“By the spirits, shut up girl!” Sherie whispered fiercely.The girl put her hands over her mouth, and Sherie stopped and listened, just in case there was someone else here.
The middle-aged fanatic nodded, "Thank you for being Josko's instrument for my rescue!" he said enthusiastically as he nearly ran through the other door of this chamber. Sherie could hear his heavy footfalls long after he was gone.
Sherie didn’t know what to make of that man, so she concentrated on getting this lock off of the girl’s cage. She was certain this was not a small woman now, but a teenage girl. This lock popped faster than the first one though. These locks were much easier to pick than the slave collars had been.
That was when both of them heard the distant screams from downstairs. That man must have run into a trap that had been set by the Wizard Lodicuois. Sherie would have to scout it first, then see if there was a way around it.
She could see that the girl was terrified. Sherie just opened the door of her cage, and told her, “Don’t worry, we’ll just avoid whatever got him, ok?”
She nodded, with a look of fear on her face. She came out cautiously, but she fell in with her while staying low.
Sherie could appreciate this girl already. She didn’t make a sound, and she had to look over her shoulder twice just to make sure she was still there. She checked around the doorway and saw tables in there. There were bookshelves and racks with various saws and knives on it. Sherie looked around and stood up slowly.
On two of the three tables, she saw people. Sherie had a strong stomach with all she'd seen, but she couldn't help losing her stomach at this sight. The person on the middle table had her chest opened up to expose all of her innards. It was held open by a wooden rack attached to the table. She could hear the girl with her hacking too.
She spat and wiped her mouth on her sleeve and walked around until she could see the other person.
It was Jona. What was left of him.
His arms and legs were gone. She could see them sticking out of a tall bucket on the floor. He laid there, strapped to the table with the wounds from his missing limbs completely closed somehow.
Tears flowed from Sherie’s eye; this poor boy never even had a chance at life.
Then she saw him stir, and open his eyes. There were polished stones where his eyes should have been.
“Is that you, smoking lady?” he asked weakly.
Horror filled her. "Oh, by the spirits,” Sherie said.
“I can see you!” He said with more vigor than before, raising his head. “But I can’t feel my arms and legs. Why can’t I feel them, smoking lady?”
“Because they’re gone,” Sherie said flatly. Her heart hardened as she composed herself.
“What do you mean?" He asked, turning his head to look at his stump where his arm used to be, then he screamed a blood-curdling scream that Sherie was sure she would never forget until the day she died.
“Help me!” Jona cried
“Ok. Just close your eyes," she said, realizing that a young pauper without limbs could never survive without someone to watch him fulltime. She watched the look of terror on his face, but couldn't see anything in the stone orbs that occupied his eye sockets. But then he closed them while taking ragged breaths.
In one motion, she drew her short blade and took his head clean off of his poor damned body. The only sound was the dry thump of steel into wood. He blinked in surprise and mouthed something. Then his eyes slid closed and his muscles slackened.
Sherie just closed her eye and promised herself that she would kill this Wizard, no matter what it took. She took a moment to breathe deeply and push her welling rage down.
The girl that was with her was as quiet as she was before now. Sherie looked over to make sure she was still with her and was surprised to see her standing by the open door that seemed to lead out of this place. She held a dagger in her hand and looked like she was ready to use it. Sherie checked her belt with her hands and found one of her daggers was missing! She checked her pouches and found the rest where they belonged though.
“You’re good,” she breathed. The girl didn’t say anything, she just nodded at the open doorway.
Sherie realized that she didn’t have her crossbow with her. She mouthed “Be right back,” to the girl. She went back to the closet she came in at, closed the window and latched the door so Lodicuois wouldn’t know how she’d entered. Then she returned to the death chamber where Jona’s body was. Sherie placed her foot in the crossbow’s cocking stirrup and pulled it back to the latch. Then she loaded a bolt into it.
Sherie put the stock to her shoulder and went around the corner cautiously. The girl shadowed behind her, as silent as she had been since she joined her.
Sherie stopped at every corner and looked before proceeding. She was certain the Wizard must have laid a trap here, just as the woman in the Legion Tower had. The second floor seemed to have the living quarters. There were two bedrooms here that she saw, as well as a common room, and privy. She took a quick look and found some loose gold coins, that more than made up for what she had given that murderous wench earlier.
She gave the girl with her a couple of them and told her, "When I get you out of here, hire a carriage. Tell them to take you south of the main street to the Sailor's Sorrow. Ask for Brina, she has sandy blonde hair. Tell her that I'm alright, and I'll be there later."
“Ok. What’s your name?” the girl asked quietly.
“Jirai. What’s your name?”
“Misha,” she said.
“That coin isn’t free Misha. I want you to show me how you filch things like that!” she said seriously.
“Alright, but we have to get out of here first,” she said.
"Right,” Sherie replied as she took point again.
They walked quietly for a few more minutes and found the stairs leading down. That was when Sherie held her hand up for Misha to stop. She could see blood on the stairs, and what looked like the man that Sherie had let loose lying at the bottom of them. His body was twisted into an unnatural position.
She didn't see glowing runes or anything like that showing a trap though. She ducked her head down so she could see further into the room. That was when she saw the glow of Magikal runes.
The runes glowed red on a suit of armor that a huge man was wearing. This wasn’t a suit like any Sherie had ever seen before. It wasn’t the half-plate of a male Legionnaire or the scale of a woman. There were no straps and buckles, or chain between the plates. It looked as if the plates were literally bolted to this man’s body. Sherie wouldn’t have believed it if she hadn’t seen with her own eyes.
She backed up from the stairway and gestured for Misha to follow her. Sherie looked for a window that came out beside the building.
She opened it and asked, “Can you make it down this way?”Sherie undid her belt and pulled the empty sheath for the missing dagger off of it.
“I think I can,” Misha said casually. “This kid is tough,” Sherie realized.
“Good," Sherie said as she pulled her belt tight again. She handed Misha the sheath for the dagger she held and said, "Here. Just meet me at the Sailor's Sorrow."
Misha took it and put it on her rope belt. “Ok. Why don’t you come this way, too?”
“If I don’t kill this fucking Wizard, this is going to happen to other people. Plus, I want to get my money back from that bitch,” Sherie told her truthfully.
Misha nodded with a dark look in her eyes and said, "Don't die, Jirai." She didn't even give Sherie a chance to assure her that she wouldn't, she just jumped out of the second-story window like she had wings. Sherie looked to make sure she was okay, but the girl seemed to be going down a lot faster than Sherie could have.
She really hoped that Misha would go to the inn and wait for her. In the meantime, she needed to look around here and make a plan.
* * *
Sherie was hidden in the wall panel she'd found behind the privy on the second floor. She'd figured out what the p
ipes she'd seen do from sitting in here quietly. It seemed that the water moved through them. She could hear it since it was quiet.
She had played around with a knot in the wood of the wall and gotten it to pop out so she could just barely see into the privy. The more important thing was that it also allowed her to hear more, too.
Vera had gotten back a few hours ago. She had heard her and the armored man-thing doing something downstairs. She assumed that they were taking care of the body of the escaped prisoner. Then she heard them go upstairs.
And that’s when Sherie heard the woman scream in outrage. Sherie had to work hard to keep herself from laughing at this bitch’s misfortune. She didn’t feel sorry for one bit of that. She was sorry that people had died for her. Sherie felt bad that Jona had been caught up in all of this, but she knew that even if he hadn’t died here, he probably would have been killed by someone else later.
That was simply the way life worked. When strong people want something a weak person has the strong people take it from the weak. If the weak try to stop them, they die. Jona would never make it in life, except on the kindness of others. Sherie had liked the young man, but she knew his time had been limited. It just pissed her off that he’d been made to suffer the way he had.
She was going to show this Wizard that she was subject to the same truth. Well, assuming she didn’t completely screw it up somehow and become the next freaky experiment. Sherie shivered at that thought.
After Vera Lodicuois had discovered everything upstairs she had come back down. Sherie was getting cramped from hiding in this small space for so long. She moved herself a bit to try to keep herself from getting stiff, but there was only so much she could do here.
* * *
Sherie woke up with a start, she hadn’t even realized that she’d fallen asleep. She could hear a man’s voice now, but she couldn’t make out what he was saying.
She could hear Vera more clearly though. “I guess I’m going to have to strip them before I cage them, then. I couldn’t have imagined one of them actually had a lock pick.” She heard the man’s voice again, but it was still too soft to make out. She would be willing to bet coin that it was Shegath though.
That was when she heard nothing for a short time until Vera's moan split the air with its sound of rapture.
Sherie felt a shiver run through her whole body at that. “Oh, by the spirits, do I really have to be here for this?” She thought. She heard more noises to help reinforce what she was quite sure was happening out there. She was also sure that her mouth was puckered as if she’d swallowed a lemon whole.
“The only better chance to kill her will be when she sleeps.” She realized, so she cracked the hidden door that covered the plumbing closet carefully to keep from making noise, then crept out as quietly as she could.
She could hear the sounds of the two of them indulging their disturbing lust. They rattled the wood in the walls, and Sherie carefully timed her steps to their rhythm. Her quiet steps were covered completely by the noise they made while he pounded her.
Sherie ignored the queasiness they gave her and raised her crossbow.
When she came around the corner, she saw Vera splayed out on the stairwell with her legs wrapped around Shegath as he penetrated her.
His pants were around his ankles but he still wore his shirt. She aimed carefully and pulled the trigger. The bolt struck true; it pierced Vera's head and pinned it directly to the stairs. She didn't even have time to scream. Just as Sherie had wanted it.
Shegath screamed though. He turned and tried to lunge at her from where he was. Sherie just dropped her crossbow while tripped over his own pants. She whipped a dagger with each hand into his back, and pulled another and knelt to slit his throat.
She smiled when he yelled, "Someone help me!" Just like so many of his indirect victims must have. Sherie grabbed a fist full of his hair and dragged the blade across his throat. She wiped her weapon on his shirt and retrieved the other blades.
Sherie found the pouches of coin before they were stained with the pooling blood. This little adventure had been worth quite a bit to her when she added what she'd made off of it. There were two gold marks in one of the pouches by itself.
She grabbed her crossbow and looked out the window. Sherie could see that it was late afternoon now. She'd slept for a while. She opened the window and shimmied down between the two walls to avoid the thing downstairs.
It was a satisfying day indeed.
Monday March 5th 1613th year of the First Great City New beginnings
Sherie sat in the chair of her home in Grax, letting her not-so-little spawn suckle her breast. It wasn't so bad, now that she was used to it. It would even be kind of fun if the little bugger didn't bite so damned hard.
She'd given birth to her son two days ago, amidst a storm of blood, screams, and profanity any soldier that had been on a battlefield would be familiar with. The midwife, Glory had been in charge of this battle though. She had been ably assisted by Brina, and the youngest soldier on this battlefield was Misha, who took direction well.
The girl had taken a liking to Brina; it turned out she also liked women. Well, at least that kept Brina from trying to involve Sherie in her deviations as often. Sherie had told Brina that she was a total pervert; she had found Misha was only fifteen summers!
Brina had simply laughed it off and said, “If she didn’t want me, I’d leave her alone.”
“Oh, like you did me, huh?” Sherie had said.
“No, not like you. Watching you squirm is what makes you fun,” Brina laughed.
She may growl about Brina's perversions, but she had been happy to have this one person in the world here for her. She had agonized over what to do with the baby, but Brina told her, "I'll watch him for you, you've done so much for me. I might not have wanted the men's attention, but I found myself wanting the child that came of it." Sherie saw her tears spill as she told her this.
So together they had decided that Sherie would bear this child. She couldn’t stay here and try to be his mother though. She knew she would be terrible at it. She’d probably accidentally stab the boy if he snuck up on her.
She held this baby and watched his face. She could see his father there. There was a part of her that couldn't deny that she wanted to stay here, but there was another part of her that wanted to go find the death that had been looking for her in Vox. A good death. One where she didn't take her own life. One where she spat in the face of her enemy before they took her down.
Sherie looked down at her son and wondered if when she died her spirit would come to him the way her father’s spirit had come to her. That’s why she gave him her father’s name, Jinn. She hoped so.
That way, she would give this little one something more than life and a house to live in.
Saturday August 10th 1613th year of the First Great City Just business
She had sat in the dive bar in Corwinthius through half the night it seemed. The smell of smoke, blood, and urine permeated this place.
She waited, nursing her ale while she kept her eye on the door, waiting for her mark.
She saw him walk in, he ordered an ale and food. He was a highranked Officer in House Nivek. A Commander, according to her customer. She told her that he came here each night and rendezvoused with a man.
Right on cue, a man came from the bar and put his arm around him before sliding his tongue into his mouth. The two of them laughed, and no one paid them any mind.
Now she knew who his man was, that was her real target. She waited patiently until he went to the privy. She walked in behind him, with the hood of her cloak up.
When he finished draining his member, she took his hair in hand and put her blade on his throat. He started, and she hissed, "Scream and you die. I have a message."
“What is it?” He asked quietly.
“This is for touching Mara Senchin’s husband,” she told him as she pulled the blade into his flesh so deeply, his vocal cords were cut.
He tried to scream, but he only gurgled. She took his left hand and quickly pulled the gold ring off of his finger before she let him fall. Mara wanted this proof that he was dead. She wouldn’t pay her without it. She walked quickly from the privy, directly to the door.
Jirai barely thought of her real name anymore, but that didn’t hurt business at all.
Appendix
Ages are for 1612th year of the First Great City
Baxin Zanna 5'8" 186# 22 years old
Brina Gou 5'7" 112# 25 years old
Corporal Koal 5'11" 188# 26 years old
Gerald Kenu 6'0" 195# 44 years old
Johann Storeal 6'2" 235# 38 years old
Jona (blind beggar) 5'8" 135# 21 years old
Jona Sonom 6'0" 218# 65 years old
Misha 5'4" 98# 15 years old
Mavin Heng 6'2" 190# 28 years old
Rhial Zanna 5'6" 136# 48 years old Shegath Lodicuois 5'5" 165# 32 years old
sight age 15
Sherie Els (Aka Jirai Sonom) 5'7" 128# 18 years old Birthday November 11th
Talgris Phena 5'4" 123# 24 years old
sight age 8
Taya Gren 5'3" 19 years old Vera Lodicuois 5'9" 131# 35 years old
sight age 6
about the author
I began writing stories when I was 9 years old, as adventures for different role-playing games. I tried writing a novel a few times before Spirit of Magik, but I ended up getting frustrated by trying to write in another person's world.
I was offered a scholarship at Pathfinder school when I was in the 3rd grade due to my test scores. I dropped out in the 8th grade, so I could work full-time. I continued my own education, reading and researching many subjects vigorously without the restraints of the public school system.
I am also a reader, with some of my favorite authors being Terry Pratchett, Terry Goodkind, James Clavell, George R.R. Martin, Frank Herbert, Brandon Sanderson, and Gen Urobuchi.
Fugitive: A Prequel to Spirit of Magik Page 15
