She took a deep breath. “May I speak now, Sath?” she whispered, fear quaking in her voice.
“I can’t believe you’ve held back this long,” Sath said as he sat back down at his work. Shhhrink. Shhhrink. “Well?”
“I didn’t stay behind because I wanted to be with Dor,” she said slowly. “I stayed behind to kill him.”
Sath erupted in laughter, which slowly turned into a menacing growl. He did not look up at her. “You do not have it in you to kill anything! Do you think I’m a fool?”
“No. I know you are not, and that is why things happened as they did. You’re quite tough to outsmart, Cat,” she said. She paused a moment to get her heart under control before it burst from her chest, giving Sath the chance he needed. Before she even saw him move, Sath grabbed her by the throat, lifting her off the ground. She kicked at him and struggled, but his grip was like iron as it closed on her windpipe.
Sath brought her close to him, ignoring the blows landed by her flailing legs and arms. “I may be tough to outsmart, but you will be easy to kill,” he hissed at her, again tightening the grip on her throat. She felt her eyes bulging from their sockets as she gasped for air. “Look at that, you even got rid of the scar I gave you.” In one deft movement, the clawed weapon was on his other hand, its blade twinkling in the candlelight.
“Sath…please…” She could barely speak as she tugged at the fingers around her throat. She began to kick harder as Sath ran the back of one of the lethal blades down the side of her face. “Don’t…”
Sath flexed the clawed weapon, allowing the bloodlust he had held back to flow freely. “Hmm, shall I be merciful and do this quickly? Bah, what’s the fun in that?”
Tears rolled down her cheeks. She scanned the room that was beginning to darken around the edges. She found it difficult not to stare at his fangs, which were only inches from her nose. “Please…” she whispered, her voice hoarse from lack of air.
As suddenly as he had grabbed her, Sath released her. She fell in a heap on the floor, gasping for air. He turned his back to her and tried desperately to free himself from the sound her voice. “Say what you came to say and get out,” he said, his voice low and menacing.
“I…” she started to speak but could only cough and sputter until she got her breathing under control. When she recovered, she continued, “I killed Dorlagar. He is dead. I suppose,” she paused to cough, “that’s all you need to know.” She stood slowly, the room still spinning a bit from her previous lack of oxygen.
Sath nodded slowly. “So now you’ve come for me, have you? Going to give all of your companions a taste of your blade before you rest?” He turned back to face her. “Here, do it quickly, because you will have but one chance before I strike back.” He knelt in front of her, again carefully avoiding looking her in the eye.
Her face knotted in frustration. “You’re not listening to me!” she exclaimed, sounding more like a small child than the woman that she was. “You never did listen to me; you only heard what you wanted to hear.” She stamped her tiny foot in frustration, nearly causing Sath to laugh in her face.
“Aye, I have heard every word you’ve said, Little One,” he said. “You’ve killed your lover. What business is that of mine unless you’ve come to kill me as well?” He leaned in a bit closer to her. “I suppose there is a line of them, just waiting for you to return and…”
She silenced him by slapping his face as hard as she could. Sath roared and once again grabbed her, but this time by the shoulders.
“That was a mistake, druid,” he hissed.
“You’re making a mistake,” she blurted out. “I’m not…I mean; you don’t understand…” Sath pulled her close to him to snarl at her, but suddenly stopped cold as he looked into her eyes.
“They’re dark,” he murmured, as though in a trance.
“What?” She struggled against him, using his momentary pause to her advantage. She wiggled out of his grasp and dashed toward the door, but stopped short as he growled low in his throat. She looked back at him, her hand reaching for the door behind her.
Sath turned slowly to face her, and the rage in his eyes made the wood elf weak in the knees. “Your eyes, wood elf, they’re dark. My Gin’s eyes are blue. Who are you?”
He advanced on her, but stopped short of grabbing her. Instead, he held the tip of her chin on the point of one of the bladed claws as the other one reached past her to hold the door closed. “You have thirty seconds to tell me who you are before I slit your throat.”
The wood elf’s eyes were wide with fear. “I told her that this wouldn’t work,” she said, her voice quaking with sobs. “I told her that you would know the difference, but she said that I was to deliver the message and leave but you wouldn’t stop talking, and I couldn’t get you to stop talking without slapping you and by the way I’m really sorry and…”
“Silence!” Sath roared. “Your thirty seconds are up.” He smiled at her, making sure that he showed his fangs. “Say goodnight, wood elf.”
“Gin sent me!” she shrieked, her eyes wide with fear. “Gin sent me!”
“That’s better…but I don’t believe you,” he said as the tip of the claw pierced her skin.
“Her tunic was tangled in her hair…Sathlir please!” The wood elf found herself unable to move, praying to any deity that was listening that the memory Gin had told her to use her would work. She couldn’t remember what the elder wood elf had told her it meant, but she had said that Sath would recognize it.
“What did you say?” he whispered, frozen in place.
“She…she said you’d recognize that memory, something about her mail tunic getting tangled in her hair, but I can’t remember what it means.” Sath sighed audibly.
“It was the first time that Gin saw me as something other than a monster, I think. What’s your name, little one?” he asked, his voice softening.
“Lairceach,” she whispered. “Gin is my older sister.”
Sath nodded. “I see the resemblance,” he mumbled, backing away from her. “Where is your sister now, Lairceach?”
“I…can’t tell you that,” she said. A low growl erupted from the Qatu’s chest, but by the time he had lunged for Lairceach she had disappeared through the doorway.
“Where are you! You can’t hide from me, druid!” he roared as he burst through the open doorway.
Her laughter seemed to come from behind him, or was it behind the wall? He could not tell. “Yes I can, Sathlir.” He heard tiny feet scampering down the staircase to the ground floor of the grand hall, but decided not to follow her.
“Gin will be back,” he said quietly, nodding his head. “Then we will finish this.”
“Gin!” Lairceach screamed as she entered the room at the inn and pounded up the stairs. “Gin!” The wood elf threw open the door to find her older sister sitting on the floor, meditating over her spell book.
“Lairky please,” Ginolwenye said softly. “I’m busy.”
Lairceach stormed over and put one of her boots firmly in the middle of Gin’s spell book, nearly ripping out the pages. “Not anymore you’re not,” the younger sister ordered, her voice shaking a bit around the edges. Gin slowly looked up at her sister, her ice blue eyes betraying her anger.
“Remove your foot,” Gin said, her voice still and cold.
Lairceach hesitated a moment, then did as she was told.
“Now,” Gin said as she closed her spell book reverently, “what is it? Did you deliver the message to…Ikara’s teeth, girl, what is that scratch on your chin?”
Lairceach sank down to her knees in front of her sister. Tears welled up in her dark eyes. “He was really angry, Gin, not like I’d ever seen anyone before.” The illusion was starting to fade, and Gin could see traces of her sister’s black hair peeking out from behind the brown locks that resembled her own. “He’s not himself. You shouldn’t go back to him.”
“You know I can’t do that,” Gin said. Her composure was fading fast at the thought of
Sath hurting her sister. “Now tell me what happened.”
“He figured it out, but he had already tried to kill me before he knew I was me and not you so really he was trying to hurt you!” The younger wood elf’s words came out in a rush, only moments ahead of sobbing tears. Gin gathered her sister in her arms, letting the young one sob as much as she needed. She smoothed Lairky’s hair, which now had turned back to its natural inky blackness. Gin lightly touched her sister’s chin with her forefinger, and spoke soft words in Elvish. The wound on Lairceach’s chin dissolved into healthy skin, leaving not so much as a scar.
“I will deal with this, Lairky. I am sorry that I sent one as young as you are. Had anything happened to you…well, I cannot believe that Sath would kill you, but…”
Lairceach jerked her head back. Her face was red from sobbing and her normally wide eyes were pinched with swelling. “Believe it,” she said through choking sobs. “He’s the one that’s been doing it, Gin!” The girl wiped her nose on her sleeve, making Gin wince a little. “The return to having a curfew, the fear of leaving the city at night, it’s all because of him!”
Gin smiled at her sister as she smoothed Lairceach’s now-black hair away from her face. “No, little one, that was a long time ago. Those are legends best left untold.”
Lairceach snorted. “Legends indeed. Gin, was Sath’s armor black the last time you saw him?”
Gin knotted her eyebrows. “No.”
“It is now, and when I asked him about it he said it was dyed courtesy of the blood of my kind…OUR kind, Gin, wood elves. Druids and Rangers!” She sniffed loudly before she continued. “He said that if you would betray him then he can’t trust any of us, so we’re as good as dead.”
Gin’s face paled. “He actually said that?” she said, her voice barely a whisper.
“Aye.” Lairceach took Gin’s hand in hers and squeezed it. “You must promise me that you will not go after that Cat, Gin, please? I couldn’t stand it if I lost you. Now that Cursik has left us and not sent word or come home…well, I’d be all alone and I’d die!” The sobs once again overtook the girl, and she fell back into her sister’s arms. Gin stroked her sister’s hair, but her face was still paled with shock. Killing druids and rangers, she thought. Sath… He is angry with me, and I must put this right.
“Lairky, listen to me. I want you to go lie down and try to sleep, and put all of this out of your mind,” Gin said softly. The younger wood elf finally nodded, her eyes half closed, then stood and went to her pallet on the floor. Gin considered her sister for a long moment, and then crossed the room and pulled on her cloak. “I’m going to go…clear my head with some fresh air, but I’ll be back very soon,” she said. She barely heard the door slam behind her as she dashed off to find a courier to take a message to the grand hall of the Fabled Ones.
Twenty-Four
Sath was waiting at the front door to the grand hall when Gin arrived. He was sitting on the ground meditating, with his magical pet by his side. The tiger scanned the area in front of its master, watching for signs of danger. Gin could hear it start to purr when it saw her draw close. She smiled at the magical beast. How many times had that creature put its own life in danger to protect its master… or her?
“Close enough, wood elf,” Sath said, his voice rumbling like a growl. He had not had to open his eyes to know that his warder was purring at Gin. The smell of sunflowers had hit him in the nose like a roundhouse punch. Nevertheless, he was still angry at her, even more so now for the deception involving her sister, and he was not going to let her off easy. Better to let her reveal herself first, and then he could figure out what to do with her.
“Hello, Sath,” Gin said softly, cursing herself for not coming up with anything better to say. “I’ve come to talk.”
“Bah, you think you can fool me again? I should have killed you before when I had the chance.” He remained seated, his eyes closed.
“Sath, look at me,” she began, but he cut her off quickly. The Qatu sprang to his feet and in one movement had her by the shoulders, pulling her close to his face. Gin did not struggle, only locked her eyes on his.
“They’re…blue…” he said, and dropped her as quickly as he had grabbed her. He turned his back quickly as she got to her feet. “What do you want, Gin? Did your sister not relay my words to you?”
“Aye, she did, and I suppose I should thank you for not killing her,” Gin said, swallowing the anger rising in her at the thought of Sath hurting her sister.
“Bah, she’s just one more ranger. I’d reached m’quota for that day.” Sath winced at the gasp he heard from behind him, thankful that he was not facing her.
“So it’s true then?”
“What’s true? That I have once again become the bane of the wood elves of the forest? That I sneak about in the trees at night, snatching up the young and the slow?” Sath turned around slowly and looked down at Gin. “That my armor is dyed with the blood of those unfortunate wretches? Aye, my dear wood elf, our Ginny, tis all true.” He held his breath a moment as he resumed his meditating, waiting for the out lashing of anger that he knew would come…but none did.
“Why?” Gin said.
“Why? That’s all you have to say is ‘why?’” Sath roared as he stood again and looked down at her. “I’m killing your kin, Ginolwenye! Murdering your cousins and their children! Tasting the blood of your neighbors and friends! And all you can say to me is why?”
“Aye, that is what I wish to know. Why?” she said, her voice more calm and solemn than he had ever heard her.
Sath smiled and flexed his hands. “Your sister didn’t tell you? Tis nothing but revenge, darlin, revenge on the race that bore the banshee that betrayed me and the Fabled Ones.” He leaned down until he was again looking her in the eye. “And I suppose you have come to beg me to stop this? To plead for your wretched kind?”
“No,” Gin said carefully. “I have come to ask for your help, Sath, for I find myself yet again in a bit of trouble. It does seem to follow me…”
“Help you?” The Qatu roared in laughter. After a moment, he was again able to speak as he wiped tears from his eyes. “Oh, forgive me, but that’s the best laugh I’ve had in ages,” he said through returning giggles. “Why in the name of your Mother Sephine should I help you?”
“Because you are a good and kind soul, Sath, and you would die for one of your friends,” Gin replied. “And if I am nothing else to you, I would hope that I can still be counted among your friends after you hear what I have to say.”
“Always with the talking,” Sath grumbled. “Well, get on with it, I’m already getting bored.”
“Can we go somewhere more private?” Gin asked, hoping that he would not misunderstand her question. She scanned the area around them, and though she saw no traces of malicious presence, it would still be safer to speak indoors than on the parapets of the grand hall with the warriors hanging about at their posts, guarding the citizens within.
Sath clearly was taken aback by her suggestion. “Whatever you have to say to me can be done here,” he said gruffly. Gin moved closer to him, and he noticed that the fear he had smelled on her… on her sister earlier was gone. His heart lightened just a bit at that realization. I nearly killed her sister and have murdered half of her kind, and yet she still does not fear me as she did before. What has changed?
“I need for you to know why I stayed behind in the ruined Keep, for I fear that you and the others have the wrong idea. I am also concerned for the safety of one of the Fabled Ones, Gaelin…” She paused a moment as a fuzzy memory tugged at her, but finding it unable to coalesce she continued. “I fear that he did not make it back out of the Keep with the wizard.”
“What? I don’t know what you’re talking about, female, and I don’t particularly care to hear the details of your little tryst with that human,” Sath said, intentionally avoiding her gaze. He scanned the ground at his feet. “At least sit down, will you? Your pacing is going to set off my pet here.” Gin sat
down very close to Sath, causing his mind to spin and grow a bit fuzzy. “See? Not like I’m going to bite.”
“I’m not so sure about that, from your own admission,” Gin said, trying to stifle a grin. She remembered then that Sath had an uncanny ability to put almost anyone at ease, an odd thing for one as large and clearly dangerous as he, and she relaxed a bit before she began speaking. “Sath, I stayed behind because I needed to finish things with Dorlagar. He was responsible for my parents’ deaths, as you may remember.”
“Go on.” Sath continued to stare at the ground, now and then picking at a frayed edge on his boot. “I am not sure why I should care, but go on.”
Gin paused a moment before she spoke, choosing her words carefully. “I did not defeat him in the arena many seasons ago, just before I…ran into you for the first time.” Sath raised his gaze to meet hers as, unconsciously, her fingers found the scar on the side of her face. The gesture sent a painful twang through Sath’s heart as he watched. He had hurt her, hurt GIN. He was no longer just a legend to her but a monster. Bane of the Forest.
“Yes, I remember. Excellent marmalade sandwiches,” Sath said, trying to lighten the mood, a grin spreading across his feline features faded as he watched the color drain from her face for a moment. She chewed on her fingernail until she had regained enough control to continue.
“When we first met, I had come from the arena in Calder’s Port. We were there with Naevys and Dor had been out all night drinking the night before. I challenged him to a duel to avenge my parents but when it came down to it…I couldn’t kill him.” Gin hung her head in shame. “Naevys was right, you know, I was not fit for much save healing from a safe distance. After I…well, let’s be honest, after you ran me off with your pet, I was lost. I don’t mean physically lost; I knew where I was. I mean that I had no purpose. It wasn’t until Elysiam brought me into The Fabled Ones that I found a home and a reason to wake up in the mornings.”
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