by Terah Edun
Ignoring him for the moment, Mae watched as now that they had decided to let Donna Marie lead, she went right back to negotiating with their new captor. As the additional men folded out of the forest, the foreign woman looked significantly paler but at least she was game for the confrontation. Mae however just wanted to melt into the forests and run home to her room.
Neither of which were an option now that they were surrounded by the hardened criminals, excuse me warriors, she thought bitterly.
It only took seconds later for Mae to realize that Donna Marie was intent on getting them all killed.
There could be no other purpose for her shouting and waving her hands in front of a man who controlled more than a dozen highly trained warriors with martial precision.
“I want what was promised to me you fool!” Mae heard Donna Marie emphatically stating.
Mae had to wonder what that meant but she was more nervous about the warriors standing around them all with stony looks on their faces and hands firmly gripping weapons like the one which had dented against Rivan’s shoulder so spectacularly.
That trick had worked once, and only with him, they’d be prepared for a similar opposition a second time. Which made sweat start to run down Mae’s back like a river. She really didn’t want to be a target of their blows again and dearly wished that Donna Marie would shut up. As she glanced around the perimeter of guards that had circled them like they were at a show and Mae, Rivan, Dot, and Donna Marie were their ponies ringed in for entertainment, Mae was more certain than ever at their identities.
It wasn’t like they were trying to conceal them now that they had melted out of the forest itself.
But it made them more fearsome than ever. Now that she knew who and what she was facing, Mae’s stomach flipped at the thought of getting past them. But she had to. It wasn’t just her freedom at stake here.
It’s hers and all of theirs, she mentally said to herself as she looked at her sister and thought of her family and how they wouldn’t stand a chance if this force came upon them unaware.
Gathering what little courage she had Mae stepped forward to do something about it. Maybe she could set a forest fire or run far enough away to stumble upon someone. Anything to get the attention of a person who knew how to handle this situation better than she did.
The terse gazes of four of the warriors standing closest to her met her movements and they made no pretense of putting their hands on their corresponding weapons upon her approach.
Huh, what do they think I’ll do, a little girl half their size? Mae thought ruefully.
Whatever it was that was going through their minds, she really didn’t want to see them take action.
“I’d step back if I were you,” their leader advised from off to the side.
Mae looked around for support. Truth be told, there was only one person who even might be able to help her at this moment and that was- a mighty big if.
But when she looked over at him Rivan quickly shook his head tersely and mouthed, Don’t.
Mae even thought about moving back. But then they went for Ember and she couldn’t just standby. Mae tensed for a moment and let a little cry fall from her lips as she watched their steps. She didn’t want to do this. Sure she was confrontational when it called for it, but her bravery didn’t really extend to confronting armed guards. She wasn’t trained for this sort of thing! She wasn’t trained at all. But she couldn’t just let them rough her unconscious sibling up.
Deciding she had no choice Mae balled her hands into fists just as the leader spoke up and commanded his people, “Take her and put her down next to them. Do it with respect.”
The four men who had surrounded Ember at what Mae had come to think of as her sister’s tree, did as their leader bade. One grabbed her each of her legs and arms and carried her like a sack of rice to be softly deposited at Mae’s feet. To her vast relief, she could let her hands relax. Her head wouldn’t be caved in today.
When the last one stood up from where they had stooped to lay Ember gently down, Mae’s eyes accidentally caught their own.
It wasn’t really the color of this new warrior’s eyes that freaked her out though.
It was the scars deliberately carved across each of the eye sockets into a distinctive x-pattern. The simple mark that anyone with a lick of sense would recognize.
Mae gulped deeply.
She had hoped that for once in her life, her wild hunch was wrong. The same hunch that had pushed her to take off like there was a fire under her feet before Rivan stopped her. And now she knew she’d been right to worry.
Not just worry, Mae thought bitterly. Outright panic.
But that would do her no good now, running or panicking, seeing as she was surrounded on all sides in a circle and the woman who had just set her sister down at her feet with gentleness looked like she’d just as quickly carve out Mae’s own eye if she kept staring at her.
Quickly Mae adjusted her gaze down and away as her heart beat fast.
The woman paused for a minute and when Mae dared to looked to see what she was doing; the female warrior met her inquisitive gaze with a knowing gaze. She must have seen the fear that lit in Mae’s own eyes just as Mae felt it burst forth from her gut where she had been holding it down with deliberate force.
That was enough to amuse the female warrior because she turned away with a laugh on her lips.
As for Mae, she tried to hold down gasping breaths as she knelt over her sister’s still body and tried to act like she was doing something helpful, instead of fighting back the urge to simultaneously pass out and throw up.
Too late, Mae thought miserably as she couldn’t control her breathing anymore and her exhalations became vocal and unavoidable.
The whole clearing erupted into laughter at the girl who was on her knees trembling like a rabbit and Mae was about ready to die of mortification. Right after she decided if she was legitimately going to pass out from being a coward.
It was especially ironic seeing as she was kneeling over Ember’s head where the faint discoloration of a bruise around her nose was still visible despite the intervening efforts of Garreth’s father.
I thought I was tougher than this, Mae thought to herself miserably as tears stung her eyes and bile rose in her throat. Turns out I’m only threatening when it’s against someone I know I can win against.
Mae felt her mouth trembling as she fought the losing battle to contain the howl of sobs threatening to erupt from her throat. To distract herself she took up Ember’s hand. But her flesh was limp and her grip non-existent and touching her just increased all the feelings of misery Mae had been feeling before. That this was all wrong and unnatural. That they shouldn’t be here and Ember shouldn’t be unconscious and laid out like a rack of lamb. Mae would have given anything at that moment jus to go back to the way it was.
To go home.
But it seemed that wouldn’t be possible. Not today. Not ever if any of these people had anything to say about it. They blocked her at every turn, always in the disguise of doing what’s best for them, but she would give anything to turn back time and just be where she’d been less than a week before. Alone in a dark hallway, pouring over a grimoire, and content with her lot in life even if it seemed like too many things were going awry.
Now? She hadn’t even saved her siblings and instead managed to put both her older sister’s life and her own in mortal peril.
“Fat lot of saving I’ve been doing lately,” Mae muttered to herself pitifully as she took shaky breaths to keep the sobs at bay. She couldn’t help feeling sorry for herself, she knew she looked like a fool, but it was all just too much.
“Stand up you fool,” a voice hissed in her ear so tightly that Mae flinched as she turned her head in surprise to see that it was the foreign woman by her side.
If anything she’d have expected Rivan to be glaring at her and mocking her for embarrassing him. But that wasn’t the case. Mae glanced around to see where he was, and Donna Marie
grabbed her chin to force her head back.
“Don’t touch me,” Mae cried offended and she yanked her head back.
“Then stop acting like such a child,” Donna Marie said frankly. “I am trying to handle delicate negotiations...
“You mean yelling your butt off,” Mae interrupted.
“… and having a key member of my team act like a baby in the middle of everyone is not helping me win allies,” Donna Marie ended with a bit of bite in her voice.
“I’m not on your team,” Mae said. “You may be Rivan and Dot’s mistress but you’re just a means to an end for me.”
Donna Marie smiled and leaned forward until they were nose-to-nose.
“Now that’s the kind of fire I like to see,” the foreign woman said satisfied. “More attitude like that and maybe you’ll be worth all the effort I’m putting in after all.”
Mae reared back. She wasn’t sure how she felt about Donna Marie’s version of praise but she was damned sure the woman had nothing good in mind after all this. It was one thing to want to study her inked tattoos, but to ally with the Cross Guard to gain access to them? Not to mention the fact that Mae had never seen such disgraceful negotiations in her life and the fact that it seemed Donna Marie had been working together with this semi-invading force all along just made her blistering mad. Enough that she wasn’t fighting back sobs anymore.
This is all wrong, Mae thought in her head.
The only way to make it right was to someway somehow get to her family’s fortress before this rag-tag bunch of warriors and thieves did and warn them. Warn them that the slavecatchers were coming. Warn them that they had teamed up with a foreign mage for who knows what purpose. Warn them that they had invited an adder into their nest instead of their own salvation.
Because regardless of Donna Marie’s smiles and pretty words…the soul in her eyes was empty. ‘All she wanted was a peek’, she said. But no one was desperate enough to ally with the king-elect’s Cross Guard in order to obtain a peek at anything. Which meant Mae was finally questioning what it was that had brought Donna Marie to their home in the first place. It was more than curiosity. That was for certain.
Interrupting Mae’s reverie in an icy voice, Donna Marie said, “Now if you’re through crying, it’s time to make nice.”
Mae worked her tense jaw, tempted to tell the foreign woman that she was on to her. That she knew whatever it was that Donna Marie wanted in in the end, she wasn’t being upfront about it.
But she decided to be circumspect. If only because she was surrounded on all sides and she had finally spied Rivan from where he had gone to speak to one of the other warriors. They stood with some sort of contraption between them now. Maybe a stretcher for Ember?
Either way he was shaking his head tensely and silently, telling her as best as he could, don’t let her smart mouth get her into any more trouble.
Mae gave him a bit of a glare at abandoning her and turned to Donna Marie to say snidely, “I don’t know if it escaped your notice but we’re kind of surrounded on all sides by some very bad people at the moment. People you seemed to have brought here and have no control over.”
Mae may have been crying like a baby moments before but she was feeling back to her normal self now and she was cranky.
In response however Donna Marie looked at her with veiled disgust.
“I knew the greater holdings were insular,” Donna Marie snapped. “But I had no idea you were cowards.”
“You take that back!” Mae shouted in a shocked voice.
“I will as soon as you get yourself together, now,” Donna Marie snapped under her breath. “I didn’t travel all the way through this god forsaken kingdom and cross the border to find a girl who frightened her own self to death.”
“Easy for you to say,” Mae hissed. “I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t ask for any of it.”
Donna Marie shot her tired look. “You think I care? I am doing my best to keep us all alive.”
Mae stayed where she was.
“Now get up before I decide that keeping you free and alive is more trouble than you’re worth,” the foreign woman said in iron voice that brooked no arguments.
9
Mae had no choice. She reluctantly rose.
But not before shooting Donna Marie a look of avarice that could have stripped her to the bone had there been anything but Mae’s pure mistrust behind it.
Whatever she saw made Donna Marie roll her eyes and say, “Turn that frown upside down dear or my allies will think something has gone dreadfully wrong.”
For a moment, Mae clutched her sister’s limp hand so hard she was worried she would break it in half. But she clenched her jaw and responded in a calmer manner than she felt as she replied, “Something is wrong. You know it and I know it.”
“And what makes you think that?” Donna Marie said suavely.
Mae cocked her head and replied, “You aren’t the only one with eyes. For an ‘ally’, that conversation between you and your new friend was awfully tense.”
This time a thunderous frown crossed Donna Marie’s face before she smoothed her face over and said, “Don’t worry about them, you just keep to your part of the bargain.”
“I said I would,” snapped Mae defensively.
“Good,” Donna Marie said with a decisive nod. “Then we’re ready to go.”
“Go?” Mae asked. “Go where?”
“Why back to your castle on the hilltop of course,” Donna Marie said with ease.
Mae looked around uneasily and licked her lips.
“Do you think that’s wise?” she asked.
She was trying to be diplomatic about it but she wasn’t really certain she wanted to lead these brigands to her family’s doorstep. No matter how they were presently treating her at the moment.
“I do,” Donna Marie said smoothly. “You know why?”
Mae shook her head mutely, not sure she wanted to hear what Donna Marie had in store.
“Because they will be keeping an eye on your sister in the forest,” the foreign woman smiled in delight. “While we return to the castle to unlock your gift, cure your sisters of that dreadful disease, and return back in less time than it takes to skin a rabbit.”
Mae blinked. She didn’t like the cavalier tone in Donna Marie’s voice.
She was also less impressed with the idea of leaving her comatose sister in the hands of a bunch of strange warriors as well.
Mae crossed her forearms defiantly said, “No deal.”
At her words the members surrounding them began to move threateningly.
It was subtle at first, a few hands-on weapons at their waists, a few dark glares. But they had the desired impact on a young woman surrounded by strangers and enemies wherever she looked.
Alone Mae couldn’t fight back and they knew that.
Stressed out Mae hissed, “Listen we already had our agreement. Why are you going back on it?”
“I’m not going back on it,” Donna Marie purred. “I’m simply modifying it. Now that my back-up is here.”
“But…” Mae pleaded still not understanding.
“I always needed to be inside your greater holding for this to work,” Donna Marie snapped. “I know things like resonance waves and sterilized environments will go over your head, but I cannot crack open your chest on a forest floor you silly girl!”
Mae leaned back in dismay. She didn’t like her tone, what’s more Donna Marie was right. She didn’t precisely know what all those terms meant, but Mae did recognize something in the foreign woman’s tone that words didn’t necessarily convey.
Fear.
Understanding flashed in Mae’s eyes as she leaned forward and said, “Is this really just about the location you’re going to activate your casting in or is it more?”
Donna Marie narrowed her eyes and didn’t say a word but the truth was written plain as day on her face.
“You’re afraid I’ll warn my family of your friends in the woods,” Mae said in a l
ow amazed tone.
There wasn’t a need to have oral confirmation, it couldn’t be clearer now that Mae had put the pieces together.
“But you kidnapped me,” Mae spluttered. “And it’s your allies that surround me. I’m supposed to trust that you have my best interests in mind, but a little trust in return would go a long way.”
Donna Marie shrugged. “I prefer things to be just a cordial affair but if I need leverage and its in my grasp, I would be a fool not to take it. So would you.”
Mae gritted teeth. “That leverage is my sister.”
“I’m just using her as a pawn,” Donna Marie said in a hiss. “She’ll be fine as long as you do your part.”
Mae wrung her hands in worry.
“And what if I can’t do that?” Mae asked. “She’ll be defenseless and nothing you can say to me will change that.”
Donna Marie hummed in her throat and then rocked back on her heels.
“But what if I could change that?” she asked back just as softly.
Mae raised a curious eyebrow. “How?”
The foreign woman smiled. “I’m a mage dear, we have all kinds of tricks up our sleeves.”
Donna Marie then swiftly walked over to Ember’s sleeping form. Mae trailed behind warily and stepped around her to get a darned good look at what she intended to do.
With no fuss, the foreign woman raised her arms above her head and placed one hand above Ember’s face and the other above her heart.
Before Mae could object or ask her just what it was, she meant to do, she began casting.
The glow emerged first. A brilliant silver color that looked like a shimmering cloud appeared in the air around the foreign woman’s body.
So beautiful, Mae had the presence of mind to think.
The silver glow grew stronger until it was a steady radiance.
Then it began to flow out of Donna Marie’s spread fingers in thick strands.
Mae watched as the strands looped and twisted over her sister’s body.
Maybe three inches at most away from her form, the strands began to interweave themselves until they formed a tight braid. Panes of frost glass of irregular shape started to grow between the loops of the tight braid until Mae was staring as a full covering that beautifully encased her sister’s form.