Bloodfire (The Sojourns of Rebirth)

by Matthew Medina

  The man who had circled around was now turning the handle and pushing the door open. She heard the girls whimpering, as the door eased open. With no obstacle between them, Catelyn was able to get full sense of the man. She knew he’d been heavy, judging from the sound and the impact of his footfalls, but when the door opened, she could hear how he filled the doorframe, blocking out sound from behind him, and how hard his heart was pumping to move blood through his body, and she could tell he was massive. She heard a wet rasp as the huge man licked his lips.

  “Well, well, three little doves. Two of them all ready for later.”

  Catelyn could hear the lust in his voice, and she knew he must be taking in all of them, but clearly taking a perverse interest in the naked girls cowering at her back.

  Catelyn could hear the confidence in his voice. He knew that he had the upper hand, and he was looking forward to doing whatever he wanted with the three of them. He took one step into the little room, and it felt to Catelyn as if the entire world had closed in and all that existed were the four of them.

  The man was in no hurry and Catelyn’s mind raced, trying to think of a way out. He knew there was no threat here, and he seemed to feel no urgency at the approaching inferno. She estimated his weight at about two hundred stone, possibly more. Even if she managed to land a blow, she knew it would have no effect on someone so massive. And she couldn’t sense a way to slip past. She was well and truly trapped. She felt her heart racing like it never had before, and her knees grew wobbly in sheer terror.

  “Warren!” the big man shouted, presumably to the other man at the door she’d wedged closed. “Do you want me to save you one of these delicious treats?”

  “The youngest!” the man named Warren hissed from behind the door. “What about you, Jaff?”

  She heard the monster named Jaff lick his lips again.

  “None of ‘em weighs more than a sack of stones, soaking wet. I’ll need all three to satisfy me.” Catelyn could imagine the leering grin behind the vile words he spewed.

  At the thought of this man doing whatever he thought would satisfy him with the girls in front of him, Catelyn tried to control her fear, steeled herself as much as she was able and decided to roll the bones and gamble everything on a daring play. She had no other choice, really.

  She issued a challenge, her voice wavering.

  “You little boys couldn’t handle me together, much less one against one.”

  Catelyn realized that it wasn’t strictly the best move to antagonize them when they already held all the cards, and she knew it wasn’t even the best insult of their manhood, but Catelyn was desperate. She hoped that at least her quip might sting his pride, and plant a seed of anger. Something told her this man would not fall for any such ploy, but what choice did she have? She wasn’t simply going to give in and let this man have his way with them.

  “Oh hoo! Warren, did you hear that? The older one with the redhead has some spunk! I’m going to enjoy bobbing her on the tip.”

  Warren put his nose to the crack and whispered “Red head? F’real? Oh, that gets me stewing! Are you red down there too, sweetmeat? I bet your cunt is craving what I got right here!”

  Jaff laughed at his friends japes, and Catelyn realized that they were enjoying toying with her. She couldn’t tell if these men were guards of the Dane’s, or Imperial soldiers, but it didn’t really matter.

  Thugs were thugs.

  Based on their calm demeanors, especially given the imminently lethal situation they were all in, Catelyn assumed that they must know of a fast way out. That fact lit a spark of hope inside her, but she didn’t fan that hope into flame just yet.

  Catelyn heard Jaff relax his stance somewhat, but he was still blocking the only exit from the room. It seemed he was content to wait for Catelyn to make a move, just as she was waiting for him to commit. Hoping for an opportunity, or a mistake on his part. Unfortunately for her, Jaff knew that.

  He might be huge, Catelyn thought, but he’s clearly no idiot.

  Catelyn was so focused on the situation in front of her, that she almost missed the little hand of Elexia inching its way along her cocked arm. The slightest pressure on her elbow clued Catelyn in, but it was not a finger that she felt, but something cold and hard. Catelyn feigned a step forward, and as she had hoped, Jaff reacted, planting his feet wide to cut off a run for the door.

  She heard him cluck his tongue, chiding her, and she backed off once again but the feint had accomplished her real goal. As she returned to her original position, she reached behind and palmed what the girl had been trying to give to her in secret.

  She clutched the object in her hand, and within a breath she knew what it was. A nail, just longer than one of her fingers, and covered in rust, judging from the roughness of it. She hadn’t sensed Elexia pick it up, nor even move, and she wondered where the girl had gotten it. Not that such details mattered right now. What mattered was how she might be able to use it. It was long enough that if she could get it into his eye, or ear, or ram it into him somehow, that it might stun him long enough for the three of them to get past him.

  Catelyn didn’t want to have to hurt anyone, but she decided that whatever vows she had made to herself, she was now in a situation where it was her life or his.

  “This one has got the fire, Warren,” Jaff called once more. “She just tried to take a poke at me, I think”.

  Warren guffawed from his place behind the door, and replied “Well Jaff, you’ll just have to poke her right back!” and he laughed hysterically at his own twisted humor.

  Jaff laughed slightly as well, but not to the point of distraction. Catelyn knew that he was the more dangerous of the pair. As big as he was, and confident in his own abilities, he was still careful. Catelyn grudgingly had to admit that she couldn’t underestimate this man.

  Jaff however, was beginning to show signs of impatience. His breathing was shallower, his heart increasing its rhythm. “Listen girl, I’d love to play with you all night, but at the moment we’re on a timetable. And the Emperor doesn’t exactly appreciate tardiness.”

  She heard the motion before she felt it coming for her. He planted his feet, raised his arms and took a step towards her. Catelyn let him come.

  When his hands were almost closed upon her upper arm, she moved. As quickly as she could, she swatted her arms towards his ears, hoping to clap her fists over his eardrums, trying to shock him with the impact, and possibly even burst an eardrum. But Jaff was faster than he seemed, as she had feared.

  He managed to get his shoulders up, and knocked her hands off their trajectory, smacking the side of his head. Both the hand with the nail and the empty hand limply caromed off his bald head, barely registering any impact on the big man.

  He grabbed her wrists now and she was wracked with pain as he squeezed with all his strength. She felt as if her bones would snap like twigs at any second, and she could not do anything other than cry out. Despite the pain, she still had cupped in her left palm the long, rusty nail. But it would not be long before the pain forced her to release it.

  The two girls, surprising Catelyn, rushed from behind her and tried kicking the massive beast in the shins. She tried to warn them away through clenched teeth, but they wouldn’t listen. Jaff lashed out with his thick leg and she heard them both topple to the ground, crying out in pain.

  Catelyn was forced to do the only thing left to her. She flung her head forward, cracking her skull with all the force she could muster against his nose. She felt a crunching shift and, although dazed by the impact, she knew she had done some damage, and she was satisfied to hear a grunt of pain. Although his hands softened, they didn’t release her wrists. She had stunned him, and she would never get another opportunity, so she leaned forward, opened her mouth and bit down hard on his nose, tasting blood. She held nothing back and felt her teeth sink into the flesh and tissue around his nose.

  Finally, he let go to try rearing back with a punch, the other hand going to his nose to stau
nch the blood flowing down his face now. Catelyn knew that this single blow would end the fight if he landed it, and with one deft motion she flipped the nail around, now holding it between her middle and fourth fingers, the broad base resting on the meat of her palm.

  Before his fist landed, Catelyn weaved under his reach and popped up just to his right side. When he sensed that he had missed, he reached out to grab her, but this time it was too late. She slammed her fist up, with the rusty nail protruding from it like an extra finger, into his face, just above his right eye. He hadn’t made a move to block her punch, having assumed that such a futile and desperate punch wouldn’t have fazed him.

  He hadn’t seen the finger-length spike of rust-covered iron nestled between her fingers. She let go, and could see that the spike was now buried halfway into his skull, piercing his brain, causing him to drop dead on the spot like a monstrous puppet whose strings had just been cut.

  As Catelyn coldly listened to Jaff’s heart stop, his breathing cease and his lifeblood leaving through the gaping hole in his face, Warren shouted from behind the opposite door.

  “Jaff? What happened? What’s going on?”

  When no answer came, he shouted “Hold on, I’m coming.”

  Catelyn’s instinct for survival took over. She reached out, grabbed the two girls off the ground by the hand, and rushed them out the open door. She crossed the hallway and rounded the corner, opposite to where she expected Warren to appear at any breath. She was frantically searching with her bubble, trying to determine where the two men had been off to when they’d happened upon her and the girls.

  They were too confident; they must have known a way out. She just needed to find it. Catelyn briefly considered staying to confront Warren, now that the odds were more even. Maybe she could catch him by surprise and force the information from him. But she’d already pushed her luck in the confrontation with Jaff, and her favor with the Divines, to have survived this night as far as she had.

  She moved around and then felt a tugging on her pant leg. Catelyn stopped. It was Sera.

  “Catelyn, we can’t leave yet.”

  Catelyn felt her stomach drop.

  “What is it now? More men?” Catelyn pulsed her bubble, but she couldn’t detect anyone else in the nearby vicinity. In fact, she couldn’t detect Warren, either.

  Strange. Where have you gone? thought Catelyn.

  Sera simply said “We can’t go outside. We’re naked.”

  Catelyn nearly laughed at the absurdity of the statement, but then heard the serious tone in the girl’s voice. This really was of great concern to her.

  Catelyn bit back an angry reply and said instead “If we don’t leave, now, Warren and whoever he works for will find us, and kill us. We’ve been lucky so far. That won’t happen again. Modesty is a small price to pay for your life.”

  The girls, however, would have none of it. They both began to fuss, the way young children do, and Catelyn considered for the barest moment leaving the pair of them behind. Then, she had a better idea. She let go of them, undid her black tunic and scarf until she herself was naked from the waist up, and tore strips of cloth from them, fashioning rags for each girl to wear. Catelyn felt the heat from the fires outside on her bare skin, and she knew time was running short.

  “There. Now we’re all indecent to some degree. Let’s go,” was all she said, and this seemed to mollify the girls, as they made their way down the hall in the general direction that Warren and Jaff had been headed before their confrontation.

  Five whispers later, Catelyn’s world had turned to fire. The full contingent of soldiers from the Empire had finally reached the Dane’s estate, and although they had thrown in the accelerant earlier, only now were they beginning to toss torches and other sources of flame through the windows and onto the roof. Catelyn had expected Warren to come upon them at any moment, but his footsteps had never reappeared. She assumed that he had assessed the situation and made a hasty retreat.

  And then came the sounds of clattering, followed by the eruptions of chaos as the soldiers outside began to throw the torches and fire pots onto the roof and in through the windows, igniting the estate. The heat pressed in on her like a wall, and the smoke began choking her immediately. Catelyn scrambled to the ground, wishing that she hadn’t needed to give her scarf to the girls. She pulled the girls close and yelled for them to come with her and not let go. She crawled backwards toward the entry room, with her holding onto Elexia, and Elexia in turn holding Sera’s hand.

  Catelyn’s other hand she held extended, sweeping it in front and side to side, using it to guide her away from the worst of the heat, assessing her options. She knew that the Imperials would have barred the doors shut. She knew that Warren had left, presumably through some entrance he knew about. But she had no idea where it was, and for all she knew that way was now blocked as well. The front of the estate was ablaze, and by now the roof would be as well. And the rest of the house was doused in some sort of liquid that would ignite like a tinder box soon. She needed to be gone with the girls.

  But Catelyn also knew that throughout the downstairs were windows. She just had to find one facing the side of the house and not the street, and break it open. She felt along the ground, on hands and knees, using mostly her hearing to guide her to one of the walls near the back of the estate. It was a slow and sweltering effort, but finally, her outstretched hand contacted the wall, and she sighed with relief. She got to her knees and felt along the wall, desperately, and after a panicked twenty breaths or so of fruitless searching, her hand finally found a pane of heavily leaded glass.

  The roar of the fire and the oppressive heat was inundating the area just a pace away from her, and she could sense that the floor they were standing on would flash soon. The girls had started screaming before reaching the wall, and both of them clutched at Catelyn’s side, hysterical, making it hard for her to do much.

  With the window under her palm, she extended her bubble slightly, even though doing so left her feeling seared raw, and discovered that maybe the Divines hadn’t given up on her yet. On the floor, just out of arm’s reach, she sensed a heavy wrought iron candelabra that had been knocked over in the confusion. She ignored the girls wailing for her to stay with them, and detached herself, making a beeline for it.

  As she wrapped her hand around the heavy metal, pain lanced through her palm, the metal having been heated through by the intense flames. She pulled her hand away, clutching the flesh which was already starting to pucker and blister, and a breath later the estate roared in a final death throe, as a section of the upper floor came crashing through the ceiling above their heads and onto the floor nearby.

  Catelyn knew she couldn’t wait a second longer. Tapping every ounce of strength she had left, she tore the lower half of one of her pant legs free, and used the cloth to wrap her burnt and throbbing hand. With the wrapping protecting her hand somewhat, she gripped the metal once more, pain arcing through every nerve, and hefted the candelabra. With a primal scream of rage, Catelyn rushed at the window, aiming the shaft of the metal at where she knew the window to be.

  She felt a jarring wrench throughout her entire upper body as glass and metal met. She heard a cracking, but for now the glass held. She lifted the candelabra and struck at the window a second time, and the window shattered, along with something in her arm. Her shoulder felt dislocated, but she ignored the pain when the blast of cooler air from outside hit her in the face. She left the candelabra sticking through the glass, then ran it around the edges of the window, clearing the glass that remained away from the window frame as best she could. She felt the shards dropping to the ground at her feet, and she tried to avoid stepping in them as she worked.

  When she heard and felt no more shards falling, Catelyn grabbed Elexia and lifted her to the window. Even though the girl was skinnier than any child should be, this effort still sent more lancing pain into Catelyn’s hurt shoulder. Elexia scrambled out of her grasp, through the window and to the grou
nd below. The smoke, drawn by the venting provided by the window, was beginning to choke Catelyn, and she tried not to take deep breaths as she lifted Sera to the window.

  As Sera scrambled through and landed lightly in the alleyway behind the estate, Catelyn steeled herself for what was next. She felt the opening with her hands. She could squeeze through, but just barely. She would no doubt receive additional cuts from the remaining shards still lodged in the frame; she could already feel a stinging in the soles of her feet, no doubt a result of cuts from the glass on the floor that she had been forced to carelessly step in, in order to lift the girls through the broken window frame, as well as the accelerant she had walked through for the last several whispers.

  As she reached her hands through, clearing her elbows of the frame, the last of Dane Callum’s estate caught fire and within a breath she felt a wall of flame racing toward her. She pushed with all of her strength, feeling the shards of glass scrape and embed themselves in her flesh, ignoring the pain as she fell through the open window and landing roughly on the dirty stone ground of the alley. Her world turned black momentarily, as she felt consciousness beginning to slip from her grasp and she fought it.

  Where the window had been but a breath ago, a hole spouting jets of flame now stood. The girls were there, helping Catelyn get to her feet, and guiding her back and toward the building behind Dane Callum’s estate, which was still mostly intact. She felt light-headed and woozy, and unable to do much more than move on instinct, she let the two young girls guide her silently away from the scene of the conflagration.

  Chapter 9

  Ortis stood with arms clasped behind his back, watching his handiwork play out across the night sky with complete detachment. Billowing towers of smoke rose into the air, their bases lit orange from the hundreds of fires below, sending a sign to the Divines themselves, if indeed they still existed, that men, not gods, ruled in Ereas. He had never quite shared Uriel’s fondness for fire, but he had to admit that it had proven to be a remarkably effective deterrent over the sojourns.