Jey slumped down against the wall of the shelter. The frantic energy drained out of her. “Killing,” she said. “Killing and killing and killing.”
Silence reigned for a long time. At last, Lokim spoke. “My people have sent out a small delegation – a sort of welcoming party. They want to meet you, to speak with you, to see your tessili. And, if you want, they’ll see you back to the Valley of Mist. It’s your choice, Jey, but there are people there, people in the valley, who have done nothing but study tessili their whole lives. If anyone can help you and Phril, it’s the Tessilari.”
◈
Nylan shifted on the small wooden seat, his bad leg propped out before him. His cane leaned next to the folding chair. As he sat, the knee throbbed – a constant, irritating discomfort. He’d been walking too much the last few days out in the damp cold of the forest, tracking the two cursed students who had somehow stayed one step ahead of him for months.
It was a chilly, humid day with a half-frozen rain-mist drifting down through the trees. Nylan, huddled as he was within his cloak, was cold. He was cold and he was tired and his knee pained him. But he wasn’t thinking about any of that.
What he was thinking about was victory. He was close, now. He knew it. The students had gone to ground in a hill. He didn’t understand how they’d done it, but after a day of sweeping the area after the trail had vanished in the orchard, all signs pointed here. For the last three days his orderlies and guards, as well as at least one junior or senior student at all times, had watched this hillside with instructions not to intervene. They’d seen J114 twice, slipping out of the hillside to hunt and return. She seemed to have a found a way to diminish her scent trail to the point the hounds could barely follow it. But it also seemed she did so at the trade-off of invisibility. He’d left instructions she be allowed to move freely, that his men and students stay hidden.
Now, the trap was set. It was time for Nylan to turn the tables and reclaim the valuable property the academy had lost. J114 would be recaptured, if possible. She was too talented, too useful to not try, at least, to subdue and deploy a few more times. The other, L134, was expendable and would be killed on sight.
Nylan was confident he would catch them now. He was confident because he had a new weapon.
It sat next to his cane, similar in length and shape, though a good deal thicker. It was made of some kind of carved stone, with a handle at the top like a sword. The academy owned about a dozen of these implements, though the secret of their use had been lost at some point. For years they’d hung in the back of the hall where the orderlies met, gathering dust.
After the breakout at the academy, Nylan and devoted himself to reading, to researching ways to subdue and capture a Tessilari – for that is what these girls were. They were a fledgling version of those ancient warriors who’d once nearly toppled the kingdom.
His research had led him to these wands. It had taken him weeks of guessing and fiddling and failure after failure, but at last, he’d figuring out how they worked.
Now, he knew. It was simple. The weapon only needed to be charged by sticking the sharp tip into the earth for several hours. Then it could be deployed by setting the end on the ground and twisting the handle up top. It would send out a stunning ripple of magic, disabling any tessili or human bound to one, within a fifteen foot radius.
It was a glorious find. Nylan had tested it on every student at the academy. None had been able to withstand its pulse. Orderlies were deployed around the hill now, six of them, each with one of these rods.
All was in readiness. They had only to wait for the inevitable moment when J114 came near.
Nylan rubbed his knee, a grim smile turning up the corners of his mouth. He was very much looking forward to making her regret the fact she’d ever defied him in the first place.
◈
They’d spent a good deal of time cleaning up the shelter. Elle had found a door to a sealed storeroom which had contained a stock of tools. They’d taken brooms to the dust-covered floor and rags to the bas relief carvings that wrapped the hall at eye level. These, once clean, gave off a faint glow when a fire was lit. The small figures that occupied the carved landscapes seemed to move in the shifting light. Jey had taken on the task of polishing them because it seemed endless. She needed something to keep her busy.
They were waiting. Lokim said the Tessilari would arrive any day. Jey had made her peace with their coming. She’d familiarized herself with all of the ways out of the hillside and could work the small spell that opened and closed the door hatches. Lokim had also taught them the passive barrier spell he’d used to throw the hounds off their trail. It was simple – similar to a passive shield but focused on forming a block to contain light and sound and air instead of magic.
So, the space was clean and Jey felt safe enough. But she was not comfortable. Neither were Elle and Lokim. She could read it in the stiffness of their bodies, the quick way they would put on a forced smile every time she made eye contact.
They weren’t comfortable because they did not agree. Jey was willing to meet the Tessilari, but the Valley of Mist sounded too much like a more benign version of the academy. Once there, she would not be able to leave of her own volition. Once there, she would be subject to the laws and norms of a society she’d had no part in creating.
Once there, she’d no longer be free.
Jey took a break from her rubbing to untie her hair and tie it back again. She stretched her back and looked around the hall. The space had a cozy feel, in spite of its vast size. It would be a fine place to stay for a time. They were safe and sheltered. They had only to slip out a few times a week to hunt or purchase supplies in town. With Lokim’s stitchring they wouldn’t need to go back to the academy for brillbane.
It was a workable way to live, Jey thought. The problem was, Elle and Lokim were not on board.
Jey sighed, dropped her rag by the wall, and glanced up at the glowing ceiling. It had been a dreary day, but the clouds were shifting and the sun was thinking about peeking through. Now would be a good time to hunt. She strode to the corner where she kept her things. She strapped on her gear belt, swung her cloak around her shoulders, and approached the place where Lokim sat by the fire. He appeared to be writing something. Elle was off in the bath chamber, where the water in a still pool had grown warm after several days with the fire lit.
Lokim looked up as Jey approached, setting his leather tablet aside. Jey thought he looked thinner than when she’d first seen him. There were bruised half-moons under his eyes. Jey wondered if he hadn’t been sleeping well.
“I’m going out hunting.” Jey spoke the words in a low tone. There was something about this place that seemed to require stillness, careful movement, and low voices. “Phril is dozing. If you don’t mind keeping him with you, it will make my job a little easier.”
Phril and Shai, still thrilled to have brillbane bushes again, had continued to spend large chunks of time on the other side of the stitchring. They were both looking a good deal healthier.
Still, Jey’s feelings towards Phril had shifted slightly in recent days. She would always love the little tessila, but now she couldn’t help but see his behavior as a bit alarming and unbalanced at times. Lokim’s words seemed to echo in her mind every time she looked at him. He’s half mad.
The expression on Lokim’s face indicated he was not thrilled with Jey’s plan to hunt. On the other hand, they were low on food – largely due to Lokim himself. Jey had discovered after her first hunt that male humans eat approximately twice as much as female ones. And she suspected, looking at him, he’d not been eating as much as he needed since he’d been with them.
Lokim looked up at Jey. Something in his eyes made her wait a moment. There was strain on his face, as if he was on the verge of making some difficult decision. At last he dropped his eyes and stooped to reach into a side pocket of his pack. He pulled something free, sat up, and extended his hand towards Jey.
On Lokim’s broad
palm lay a stitchring. Jey blinked, glancing to the side to confirm that the ring Phril had passed through a few hours before was still in place around Lokim’s neck. It hung on the outside of his shirt and vest so the tessili could return freely if they chose.
Lokim seemed to see the confusion on her face. “It’s my spare. Take it.”
She took it. The thin silver was cool against her skin. The chain slithered through her fingers as the ring passed from Lokim’s hands to hers.
Lokim let his hand fall back to his side. “Now you only have to go with us if that’s truly what you want.”
Jey felt something go very still inside of her. She bent her head forward and hung the ring around her own neck, tucking it beneath her shirt so it was hidden. She and Lokim looked at each other, their eyes holding steady for several heartbeats.
Jey understood.
He was taking Elle, but he was giving her independence. He was doing that, even though he could have taken Elle without giving Jey anything at all.
“Thank you.” Jey spoke the words into the quiet room. Then she turned and walked towards the exit.
◈
Lokim tried to return to his missive after Jey left, but it was no use. He was distracted now, uncertain he’d made the right choice. Jey was a liability. If he couldn’t get her back to the Valley of Mist she would be loose in the world, and she would know about the remnants of the Tessilari. Even worse, if recaptured, she herself could be converted into a terrifying weapon and deployed against them.
Still, Lokim couldn’t blame her for not wanting to go to the valley. To pretend he didn’t understand her hesitation would be a bare lie. Had he not spent his entire life dreaming of what lay beyond the mists? Had he not defied his entire society, put all his people at risk, just to satisfy his own curiosity and wanderlust?
He’d left, in spite of all the people who’d asked him to stay. And he’d been labeled rogue because of it. He’d intended to spend a good deal more time out in the world before thinking about returning to his homeland.
A soft step sounded at the end of the long room. Elle moved into view. Her feet were bare and the throat of her shirt was unlaced to reveal the smooth, pale skin of her throat.
Like Jey, Elle had changed into her hunting leathers as soon as they’d reached the shelter, discarding the heavy, cumbersome dresses they’d worn in their haste to leave the cheesery. Now she walked with a lithe lightness of step that made Lokim forget to breathe.
Elle smiled when she saw Lokim looking at her. There was a total, disarming innocence to the smile. Lokim smiled back, wondering how a person could be so strong and so vulnerable all at once. He’d gathered through his attempts to flirt with Elle that she lacked any understanding of romance. This knowledge made him more hesitant than he might have been anyway. He also couldn’t help but remind himself from time to time that she was a master at passive persuasion and could manipulate him into feeling any way at all about her.
Whatever was between them was a tenuous thing – a fledgling attraction that made Lokim’s heart thunder any time she came near. Every time he looked at her, he found himself wanting nothing more than to get her back to the valley so she could be safe and they could have time to figure each other out.
The irony of the situation didn’t escape Lokim. There would be a reckoning when he returned. He would have to make reparations. Some of the Tessilari might never forgive him, might never accept him back into society.
But that didn’t matter. What mattered was getting Elle away from this world where she was a thing to be hunted, used, and discarded.
“That bath is amazing,” Elle said as she lowered herself onto the stone stool next to him.
Her hair was damp. The scent it gave off convinced Lokim he’d get no more of his account written today. He stowed his tablet and scribis and turned to face Elle. “I hope it helped you relax a little.”
For a moment, he couldn’t help but realize Elle had been bathing alone moments before, up to her chin in warm water. And he’d been staring at a cursed leather tablet.
His face beginning to flush, Lokim hurried to add, “Jey went out hunting.”
As he spoke the words, there was a stirring in the spell that powered the stitchring. There was something sharp about the feeling – which meant a tessila was about to come through was in a hurry. Lokim sat up straight and clamped both hands around the silver ring.
Phril blasted into his fingers in full fury. Jey’s tessila exploded through the ring, met the barrier of Lokim’s hands, and began to claw and bite with such anger Lokim almost let him go. He gritted his teeth and restrained the small animal, shifting his grip so the tessila’s head was free and the legs, with the small but raking claws, were pinned against the animal’s body.
Phril writhed and flailed, flinging his head from side to side in irrational combat. Lokim watched the animal struggle with a sick feeling of dismay. All tessili were passionate, but Phril and Shai seemed different, somehow – as if they’d had the ability to reason entirely removed from their minds.
Elle was staring at the struggling Phril with wide-eyed concern. “Jey,” she murmured. She rose, buttoning up her shirt and slipping into her leather vest.
She was swinging her weapons belt around her hips when Lokim spoke. “No,” he said. “I’ll go.” He rose, extending the hand holding Phril towards Elle. “You hold onto him.”
It was absurd, he knew. Lokim had passable skill as a hunter, but he was no trained fighter like Elle was. Still,
the thought of her going out to see what had befallen Jey made him sick. He took the stitchring from around his neck and placed it around Elle’s. Then he hurried across the large chamber towards the exit before she had a chance to argue.
◈
Elle stared down at the frantic Phril with a distinct feeling of unease. She heard the grind of the stone portal, a pause, then more grinding. Which meant Lokim was gone.
She wasn’t sure why she’d let him intercede like that. She was, after all, Jey’s best friend. She and Jey had stood together since the day Jey had cast the spell on Shai that had allowed Elle to remember.
Thinking about that now, Elle felt a slow bloom of guilt spread through her stomach. During one of their long, quiet talks by the fireside, Elle had told Lokim she and Jey had escaped together. But that wasn’t true. Deep down, Elle knew Jey had been solely responsible for their breakout of the academy. Jey was the one who’d learned to shield tessili from the flashnodes. Jey was the one who’d coached Elle and Kae through the days that followed, learning to blend in at the academy in spite of being able to form new memories. But most importantly, Jey had stolen the syringe from Nylan, used it on herself, and then shown Elle and Kae how to blast the drugs from their own veins.
That didn’t begin to consider all the times Jey had saved them both since then – the hunting, the fighting, the hiding.
And now Elle had threatened to abandon her one true friend for a man she hardly knew.
Phril, as if reading her thoughts, gave a resentful hiss and heaved against her hold on him. She brought her attention back to the moment. She dared not let him escape. The little tessila would batter himself to death trying to leave this place to get to Jey.
Elle sighed and paced around the fire, Lokim’s stitchring glittering against her dark vest. Having seen Bliz expand to the size of a large hound, Elle now understood the protective instincts of the tessili a bit better. Always before, she’d found Shai’s evident desire to battle all foes endearing, if a bit inconvenient and perplexing. Now she thought of it differently.
There was a strange shift in the air. Elle paused and frowned, looking around. Then Shai burst through the stitchring. Elle gasped as the spell on the ring drew from her to power itself. The room around her wavered. She collapsed to her knees. She was suddenly woozy with exhaustion. The large hall seemed to dissolve into gray squares. She seemed to lose herself.
When her vision cleared, Elle found herself kneeling by
the fire, her palms flat against the cool stone of the chamber floor. Her heart was hammering and there was a sheen of sweat on her forehead. As she pushed herself to her feet, she remembered the strain she’d seen on Lokim’s face that first night all three tessili had gone through the stitchring. Had it been taking this much from him every time they’d used it? If so, Elle couldn’t believe he was still on his feet.
Elle dusted off her palms, noticing a small scratch on her finger. She raised her hand to stare at it, looking at the bead of blood on the base of her thumb with a sense of confusion that dawned into horror. “Phril,” she gasped, staring around the chamber in frantic concern.
She couldn’t see the red tessila, but Shai was there, darting about her head in frantic circles.
Elle knew what she had to do. She ran towards the door Lokim and Jey had gone through a few moments before. Releasing Phril into the world was a risk, but trapping him inside this place would lead to his certain and immediate death. “Find Phril,” she said to Shai. “Bring him to the door. I’ll open it.” Then she darted across the hall, feet still bare, hoping her tessila could do what she asked.
◈
Something was very wrong.
Jey seemed to wake up. There was a pain in her head and another in her side and another in her shoulders. Those pains were dull. There was also a burning hot pain in her calf.
Behind the pain, there was a dullness to her mind – a kind of sluggish, stiffness she struggled against to no avail.
And beyond all that, there was anger.
Jey stirred, trying to sort out the sensations. There was a gritty, cold dampness against her cheek.
She was lying on the ground.
And the anger. It seemed to roil through her like an inferno, so hot it burned her mind. It wasn’t her anger, she understood. It was Phril’s.
The thought of her tessila seemed to bring clarity to Jey’s mind. She couldn’t see because she was lying all but face down. Jey tried to move, to bring an arm up and push herself into a sitting position. She could not. When she tried to move her arm she felt a chafing sensation around her wrists.
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