by Andra Leigh
“Your Da reckons plants talk to each other,” Drae snorted.
“No, he reckons plants understand us when we talk. He’s not mad though, promise. I’m certain he was right about the guards searching for something dangerous. Oh, is that what’s happening here?” she gasped and clapped her hands together. “That would be so exciting. Nothing interesting ever happens in Tequail.”
The guard stared through them as she finished talking.
“Yes,” he said blandly. “We require your family names.”
Drae jumped on the order immediately. “Perhaps I should spell mine out for you. It’s impossible to get right.” He started rattling off a series of letters Eliscity was certain he was making up on the spot.
They’d considered many methods of how to approach the guards and had agreed on irritatingly cheerful ramblings.
“Do you want to read that back to me?” Drae smiled at the guard stuck on scribe duty.
The guard cleared his throat and read from the scroll in front of him. “P-T-E-G-H-I-O–”
“Oh sorry, H-O-I,” Drae interrupted.
The scribe made a very tense correction to his scroll and cleared his throat again. “H-O-I-Q-K.”
Drae nodded gleefully. “That’s the one.”
The scribe started sounding it out with a lot of frowning and spitting.
“Oh, it’s pronounced Tehick,” Drae said, receiving a baffled look from all the guards. “The P’s silent. As well as the G.”
“And the O,” Eliscity added.
“And the O,” Drae echoed with a solemn nod.
The blond guard turned to Eliscity, grinding his teeth. “And your family name?”
He looked ready to be rid of them and Eliscity was right there with him.
“Swain.”
“Is that also spelt with a P?” he drawled.
She giggled. “Nope, spelt how you expect that one.”
“Right,” he jerked his head at his colleagues who were still circling them. “They good?”
Eliscity cut any potential reply off. “Aw, but you haven’t told us what you’re looking for. Come on, I won’t tell. Oh, I saw a strange man skulking around – oh, where was it Teris? – by that old messhouse. He could be –”
The blond guard held up his hand, his face strained. “Move through.”
“Oh.” Eliscity tried to look crestfallen. “Okay.”
She and Drae nudged Kitten and Chaser forward.
“Wait!”
Eliscity’s eyes went wide involuntarily as the guard that had been surveying her and Kitten called out.
All four guards controlling their line were suddenly reaching for their weapons. The guard that had spoken was staring straight at her. At her inked black hair which had smudged across her exposed skin in the heat and her stuffed waist. And her face. He was peering into her face, studying her features.
He knew.
She was sure of it. And he was a second away from raising the alarm. Just as Eliscity was a second away from kicking Kitten into a gallop.
Then something incredible happened.
The guards looked the other way.
There was a commotion. It seemed to be coming from a lane to her right and it had everyone’s attention.
“Over here.”
“This way.”
“Where, where!”
The yells bounded off each other and echoed across the square. Then a whistle began. And the guards who had stopped her were rushing away. But not before the blonde guard ushered them through the border into Wrethic with a harried wave.
“‘City, quick, what are you waiting for?” Drae hissed as she twisted on Kitten’s back to try to see what had caused the commotion.
“Don’t you want to know what’s going on?”
“Not when we’ve just been handed a chance to escape. Let’s go.”
Eliscity blinked out of her daze. “Yeah, yes. Right.” She kicked Kitten into a trot and followed Drae.
Wrethic was filled with people. Children were playing games and filching food while traders were yelling loudly about their products. Yet compared with Hynxt it felt deserted. The lack of guards gave the city an openness Eliscity wouldn’t think possible in a cramped Southern City.
“I’m dying in here,” she muttered, pulling at her sweat logged stuffing.
Drae’s face crinkled into a grin. “Might be safe to lose some weight now? You’ve still got the hair.”
Eliscity scowled at a strand of hot tacky hair. “The hair’s not all that much fun either,” she sighed. “Let’s just get through Wrethic.”
It was a quicker journey compared with when she had stalked Jinx through the city. Kitten and Chaser kept up a steady trot, clearing crowds easily with their intimidating frames. It was creeping into a blaring hot afternoon when Eliscity felt the hair on the nape of her neck stick up again.
She scanned her surroundings, trying desperately to find the reason for the shiver building in her spine. But there was nothing. She had them double back a few times and cut through some back alleys in an attempt to shake off the unease. But it stuck with her.
As they left Wrethic and crossed over into the Cityel Border, Eliscity shed the fake weight in a blocked off alley. She had used her regular clothes beneath the frumpy dress to help secure the rolls of material to her so she stripped down to them now. Then, using a strip of fabric, she tied her hair up and rubbed at the smudges on her throat.
Climbing back onto Kitten she twisted to look at Drae. “We can’t get over the bridge without papers. Can’t get the horses into the tunnels. If we want to cross to the Northern Cities I think the north fork in the river is the way to go. The horses should be able to walk it.” She shook her head. “I just don’t like the idea of heading through Seltley.”
“Because of the Family?”
Eliscity sighed. “If I’m accidently spotted… that’s a city I don’t want guards swarming.”
“If we take the south fork we could find a place to cross into Tequail,” Drae mused. “Get out of the cities. A couple of months of lying low and heading south and we could make it back to Eltarn.”
“Sounds nice,” Eliscity smiled sadly. She knew it could never be that easy. She would always be running and hiding. How many times would she return to that home wrapped around the old oak tree just to have to run again? As many times as she had to, she decided.
“Tequail, it is,” she said firmly. She had been seen outside of Eltarn, she had done what she could to keep her family safe. Now it was time for her to find a way home.
The Cityel Border was waking up for the evening as they plodded their way through its streets. And it soon grew on Eliscity’s nerves.
“Well, hey there, Sweets. Lookin’ for some love?”
“He’s fine!” Eliscity snapped at the scantily clad woman hanging out the doorway of a coinhouse and ogling Drae.
It was the third worker to suggest Drae would like a night with them. One more time and she was getting off Kitten and punching them in their already heavily blackened eyes.
Drae looked terrified at all the attention, unsure how to handle it or where to look. Eliscity scowled at all of them equally from her perch on Kitten’s back. Which was why she didn’t see the guard until she was right in front of him.
“Bloods.”
If the guard had any doubt about whether or not she was the girl everyone was searching for, it evaporated the moment she swore.
The guard yelled, reaching for his weapon.
Drae wrenched Kitten’s reins from her hands and snapped them. Kitten lunged forward, bowling the guard over and leaving him in the dirt.
They only made it as far as the end of the street before another guard sprang up in front of them, bolt drawn back. The moment he recognised her he fumbled with the bow, the bolt slipped, thudding to his feet as he hurriedly grabbed at his belt.
Eliscity didn’t pause to contemplate the strangeness of the action. She had Kitten’s reins back under her control and use
d them to barrel past the man. She could hear Chaser right behind her so she kicked Kitten into a gallop, yelping as bolts sliced through the air around her.
Guards were appearing from everywhere. More guards than she thought possible after the high numbers they’d just left in Hynxt. And they were all shooting at her. Chaser was making terrified sounds, bucking and tossing his head while Drae used all his strength to keep him under control. Kitten was handling the assault a bit better, choosing to butt through the guards that dared get in her way. They hadn’t been hit yet but if they remained in the open much longer they would be. Wrenching Kitten to the right she thundered down a narrow alley, jumping a low fence into someone’s back section. Ducking low under a clothes line she charged for a connecting fence, jumping it a second before Drae and Chaser.
Bells were clanging somewhere in the distance, alerting every guard in its range to the situation.
They jumped through a few more back sections before veering into a lane.
She heard Drae call her name and looked back.
“Need to hide,” he said in a rush. “Separate from the horses.”
She hesitated. Kitten made her feel fast and strong. She didn’t necessarily want to give that up in order to hide like a scared mouse.
A thin shower of bolts rained down over them, frightening the horses into a new burst of speed.
Scared mouse it was, Eliscity decided as she spotted the guards aiming at them from a roof.
It took them a few streets and trampled guards before they were able to get the horses under control. Eliscity steered Kitten toward a merchant stopping ground filled with wagons and horses. She and Drae scrambled from Kitten and Chaser the moment they were submerged in the sea of merchants. Many of the families were peeking out from their wagons and makeshift tents, searching for the reason for the guard bells. Fortunately they didn’t give Eliscity or Drae a suspicious look. They clearly thought they were traders coming back to camp.
They tied the horses to a post a few wagons in and slunk back to the stopping ground’s edge. Guards were rushing around, barking orders at startled people and pointing their weapons at shadows.
Drae reached for her hand, entwining his fingers with hers. They ran for a narrow alley linked like that. For an hour they dodged guards, skulked through shadows and hid under houses. Their luck ran out as they moved into the second hour.
“Get down!” Eliscity yelled and tugged Drae out of the way of an arrow. It buried itself in the wood of the building they were leaning against.
“That’s not a bolt,” Eliscity gasped, falling against the opposite wall, out of the sight line of the shooter on the roof who had spotted them. “They’re using arrows.”
Drae sidled along the wall, pulling her with him. “Makes me nervous when guards differ from their usual tactics.”
“What’s the point?” she hissed back, thinking of the strange way the guard had dropped his bolt and fumbled for his weapon belt when he had seen her. “Why give up their favoured weapon of death for a less preferred one?”
A scampering noise trailed across the roof above them. There was a scuffle, a series of thuds then a yell was cut short as the guard suddenly fell from the roof, crumpling to the ground at their feet. A quiet creak of boards above them told Eliscity that someone was still on the roof.
“Let’s worry about it when we’re safe,” Drae whispered.
Eliscity nodded, hardly daring to breathe.
Drae peeked around the wall, into the street.
“All clear. Ready?”
Eliscity nodded again.
They sprinted from the wall out into the open street. Eliscity didn’t know where they were going, she was just following Drae.
Suddenly several guards were in front of them. No – behind them – as they wheeled around and dashed for cover.
Fire tore across her shoulder as an arrow sliced past her. She hissed, her steps stumbling. Drae pulled her to him and carried her toward an alley, never breaking his pace. He carried her like she weighed nothing through tight lanes and back sections. He finally put her down against a low fence. They seemed to have lost the guards. At least for now.
Drae dropped to his knees in front of her, his hands frantically pushing back her fallen hair to look at the wound the arrow had left.
She shook her head weakly. “It’s just a graze,” she muttered. She was embarrassed that such a silly cut had caused her to stumble. And was shocked how the sight of it was making her dizzy.
“Are you sure?” Drae asked.
“Yes,” she blinked rapidly, trying to dispel the white spots sparking across her vision. Had she eaten anything today? That must be it. She needed food. “Yes, it’s nothing serious.”
She clamped a hand over the cut, stemming the bleeding and attempting to ease the burn that was licking across it.
Instead of looking appeased, Drae was studying her face, his hand pressing to her forehead. “You’re all warm.”
“We’ve been busy running for our lives. I’d be surprised if I wasn’t a bit warm.”
“But you’re so pale. And you’re so warm.”
She pushed at Drae’s chest with her free hand. “You’re imagining it. Where are the guards?”
Drae moved to a small hole in the fence to peek through.
“We lost them for now. It’ll be dark really soon. Surely that’ll cover us enough to get back to the horses and get to the river and over into Tequail. I think that merchant site is only a street or two away. Not that I’m suddenly an expert at navigating cities but the Cityel Border is a lot simpler than Hynxt.”
As Drae went on to muse about their next move while keeping watch, Eliscity kept her hand clapped down on her shoulder.
It was a graze. Just a graze. Except it wasn’t just the graze that was burning anymore. Her insides were catching fire. Her veins were the wick. The cut was the flame. Her blood was hot against her palm. She felt it trickle out from under her hand and down her skin, searing on its path. She looked down, certain she had to be imagining it.
It was getting lighter.
Her blood was paling as it seeped from her wound.
It wasn’t blood. It couldn’t be.
Shaking, she pulled her hand from her shoulder. But instead of red, her palm was painted with light pink ooze. A shocking white was beginning to bubble from the wound. She could feel it bubbling through her veins, boiling and popping.
White stars danced behind her eyes, blood screamed in her ears. She gasped her breaths deep but only got dizzier. The white stars were becoming black spots.
Drae’s face swum in front of her. She grabbed on to him. She had to make him understand. But understand what? She scratched at her wrists, clawing at her flesh, desperate to get to the flames. They were building inside her.
“I – I don’t,” Drae was holding on to her, panic spreading across his beautiful features. “I don’t know what to do.”
White still bubbled from her shoulder, burning her flesh. She needed it out of her body, she had to get it all out. Before it killed her.
Her entire body convulsed.
She couldn’t make it stop.
Drae couldn’t make it stop.
She was going to die.
But then someone else was there.
And suddenly she knew who had been watching her since Hynxt.
But it was too late. Her whole body was burning. Even if she could make him understand…
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The Family’s Reigness
• Acanthea •
“What the Bloods is that noise?”
Acanthea tossed the book she had been thumbing through aside and peered out the sitting room window of Vance Manor. But she couldn’t find the source of the commotion which had just started.
“That sounds like Jinx,” one of the Triplets frowned, springing to his feet.
“Sounds like he’s kidnapped another member of the Reigning family,” snorted one of his brothers.
“Got
a cousin?” The final brother grinned at Acanthea as she followed them into the hallway to investigate.
“The only other member of my family is the Reigner himself.”
The brothers winced. “That would be less than ideal.”
They all crept toward the Manor’s front door which seemed to be between them and the strange sounds and voices. Before they could reach for it, it burst open and in spilled three people.
Acanthea recognised Jinx in the pile up immediately so knew she didn’t need to vanish from sight. Initially she didn’t think she knew the other two. She certainly didn’t know the tall man with light hair and a terrified expression. But with a jolt she realised she knew the unconscious woman in his arms. It was Eliscity.
And she didn’t look good.
Her skin was a blotchy mess of whites and reds. Something black and tacky coated her hair. Every few seconds her whole body would shudder and convulse. The sight that concerned Acanthea the most was Eliscity’s arms. She had been sliced open from hand to elbow. If that wasn’t horrifying enough, rather than scarlet, she was bleeding white.
Was that the colour of Fae blood, Acanthea wondered in horror as Jinx yelled at one of the Triplets to get Cyan.
“Put her down,” Jinx barked at the man holding Eliscity as he shoved aside coat stands and furniture to give them as much room as possible.
The man clearly didn’t want to listen to Jinx. He was holding onto Eliscity like she was the only thing he was certain of.
“Now!” Jinx yelled. “You want us to save her or not?”
“Your idea of saving her has been cutting her open,” the man hissed back dangerously.
“She’s still breathing isn’t she?” Jinx said, apparently not intimidated by the larger man.
Acanthea’s eyes were wide. Had Jinx cut Eliscity’s arms open? Why?