by Nichelle Rae
“I can’t hear her now. I’m too far away. If I open this mental meeting to sound, all you’ll hear is thunder and the rain pouring down. Speaking of which, I’m getting soaked. I’ll call you back here when I have Lord Hathum’s proof.”
Jonoic barely nodded a response as he stared at the spot the image had been, as if it were still there. I found myself also wishing it was still there, but I had the real thing waiting for me on the outside.
I focused my eyes and slowly came back into myself, keeping watch on the three travelers as they led their horses over the flat clearing. That rotten Salynn immediately turned to look over his shoulder again in search of me. Too bad he was looking in the wrong direction.
I twisted my mouth to the side in annoyance. Somehow he could sense me nearby. The other two were oblivious, and the Salynn didn’t have the guts to tell them about it. I’d have to wait until at least the Salynn was away from her before initiating another night terror. Just one of her white tears was all I needed to see, and he couldn’t be with her every second of every day.
I turned my horse around and continued on the path ahead of them.
“What is the matter with you?” Azrel’s cry was nearly as loud as the thunder. The storm hadn’t ended, but at least the wind slowed so the rain just fell straight and heavy instead of whipping at us.
“We couldn’t stay north of Crox Path because of the landslides, Azrel! What would you suggest we do?” Ortheldo’s voice nearly matched my sisters as he held his arms out to his sides, suggesting that she come up with a better idea. I chuckled at their little lovers’ spat. They really were cute together.
“A baboon wouldn’t have come up with this hair brained solution!”
Ortheldo rolled his eyes and rested his elbow on top of Urylia’s saddle, putting his weight against the horse. “Well, aren’t we quite the drama queen today?”
I let them have it out as I looked through the rain at Narcatertus. It was set widely at the bottom of the hill where we stood now. It was big—huge, in fact! I never knew one place could be so big. It spanned from the bottom of the hill out about ten square miles before the mountains rose up behind it.
Even more impressive, visible behind the regular Mongerst Mountains was the top half of the most monstrous mountain I’d ever seen: Rocksheloc. A few days ago, we could see Rocksheloc’s peak just over the Mongerst mountain range. Now, being only a few days away, I could see just how enormous that mountain was!
I turned my eyes onto Narcatertus again. It didn’t look so bad, if a little overwhelming in size, but I saw no harm in staying one night. Then again, Azrel hadn’t seen the harm in staying a few hours at Blesska, and I still felt the lingering harm of that encounter. I looked over my shoulder again, though I knew I wouldn’t be able to see more than I had when I’d looked the first thousand times. Thankfully, we hadn’t had any more adventures at any inns since leaving Blesska more than a week ago.
“You know what they do to Salynns who pass through here!” Azrel yelled accusingly.
“Whoa! Whoa!” I interrupted before Ortheldo could reply. I turned to them and crossed my arms, peering at Azrel with a soft smile. “Is that what you’ve been worried about this entire time?”
“What?”
“You wanted to avoid Narcatertus because I’m a Salynn?”
She looked at me as if I were hopelessly thick. “Well, yeah!”
I sighed and gave her a pitiful look. Then I closed my eyes and reached into the soft core within myself, the soft center of my soul where the life force of my magic laid. I caressed the outside of it, which was all I’d learned to do, then opened my eyes to see each of their astonished faces. I grinned gleefully as I stood in my human form. “You both have a poor memory.”
Ortheldo’s astonishment turned into a triumphant grin as he looked at Azrel again, who glared hard at me, then at him. I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing out loud at her expression.
“Shut up and walk!” Azrel growled, thrusting her arm out toward Narcatertus.
I took up the rear as they both walked past me. I felt very strange in my human form, even after the short amount of time I’d spent as a Salynn. The ends of my hair, that had before fallen between my shoulder blades, now hit the back of my neck and itched. The shorter pieces of my hair in front scratched my jaw. The boots I wore felt heavy and clumsy compared to the light Salynn shoes I was now used to. I wore regular clothes and, while warmer, they weren’t as pretty. I had on a simple maroon wool tunic, gray pants and cloak.
Oh, well. We’d only be here a night. I could survive for that long.
Noise exploded in my sensitive ears as we crossed inside the town borders. Though it was near evening and rain still poured down, it was impossibly busy! Crowds and crowds of people filled the streets and the wooden sidewalks, barely giving enough room to the numerous wagons traveling along this main dirt road. The road was wide enough to let two wagons pass each other side by side, with a wide gap between them, but the hordes of people congested it so much that one wagon could barely get by! People went about their business, stepping into mud puddles and cracks in the wood as if they were regular road or sidewalk. Perhaps to them it was. There were enough holes and cracks to make one immune to them.
As we led our horses along the road, we couldn’t take three steps without rubbing shoulders with numerous people. I almost felt suffocated by the body heat emitted from this place! Wagons squeaked by, horses clopped past, people stood and talked; others were going to and fro, never apologizing for bumping into us or even acknowledging our presence. Some women stood at the corners, seeming to approach any man that happened by them. One approached me and another Ortheldo without even a glance at Azrel, who walked between us. The girls looked younger than me!
The girl pressed her thick bosom against my chest and ran her fingers through my hair. “Well, hello, dahlin’. You gonna be lonely tonight?”
Before I could say no, Azrel’s fist gripped both girls’ hair, and with a powerful yank she laid them flat on their backs on the muddy ground. I looked up immediately, expecting someone to come running to their rescue, but no one so much as glanced our way.
Azrel gave the girls a tight, mirthless grin. “We’re all set, ladies,” then stepped between them, leading Forfirith around.
“Azrel, why did they do that? Why did they approach me and Ortheldo like that?”
“They’re called prostitutes,” she replied. “Men pay the women to sleep with them.”
“What?” I cried. “That’s absurd!”
She shrugged. “It’s a living, for them anyway.”
I wrinkled my nose, I’d never heard of such a thing.
I scanned my eyes over the buildings lined up along each side of the main road. Some buildings were tall, some were short, some were square, some were triangular. They were all so close together that there was barely any room for alleyways and other roads to pass between them. What I could see down the side roads and alleys were heaps and heaps of garbage and waste.
A fight suddenly broke out between two big men on the side of the road. My eyes desperately searched the area around them for anyone who might help, but no one made a move to intervene. Instead, some people formed a circle around the fight and began to cheer it on. Others looked away and went about their business. Farther down on our side of the road, an elderly man was thrown out of a window and landed at Ortheldo’s feet, battered and bloody. I nearly jumped out of my skin, but he and Azrel went on plainly as if this was normal behavior.
“He’s dead,” Ortheldo said as he stepped around the body. Azrel gave a jerky nod of understanding.
I swallowed hard. “We’re not staying the night here, are we?” I asked, though it was a ridiculous question. Now I realized why Azrel deliberately wanted to avoid Narcatertus.
“Yup!” Azrel said without sincere excitement. “You can thank Ortheldo for this.”
“What? Me?” he countered. “This isn’t my fault! Blame the rain!”
&
nbsp; “Uh-huh,” Azrel said with her tongue in her cheek. “Whatever you say, pal.” Ortheldo sighed heavily and looked away with a roll of his eyes, not bothering to argue.
Suddenly, two men came directly at us. They looked at us in front of them, stared at us really, but made no attempt to move around us even though we had three horses. I sighed and was about to lead Eleclya around them when Azrel placed her hand on my forearm to stop me. Her determined glare was fixed on the two men. When they were a few feet in front of us, Azrel picked up her pace and plowed between them, separating them aggressively as they stumbled around her, then around Forfirith, and then around Ortheldo and our horses.
“Bitch!” one yelled from behind. Azrel’s response was an obscene hand gesture, her eyes staying forward.
“Being courteous and polite here won’t earn you respect, Rabryn. It might even cause you more trouble than it’s worth. People here, first of all, aren’t used to it. Second, city folk view it as a weakness.”
I nodded, but didn’t completely understand that concept.
We soon stopped in front of a ratty looking inn. After tying our horses to the hitching posts out front, we headed up the short set of stairs to the wooden sidewalk. Azrel and Ortheldo both groaned their displeasure before they pushed open the thin wooden door.
We didn’t take more than two steps into the rancid smelling common before the crowd fell silent and all movement stopped. Everyone stared at us, particularly Azrel. I could kind of understand why. The women I’d seen in this city so far were very thick, with round, unattractive faces. The women just, in general, seemed to have a filthy, tired appearance with hair that was either very frizzy or very greasy and generally kept short. Azrel, however, was very lean, with a soft, angular face. She looked fresh and clean, with thick, long hair that was so healthy it shined even when soaking wet.
With her jaw set and her chin held high, Azrel went up to the bar. As she crossed the room, men broke out into whistles and shouted provocative comments at her. I glared around the smoky pit of the inn. It was a room of barrel tables with round, crudely cut tabletops. The chairs looked frail enough to splinter under the men’s bulky weight. Not a full foot could have stood between each table, and it was so packed that some people stood with their mug of ale or beer.
Azrel shouldered her way between two men sitting at the bar. “We need a room,” she said plainly to the huge innkeeper. Beside him stood a lanky young man with a mat of curly red hair. He looked at Azrel with wide eyes as if he’d never seen a woman before in his life. Both had on aprons that looked like they hadn’t been washed in months.
The inn keeper stared at Azrel’s chest shamelessly. “We’re full.”
Another young man on Azrel’s right was staring at her. He looked about my age, maybe a little older, with pin straight black hair cut one length to his jaw. He was very clean, unlike most the people I’d seen so far in this place, with a smooth, pale face and red robes on that were rather decent. He was very thin, too, nothing like the burly, barrel-chest men that populated this town. He had fiery dark brown eyes that seem to have more depth to them than he wanted anyone to know.
He stood up from the bar stool and ran his hand up the back of Azrel’s thigh, over her bottom, and up under her shirt to caress the small of her back. “You can stay in my room,” he whispered seductively in her ear. The common broke out into laughs and cheers for the young man. The response encouraged him on. He licked my sister’s earlobe, then pulled it gently between his teeth.
Ortheldo’s head looked about ready to explode as he watched this. All I did was smile. I knew my sister well enough to know how she’d handle this, and her way was far better than what Ortheldo would do to the boy.
Azrel turned to him with a sweet smile, which made Ortheldo’s eyes go wide with disbelief. She then ran her hand lightly up the boy’s chest. “Think you can handle a woman in your bed, young one?” The room exploded again in laughter and hollers.
The boy cupped Azrel’s bottom with both hands, and with a small jerk pulled her against him. “You’d better believe it, sweetheart.”
“Good. There’s only one problem, though,” she whispered seductively, bringing her hand up over his shoulder and behind his head.
“What’s that?”
She suddenly grabbed a fistful of his hair and in one fluid movement she dropped down on one knee, with the boy bent backward over her raised thigh. His head tilted so far back that he could barely breathe. The common erupted with a start and everyone watched with wide eyes.
Azrel brought her glowering face down toward his. “The problem is that the only part of my body I’d let near your twig dick would be the heel of my boot.” She gripped his hair tighter and bent his head farther back. “Do I make myself clear?” Choking, the young man managed to say yes. Azrel’s brow twitched. “Good.” She then pushed him up, and as she stood she drove his forehead into the edge of the bar counter. Blood exploded from his face, and Azrel let him crumble to the floor, unconscious. The surrounding men let out startled shouts.
Azrel then crouched next to the boy and rummaged through the pockets of his red robes. She finally stood with a key in her hand and gave a tight, mirthless grin to the Innkeeper. “He needs to see an herbest all the sudden, so we’ll take his room if you don’t mind.” The innkeeper shook his head vigorously as he looked at her with terrified eyes. “Good. Wouldn’t want the poor boy to have paid for nothing.”
With a fake smile lingering on her face, Azrel headed for the narrow stairway on the back wall, stuffing the key into her pocket. Every pair of eyes in that room stayed on her as she crossed the common. Ortheldo and I exchanged glances and quickly followed. We were halfway up the stairs when the soft noise of conversation finally resumed.
Suddenly, a voice yelled above all others, “My lady! My lady! Please wait!”
We all stopped and turned. The red headed young man from behind the counter bolted up the stairs after us. He stopped in his tracks half way between us and the bottom, his gray eyes filled with what looked like admiration.
As soon as he realized he was staring hard at my sister, he flushed bright red and looked down shyly. “That was incredible what you did.”
“Thank you.”
“He had no right to touch you like he did. No right! Why, if I’d had the gall, I would have given him a lesson in respecting a beautiful lady myself.”
Azrel smiled. “Is that why you called after me, dear boy, or was there a reason?”
“Oh, of course,” he said, turning even more red. “I thought you should know, well, the boy you just injured—that’s Addredoc, the son of Thrawyn.”
“So?”
“Um, well, Thrawyn is the best known and most highly skilled sword master in these parts. He may come after you, my lady, to even the score.”
Azrel smiled and walked down a few steps to rest her hand gently on his cheek. He froze for a moment and looked like a love-sick puppy as he stared up at her. “What is your name?”
“L-Loir, my fair lady.”
“Loir, thank you very much for your warning.” She bent down and kissed his forehead.
He let out a long breath and smiled. “You’re—you’re welcome.”
Suddenly, someone downstairs shouted Loir’s name. The boy jumped, quickly turned and booked it back into the kitchen, looking up at Azrel one last time before he disappeared from view. With a soft chuckle, Azrel turned and we all continued up the stairs.
“Well, that was interesting,” I said.
Azrel smiled at me. “I thoroughly enjoyed that myself, dear brother. Though I expected Ortheldo to jump in any second.”
Both of us smiled at him, and he slightly blushed. “I was going to, but Rabryn didn’t seem too upset, so I figured you’d have something entertaining in store for that kid.” We all laughed as we reached the top of the stairs and stepped into the hallway.
Azrel looked at the tag attached to the key. “Room Four,” she announced.
We unlocked
the door to find that that room had been used but wasn’t too much of a mess. Addredoc’s clothes were strung about and the wire bed wasn’t made, but it would do for a night. Ortheldo and I went around the room picking up Addredoc’s clothes while Azrel made the bed. After we threw the clothes into a corner, Azrel stripped down to her underclothes and Ortheldo and I stripped out of everything but our pants.
“I get the couch this time,” I said.
Azrel nodded without complaint, but Ortheldo shot a nervous glance at my sister, like he did every time it was their turn to share the bed.
The sun was still a couple hours from setting, but she and Ortheldo had decided we should get a very early start, before the streets became too crowded.
“Goodnight, boys,” she said in a sigh as she lay down.
“Night.”
“Goodnight,” Ortheldo said as he closed the distance between us, watching Azrel carefully. He looked at me as he approached. “I’m kind of hungry. Do you want to get something to eat?” By the look in his eyes I could see he really meant, ‘I need to talk to you alone, now!’
“Sure.” I glanced at Azrel, who was already asleep. “We’ll be back, Azrel.” I said anyway.
Ortheldo and I stepped out into the hall and pulled the door closed. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I’ve needed to talk to you for days, since Blesska.” He looked up and down the hallway. “I know you can sense that strange man nearby. Is he here now?”
I waited in thought. Nothing. “I haven’t felt him since we entered this town, but that doesn’t mean he’s far off.”
Ortheldo nodded. “Why do you think he wanted to see her so badly when he came into our room that night?”
I let out a breath. “All I can think of is that he wanted to see her tears.”
“Why do you think so?” His tone told me he knew the answers to these questions and just wanted to confirm them for his own piece of mind.