by Zen DiPietro
“I’m afraid I need some rest.” She gave Arc an apologetic smile.
“You and everybody else around here.” He smiled ruefully, but with good nature.
She made a mental note to herself to make sure to give him her undivided attention in the morning. She really liked Arc, and didn’t want him to be lonely.
Settled into the privacy of her own tent, Izzy tried to relax her mind. Her senses were too raw to allow sleep, but at least she could savor the sensation of stillness, after so much time being jostled about in the cart. She wrapped that small solace around her like a blanket, using it as a focus for peaceful meditation.
Comfortable within the deliberate confines of her fortified mind, she rested. Something brushed against her senses and she shoved it away, only to open her eyes and yank the sensation back for intense scrutiny. She sucked in a breath and dove for the opening of her tent when she comprehended her perception.
“Everyone out!” she cried. “We’re under attack!”
Arc grabbed his longbow and burst out of his tent. The shiv and Will already stood outside their tents, each wielding a blade. Luc stalked to the fire ring at the center of camp with some items in his hands and gazed into the distance.
The perimeter sensors began to shrill on the west side of the camp and Izzy Gin joined Luc in the center of the camp. Arc joined the shiv and Will on the west side, just beyond the tents. Arc didn’t like leaving Luc and Izzy Gin so far behind them, but there was no alternative. He only hoped the manahi could protect them both if it became necessary.
Arc nocked an arrow and drew the bowstring to his cheek. He kept his breath slow and even as he waited, listening.
“Don’t hesitate,” Izzy Gin called into the cold silence. “They’re not here to talk. They mean to kill us.”
Arc tracked a sound in the dark and released the bowstring with barely a movement. By the time a soft thud followed by a heavier impact reached him, he already had another arrow ready to fly. His well-trained ears sought the next target.
Will and the shiv flanked each other as they stepped further away from the tents, toward the sound of activity in the darkness. Will wielded a long blade in one hand while grasping the hold strap of the shield he wore on the other arm. The justice had no shield, apparently preferring a long, two-handed sword. Arc had seen the hilt of the sword among the justice’s gear, but seeing it now unsheathed, he was impressed by its massive, deadly beauty.
As Arc stepped far to the side to give him a clear shot without endangering his comrades, the shiv sliced across one large form that lurched out of the darkness toward the camp. He followed the sword’s momentum by pivoting to thrust it backward into another opponent in one smooth motion.
Two goons in one whack, Arc thought as he nocked another arrow. Nicely done, Justice. Seeing a shiv in action was such a novelty to him even the current situation failed to tame his appreciation.
Arc saw Will twist sideways and shove his shoulder into something, throwing it off balance. As it stumbled, he pierced his sword straight through it. Arc opened his eyes wider in an attempt to better see their attackers, but the lack of light prevented a clear view. Arc only discerned hulking, awkwardly moving forms. Though he was grateful for the little bit of light the fire gave them, he wished they had a whole lot more of it. Fortunately, he could hit a moving target blindfolded. He strained his ears for movement and every time he heard it, he let go of another arrow.
Arc couldn’t imagine what they were fighting. But even in the midst of the battle, Arc knew whatever it was he and the other four had been looking, it had found them first.
“Will!” Luc barked. The man stood between two tents, holding something between his hands. Will barely managed to throw himself aside as Luc hurled it right at them. The projectile burst into flames and scorched a path away from the camp, taking out three more of their assailants.
Will heard another body drop nearby after the thwack of an arrow. Luc hurled another fireball and as it screamed by, it briefly illuminated their fallen foe with its fiery glow. Will sucked in a breath. He tried to make sense of the twisted features and body. They were more human-like in size and form than he’d expected, but horrifically inhuman all the same.
One of the creature’s eyes bulged out of its socket while the other was obscured by a mound of mangled and partially-healed flesh. All of its other features were likewise distorted, twisted, and just nauseatingly wrong. One arm was longer than the other and its spine seemed to curve severely. However, it seemed almost as tall as Will, with a bulkiness that might lend some serious strength. If the thing weren’t already dead.
He saw all of this in less than three seconds, and when the view ended, he questioned if he’d really seen what he’d thought he’d seen.
Will moved away from the body. He didn’t have time to think about it. If he needed to, he’d find time to be horrified and disgusted by the thing later, when a bunch of its friends weren’t busy trying to kill his own friends.
He and the shiv methodically moved through the melee, slicing, dodging, and thrusting. Rhythmic twangs and thumps punctuated Arc’s bow fire. Periodically, a sphere of flames blazed by. Will lost track of time. He measured its passage only in impalements, arrows, and fireballs.
Eventually, the onslaught began to ebb. Then Will felt something wing his cheek and slice past his shoulder. Some sort of ranged weapon, he instantly knew. He wasn’t injured, but he’d been an inch or two away from major damage. Possibly death.
Abandoning formation with the shiv, Will rushed forward, seeking the source of the attack. One opponent with a ranged weapon could take out an entire squadron at distance. He had to eliminate the threat before one of his own was struck.
Will didn’t count the number of bodies that fell as he closed the distance between here and there. He abandoned intentional thought and relaxed into instinct. The source of the ranged weapon became the focus of his existence. As his feet thundered toward his goal, nothing mattered but protecting his friends.
Arc saw the shiv pull back toward the camp to provide protection to him and the others when Will had pressed forward. The justice dispatched two creatures that lurched into the camp with vicious slashes of his sword.
Arm still held high, the shiv abruptly dropped the weapon and twisted around. Arc didn’t even have time to wonder what was happening before the justice had already launched himself across the space between himself and Arc. Arc felt the full weight of the shiv’s body collide into him with the force of a monorail at full speed, even as an iron arm wrapped around his waist and pulled him down. Time seemed to slow during the long fall to the ground.
The impact of the shiv’s body crashing into him continued to reverberate through him. Arc’s body seized with shock charges and chaotic sensations. He must have been hit, he thought, but he hadn’t felt the blow. His bow tumbled free of his hand as he struggled for breath. He heard an impact, a guttural sound, and a gasp just as the ground broke his fall with a jarring lack of sympathy.
“Are you okay?” Arc hit the ground hard and didn’t pause. He scrambled toward the shiv, who had also landed hard but failed to roll and recover his feet. He reached for the shiv’s arm.
Arc’s fingers had no more than grazed the shiv when a shuddering sensation coursed through his body. A hot agony of pain ripped into his side.
Arc yanked his arm back and pressed his hand to his abdomen. He searched for a wound but found none.
The shiv rolled over to his knees and staggered up from the ground.
Arc stepped forward to help, but the justice flung out a hand in a “stop” gesture. He stepped away slowly and bent to grab the hilt of his sword with one hand. His other hand pressed into his side.
Out in the darkness, a cry was cut short and the projectiles stopped raining down on them.
Izzy Gin whispered int
o the night air, which was suddenly screaming with eerie quiet. “That’s all of them.” Arc hadn’t even been aware of her approach. She pressed a hand to her mouth as she watched the shiv’s slow progress toward his tent. Arc didn’t know what she sensed, but he was sure it was a whole lot of bad.
Arc retrieved his bow just as Will emerged from the darkness. They all stood transfixed, watching the shiv trudge to his tent with halting steps. The sharp point of his sword carved a shallow furrow into the dirt as he dragged it behind him.
“Shiv, are you—?” Arc began. The shiv cut him off with another “stop” gesture, then disappeared into his tent.
They all stared after him. “Should we . . . ?” Arc trailed off. He wasn’t even sure what to suggest doing.
Izzy Gin shook her head. Her teeth dug into her bottom lip. “Nothing right now. We must wait.” She stared at the shiv’s tent. “You all tend yourselves and rest. I’ll keep watch.”
Arc wasn’t sure if she meant keeping watch over the shiv or over the camp, but he sensed he shouldn’t question the reader at this point. For someone who spent her life detecting the emotions of others, the woman was damn good at turning that around and broadcasting her own.
Luc gave a short nod of agreement with Izzy Gin’s pronouncement. “You two fellows check yourselves carefully for injuries. If you find anything that needs attention, I can help.” He glanced toward the fallen bodies of the creatures that had attacked them. “I’ll clean up before I retire.”
Arc’s instinct was to argue with both of them. He felt they should assist the shiv with his injury and he felt he should help Luc clean up. But it wasn’t his place to interfere. Everyone was already doing the jobs they were supposed to do. He ignored his instincts and stepped into his tent.
Settled near the fire with her senses wide open, Izzy noted that it took Luc an hour to deal with all the bodies. Apparently, a little chemical tinder and a little mana made for a good cremation device.
She spent the time trying to block out the pain she felt emanating from the shiv. She stared into the fire. Arc was an old pro with them, but using a fire for warmth was new to her. He had taught her how to spread the chemical tinder and light it with a sparker. She marveled that such a tiny amount of chemical could create a large fire that burned for many hours.
After he’d handled the bodies, Luc walked the perimeter of their encampment. Izzy wondered whether he was doing something to protect them or to detect danger. Maybe he was even doing both. She recognized the irony in the fact that they both preferred to ply their talents without explanation. She elected to keep her curiosity to herself, to prevent her curiosity from inspiring his.
When his work was done, Luc finally returned to the fire. Standing close to Izzy, he questioned softly, “Are you sure? I’m no doctor but I can help.” His gaze flicked to the shiv’s tent.
“I was sure,” she whispered back. She bit her lip. “It’s serious. Rapidly worsening. But . . .” She followed his gaze, hesitated, then shook her head. “We can’t. It’s violently unwanted.”
Luc’s lips tightened to a firm line. “If the situation becomes desperate, come get me anyway. I’ll deal with the consequences. A dead shiv will do us no good.”
After Luc entered his tent, Izzy drew her blanket more tightly around her. With the rest of them tucked into their tents, she was alone with the agony radiating from the shiv’s tent. The few hours until sunrise would be very long ones.
Not an hour into her lone vigil, Izzy twisted around to see Arc bursting out of his tent. Emotional upheaval and determination rolled off him like a windstorm. Without even glancing toward Izzy, he marched to the shiv’s tent.
Izzy scrambled to her feet and managed to intercept him before he got a hand on the flap.
“You can’t.” She stood between him and the tent.
“How can you ignore the pain? You must feel it.”
“Are you kidding me? All I can think about every second is how much I feel it. But it has nothing to do with you right now.”
“Nothing to do with me? Now who’s kidding who?” he snapped. “It has to stop.” He put his hands on her shoulders and reversed their positions. He forced his way into the tent and snapped it shut behind him.
“Well good luck with that,” she muttered to herself. “I’ll be out here hoping both of you aren’t dead shortly. And by the way, it’s ‘whom,’ not ‘who.’”
Inside the tent, the metallic tang of fresh blood perfumed the air. A small light illuminated the bedroll. As Arc stepped forward, the deep breath he’d taken evaporated from his lungs. He was left without air and without a single conscious thought.
The shiv was stripped bare to the waist. Pale skin glowed under the mana lamp. Ragged flesh oozed blood from the lower left side of the abdomen into the already soaked blankets. Arc knew from experience he was looking at a through-and-through shot from a crossbow bolt. He’d only seen it once before, but this one was just as ugly. Maybe even worse.
As stunning as the wound was, Arc found himself staggered by a bigger revelation. The shiv’s chest was not broad and flat as he’d expected. Instead, he saw . . . well. Just about the last thing he’d expected to. He yanked his gaze up to the long, unruly red hair that formed a nimbus around a pale but beautiful face. Arc’s dumbfounded mind failed to connect his expectations to the presence of this woman until his gaze locked with a pair of large, sapphire-blue eyes.
“This whole time, you’ve been . . .?”
“Within my rights to kill you for violating my privacy,” she hissed, but her blood loss drained all of the venom from her voice.
“Okay, you’ve got me there. But since I’m already here, doesn’t it make more sense for me to try to prevent you from bleeding to death? Later, we can discuss the killing me thing.”
Ignoring the shiv’s glare, he knelt and examined the wound.
“That’s no ordinary crossbow bolt you took.” He noticed the sheen of sweat on her forehead and resisted the impulse to smooth it away. “It was serrated, and particularly nasty. It was made to cause maximum damage, and it did. This bleeding isn’t going to stop without help. Every time you move, the jagged edges of the wound pull apart and rub each other. It doesn’t matter how much bedding you press against it.” He gestured at the soaked blanket. “I’ll get Luc to come see what he can do. You had to know this wasn’t going to heal without help.” With a gentle touch, he pressed the opposite side of her abdomen to check for internal bleeding.
As the pads of his fingers grazed her skin, intense tingling reverberated through his arms and culminated in a jolt that would have dropped him to his knees if he hadn’t already been there. Energy surged up his hand and through his body. His eardrums roared with the influx of force. He felt his body sway under the thrum of power and he instinctively knew she experienced the same thing.
“What . . .” he managed to say. His brain told his arm to pull the hand back but none of his parts seemed to belong to him at the moment.
The hand touching her grew so hot he thought it might burn her skin. A sensation of growing, reaching, and connecting battered him in waves that grew increasingly intense. As he looked at his hand on her blood-streaked flesh, he saw the edges of her wound begin to knit together. He felt the cascading ribbons of power and pain curling into themselves, making order from the chaos.
He could only stare as the wound squirmed. Tiny flags of skin reached for one another across the expanse of raw openness, managing to touch and draw closer. Her skin closed in on itself, bridging the gap, forming a seal, and making her whole. Minute ripples stretched and spread, finally smoothing out, until only rough red lines spanned her skin.
The intensity of the energy plummeted and ebbed. He felt her pain do the same. He grappled with his mind and overwhelmed body, trying to reconnect the two to create a meaningful string of words.
/> She drew in a ragged breath. He wondered whether she would first tell him her name or thank him for helping.
“You’re a manahi!” she accused. “You healed me!” Her outrage put a flush on her pale cheeks.
“You’re welcome.” He ran the hand not smeared with her blood through his hair. “But you know I’m not a manahi. I have no idea what just happened. I really, really wish I did.”
She pressed her face into her palm. His mind filled with questions about who she was. He touched her cheek without meaning to. When his skin brushed hers, he again felt the tingle he now knew to associate with her.
“I keep feeling that when you’re near,” he told her softly. “What is it?”
He knew he shouldn’t have touched her. She was still a justice, no matter what had just happened. He only hoped she’d choose talking to him over kicking his ass.
She dropped her hand. She wanted to look away from him but failed. Her failure to control her reaction pissed her off. She knew he was seeing her now. As a person, not just as a shiv. And what he’d just done . . . The air surrounding her seemed too thick to pull into her lungs.
“There’s an energy, some force working between us. You have no idea why?” His voice was gentle.
She cleaved her gaze from his and tried to force a cold distance between them. She stared across the tent, but her eyes drifted back in his direction.
He looked steadily back at her. “What’s your name?”
