by Barbara Becc
They squatted down in an empty stable to discuss their options and for the first time Hunter felt hopeful that she could fulfill her mission.
~~~
They didn't have to wait long for the next fire to occur. There seemed to be no pattern to the arsons but they all had a note written in charcoal somewhere that said 'you know why'.
It was a shoemaker's shop this time, close to the inn they had been staying in. Hunter examined the smoldering remains while the Seven and One circled the area to look for Cinder-Ella. Hunter poked through burned leather and shoes with a stick, unsure of what she was hoping to find. She wasn't really looking for anything because her proof was once again written on a wall with charcoal.
The shoemaker stood in front of the writing and shook his head. "I don't know why, I've done nothing. Why's she burning me shop down? I've hardly known her!"
Hunter stepped up to him. "But you have met her?"
"The Cinder-Ella? Well, she was always working in the kitchen and I usually got meself a wee little drink there when I was in the castle and I may have seen her there sometimes." The man looked nervous and Hunter was sure that he was not telling her everything.
"So, have you seen her or have you not?" she pried.
"Now's not like I was a talking with her..."
"But you...," Hunter started but stopped when her eyes were drawn to a figure in a large men's coat at the edge of her vision. She spun around and looked the person in the eyes. Golden brown eyes in a sand-brown face, framed by dark curls, spilling out from under the hood of the man's coat. Her lips pulled into a wide smile and then she turned and ran.
Hunter sprinted after her down the cobblestone streets. The cloak billowed out and Hunter could make out a slim woman's body.
"Ella, wait!" she called out after her, stumbling over a broken cart on the way and cursing at her sword in the scabbard smacking against her shin. The person, who most certainly was Ella, disappeared around a corner; and when Hunter had picked herself up again and came around it, she was faced with the edge of the forest and no one in sight.
Footsteps became louder behind her. Tiny and Honey came up surprisingly fast on their short legs.
"Was it her? The Cinder-Ella?" Tiny asked, out of breath.
"I think so, yes," Hunter said.
"Snow said something like that," Honey said with her squeaky voice. Someone with a voice like that should not be carrying a battleaxe that tall but that didn't stop her. "She said that Cinder-Ella would be looking for you and she made us watch you."
Tiny leaned against the wall of the house to catch her breath. "You tall people are so damn fast. One second you were talking to that shoemaker and the next you were off like a rat on fire."
"Did you see her?" Hunter asked.
"The one in the big coat? Yeah, but that was about it. You think it was really her?"
"She saw me watching and smiled at me."
Honey squeaked. "She smiled? I thought she never smiled?"
"Maybe she's happier now than in that castle," Tiny said with a shrug. "I know I would be."
Honey nodded eagerly. "Yes, I heard they treated her pretty bad at the castle."
Tiny looked up to Hunter. "You lived there; did you know her?"
"Not really," Hunter said, thinking back to that cold building. "I lived in the barracks. I avoided the castle as much as I could. It's not a nice place." She shuddered at the memory of the queen screaming so loud, you could hear her down in the basement as the whole castle fell quiet. "What have you heard about her being treated badly?"
"You never heard that?" Tiny asked. The rest of the Seven and One came around the corner and listened in on the conversation.
"They don't exactly discuss castle gossip at the barracks, except for the boob size of the kitchen maids." Most people at the castle tried to forget everything about the place and its cold-hearted inhabitant if they could.
Snow snorted out an angry laugh. "Maybe they just didn't talk about it but I bet at least some of them knew. It went around the village a while back, how she was forced to work on her knees and how the queen ordered her work to be undone so that she had to do everything again. She gathered the people around to watch the Duke's daughter, fallen from grace and beaten. She let them laugh at her."
A memory crept up, one that Hunter had wanted to forget, and she shuddered. She remembered coming back from a deer hunt and seeing the people spill out of the gate. Some were laughing and boasting but most of them looked embarrassed. After that day, the cook had lost her smile for weeks. But she never told Hunter what had happened.
"I doubt she will be back here anytime soon," Doc said, shouldering his crossbow. "Let's head back to the inn and get some sleep. I have a feeling we’ll have to travel again soon."
~~~
Hunter dreamed about faces walking past her, people pouring out of the castle's gates. They looked at her and their mouths distorted when they tried to speak. She jolted awake, sweat making her shiver and suddenly she knew why Cinder-Ella was laying her fires.
She shook Snow awake, narrowly avoiding a knife whipping out from under her blanket.
"Don't do that, boy," Snow rasped, shaking herself awake. "What is it?"
"I know why Ella is setting fire to those places," Hunter said, shaking in excitement. "She's taking revenge on all the people that watched her and laughed at her back when the queen humiliated her in front of everyone. I saw the farmers, the shoemaker, the blacksmith. That's why the note says 'you know why' cause they all watched and laughed."
Snow looked at her, wide awake now. "How many were there?"
"I don't know, maybe 30? 40?"
"And we're up to what now, ten fires? Twelve?" Snow twirled the knife between her fingers in thought. "She's not done yet."
They settled back down but Hunter couldn't stop thinking about Ella. She remembered having seen her from afar sometimes, when she carried laundry out to hang. She had lived quite nicely as the Duke's daughter — a smart girl, well educated. Hunter had spoken to her sometimes, hanging on every word she had said, learning from her. But after the Duke's death, the Queen banished the girl, took her nice things away and made her beg the kitchen maids for spare dresses.
Hunter had watched her. She still looked so beautiful even in the old and torn rags. Her shapely legs peeked out under the too short skirts, brown against stained white. Her dark hair fell in tiny curls over her shoulders, so much more beautiful than Hunter had ever managed to make her own ratty hair look.
She remembered Ella smiling at her despite bloody blisters on her hands and scrapes on her knees. She remembered how she had to turn away because she felt herself blushing and she couldn't bear to watch her. There was a pain in her chest whenever she saw Ella and she didn't know what to do about that.
~~~
The next fire broke out at another farm. Hunter remembered seeing the husband and his wife among the crowd leaving the castle on that fateful day, their heads hanging down low.
When they arrived at the farm, the main building had been mostly extinguished, thanks to the chain of people with buckets full of water. Hunter was looking for the note again when sudden cries made her look up. The main house wasn't on fire anymore but a spark must have jumped over to the haybarn and the fire quickly spread. Under the roof, a window opened and the faces of two crying children appeared.
"Shit," Snow and Hunter said at the same time. The way down was blocked by the fire, and the window was too high up for them to jump down.
"A ladder! We need a ladder!" Snow yelled out, loud enough to wake people from their shocked trance and make them run. A few men pulled a ladder from a tree in the backyard and carried it over. Snow had taken off her hooded coat, ignoring the stares as the people got a good look at the marks on her skin. She shoved the coat into a bucket of water and put it back on then dumped another bucket over her head. Drenched, she picked up the ladder and ran towards the haybarn. Flames were licking out of the roof and smoke billowed out next to th
e heads of the crying children.
Hunter dropped her weapons and followed Snow’s method, making herself wet as well. She ran after her, towards the blistering heat of the building. Snow leaned the ladder against the building, the heat almost unbearable. She noticed that Hunter held the ladder for her as she climbed up.
"You have to leave!" she yelled at her.
"Shut up," Hunter yelled back, her voice barely audible over the roaring of the fire. "Hurry!"
Snow nodded and climbed up as far as she could. The ladder wasn't long enough to reach the window and she was beckoning towards the children to climb down to her. The smaller girl finally climbed out the window and when she hung on the frame by her fingertips, Snow could reach her ankles and pulled her down. The ladder shook but Snow lowered the girl towards the steps below her and Hunter guided the girl to the ground.
An earth-shaking boom sounded out as the roof caved in and the boy could only jump out into Snow's arms as a cloud of smoke billowed out of the window. Snow caught him but couldn't hold on to the ladder anymore and lost her balance. She fell backwards but Hunter grabbed her, crashing hard to the ground with the weight of Snow and the boy on top of her. Something cracked in her chest and the world went dark.
~~~
When she came back to her senses, she was next to a water well on a blanket and Tiny was bandaging her chest. She hissed in pain and the dwarf looked up.
"Oh good, you're awake," she said, smiling in relief. "You broke a rib. That's gonna hurt a while."
Hunter tried to speak but a cough wracked through her body, making her whimper in pain. She coughed more, every single cough like a knife stab, and spat out a black clot.
"That's better," Tiny said, "get that stuff out of your body."
"How are..." Hunter rasped, almost coughing again just from speaking.
"The others are fine. You and Snow saved the kids and you saved Snow, you silly girl-boy. We just had to pull you both away by your feet before the building collapsed on top of you."
Hunter nodded a thanks, not daring to speak again for fear of coughing.
"Doc and Deidrele are scouting out a place for us to stay where you can rest and heal." Tiny stood and piled dirty rags in her arms. She called over to Karrillic, "Come on, help me with the washing and get some fresh water for us." Karrilic groaned but followed Tiny down to the stream.
Hunter's eyes were drooping. She tried to keep her breathing shallow; deep breaths made her ribs scream out in pain. But the most acute stab came when a hand came over her mouth and someone whispered into her ear.
"I'm sorry."
Hunter's eyes flew open and looked directly into the golden brown eyes of Ella. Hunter struggled to raise herself up but Ella held her arm down and her ribs hurt. She stared at the other girl. Her face was gaunt and dirty and still so beautiful, and she smelled of dirt and flowers. Hunter gave up struggling when she saw the tears.
"I'm so sorry. I never meant to hurt you." She took her hand from Hunter's mouth and looked around like a hunted animal, flinching at every noise she heard. "I only wanted to punish them."
Hunter strained her throat to whisper at her. "The people that laughed at you?"
"Yes, they laughed and cheered and now they're going to suffer for it," Ella sneered.
Hunter tried to yell but her voice came out only as a croak. "They had to. The Queen forced them to. These are poor people..."
"No, they all laughed when the cook beat me!" Ella pressed out.
"These people can't stand up against the Queen." Hunter reached for Ella's hand and whimpered as she touched her. She felt the blisters on Ella's hand, the cuts and bruises and she stroked over a line with her thumb. "You are so smart, Ella, how can you not see that? You almost killed two children today."
"No, the house was empty, I checked," Ella said.
"Fire can't be controlled and you—"
Ella jumped up and ran away just as Tiny and Karrillic came back from the water stream. Hunter held out her hand as if Ella was still holding it. But her hand was empty and her heart ached.
"How are you feeling?" Tiny asked.
"Ella was here."
"Here? When?" The dwarves dropped the laundry and waterbags and drew their weapons.
"She just left when she heard you."
The two dwarves ran towards the shrubbery and looked along the path that ran parallel to the stream. But there was no one in sight. Hunter closed her eyes, a bone-deep tiredness spreading through her.
"What did she want?" she heard Tiny say a few steps away from her resting place.
"She said that she's sorry."
"Huh? I never would have thought she cared."
"I did," Hunter said quietly but Tiny still heard her.
"You thought she cared? Then why does she hurt all these poor people?"
Hunter kept her eyes closed, thinking back to the few times she she met Ella alone outside of the stables. "She was never mean or angry. She endured everything that happened to her without complaints. She was —" Hunter looked up at Tiny, seeing the disbelief in her eyes. " — she was always smiling."
Tiny shook her head. "I wonder what happened. Something must have made her snap."
Karrillic mumbled something under his beard. Tiny drove her strong elbow in his ribs and he winced and spoke up. "Some say that she got possessed by a fire demon."
Tiny laughed out. "Some say?" She scowled at Karrillic. "Don't believe everything the fishwives tell you. Fire demons don't exist."
Footsteps announced the arrival of the others. Doc, Snow and the rest of the group came to take Hunter to an inn but the tale of the events made them reconsider. Snow especially seemed to be thoughtful.
Doc sat down next her, placing his arm on her back. "Say it," he said. She looked down to him, the white markings on her face glowing in the golden light of the setting sun. He pulled her towards him, which looked a bit comical due to his shorter size, but Snow let out a breath and rested her head on his and Hunter could see how his presence calmed her.
"What do you want me to say, Doc?" she said with a sigh.
"Everything, princess of my heart. Everything that you've been thinking about for the last few days. Let's hear it," Doc said, leaning back to look in her eyes.
Hunter wondered what that must feel like, to have someone around to love, who loved you as much as Doc loved Snow. And Snow loved him too, it was obvious, even though she had a hard time showing it.
"First of all," Snow said, her voice louder as she was addressing everyone in the group, "I wonder if we endanger the people who live near the inn if we stay there. Ella seems to follow our own Hunter here and what if she gets it into her head to lay another fire near her?"
"She's not just laying fire wherever, she's targeting the people who laughed at her," Hunter spit out, only the pain in her ribs stopping her from jumping up.
"Yes, I know," Snow said, her voice calm and quiet. "But I think you agree with me that these people might have made a mistake but they don't deserve to have everything they own go up in flames or have their children die."
Hunter nodded, relieved that someone put the uneasy doubt in her mind into words.
"But I think she got one thing right," Snow said. "She deserves her revenge for everything that happened to her ever since the Duke died but she's focussing on the wrong target."
Hunter sat with her mouth open. "What do you mean?"
Snow fixed her eyes on her. "You're the one who's supposed to bring her to the Queen. What do you think will happen?"
"I don't know. I haven't thought that far ahead."
Doc chimed in. "This is all very convenient for the Queen, you know? She can make a big thing out of this, the betrayal of the step-daughter, a trial, a public punishment. All the while nobody notices that she started yet another war with Lower Bracton and that her troops live on rations and the fields in the kingdom lie idle."
"So you think I shouldn't hand her over to the Queen? Hide out in the woods, maybe go over
the border to Lower Bracton?" The prospect of living alone with Ella like that made her smile. She saw Snow looking at her and felt herself blushing.
"Not quite," Snow said and a vicious grin spread on her face.
Doc looked up to her with a smile. "I love it when you look like that." His thumb traced the line on her cheek where the white pattern met the darker color of her skin.
Snow smiled back at him and placed a small kiss on his cheek. Hunter would never have thought it possible but Doc was indeed blushing deep red under his orange hair, all the way down to his bristly chest.
"Let's find that Cinder-Ella first and then I'll tell you more of my idea."
The sound of a cracking stick in the woods made them jump. Twilight had spread over the country, casting everything in grey. Hunter raised herself up on her elbows, wincing in pain. Snow, Doc and Tiny were already on their way into the dark, their weapons drawn.
Hunter was struggling to get up as well but the pain reminded her why she couldn't do that. She fell back on the ground that was just barely covered by a blanket and strained to listen to the sounds of the hunters in the woods. They kept quiet, using whistles and trills to communicate with each other. They had spread out, covering more ground that way. But Hunter knew these kind of forests, old and overgrown as they were. Even in broad daylight it would have been hard to find someone who was hiding in the undergrowth. The darkness that crept over the land now made it nearly impossible.
After a long while, Snow and the others came back to Hunter's resting place. Snow piled soft branches with leaves against a rock for Hunter to lean against and started a fire close to her. She kept looking over her shoulder into impenetrable darkness of the forest.
Hunter beckoned to her to come closer. "You think it was her?"
Snow nodded. "Yes, it's just a hunch but she can't be far after she spoke to you and she seems to watch you anyway."
"She said that she's sorry that I got hurt," Hunter said. She didn't know why she felt it necessary to tell Snow that.
