I bit my lip, my fingers almost touching his jacket lining when he grabbed my wrist and sat right up like he had been awake the entire time.
“Boo!”
Chapter Four
I yelped in surprise and fell back on the ground.
He leaned over me with a sardonic all-knowing expression on his face. “I knew you wouldn’t leave it alone. Did you think I would let my guard down and let you take the relic just like that?” He glared down at me with his threat. “Do you think having something of this great value can let a person sleep at night? I’d have to be crazy to even close my eyes while I have this. Tell me you don’t think I’m that stupid.”
I swallowed hard but even as I tried to struggle free, he wouldn’t let go of my wrist. I was trained in all forms of combat arts as well but before I could pull myself together to attempt any sort of defensive movement, he grabbed my other wrist and pinned me down flat. My heart pounded in my chest in panic and I squeezed my eyes shut to brace myself.
But instead, I only heard a loud sigh. “Having the relic is a risk to me too, you know,” he relayed, his tone softening. “Once word gets out, a lot of people are going to want to take it from me. Especially now that it’s not protected by your powerful magic. Maybe they’ll succeed too, I don’t know.”
At the sound of resignation in his tone, I opened my eyes.
He was shaking his head, looking off to one side. “I don’t want to hurt you. I just want to go home. Please let me.” When he met my gaze again, he must have recognized the fear in my eyes as his forehead creased and he let go of me right away. “Come on then, sit up.”
I was still glaring at him but pushed myself to sit up on the ground and inched away.
He watched me for a moment, his eyes narrowing.
I thought he would go back to lie down but he reached into his pocket then leaned back toward me, his hand reaching for my face.
My eyes widened and I scrambled back against the tree.
He stopped short, giving me a pointed oh-calm-down look, holding up his hands again before shifting closer to apply something on my face. It was some type of balm.
My lips parted in a hiss of slight pain, scrunching up my face at the sting of the balm on the cut on my cheek.
“Hold still,” he mumbled. He was highly concentrated on what he was doing. “Don’t be so grouchy. We only have until the morning before I leave and I’d like to spend the rest of the time not bickering if that’s okay with you.”
I shot him a pointed look and finally found my voice. “I should have known you weren’t asleep,” I accused, my voice a bare rasp. “You’ve deceived me more than once.”
“It’s not like I wanted to.”
“I didn’t say you wanted to,” I retorted. “I’m saying you’re full of trickery and I should have known better than to trust the likes of you.”
He made a face. “Ouch,” he muttered under his breath but said nothing more as he sat back on the ground before me. A slight breeze was teasing at his hair. He cleared his throat. “So, Magenta… That’s an interesting name.”
“Is it?” I prompted dully, wondering why he was trying to make conversation.
“Yeah. Uh, what do they call you when you wear some other color clothes?” He sounded like he was trying to make a joke.
“I don’t.”
He glanced up at my sharp non-response. “Of course you don’t.”
I frowned. I didn’t know why I felt guilty. I averted my gaze, conceding. “I don’t really have any other clothing. I don’t really have a name either. Magenta was a name given to me by a soldier passing by some time ago. He died.”
He raised his eyebrows. “That must feel weird. Not having a name.”
“Why do you have two? How many names does one ever really need?”
That observation earned me a smile from him. “It’s just a convention where I come from,” he explained. “So people can be easily identified.” His expression faded. “Never mind.”
I tilted my head, not understanding what he was talking about.
He took in my reaction and changed the subject, clearing his throat again. “So this soldier, did you know him?”
My gaze snapped to his. “Of course not,” I barked.
He winced, taken aback. “Oh-kaay…” His eyes widened slightly when he noticed another cut on my shoulder and he moved closer again.
I gasped, edging away once more.
“Seriously?” He shot me a flat look.
I narrowed my eyes at him in suspicion. “What is that?”
He looked down at the tube in his hand. “Oh. Antiseptic cream. It helps wounds heal.” He pursed his lips as though in remorse as he tentatively leaned closer to me, watching that I didn’t jump away again. “I think all the running through the woods did quite a number on you.” He left out that the reason I had been running through the woods was to save his life.
I could imagine I must have been covered in cuts and bruises. They used to instantly heal all by themselves before.
He applied the balm on my shoulder and then shifted down to treat my feet as well.
I winced several times but somehow, it wasn’t from pain. “Ow,” I mumbled anyway.
He stopped short, looking concerned. “Sorry, did I hurt you?”
I simply shot him a wordless glare before looking off elsewhere.
One could just imagine the amount of human contact my job had to offer.
That was, my previous job.
He was already up when I awoke early the next morning. He was fixing the camp and it smelled like something was cooking on the fire again.
I sat up, feeling rested and well, but the aroma of the steaming meat on a spit was making my stomach growl.
Eating food was an entirely new experience for me. Chewing strained my jaw and my tongue seemed to lack appreciation for flavor but still, it quelled the complaint in my belly fairly well. I was looking forward to the necessity, no matter the inconvenience.
Josh didn’t notice me up yet though. For a long while.
I cleared my throat out loud and that’s when he saw me awake.
“Good morning,” he greeted with a smile.
I shot him a wary look, my gaze straying to the food.
That made him chuckle and he gestured toward the food. “Go ahead.” He took off his jacket and folded it up.
When I got up to get the food, he walked over to collect the blankets I had slept in. He’d blanketed me over with his ones after he’d woken up. I was going to shake my head in incredulity when my eyes caught something gleaming in his back pocket.
My eyes widened but I blinked quickly so he wouldn’t notice. I chewed my food in deep thought as I sat cross-legged on the ground.
It didn’t matter how nice he was to me or how surprisingly domesticated he appeared to be, I thought in resolution. The relic didn’t belong to him. I still had to get it back. No matter what.
No matter what.
“When you’re done eating, I’d appreciate it if—whoa!” He fell back as I launched myself onto him.
I grunted as I tried to wrench my arm around toward his back pocket while he tried to push me away.
“Stop it!”
“Give it back!”
We rolled on the ground a few times as I tried to kick the relic loose out of his pocket but he’d clamped down on my arms keeping it out of my reach.
Then somehow he managed to get a foothold and straighten himself up, all the while holding me back with one hand.
“I said give it back!” I screeched, my arms flailing around to try to snatch it with no success.
Finally, he gave me a great big shove away, his hand slamming over his back pocket, and I staggered backward with a scowl and a hiss.
He blinked several times, shaking his head. “You never stop, do you?” he demanded as he heaved. “Man, did I underestimate you.”
“Most people do,” I informed him haughtily, regaining my stance.
Most people a
ssumed I was as harmless as I looked but having been around for so long, tasked to protect an extremely desirable object all alone in the woods, it was necessary to develop and adapt my skills to be able to defend myself. I was a resilient fighter, and as a wizard, I could duel with the best of them.
I wasn’t as naïve as I usually let on. Just sorely out of practice.
I took a deep breath, lifting off the ground ever so slightly, and feeling enough of my energy having returned, I clenched my teeth and summoned the hottest, fiercest geyser funnel I had ever conjured in my ancient existence.
But just as I directed the wrath of my colossal anger at him, the element seemed to splinter upon his figure, as though the torrential streams simply wafted away.
I blinked in surprise, in bewilderment, in absolute utter annoyance. What in the name of Aquarius was going on?
He should be shriveled into a ball on the ground by now, devastated in the vicious ragged steam, begging for mercy, begging for me to end his most painful of torments.
And yet he didn’t even seem to notice that I was trying to curse at him with all the wrath of the enchanted realm.
He merely continued to skulk around the campfire, not looking at me. “Jeez—” he swore under his breath, huffing before packing up the campsite, dousing the fire.
He only met my gaze again after a moment, giving me an expectant prompt. “What?”
I felt my feet touch the ground again. I dropped my arms, dispirited, as I swallowed my rage, scowling even deeper.
Whether I’d been clever or he’d been stupid, I had still failed to reclaim the relic. Now he would be leaving, taking the all-powerful artifact with him.
Never to be returned. A testimony to my failure.
Completely disheartened, I drifted up to the top of a tree.
It was over.
I watched the Great Star continue its ascent up the horizon.
The day had only just begun.
A new day.
I was free…The thought came back to me and I frowned again.
What was I going to do with freedom anyhow? I’d been a fool to ever wish for it. What was I going to do now? Haunt the Southern Forest? Go ice skating after I cleaned up the Lake?
“Would you like to come with me?”
My head snapped down to look at him. He hadn’t spoken. He was still folding up the last blanket. I blinked several times. Had I accidentally attuned myself to his thoughts?
I shook my head to clear it. Regardless. Even if I had possibly sensed that thought from him because of his proximity, it was certainly out of the question.
After a while, I saw him hook a tattered bag onto his shoulder and he looked up at me again.
I averted my gaze but he didn’t say anything more. I just heard him pick up a few more bags. I cast another discreet look down at him. He looked to be debating with himself over something, pausing every so often.
“Listen,” he finally spoke up.
I kept my gaze to the horizon.
“It was really nice to meet you,” he started. “I wanted to say that…I think you did very well despite uh…” He paused. “Anyway, I’d really—appreciate it if you just let me go and take the relic with me.”
“You already have it, don’t you?” I asked, clipped, still not looking at him.
“Yeah but…no hard feelings, right?” he asked, taking on a casual tone. “In case we never see each other again. I didn’t want to leave it like that. I do promise to have the relic returned after I get home. If I can.”
Return it? Hah! Judging from men’s greed, it was hardly likely. I wasn’t going to hold my breath.
“Who knows maybe I might see you around,” he continued, sounding hopeful.
See me around? I thought in ridicule. In all probability, I was going to cease to exist as soon as he took the relic out of the Southern Forest.
When I still didn’t acknowledge him, he simply sighed in exasperation. “Well, I’m gonna go now. Again, I’m really sorry.”
I only glanced back down when I heard him start walking and I straightened up to watch as he walked up to the tree line.
Before he officially left the sphere of the Southern Forest, he paused and glanced back up at me again, way up in the trees.
I stuck my chin up, undaunted, as the wild wind blew, whipping my hair around.
He turned and took the last step.
In that instant, a sharp pain gouged through me as if splitting me into a million pieces.
Chapter Five
“Hey.” Someone was patting my cheek. “Hey, wake up.”
I came to, infinitely drained.
The boy was kneeling before me again.
“What the…?” I mumbled. What was he still doing here? What was I still doing here? I struggled to sit up, squinting in the unfamiliar brightness of the daylight. I looked around and my eyes flew wide open. I was a few steps away from the shade of the Southern Forest. “No—” I panicked and scrambled to get under a tree.
Bad idea.
A feeling of being ripped apart coursed through me as I passed the nearest tree and I collapsed on the grass from the most pain I’d ever felt in a thousand years.
“Hey!” He rushed over to me. “Take it easy.”
“What’s happened? It hurts,” I groaned, still slumped on the ground, unable to move.
“You fell off your tree, remember?” he explained before scooping me up into his arms. “I better get you to a doctor. You may have broken something.”
“Oh no…” I moaned in dread, guessing that what I may have broken was worse than a mere body part.
I was no longer welcome in the Southern Forest.
He, on the other hand, carried me past the tree line again with no effort.
The relic, I realized. The protection of the relic had been transferred to him when it used to belong with me. Used to…
My heart ached at the thought as he carried me away from the Southern Forest, away from my home.
***
Arcain seemed very different up close. In place of the torch lights and faint shadows that I normally saw from the trees, there were wooden houses and small huts with thatched roofs flanking the main road. Colorful paper lanterns had been strung across posts along the path leading all the way to the heart of the village.
A horse-drawn cart rumbled past and I caught a whiff of incense mixed with pungent scents as the animal’s hoofs kicked up the dirt it trod on.
Sharp-eyed folk bustled with purpose about their stacked crates and boxes full of vegetables and dried game for sale while several children ran around shouting.
Everything seemed so alive.
I looked up at the boy as he carried me in his arms. He was wearing a hooded cloak in case some of the soldiers looking for him were still around. His gaze roved around, his chin set in alert, in determination.
Some people passing us by turned back to stare at me. As if they knew I brought misfortune, as if they knew I did not belong, as if they knew me. Undoubtedly, my appearance was an easy giveaway.
I turned my head into the boy’s chest to at least hide my face. I couldn’t discount the chance of my having met some of these people in the woods in the past by accident and it was probably better for everyone if I wasn’t recognized.
We turned onto a narrower path and soon after, we arrived at a quiet house way off the main road. I was certain the seclusion was intentional.
The boy shrugged down his hood before he knocked on the door and an elderly woman opened it.
Her eyes lit up immediately and she smiled. Then she saw me and waved us inside. “You can set her down over here.” She led us to a room in the back and slid the door open.
“Thank you,” the boy said as he laid me down onto one of the mattresses on the floor. He glanced back at the old woman. “She fell out of a tree. Do you think you can check if she needs a doctor?”
I watched him as he spoke, at the same time as he took off his cloak and set down quite a few bags.
<
br /> The old woman came closer to me and examined several joints for a moment before she shook her head. “Nothing broken,” she concluded. “I would say just terribly tired. You say she fell off a tree?”
“A tall one.” He nodded.
She gave me a look. “You’re a very lucky girl then. I’ll go ask Naomi to fix you both something to eat.” She turned and left with a nod.
“Thank you,” the boy called out. He cast me a glance and sighed before he collapsed onto the other mattress and closed his eyes.
I looked around. The room had two mattresses set up on the tatami floor, a low wooden table, and an open slatted window. By the position of the Great Star in the sky, I could tell it was mid-morning.
I shifted on the mattress, wondering who these people were, how they knew the boy, and how he seemed to be so sure that he was safe here. I wanted to ask him these questions but he appeared exhausted.
I bit my lip. I wanted to thank him too. It occurred to me he could have simply left me to die in the Forest. He had already obtained the all-powerful relic. There was no reason for him to waste time with the failed guardian of the realm.
I opened my mouth to speak several times but closed it back in hesitation. I sighed softly and looked away.
“You’re welcome.”
I glanced back at him, surprised.
His eyes were still closed but there was a hint of a smile on his mouth.
I pursed my lips as I settled back onto the mattress, stifling a yawn with my hand. Four thousand three hundred and… I started automatically then blinked.
I had lost count.
I stared at the food that the old woman had brought into the room, in wonder and awe, or possibly just extreme hunger. The table had been set up with wonderful little baskets of steaming hot food. I didn’t recognize what any of it was but the mere smell was making my mouth water.
I’d started to help myself then froze when the boy let out a slight laugh.
“She’s a little hungry,” he explained for me.
“Oh please, help yourselves,” the girl called Naomi spoke up. Her delicate voice reminded me of bells tinkling from the far north. She was a pretty young woman with long black hair braided down her back. I guessed she would have looked like a younger version of the other woman.
The Curse of the Arcadian Stone: Vol. 1 Stolen Oath (Nameless Fay) Page 3
