by Loki Renard
"Stop that!"
"No," Ayla said firmly. "I'm not going to watch you do your best to get Vix hurt."
"I didn't. I was helping her."
"And how do you imagine you helped her?"
"I helped her speak her truth."
"You encouraged her to go out on a limb and then you left her to her fate, that's what you did," Ayla corrected. "That was underhand."
"If you're worried about underhand, you shouldn't be worried about me," Liz replied. "There's a whole lot going on you don't even know about. There's plans on top of plans and secrets on top of secrets."
"And those are none of your concern," Ayla replied. "As far as I can tell, you're here simply to cause trouble."
"I'm here as Ariadne's emissary."
The witch's eyes glittered in the moonlight and her expression seemed suddenly cold as she gazed down at Liz. "It is no secret that I am no friend to Ariadne. Invoking her name will not earn you any mercy from me."
"You seem tense," Liz observed. "Is there something wrong? Are you worried about where your little warrior friend might be leading you?"
"Your tricks will not work on me," Ayla replied.
"Do you think it's a coincidence that she is taking us toward the elven isles?"
Ayla folded her arms under her bosom, long fingers extending up her arms as she gazed down at the smallest giant in Lesbia. "I think you should do something other than stir up discord or I will remove your powers of speech."
"Your spell won't work on me," Liz smirked.
Ayla's answering smile was as cold as it was broad. "I don't need a spell to gag you. Have you forgotten what I am capable of?"
"I have not," Liz growled. "But brutality will not dissuade me either. I do not fear consequences. Cause and effect are nothing to me."
"Then you will inevitably be hurt, perhaps even harmed."
"I welcome it," Liz smirked defiantly. "Run back to your hengineer, comfort her for her hurt little feelings. I have no need for you, witch, and your ears are deaf to what I have to say to you."
"Arrogant little wretch aren't you."
"Arrogant is just another word for correct," Liz replied.
"You could at least be grateful to Vix. She did save your life."
"It was not hers to save," Liz replied. "Besides, I did help her. I took her from the fringes to the very center. I made people care about her."
"She already had people who cared about her."
"Oh yes, people happy for her to catch her death of cold each night, people who only noticed her when they needed a widget tweaked," Liz snorted. "You know as well as I do that my little game did her more good than any of her so called friends or commanders."
"Kira could have beaten her to within an inch of her life for that disrespect. You did not help her," Ayla declared. "You are a danger to yourself and everyone around you."
Liz lifted her chin and stared Ayla dead in the eye with a defiance that went to her very core. When she spoke it was without any trace of whimsy or faith. It was with a soft but dangerous ferocity which belied her true intentions as she smiled in a way which made her canines flash in the moonlight.
"Oh I hope so."
Ayla laughed, the sound warm and amused in that dark space. "So shall it be," she said, turning to leave Liz standing defiantly before the stars. She crossed to the corner of the cave where Vix had curled up on her own and sat down beside the sleeping hengineer, casting her cloak over Vix's sleeping frame.
Sleep did not come to Ayla that night. Nor did it come to Liz. They both kept silent watch as the stars cycled through the sky and the moon deferred to the dawn.
Kira stirred first, stretching her arms and welcoming the day with a great yawn.
"Good morning," Ayla said, greeting her with warm broth. She had stoked the fire and started vittles knowing that all would wake hungry.
"Thank you," Kira said, taking the proffered bowl in both hands. "You did not wake me to take a watch?"
"I did not feel tired," Ayla replied.
"She did not trust anyone else to watch me," Liz interjected with a smirk. She took a bowl and dipped it in the broth before slurping loudly. "She fears me."
Kira's dark gaze ran over Liz's form with great displeasure. It was far too early in the day to be provoking a warrior.
"She is trying to cause trouble," Ayla said. "Ignore her."
"Ignore me," Liz agreed. "Until you no longer can - or until it is too late, I don't much mind either way."
"By the goddess," Vix groaned as she came to consciousness. "Are you still talking?"
"I am talking," Liz said. "I am talking and I will go on talking until I decide otherwise...ooooof!"
The wind was knocked out of her and broth was spilled as Kira stretched her leg and casually swept Liz onto the ground. Liz landed on her butt with a loud curse. She looked askance at Kira, who in turn looked back at her with an expression which clearly telegraphed the notion that to continue talking would be a bad idea.
And then a miracle happened. Liz shut up. She sat in the spot where she had landed and looked thoroughly nonplussed at Kira's roughness. The warrior refilled her bowl and handed it back to her.
"Eat," she said gruffly.
Liz ate, her lower lip trembling as she did. Her eyes welled with uncried tears as she slurped her soup loud enough to wake Moon and Trebuchet and Aeron besides.
"What a baby," Vix muttered underneath her breath. She did not eat, instead she sat back from the group as everyone else filled their bellies.
Breakfast should have been the meal which began the day but for some strange reason, one by one each of the travelers fell asleep again. Even Liz slumped to the side snoring softly. When the last of them had sunk into slumber. Ayla rose from the fire and looked toward Vix.
"You didn't take the medicine," she said. "That was wise."
Vix looked at Ayla askance. "Why did you do this to them?"
"They have plans for me," Ayla said simply. "And I am far too old to have plans made for me. I will make my way on my own."
Vix nodded, understanding the impulse for a solitary journey.
"I am sorry to see you go," she said. "I am sure they will give pursuit."
"Likely," Ayla agreed. "But they will not find me."
"How do you know?"
"Because where I am going, they cannot follow."
Vix nodded. "Well," she said. "Goodbye."
There was a long moment of silence before Ayla held her arms out. "Come."
"I will not, if it is the same to you," Vix said. "There is no point in embrace. You are leaving now and we will not see one another again. Our time is at an end."
"I think perhaps it is not," Ayla replied. "I think you should come with me."
"Why?"
"Because I think you might be able to follow," Ayla said, her gaze as magnetic as her words were nebulous. "And I think you need to."
Vix looked at the witch uncertainly. "I have no skills which could possibly aid you. I do not believe in the magic you possess, nor do I have any talent in herbalism. Moon would be a better choice, or even Liz. She has some kind of queer power."
"I wish for you to come with me," Ayla said. "I will not compel you. If you come it will be your choice." She bent, picked up her satchel and slung it over her shoulder, then walked to the mouth of the cave and set forth into the forest, leaving Vix to make her decision on her own.
After a few moment's hesitation, the hengineer grabbed her bag and set forth after Ayla. She caught up with the witch on the forest trail.
"I'm coming," she said. "But this doesn't mean anything."
"Of course not," Ayla greed with a soft smile.
"Where are we going?" Vix had to scurry to keep up with Ayla who was striding with undeniable purpose.
"To find Ariadne."
"Oh. Right." Vix rolled her eyes to herself. "To find a goddess. Well, I'm sure we’ll be very successful doing that."
"I'm going to enjoy teaching you," Ayla sai
d with one of her charismatic smiles which made Vix's stomach do little flips of excitement. "There is so much more to this world than you can imagine."
"Like what?"
Ayla stopped, making Vix come to a halt too. She turned, leaned down and took Vix's chin between thumb and forefinger. With the hengineer firmly in her grasp, Ayla brushed her lips over Vix's mouth.
The touch unleashed a thousand butterflies in Vix's stomach and made her hips squirm. It had been but the briefest, most chaste of kisses but it left her entire body brimming with excitement.
"Like that," Ayla said softly, releasing Vix's chin. "That and so much more."
She began to walk on again, leaving Vix quite stunned.
"Come," Ayla called back to her. "We do not have time for tarrying."
Vix could still feel the witch's lips on hers as she scurried after Ayla once more. This was real adventure. She felt it in her gut, and more importantly - in her loins.
Chapter Twenty Three
Kira, Trebuchet, Moon, Aeron and Liz woke up at about the same time and came to the realization that Ayla was missing a moment later.
"The witch is gone," Liz said, grasping the significance of what had occurred immediately. "She must have put something in that stew."
Kira set her lips in a thin line and shook her head. "I forgot. Never trust a witch's cooking."
"You think she drugged us?" Trebuchet rubbed her head. "That seems... very naughty."
Moon grinned at her lover. "Is it naughty if you're a thousand years old and you do something wrong?"
"Yes," Trebuchet replied. "And when I catch that witch, you can be sure I'll take it out on her hide."
Moon giggled at the notion. Trebuchet was formidable, but Ayla was nigh untouchable. The notion of anyone doing anything to Ayla that Ayla didn't want seemed entirely out of the realm of possibility.
"Where's Vix?" She added the question almost as an afterthought. It did not receive any reply or indeed, any attention whatsoever.
"We need to find Ayla immediately," Kira said. "Aeron, you scout to the south and see if you can pick up a trail. Trebuchet, you take the north. I'll take the east. Moon and Liz, take the west. Meet back here in one hour."
"That's not going to work," Trebuchet disagreed. "Moon and Liz can't go together. I'll take Moon with me. Liz should go with you."
Both Liz and Kira looked thoroughly horrified at the idea.
"I don't need my Moon getting any ideas," Trebuchet said, putting her hand on Moon's shoulder in a protective gesture.
"Fine," Kira agreed. "Liz, you come with me."
The parties spread out to search. Aeron headed out at high speed on her own, eager to be the one to catch Ayla. Trebuchet and Moon set off at a much more relaxed pace in the opposite direction. Kira sighed to herself, then began walking down a small path between saplings which grew to the left of the cave. Liz followed after her at something of a distance.
"You probably won't find the witch," Liz said, not at all helpfully. "Witches are never found when they don't want to be. That's how they lasted this long."
Kira rounded on Liz, hands on her hips as she glowered down at the unfortunate scamp who was wearing the sort of smirking expression calculated to inspire annoyance in others. "You're going to keep your mouth shut," she said. "Or you're going to be sore."
"I don't care if I'm sore," Liz replied. "I don't care about any..OW!"
She squealed because Kira had grabbed a whippy branch from a nearby tree and cut it down across the outside of her thigh. "Dammit!" She cried out. "Why do you have to be such a bitch!?"
There was a moment of absolute silence, followed by a flurry of action. Kira hauled Liz around and pressed her face first up against a tree, then proceeded to whip her hide with the switch. At first it was not so bad because the fabric of her clothing bore the brunt of the whipping but Liz's britches were not especially well fitting and they soon began to sag, leaving her bare bottom vulnerable to the sting of the wood.
Her cries echoed through the forest, plaintive wails interspersed with higher shrieks of frustration. There was no way for her to avoid the strokes, for Kira had bunched her warrior hand most securely in the back of Liz's shirt. Swat after swat landed, red stripes rising across her cheeks as the switch took its toll.
Kira said not a word as she thrashed the unfortunate wretch who began to admit that she had made a grave error in using such foul language with Kira at the top of her lungs. All her apologies made not a lick of difference though. It had been some time since Kira had unleashed her disciplinary ire on a deserving bottom and Liz was about as deserving a bottom as had ever existed.
"You're killing me!" Liz shrieked.
A loud snort of what might have been amusement followed the panicked statement. "This won't kill you," Kira reassured her captive. "But it will make you think twice before you mouth off again, won't it?"
"I don't know!" Liz squirmed back and forth uncontrollably, her hands reaching back to rub her bottom only to be swatted away with the sting of the switch.
"You can't control your own mouth?"
"Control is an illusion," Liz whimpered. "I don't believe in free will."
"Well you'd better start," Kira replied, cutting the switch across the sensitive tops of Liz's bare thighs as her pants sagged all the way to her ankles. "Because I don't believe in mercy for troublemakers."
She proved the point by lashing the switch back and forth over the skin just below Liz's bottom several times, causing Liz to make a high pitch squealing sound which frightened a herd of wild pigs several miles off.
"You're cruel!"
"You have about as much grasp of cruelty as you do of death," Kira replied, holding Liz firmly in place. "You are a soft, spoiled little wretch."
"And you are a hard, mean, big... meanie!" Liz bit the words back over her shoulder, abandoning any notion of contrition.
Liz could not have seen it, but Kira smirked slightly as she swatted Liz's backside with the switch yet again, adding another line to the myriad of stripes criss-crossing the miscreant's behind.
As the punishment continued, the unfortunate recipient became increasingly uncomfortable thanks to the switch and Kira's strong right arm. Liz's bottom was cherry red, twin cheeks bouncing back and forth as she bounced on her tip toes in a fruitless attempt at escape. The tip of the wood kissed the underside of her bottom as Kira angled her wrist so the implement rose from underneath to leave little welts where Liz would usually sit.
"Stop!" Liz squealed the word. "For the love of everything! Stop!"
Kira did not stop. She was clearly determined to teach a very overdue lesson and to be thorough about it. Unfortunately, Liz had no intention of learning any lessons. When whining, squirming and pleading failed, she reached the end of her tether and truly lost her temper.
In spite of the biting of the switch, she suddenly stilled and spoke in cold tones. "Do not strike me again," she said, looking over her shoulder. "Or you will regret it."
Kira paused for a moment, a handsome smirk appearing on her face. "What will you do? Scream some uncouth words? Make some daisies grow?"
"I will grind your bones," Liz growled. "And I will bake them into cake."
"An inventive threat," Kira admitted. "But hardly credible. If you want to make a threat it has to be one you're capable of coming through on."
"I'm not done," Liz said, narrowing her eyes so they were two icy slits behind her messy braids. "I'll suck the life out of you. I'll make you old."
The warrior shook her head, her lips twisted in dark amusement. "That's one thing I will never be."
"As long as Ariadne continues to bless you," Liz replied. "What if she stops? What if she withdraws her power from you? Then you'll wither, won't you? Will you die, do you think? Or will you just get older and older and older? Will you age a hundred years in a hundred seconds? Do you even know?"
There was a silence after she spoke as the words sank in.
"You really are a nasty littl
e wretch," Kira said mildly. "I think Ariadne would like you a lot."
"She already does." Liz reached out and put her hand on Kira's, wrapping her fingers around the warrior's hand in a quick, tight squeeze. Her lips moved rapidly and soundlessly.
Kira shouted in sudden pain and drew her hand away, releasing Liz in the process. Where her skin had been tanned and strong, it was now translucent and thin and withered. It was as if her hand had aged instantly, bones and veins visible through parched skin.