by Isabo Kelly
And she found the idea tempting.
To sleep without being wary. To pass the day without worrying if she’d eat the next day. To live without having to stay on guard. To be warm in the winter and cool in the summer. To be able to take her knives off. To feel safe.
Yes, the idea was very tempting.
But a cynical, street-wise voice shouted in the back of her mind, What happens when he’s through with you, Flash? What happens when he leaves? What happens a year or even ten years from now, when your speed and strength have faded, when you’re no long as agile and your skills have become brittle from disuse? What will you do then, Flash? How will you feed yourself then?
He might not leave, she argued with the cynical voice.
You don’t really believe that, do you? He’ll leave. They all leave. You’ve seen it before. You’ll be left to fend for yourself and you won’t be Flash anymore. You’ll just be Victoria. Where do you think that will take you?
I can do other things, she protested.
No, Flash. You won’t be good for anything but the whorehouse, and you know it.
She squeezed her eyes tight, not wanting to hear that hard voice, yet knowing it was right. Her only defense was to be able to take care of herself, always. If she started to rely on someone else, she’d lose all the abilities she’d worked so hard to develop. She couldn’t allow that to happen. But how could she explain that to Jacob?
With a deep breath, she looked into his worried gaze and decided the best course of action—avoidance. “I don’t want to talk about this now,” she said resolutely.
“Victoria…”
“No. Not now. If we survive, when we get back to Dareelia, we’ll talk more.”
He looked hard into her eyes, but after a moment gave in with a slight shake of his head. “Okay, love,” he murmured. “But we will discuss this further when we get back to Dareelia.”
“Okay.”
“In the meantime…” He reached up and unfastened the onyx charm he still wore. “I want you to wear this.”
“But…”
“Victoria, please wear it. I’ll feel better.”
She gave in with a shy nod.
He tied the leather thong around her neck, then ran his fingers over the stone hanging in the hollow of her throat.
“You don’t need to worry about me,” she said, cupping his cheeks in her hands. “I’ve survived this long, haven’t I? I won’t disappear on you.” She pulled his face to hers. The kiss she’d intended to be gentle quickly turned urgent and hard. She willed him to forget his fears even as she fought her own dread.
Both their worries quickly turned to passionate need. Roughly, she jerked his shirt loose from his breeches, pulling away only long enough to remove the offending garment. Her own shirt followed in a rush.
His kisses were brutal and desperate. He pulled her down to their blankets, rolling her beneath him. He didn’t bother to remove the daggers strapped to her shoulders and wrist, and she didn’t notice. She clutched at him, twining her fingers in his hair as his mouth moved to her breasts. He was rough, and she reveled in that heat.
She threw herself into their lovemaking with the same aggressive determination she brought to a fight. Only this fight was with herself. A struggle to silence the hard cynic in the back of her mind. To prove that voice wrong. She forced his mouth back to hers as he pulled open her breeches.
Sitting back on his knees, he removed first her boots and calf daggers, then all but ripped off her breeches. She threw herself upward, taking his mouth roughly with hers as she forced him onto his back. She burned to feel him inside her, to possess him completely even if only for a short time. She disposed of his boots and pants then threw herself on top of him again. With one thrust, she took all of him inside of her.
Mercilessly, she rode him, slamming herself against him until her body splintered into mindless sensation. She arched her back and gave in to the wave of ecstasy.
But the fight wasn’t yet won. He rolled her onto her back, taking his turn to silence the doubts. She clung, her nails digging unnoticed gashes in his shoulders and on his back, her mouth sucking and biting his ears and neck. The power she so often saw just beneath his surface slipped his control, enveloping and energizing her even as it burned her skin.
In that thoughtless realm of passion, she found peace from the street voice. For the briefest instant, the voice went quiet, leaving only Victoria and Jacob and their desperate, electric needs.
Their energy spent, their bodies and minds quieted, they collapsed into an exhausted sleep, tangled in each other’s arms, defiantly refusing to face their respective fears.
Chapter Nineteen
They reached the lower Georna Reaches on the eighth day. Winter came early to the rugged mountain range that stretched through Georna and up into Bthak. First snow had already whitened the higher peaks. Heavy gray clouds clung to the tops of the mountains, allowing only brief glimpses of blue sky.
The pine-scented breeze rushing across the rocky slopes froze Vic’s cheeks and ungloved hands. She pulled her cloak tighter, tucking one hand inside the thick folds and guiding Gale one hand at a time. The lower trees were still swathed in oranges, yellows and reds, but not far above, only evergreen leaves remained against the slate gray rock slopes. To the side of the road they followed, a swift moving river accompanied them, masking all sound but the rush of water.
“So, this is where you grew up,” she said, smiling at Jacob.
“What do you think, little thief?”
“I think it’s cold.” She pulled her cloak tighter and blew out a visible breath. His chuckle sounded faint above the rumble of water.
Just after midday, the road veered away from the river and into a rocky, sparsely vegetated pass. The sound of rushing water followed at their backs. But as they moved farther into the pass, the breeze died, leaving the air eerily still. Even the sounds of the river vanished.
Vic’s street sense jumped, and her fingers began to twitch. “Something isn’t right,” she whispered to Jacob.
He looked as worried as she felt as he scanned the stone walls and rocky outcroppings. The whoosh of passing air was the only warning they had.
“Mimis!” Jacob shouted, dismounting and pulling his sword in a single move. From cracks in the surrounding rocks, impossibly thin creatures emerged in a rush toward their ambushed victims.
Her feet landed on solid ground, her wrist dagger already in hand, but her eyes couldn’t keep up with the blurs of movement around them. She caught only a glimpse of thin gray arms, a flash of a long, attenuated body, the hint of a hairless, oblong head, the briefest flicker of sharp teeth.
Her dagger flicked at the passing blurs, yet she never managed to catch anything solid. It was like trying to slice rain. By the time she found a target, the Mimis had already moved away, its body so thin, even her accurate slash missed.
A scream ripped past her lips when the first bite took a chunk of flesh from her hand. She switched tactics, no longer trying to hit the blurs of movement. She simply wanted to keep them as far away as she could. Around her, the soldiers had dismounted, fighting blindly, their screams and shouts of pain evidence of their ineffective efforts.
The horrific image of being eaten alive, chunk by chunk, kept her blade swinging. She pulled a second dagger and windmilled her arms in a protective arch, moving at speeds faster than even she normally moved. She was rewarded with a single hit, cutting easily through the thin gray arm of a reaching Mimis.
But the attack didn’t slow. For what seemed an eternity, the creatures came at them, an unrecognizable murmur underlying screams and the sound of metal slicing through air. Vic’s gut clenched at that sounds the creatures made, but she kept moving. Her arms grew heavy, her shoulders burned, and still she swung her blades. At the edge of her vision, she saw one soldier fall to the creatures. She didn’t look long enough to see the outcome of his fate. His screams were enough.
Panic crept into her consciousness
. Her lungs burned with the effort of keeping her defense. She knew she wouldn’t be able to hold the creatures off much longer, but the fear of what the Mimis would do kept her moving despite the agonizing fire shooting through her arms and shoulders. Behind her, she could hear Night’s Gale attack with hooves and teeth. Yet the Mimis made no attempt to take bites from the horses’ flesh. They avoided the animals, even when the war-trained horses struck at them. Vic was too busy keeping the creatures away from her own flesh to wonder about that for long.
Her arms started to slow, despite her mind screaming to keep them moving. She roared, forcing her body to move faster, ignoring the pain seizing her muscles. It didn’t work. Her arms felt like lead weights had been tied to them, dragging no matter what she did. In horror, she watched as a gray arm darted under her defenses, clutching her tunic. She screeched and swung, only to feel the grasp of another hungry hand. She threw her heavy arms, blades lurching at the attackers, and knew she’d feel those sharp teeth soon.
Suddenly the Mimis’s garbled murmurs stopped. And the still air erupted. A torrential wind bellowed down the narrow pass, whipping Vic’s hair into her face and slapping stinging sand against exposed skin. She turned her back to the wind, expending the last of her strength just to remain standing. Her daggers ceased their frantic movements, her arms falling heavily to her sides. She watched through squinted eyes as the long, thin, hairless gray bodies of the Mimis blew away. Even the arm she’d managed to sever tumbled into the air.
In a matter of minutes, the pass was clear and the wind stopped as abruptly as it had started. Vic took a long, ragged breath, and locked her knees to keep from falling to the ground.
Her heartbeat was just beginning to slow when a fresh wave of panic started her blood surging again. Frantically, she looked around at the weary soldiers. Her knees wobbled when she saw Jacob standing over what remained of the soldier who’d gone down. Except for a rip in his tunic sleeve and a bite on his hand, he didn’t look hurt.
She took another deep breath and closed her eyes, leaning heavily against Night’s Gale. The mare stood passive, seemingly undisturbed by the recent battle, her sweat-soaked coat the only evidence that she’d just been in a fight. Vic sucked in air, breathing in the sharp musk of Gale’s sweat and listened to her heart pounding in her ears.
“Victoria?”
Jacob’s soft voice opened her eyes.
“Are you hurt?”
She pulled away from Gale and smiled. “Not bad,” she whispered, forcing her leaden arms around his waist. “It only took one bite for me to decide I didn’t want to get bit again. You have just the one bite?”
“Yes, love. I didn’t much care for the feeling either.”
She dropped her head back. “What happened?”
“I’m not sure, but I suspect we’ll get answers from our two magicians.”
“Was anyone else injured? I saw the one soldier go down.”
“A few of the soldiers are chewed badly. We’ll have to find a place to hole up so we can tend their wounds.”
“Garath?”
“He’s all right. Only lost a few chunks.”
She nodded, ignoring the flicker of uncertainty in his eyes. She glanced around and saw Kevin, Tiya and Henry were still standing with only a few wounds between them. The soldiers with minor wounds were collecting the horses or helping the seriously wounded. The sound of the river bubbled beneath the groans and mumbled speech of their group. A soft, pine-scented breeze brushed through her hair, cooling her overheated skin.
After a few quiet moments, Kevin, Tiya and Henry joined them.
“We need to find shelter,” Kevin said, his voice low.
“There’s a cave, not far from here,” Jacob said. “It’s off the road, but it won’t be difficult for the wounded to reach.”
Worry still creased Kevin’s brow. At Jacob’s raised eyebrow, the young giant said, “Henry had to drop the shield to work the wind spell.”
“The wind we created,” Henry said, nodding toward Tiya, “required a great deal of energy from both of us. I couldn’t hold the shield while working the other spell.”
“Damn,” Jacob whispered. “And now?”
“I’m returning to full strength quickly. Within a quarter of an hour, I’ll have the shield back in place, but…”
“The damage has been done,” Tiya finished for him and placed a reassuring hand on his arm. “The blood magicians will almost certainly know where we are now. When the shield goes back into place, they won’t be able to track us easily, but we’ve already been forced to reveal our position.”
“They’ll know which direction we travel,” Jacob said flatly. He looked back to his soldiers, silently for several minutes. “We’ll take cover in the cave for tonight,” he said at last. “Tomorrow, we make for Georna castle as fast as possible.”
“Do we stay on the main road?” Kevin asked.
“There’s another route, but it’s slow and would be difficult for the wounded. I think we stick to the main road, where we can move quickly. It’s possible they’re too far ahead to send an attack.”
Jacob didn’t sound convinced, but Vic remained silent. They didn’t have many options left. Tomorrow, they’d make a mad dash for Georna castle. She offered a silent prayer to the Goddess, something she found herself doing more often lately than ever before in her life.
The mouth of the cave Jacob led them to was barely large enough to move the horses through one at a time. After only a few feet, though, the interior of the cave opened into a single, massive cavern with more than enough room to accommodate all of the humans and horses.
The wounded were laid out, made as comfortable as possible, and their injuries tended. Of the fifty soldiers, twenty had received serious wounds, only one man, the one she’d seen fall to the Mimis, had died, and the rest had received only minor injuries. Those with the fewest injuries collected wood and soon the cave walls flickered with shadows from several small fires, the scent of wood smoke covering the damp, mossy smell of the cavern.
She and Jacob sat to one side of the cave. After making sure his soldiers were taken care of, Jacob bandaged her hand himself.
“See,” she said, when he looked up from her wound, “that wasn’t so bad, was it?”
He frowned. “Yes, little thief, that was bad.” With a deep breath, he shook his head and let the subject go.
“But why did they attack? I thought Mimis only ate roots.”
“On occasion they attack lone human travelers when they happen to come across them. But I’ve only heard of them attacking large groups like that when they were starving. Thing is, this was a good year. There was no reason for them to be hungry.”
“Why didn’t they try to eat the horses?”
“Mimis don’t like cattle or any other kind of meat except for human flesh.”
“Yuck.” She grimaced.
“I’ve never been overly fond of the Mimis myself. Something about being eaten alive…”
His wry grin made her chuckle. “How’s your hand?”
“Fine.” He held up his bandaged limb for her inspection.
“Did you learn to dress wounds in the guard?”
“My mother taught me.”
She squeezed his fingers, a faintly envious sensation clenching her heart. The moment ended when Garath approached.
“General. Vic,” he greeted.
“Hey, Garath,” Vic said, “good to see you standing.”
“Thanks. Good to be standing. Were you hurt badly?”
“No. Just a little chunk out of my hand.”
“Glad it wasn’t worse.” He shifted his gaze to Jacob. “The wounded have all been cared for and a guard set at the mouth of the cave as well as down the path.”
“Good. Thanks, Garath.”
He glanced at the cave floor, then met Jacob’s gaze again. “We’ll make a run for Georna castle tomorrow?”
“Yeah. Early.”
“Everyone should be ready for the dash by
the morning,” he said with a firm nod, but uncertainty edged his voice.
“You’d better get some rest.” As the young man started to walk away, Jacob called, “Garath, glad you’re okay.”
“You too, Jacob.”
When they were alone again, Vic asked, “How long have you known Garath?”
“About five years now. I’ve always been able to count on him. He’s a good man.”
“Yeah. He is.”
Jacob’s eyes narrowed. “Should I be worried, little thief?”
“About Garath? No.” She slid closer, kissing him lightly. “I’ve always preferred men with brown eyes,” she whispered.
His crooked smile made her heart jump. His warm kiss was interrupted by a hesitant cough.
“Sorry,” Henry said, managing to look both embarrassed and distracted at the same time. “But we need to talk.”
“Have a seat,” Jacob offered with a wave of his hand. Tiya and Kevin joined them just as Henry sat.
“What are we discussing?” Kevin asked, circling his wife in his arms.
“Arlana.” Henry paused, his lips pursed. “I was instructed by my master to discuss this only if and when appropriate. I’m afraid that time is now as we can’t predict what may meet us tomorrow. There is more to this…situation, than is evident. Several months ago…no, I have to start earlier. There’s a prophecy.”
Vic sucked in a breath at the mention of the prophecy Kritta had hinted at less than a month earlier. She hadn’t expected it to be part of this.
Henry shot her a curious look but continued his story. “The prophecy is over a thousand years old. Its origins, the name of the prophet, all have been lost to time. But the words of the prophecy remain. In essence, it states a child will be born of power so great, she will control all magic and hold the fate of the world in the palm of her hand. She’ll control that which cannot be controlled and command that which cannot be commanded.”
