Resounding Echo

by Michelle Louring

from under him. The thug fell to the ground and impaled himself on his own sword, a strangled scream dying in his throat.

  One of the others let out a roar of rage, before slashing at her with a long knife. He received a kick in the stomach for his troubles and went flying into one of his comrades.

  That left four. The others had clearly figured out by now that they should start taking her seriously. They went at her at the same time, weapons drawn. She managed to dodge the first hit, but the second got through her guard and slashed her arm. A third hit her in the jaw with a punch and she heard her bones make a disgusting, creaking sound, as she staggered and fell to the ground.

  The thugs laughed and spit on the ground next to her. “Not so tough now, are we?” One of them gloated. She tried to get up, but one of them immediately kicked her down again.

  ‘Let me help you.’ Selissa sneered angrily.

  ‘I don’t want your help.’ It would be so easy to finish off those lowlifes. Just a small amount of power, and she would be able to blow them into bits. But she was done with him. She didn’t want anything to do with him or his power.

  The energy flowed through her, begging for her to release it. She clenched her teeth stubbornly and refused, even as the thugs continued kicking her. One of them raised his sword to strike, and she braced herself.

  Thud. The thug fell to the ground unconscious, his sword clattering to the ground beside him. The others turned in shock, momentarily forgetting Selissa.

  “Don’t you think it’s a little unfair to gang up on a woman?” Her eyes widened in shock. She recognized that voice.

  She looked up to see Ardeth sitting casually on a roof top. She didn’t know what he had thrown, but she suspected it was something that was normally supposed to stay a part of the skeleton.

  “Do you want to die, punk?!” One of the men shouted furiously. Ardeth merely grinned.

  “As if you could kill me.” He said grinning.

  33

  With a speed that shouldn’t have been humanly possible, he ripped out a long, sharp bone from his arm and chucked it at the nearest man. It hit its target square in the throat and the thug fell lifelessly to the ground. Selissa scrambled away when the man landed next to her, bone sticking out of his neck.

  Ardeth jumped down from the wall effortlessly and landed gracefully barely ten feet away from the other men. He had barely straightened from his kneeling position, before the other men were over him.

  And barely had the thugs moved, before the first one went sailing through the air. A long bone was sticking out of his stomach.

  The action stunned them long enough for Ardeth to take out the last one with a kick in the face. A sickly, crunching noise told her that it had broken his nose.

  The two men Selissa had knocked of their feet earlier had recovered and were now trying to surround him. They went at him from both sides, trying to outnumber him.

  They didn’t even stand a chance. He fought like it took no effort at all. He moved out of their way too fast for even a single swing or kick to hit him.

  In no time at all, they were both lying on the ground, unable to move. She watched petrified, as Ardeth slowly walked closer to them. From his palms slid two long bones and she had an unpleasant feeling she knew what he was going to do.

  He stopped next to the two men and ripped the bones from his hands. She clenched her eyes shut as he plunged the bones into their chests, but that didn’t prevent her from hearing the slashing sound as they went through the flesh. Horrible screams rung through the air, but died out within seconds.

  She opened her eyes slowly to view the carnage around her. Bloodied bodies were lying all around her, and Ardeth was standing casually in the middle of it all, as if he was just taking a stroll through the area. He looked at her, like he suddenly remembered she was there.

  “Are you alright?” He asked calmly, like he hadn’t just slaughtered six people.

  She stared at him incredulously, before opening her mouth to spit out some scathing reply. Instead she got a blinding pain in her jaw. She felt the metallic taste of blood in her mouth as she tried to get the words past her lips. She cradled her jaw gently, but kept her eyes on Ardeth.

  He knelt down next to her and looked at her curiously. She froze in fear, when he touched her jaw gently. All she could do was stare mutely at him as he looked at her thoughtfully.

  “I think it’s dislocated…” He said slowly as if it was utterly fascinating to him. “I never have that problem…”

  She tried to wrap her head around the bizarre situation. He was fascinated by her bone structure?

  She tried to back away from him, but a sharp pain shot through her ribs. One of them must have cracked when the thugs were kicking her.

  She stumbled back, clutching her ribcage in pain. Ardeth was watching her calmly.

  “You won’t be able to walk like that…” He said and stood. She tensed and watched him warily. What was he going to do to her?

  He bent down and to her surprise wrapped his arms around her and picked her up. She hissed slightly in pain as she had to move her ribcage, but the pain was nothing against the fear she felt.

  Despite the searing pain, she started to struggle, but his grip didn’t loosen. He leaned closer to her and whispered softly in her ear. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

  She didn’t know why, but she relaxed at the sound of those words. She had absolutely no reason to trust him, and somehow she still knew he wasn’t lying.

  He started walking, carrying her like she weighted nothing. His pony-tail fell over his shoulder and tickled her face, but he didn’t seem to notice.

  “Why are you doing this?” She managed to get out, despite the pain in her jaw.

  He looked at her confused. “Doing what?” He asked.

  “Helping me...” She said. He looked at her thoughtfully.

  “Do I need a reason?” He finally asked.

  “Yes.” She said simply. She could feel the rumble that went through his chest as he laughed quietly. He didn’t answer her.

  She faintly noticed that they had entered the main street. She heard stunned whispers break out all around them as they passed by.

  Despite herself she laughed at the absurdity of it all. A tall man, bearing the Mark of the Cursed, carrying an injured woman, both covered from head to toe in blood. What a sight they had to make.

  Ardeth didn’t seem to care about all the people staring, because he walked on like everything was completely normal. To him, it most likely was.

  She barely noticed them arriving at the town’s clinic, before Ardeth kicked the door open. He walked in, ignoring the protests of the nurse.

  “She needs medical treatment.” He said simply. Selissa actually snorted in amusement. From all the blood, it would probably seem a little obvious.

  The nurse was just about to start protesting again, when he sent her a long look. That was all it took for the woman to be quiet and lead them to an empty room.

  He put her down on the empty bed and the nurse immediately started checking her injuries.

  Selissa turned to look at her, as she started to ask a string of questions. When she looked up again, Ardeth was gone.

  34

  She stayed in the infirmary for almost three days, but didn’t see or hear anything from Ardeth. The nurse who had greeted them had asked a lot of questions about the blood-covered man who had brought her in, but she had told her she didn’t know him. If she had explained the real relationship between them, she would probably have sent her to the asylum instead.

  Elias had come to visit her, and she had given him a very mild version of what happened. The old man was already worried enough as it was, he didn’t have to know about the massacre that had taken place.

  The little town had no healers, so she had to recover naturally. After less than a day, she had gotten restless. The sterile room with pure, white walls in the infirmary made her uneasy, and she was not fond of being confine
d to a bed.

  The doctor had finally told her she could leave and she couldn’t get out fast enough.

  Elias had been kind enough to bring her some clean clothes, and she threw them on before leaving the clinic in a rush.

  The fresh air smelled wonderful after the antiseptic smell inside. Despite the fact that her ribs still hurt, she breathed in deeply and filled her lungs. Her dreary mood lifted a bit, and she decided to stay in town for a while to enjoy being free to go outside again. She was badly in need of some new clothes anyway, since she seemed to have developed a habit of getting them ruined.

  Thanks to Elias letting her stay for free, she still had some money saved up, so she could afford spending some on refreshing her very lacking wardrobe.

  She ignored the sellers’ odd looks when she requested men’s clothes. They would not wonder as much if they had tried fighting in a skirt.

  A few hours went by before she decided to make her way back. She had managed to fill an entire bag with clothes and she silently prayed that she would be able to keep those from being shredded to pieces.

  The afternoon sun was casting long shadows over the town and the first vendors were beginning to pack up their goods.

  It didn’t take her long to get to the inn and she entered the dark lit room, where the first customers had slowly started arriving.

  She couldn’t see Elias anywhere, so she went upstairs to her room. She fumbled after her key and finally managed to locate it, before unlocking the door.

  Opening the door, she fully expected to see her room