The Dancer in Darkness was then totally exposed; his hide gone, exposing muscles, tendons, and bone. She could no longer hold her breath, and exhaled explosively. The darkness seething through her exploded from her in a similar fashion, bursting away from her. She sagged against the body, breathing hard. Taking out the dagger, she examined herself in the mirrored surface of the blade.
Her skin had only become slightly darker, a bit duskier than it had been before. The biggest change was her hair. It had once been light blonde and slightly wavy. Whatever had happened, it had stained it black and it now lay straight.
She stood, disappointed. She had failed in trying to preserve the hide, but she should have expected that it was more difficult than mere shadowplay could manage. Hides of the Dancer in Darkness went for a fair amount of coin and if done properly, could make great leather armor or cloaks.
Now that her partner knew she was present, she could move at full speed in the shadows. She plucked up the discarded spear, stowed it, and focused on shadowmelding to begin her trek home. She had barely thought about melding when it just happened. She just vanished into the darkness, like her physical form had been but a figment of the imagination.
The darkness was peeled away even more cleanly than she had been able to sense before. It wasn’t just vision; her sense of awareness was amplified. Things that had been indistinct were now crystal clear. She first noticed dozens of what looked like rodents that had been melded in the shadows all along. But before where she couldn’t sense their presence in the same shadow, she could now detect them clearly. They huddled, hiding from her, but not in a way that told her they knew she could see them.
Devinia chuckled. Maybe she had learned a few new tricks after all. She took off into the forest at full speed, sliding through the great dark of the forest at effortless speed. She caught up to her partner, who had only gone a few miles in the time she had been left behind. With a laugh she shot past her, and the Dancer in Darkness actually looked startled. Wide eyed, the great beast shook its hindquarters and dove into the chase.
While Devinia had the advantage of being entirely melded with shadow, the Dancer in Darkness gave a terribly swift chase. By the time they returned to the haven, she had nearly been caught several times by the clever creature. It was a game to the beast, and the two played the entire trip home, the elf’s laughter echoing through the deep wood as she passed, unseen, by all but her partner. When Devinia finally popped out of the shadows, the Dancer in Darkness merely head-butted her side and dropped supine, panting happily. Devinia dropped to the ground next to her and patted her side as she caught her breath.
She had not felt a moment of elation like this since before her mother died. She finally thought that perhaps things could get better in enough time. She knew that this time with the great hunter was not going to be much longer; she had business she needed to complete in the civilized portion of Salthimere; but she was grateful to have learned what she could from her unlikely partner.
That night, she slept better than many of the nights before. She naturally melded into shadows as she slept, leaving the mattress apparently empty to anyone but another superlative predator like her. When she woke, she realized that she was already in the shadows, and found herself again amazed.
There was much the Sha’hdi had learned about themselves; many skills they could learn to perform, magic they could study, and knowledge they could amass, but the dark arts must have been lost somewhere along the way to civilization. They could use the dark, sometimes capably, but it was no longer pursued in the same way that they pursued other things.
Idly, Devinia wondered if shadow or darkness was an altogether disparate element of magic. One so old that even the elves had forgotten it. It seemed unlikely, but it could be. She wasn’t a mage, so what did she know about magic and elements?
Chapter: 04
The next several days were subtly different than the months that had passed before. Her partner treated her more like an equal than someone to look after, and Devinia was glad to prove that she was an equal. At the end of the week, she went off while the Dancer in Darkness was sleeping, and it awoke when she climbed back into the haven, three of the root-dwelling rodents impaled on her spear. It looked at her a bit puzzled, until Devinia gestured outside. Looking down, her partner spotted the body of a boar that she had deposited at the base of the tree.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, “but I lack the muscle to drag it up.”
The Dancer in Darkness glanced up at her, flicked her ear in a gesture that Devinia had figure was the equivalent of saying ‘ah’, and climbed down to eat.
She had just finished cooking her meal when she realized something seemed different about the forest around her. Extinguishing the fire crystal, she realized there was still ambient light. Cautiously, she crept out of the haven and out onto one of the extending branches.
Below, only fifteen yards from her tree, was what looked like a patrol of elves. There were eight of them, four dressed in leather and armed with hunting bows, and the other four in hammered silver leaf scale armor with spears. The source of light came from their spears, which seemed to be enchanted so that the edges gleamed with their own light.
It dawned on her then that they were not hunting the local elk, or even the boar or other beasts of the wood. They were hunting the Dancer in Darkness.
She melded into the shadows with but a thought, dropping down to the lowest branch to watch their path.
The four in leathers seemed to be in charge, and they called for the group to halt. Bows nocked and ready to fire, they looked to one of the males in armor.
“Go check that body.” one of the archers said. Devinia could see the glimmer of gold eyes from underneath the locks of his dark hair. “That boar.”
The male in armor looked at him and then over to the tree several yards away. “Shouldn’t we move together?”
“We have your back, now go do it.” The archer ordered, sounding frustrated. “Remember, we hired you lost seeds, you should be honored.”
The lone armored spearman advanced on the body Devinia had left for her partner, but she was nowhere to be found. As the archers watched, she realized that all the bowmen, male and female, had the cat’s eyes, and would be able to see her if they looked up.
She checked that thought. If their vision was the same as she used to have, they would only be able to tell she was a shape in the darkness. She adjusted her profile to not look cat-like, and continued watching. One of the hunters scanned the branches above, and for a moment her gaze lingered on Devinia before it slid away. She felt a small tension ease from her shoulders as the hunter looked away; she had been correct in her assumption.
The spearman turned from the corpse. “It looks like it’s been partially eaten. Bite marks look like you described, but it wasn’t killed by it.” He called back. His voice sounded vaguely familiar. Perhaps it was someone she had met before.
“What do you mean?” the bowman asked.
The scouting spearman shook his head. “There’s a puncture in the throat that had to have been made with a weapon, it’s too neat to be a claw or bite wound.”
The archer rolled his eyes. “Then it stole some poor hunter’s kill. It might have also taken the hunter. That’s why we’re out here, to protect our city.”
He chuckled, something quiet but easily heard by Devinia’s ears. “That and their hides are worth ten times their weight in gold.”
The lone spearman turned to walk back to the group, and now she could see his face through the opening in his helmet. A familiar look of agitation caught in the back of her mind, and only her newfound ability to meld into the shadows without concentration kept her from falling out of the tree in sheer shock.
It was Lukas. The bastard who had stolen her things and tried to kill her. What was he doing here? Where was his brother?
Devinia slid across to an adjoining branch and shifted around the group as they began walking further in. Markus was th
e other male in armor in the back. Both of them looked uncomfortable in the deep wood, and their armor didn’t look like it fit right and must have been borrowed. So, the hunters hired them to do the dirty work of killing their prey.
It didn’t matter to her anymore. Devinia saw the two who had tried to kill her, ruined what remained of her life, and drove her out of the city. A fog of rage seeped into her thoughts, obscuring any thoughts that would have curbed her intention. She wanted revenge, and the gods themselves would not deny her.
With a sneer, she jumped back away from them, landing softly in the loam of the forest floor. Instantly she shifted around to the back of the group, staying out of range of the lights they carried. Hiding behind a tree, she considered how best to finish off the interlopers.
She took a breath and called out the ululating cry the younger Dancer in Darkness had called as it fell past her. Though she’d not practiced it, the sound had been so haunting it was burned into her memory. A fair approximation echoed through the trees, bouncing about and obscuring her exact location.
The group turned in her general direction, and the lead hunter advanced the hunting party towards the tree she had been hiding behind.
“Quiet!” he whispered. “It’s nearer than it sounds.”
“I’ve never heard one make that sound before.” One of the other hunters whispered.
“They make it if they’re injured, but usually only the young ones do.” A female archer replied. “An adult won’t make a sound even if it's caught out in the sun. I thought we were hunting an adult?”
“We are.” The lead archer replied. By this point, Devinia had crept up the tree they were searching around, staying out of direct line of sight of any of them. “There must be a cub nearby.”
Devinia slipped around the tree, down to the ground, and up behind the spearman the farthest back. The bright light of the spears hurt her eyes a little, but she slipped out of the shadows behind him unheard.
“Be on your guard.” The leader advised.
Devinia felt a shiver of irritation; the group had rotated while moving, and now her prey was in the front of the group instead of the back. Still, she learned many tricks to get at the prey she wanted.
She had been unable to make the kill before when she was young, but the severity of the world hadn’t yet sunk in for her then. Her time in the deep wood of the Fiorache’Sora had taught her the necessity of killing. In the wild, killing was life. Without death, she couldn’t live. Without revenge, she couldn’t return to the world she grew up in.
It was easier than she had expected to drive her dagger into the gap between the collar of the spearfemale’s armor and her helmet. Her other hand clamped across her victim’s face and she hauled the still struggling female behind the nearest tree. She yanked the dagger free, having made only minimal noise. Without pause, she pulled the glowing spear from the female’s hands and thrust the head into the side of the tree.
The group of hunters turned at the sound of metal biting wood, but it took them a second to realize they were a female short. Then, a sickening crack of metal snapping shot through the air and a brilliant flash of light drew their attention to the other side of a thick tree only a dozen yards away. They found their spearfemale dead, the last of her blood seeping into the dirt, and the now dim spearhead embedded in the wood, the blade broken off and the shaft lying discarded at their feet.
“What in the gods!” Devinia heard Markus exclaim. “Wisperia!”
“She’s dead.” Lukas stated, crouched next to her. “Her throat is cut.
Devinia lay on her back on the branch not ten feet over their heads, the thickness enough to allow her to be entirely unseen in shadowmeld. Even the archers with their gifted eyes wouldn’t spot her.
“There’s no way one of the beasts did this.” The lead hunter stated. “There’s an interloper.”
“It looks like an assassin’s work!” Markus said loudly. Devinia could tell by his voice that he was shaken. “Was there a contract on her?”
“Who would bother putting a contract out on a lost seed?” one of the other archers replied derisively. “It would be hardly worth the coin or effort.”
Markus moved below her, and she heard him start to shout a profanity at the archer when Lukas must have interrupted. “Shut it, brother.” He whispered harshly. “She was close, but the killer is still out here.”
“Gods.” Markus muttered as the group spread into a loose circle. The leader put the spearmen out at equidistant points. “Could it be an assassin?”
“Not likely.” Lukas replied. “They wouldn’t come out here. Even an assassin falls prey to the Dancer in Darkness.”
Devinia slid along the branch of the tree, coming to a stop directly over Markus. In a low tone, she spoke to him.
“Who’s fucked now?” she whispered, her voice dripping with menace. Just as quickly, she was gone, back at the trunk of the tree and shooting off down another branch. Markus startled, whirling to try to spot her.
“Gods!” he exclaimed in fear. “She’s back!”
“Back?” the lead archer replied. “Who?”
Lukas glared at his brother. “Markus! Get back in line! No one’s back!”
“Who is your brother talking about?” the leader asked Lukas.
Devinia had slipped inside the circle and watched everyone’s movements.
“There was this elf we fought with a little over a year ago. But she died in a fire back then. There’s no way she’s still alive.” Lukas summed up, his eyes still scanning the darkness around him.
There was no way to hit Lukas without the archers making her a pincushion. She moved out into the darkness outside the light of the spears, lined up her shot, and struck. Her bone spear hurtled out of the darkness and caught the third spearman in the face, just above where she had been aiming. He fell to the ground screaming, his spear falling to the ground as he grabbed at his face.
One of the archers picked up the spear, while the other three trained bows on where she had just been.
“I saw something.” One of the archers admitted.
“What?”
“I don’t know, it was just a shape in the darkness. It wasn’t one of them.”
Devinia slipped around behind them as swift as thought and just as silent. Their backs were exposed. She raised her dagger, and hesitated. From her position low to the ground, she could see a word engraved on the metal guard of the spear. Geaighal... an elven word for ‘change the light’.
If the armor and spears were on loan to the spearmen, then they had to have simple command words that could be used by them. It meant that the whole set had to run on the same word. Devinia grinned. When she had lived in the city, almost all the lights worked on that same command. It meant it would be far easier to take their weapons away from them.
“Geaighal.” She spoke aloud, putting force into her voice. From what she remembered, one had to say the command word while wanting the lights to change. She was no expert in magic, so she knew not how the spell could tell between the word being said in casual conversation and being said as a command. But it worked, and that was all that mattered.
The spears went dim as the six remaining whirled to the voice. Devinia lunged forward, slicing at the throat of the closest elf, an archer. His neck opened up and he choked, dropping his bow and clutching at his throat.
“Geaighal!” The leader shouted. As the light blazed into brilliance she ducked into the dying archer’s forward tumbling body, letting it bear her towards the ground. She gave it a thought and melded into the shadow cast by his fallen body. She slipped from that shadow into the shadow cast by the hunt leader.
“I saw her!” Markus cried out. “It was an assassin!”
Lukas turned and looked at the group. “I did too-” He hesitated. “Where did she go?” he exclaimed in a panic. The female archer was missing. In the distance a female’s wail was heard for a brief second before it was cut short.
Devinia felt that rush o
f joy again. Her partner had been nearby, waiting for the opportunity to strike.
“We should leave.” Lukas said, pointing the spear outwards. “We’re down to four.”
“Shut it!” the leader shouted. “We won’t get far unless we work together.”
It was just Lukas and his brother Markus and two other hunters left. There was not much time until they figured out where she was hiding. She needed to give her partner an opening to help.
She erupted out of the shadow beneath the leader, coming out at his back in full view of both of the brothers. She struck behind her, catching the lead hunter in the back with her dagger as she looked at them.
“Geaighal.” She repeated, and the last thing they saw as the light faded was her familiar face smiling.
She ducked, pulling the blade free and lunging forward. She’d grown into her height, and the difference of reach between the two wasn’t nearly so different this time. They brought their spears down, but there was a moment of hesitation as they tried to decide whether to call out the command word first or bring the weapons to bear.
“Geaighal!” Lukas shouted, and the spears lit up as Devinia ducked under their points. Lukas jumped back as she slashed, but Markus was not so lucky. The dagger bit into the back of his knee and he went down easier than when her partner had knocked the legs out from under an elk. Markus cried out in pain, and Devinia snatched the spear out of his hands as she whirled towards his brother. The spears clashed, and for a second the two were locked, trying to push through the other’s weapon.
Lukas’ eyes went wide. “It is you.”
“Where’s your backup now?” Devinia whispered. “Where’s your support?”
Behind her, she heard the twang of a bow being fired away from her, followed by a scream. Markus groaned and pulled the dagger out of his leg. Their hunters were dead, and the Dancer in Darkness was nearby. He used his elbows to pull himself closer to the light as he fumbled with a belt pouch.
Spellscribed Tales: First Refrain Page 15