by Terah Edun
“What, is that a joke?” she demanded.
“No,” he said unimpressed at her mirth. “It’s the truth. But to do it I need more than a damsel in distress at my side. I need a mage.”
Mae shook her head.
“You had a mage and you betrayed her,” she said, speaking of herself.
“No,” he swiftly corrected. “I merely did what I was obligated to do. Help my mistress Donna Marie take this greater holding as she desired.”
Mae frowned.
Still she had to ask, “And what’s so different now that you’ve accomplished what you wanted?”
“She wanted,” he said.
“Fine,” Mae said while waving her newly healed hand. “What she wanted.”
“To answer your question, I think Ava is out to do more than just unlock the gifts of a few mages. She wants to harness it, wage war on my people, at least from what secrets I’ve been told about her, that’s her goal,” Rivan said as he furtively looked over his shoulder at the empty patio surrounding them as if enemies could spring up at any moment.
Which for all she knew, they could.
“Your people?” Mae pressed. “But what does that have to do with my family? We’re far away from your lands.”
“Your family is the key,” Rivan said darkly. “And if I can’t stop Ava, the very least I can do is get you away to prove to my queens that darkness across the ocean is rising.”
Mae wasn’t sure what to think of that but dark tidings and dark warnings drifted across the patio as she pondered his words in silence.
They had felt honest, they had felt true.
But she had trusted him once before and had been left with her entire life hanging in shambles.
She still didn’t know what had become of her family.
Who was alive?
Who was dead?
More important than all, what Donna Marie’s real intentions were now that she had effective control of the Darnes clan by mercenary might and by magic.
7
As for Maeryn Darnes, her hand was physically trembling as she tried to come to a decision about one of the most important moments of her life.
She didn’t believe she should trust him. But neither did Mae think she had much of a choice. She didn’t hold the cards here. He did. Insofar as he knew the lay of the land and what was going on inside the greater holding at the moment and what had passed last night. She didn’t even know where her family’s bodies were! The idea of her father and stepmother stuffed in a closet somewhere like refuse, just made her want to hurl. Even worse, what had they done with her siblings? Helpless like lambs led to the slaughter, had their throats been cut while they slumbered? Were they packed into a wagon for dissection at the courts of the King-Elect?
Mae had heard wild things about the goings on at court and seeing how the Nardes Council’s own Cross Guard were given such extreme leeway to determine and address their missions, she didn’t doubt that some of the propensities she’d heard about were indeed true.
The idea of the children of her family being taken off to be practiced on by some mages in a dark room for who knows what purposes just made her shiver in revulsion.
So as Mae clutched a rock tightly in her left hand and stood up on firm legs with her right hand braced against the patio wall for balance, she was thinking every scenario through carefully. She struggled to keep the expression on her face blank as well. It wouldn’t do her any good to give the game away. If she was going to run, she needed to be fast. If she was going to accept his aid, she would need to put some conditions in first.
Just because they might be on the same team at the moment did not mean Mae trusted him not to knife her in the back…again.
So all of those possibilities were going through her thoughts, awhirl with many terrors about the consequences of what she could or could not do. The rock felt like a heavy weight in her hand. It was a physical representation of one path. But was it the right one?
Sure, she could attack Rivan now like her rage and fury demanded she do. But that wouldn’t solve anything in the long-term. She was only one person fighting against a horde and eventually, probably sooner rather than later, they would overcome her weak defenses.
Seeing his hand outstretched in an unwelcome but stubbornly sincere gesture only sent her stomach into further knots.
She didn’t know what to do!
She had trusted him once and that had backfired spectacularly.
And now?
She was literally backed up against a wall and all her options were poor ones in her mind.
She wished Richard was here to talk her out of going forward with this potential catastrophe. He would find another way, stubborn meat-head that he had been. But she didn’t see many options where she came out of this alive much less intact if she didn’t start shoring up support from allies.
Even two-faced spiteful young men like the one before her.
Mae said harshly, “You still haven’t explained why you didn’t return me to my chains last night.”
Rivan didn’t hesitate as he replied, “Because I need you.”
Mae shook her head and scoffed, “You’ve got to do better than that. Why?”
He frowned.
“You’ve never heard the adage that two mages are better than one?” he asked in a coy voice.
She gave a startled laugh as she replied, “Give me a break. I’m a barely trained individual with some unlocked magic. I’d probably blunder your casting.”
“That maybe so—” Rivan started to say.
Mae rolled her eyes. “It is so. Which makes me wonder why you’re not only turning against your mistress but also her equally talented mage friend.”
Rivan narrowed his eyes at her, perhaps his ire peaked for the first time.
“That friend is worse than Donna Marie,” he spat out with enough spite that she was surprised.
Ah, now we’re getting somewhere, Mae thought craftily. What is it about this new woman that has him so on edge?
She personally didn’t know much about Ava. She had shown up when the contingent of mercenaries had. But Mae had seen her work her magic and act on Ember what Donna Marie had previously done to Mae, strip the protective casting which had kept her gifts locked and buried.
Neither woman had explained why they were so fascinated with the presumed powers of the Darnes line, though if Mae had to guess, it wasn’t just because of the fire she could ignite from her fingers with a thought.
Looking at Rivan speculatively, Mae asked, “This Ava. Do you at least know what she’s getting out of all this?”
He gave Mae a grim smile.
“Power, what else?” Rivan said with a hard look.
Mae turned the rock in her hand tensely as she almost carelessly tipped it front one hand to the next.
“And why would you care what powers they gain?” Mae asked. “It didn’t bother you before the second woman showed up so I assume Donna Marie had cut you in on some kind of deal.”
A pained look crossed Rivan’s face before he ruefully admitted, “She did but she never mentioned that Ava would be included.”
Mae gave him a pointed look.
Reluctantly Rivan expanded, “Ava’s push for power I can handle. What she wants to do with it goes against everything I stand for.”
“Well, she killed innocent bystanders and took over a poor holding with merciless killers,” Mae said bitterly. “So it must be pretty terrible whatever it is you’re afraid she’ll do.”
Rivan had the sense to look a little abashed as she lit into him.
“Still,” he said, “I’m not going to apologize for my role in your family’s…troubles. There’s nothing I can say to turn back time anyway. All I can promise is that if you think this is bad, the horrors Ava will inflict on anyone who gets in her way will be without parallel.”
Mae’s eye twitched.
“And she thinks you intend to be one of those people?” Mae asked, skeptical as to why he would
put himself in danger if that was the case.
He laughed. “No, that would be the kingdom and everyone within it.”
“That’s a pretty big scale,” Mae replied, still not believing him.
He looked down quickly and from the tenseness of his shoulders it seemed as if he was deciding on something. Something important. Perhaps another truth. Perhaps another lie.
Whichever it was, Rivan held Mae’s future in his hands whether she liked it or not.
She’d already tried to beat him and failed. She didn’t have to like it, but she would be a fool not to acknowledge things as the way they were.
So Mae waited him out.
When he finally peered up, a weary expression crossed Rivan’s face.
“All I can say is, if you have any regard for your country’s people, you’ll get out ahead of this before Ava succeeds,” Rivan said urgently.
Mae shook her head. Not at him but at his focus.
“I don’t know if you noticed,” Mae said slowly. “But we’re a provincial people here. The kingdom can shove itself.”
Rivan looked actually shocked.
“I thought you were proud of your heritage,” he said while stumbling over his words.
“We are,” Mae assured him. “Local heritage. Right now, there’s nothing about being a part of this kingdom that is doing my family much good.”
He looked around shocked as he waved the turrets that rose above them, “From what I’ve seen, your people, while not noticeably wealthy, are doing quite well.”
“And I don’t just mean the field of elderflowers we found hidden in the forest either,” he added before she could object.
Mae gave a pained smile. It was both surreal and oddly normalizing to be talking about the banalities of her family’s life as if several of those people weren’t lying on the ground throughout the castle wounded and even dead.
But still, better the enemy she knew instead of one she couldn’t even begin to fathom.
“That is no thanks to the capitol,” Mae said with a sniff. “We subsist on our own here, as you very well know, and have lived in fear of the Council’s whims. With very good reason, as I can now see.”
“Meaning?” Rivan asked with a raised brow.
“Meaning that you can’t tell me the King-elect didn’t sanction this raid,” Mae said plowing forward. She was tired of always answering his questions. Maybe it was time he answered some of her own.
Mae had noticed that Rivan had a smooth way of weaseling out of information. Only giving the vaguest of answers if possible. Every nugget of detail, dragged out of him like it was the finest gold.
Well, she had neither the time nor the inclination to cater to his predilections.
She needed to know what she was up against now and the very least he could do was confirm that the very leadership of her kingdom had set her little homeland up for failure!
He opened his mouth to object until Mae continued on harshly, “The Cross Guard doesn’t go anywhere without his and the Council’s foreknowledge.”
Rivan closed his mouth with a click of his teeth and was silent. Because she was right. They both knew it was true. The Cross Guard leader himself had acknowledged he had carte blanche to do what he deemed necessary to ensure that the appropriate ‘recruits’ were selected for whatever drudgery tasks throughout the kingdom needed to be done. All the leaders in the capitol cared about was the end result. Not the people who they used to get there.
Mae had just never thought her family would be the ones caught up in the trap.
Then again, did any of those poor souls who had been visited before? Mae wondered to herself. She imagined that not many had and most in the kingdom were too afraid to pop their heads up out of their holes to object to something happening outside of their village.
The one thing that seemed to unify the people of Nardes, more than blind obedience to the ruling Council, was a collective desire to mind their own business.
Grimacing at that thought and where that inclination had driven her own family, Mae asked Rivan in a doubtful tone, “So you think that Ava’s plans will disrupt the kingdom. Why not tell the leader of the mercenaries? Surely it’s his job to protect the stability of our lands.”
“What makes you think he’s not in her pocket?” Rivan asked with simplicity.
Mae opened her mouth to respond and then closed it.
The truth was, she didn’t know.
These outsiders and their machinations were so strange. They never seemed to live up to their end of a bargain and they had more ulterior motives than a shady fox trying to steal eggs out of a henhouse.
Sighing roughly in irritation, Mae replied, “Alright say they have an understanding. You can’t go to any of the mages or mercenaries. Your plan is just to run?”
If her voice sounded derisive, she could be forgiven.
“And hide,” Rivan said proudly as he puffed out his chest.
“Forgive me if you’re not instilling a sense of urgency in me then,” Mae said dryly.
Rivan shrugged. “At least I’ll be alive. If you like, we can inform your beloved Council of the two mages actions once we’re clear of here.”
“No, I don’t like,” Mae said. “Here is my home. Here is my family! I’ll not just up and leave them!”
“Then do something!” snapped Rivan. “Instead of just standing there glowering at me.”
“I was doing something,” Mae snapped. “That is until you and the fiends you called friends betrayed me.”
“Oh boo hoo,” Rivan said. “You learned a lesson in manipulation. Put it to good use and do what you wanted to do all along.”
“And what is that?” Mae said as she crossed her arms and leveled a poisonous look at him.
Rivan gave her a showy smile.
“Why…save your family of course,” he said in a smug tone that said he knew he had her hook, line, and sinker.
8
Mae laughed.
It was long, slow and maniacal.
It was something she’d wanted to do ever since she’d woken alone and hanging chained from a ceiling with no idea how she’d gotten there and where the rest of her people were.
It was a way to release pent-up tension and was almost cathartic.
By the time that she finished Rivan actually looked a bit apprehensive.
Good, Mae thought.
Aloud she asked, “Is this a joke to you? My life? My suffering?”
To emphasize her grief, she snapped her fingers and fire appeared. It grew until it flared bright orange and formed into an orb the size of her fist. Big enough to blast a hole in his face if she dared…and could get enough leverage.
To her annoyance though, Rivan didn’t look too scared. In fact, he appeared eager.
“That is exactly what we need to win this castle back,” Rivan said with excitement. “Fire and rage.”
Mae gave him a baleful look and spoke slowly as she said, “What you’re not getting is I’d rather set you on fire from within than work with you.”
He gave a chuckle.
“Believe it or not, I’m kind of getting that vibe,” Rivan admitted. “But I told you we could save your family and I meant it! Surely that means more to you than a half-concocted vision of revenge.”
“My family is dead!” Mae shouted in a voice so loud that it could have seen pigeons flying from the rooftop in an anxious clatter if there had been any around.
At that moment she didn’t really care if she disturbed the wildlife or anyone else for that matter.
Let them come running. She relished the idea of killing at least one as she consumed them with fire and died watching them burn. Her one final act would be a fitting tribute to her family, dead and gone, and it would release her from this world of suffering she endured.
Mae was curious though. Seconds had passed since she cocked her head towards the door that Rivan had initially walked away from when he had greeted her as she woke. She had expected tall forms in clattering
chainmail to burst through its closed doorway at any second. But no one came through.
Something’s off, Mae thought with skepticism as she turned a wary eye towards the only person who was present in any capacity.
Rivan neither looked nervously towards the door nor did he look guiltily up at the windows of the towers looming above them.
If no one was coming through the door and no one was spying down at them from above, where was everybody? She wondered in disbelief.
Nothing was adding up and Rivan was carrying on as if they were the only individuals who existed in the world.
Rivan said, “Don’t worry, there’s no one coming—”
She wanted to ask about that, how had he secreted them away and where were all the guards, but suspicions about his plans had her more concerned at the moment.
So instead she listened as he continued, “—what you need to be concerned about is Ava and exactly what she’ll do when she finds out you escaped.”
“With your help,” Mae pointed out primly.
“Precisely,” Rivan said in a heavy voice. “So you see, I too have skin in the game.”
Mae grimaced from the fear in his eyes, she actually didn’t doubt him for once.
“Alright, say we try to escape…” Mae said reluctantly.
Rivan immediately shook his head before she could even finish.
“Escape isn’t enough,” Rivan interrupted in a serious tone. “She’ll follow us long after we leave your lands. Besides…”
“Besides what?” Mae prompted when his voice trailed off and he seemed almost reluctant to continue.
“Besides it’s not enough just to take two mages out of her grasp,” he said. “We need to take all of them.”
“All of who?” Mae asked, slow to grasp exactly what he was getting at.
Rivan looked at her with frustration in his eyes.
“All the women and girls in your family,” he said frankly.
Mae blinked and blinked again.
“The ones who are dead,” Mae said, trying to comprehend what he was saying and failing.
“I never said they were dead,” Rivan started to say.