knew she didn’t want to risk being caught by the witch school, though. All the thoughts she’d had about being locked away in some tower or being secreted away to one of their dungeons where they could torture her under the guise of experimenting came back, and she knew that death would be better than being caught.
Not that she really thought this would kill her. She wouldn’t dare do something dangerous with Tiafa in her arm. Not without a good reason, at least.
“Sarai!” Tiafa cried out, sensing what she was about to do.
But Sarai was decided. She felt a strength pulsing through her as the magic and the spirits surrounded her. Filled her.
She only wished she could guarantee that those spirits were beckoning her because they truly wanted to do her bidding, and not because they’d discovered a mortal foolish enough to listen to them and leap to her doom. She desperately hoped she wasn’t about to do something very stupid.
“What are you…”
Tiafa’s last protest cut off in a strangled scream as Sarai threw them off the edge of the hole they’d made. Only this time she didn’t feel the fear that’d seized her the last time around. No, this time she felt exhilaration. This time she felt alive.
This time she knew, somehow, that she wasn’t in any danger. That the same magic that’d saved them the last time would save them again.
Tiafa’s surprised strangled gasp turned to a whimper of terror as she realized what was happening. Hands reached out of the mist. Ephemeral spiritual echoes of the people who’d worked in this guard tower once upon a time.
They’d served the city even though it hadn’t done the city a damn bit of good, and now they were serving Sarai. She wasn’t sure how it was possible, but it was happening.
Hands touched her and she felt a tingle where they made contact. Tiafa burrowed against her and she luxuriated in the feel as they moved slowly and gently to the ground. Slowly, but still faster than the time it would’ve taken them to go down the stairs.
When they reached the ground she turned to look out the other side of the guard house. There was a gaping hole there leading into the city. A hole she’d never explored because her bravery had always ended at exploring the wall and the guard tower.
They’d made it to the bottom in record time thanks to her shortcut. The only problem was their pursuers were already closing in.
Mist gathered in tendrils. Low to the ground, but glowing with that pulsing green light that was so strange and terrifying.
And yet.
There was something about it that felt familiar now. Something about that light that felt right. She somehow knew it was working for her, and not against her. This wasn’t one of those stories where magic or spirits from beyond were trying to trick her.
She was in control. Not the spirits of the unquiet dead. Not the mages coming for them. Her. Sarai. She could use this magic.
“We’re too late,” Tiafa said.
“No,” Sarai said, standing tall even as the pursuers pointed to her. The shadows were pushed away as light pulsed from her tattoos. “No. I’m not letting them get us!”
The third magical explosion of the evening pulsed out from her.
18
Power
The magic pulsed out. She could see it because the mist surged out like a crashing ocean wave that overtook the soldiers and mages that threatened to capture them.
The magical mist certainly didn’t part around them. Not when she was directing it and bending it to her will.
Sarai stood in amazement at what she’d done. Men were knocked off of screaming Kwarks. They cried out in the night, the terror plain in their voices.
She even thought she might have heard some of them screaming about the Dark Lady returning. That would’ve been enough to make her laugh if it wasn’t terrifying enough to make her want to cry.
She wasn’t the Dark Lady. She didn’t know what had happened to her, but she wasn’t Jaska. She would never be like
that woman.
“What did you do Sarai?” Tiafa asked, awe touching her voice now rather than fear. “If I could do that on the front lines…”
“We’re not going to do anything on the front lines,” she said. “We’re going to get the burned ruins out of here.”
Sarai stopped and smiled. The burned ruins were a common curse around the village, and it felt a little odd to say they were going to get the burned ruins out of here when it was literally the burned ruins they were getting out of.
Something flashed out of the mist in the distance. A bolt of electricity that shot to the skies. Sarai watched it, incredulous.
She’d seen lightning before, but never like that. Never coming up from the ground. It moved slow enough that she could tell it was coming from the ground rather than being an instant lance of power that came down from the gods themselves.
Which told her there was magic being used there. If there was magic then that meant they were trying to defend themselves. If they were trying to defend themselves then…
A roiling ball of fire flew out from the mist, and whoever fired it off didn’t have any trouble with aim like the person who threw the lightning bolt.
Sarai stared in awe as it came towards them, then something hit her in the side and she slammed to the ground. The wind was knocked out of her and Tiafa was on top of her, though it wasn’t nearly as pleasant this time as it’d been a little earlier.
“What the…”
The fireball slammed into the tower and stone fell around them. Sarai cried out as chunks of stone slammed down around them. One particularly big chunk looked like it was about to crush them, but just before it hit something came out of the mist. Something huge. Something that should have been terrifying.
It looked like the creature she’d seen earlier, huge and made of bones, and it caught that giant chunk of stone like it weighed nothing.
Sarai shivered. She’d never been more glad to discover something was on her side. It could’ve ripped them apart if it wanted to. Instead it was saving her.
The thing tossed the rock to the side, then walked over to the entrance and held its massive arms up. A crack was moving up the wall there and the whole stone structure was about to fall down around them.
They were right by the exit, but unfortunately that was the exit that led into the city. They could escape, but that escape would take them right into arms of the mages or the more monstrous things that supposedly lurked in the ruins.
Sarai honestly couldn’t decide which would be worse.
“We need to get out of here. Now!” she shouted.
She wasn’t sure where she found the will to act, but suddenly she was hit with determination. She’d already escaped death enough times this night that there wasn’t a chance she was going to let crumbling architecture do her in. There also wasn’t a chance she was going to be in the city when the tower came down.
She wasn’t going to die such a mundane death when there’d been so many fantastical things trying to kill her this night.
She grabbed Tiafa and pulled her. Tiafa let out a cry of her own and looked up at the cracking and crumbling structure, but once she realized the danger they were in she found her legs and ran with Sarai.
They sprinted out into the Ghost Fields, only there was something different about them. They were unlike anything Sarai had ever seen before in the many nights she’d spent in this place.
The fields were alive, though even as the thought crossed her mind she realized how ridiculous it was. Everything out there was dead and had been dead since she was a young girl, but something had made the dead very angry this night.
The unquiet dead were out in full force. Not merely the hint of spirits, but actual creatures. Hints of darkness boiling in the glowing green mist that was gathering around Choikal like a solid wall. The spirits of those who’d been killed in the burned out ruins were out in force tonight.
“Burned ruins,” Tiafa said. “What happened here?”
All the creatures were streaming towards the guard tower. Tiafa let out a cry as it seemed like they were headed directly for them, but the undead streamed past them and through the rapidly crumbling tower.
More screams filled the night from the other side, but the tower came down between them and any mortal pursuit. Dust blew out and a dull glow rose. A dull orange glow. Not the green Sarai had seen for most of the night.
The fireball must’ve set something alight in there before it collapsed the tower, and the whole thing was about to go up in a spectacular conflagration.
“We need to get out of here,” she said. “It won’t be long before they have people on this side of the tower, and we don’t want to be here when that happens.”
“Agreed,” Tiafa said.
Sarai took Tiafa by the hand and had another one of those moments where she couldn’t believe this was actually happening. She couldn’t believe this night had actually gone this well.
Sure the night had involved being almost attacked by the dead spirits that inhabited the Ghost Fields. Sure part of that evening had involved nearly dying by falling through the floor of an abandoned guard tower. Then the magic had taken her and there was also the bit where they were chased by mages, witches, and soldiers who’d obviously come to the outskirts of the city from the witch school when they realized there was something strange in this particular burnt out neighborhood.
Still, on balance she couldn’t help but think that the evening had gone well. She’d shared that incredible moment with Tiafa, after all. Something that went beyond anything she’d dreamed of in her fantasies when she thought of going out to that burnt out ruin.
And now she was escaping hand in hand with Tiafa as they tried their best to avoid the mages and witches from the witch school.
It was exhilarating. It was incredible. On balance it was a pretty good night.
19
Sneaking Home
They moved through the silence of the Ghost Fields, pausing at the edge to put Sarai’s clothes back on. She’d been so caught up in the moment that she hadn’t cared that she was running across the Ghost Fields wearing practically nothing, but the closer they got to the village the more embarrassed she got about her state.
It was like a spell had been broken, but judging from the way Tiafa looked at her as she dressed there was at least one spell cast this night that hadn’t broken completely.
“What are we going to do about those?” Tiafa asked, nodding to the faint glowing lines still running across Sarai’s skin.
“They’re not as obvious now as they were in the guard tower,” Sarai said. “Maybe by the time we get to the village they’ll be gone.”
“Maybe,” Tiafa said, though she didn’t sound so sure.
Sarai wasn’t sure either. After all, she knew nothing about this magic or what it could do or why it’d decided to take her of all people.
Sarai almost thought they were going to make it back to the village without incident. Almost, but the closer they got the more obvious it was that something was going on.
She cursed. If the village was sleeping then she wouldn’t have to worry about those lines. They grew fainter with every passing second, but they were still there.
Normally at this time of night most lights in the village would be out. She knew because she’d snuck out to the Ghost Fields often enough that she had a feel for the village after dark.
It wasn’t the kind of place that had much of a night life. Even the inn closed early. Everyone had work to get to in the morning. Even the drunks didn’t have too much time to spend in the sauce since they all had work to do the next morning.
Only tonight the lights twinkled. Tonight it was clear something had roused the village, and as she turned back to Choikal she had a pretty good idea what that something was.
The Ghost Fields glowed brighter than she’d ever seen before. She wondered if it was as bright as the nights after the flames took the city.
The oldsters in the village wh
o’d been around to witness the burning said the Ghost Fields had glowed with the sorrow of the dead for months after, and it was only years after that things finally settled down and people felt safe enough to venture close and retrieve things.
Not that there were many who were brave enough to even do that, and no one had been near the Fields in years as far as she knew. No one but her, that is.
She’d always discounted that, thinking stories had grown in the telling over the years. Now, though, she saw what the Ghost Fields could look like when they were in their full fury.
“This isn’t going to be easy to explain,” Tiafa said.
“We’re not going to have to explain anything,” Sarai said.
“But the whole village is awake,” Tiafa said. “My parents will be up and they’ll know I’ve been out. This isn’t going to end well.”
Sarai gave her friend’s hand a squeeze. Though she had to wonder if friends still accurately described what they were to one another. Something had changed between her and Tiafa this night, and while she loved that change she also couldn’t help but feel a touch of melancholy at it.
Nothing that’d happened this night changed the fact that they were going to be forced into the Choice. One more day, one more night, and then it would come. They’d be sent to far flung outposts of the world and probably never see one another again.
Unless there was a life after this one since that was the most likely fate for anyone after the Choice.
Sarai wasn’t going to think about that. It was too much on top of everything else that’d happened this night.
“No, that’s not going to happen,” she said. “We’re going to go back to the village, and we’re going to pretend we were there this whole time.”
She looked to the lights with worry. If the people weren’t out in the streets then her new plan would be useless, but there was only one way to find out.
“Come on,” she said, taking Tiafa by the hand and surprising herself at how she was so easily taking command. Yet another of the many changes that’d come over her this night.