Behind the Tales

by Aurora Peppermint

  Nervously, he glanced over at Elsaben. Luckily, she seemed buried in what she was doing. She was sketching on some paper and staring at the picture very intently. He didn’t want to leave her alone in this place for even a few hours, but if she was asleep the whole time and they locked the door, she’d be as safe as they could make her. Certainly safer than she would be if they took her up the mountain with them. And yet, the fact that someone had been looking for her would not leave his mind.

  Rather than consider all the terrible things that could happen when he left his little sister alone, Martus led Hal to sit down on the bed so he could wrap his arms in bandages before they left. He looked like a walking corpse, his hair tousled and dark circles under his eyes. There wasn’t much Martus could do for the emotional damage he’d had to deal with, though, so he focused on the physical.

  First, he found some liquor at the bottom of his bag to dab over the wounds. He felt bad when he saw the pain on Hal’s face, but it was better to deal with a bit of stinging now than to get an infection.

  “How are you feeling?” Martus kept his voice soft as he gently bandaged Hal’s arms. He looked up, examining his friend’s eyes carefully. They were still cloudy, but he looked more exhausted than anything else. Martus didn’t know if either of them could deal with more tears that night.

  “The same.” Hal sighed, rubbing his hands over his face once Martus was done with his arms. He took a deep breath, his brows knitting together. “I’ll survive. I know we have things to do. I certainly do not want to be more trouble than I’m worth.”

  It was crazy that Hal still thought that way. All Martus wanted for him was his complete happiness and for him to be comfortable and in control of his own body. Yes, he wanted people around Hal to be safe. Especially himself and Elsaben. But he was doing what he could to protect all the people who were important to him, and that very much included Hal now.

  “You’re worth everything, Hal, I promise you.” Gently, Martus rested a hand on Hal’s shoulder. Hal’s eyes were still closed, so Martus couldn’t look him in the eye to prove he was being honest, but he leaned his forehead against the other boy’s. “We will get through this together, and I will help you. We just have to get through this job and get back home. I won’t take any other offers that are out of town for a few weeks, months if I have to.”

  “I don’t want to do that to you.” When Hal finally opened his eyes, Martus could see tears forming in them. He held Hal a little tighter, finding his hand to weave their fingers together. “I wouldn’t mind having you at home. I just… the last thing in the world I would want is for you to change your life because of my problems. The whole reason behind all this studying and practicing and working so hard was to make it easier and safer for you and El. I can’t believe any of this happened.”

  Martus didn’t know what he could say. It was such an odd situation, and one he had so little knowledge about that he didn’t feel equipped to make Hal feel better. It was frustrating, but it was where he was for the moment. Rather than saying anything, he just pressed his forehead against Hal’s again and closed his eyes. He would be there for him; that was all he could reassure him with for now. When they got home, they’d look for a safer solution. Even if it meant some risk to Martus for a while.

  On top of the helpless feeling Martus got when they talked about it, Mel was looking over at them again. He’d tried to keep his voice quiet, and he had tried to avoid naming the issue, but she could still probably hear them. There was still a good portion of this job left, and now was not the time she needed to be finding out about Hal’s problems.

  “Can we please just stop talking about it? We have things to do.” Hal ran his hands through his hair, blowing out a couple of slow breaths. Martus could tell it was doing more harm than good to keep on the subject, and he was fine with pushing it from his mind for at least the next few hours. There was nothing to be done right now anyway.

  “Of course we can. Anything that you need.” Martus laid a hand gently on the side of Hal’s face, pressing a gentle kiss to the corner of his mouth. When he pulled away, he forced a smile. “I am absolutely starving. Will you eat with me?”

  Martus was positive, at first, that Hal was going to say no, and he got prepared to do something else to keep himself occupied while he ate in lieu of Hal’s company. Luckily, Hal returned the smile—or as close to one as he could seem to get—and nodded after a moment.

  “I could eat. I should eat.” Hal took Martus’s hand and stood up so they could go get food out of their bags.

  ELSABEN WAS tired from their trip, and she got to sleep even faster than they’d anticipated. It was a relief to some degree. The sooner they found Fitzy, the sooner they could get home and relax for at least a day or two.

  It was tough for Martus to leave her there alone, but he locked the door, checked and double-checked, and even put a spell around her bed so that if someone did come into the room she’d have a protection barrier around her. If this was as short a trip as Mel promised, it would last beyond when they got back.

  Once all the precautions possible had been taken, they grabbed their bags and started up the mountain. The terrain was too rough to take the horses along with them, and they would likely end up making too much noise anyway, but Martus felt much more vulnerable without them there. He was afraid if they had to get away quickly, they would be the ones at a disadvantage.

  “How much farther do you think it is? I don’t see lights or anything.” After at least half an hour of walking, Martus was getting anxious. They were going to the cabin based on word of mouth, and it was possible that could lead them into a trap.

  “They wouldn’t have obvious lights on. It’s close. See that peak up there? We just have to get over that and turn around the side of the mountain and we’ll be there.”

  Martus hoped that was the truth. When they’d left, it was just starting to get dark, but by now it was pitch-black and hard to see where they were stepping. In the mountains, the darkness seemed even more suffocating than usual. Add that to the freezing-cold air surrounding them, and it seemed dangerous, without considering the fact that there were people who wanted to kill them out there somewhere.

  The path up and over the peak was too narrow for them to keep walking side by side, and Martus could barely fit both his feet on it together. The higher they went, the more the wind picked up, stinging their faces and pushing them around on the tiny path. Martus glanced back over his shoulder every few seconds to be sure Hal hadn’t lost his footing and, eventually, he just extended his hand behind him to hold Hal’s so he could be sure they were all steady on their feet.

  Finally, they made it over the very top of the peak, and the difference in the view was astounding. Rather than dark rocks and almost nothing being visible to them, it was incredibly bright, and there was a two-story cabin only a few yards away from the bottom. Martus didn’t want to imagine how many people that cabin could hold. A few rooms didn’t seem to be illuminated, however, and there wasn’t much noise coming from it. Hopefully they hadn’t sent everyone to deal with Fitzy.

  “What’s our plan?” Hal asked as they approached the cabin, speaking up for the first time since they left the inn.

  “How much do you know about these people, Mel? How many do you think there’ll be? I’m guessing we’ll be outnumbered.” If not, then it was pretty strange they’d loaded up on as many weapons as they could carry, as well as metal pieces of armor under their clothes, to come after Fitzy. Although he didn’t have an incredible amount of faith in himself, Martus knew Mel was worth at least two people herself, and if they kept watch of her back, she would hopefully be able to get them through however many people were there.

  “At least a dozen. If my brother’s in there and hasn’t gotten out yet, he’s not in any state to help us fight. It’ll just be the three of us. It’s going to be a hard fight any way we slice it, so I’m open to suggestions.” Mel stopped, catching her breath at the side of the rock they’d jus
t climbed over. They hadn’t walked that far and already it was getting measurably harder to breathe.

  “All right.” Martus was the first to admit that he had no idea what to do in a fight other than try not to die. Hal and Mel looked at him expectantly, however, and he had to come up with something. “Mel, you and I will go in first. If there aren’t a lot of them right away, we’ll take care of the first few as quietly as possible. If they’re all right near the door, we create a distraction so Hal”—Martus said, looking over at him when he spoke—“you can find somewhere out of the fighting, stay hidden as much as you can. Focus on using your magick to put up barriers and maybe some offensive spells if you think you can. If things start to look like they’re going badly for us, find Fitzy and get him out of there.”

  The worst-case scenario would be either himself or Mel getting too injured to get themselves or Fitzy out of the cabin. If something did happen, though, he really thought they had to have a plan in place. Hal getting out of there was the most important thing to Martus. His magick could help from a distance, and hopefully he’d leave without a scratch on him.

  “Fine. Just don’t underestimate them. I’m getting my brother out of there one way or another.” Any cheeriness Mel had developed while traveling was gone by that point. It was a scary situation, and Martus didn’t blame her for worrying about her brother. It just made him nervous to go into a fight knowing the person whose back he had would possibly abandon him in the middle of it.

  “I’ll do my best to stay out of trouble.” Hal rolled his eyes. “Just keep an eye on each other in there. All we have to do is get Fitzy out. You may, but Martus and I do not have a vendetta against every other person in that cabin. It’s not our brother in there, after all. If we get him and all four of us make it out alive, that would be enough for me.” He was bordering on frustrated, and Martus hoped he wouldn’t let his anger get out of control during the fight. The last thing they needed was a dragon flying around. The last thing Hal needed was to transform again.

  “I agree. I understand these are bad people, and they took your brother, but I would prefer to avoid unnecessary killing. If they can be thinned out enough for us to get Fitzy back, we don’t need to take it any further.” Martus looked at Mel when he said that, but she just shrugged, turning away from his gaze.

  The only person he could really control was himself, and he knew he wasn’t going to hurt anyone more than was necessary to protect himself. Martus had never felt worse than after they’d gotten into that fight and he’d seen a man die right in front of him, because of him. It wasn’t something he was going to deal with again if he could avoid it. Maybe Mel was more motivated than him because it was her brother who was in danger, but he was baffled that she didn’t feel the same way.

  As they crept up to the side of the cabin, Martus focused all his attention on the plan they’d come up with. He grabbed his sword in one hand and his dagger in the other, casting a glance over his shoulder to make sure Hal was ready for this.

  “Everyone know the plan? If we want to get in there and get back, now’s the time to do it.” Mel looked back at the two of them as well, and she was even more loaded down with weapons than Martus. He had a bad feeling about stepping inside this place, but they’d come too far to drop the job now.

  “All right. Let’s just get this over with.” Hal sighed, his hands fumbling to get a small knife out of his waistband too. Hopefully he wouldn’t need to use it.

  The three exchanged one more look of confirmation before Mel and Martus went up the front steps and burst right through the door. Either she had been wrong in her assumption of how many people would be there, or they were more spread out through the cabin, because they were only greeted with five people sitting on the floor of the first room.

  They were drinking. Martus couldn’t even count the number of bottles that were strewn around, but they were still quick to jump to their feet. Saying what they were going to do and actually acting on it were two completely different things, and when he was faced with so many people against just the two of them, Martus panicked. He threw his dagger at one of the people closest to him, but his aim was not the best and it just grazed his target’s arm.

  Martus cursed under his breath, trying to dodge backward as the man lunged after him. He wasn’t fast enough, however, and a second later he was knocked onto his back when the man’s fist collided with his face. He tasted blood as he stumbled back to his feet, but he wouldn’t be so easily put out of commission.

  He clutched his sword in his hand and went after the man. He seemed twice Martus’s size, but he also didn’t seem completely steady on his feet, and although Martus was exhausted, he was still more alert. As he stepped forward, steel meeting steel when the other man threw his sword up to defend himself, Martus tried to keep one eye out for his dagger.

  On the other side of the room, Mel was using both of her swords to fight two people at once. They had already gotten at least a hit or two in from the state of her face and the fact that her shirt had a hole in it. It was lucky they’d had the foresight to use some of Mel’s armor because they were wildly outmatched here.

  She was handling herself well enough that Martus turned his attention back to the man he was fighting. Then a woman snuck up behind him and brought her sword down on his upper arm, slicing the edge of the wound he already had. His whole upper arm burned from the wound, and warm blood slowly soaked his shirt, but he forced himself to keep a grip on his sword.

  As Martus focused on making sure a sword didn’t make contact with his skin again, the woman landed a solid punch right to the side of his ribs, and he was knocked onto the ground again. The only good thing about that was that another sword came skidding across the floor to him and when he looked to where it had come from, he spotted Hal behind some boxes in the corner, mumbling under his breath. Martus hoped the spell would knock one of these people out.

  The fifth person had run into the back of the house, and Martus heard banging on the floor above them. If he had to hazard a guess, their enemies would be getting reinforcements soon. But Martus was worried about getting killed just by the people already there, so he quickly got back on his feet and used the two swords to keep either of them from getting a hit on him.

  Mel was still fighting on the other side of the room, but one of the men was lying unconscious at her feet. The woman she was fighting now, though, looked like she was providing more of a challenge. Mel was sweating and grunting, swinging both of her swords much more deliberately than she had been five minutes ago.

  The next time Martus struck his sword against one of the people attacking him, a split second before they came into contact, his opponent’s sword froze, and when they hit against each other, the other man’s sword shattered into a million pieces. Martus used the man’s momentary shock to haul back and punch him right in the face. Once he had dropped to the ground, Martus left it at that and turned on the woman behind him.

  She managed to get in one hit with her sword against his leg, and he swore again, shifting his weight to the other leg so he didn’t drop to the floor and give her the opportunity to hit him again. Instead, he used the opportunity to bring his own sword down on her shoulder. He put all his force behind the strike, and when he pulled his sword away he could feel the resistance as he pulled it through the skin of her shoulder. His stomach turned at the thought.

  When she cried out in pain and grabbed her shoulder, Martus almost stepped back to avoid hurting her any further. Then she looked up at him, and her eyes were like dark slits of pure anger. He had no doubt that if she had a chance she would kill him in a moment. So he brought the handle of his sword down on the side of her head. She didn’t bleed, and Martus hoped she wasn’t dead. He genuinely hoped so, but she at least fell unconscious.

  The first thing he did when he was safe was scan the room to see if whoever had been making noise upstairs had made it down yet. Rather than seeing anyone else, he found there were actually fewer people in the room
than before. It took him a second to realize where Mel was but then less time than that to figure out where she’d gone.

  Before he went after her, Martus went to where Hal was hidden behind the boxes and checked to make sure no one had gotten to him.

  “Are you all right?” He kept one eye on the doorway to the other room while he talked to Hal. The last thing they needed was for someone to sneak up on them. Especially when Martus was obviously with Hal.

  “I feel like I’m not helping very much.” Hal fidgeted, his fingers playing at the handle of the small knife in his hand. It was lucky no one had gotten close enough for him to have to use it.

  “No. You are. Hal, my friend, I would have died without your ice spell out there. You are helping more from here than you would be if you had to fight with us.” Martus scanned Hal’s face, offering him a soft smile. Then he stood again and gave Hal his hand. “What do you say? Should we go and finish this?”

  “I am ready for it to be over,” Hal conceded with a sigh. After a second’s hesitation, he took Martus’s hand and let the other boy pull him up.

  Martus went into the next room ahead of Hal so if there was a trap waiting for them, at least he’d walk into it first. The room was entirely empty, thankfully, aside from a chair on its side toward the back door. Martus quickly spotted the steps leading upstairs.

  At that exact moment, there was a huge thump from directly above their heads, and Martus cast one glance behind him at Hal before they both ran up the stairs.

  Martus probably should have known better than to expect Mel wouldn’t be able to handle herself, but he had been prepared to see her lying on the floor when he heard the thump. It was the man who had run away from the room downstairs, however, who was unconscious on the floor and bleeding from his stomach and his head.

  There were still two other men fighting Mel, and she had quite a few more wounds than when Martus had seen her last. Her face was swollen and slowly bruising, and she wasn’t fighting with both of her swords. One was discarded on the floor. Martus didn’t think she would put her weapon down unless she could no longer hold it.