by Nichelle Rae
The next thing I knew I was being pulled backwards off my horse by my hair and thrown to the ground by what had to be Rabryn’s magic.
Before I could recover, the sound of hooves made me spin onto my opposite shoulder as a stampede of horse legs was about to trample me. Just as I covered my head with my arms, the Redians pulled on the reins so hard the horses reared up on their hind legs. Addredoc desperately held onto Cairikson to keep him from falling off as they guided their distraught horses away from me.
I looked at Rabryn as he stormed towards me, his fair face twisted in such ugly rage that I actually felt afraid of him for a moment. He slapped both hands down onto my chest, taking up a fistful of my shirt, then pulled me straight up and slammed me hard into a tree trunk without my feet even touching the ground.
“Don’t you dare assume you know anything about my sister’s past! I don’t give a damn how angry you are! You know nothing of what her life was like or what she went through! Nothing!”
Some of my own anger threatened to spill forth, and though I was helpless, I still let some go. “It couldn’t have been that bad! Not enough to turn her into that creature I just spoke with up in the mountain. I have my own abusive past to face every day and I manage. My world should have ended when I lived with my brother, but it didn’t. I survived!”
“So has she! She just doesn’t know it yet!” Rabryn growled. Tears formed in his eyes. “I don’t believe what your brother did to you was any worse or better than what was done to Azrel, but I will make you see what she went through! Maybe then you’ll understand and quit bitching about what she’s become.”
He held his hand up next to his face, his palm out towards me. A line of gold spiraling smoke came at me from his hand. I tried to back away from it, but I was caught between Rabryn and the tree. Before the smoke reached me, I saw a tear fall from Rabryn’s eye. “I dare you not to be sick when this is over.”
I felt the smoke seep into my sockets, as if my eyes were drinking in syrup, thick and almost painful. It traveled up into my skull and gathered behind my eyes. I squeezed them shut to try to block out the queer sensation.
When I opened my eyes again, Rabryn was gone and it was dark. I found myself in The Pitt, where a party seemed to be going on. Tents were scattered all over the clearing. There was dancing in the center and campfires scattered over the land. The voices I heard were soft, sounding like they were miles away, and the commotion of the party echoed like a dream.
Suddenly the world flashed away in a blinding gold light. When it was gone, I found myself standing next to a young woman sitting on a log with a little boy on her lap. As I cautiously drew nearer, I saw it was Azrel with Rabryn.
“He just came out of nowhere!” Azrel was saying. “I couldn’t believe it!”
Rabryn laughed. He was so small I had a hard time linking the little human boy in front of me to the brave adult Salynn I’d seen a moment ago. “But you beat him, right?”
Azrel held her chin high, “Of course I did.” Then they both laughed together as Azrel started tickling his stomach.
“I love you, Azrel,” Rabryn said as he threw his arms around her neck.
“I love you too, little brother,” she replied, embracing him. Her voice got sad. “You make life here worth living.”
He pulled away, keeping his hands clasped behind her neck. “You’ll be happy here, won’t you Azrel?”
She smiled softly at him and brushed some of his brown curls out of his face. “As long as I have you to love me, you bet I will.”
Rabryn hugged her again. “I’ll always love you.”
Suddenly the scene flashed gold again. When it disappeared I found myself in one of the tents. At my feet Azrel and Rabryn were cuddled up next to each other, fast asleep. Someone else was in the tent though. I squinted and realized that three females were at Azrel’s head, each of them holding a huge chunk of Azrel’s long hair…and a razor blade.
I sucked in air and ran to stop them, but they hacked the three clumps of her hair off before I could reach them. I dropped to my knees and looked on in horror as the three girls sprinkled Azrel’s cut hair over her face while she slept. Azrel sat up with a gasp and started peeling away chunks of her hair from her face. The three girls ran out of the tent, laughing hysterically. Azrel trembled as she pulled at the short, uneven ends of what was left of her hair.
Rabryn awoke. He took one look at Azrel and started crying. “Azrel what…what happen to your hair?” He wailed. Azrel just grabbed him and pulled him into a tight embrace.
Another gold flash.
A new scene was before me and I stood up, looking around. It was a grey day and Azrel was in front of me. Her hair had been evened out and grown in some, but it was still short. She was standing in the middle of a circle of girls and Rabryn was in front of her, his back pressed into the front of her legs. She held his shoulders protectively as she stared at the surrounding group.
“Let Rabryn go home, then do what you want with me,” she said.
A young woman who seemed to be in charge looked down at a little girl beside her who was about Rabryn’s age. “What do you think, Cluna? Should we let him go?” Azrel’s face turned red. She seemed to be gearing up for a fight if they didn’t let him go.
The girl looked from Rabryn to Azrel, then back to Rabryn. “Fine.”
Azrel pressed her lips together, then got down to Rabryn’s eye level. “Rabryn, I want you to go home right now.”
Tears streamed from Rabryn’s eyes, but there was also a look of determination on his face. “I won’t leave you!”
“Rabryn, do as I say. Go home and…”
Suddenly the young woman who had spoken to Cluna brought the end of her broomstick crashing down into the back of Azrel’s skull, slamming her face into the ground. I started shaking so badly I couldn’t even stand on my feet anymore. The entire group closed in and beat Azrel all over with broomsticks. I clutched my stomach as I watched blood stream from of her mouth. A broomstick crashed into the side of her eye and then into her cheek as she lay on the ground.
Why didn’t she fight back? I wanted to strangle her for just lying there and taking this beating! She could have taken all of them on, and I knew it! Take out that sword at your side, I wanted to scream.
Above the commotion I heard Rabryn’s young screams from somewhere outside the mob. “No! Please don’t hurt her anymore! Please! She’s my sister! Azrel! Azrel come home with me!”
Flash!
Another scene filled my sight. It was dark again, but by the moonlight I could see the wounds visible all over Azrel’s face. Three girls were gripping her arms, which were held behind her back, and another girl was gripping Azrel’s hair as they roughly led her forward. Azrel’s face was expressionless.
Suddenly I realized that Azrel’s hair fell just to her shoulders now! Time had passed, which meant that these horrific wounds on her face were brand new! She had endured another beating of the same magnitude! I felt my stomach lurch. Her lip was cut in three places, blood trickled out of both her nostrils, and her face was swollen and bruised.
Flash!
I was inside a cow stable. Azrel was forced to the edge of the upper loft, then tossed off the platform. She plummeted down into a pile of manure. I pressed my hand to my mouth, feeling my breakfast threaten to come up. While Azrel tried to pull herself out of that mess, the girls shoveled more manure on top of her and made cow noises at her, yelling out things like, “Stupid heifer!” and “How do you like this, you piece of trash!”
Azrel finally emerged from the mess, her eyes wide as she stared at the girls. I knew that look. She was ready to fight! It was about time! But she didn’t move. Even as the girls began to throw bales of hay at her, covering her in straw which stuck to her, she didn’t attack.
Sobs from the corner of the barn caught everyone’s attention. Out stepped Rabryn from the shadows. The moonlight from a high window illuminated his tearstained face and the loaded bow in his hands. He looked
about thirteen now.
“Get away from my sister!” he said through his clenched teeth. He pulled the bowstring back farther. “I’ll kill you, Cluna! I swear to all the Gods I will!”
“Rabryn!” Azrel called in a commanding tone. I looked back at her as she stepped out of the manure. “Put it down.”
Rabryn started crying heavily. “I don’t want them to hurt you anymore!”
“Killing someone isn’t going to solve anything. Now put it down!”
Rabryn closed his eyes, tears spilling from the corners as he slowly and reluctantly lowered his weapon. Cluna suddenly stormed towards Rabryn with her palm raised for a hard slap. Azrel darted forward and grabbed the girl’s wrist just as she swung.
The two glared at each other, Azrel looking like a sister scolding her young sibling, before she shoved the young girl towards the group of older women (who, for some reason, were following the orders of this prepubescent little whore,) stepping between them and her brother.
“Do what you want to me,” Azrel said, “but don’t ever, ever touch my brother!”
Cluna sneered at Azrel. “Let’s go, girls. It reeks in here.” They all turned and left out the back way.
Flash!
It was daytime and Azrel was in the stream washing off manure. Rabryn, who was sitting on a rock with his back to her, looked a little older. Azrel had been thrown into manure again! He was looking down at the ground as he spun his bow against his palms and the ground. I heard those hateful mooing sounds and insults again and turned around. The same group of girls stood nearby. They couldn’t even leave her alone while she tried wash off the filth they’d thrown her into!
Flash!
Azrel was walking up some stairs onto a wooden stage, the surrounding crowd clapping and smiling for her, but the smiles were more transparent then glass. Rabryn, who looked about fifteen now, was standing next a beautiful woman in the front row. Both of them were clapping for Azrel as she headed up to the podium, unsmiling.
Flash!
The next thing I saw was a bucket of bloody animal entrails being dumped over Azrel’s head. The entire crowd was rolling on the ground, clutching their stomachs as they laughed. Rabryn was screaming in agony, tears filling his eyes. Then he and a woman, who I guessed was Priweth, their mother, ran up onto the stage. Priweth held her stunned, blood-soaked daughter in her arms. Both she and Rabryn cried while Azrel stared, blankly, into nowhere.
Flash!
Another scene filled my eyes and I finally dropped to my knees. I couldn’t handle this anymore. I already felt sick, I already felt guilty. I wanted to go hold her and tell her how sorry I was that I hadn’t been there for her when she needed me the most! I wanted to tell her I loved her and how much I missed her the years we were apart. I didn’t want to see what was going to happen now. I didn’t want to see my Azrel in such pain and agony, such humiliation! Tears were in my eyes already and I had to force my gaze to the scene, knowing Rabryn would keep torturing me with this if I didn’t.
It was dark, but the moon revealed Azrel up against a wooden pole, her arms tied mercilessly behind her back. The same group of girls was standing in front of her, and Cluna held what looked like a piece of birthday cake.
“Happy Birthday, Azrel. How old are you again?”
Azrel was silent.
Cluna punched her in the jaw. “I asked you a question, you ugly demon spawn, and I want an answer!”
Azrel stayed silent.
Cluna gritted her teeth and shoved the cake into Azrel’s face so hard that her nose started to bleed. I moaned in agony and tried not to sob.
A sickly sweet smile came over Cluna’s face. “I personally don’t care how old you are, but I’m sure you’re in your late twenties, aren’t you? Well, we find that interesting because”—she brought her face close to Azrel’s and gently rested her knuckles against her cheek in a loving caress—“here you are, an old hag.” Cluna then slowly licked the crushed cake off of Azrel’s upper lip, getting a portion of Azrel’s blood on her tongue, and swallowed it. “Yet you haven’t aged a day since you arrived.”
Cluna pressed herself close to Azrel and caressed Azrel’s breast, then suddenly twisted her nipple so hard that Azrel threw her head back and cried out in pain. “See,” Cluna purred, “We think you’ve cast some spell to make yourself youthful forever.” Cluna brushed her lips over Azrel’s and looked seductively over her face and lips. “Is that true?” When Azrel stayed silent, Cluna looked into her eyes for a moment, then took Azrel’s bottom lip into hers, dragging her teeth over it, and bit down hard. Azrel screamed in pain. Only after blood was pouring out of Azrel’s mouth did Cluna back away, and evilly lick her own lips, taking Azrel’s blood into her mouth again. Cluna finally pushed herself away and went back to the group, taking a lighted stick from another girl.
No. They weren’t about to do what I thought they were going to do.
“We don’t like evil sorcerers in our land. Do you know what we do with them?” Cluna asked. When Azrel didn’t answer, Cluna smirked as she began lighting a fire under her.
I wanted to kill this girl for doing this to my Azrel! How could someone be so evil? I screamed when Azrel’s toes caught on fire. I couldn’t stand it! I couldn’t! I ran to her and tried to beat the fire out, but my hands passed right through it! I couldn’t help her! My hands were going through the fire that was burning her skin!
Suddenly a pail of water went through me and extinguished the fire. I spun around to see Rabryn drop the bucket and then dart behind the pole. He began untying Azrel, who hadn’t even twitched a brow. The woman, Priweth, was in tears, kneeling at my side. She looked so different now. She was much thinner and her hair hung limp and dead. She looked like a shriveling flower. She must have been ill by this point.
Azrel finally slid off the pole. As soon as her blistered and bleeding feet touched the ground, she fell forward into her mother’s arms that, surprisingly, were able to catch her. I bawled as I watched a dying Priweth hold her injured daughter so tenderly. Azrel’s face was blank as she stared off into nothing with her cheek pressed into her mother’s shoulder. Rabryn was behind Azrel, pressing his face into her back, as he held both women and cried.
Priweth looked up at the scowling group of women. “I’ve already lost my husband! Would you have me suffer more and take my daughter from me as well?”
“We had good reasons for this burning at the stake! Your daughter doesn’t age, Priweth! How do you explain that?”
Rabryn was suddenly on his feet, storming towards her. He brought his fist back and . . . Yes! Do it! My mind screamed. Break her damn face!
“Rabryn, stop!” Azrel’s commanding voice echoed into the night so forcefully it made both me and Rabryn jump. He stopped and turned to face her. With her chin pressed into her mother’s shoulder, she scowled at Rabryn. “I know you better than that,” she said firmly. “My brother doesn’t hit women. You’re above that, Rabryn!”
Rabryn’s temper seemed to cool significantly. He slowly unclenched his fist and let his arm fall to his side. As he turned back to Cluna to say something, the stick she used to light the fire came up and smashed him across the face. His head snapped to the side and he staggered away from her, holding his hand over his cheek.
“That’s for threatening me!” she screamed.
I turned to Azrel, already knowing what I was going to see. Sure enough that stare, the one that signaled no return, was on her face as she looked at Cluna.
Finally! I wanted to yell.
Azrel pushed away from her mother and stood, despite her injured feet. She staggered towards Cluna, who looked terrified at last as she backed up into a short arthol tree.
“What are you looking at?” Cluna asked. She was trying to sound brave, but her shaking was apparent.
Azrel brought her wide eyes and bared teeth directly in front of the quivering girl. “What did I tell you about touching my brother?” she hissed through clenched teeth.
Cluna took in a
few rapid breaths and then in a last attempt of bravado she shoved Azrel hard away from her. “Get out of my face!”
Azrel fist shot out as fast as lightning would strike, then the thunder of Cluna’s jaw and cheekbone getting smashed into dust followed immediately after. A shower of blood rained out of her mouth and nose. Cluna lay on her side on the ground looking up at Azrel, stunned, while blood soaked the front of her dress. Azrel drew her sword and moved behind Cluna, taking up a fistful of her hair. She pulled the girl up and jerked her head back forcing her to look up into Azrel’s eyes as she placed the edge of her blade against Cluna’s throat.
“I told you, you do what you want to me, but don’t ever touch my brother!” She slashed her sword across Cluna’s skin as if she were slitting her throat, but left only a shallow gash that bled like a small razor cut. Only Azrel was that skilled with a blade. “If you or any of your group ever comes near me or my family again, I will kill you.” She jerked Cluna’s hair for emphasis. “Do you understand me?” Without waiting for an answer, she released Cluna. All the girls took off running, Cluna clutching her throat.
Azrel’s strength gave out and her knees buckled under her. Rabryn caught her before she hit the ground. He held her in his arms as he slowly lowered her. In tears, he asked Azrel if she was okay. Priweth crawled over to her two children and embraced them both, rocking them slowly back and forth. Tears were running down my face for her, for all three of them. I started sobbing like newborn when I heard what Azrel said next.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“For what, darling? This wasn’t your fault.” Priweth said.
“I’m sorry for what I am. I’m sorry for this pain it has caused you both.” Priweth only held her daughter closer and cried in Azrel’s hair. Rabryn looked a little confused and I realized that he didn’t know what Azrel’s sword was—the sword that caused this irrational hatred The Pitt had for her, the sword that Azrel blamed for everything. I understood now why she blamed it for every misfortune in her life.
I sensed the syrupy thickness of Rabryn’s magic being pulled from my eyes. It felt for a moment like I might lose my very eyeballs, but the sensation faded and Rabryn’s tear-stained, angry face was before me again.
