“They’re innocents,” Arryn called back, Snow running even faster.
Arryn could hear horse hooves thundering behind her, and knew the others were racing to keep pace. Within moments, they reached the travelers, and Arryn was met with a terrible sight.
“Holy shit,” she said under her breath as Snow slowed to a stop several yards ahead of them. Or at least, she thought she had spoken under her breath; in fact, her volume was quite loud enough for the travelers to hear.
The adults immediately looked terrified, no doubt worried about the intentions of the people in front of them. Not to mention the white tiger the size of the Clydesdale, and the other tiger—though only a cub—who was now equal in size and weight to a full-grown female.
“Please don’t be afraid,” Arryn said, trying to calm them. The adults looked at one another, the dirt and blood on their faces only accentuating the fear in their eyes. “I want to help you. If any of you are injured, we can heal you. Three of us are druids.”
Speaking the word ‘druids’ seemed to draw more fear. It was obvious they lived outside of the city, and only had heard tales to fuel their imaginations.
At that moment, Arryn wished she had paid more attention at the Temple. A bit of compulsion could go a long way in this situation.
“We have nothing. Please, don’t hurt the children.” A mother stood out from the group, tears in her eyes but determination on her face. “They took everything. We have nothing left to give you.”
Arryn sighed, her heart breaking for the people in front of her. “Snow,” she said softly.
The tiger lowered to the ground, even laying her head down on her paws as Arryn slowly climbed off. Out of her peripheral, Arryn saw Dante also lowering to the ground, after a mild grumble from his mother. Corrine stepped forward, her eyes flashing neon green as she reached a hand out.
The mother’s eyes widened, and then immediately closed as she inhaled deeply, her brows pushing together. At that moment, Arryn noticed a large wet spot on the side of her tunic. The cloth was dark gray in color, so the black spot simply looked like a shadow.
It was blood.
Corrine dropped her hand, her eyes turning back to their normal emerald color, before a small, subtle smile spread across her lips. Arryn’s eyes turned from her adolescent companion to the woman, whose eyes now opened.
Arryn felt pride swell inside of her as she realized that Corrine was mastering her healing abilities. The polar opposite of the people she had come from, she was the light among the darkness. Alaric had been capable of killing from a distance, but it was Corrine’s strength to heal.
A power she had discovered when she was faced with losing the person that meant the most to her: Arryn.
“We really don’t mean you any harm,” Corrine said. “If you’ll give her a chance, Arryn can probably help you. Maybe even set things on a path to make things right.”
The woman wiped her tears away, smearing the blood and filth on her face in the process. She nodded toward Corrine before turning to Arryn. “I guess you’re Arryn?”
Arryn nodded. “I am. As you probably suspect, we’re from the Dark Forest. We’re heading south of the Heights, hoping to stop a large village of bandits from terrorizing the Valley.”
The adults in the group all looked at one another before looking back to her. “You know about them?” a man asked.
Arryn nodded again. “Unfortunately, we have quite a bit of experience with them. They have been terrorizing the area and killing many friends of my rearick companion back there. We fought a great number of them in the forest several days ago, and even killed their leader. Unfortunately, there are many more to deal with, south of the Heights.”
Above them, Echo’s screech filled the air. The travelers’ eyes widened again, no doubt surprised to see yet another oversized animal.
To her left, Cathillian stepped forward. “I’m going to send my familiar, Echo, to Arcadia with you. She will make sure nothing happens to you. I assure you, she is more than capable of defending you.”
“How long ago were you attacked?” Samuel asked, obvious anger in his voice.
“Not long. Within the last couple of hours,” one of the villagers said. “Our village is small. Probably the smallest one in the Valley. There ain’t really much left, but you’ll find it about a mile and a half southeast of here. They took what they wanted, slaughtered our animals, and burned the rest.”
Arryn gripped her fists tight, rage welling in her chest. It was basically the same thing that had happened to the old woman and her sons up north. The bandits had injured the cows badly enough that they would suffer hard until they died, and even killed one of the old woman’s sons.
It seemed that the murderers and thieves liked to completely destroy the lives of whoever they affected.
“Do you think we can catch them?” Arryn asked Cathillian and Samuel.
“Are they on foot?” Samuel asked the travelers.
Several of them nodded before the mother that Corrine had healed spoke. “They were. That doesn’t mean that they still are, but when they left the village, they were on foot and headed south.”
Samuel shook his head. “Craigston has to be on high alert right now. There’s no way the bandits would risk going directly through the town. If they’re heading directly south, there has to be a path leading up the mountain and around Craigston. Still, I don’t know how they could manage. That side is pretty much impossible to climb.”
“They used magic when they set our houses on fire,” the mother said. “I don’t know if that helps or not.”
Arryn nodded. “It does. That means they are physical magic users. They were once Arcadian Guard, so they are highly trained in hand-to-hand combat, as well as in magic. Samuel, if you’re right, and that side of the mountain is damn near impossible to climb, I’m betting they use teleportation. I highly doubt they could teleport themselves and the horses up the mountainside, though, so I’m willing to bet they are still on foot.”
Samuel smiled. “Then that means we can definitely catch them, lass.”
Cathillian sighed and smiled as he nodded. “Oh, I know what this means. Corrine, you and I are on healing duty. We can’t let Arryn use any of her magic; I have a feeling she’s gonna need it.”
Corrine didn’t seem to mind. She smiled as she stepped forward, excited to help the others. The villagers stepped aside, pointing out those that were injured in their group.
The mother spoke again. “How fast can you travel?”
Arryn looked down at Snow and smiled. “Normally, tigers can run about forty miles an hour. Snow is much bigger and much faster than a normal tiger; her son is, as well.”
The mother stepped forward, briefly looking around to make sure that no one could hear her. “Nothing will bring back what we’ve lost. It was more than just our homes and a few lives. We lost our sense of security and safety on our own land. I didn’t want to say this in front of the rest, but if you think you can catch them, make them suffer for what they did to my children.”
Arryn nodded. “This is what we do. I promise you… one way or another… We will find them, and we will stop them from doing this to anyone else.”
The woman nodded, pausing for a moment before she said, “The big one—Jack or John or something like that—he stole a necklace that my mother gave me as a child before she died. It’s a golden cross. It’s hundreds of years old and has been passed down from generation to generation. If you can find a way to get that back to me, I’ll know it’s been done.”
With a smile, Arryn reached out and squeezed the woman’s hand. “Follow Echo to Arcadia. You’ll have your necklace back before you know it. Rest assured, I keep my promises… and I promise there will be a great deal of pain involved for them.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
After healing everyone who had sustained injuries, Echo was sent along with the group of travelers, while Arryn and her own group rushed south. As expected, Snow, Dante, and Maia were the fa
stest. Bast and Cleo both told Arryn and Cathillian to go ahead. They would stay behind with Samuel.
Along with Corrine, they raced southeast for the mountains in hopes of catching the men. As expected, two hours on foot wasn’t much time to get a lot of distance, so they were easily able to find the bastards. With Snow and Dante’s keen sense of smell, they found the men heading toward the first tall rock.
Just as Samuel had said, upon inspection, Arryn could tell it was absolutely impossible to climb the mountain by normal means. While an experienced climber could do so with the right tools, she knew those men weren’t carrying that much equipment.
Though each of the six men had a rather large bag on their back, the necessary climbing aids would have weighed them down so much, and taken up so much room in their packs, that it would be impossible for them to make off with the goods they had stolen.
Two of the men suddenly disappeared, reappearing twenty or thirty feet higher up the mountain. They were smart; instead of taking long jumps, exhausting themselves in the process, they were teleporting only a small distance. Arryn herself had done that when coming down from the mountains in the Frozen North.
Without Arryn having to ask her to, Snow sped up, racing past the others and heading toward her mark.
The men turned and saw the tiger and woman coming for them. Though they didn’t seem to be scared, evidence to that having come in the form of a loud laugh from one or two of the men, the party still made sure they were out of reach.
Arryn only smiled. “Get back here, so I can kick your asses!” she called out.
Again, she was met with laughter.
“I’m not joking!” she said as she stepped up to the edge of mountain. “If I have to come up there after you, you’re not gonna like what happens. Well, you’re not going to anyway, but you’ll like it even less.”
She could hear them up there, talking to one another, and she was relatively certain she heard a condescending remark or two at her expense.
She sighed.
Her eyes flashed green as she called on her magic. Though she could sense how good or bad a person was within close proximity, these men were certainly too far away for her to do so. Before she ended the lives of six strangers, she needed to know they were the ones she was looking for.
Although, even if they weren’t the ones she was looking for, they could still use a good punch or two to teach them some manners.
As she reached out, sensing them as an animal would a human they had just met, she was overcome with a cold sensation. It felt like death. They were absolutely the men she was looking for, and she had a promise to keep.
“I have a message for you, from the people who lived in that village you destroyed,” Arryn shouted.
She heard an audible groan from above as the men continued to climb. They only had a few feet to go before they would be forced to teleport again. One of them grunted as he reached his platform and straightened himself and the pack on his back. When he turned, there was a wide smile on his face as he looked down at her from over forty feet up the mountain.
“What was that? Did you say you have a message, sweetheart?” he asked.
Arryn smiled, her eyes flashing black, as her magic surrounded her before imploding. She vanished, reappearing right next to the man who had just spoken down to her. His eyes widened as he turned, jumping back and nearly falling.
Her hand shot out, grabbing him by the shirt, and pulled him flush against her. “They said to die screaming, you murderous piece of shit.”
With that, she whipped her hand out, using a bit of telekinesis to aid her movement as she threw him off the side of the mountain. Looking to either side of her, she saw two men on one side and three on the other at various heights, and watched as their eyes turned black.
Arryn felt the swell of her magic around her again as it imploded, teleporting her from where she stood, to the flat rock that the man the farthest to the left stood on.
A fireball that had been meant for her hit the man several yards to her right as she thrust a knee into the gut of the man next to her before pulling her blade free and jabbing it in the side of his throat. With little effort, she pulled the knife from the side of his neck and threw him over the edge of the mountain.
She turned around just in time to see more fireballs heading for her. Her arm shot out, forming a magical shield in front of her, only barely catching the fire as it exploded.
Black green bled into her irises as she lifted her left hand, swiping it hard to the right. A hard wind blew, smashing the last three men against the hard rocks, the bones in their skulls crushing in the process.
Two of them fell from their various heights, one tumbling all the way down to the base of the mountain, while the other only fell part of the way down. The third dropped right where he stood, his platform large enough to hold his collapsed body.
She took a deep breath, steadying herself. She knew she only had one last teleportation in her, but she had to use it. After teleporting over to the man that remained on the mountain, she checked his entire body and even the bag. There were women’s belongings in there, jewelry and things of that sort, but nothing resembling the cross that had been described to her.
The sound of footsteps echoed from below. She looked down to see Bast, Cleo, and Samuel arriving.
Ah, just in time.
“Hey!” she called down. “I’m kind of stranded up here. Can I get a little help from one of you lovely ladies?”
She didn’t feel completely depleted, but knowing they could run into another battle at any moment, she felt it was necessary to save whatever energy she had left.
Bast and Cleo both jumped down from their horses, stepping forward and moving in tandem—as they often did. Their fists shot forward, and the ground directly under Arryn started shaking, forcing her to kneel. The twins’ palms flattened as they lifted, and the rock breaking away quickly descended to the ground below.
“Thanks!” Arryn said, stepping off her platform.
As she walked toward Cathillian, he stared at her with a knowing expression. Corrine looked excited about what had just taken place. Every time she saw Arryn’s magic, she seemed enthralled.
“What?” she asked Cathillian.
He just shook his head, smiling at her. “Oh, nothing. You’re just my hero, that’s all.”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh, shut it and help me check the bodies. I have a necklace to find and a message to deliver once we get to Craigston.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
The sky was a beautiful shade of blue, only a speckling of the purest white clouds above them. Mariana held tight to her staff, her eyes focused and flashing as she called on just enough magic to summon the wind to fill their sails.
They were getting close, she could feel it. She wasn’t exactly sure how far ahead of them the Storm Raiders were, but the sea seemed almost angry. The marine life in the area was disturbed, almost frightened by the sight of the ship, something they more than likely saw on a day-to-day basis.
While that wasn’t evidence of the Raiders’ proximity, it was certainly enough to fuel her and her magic.
A familiar scent filled her nose, and she looked to the right to see one of the crew offering her a mug of ale. “You’ve worked hard today,” Ronald said. “We’ve traveled much faster than anticipated. I think it’s safe for you to take a little bit of a break.”
Mariana opened her mouth to object, but a guilty look crossed Ronald’s face. “Also,” he said, “Captain says so.”
She sighed, smiling as she rolled her eyes. Reaching out, one hand still on the staff, she used the other to graciously take the mug, quickly chugging it before handing it over.
“Thank you,” she said. “You tell Captain Veren that I said if he has orders for me to take breaks, he should deliver them himself. Not that I don’t mind seeing that precious face of yours, Ron.”
She smiled, and he shrank back a little, shyly smiling as he looked down. It was obvious that he
had at least a small fraction of interest in her, though she wasn’t sure if it was a physical interest or an emotional one. Still, she knew the comment made him feel good, and he was a kind man who helped everyone onboard.
“Well, between the two of us, I think he was a bit scared to tell you himself. He knows what this assignment means to you.”
She laughed as she turned forward, placing her free hand back on her staff as she once again focused on the wind. “So, he sacrificed you, did he?”
Ronald nodded. “Yes, I do believe he did.”
“That’s probably for the best. He was more than likely anticipating a punch to the throat, which I gladly would have delivered. But he knows I like you too much for all that. You’re gentle with me and everyone else onboard, and in return, I have to be gentle with you,” she said with a wink.
He let out an audible sigh. “I guess that makes me pretty lucky.” He looked down to the mug and back to her. “Do you want another? Or something to eat? I don’t think I’ve seen you eat a single thing all day.”
Mariana shook her head. “I’ll eat and drink my fill once we catch that Raider ship. They’ve destroyed too many villages and killed far too many people. I won’t rest easily until their reign of terror is done.”
Ronald opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again, thinking over his words carefully. “But you’ll need energy if you hope to kick their asses. After all you’ve been through to hunt them down, don’t you want to be strong enough to put an end to them yourself?”
Her eyes darted over to his, lingering for a moment as she considered his words. Finally, she nodded. “See, Ronald? That’s why Veren sent you. He knew that kind heart of yours would be able to talk some sense into me. I would have sent him away with one ball in each hand.”
When she saw his eyes widen and heard his sharp intake of breath, she gave him a quick smile and a hard pat on the back. Then she pulled her staff free of its station and its cup of seawater before heading across the deck to find food.
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