A Single Spark

by Tayvia Pierce

  I stared at him, thinking this was the moment when I should feel heartbreak, but there was only the eerie calm of knowing. Yes, we will talk tomorrow, but it will not be the conversation you want it to be. I shook my head firmly. "I will not. Ben has something important to say, and he will not tell me if you are present. Go back to the Pipe & Fiddle and keep Rhian safe."

  Brynmor scowled back at me, and I wasn’t sure if he fully understood what was happening. He had fully expected me to capitulate, and now that I was still refusing, was left with no options that would get him what he wanted. He finally snorted and snidely commented, "Fine, I'm going back to the tavern. Try not to trip over Ben’s ego.” He spun on his heel and strode back the way he came.

  I shook my head wearily and watched him disappear into the night before I turned around to head inside.

  CHAPTER 65

  Tam reappeared through the Infirmary door, inspecting a shiny gold coin with wide eyes as he exited the infirmary. He stopped short when he saw me standing there, surprise written all over his dirty face before he shyly smiled up at me. I dug into my purse, pulling out one of the candies that I had started keeping in my satchel for just this sort of moment.

  “Hi, Tam,” I smiled at him, holding the sweet out for the boy like he was a skittish animal. He eyed me, then the candy, taking slow steps towards me until he could snatch the candy from my hand. His smile grew and a second later, he vanished down the street.

  I smiled slightly as I watched him disappear around a corner, turning back to face the Infirmary with a sigh as my stomach flipped all over again. Hesitating for a moment, I mustered up my courage before pushing it open to step inside.

  Ben was still in the main room, sitting on the crates in the corner rubbing his injured leg with both hands as though he could somehow heal faster with the action. His expression was grim, blue-grey eyes full of worry as he stared out the side window though he must have felt my eyes on him and turned to look, his surprise obvious for a split second when he saw it was I. The look quickly faded into neutrality as he asked, "Forget something?" His hands stopped but he did not make a move to stand to greet me.

  I stared at him in confusion for a moment, trying to puzzle out why he seemed so surprised to see me. He had sent Tam for me….hadn’t he? A sudden doubt filled me, and I finally shook my head "No, you sent Tam for me..." My voice trailed off as my dark blue eyes revealed my uncertainty, possibly fueling Ben’s own that slowly registered on his face.

  His brow furrowed as he spoke softly. "I sent him only to see you made it safely to the pub." He explained quietly, though I could see his own confusion growing with my misunderstanding.

  I blushed slightly with some embarrassment, looking from him out the window. "I see. Well then it must have merely been a misunderstanding. I thought he wanted me to follow..." I admitted, trailing off as though I might spare myself some of the humiliation. Was Brynmor right to call me obsessed?

  He studied my reddening face and Taliesin’s prodding filled my mind once again. Ask him. My eyes met his, all boldness that I had found while arguing with Brynmor fading as my mouth went dry. How is it I can mouth off to thieves intent on raping and robbing us, but when it comes to asking how Ben feels about me, I lose all courage?

  I smoothed out my skirts briefly, dropping my eyes to the floor before he could see how I wrestled with my own insecurities, though I could feel his blue-grey eyes boring into me. “Sorry to bother you then, Ben. Farewell." I turned to leave, taking a deep breath to fend off the blushing of my cheeks. I couldn’t risk the heartbreak if he felt nothing, and I decided then that I would never ask.

  The boxes shifted noisily beneath him as he stiffly got back to his feet, sucking air through his teeth as he winced from the sudden movement. "Carys..." The emotion in his voice was unexpected and it halted my steps.

  I turned apprehensively to look at him "Yes?" I replied hoarsely, unsure if I was going to like whatever he was about to say. I swallowed hard as I watched him take a shuffled step closer, though he stopped short, keeping the distance between us.

  His jaw tightened as he stood there, an indecisive look ghosting over his features. A quick glance out the window and a deep breath resulted in his lips moving faintly with whatever silent reminder he was giving himself, He finally turned his gaze back to me as though having made a decision, speaking firmly. "You should stay close to your guards." His words strangely echoed Brynmor’s, and my lips parting in shock.

  I could barely form words past the pit of dread suddenly forming in my belly as he passed off his guardianship to those he considered lesser men. "Well, there truly is a first time for everything…” I murmured, never having expected to hear him suggest such a thing, but the wheels began to turn in my mind, wondering why he would go through such effort to stop me from walking out the door just to say that.

  This felt wrong. Ben firmly believed in the incompetence of the other guards, and only ever trusted in himself for our protection. He would never pass us off to them if he had any choice, and more importantly, he would never agree with Brynmor. Brows furrowed in worry and I instinctively took a step back, finally murmuring "Alright..."

  Ben’s eyes held only concern as he listened to me and watched the gravity of what he asked settle over me. He made his way toward me but did not stop in front of me, instead, drew alongside me where he paused, letting out a soft breath. Looking down at me, he murmured. "Look after your sister, Carys." He slowly made his way back to his room, and I was clearly dismissed.

  His tone and his words...his advice was all geared towards a goodbye. He really is leaving. The pain that tore through me pierced more than I wanted to allow and I blinked a few times, trying to keep my emotions at bay.

  I didn’t move for a full minute, Ben's words settling over me with a heavy blanket of dread. Rhian was all alone at the Pipe and Fiddle, Brynmor having left her there to follow me here. He will be there soon. All the threats that had been facing Rhian since our arrival here compounded as each one of them tumbled through my mind: her kidnapping, the bandits, Amir and Zahra...I struggled to breathe as I quickly left the Infirmary and Ben behind. I needed to get back to the pub and to my family.

  I was so focused on the road ahead as I walked that I didn’t see the shadow as it moved silently in behind me. Terror gripped my heart as a hand clamped over my mouth and an arm snaked around my waist in one simultaneous, fluid motion, his grip crushingly strong as he yanked me back into the shadows of the empty park, pain blooming in my chest from the force of his action.

  No! Instinct took over before I could even comprehend the grave danger I was in, and I fought against his hold, writhing and twisting in the vain attempt to break free.

  His hold only tightened, nearly to the point where I thought my ribs would crack under the unrelenting pressure and I struggled to catch a breath. His voice in my ear was both husky and amused, thick with an accent, "It is pointless to struggle, girl." My scream was muted, muffled to a thin sound beneath his palm and I was left gasping for air, trying to breathe past his hand and his grip.

  Get free!

  Rage and terror filled me, my eyes flashing with fiery resolve as I stubbornly refused to give in so easily. He continued to drag me deeper into the shadows of the park, hidden from the road by the shrubbery and keeping us unseen by anyone who might have been passing by. The moment he finally paused to glance around, I lifted my leg and stomped down hard on his foot before bringing my left elbow around, trying to hit him hard in the ribs.

  His hold was too strong, however, and I didn’t have the range of motion enough to inflict much pain, though the heel of my boot found its mark. He growled as my weight landed solidly on the top of his foot and tightened his grip, hauling me up off my feet before throwing me hard down into the dirt in front of him.

  My relief at being released lasted only as long as it took for me slam into the hard ground, crushing pain blossoming through my entire body. I was free of his hold only a moment before he struc
k me across the face with the back of his hand, the pain from hitting the ground paling in comparison to that blinding agony that exploded in my head a moment later when he hit me.

  My daggers….fight back!

  I gasped for air, my entire body humming as I now ran purely on instinct. Ben trained me for this, practicing the motions over and over until they were habit, and I wouldn’t...I couldn’t….fail now.

  Reacting swiftly, I reached down and pulled Ben’s long blade from my boot, twisting myself around a little to plunge the blade with all my available strength into his leg, just above the knee. It was oddly reminiscent of my lesson in stabbing the boar, though my attacker wore thick leather, my knife glancing off to the side to cut him deeply, but not enough to truly disable him.

  There was a moment of shock on his face, swiftly replaced by fury as his hand snapped out to grab my wrist, twisting it and forcing me to either let go of the blade or pull it free of his leg. Instinct wouldn’t have me let go, and the blade came free, stained with crimson lifeblood. A look of recognition filled his eyes as he looked down, a cruel smile forming as his cold, dark eyes glittered in the darkness.

  I gritted my teeth against this new pain as he twisted my wrist, the bones screaming as they approached the point of snapping like a dry twig. Tears pricked at my eyes, but I didn’t cry out, my remaining shred of defiance not permitting me to give him the satisfaction.

  "He did always favor you." He purred in the darkness, twisting my wrist just a little more, and at last I couldn’t hold onto it any longer. Unable to hold back the whimper as my grip loosened to drop the knife into the grass, he quickly kicked it out of my reach.

  He always favored me?

  His words filled me with confusion, but I had no time to think on it further, my attacker’s other hand grabbing a handful of my hair to drag me further into the shadows of the park. I struggled...I tried to twist and writhe and fight back any way I could, but there was no thinking past the excruciating pain. My efforts finally caused him to pause and let go of my hair, earning me another immobilizing blow.

  I slumped in the grass, feeling something warm oozing from an open wound on my cheekbone. Get away….it was my only thought, and I had but one option still left to me. My other dagger...plunge it though his heart...My breathing was strangled and it hurt to move, but I twisted around to reach for it.

  His solidly muscled arms wrapped around me again, hoisting me up and over his shoulder. He was taking me somewhere...I can’t be taken! He wasn’t gentle in his handling, and once I was over his shoulder, I allowed myself one breath, as deep as I could manage, and twisted hard, hoping he would drop me.

  My abductor stopped as I twisted, his strength out-matching my own. His voice was a hushed growl, the one harsh word he spoke was in a language I didn’t know. He dropped me to the ground again, knocking whatever breath was left in me as he dropped his knee onto my belly, pinning me hard to the ground.

  His dagger glinted malevolently in the moonlight as it came from its sheath, pressing coldly to my throat and I didn’t need to understand what he said to decipher it’s meaning. I could feel the bite of the steel on my skin, the sting of the sharpened edge threatening to pierce the artery that thudded just beneath it. He switched to the Sirric as he hissed his threat. "If you do not stop I will kill your sister and everyone else you hold dear in this world."

  My chest heaved, trying to grasp any amount of air I could as I stared into the cold brutality glittering in his eyes. His face was mere inches from my own, his mask covering the rest of his face, though I didn’t need to see the malicious grin on his lips to know it was there. I finally stopped struggling against him, a lone tear sliding down my cheek as I was forced to give in. A deep chuckle rumbled in his chest as he shifted his weight, raising his dagger only to bring the hilt down hard on my head. A crack sounded as searing pain split my skull, and the world around me dimmed into a blur as my body went limp in the grass.

  Pain. I couldn’t breathe...I couldn’t think…I couldn’t even move.

  The world around me was dark, only a few dim shapes and even fewer sounds penetrating the fog in my mind as I tried to make sense of what was happening. Everything spun around me as I sensed I was being picked up and moved, and while I had the vague thought to keep fighting, I couldn’t get my limp body to cooperate.

  A beast shifted beneath me...I had been put on a horse, the warmth of my attacker’s body pressing against my back as his iron grip held me upright and firmly against his chest as we rode up the hill towards one of the gates that would usher us out of Lund.

  The gatekeeper will stop us...I’ll be saved…My head lolled against his shoulder as I tried to rouse, groaning softly as I desperately hoped to catch the attentions of the gatekeeper, but the pain erupted in my head once again, and my stomach churned as it threatened to lose its contents.

  My abductor’s laughter grated in my ear as he spoke to someone, halting the horse’s walk for a moment. His words were followed by the distinctive clinking sound of a coin purse being handed over and the gatekeeper’s nasal, uneducated voice which replied to the man who held me firmly. “A pleeshure doin’ bidness whitcha, Meester.”

  The gatekeeper’s silence had been bought, I realized as my heart sank and another tear slid down my cheek. My life for only a few coins. I could feel my abductor’s grin grow as he nudged the horse into motion once again, the stone archway passing over our heads as we left Lund and into the darkened countryside where I would find no hope of salvation.

  The large stallion plodded on with no thought to hurry it’s pace, and as the following hour passed, the world around me gradually began to come into focus as my sluggish mind began to clear. The persistent ringing in my ears lessened, though the pain that coursed through my body refused to ebb. My senses slowly began to filter through my suffering and I tried to look around without alerting my captor that I was awake.

  Our path was lit only by the dim light of the moon that struggled to shine through the thin layer of clouds above us, the woods ominously dark around us as we rode along the narrow, rarely used road. The thick trunks barred the view of anything and everything around us, so I had no idea where we were, nor what direction we were heading in. The stars that could have provided some guidance were absent, hidden behind the low-hanging clouds which wisped through the treetops,

  My breath visibly puffed in front of me as a chill ran up my spine, quickly followed by another that rippled right down to my fingertips. The wintry air was crisp and growing colder as the night went on. There were no sounds in the dark but the shuffle of hooves against the dirt and the distant howl of a wolf, followed by another.

  I licked my lips, the one feeling three times the size that it should, the metallic taste of blood blanketing my tongue. My blood. It had crusted in rivulets down my face as it dried, the split skin of my cheekbone and my swollen lip stinging harshly in the cool night air. I shifted slightly, trying to ease the growing pain in my back, the slight movement met with the man’s tightening grip around me, lips pressing to my ear as he crooned, breath hot on my skin. “Don’t get any ideas, girl.”

  Where is he taking me? Why me? Each step that took us further from Lund cultivated more and more fears as I struggled to understand through the mind fog that wouldn’t fade. How did he know that Ben favored me? He had recognized Ben’s knife, but how? How long had he been watching my household?

  The man shifted behind me, grunting in my ear as his palm pressed to his thigh where I had cut him, a momentary flash of satisfaction that I had at least hurt him, though the sense of achievement turned to a sickening dread as he growled in my ear with audible savagery. “You’ll pay dearly for that.”

  I had no idea just how dearly I would pay.

  To Be Continued In...

  The Rise Of The Phoenix: Book 2

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Tayvia is no stranger to writing, she has an impressive list of ghost-written ebooks under her belt including clients from Hollywood
and New York, and several in-between.

  Tayvia has had many occupations in her life, ranging from stay-at-home mom to medical technician to photographer, though only discovered her true calling a few years ago when someone foolishly dared her to write a book. It was through this that she discovered her love of crafting stories and characters, and began the process of developing the “Rise Of The Phoenix” series.

  She grew up in sunny southern Alberta, and after spending over a decade further North, returned to her home and now resides there with her two children and cat, affectionately dubbed "Moo-cat."