Steel Maiden

by Kim Richardson

  He made a sign over the left side of his chest and then kneeled beside me until I could smell his hot, stale breath. The tip of his curled dagger pointed at my right eye.

  I couldn’t blink my tears away. My eyelids were frozen, and I stared out into the black sky. Stars peered through gaps in the trees. They were so beautiful. It was almost calming.

  I realized that I would never experience childbirth. I would never love a child unconditionally, protect it, and have a family of my very own. I had never really thought about it before. That deep, throbbing pain of that one thought alone was terrifying.

  I knew I was dying when the world around me began to melt like ice cream on a hot summer day.

  I cried as the trees melted. I cried as the stars melted into blots of white ink in the sky. I cried when I thought of the terrible things he’d do to Torak when I was gone. I cried when the masked man’s face started melting.

  “I can see by the fear in your eyes that you’ve started to hallucinate,” said the man.

  His voice seemed far away.

  “Soon you will not be able to tell the difference between reality and the demons in your mind. The poison will melt your brain inside your skull. It will be excruciating. And you won’t even be able to scream.”

  CHAPTER 14

  I STARED INTO THE masked face of death. If the poison didn’t melt my brain like he’d said, then surely he would finish the job.

  The tip of his blade dangled in front of my eyes. It was coming. Death was coming.

  And when I’d convinced myself to let go, that I was ready to die, that I was going to die, something stirred inside me.

  My body shook on its own accord. Was this the poison’s doing?

  I watched helplessly as the masked man moved his blade away from my eye.

  He rolled up his sleeve and sliced his forearm with his dagger.

  “I believe in the one true God, the creator of all things. Soul of the one true God, make me holy, be my salvation. Purify me. Wash me clean of my sins, strengthen me, hear my prayer.”

  Blood trickled to the ground as he cut himself again.

  “Defend me from the evil enemy and call me to the fellowship of our brethren at the hour of my death. I say this praise with them for all eternity.”

  He looked over to me and clicked his teeth together in a wild grin.

  “And they said you couldn’t be killed.”

  His unnatural laughter cut through the eerie silence of the forest.

  I wanted to shout for help. I wanted to kick out with my legs, but my body wouldn’t obey my mind. It was as though I was already dead and my soul was waiting to be taken by the Creator.

  The man’s cold eyes watched me. “It won’t be long now.”

  My vision blurred then, and I was glad that I wouldn’t have to look into that horrid masked face anymore.

  A soft neigh reached my ears. I went cold. Torak. Where was my beautiful horse? The thought of this bastard hurting Torak woke something inside me.

  A new feeling stirred in my chest. And then sensation.

  It started with a tingling like tiny insect bites under my skin. And then tingling turned into a throbbing pain.

  Pain. What a wonderful thing.

  I knew it before it happened. My body was healing itself. My magic was working.

  It attacked the poison. I kept my face straight, did my best not to blink to give myself away. Surprise was my only advantage at that point. The pain changed to a warmth that spread through my entire body. I felt my neck wound begin to repair itself. Delicious air filled my lungs.

  The masked man continued to mutter prayer after prayer.

  Let him keep talking. Keep praying.

  He obviously enjoyed the sound of his own voice. I took comfort in knowing that I would repay his attempt on my life by cutting his throat. He had been foolish. In his confidence, he hadn’t removed any of my weapons. I waited calmly for the perfect opportunity. It was as though it came naturally to me, like I’d been born to do this.

  “This is taking too long. You should be dead by now.”

  The man’s voice was hard and unfeeling, business like. “I’m done waiting.”

  I watched and waited.

  The man grasped his blade with both hands, raised it high above his head, and brought it down.

  But I was already moving.

  I rolled away, and the tip of the blade plunged into the earth where I’d lain a second ago.

  By the time he realized what had happened, I was on my legs, and my own blades were ready in my hands. Although my legs were still stiff and painful from the effects of the poison, I could feel adrenaline surging through the rest of my body.

  My would-be assassin spun around. His eyes widened with a mixture of fear and fury.

  “Impossible! No one can survive the hemlock. What kind of demon are you?”

  I smiled. “And here I thought I was a witch.”

  My voice sounded strange, muffled, different from how I had spoken before.

  My heart thumped hard as I took in deep, wonderful breaths of air, and my healing magic ate away at the last of the poison.

  I watched the assassin’s fury spread through him like a wildfire. I could see his poisoned blades shining beneath his long black sleeves. I couldn’t risk a scratch from those damn blades again. I had to be extra careful.

  I swallowed hard and took a chance.

  “Why do you want to kill me? Who sent you?”

  Instinctively I looked over my shoulder, expecting more skull-masked men to jump at me from the forest. But they didn’t. It was only him, for now.

  The skull mask gleamed in the light of the moon.

  The man snickered. “I shall kill you once and for all, demon. And this time you will stay dead!”

  Scowling in determination, I crouched with my knees bent and prepared to engage him at close range. I thanked the Creator that I’d been raised in the Pit. I might have been blessed with the gift of healing, but I’d learned to fight, and to fight dirty, from experience.

  “You’ve got that wrong. I’m not dying today,” I growled.

  I wasn’t about to let him hurt me again. I was going to fight with everything I had in me.

  He snarled as he came at me like a blur of darkness. He was much faster than I’d first anticipated. But I was ready for him.

  He lunged for my heart, but just as the tip of his blade brushed the front of my tunic I parried and spun around. With a twist of my forearm, I sent one of his daggers sailing into the air. But that didn’t stop him.

  With incredible speed, he sliced through my garments but never reached the soft of my skin. I kicked out hard and made contact with his knees with a satisfying crunch. He yelled out in pain and surprise. I ducked and swung my leg at his ankles and swept him off his feet.

  He tumbled backward but regained his balance as skillfully as a cat.

  He grimaced in the faint moonlight. “I’m going to enjoy killing you, demon whore.”

  I flashed him a toothy grin, my confidence building with every breath.

  “From where I’m standing, you’re the one who looks more like a demon than I do. I’m not the one sneaking up on defenseless women in the dark.”

  His lips curled into a vicious smile beneath his mask. He slashed me with his dagger, but I blocked with my sleeve and slashed my blade across his chest. He stumbled back, his robes were torn, and a large wet stain began to grow over his breast.

  “Better than you thought, aren’t I?” I taunted.

  My eyes narrowed in the dark. “You lack the necessary skills to kill me. The high priests made a huge mistake sending you.”

  “Ha! You’re even more stupid than I thought if you imagined we’d ally ourselves with those false men and their false God.”

  I could see the darkening fury in his eyes.

  “You know nothing.”

  “If not the priests, then who? Who sent you?”

  He roared with wild rage and came at me again. B
ut I twisted easily away from him.

  I crouched low, then jumped and slammed my knees into his back. He went sprawling and his blade fell from his hand. He reached for it, and I stomped on his hand.

  He shrieked and kicked out with his legs, sweeping my feet from under me.

  I barely had time to blink as he threw himself at me again. I ducked, but as I pulled away he managed to get me in a headlock. I kneed the muscle in his thigh and brought my fist crashing against his kidney and groin. I flipped him over, but he slipped out of my grasp like an oily snake.

  “Die, demon bitch,” he sneered and charged.

  Call it instinct, call it the hand of the Creator, but at that exact moment, I sidestepped and spun. He impaled himself on my blades as I held them protectively in front of me.

  He toppled to the ground with a grunt. And then there was nothing.

  My stomach contracted, and I vomited. I didn’t know why. Maybe it was the last of the poison, or maybe it was just my body telling me how I truly felt.

  I stood there for a moment, letting the emotions of killing someone run through me.

  I wasn’t sure what I felt. It’s not like he’d given me a choice. I had to protect myself. He was going to kill me. Even though I’d felt rage and wanted to kill him in the moment, now that I stared at his body, I was pretty numb. Remorse? Guilt? This was self-defense. It was odd. A few seconds ago I had enjoyed taking his life and had felt no remorse.

  If he wasn’t working for the temple, then who was he? I remembered him saying we, so there were more in this group, whoever these masked men were. I wasn’t about to stay here and wait for more of these lunatics to try and kill me.

  I pulled my blades from his chest. After I wiped them clean on the grass, I reached out and pulled off his mask.

  I wasn’t sure what I’d expected underneath, but the plain face of an ordinary man wasn’t it. Maybe I thought he’d be ugly and disfigured, or maybe even a demon himself. But I looked down into the empty eyes of a regular middle-aged man.

  Just a man. Not a demon.

  I couldn’t sit here and wrestle with my feelings while more of these lunatics prowled the impenetrable night forest and waited for me to turn my back. I could almost see them, waiting in the dark. If they were so keen on killing me, who’s to say they hadn’t sent backup just to be sure I was dead?

  I needed to go.

  I was alive. And I planned to stay that way until I finished this race. I ran over to Torak. He nudged me gently with his muzzle and neighed.

  I reached out and patted his neck.

  “It’s okay. I’m all right, boy. It’s over now.”

  Torak rested his head on my shoulder. His gesture was almost like a hug. I wasn’t an expert on horse emotions or their body language, but I had the feeling he’d been worried about me and was glad that I was safe. God I loved that horse.

  There was no point trying to get some sleep because I knew it wouldn’t come. The forest was too good a hiding place for masked men. Torak shifted nervously, the whites of his eyes showing as he glanced at the dead man. The smell of blood unnerved the horse, and he seemed to be as eager as me to get out of these woods.

  I ran over to the creek and splashed cool water on my face to wash off the stench of the masked man. Then I grabbed our supplies and pulled myself with surprising ease onto Torak’s back. I grasped the reins firmly to keep my hands from shaking.

  A faint glow appeared through the tangle of trees in the east. It was nearly morning. I said a silent prayer to the Creator and hoped that the forest was not hiding any more masked men.

  Then I kicked my heels into Torak’s flanks, and we galloped through the forest, racing for our lives.

  CHAPTER 15

  TORAK RAN LIKE THE Devil himself was chasing him.

  At first I wasn’t sure if I should stop him. He seemed to be running on magic. His powerful legs dug up dirt from the road and left a trail of dust behind us. Every time I heard a snap or a break I feared that he had broken a leg, but he never faltered. I feared that I was pushing him too hard, but it was as if he wanted to leave the forest behind as much as I did. And even if I wanted to stop him, I wasn’t sure I could. It was all I could do to keep from falling.

  I tried hard not to think of the masked assassin. Who had sent him and why? If not the priests then who? Why was my death so important? What had I done to these people?

  As the darkness of the forest began to lift, so did my spirits. Crisp white light spilled through a break in the trees up ahead. We finally emerged from the woods and galloped into bright midmorning sun and crisp blue sky.

  Torak slowed as if he had finished his race with the foreboding darkness of the forest and left behind the memory of the masked man. He seemed as happy as me to be in the golden fields and warm delicious sun.

  We rode at a comfortable gallop for a while, just enjoying the sun and each other’s company. I’d made a friend for life, and I smiled into the wind. Flocks of starlings swooped overhead, riding the wind like a horse. A small red squirrel chased a much larger gray one, but we were going too fast to see the outcome.

  The road was trampled, and even though my tracking skills were limited, I could tell by the fresh tracks that my competitors were just a few hours ahead.

  I patted Torak’s neck. “See, we’re not too far now.”

  A new sense of confidence and determination welled inside me.

  But my smile soon faded.

  Up ahead, a white shape was coming at us fast. I drew my short sword instinctively and slowed Torak to a walk. I peered into the brightness of the morning light. A beautiful white mare came into focus less than a hundred feet away, and I took a steadying breath when I recognized the rider.

  “Isn’t the race that way?” I snapped, and pointed behind him. I remembered the look of hatred he had given me a few hours earlier.

  Mad Jack pulled his horse to a stop. There were no traces of anger on his flushed face, but the dark circles under his eyes showed that he hadn’t slept. His face was still radiant in the morning light, however, and a sheen of sweat covered his golden skin where he’d left his tunic unbuttoned. I felt a flutter in my chest, and I hated that he had that effect on me.

  “I came to find you,” he said a little breathlessly.

  He looked mildly surprised to see me, but real concern shone in his eyes. “I waited for the first light.”

  “Why? What the hell do you care?” I kept my face blank, but my breath had caught in my throat.

  His mouth tightened. “Because I realized you were really far behind, and you weren’t catching up to us…”

  He paused like he wasn’t sure if he should continue.

  “I was worried,” he said finally.

  His voice was a little strained as if it was an effort to say such a thing.

  “I was worried something had happened to you. And by the looks of it I was right. It looks like you had a rough night.” His eyes moved over the dirt, cuts, and dried blood on my cloak and tunic.

  I shrugged it off. “Nothing I couldn’t handle.”

  I had almost died. The masked man had nearly poisoned me.

  “What happened to you?”

  The concern in his voice made me want to trust him and tell him about the assassin, but I couldn’t. I didn’t know who had sent him or why.

  Was Mad Jack really concerned about me? Or was he only checking to see if I’d been killed?

  I just couldn’t trust anyone, especially the man who had put me here in the first place.

  “Fell off my horse a few times,” I lied.

  I was surprised how real and true it sounded from my lips, and how incredibly weak I was making myself out to be.

  “But I’m all right now. Nothing broken as you can see.”

  Mad Jack was silent. His eyes locked onto mine, and I could see he didn’t believe me.

  He nodded. “The others are still camped a few miles down the road. We can catch up before they leave. Come on.”

 
; He turned his horse around and urged it forward.

  I wanted to tell him to get lost, to go to hell, to jump in a lake, and hold his breath. I kicked Torak into a gallop instead, and we raced after Mad Jack.

  We rode side by side in silence. From the corner of my eye, I caught him staring at me a few times, but I forced myself to look straight ahead. I wasn’t sure I understood him. He was bad, dangerous, and a liar, all wrapped up into a gorgeous package. I couldn’t help but feel empowered whenever he glanced my way. I wanted to believe that he cared for me, and that he hadn’t planned on handing me over to the priests, that it had been a terrible mistake.

  But part of me screamed not to let my guard down, and not to let him creep into my heart. I couldn’t let my feelings get in the way if I was planning to win.

  Although it appeared that he had betrayed me, a part of my soul hoped somehow that I was wrong.

  Finally, we spotted the others. Groups of men and women were dotted along a small river that weaved through the fields and out of sight. I could smell the remnants of a fire. I watched as they gathered up their things, folded their bedrolls, and tended to their horses as they prepared to leave. None of them looked even remotely concerned or disturbed that I was here still alive and still in the race.

  And then I noticed that there were a few black eyes, puffy faces, and bloody noses.

  “What happened here?”

  I couldn’t see any bodies or serious injuries, but the marks on their faces and bodies were definitely signs of a brawl.

  Mad Jack watched the campsite with indifference. “A fight broke out after a few of the men starting drinking.”

  I spotted a tall dark-skinned woman with a bloody nose and her right eye swollen shut. She smiled at me as I looked on, and I was glad I wasn’t the only rough diamond of the opposite sex in here.

  “What was the fight about?”

  “The usual when you put different clans together with too much ale,” he said like it was common knowledge. “Add a race that will shower the winner with gold and glory, and you’re asking for trouble. This is nothing.”