A Shaper's Promise

by Karen MacRae

  “What happened to the other men, Sy?” Anna asked nervously. He nodded towards a huge tree on the outskirts of the camp and she walked over, not sure what she would find. There, bound and gagged, were the six men she’d knocked unconscious. They were all awake and looking at her with a mixture of shame, anger and uncertainty. Their auras were predominantly reds and blues with numerous grey and black smudges and streaks. They were unhealthy, but that wasn’t any of her doing. Better still, there was no hint of fear when they looked at her: they were completely unaware she’d had anything to do with their capture. She gave an internal sigh of relief for that and for the fact that Sy hadn’t finished them off while the stew was cooking.

  “Their horses?” she asked.

  “Only had a couple. Easily scared. They’re long gone.”

  Spider woke an hour later. He was weak and groggy, but insisted he was fit to ride.

  Before they left, Sy placed a blade just close enough for the nearest bandit’s feet to touch if he stretched out full. “Don’t follow us,” he warned them with a growl. “We won’t be so lenient next time.”

  They headed for Sienna at a slow trot, Anna insisting that Spider shouldn’t risk a faster pace. It made it a late arrival in town and the innkeeper nearly refused them when he saw the blood- and travel-stained clothing, but Spider’s gold persuaded him that cash-rich customers were always welcome, even if they dressed like bandits.

  The rooms were clean and spacious, and the hip baths were soon filled with soapy, hot water despite the late hour. Anna handed her soiled clothing to a serving girl for cleaning, bolted her door and windows and got herself bathed and into bed as quickly as possible. She was asleep as soon as her head hit the herb-scented pillow.

  She woke to the sound of a fist knocking at the door. Sunlight shone through the small windows. It was long after first bell. “I’m coming,” she shouted.

  “I’ve ordered food. We’ll see you in the lounge.”

  She heard Spider’s footsteps move off, but they were soon covered by the sounds of a lively town. Hawkers’ cries, traffic, a couple arguing, a baby crying, dogs barking… It was familiar and soothing. The journey so far had been educational and, at times, companionable, but it had also been scary, thought-provoking and painful. Anna wasn’t sure she was made for an adventuring lifestyle.

  She dressed quickly, enjoying the feel of fresh, clean clothes against clean skin that she’d always taken for granted. For the first time, she put on the peristone bracelets and crystal jewellery as well as her normal crystal pendant. The black blade had unnerved her. She wanted the comfort of her tools close to her skin.

  Easing the dagger into her belt, she grabbed her bags and made her way down the stairs to the lounge where Spider and Sy were tucking into a feast. Her mouth watered as she tried to decide between a starter of sweet, nutty cereal or hot bread and creamy cheese, but her appetite deserted her as she saw a serving girl start and stare at her face, her mouth slightly agape. It dawned on her that she hadn’t applied make-up in days and she distinctly remembered running the warm washcloth over her face in the bath. Uncomfortable at the thought of others gawping at her, she pulled her long hair forward and took a seat that would put her birthmark next to the wall, away from prying eyes. The men seemed oblivious.

  Sy saw Anna shy away from the server and pitied her for the experiences she must have had to make her so self-conscious. The birthmark probably appeared unsightly to the people of this country, but it was nowhere near as bad as Anna seemed to think. It reminded him of the tattoos of favoured creatures that his fellow countrymen and women prized. Snakes were smart, fast and resilient. There were worse beasts to emulate.

  Spider saw Anna’s blush and the way she covered her face with her hair and knew she must have been shamed all her life for being different. He knew only too well how deep childhood experiences could run, how they could shape adult behaviour. He hoped one day she could see herself differently.

  Neither said a word.

  Spider waited until they were alone to thank Anna for her aid the night before. He didn’t wait for her polite response and avoided questions about the strange blade and unexpected deaths by moving the conversation straight onto horses. “I’ve already asked around town: there are more than a dozen decent ones available to buy. Any of them would be a suitable mount for you, if you still intend to head for Ionantis. Sy and I would urge you to reconsider though. We’d like you to continue on with us but, whatever you do, we don’t think you should go on alone or there.”

  “My heart and head are torn,” she confessed, looking between the two men she now considered friends. “I think, perhaps, I could be useful in helping you rescue Kai, but I’m not convinced I’m cut out for all this. Can I make a decision once we’ve bought a new horse? Even if I come with you, I’m going to need another mount.”

  “Sure, but we need to leave by eleven o’clock to catch the caravan tonight,” Spider said.

  Anna finished off her second mug of caffe and excused herself to visit the privy before they left. She took her bag with her and came out of the inn with her make-up in place. She didn’t see the sad glance Spider and Sy shared.

  The town turned out to be a much harder place than Straton. Weapons were worn blatantly. Wild dogs roamed unchecked, fighting over scraps of food left to rot in the gutters. Whores hung from door frames and windows rather than wait behind discrete screens, the familiar scent of pleasure oils and unguents wafting from their buildings. The sounds had been soothing. The reality was not.

  The main livery, however, was large and well run. The owner admired Estrell, Rojoch and Blue then proudly displayed his latest stock. Anna viewed their auras with something akin to sadness. She’d grown very attached to Blue and didn’t want to let him go. She reminded herself that he belonged to Kai and looked anew at the horses. There were eight here. Two were immediately unsuitable, one having a weakness in its shoulder, the other in its hocks. They moved well enough at the moment, but it wouldn’t last. Spider and Anna both shook their heads at them and moved on. The next two were fine, but more boring auras Anna had never seen. They may as well have been moss. Again, Spider and she shook their heads. Neither of these beasts would put themselves between their owner and an outlaw. They’d be long gone at the first whiff of trouble.

  Anna determined to look at the remaining four with as objective an eye as she could manage. The first aura was solid, a nice brown with chestnut streaks. Much like the mare herself – reliable, but unexciting. The second aura was an unusual rich, burnt orange, but the stallion was disinterested and seemed lethargic for no obvious reason. There were no marks on his aura; it seemed he was just made this way. The next gelding was at least seventeen hands.

  “He’s much too big for me.”

  “He’s not much bigger than Blue,” Spider pointed out.

  Anna’s reply was an unintelligible snort, but it made her feelings clear: this horse was not even remotely in Blue’s league. She had to confess that the horse and his aura were handsome, though. Its silver grey aura seemed to change to silver blue depending on the light and it was hardly his fault that it wasn’t the shining emerald green she’d grown rather fond of.

  Spider took the animal around the ménage and nodded enthusiastically. “Smooth,” he said.

  “We’ll see,” Anna said noncommittally. The horse turned to look at her and a wave of silver pulsed towards her. He was trying to influence her; make her think him worth his price!

  “Nice beast,” Sy murmured, standing next to Anna, caught in the pulse’s path.

  Anna looked closer at the gelding. “What’s his name?” she asked the merchant. The horse’s head came up proudly and a front hoof pawed at the ground. His aura shimmered softly.

  “We call him Silver because of his coat, but he came in without a name. Lovely animal, isn’t he? Fabulous condition. A real head-turner.”

  A head-turner indeed, but not necessarily for the right reasons, Anna mused. Uncomfortable, she
moved onto the last horse, a petite mare with a swirl of twisted, puckered skin over her chest and shoulders. She looked at Anna with a perfectly placid expression, but there was a twinkle in her eyes and her pale green aura was swirling with whirlpools of bright orange, yellow and red: she was laughing at the grey’s antics and the men’s responses. This was a girl with bags of personality and the awareness not be taken in by Silver’s attempts to influence.

  “And who’s this?” Anna asked, leaving Spider and Sy to ooh over the big grey.

  “No name again. We call her Scar for obvious reasons. Caught in a fire as a filly we think. The injury hasn’t affected her performance though. She moves beautifully. Fast for her size too.”

  The mare’s aura was calmer now and her bright, intelligent eyes regarded the girl patiently.

  Anna saw a whirl of white move through her pale green light to settle above her forehead. Hope.

  “I’ll take her,” she told the surprised merchant. “Throw in full tack and I’ll give you one gold and thirty silvers.”

  “I was asking three gold,” he replied.

  “And you’re never going to get it. Not with that scar.”

  They were riding out of the southern gate just a quarter hour later, Anna on Hope and a riderless Blue following behind Rojoch. They stopped about fifty yards from the gate. Déjà vu.

  “Come with us,” asked Spider. Sy nodded. Blue neighed.

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea. I don’t I like what I’m becoming.”

  “Well, if you’re sure.

  She wasn’t. If she weren’t to go to Ionantis, where would she go? To visit an o’mama who she’d never met and who was probably long dead? These men didn’t ogle her scar. They’d accepted her Shaping and even helped her learn more about it. But they were leading her down a path that took her a long way from her beginning: Healing. She was scared that hurting was so much easier. She was scared she’d get a taste for it.

  “I bought you a parting gift,” Sy said awkwardly. “An apology for scaring you when we met.” He reached down to where he kept his axe strapped to his gigantic thigh. There, hidden by the long shaft of the axe, was a short staff.

  “Oh, thank you Sy. You needn’t have bothered,” she said politely, wondering why the big man had chosen such a weapon when all she’d probably be able to do with it was whack herself on the head.

  “I found it in the market. Thought it might come in handy.”

  Anna turned the weapon in her hands, recognising a length of raw Aurovian crystal polished until it gleamed white in the sun. She saw red and orange, green and blue, yellow and shades of purple peeking through thin scars that webbed its surface. Tears came to her eyes. “Oh, Sy! What a gift! It’s absolutely beautiful. Thank you.”

  “It’s nothing,” mumbled a blushing giant.

  Anna grinned at Spider, blew the big man a kiss and turned Hope. They began to walk north east towards Baju. She swivelled in the saddle to wave to see Blue standing stock still, refusing to move from where she’d left him. Spider and Sy were both trying to persuade him to walk on. He was as stubborn as ever.

  “Help?” shouted Spider, his arms held out wide.

  Anna laughed at his expression, but when she and Hope trotted back, she could see the cloud was back in the big gelding’s green aura. “I can make him happier, but it’ll just come back. I won’t wipe his memories. I couldn’t do that to a friend… I don’t know what to suggest.”

  While she dithered, Hope nuzzled Blue’s neck and moved her body alongside his. Anna saw him nuzzle back and the cloud dissipate as surely as if she’d Shaped it. If that wasn’t a sign, she didn’t know what was. “Change of plan. I’m not leaving Blue unhappy and I can’t take him away from Kai or Hope so it looks like you’re stuck with me for a bit longer. I’ll decide what to do once Kai is away from the prison guard.”

  CHAPTER 9

  T hey smelled the caravan before they saw it. Unwashed flesh, fear and sickness left a wake behind it that wrinkled the nose and wrenched the stomach. The guards must be selected for their lack of empathy.

  “Light,” Anna muttered, wrapping her scarf around her face to cover her nose and mouth.

  Sy followed the girl’s lead, pulling his shirt up and over his face. His chef-sensitive sense of smell was screaming.

  Spider just grimaced. “Follow my lead,” he ordered then spurred Estrell into a canter. The group slowed when the caravan came into sight. There were four caged wagons, one huge, fully enclosed wagon with windows and two carts covered with oilskins. Ten heavily armed guards rode alongside. Others sat upfront with the drivers.

  Anna guessed the carts carried provisions for the journey. They’d be an attractive bounty for the outlaws who scraped a living along this route, but twenty well-trained, well-armed men should make all but the most desperate stay their hand.

  Details began to come into focus as they neared. Within the barred wagons, the piles of old, dirty clothing resolved into men, women and, light help them, a few children. The less populated area of each wagon turned out to house a basic, public privy. All were overflowing. The strongest prisoners had won their own tiny square of space at the other end of the vehicles. The weakest lay slumped in faeces, urine and vomit. A few cried out, their words lost on the wind. Two scrawny children ran between the slow-moving wagons, carrying water. One narrowly evaded the brutal kick of a booted foot as he came too close to a guard on horseback and Anna saw Spider’s hands tighten on Estrell’s reins and his aura flush with anger. He’d happily wallop that guard given half a chance.

  Anna had never faced the reality of a prison caravan before. She knew many of the inmates would have been convicted of murder, rape, assault or robbery. Others would be debtors, some of whom would still be reeling from the bad luck that had got them into this mess. The children would all be repeat offenders, foolishly believing they wouldn’t get caught again or that the judge would take pity on them. All would have known that breaking the King’s Laws resulted in the automatic penalty of working off their debt to society in Tullen. None could have imagined the horror of their journey there. “I swear, if I had the King here at this very moment, I’d make him clean out the privies with his own royal hands or threaten to wipe his aura from the face of the world.”

  Spider and Sy gave each other a sideways glance before grunting their agreement.

  Anna swallowed her ire and schooled her face into that of a dutiful wife: her role for the rescue attempt.

  “Hail ahead!” Spider called out, announcing their presence to those at the tail of the caravan. Two guards wheeled around and drew their weapons. Their group continued at a steady pace, Spider’s smile their only overt defence.

  “Well met, men of the King’s Guard. Is your commander free? I would speak with him if possible.”

  The men looked the newcomers over. They dismissed the young woman with her paltry weapons without a moment’s thought but dwelled on Sy’s size and the axe strapped to his horse before turning back to Spider and the blades he carried across his back. The change of clothes this morning had been well chosen. Spider looked like a young gentleman, Anna his meek bride and Sy their personal guard.

  “What do you want?” the elder guard growled, his aura swirling with suspicion.

  “Allow me to introduce my wife, Jennifer, and our bodyguard, Tomas. I am Willem Bethon. I have business in Tullen. We stopped in Sienna last night and were warned of the outlaws at large in the mountains. The innkeeper suggested your commander might allow us to travel with you for our protection. For a fee, of course.”

  The two guards looked at each other. Their suspicion edged down a notch and their auras tinged with a hint of silver. They saw a profit in this. “I might be able to find him, but I’ll have to persuade him to talk to you,” the spokesman hinted without any real attempt at subtlety.

  Six silvers lighter in the pocket and temporarily stripped of his weapons, Spider rode forward with the younger guard. Anna and Sy watched from the rear of t
he caravan as Spider tied Estrell to the enclosed wagon and climbed aboard. The elder guard stayed behind Anna and Sy as they walked Blue and Rojoch to match the caravan’s pace. He kept his sword unsheathed and ready for action. A nervous quarter hour later, the younger guard waved the duo forward.

  “It seems your husband and the Captain have come to an agreement, Mistress Bethon. They thought you’d be more comfortable riding inside. The, air is… less unpleasant in there.”

  Anna could see Sy’s aura and his face were turning green at the smell, but the invitation was clearly directed only at herself. She jumped down and handed him Hope’s reins. As soon as their auras crossed, she dispersed the green stain and deliberately added a block to where it originated. The look of relief on his face was immediate. He gave her a tiny smile in acknowledgement, grateful for her help.

  “Jennifer, darling!” exclaimed Spider as Anna ducked through the doorway into the surprisingly spacious cabin. “Come and meet the Captain. He’s been entertaining me with stories of his adventures.” His normally dazzling aura was bristling with red spikes.

  Anna doubted the stories had been at all “entertaining”. She acted the obedient, meek wife, plastering on a small smile and keeping her eyes down as she made her way across to the two men. She stumbled as the wagon lurched through a hole in the road and half fell into a spare chair, her hair sweeping back from her face to reveal the imperfectly disguised birthmark.

  Anna heard the words “huge dowry” and the Captain let out a booming belly laugh. Spider’s eyes threw her a sincere apology. None was required. She knew her birthmark demanded an explanation that the Captain would accept. This was a man who took money to disappear people who had not been convicted of any crime and who cared little about the welfare of his charges. To his mind, the only sensible reason for anyone to marry a disfigured woman was money.

  She was forgotten within the time it took the Captain to tell two equally unfunny stories. Whisky and rum flowed freely and the boor became louder and increasingly crude as he revelled in his chance to show off to his impressionable audience. Anna was surprised at how well Spider lied. It was just as well the Captain couldn’t see auras though.