by Terah Edun
Perhaps in even better condition, Mae thought wryly, seeing as he didn’t seem to have a wounded mark on him.
No burns or mottled skin. He looked the same as he had before, barring a singed patch or two here and there on his clothes.
“How did you survive my flames?” Mae asked again, put out.
That had been her strongest, okay only, deliberate casting so far. Yet he was sauntering around like he’d just been visiting a steam bath instead of had her fiery furor descend upon him.
“I could ask you the same question,” Rivan said dryly.
Mae narrowed her eyes as she struggled to stay upright. “I asked first.”
He shrugged, “Why don’t you get some sleep and we’ll discuss it when you wake?”
“What?” Mae asked genuinely confused. “I don’t want to sleep. I want you to answer my question. You should be a pile of dust by now.”
Something flashed in his eyes. It almost looked like mirth.
“My, I’ve never seen a human less likely to be acquiescent. Your honesty is refreshing,” Rivan said while walking around in her a circle.
“What do I have to be sheepish about? You are the one defying the laws of nature,” Mae demanded as her vision wavered and she nearly stumbled.
Despite her fervor she was this close to collapsing on her feet. Somehow, he knew what she didn’t want to admit even to herself.
Her words began to slow a bit even as she pushed forward.
Adamantly Mae stated, “I’m not sorry and if I knew how you escaped the flames, I’d make sure it didn’t happen a second time. Did the beast save you?”
“You might say that,” Rivan said drolly. “But that is not the concern of the moment Maeryn Darnes. You’ve stressed your magic, what little you’ve learned to access, to the point that your own core is taking energy from your body to compensate. You have to shut it down.”
There was a hint of truth to his statement. Still Mae didn’t know how and she would be damned if she would ask him for his aid.
Stubbornly she said, “I know what I’m doing.”
Rivan rolled his eyes. “For once in your life Maeryn Darnes listen to someone else for a change. I’m only trying to help you.”
Mae gave a weary chuckle. “I’ll believe you when you’re dead.”
She raised a hand and called up her fire again. This time it was both easier and harder. Easier because she now knew what it took to called on the fiery magic, sheer anger. Rage was even better. Harder because as much as she didn’t want to admit to herself her body itself was starting to crash. Every action, from raising her arm to call the flames to standing tall before her invader took more than double effort than it had before.
Still her magic listened to her call and he even clicked his tongue in annoyance as they both saw her magic flames started to spark up again. Rivan then shook his head and moved towards her so quickly that she didn’t see his legs move, only his body appear across the patio from one second to the next. He didn’t touch her, he didn’t have to.
Instead he began to speak in a language she didn’t quite understand and whatever weariness she had before, increased three-fold. She felt a wave of such tiredness come over her that she faltered and her magic failed. The flames died in the night-sky and once more only moonlight’s rays lit the patio where they stood.
“I thought I told you to behave,” Rivan chided.
She couldn’t resist anymore. Whatever casting he’d just initiated was too powerful. But at least now she knew that this was all his fault. So Mae glared up at him infuriated as her legs crumbled underneath her unwarranted, and he caught her in his arms to lower her to the ground, her back against the wall.
Tears of frustration brushed her eyes. She didn’t want this, she wanted to be well. She wanted to be whole for her vengeance.
“I don’t want your help,” she slurred as her body was lowered to the cold stone of the patio and the rock underneath her head became the softest pillow she ever encountered.
“I know,” Rivan quietly assured her. “But I’m here.”
Still resisting the touch of sleep, she shook her head and asked despite herself, “What’s happened to me?”
There was slight fear in her voice.
She couldn’t move much by now. Her entire body was stiff and locked into position until he physically moved her as he was doing now—tucking her legs up against her bum until she sat in a nook, protected and body upright.
The idea of being unable to move and prey to anyone who came across her like this sent chills up Mae’s spine.
“You want to help me?” she pleaded. “Let me go. Release your casting. I’ll be on my way, bygones will be bygones.”
It hurt to offer him such a treaty but she had realized that she couldn’t defeat him. Not hurt, tired, and weakened like this. She needed to get away and find her family. Regroup and sort out their invasion. Revenge on Rivan and his mistress would come later.
He didn’t even acknowledge her words.
Pressed for urgency Mae changed tactics as she said, “If you don’t let me go and you just leave me here, all your warnings about rest will be for nothing. The first Cross Guard who comes across my slumbering body will put a sword to my throat.”
Rivan gave her a mysterious smile. “Don’t worry about them. We have an understanding.”
Not interested in his explanation since he didn’t seem interested in hers, Mae moved on as she desperately tried to stay awake.
“What’s the beast to you?” she demanded.
Rivan raised a curious eyebrow.
“Why did it spare us from the fire?” she asked with forced intent as it became difficult to control, not just her tongue but also her lips now.
She couldn’t help how dissonant her words were coming out, she felt like she was battling a sleep enchantment set upon her with her whole might but it wasn’t working. Her entire body was now unresponsive. The only thing she could do was process the feel of the cold stone of the patio around her, the coolness of the night air above her, and the extreme warmth of the cloak that Rivan carefully settled about her shoulders once her limbs were placed in the order he desired.
The careful arrangement made Mae burn with fury.
Who was he to touch her? To act concerned when it was him that had caused all this heartache in the first place, she thought furiously.
Aloud she said nothing because she knew it would come out a garbled mess and she had to conserve what energy she had for an opportunity. What opportunity that was she didn’t know, but it was coming.
It has to be, Mae thought to herself desperately, not quite believing she had ended up where she was. Magic or no magic, she was helpless as a babe with her body not responding to her commands and her fire eating up every bit of energy she would have conserved otherwise.
There was a fair bit of irony in that.
The one thing she had wanted all her life was proving to be her downfall.
Magic had rendered her helpless…in more ways than one.
6
She kept blinking away the sleep in her eyes, hoping whatever he’d done to increase her exhaustion would fade away the longer she resisted and stayed awake. But she could tell her efforts were futile.
Just as her body had shut down and become unresponsive to her commands, her brain was resisting her efforts to keep herself alert and aware. The feeling of slumber was overcoming her and she could barely keep her head from slumping over to the side.
Miserable and furious at being treated like a child, no, a prisoner in her own body, Mae glared at her captor.
For his part Rivan actually looked concerned. Not at her obvious distaste to his enforced rest, but at her overall well-being. Which he demonstrated by poking at the cloak he had laid over her and prodding it into place, tucked in under and behind her limbs so that none of the night’s chills could invade her sleep.
She felt as warm as a child in their favorite cot.
She didn’t appreciate it.
“
There you go,” Rivan said cautiously. “Nice enough for you?”
She narrowed her eyes as she slurred out, “It should be. It belongs to my family.”
Rivan chuckled in amusement at her cantankerous mood. Mae hadn’t been trying to be funny. She had no intentions of letting him feel good about doing one small thing for her when it was he and his foreign mistress who had brought so many maladies down on them all.
One act of kindness did not absolve a myriad of failings.
Focusing took an immense amount of concentration for her in that moment but she did it. She even forced her mouth to form the words she most wanted to say—sure and clear.
“I don’t want you around me. Let me go, I don’t want your aid,” she snarled.
Just before she surrendered to the darkness, she saw his frowning face as he said, “Yes, I know Maeryn Darnes but everyone needs help sometimes. Here’s yours.”
Before she could object again, though she wasn’t sure why she’d even bother, it was clear he wasn’t willing to hear her, Rivan raised his hands and snapped his fingers sharply. With the movement of his fingers came a new burst of magic that shone briefly in the night sky like a fan of color emitting from his hand. Before she could marvel at its beauty, her own vision clouded in a wave of darkness that she could not combat, let alone defeat, which took her deep down into her subconscious.
To slumber.
To sleep.
Her descent into that slumber was dreamless. There were no nightmares and no visions.
Just comforting emptiness while her mind rested and her body recuperated.
At least that’s what she found when she woke up in the same position, but with her body whole and healed. As Mae raised her mangled hand in the sunlight, she realized that even her bones had been set and skin mended. There were a couple of mottled bruises but nothing to show that she had been practically tortured the night before.
And it was indeed a new day.
It was still early morning, but the sun had already peeked over the horizon and the morning mist had crept into the patio that surrounded her so softly that when she awoke in mist it was like being covered by nature’s softest blanket.
Cold, serene.
Too serene, Mae thought somberly.
The sound of children’s laughter should be ringing out from the path of the gardens below and where was her family? She remembered all too well what had happened but the eerie silence was too unreal. She should hear mothers gossiping in the kitchen gardens just below. She should hear youths bellowing as they tried to outrace each other to the best tasks for the day in the stables and the forge. No one wanted to be the last to heed the organizer’s call that meant field work and picking whatever crop that was currently being cultivated in hundreds of rows outside the greater holding’s gate.
No chance for a break when you were tending the fields, she thought with irony.
Her focus on activities of the past was also an attempt to escape the ludicrous nature of her present. But she couldn’t stay in the memories of the past forever. If the people she had walked past in the hallways of the greater holding day-after-day were dead, well then, she would have to face that head on. There was no other way.
Mae felt a solemnity take over her as she began to regain movement throughout her body.
At first only her limbs had raised at will.
Now she could turn her head and seconds later, tilt her back forward.
It wouldn’t be long before she was standing and whatever she had to do after that would come along as it may.
She felt some trepidation at going it alone.
She knew who she was facing but she no longer knew who she was.
What she was capable of. What the unlocked magic in her core could bring about.
Though it was a supreme irony that no matter how powerful she was now, it seemed that Rivan was more gifted.
He was just a boy, she thought with a shudder. What could Donna Marie and Ava do if they had their minds to it?
As if her mind had summoned his presence like a specter, Rivan appeared across the way inside the archway of a door that led from the interior out onto the patio.
Towards her he came and she watched silently as the mists of the patio coalesced around his feet and then evaporated away as if they had been touched by a fire so hot, they could no longer exist.
It was a curious reaction, but her thoughts were more focused on what Rivan’s presence did to her state of mind. She felt a flood of hate and pure revulsion at his betrayal center inside of her. Both of which were perfectly understandable emotions given her circumstances last night. But this time at least, she had control over her body again. And although she wouldn’t admit it, it was good to be able to move about without worrying over the pain from torn flesh…or calling up magic to temporarily numb the pain knowing that was only kicking the problem down the road for a later time.
Her pain had always come roaring back fierce and angry, as if lurking at a closed door.
Her magic had been the barrier that kept it at bay.
But his magic had done more than just push back the pain. It had erased her injuries.
At least she assumed it had been him, Mae thought with a gulp.
She had been unconscious, so it could have been anyone. Including those evil foreign mages who had helped to invade her home like thieves in the night.
Just thinking on their actions and his role in it made her miserable. She had trusted Rivan and what had she gotten in return for putting her faith in a stranger? Betrayal. Pain. Heartache.
Well no more. Maeryn Darnes was certain that after yesterday’s events, she would never put her faith in anyone but family anymore. That is if she had any still alive.
Taking the last few steps towards her Rivan stood over her seated form with his head inclined towards her. The angle of the sun’s rays meant that the bright light was piercing straight into her eyes so she couldn’t really see the expression on his face. But that was alright because she didn’t need to. He couldn’t have had any sentiment plastered on his face that would have moved her beyond pure rejection. She didn’t care if he was weary and remorseful or angry and energized. Her feelings didn’t depend on his own. In fact, Mae had the thought that after this she wouldn’t be emotionally dependent on anyone anymore. Emotional ties were a weakness just as faith was.
Trying to get ahead of his explanation before he spoke, Mae pinned her lips in a thin grim line and said, “Why are you here? And no horse manure about wanting to help me.”
Rivan cocked his head to the side and gave a brief smile.
“Feeling better I see,” he said cheerfully.
Mae reached down by her side and picked up a hefty rock.
Her powers may not be answering but she wasn’t defenseless.
She raised up her hand and threatened virulently, “I’ll use this on you.”
For his part he was looking at her with something along the lines of wry amusement plastered on his face as he raced his hands in placation.
“I’m alone and I’m unarmed,” he said soothingly.
“The former I’ll accede to,” Mae grunted. “But despite what you would have had me believe when we first met, you are by no means an easy target. I don’t think you ever were.”
A brief smile crossed his face.
“You’ve got me there,” he admitted ruefully. “Although you have to admit I never promised to be ungifted.”
“You never mentioned it either,” Mae said spitefully.
“We all have our secrets,” he replied.
“Some darker than others,” Mae said, the fury returning to coat her tongue.
She hadn’t forgotten what he’d done and no matter how charming he was, it was impossible for them to move past it. She wouldn’t let him. He was lucky that her body was still too sluggish to respond to her commands as one instead of individual-and-currently warring branches of responsibility in her mind. When she got it all together and could spring up again wi
th that rock in her hand, he was a dead young man.
As if reading her mind, and finding the entire possibility unpleasant, Rivan paced a bit away in the morning sun and then paced back.
In a voice that was almost pleading, Rivan said, “Surely you can see I’m acting in good faith.”
Mae cocked her head at him warily, waiting for him to continue. She didn’t have much choice in the matter, being a captive audience of one and all.
What’s his angle here? She wondered suspiciously.
Aloud, reluctant to even acknowledge his lies but knowing she needed time to fully recover, Mae asked, “How so?”
Rivan rolled his shoulders in unease and continued, “I’ve brought none of the Cross Guard with me and I saved your life.”
“You did no such thing,” Mae spat back fiercely. “I saved myself.”
Rivan rolled his eyes as he replied, “As I remember you were falling to your death from two stories when I caught you mid-air.”
Resentful, Mae spat back, “One right doesn’t make up many wrongs. I could have died many times before that, when your mistress was playing goddess with her casting to unlock my magic and when that same woman hung me upside down by my ankles. You just happened to find me at a vulnerable point, but you didn’t save me. I saved myself.”
It was a point of fierce pride with Mae.
If she couldn’t rely on anyone for emotional truth, she damned sure wasn’t going to give him or anyone else credit for her perseverance that had gotten her this far.
“Alright, alright,” Rivan said while holding up placating hands. “Maybe one right can’t correct multiple wrongs but what if I was to do more?”
Mae’s hand tightened on her only weapon, her trusty rock. She didn’t want him to do more but seeing as he wasn’t going away and she had tried to gouge his eyes out earlier and failed, the least she could do to stall for more time was listen.
So listen she did.
“More such as?” Mae asked warily.
“Simple,” Rivan said as he kneaded his knuckles. “I’m going to get you out of here.”
She couldn’t help it. She laughed.
Tears leaked out of her eyes; she was so amused.