Spell Breaker

by J. A. Culican

  Changing tactics, I kicked repeatedly as close to the wound which still had my knife in it as I could. My foot contacted the hilt, landing a lucky blow which drove it in further and caused the shifter to grunt.

  His grip loosened enough I was able to get my hands between his arm and my neck to pry it off.

  I fell to the ground and searched for my sword. When I spotted it underneath the single large foot, I held my breath and yanked, then swung it in the air as hard as I could and decapitated it.

  There was no time to recuperate. Another shifter was at my side instantly. It seemed obvious I was marked as the weakest fighter, and the remaining shifters were moving toward me.

  Beru and my brothers saw the change in focus and fought their way to my side.

  We fought together in a loosely clustered circle, backs in the center for several minutes until dizziness overcame me. I leaned over and vomited.

  “Dragon dung. Sorry guys, I was trying to avoid that.”

  “That's your body getting rid of the poison. Don't fight it.” Beru placed his arm around my shoulders as he whispered in my ear, voice low so the shifters couldn’t hear.

  I hoped he wasn't just trying to make me feel better. I vomited repeatedly, shoulders heaving as I tried to stop.

  He faced our opponents, keeping his sword arm ready while I clung to the steady feel of his other arm supporting me.

  My brothers took up points around me, forming a triangle as each fought a separate shifter.

  My eyes welled with tears of frustration. As my vision continued to blur increasingly more from a combination of moisture and approaching unconsciousness, the ground shifted beneath me. The sound of swords clanking was tinny and distant, but I fought the oblivion of passing out. Taking several deep breaths, I wiped my eyes and gritted my teeth.

  I looked at the wound on my leg, touching it lightly. Good. It had cooled considerably. Picking up my sword as I stood, breathing shallowly, I felt ready to return to the fight. The protective wall of men couldn’t prevent that.

  I attacked the first shifter I could reach, slashing through its armor just enough to catch its attention.

  This one looked like an octopus, and the suction cups on its skin latched onto my sword.

  I pulled hard, but my sword stuck was fast. I only had my short knife now, so I needed to pick the one blow which would kill the shifter. Then I saw the unprotected swatch under the bulbous face. Its neck.

  I pretended to attack its mid-section, changing direction at the last moment and striking out at the neck. I growled when my knife bounced off the thick skin.

  The shifter changed color and lunged.

  I stepped back just as Beru sprang in front, easily slicing through the shifter’s torso.

  He retrieved my sword, handing it back. “You're too weak to do this.”

  His comment and the pity on his face made me want to fight more. Who was he to tell me what I could and couldn't do?

  “I'm fine.” I launched into my next attack, swinging my sword at a cat-shifter, slicing an arm off.

  How was that for too weak?

  The shifter swiped at me with the remaining arm, so I swung again, and relieved him of it. He brought his head forward and smacked it into my forehead, knocking me down. This time, I saw stars.

  Beru stepped in front again, cutting the shifter in half with another easy swing before kneeling to look at me. His cool hand swept along my cheek up to my forehead.

  I opened my eyes to see four of him looking at me. “You look really good in multiple.” I closed my eyes, moaning at the pounding drums which were drowning out my ability to think.

  “Is she okay?” Damour glanced down.

  I tried to smile reassuringly at him, but my eyes kept closing. The ground felt so soft I didn’t want to move. It hurt so much.

  “She's not far from passing out,” Beru sounded angry.

  I tried to open an eye, but it was too bright.

  “Aria.”

  I heard my brother calling, but I couldn’t respond. The drums were louder now.

  “Harov, stay with her.”

  Beru’s energy disappeared as my brother took his place. I felt strangely sad, like I’d lost something precious.

  “Can you hear me?” Harov whispered, his breath tickling my face.

  “Yes,” I muttered. It was too hard to open my eyes as the pain crested, an ocean of torment washing over and through me.

  “We’ll get a healer. Don't worry.” He patted my shoulder, remaining at my side.

  I lay on the ground for what seemed like forever, keeping one hand on my forehead and the other over my heart. When each clang of a sword echoed, I used what little energy I had left in an attempt to manage the agony. Eventually, I felt well enough to sit up, much to my brother’s dismay.

  “Please rest.” He tried to push me back down.

  “I'll be okay. I’ve healed myself the best I can for now, but we need to fight. We have to help them, or none of us will make it out of this.” I stood, wobbling a fair bit, even with his help. I needed to fight better, smarter. This was my last chance to show them what I’d learned. How much I’d grown. That I was valuable.

  I rejoined them, avoiding Beru's gaze.

  His eyes had narrowed, and his mouth had hardened into a thin line. It was easy to see he wasn’t pleased.

  As much as I wanted to prove my worth, I knew he was right to worry.

  Using my knife, I attacked the closest shifter.

  Focused solely on my brother, it never saw me coming. Before he could turn, I slammed my short knife into his throat, and he dropped to the ground.

  I moved on to the next shifter, another slug. I already knew the skin was tough and I’d need more force than normal to break through, so I didn’t make the first move. She mirrored my movements, dancing with me in a slow circle.

  A high-pitched battle call sounded and the shifters retreated. The slug-shifter I’d been facing off against left, running in a strangely smooth, yet awkward gait from the farm with the others, leaving us alone.

  Somehow, we’d won the battle.

  “Is everyone okay?” Beru looked at the three of us.

  My brothers nodded, then all three turned what felt like disapproving gazes to me.

  “I'm wounded, but fine. I'll be able to heal myself. See?” I reached for the shifter-inflicted injury on my leg and ripped off the cotton bandage. It had healed, leaving only a small bruise in its place.

  “Let's get inside.” Beru didn’t acknowledge my statement, walking toward the house instead.

  We followed a few steps behind. When we got to the house, he refused to enter. “I'll stand watch just in case. You have enough to handle right now with your brothers.”

  I didn’t know what he meant, but I could tell from his closed expression I wasn’t going to convince him to follow. At least, not yet. So I opened the door and let my brothers enter, closing the door behind me.

  I joined them in the living room, sitting carefully in the chair across from Damour, who was working methodically to stoke the fire.

  Harov had elected to pace instead of sit.

  We all remained silent for several moments.

  He stopped, leaning against the fireplace as he crossed his arms. “Has this happened before?” He looked between us several times, his gaze resting on Damour when he answered.

  “Yes, but they were ur’gels last time, not shifters. We were lucky this time,” he added, not looking up from the fire.

  “They took Denny from us,” I whispered.

  He hanged his head as he sat down on the edge of the couch. “I prayed that was a vicious rumor.”

  “This can't keep happening. If the others had been here, they would have tried to fight, and today would have ended differently. I have a child to consider now.” Damour direct his comment at me.

  The shock of what he implied made me turn from him.

  Harov stood. “This is because of Beru.”

  “I didn't call the
m here. I don't want to fight. I want my life back.” I crossed my arms, appalled at them.

  “Damour is right. They won't stop coming.”

  “Why do you get a say in this? You're not part of this family anymore. You chose not to be.” I felt my face flush as my blood boiled with anger. I leapt to my feet and balled my fists at my side. I was shouting now, but I didn’t care. How dare he?

  “I'm sorry. But I agree with Harov. You need to take him and leave.” Damour looked at me.

  Standing, I watched as tears filled his eyes.

  He came over and extended a hand to me.

  I dodged him, running to my room, I slammed the door behind me. All I’d ever wanted was my family together and safe at home. Now they’d turned against me. Choking back my heartbreak and compressing it into a hard ball in my stomach, I began to pack. If that’s what they wanted, I would leave. And I’d never come back.

  Chapter 5

  I crammed what few belongings I had into a bag and left without speaking to them again. I couldn’t imagine what I would say, and it pained me more than I wanted to admit when neither came after me to ask me to stay.

  “Come on.” I grabbed Beru by the sleeve as I walked out of the house, but he was like a mountain, and didn’t move. “I’m leaving, with or without you.”

  “Where are you going? You need to rest so you can heal.”

  “I've been thrown out.” My voice cracked. I jumped down the porch stairs, wanting to leave the house as quickly as I could, needing to leave before my last thread of pride frayed and I cried like a baby in front of him.

  “What are you talking about? You’re not making sense.”

  “Tell that to them. I'm a liability apparently.”

  Beru jogged after me, staying a pace behind.

  I could feel his calm presence with me, but he remained silent. I waited a few beats, but when he still said nothing, I continued. “I’ll never have a normal life again. After everything I’ve done for all of them, they threw me out. Like garbage. It’s not like I asked for any of this.”

  When he still didn’t speak, I turned, wondering if I was imagining him there.

  “I’ve never taken you to be normal,” he finally offered, pressing his lips together.

  Irritated by his lack of emotion, I exhaled loudly. “Do you need anything? Because we aren’t going back.”

  I crossed my arms and glared at him. For a moment, I wanted to yell at him like he was one of my brothers. I realized it wasn’t fair. It wasn’t his fault my brothers panicked the first time shifters attacked and blamed them on us. If it hadn’t been for him, we would have died. With that in mind, some of my anger drained away, but it left the pain. That was worse.

  “I have no possessions.”

  “Good. We’ll go to the tavern. Maybe we can find Sade and Astor.”

  “Whatever you wish.”

  “You'll just go along with whatever I say?”

  “You’re the reason I am out of prison. I am indebted to you. Besides, it's not like I have anywhere else to go.”

  I speculated about whether he had been thinking about his family and what had happened to them and I felt guilty suddenly. Here I was, upset they didn’t want me at home, but at least my family was still mostly alive. Now I was a whiner as well as an outcast.

  “Where will we go?”

  “I'm not sure, but as long as it’s somewhere far away from here, it will suit me just fine.”

  “Astor told me about the dreamwalker in Western March. Maybe that's a start.”

  I wanted to laugh in his face, but that would invoke a conversation I wasn’t ready to have with him. Not to mention Runa was almost the last person I wanted to see right then. She wouldn’t welcome me with open arms to say the least.

  “It’s not an option.” I snapped at him, deliberately keeping my tone harsh to avoid further conversation about the Western March.

  “Got it.” He picked up a stick and dragged it on the ground behind him, keeping pace but not arguing.

  It pissed me off. I wanted a fight and he wasn’t giving me one. But I also knew compared to what he’d been through I was acting like a complete brat. The logical part of my brain knew anything he said or did would annoy me.

  My family was gone. Nothing would be the same now. Nothing. Not only did the townsfolk hate me, I’d lost my job as a healer, but now my own family had thrown me away. Everything I loved was gone. It almost made sense to throw myself into repairing the rip in the prison with Runa.

  I stopped dead in the road. I may as well tell him. Get all the secrets out and maybe he’d leave me too. If I was going to be alone, why bother holding anything back? “We left a hole in the prison.”

  “So, others can escape?” He stopped walking, eyebrows raised as he watched me. The only thing giving away his feelings was the white-knuckled hand holding the stick. It was the liveliest he’d been since we left the farm.

  “Yes.” I continued along the path toward town, expecting him to catch up.

  “We have to go back.”

  I turned around, incredulous he’d even suggest it. “I'm not going back there. They want nothing to do with me. They blame me for everything.”

  I threw my hands up in the air, almost jealous he had no one left. At least no one could hurt him anymore. I turned to stomp away, but I paused at the note which had entered his voice.

  “To the prison, I mean. They can't be allowed to escape. You have no idea what they're capable of. No one alive has any idea.” His voice was so gruff I could hardly make out the words.

  I shook my head. “No one’s getting out. Nobody in the prison even knows they can. They've been stuck there for over two hundred years.”

  “If anyone knows I’m gone, you’re wrong. They’ll have been looking for a way out since I left.” Beru walked past me, heading to town.

  “Where are you going?” I was in charge, not him.

  “To talk to Iri. He's the only one who'll understand.”

  “So, I'm not capable of understanding?” I placed my hands on my hips. Now he was irritating me on purpose, I was certain of it.

  “You're young. You've been through more than most people your age, but you're still immature. You couldn't possibly understand what we’re up against.”

  Fury coursed through me, and if I could have spit fire, I would have. “I saved you from a life of torture and this is how you think of me? Well, excuse this young, immature person for removing your ungrateful ass from your previous lovely accommodations. Next time, I won’t.”

  “Please don't be mad. It isn’t a personal judgment, it’s just…” His words trailed off and his eyes widened as I stormed over.

  I stopped an inch from his face. “Mad? Why ever would I be mad? It’s not like I risked my life to save you, or lost everything defending you since.” I emphasized my words by poking him in the chest every other word, before instantly feeling ill at the thought of spending any more time with him.

  I couldn’t believe this was happening.

  The entire world was against me.

  He didn't try to catch me this time.

  As I came to a clearing, I looked back and couldn’t see him. I didn’t know if I’d lost him or if I even cared, but I slowed my pace to a walk to catch my breath. It felt good to run, even though everything still hurt from the battle with the shifters.

  It wasn't far to the tavern, but I veered off the path into the trees to be alone for a little longer. I sat on a rock and took my off my pack, watching the water flow downriver. Closing my eyes, I listened to it burble on the rocks downstream. Something hit the water with a splash, and I spun to see a young boy fishing at the water's edge.

  “Catch anything?” I placed my hand at the bridge of my eyebrows to shade my eyes from the sun.

  “Why, yes I did, ma’am.” The boy smiled back, nodding at the bucket next to him with pride.

  I walked over to look at his haul, nodding once. “That's quite the take for one day. Your family will be ve
ry happy when you return.”

  “You look like that lady.”

  “What lady?”

  “The bad one. The one who freed the demon.” He turned and began to pack up his fishing rod and supplies.

  “I'm not bad. I'm not what they say I am.” I stepped back, uneasy about how afraid he seemed to be all at once. I guess news traveled fast.

  “You shouldn't have done what you did.” He grabbed the last of his things and, without a backward look, took off through the trees.

  I bolted along the path away from him, running as fast as I could. It wasn’t long before I had to stop and catch my breath again. The world as I knew it was unraveling before my eyes. Nothing was the same anymore.

  I walked as fast as I could, too tired to run farther. I didn’t even care what direction I was going anymore, I just wanted to be alone. Once I’d been someone everyone came to for help. Now I was shunned. But how could I regret saving Gavin? I knew even amid my pain I would do it all over. I could never allow anyone I loved to suffer without trying to fix things.

  I wiped my eyes, and tripped over a large root. Luckily, my face stopped my fall. For a moment I lay still on the ground, uncertain if I should move. I was thankful for the pain. It was the first time since I’d left the farm a sensation other than anger had overwhelmed my self-pity. It was a nice change.

  I slowly rolled over onto my back and stared up at the sky. The rusty smell of blood filled my nostrils, but I didn’t heal myself. I deserved the pain, wallowing in it. It struck me maybe everything hurt so much because I’d forgotten what it was like to feel emotion.

  When Denny had been killed, and the town attacked, I’d turned it off. It had been easier to cope with one task at a time. But now, I wasn't sure I was emotionally strong enough to deal with people's opinions of me. Maybe it was time to go back to that. After all, it didn’t seem like there was anything I could say to make them understand how freeing Beru had been my only choice.

  “This is a bit awkward.” The voice came from the woods, and I froze.

  I didn’t need to look over to know who it was. Embarrassment at the possibility he’d watched me fall and lay there like a corpse made my cheeks burn, but I didn’t move. “Not as awkward as it is for me.”