by Candy Crum
Arryn almost growled. “Fuck. Fine. Let’s go.”
Bast nodded. “But first…”
Her eyes flashed blue again as she looked down at the approaching men. Some of them had stopped and were loading crossbows. She lifted her hands, her fingers dancing, and the sand below began to shift and move.
Straightening her wrists, lifting her hands even higher, she erected a wall of sand. She then thrust her hands forward, shooting the grains of the wall toward the men, blinding them. Their screams erupted from below as they fought the sand, trying to wipe it away from their eyes but only making it worse.
Bast turned to Arryn. “There, that should buy some time. You should see the sandstorms Cleo and I can make together. Huge.”
Arryn just shook her head in awe.
“We should take to the trees,” Cathillian decided. “I hear the sounds of horses coming from inside the encampment; I think they are preparing for a larger assault.”
Arryn nodded. “We don’t want to lead them to the Daoine. We need to go a different path.”
She wasn’t nearly as agile in the trees as Corrine was, especially with other people in tow, but it would still be faster than running on foot, and their pursuers wouldn’t be able to see which direction they went.
Arryn and Cathillian’s eyes flashed green, and their hands reached up, causing trees high on the ledge to drop vines. The two druids wrapped each person in their party in a sort of harness to make it easier to pull them into the trees. Then Arryn sent a quick message to Snow and Dante to climb.
Though Dante was injured, he managed to get up onto a thick, low branch. Arryn went to him, quickly pulled the dart free, and healed him. “Stay in the trees and move as quickly as possible.”
The tiger cub nuzzled her for a brief moment before climbing higher into the tree and leaping onto the next.
Cathillian and Arryn worked together to call new vines, pulling their friends from one tree to the next until they reached the location they had met Mariana.
“Lorelei, we’re going to lower you, Mariana, Smiley, and the captain. Get them out to their ship as fast as possible, and get your people to safety. Mariana, you need to get your ship around the other side of the cove. Keep it out of sight. The Raiders know we’re here, but they don’t know that you are—yet. Let’s keep it that way,” Arryn said.
Everyone nodded in understanding. Arryn and Cathillian lowered the trio down to the beach, making sure they made it to the boat with the other men and back onto the water before continuing on themselves. Arryn had sensed Snow and Dante moving along through the trees, and knew she and Cathillian weren’t far behind.
By the time they made it back to the slide, Lorelei had returned with what was left of her family from Brann’s village. She had taken straight to the water and had used her power to propel her quickly to the storm ship.
Arryn and the others went down the slide, careful to tuck their arms in, and ran toward the beach.
“That was a little closer than I would like to admit,” Arryn noted as Lorelei approached the edge of the water.
Lorelei nodded. “Yes, it was. But you managed to save us. I think you should come with me now; it seems your friends have already been allowed inside.”
“It’s a long swim, and I’m sure it’s very scary for land dwellers, but I promise nothing will happen to you,” Lorelei assured them.
Arryn nodded and smiled. “Lead the way.”
Arryn trudged into the water after Lorelei and stepped off the deep drop. Cathillian and Bast followed close behind.
21
Esmerelda stood, seething at the three men before her. On the floor was a mother and child they had managed to take from a meaningless tribe of water people down the coast.
Her nostrils flared as she crossed her arms over her chest and stared daggers into the men standing but a few feet away. “Let me get this straight. You went there… Took these two things… And on your way back, saw the one person we need to kill, and thought to yourself, ‘I should just let her go’?”
One of the men shook his head. “No. Gabe told us to go, so we did. He thought getting them back here and telling you what was happening was more important. If we had all died confronting the druid, you wouldn’t have known she had found our camp until it was too late.”
Esmerelda sighed, angrily clicking her teeth together. “Explain to me again why you thought I would want two freakish water peasants.”
The three men anxiously looked at one another before a different one addressed her. “You remember the story the Raiders told when they came? They raided that Daoine village and killed all those people? Well, Selena said she believes the ship that was after them is still following them. So, we offered to head down the beach to search for it.”
Her eyes closed. “And who told you to do that? I am your leader. Not Selena.”
“We’re sorry. We thought if the ship really was coming for them, that they would find them here with us, and then all of us would be in danger.”
“And them?” Esmerelda asked, gesturing to the mother and child who were holding each other on the floor.
“We went all the way to the end of the beach and found a group of people playing on this weird spiral thing made out of glass. There was a rearick, a woman with magic I can’t even begin to explain, and a little girl who looked like a druid. From the story we heard from the few who returned from the Heights, it seemed like they were part of Arryn’s group. We lost four of our men but managed to grab these two.” He clasped his hands, repeatedly twiddling his fingers in anxiety.
Esmerelda paced back and forth. They had found half the group, which meant Arryn had left the warriors to protect the Daoine. That meant the tribe was of importance to the woman.
“There’s more,” one of the men said.
She turned cold eyes on him. “What?”
He cleared his throat. “On the way down, we didn’t see anything. But on the way back, there was a beached dinghy, and several men sitting beside it. They were dressed and armed quite like the Raiders; I believe that dinghy belonged to the enemy ship.”
She sighed and growled. “So, they’re here, too. Fucking fantastic.”
“What would you have us do?” he asked.
There was a moment of silence as she thought it over. She looked at the terrified mother clutching her child and rolled her eyes. “Well, it seems the lot of you brought her down on us with your stupidity. So now we have to improvise. Use the two of them to send a message.”
The men looked at one another before turning back to her. “What kind of message?”
She gave a dark smile. “The type of message my dearly departed husband would have sent. Use your imagination. Then bring Selena to me; she and I need to make plans.”
Arryn looked around the cave, amazed at what the Daoine people had created. They had built an entire home inside of the mountain. It had started out as only a tiny hole, a cave under the water only large enough to house a single person.
From there, they had burrowed deeper and created a beautiful living space. She was fascinated by these people and what they were capable of. She couldn’t wait until everything was over, and she could talk to Brann more about his relationship with Finn.
Unfortunately, things were going to get far worse before they started to get better.
While Arryn was away with Lorelei and the others, there had been an attack. Samuel, Cleo, and even Corrine had fought bravely to protect the Daoine people, but physical magic proved to be too much for the peaceful water dwellers. Arryn’s friends had to choose between saving everyone and fleeing to safety, or staying to fight, and potentially dying; if they fought and died, the Daoine people would surely fall shortly after.
Sam, Cleo, and Corrine had made the right call, but two people—a mother and child—had still been taken.
Arryn paced back and forth, shaking her hands vigorously as she tried to calm herself. “They were right there. Right there! I could’ve saved them.”
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Cathillian grabbed Arryn by the shoulders. “Stop pacing. You said it yourself: they were teleported out. There was no way for you to know who was with them or where they went.”
She looked at him with rage. “I should’ve assumed! Five people disappeared, but there were only three blasts of magic.”
“Arryn… I love you, and I love your dedication to people and your sense of duty. But you’re reaching. This was not your fault. You know as well as I do that not all Arcadians know how to teleport. Only the strongest. Why on Irth would you have imagined it was five guards and two hostages, instead of three men who could teleport and four who couldn’t?”
She stared up into his eyes, seeing his concern for her. She sighed as she closed her eyes. “You’re right. It just… They were right there.”
Cathillian pulled her into a hug, but it was brief, as the tigers—who were outside of the cave, on top of the mountain—began to roar. Echo called out right behind them. Arryn quickly pulled back, reaching through the bond as she did. Her eyes flashed green as she looked through Snow’s eyes. Cathillian did the same with Echo.
The tiger could smell blood off in the distance, and see a shadow approaching on the beach in the moonlit night.
Arryn pulled back, gasping. “There is someone coming, and they’re hurt.”
Lorelei quickly made her way over. “I’ll take you up.”
“We all go this time, lass,” Samuel said. “Not that I’m a fan of bein’ underwater that long.”
Arryn gave a quick smile and clapped Samuel on the back before following Lorelei to the edge of the water. One after another, they all dove in, and the Daoine woman encompassed each of their heads in a small air bubble.
While Arryn was good enough at propelling herself through the water, like Corrine in the trees, she knew Lorelei and the other Elders would be much faster.
They reached the edge of the beach in no time at all, and Arryn quickly jumped out, rushing forward. She had no weapons, but she was ready for confrontation, should one arise.
Something heavy hit the sand behind her, and she looked back to see Snow and Dante land only a few feet apart. They followed her as she slowly approached the figure in the darkness.
Arryn took a deep breath, her eyes clouding over as she reached for the mind that was getting closer—then she cried out, falling to her knees as she clutched her side.
Cathillian rushed over, kneeled beside her, and brushed her hair back. “Are you okay? What happened?”
Arryn shook her head. “It’s not me. It’s her.” She pointed at the oncoming figure and pulled back on the mystical magic, needing to break away from the woman’s mind and the intense pain that she felt.
Alongside all the physical agony was an intense heartbreak Arryn couldn’t even begin to imagine. It was so overwhelming that Arryn wasn’t even able to make out what was wrong.
She climbed to her feet and began to run, everyone else following close behind. As she drew closer, her eyes widened, and chills ran through her body as she realized what she was seeing.
The silhouette quickly revealed itself to be a woman carrying a child. Each step was slow and deliberate, but they were also staggered and seemingly painful. From what Arryn had felt not moments before, she knew the pain to be true.
Arryn ran as hard as she could, afraid to teleport and scare the mother. As she reached the pair, the moonlight revealed bloodstained clothes, both the mother’s and the child’s.
Tears began to stream down Arryn’s face. She felt for life, but only found a single spark between the two figures. She looked into the woman’s eyes, which were bloodshot and filled with tears of her own.
Arryn jerked as the woman spoke.
“She’s gone. They said this was a message for you.”
Unbelievable guilt, hatred, rage, and a plethora of other emotions washed over Arryn as she realized that the men who had taken the mother and child had recognized Arryn and told Esmerelda of her presence.
The woman began to fall, and Arryn reached out to catch her and her lifeless child, carefully lowering both to the ground.
“I can heal you,” Arryn offered, fighting her voice to respond through the tears.
The woman shook her head. “She was all I had. Just let me go with her.”
Arryn quickly assessed the woman’s wounds, using her magic, but it only took a second to discover they were not fatal. They would take a very long time to heal, and she would feel the pain of the process, but she would survive.
“Your wounds are bad, but not bad enough to take you,” Arryn said gently.
“Please, let her heal you,” Lorelei added as she knelt next to the woman.
The woman groaned as she shifted her daughter in her arms. Arryn tried to help, but the mother simply shook her head, welcoming the struggle of laying her daughter comfortably next to her in her arms.
“Let me be with her. I don’t care what you have to do.”
Arryn looked to the sky and took a deep breath, doing everything she could to will the tears to stop. She looked back down and laid her hand on the mother’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry. I came here to save lives. I never meant—”
The mother shook her head again, interrupting Arryn. “They meant for this to be a message for you, but that doesn’t mean this is your fault. We were the casualties, but your friends fought bravely to save us. If you want to make this right, save them. Let no one else suffer what I just had to.”
Arryn’s brows furrowed as she leaned forward and placed a gentle hand on the woman’s forehead. “I swear to you… I will make them pay for this.”
The woman nodded. “Now let me go. Let me be with my little girl and her daddy. Don’t let me hold you back from your fight any longer. If you don’t strike first, they will.”
Arryn looked away for a moment, her eyes searching for Cathillian. She didn’t have to look far—he was there, kneeling next to her. He nodded, and she turned back to the grieving mother.
The Elders began to gather around the three women, their horror, grief, and rage palpable in the night air.
“Your family is here with you,” Arryn assured her, taking another deep breath.
The woman nodded. “Good. Then they will all know I chose this.”
“You will feel no pain,” Arryn promised, securing one hand on the woman’s forehead as she placed the other between her and her daughter, just over the woman’s heart. “You’ll be with her soon.”
The woman leaned forward and kissed her daughter on the forehead, and then Arryn began.
Her eyes flashed green as she focused her energy on the woman’s life force, pulling what was left from her body. It was slow at first, and the mother became tired. Arryn could feel her drifting off to sleep, just before she accelerated the process.
As promised, the mother felt no pain. As she took her final breath, and her heart beat for the last time, Arryn felt a part of her own humanity slip.
All the rage and sorrow in the world settled on her shoulders; she had never before had to end the life of an innocent. As she looked at the mother and child, an array of thoughts and emotions hit her all at once.
In the child, she somehow saw Corrine, and the weight of that loss destroyed Arryn on a level she had never imagined. She may not have given birth to Corrine, but she certainly understood why the mother had made the decision to die with her child—she couldn’t imagine living in a world without her.
Arryn pulled her hands away, both of them shaking uncontrollably, with thoughts of vengeance running rampant in her mind.
“Arryn,” Cathillian cautioned.
She could hear the warning in his voice, just as she had heard it the day of her trials. It hadn’t registered with her then, and it wasn’t going to now. Just like the Versuch, she felt herself losing control.
She stood as thunder clapped loudly overhead, and lightning webbed through a sky of clouds that had only just begun to form. Tears streamed down her face as chills ripped through her body.
She heard Corrine call her name, but in that moment, it didn’t matter; no one but the Bitch herself could keep her from what she had planned.
Her hate-filled black and green eyes looked pointedly over at Snow and Dante, only a flash of emotion ringing out through the bond between them. The tigress didn’t hesitate to get to her feet and rush over, while Dante momentarily disappeared back up the mountain.
“What is she doing?” Lorelei asked, her voice frantic. “Is she okay? What’s happening?”
Arryn mounted Snow and looked over at her worried friends, Lorelei’s concerned face among them. “I made a promise to her, and I’m going to keep it.”
“Arryn, you need to wait for us.” Cathillian’s voice was forceful and deadly serious.
She shook her head. “I need to do this alone. Right now, I can’t think of anyone else. They did this to send a fucking message? Well, I have one for them.”
Dante rushed up, her pack gripped in his large jaws. He flinched as thunder shook the ground. She pulled the quiver free from his grip, then detached the bow. Both were placed diagonally across her back before she nodded to Dante, who kept the bag in his jaws.
Arryn flexed her legs as she squeezed Snow’s side to let her know she was ready.
As the tiger lurched forward, a lightning bolt ripped from the sky and struck a tree on the ledge of the mountain above. The thick trunk snapped and tumbled down to the sandy beach, only fifty feet away.
Arryn took another deep breath; she hadn’t meant to do that, and if she didn’t get herself under control, she would bring her own death before justice was served.
22
Arryn’s eyes flashed white as she went into a light trance, meditating to recover as much energy as possible. She would need all the help she could get once she reached the encampment.
The trip had been a long one for the tigers, but it had gone by in a flash for her, as she had been lost in her mind for nearly all of it.
Snow sent a brief flash of anticipation through the bond, pulling Arryn out of her meditative state. She saw they were closing in on the wall. On top, she could make out eight silhouettes—twice as many as before.