Bloodfire (The Sojourns of Rebirth)

by Matthew Medina

  What made her sweat and react with such dismay was that the sound had come from the same spot where the sleeper had roused.

  Have I made a terrible mistake? What if this isn’t the Dane’s sleeping chamber? she thought, panicked.

  What if these are slaves, or prisoners?

  Catelyn briefly considered backing out of the room and fleeing, but quickly realized that even if her fears were confirmed, this wouldn’t change very much about the specifics of her plan, only the amount of time needed to locate the Dane. He had to be in the house somewhere. If not here, perhaps he was the lone sleeper down the hall. She decided to check this trio first, if for no other reason than to rule them out.

  She had not originally planned to wake Dane Callum, hoping that she could simply get close enough to administer the dose of powdered brown seaweed that she’d brought with her in a sack attached to her belt, then drag him somewhere for a private talk, away from his comforts and when they were not surrounded by his men. That was another reason that Catelyn had chosen to approach Dane Callum for this - she knew that he was a slight man, barely taller than Catelyn herself, and not as great a physical threat to her. She could, with effort, dose the Dane into deep unconsciousness and carry him out of his bed chamber and up onto the roof. But if the Dane wasn’t here and she needed to search additional rooms...

  Catelyn ran over all the scenarios in her head, and none of them were good. She sighed, and thought to herself. How had everything gotten so complicated?

  Catelyn didn’t contemplate her dire predicament long, though. She needed more information before making a move, so she stalked towards the bed on silent bare soles. She tuned her hearing to the slow, rhythmic breathing of the sleepers, and then focused on their movements as they slept, trying to determine the location of the chains and how they were arrayed and where they were attached.

  She reached the side of the bed and reached out to feel the wood of the bed frame. She ran her sensitive fingertips over its surface. It was as rough-hewn and as ornately carved as the door and the details stood out to her highly-trained sense of touch. She moved her hand and held it out, suspended over the bed, feeling the air just above where she knew the legs of the sleepers would be, testing the vibrations and currents of the air as it shifted beneath her fingers. The air was as palpable to her hands and feet as water was to other people.

  It was the slight change in temperature which alerted her to the proximity of the chain, stopping her hand before coming into contact with the cold metal. She used both hands and, following the line of cold, she traced its length down from the bed to a notch in the floor.

  She could only guess, as it was too great a risk to confirm with her hands, that the other end of the chain terminated in a restraint of some sort, locked around neck, or wrist, or ankle. Perhaps even all three.

  But however it was attached to the person slumbering right beside her, it became clear that at least one of these sleepers was there against their will. The thought of that sent a spark of anger into the center of Catelyn’s calm, but she simply acknowledged it and did not try to fan it into a flame of emotion.

  She turned and squatted down, crabbing her way across the floor on all fours now, feeling her way around the bed, and confirmed the presence of another chain, similarly coming from the sleeper to the right side of the mattress, and ending in an identical notch in the floor. Two captives slept on either side of the bed, both chained to the floor. And in the middle of them both, the third figure. None of the three were large, but Catelyn couldn’t tell with certainty if the Dane was among them.

  She sniffed deeply, trying to smell every detail. She crinkled her nose at the smells coming from the bed: sweat mostly, and other bodily fluids. Just the smallest hint of blood. She extended her hearing as well, but apart from the breathing of all three sleepers, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. She had a decision to make.

  A snore erupted from one of the captives. She knew immediately where it had come from, but it hadn’t been enough for Catelyn to determine the sex and disposition of the owner of that noise. Her instincts told her that it was a man, and an adult, but she couldn’t be absolutely sure given the conditions. Catelyn’s pulse pounded through her entire body, and she could feel sweat pouring from under her kerchief and at the small of her back. She knew that her options were very limited now, and so she made her decision, and prepared herself for what she was about to do.

  She inhaled sharply, crouched herself low, and sprang, pushing with all the strength in her legs to pounce onto the bed. Although she could not tell everything about her three targets, she knew from the sound of their breathing exactly where each of their mouths and noses were, and that was enough for what she had planned.

  As she landed on the bed, she twisted her right leg sideways beneath her, and extended her arms to the sides. Her right knee impacted exactly as she had seen it in her mind, wedged into the space below the middle sleeper’s jaw, cutting off the airway before a sound could escape it.

  She knew she was taking a risk in concluding that the figure in the center of the two captives was Dane Callum, and that he slept in between his two captives, but her instincts were usually very accurate and this seemed like a reasonable risk, based on all of the evidence her senses provided her. With her arms extended, she clamped down hard on the mouths of the two captive sleepers beside him. All that escaped from them were frantic, muffled moans, while the center sleeper who she could now confidently identify as a man because of the scratching of his beard against her skin, struggled for breath as Catelyn’s knee was compressing his throat, preventing him from taking a breath with mouth or nose. He flailed with all his strength, but he was not much heavier than Catelyn and he was unable to throw her off. Her conclusion, and for this she did thank the Divines at least in principle, had been correct: She was straddling Dane Callum.

  Catelyn also now had additional information about the captives. As soon as her hands had found the mouths of the two sleepers, she confirmed that they were young children. Upon realizing this fact, Catelyn had no compunction pushing all of her weight into her knee, and she could hear the choking of Dane Callum intensify, as he tried to extract the leg that was choking him before he lost consciousness or worse.

  The two children struggled as well, but as Catelyn had anticipated, the metal chains prevented them from moving too much. Unfortunately the chains were also beginning to rattle across the bed and floor noisily. Catelyn knew she had very little time now.

  “Shush” she hissed to the children. “I’m not here to hurt either of you. I’m here for him” and she nodded her head towards the struggling Dane Callum.

  Almost immediately, and to Catelyn’s surprise, her words had the desired effect. She felt the two children settle, although they still fought against her grip clamping down on their mouths, and she knew eventually they would win, given that most of her weight was being used to put behind her choking of Callum, who was still fighting back and trying to gain the power to fight off her attack. She needed to pacify the children so she could focus all of her energy on restraining the Dane.

  “I’ll remove my hands, but I need you to promise me that you won’t scream. You have to reason to fear me. Do you agree? Nod if you do.” Catelyn said, as calmly as she could.

  The children struggled briefly, then she felt first one, then the other, nod their assent. Catelyn squeezed their mouths one last time, with both warmth and a warning. She felt her heart go out to them, and she tried not to think too hard about the ordeals these innocents had been forced to endure, and then she released her hands.

  She almost immediately regretted it.

  “Help us, please!”

  “Let us go, we’ve been here for days.”

  Both children breathlessly, frantically pleaded to Catelyn, desperately reaching out to her with hands and voices, trying to claw at her to get her to release them. They were making more noise in their “cooperation” than they had when they had been fighting her.

>   Catelyn put her finger to her lips, about to chastise them for breaking their word, but then she thought about all that they had endured and decided to try something else first. She turned her head to look at both children in turn, and tugged her scarf down so that they could both see her smile.

  “What are your names?” she whispered. This unexpected gesture from her had the desired effect she had been hoping for, and the children responded.

  “My name is Elexia. This is my sister, Sera,” one of the girls said.

  When the girl said the name, Catelyn felt a chill start at the base of her neck and work its way down her entire body.

  Sera.

  Her mother’s name.

  It probably shouldn’t have had such a profound effect on her, she realized. Sera wasn’t exactly an uncommon name in Exeter. But nonetheless, it hit Catelyn deeply, and she felt herself falter slightly, as the word dredged up her own painful memories.

  Catelyn had no time to wallow in her own melancholy though. Dane Callum was on the verge of either fighting his way out from beneath her, or of forcing her to end his life there and then. His gasping breaths were coming shallower and shallower, and his struggling was getting weaker.

  She pushed her feelings aside, and said “Elexia, Sera, I’m very happy to know you. My name is Catelyn. I wish that we had the time to make friends, but right now I need to speak to this...bastard”.

  As she said the word she slapped the top of Dane Callum’s head with her open palm, which captured the two girls’ attention, and further assured keeping him from fading into

  unconsciousness.

  “Can I count on the both of you to be quiet while I talk with him?” Catelyn asked gently.

  The girls both nodded vigorously, which Catelyn could tell by the motion of the bed and the light tinkling of the chains.

  “Good,” Catelyn said with another smile.

  With that dealt with, Catelyn shifted some of her weight from her right knee and Callum immediately sucked in air, rasping and fighting to breathe again through his compressed windpipe.

  She let him take two deep breaths, then stood up on the bed, placing her left foot down between the Dane’s arm and chest and pressing her right foot down across his neck, compressing it once more but with more control and less intensity. This had the added benefit of being able to feel his breath catch and his pulse race, with the sole of her foot and she used exactly the right amount of pressure to keep him conscious.

  “Now, I hope that I have your attention,” Catelyn said.

  She felt and heard nothing. Catelyn sighed audibly then continued, trying to sound stronger than she felt.

  “In case you hadn’t noticed, my patience isn’t very strong this evening. I suggest you answer me.” As she spoke, she leaned more of her weight into her foot. Catelyn was trying to sound as intimidating as she could, though she feared that these words coming from a slight girl like herself would only cause him to find the situation humorous.

  However, she felt him nod, his stubbly chin scratching the top of her foot. Catelyn tried not to show how relieved she was at this small compliance.

  “Good. Now that we understand each other...” As she trailed off, she also eased off some of the pressure and weight from her leg, and she felt his breath slide shallowly in and out once more. Catelyn pulsed her bubble once, focusing on the hallway and the open door out of caution, but she heard no patrolling guards nearby. She guessed that she might have another quarter of a prayer before the roving guard looped back around this way.

  When the man grew accustomed to this level of pressure, she leaned over and put some more of her weight back on the leg she used to hold him down by the throat and glared at him menacingly, at least as much as it was possible to glare at someone from behind a blindfold.

  She pushed on. “Do you know who I am?” she asked bluntly.

  Another nod, Yes.

  “And you know what I did to Dane Eyrris?” And another nod, this one more vigorous.

  “Of course you do. You and the other Danes all look out for each other now, don’t you?” She pressed slightly onto his neck, to remind him of the position she had him in should his answer displease her. His breath caught and he tried desperately to swallow another gulp of air, through the resistance of the pressure that she was applying.

  “Yes” he croaked, finally finding his voice. The single syllable dripped with contempt.

  Catelyn felt herself start to sweat, beneath the kerchief tucked around her head. Everything relied on what happened in the next few moments. She had to lay out her case quickly, and be gone.

  “We have a problem, all of us. What had been a more intimate matter between your little club and myself has something more. Something fatal. And you, Dane Callum, are going to help me stop it.”

  “Go...fuck...self...bitch,” Callum spat out, managing to get that all through the pressure she was putting on his throat.

  She leaned forward and pushed harder upon his throat until she heard him gasp and attempt, fruitlessly, to draw in a deeper breath.

  “Now, now,” Catelyn scolded. “Is that any way to be helpful?”

  Callum struggled, trying to fight her off, but now that she was standing, the slightest shift in her weight put intense pressure on his delicate throat and he couldn’t escape. Not without completely cutting off his airway, or having his throat crushed beneath her foot. She was in total control, and he knew it.

  “O...K...stop,” he croaked once.

  She eased herself back slightly again, and as she did so, she quickly expanded her bubble to check on her surroundings once more. It never hurt to exercise caution, she knew. Everything was still quiet.

  So far, so good, she thought, then refocused all of her attention on Dane Callum.

  “So, as I was saying. We need to resolve our little Imperial problem. I’ve asked around. I know that by the rules of your little club, you’re all honor-bound to help your fellow Danes.” At these words he grunted, and she could feel the thumping of blood to his head, probably from anger.

  “Loyalty. I can respect that. Really I can, but here’s the issue. The three of you, like little boys who stubbornly pout when you don’t get what you want, are about to bring the full wrath of the Empire down upon ALL our heads.”

  Catelyn assumed that Callum knew this, of course, but she was gambling everything on the hope that the Danes did not want to die in the most horrific ways imaginable. She was hoping that perhaps this act of intimidation would open Dane Callum’s eyes; to enable him to see his support for his fellow Dane as the prideful act that it was. She hoped that hearing someone else say it would perhaps change their perspective enough to see their actions in a new light.

  She felt Callum’s head shift under her sole, and she could tell he was looking up at her, where her eyes should be. He chuckled, then rasped out a single word.

  “So?” This was quickly followed by a choking , maniacal fit of laughter.

  Catelyn was taken aback.

  Are these three men so cold that they could ignore the truth of what this means? Are they that foolish to...

  Catelyn didn’t even bother to finish that thought, as Dane Callum’s laugh would seem to indicate that she already knew the answer to those questions. And with that realization came the wash of guilt at what it meant.

  He isn’t the fool. I am.

  “You really are a group of uncaring sons of shits, aren’t you?” she said.

  Callum stopped laughing long enough to cough and Catelyn realized he was in fact trying to spit on her lower leg and foot. Catelyn’s hopes were dashed. This wasn’t going to work. He was too cool. Too in control.

  As she stood over this man, knowing he was fully prepared to consign his own life, the lives of his men and everyone around him to the fires of an Imperial Purge, something inside of her snapped.

  I’m not going to win this, she realized.

  The voice, the contrary one who plagued her always in her worst moment, was in total agreeme
nt.

  You were a fool to think you ever could have won, it said flatly.

  Catelyn’s face burned white hot, and in a move that was very much unlike her, Catelyn felt herself go numb inside and she leaned half of her weight into her forward leg. She felt him struggle as she choked the life out of him. She felt cold, and she wanted him to suffer.

  “So then, this doesn’t matter, right? You don’t mind dying, right here and now. Because surely if you care nothing for what the Empire might do to you when they find you, then you must not care at all for your own life,” she said, all emotion buried deep inside her.

  He flopped beneath her like a fish, and as he flailed, she discovered something that she hadn’t known before. She hadn’t simply taken the Dane off guard from her attack. His inability to fight her off was due, in part, to the fact that his arms and legs were also restricted by metal chains; he had shackled his captives to himself. Catelyn shook her head, not understanding these sex games that the Danes played. She eased off the pressure, more out of disgust than mercy, and Callum rasped in another three choking breaths, laughing slightly with each inhale.

  Catelyn, in exasperation and resignation, sighed, and whispered “I really don’t have time for this.”

  Callum croaked out a mostly unintelligible response, with humor in his voice. “T...too bad...just...my cock”, were the only words that Catelyn could make out.

  At the last word, she sensed through her bubble that he was indeed aroused. She shivered with revulsion at the thought that this man had become aroused by his own near death. Catelyn had no direct experience with sex, but she believed strongly that this was not what it was supposed to be about.

  Catelyn knew without doubt that she had lost this negotiation. In truth, she realized that she had lost it even before it had begun, and she tried to think of some other approach she might take, when suddenly the outcome became inconsequential.