by Elí Freysson
“Irina.”
The voice woke her from her ruminations with a start.
Bors stood in their path, about twenty metres away.
Irina turned around, finding Ana standing behind them at the same distance.
Both had a tension in their body language, like cats ready to pounce.
“The plan,” Irina whispered. “Split up!”
Her companions burst into action, vanishing into the surrounding foliage.
Irina stayed perfectly still. Ana’s gaze followed the others for a moment, but then turned back to Irina. Both were focusing on her; their true quarry. As expected.
She thought of her clashes with normal human beings during these last three years; how slow and weak they’d always seemed. Now it was her.
“We’ve come to take you back,” Bors said. “But of course you know that.”
“I do,” Irina said, and heard a faint waver in her voice.
Ana put her hands on her hips, looking slightly angry.
“Why did you leave?” she demanded.
Irina let out a short sigh. She took a step towards Ana.
“I don’t... I don’t know, Ana.”
Her heart was hammering away and her throat felt tight. A flood of emotions was overwhelming her, too loud and powerful for her to make sense of them.
She continued walking slowly towards the dark-haired woman, using the club like a walking stick. She heard Bors’s footsteps approaching her from behind.
Ana loosened the ilthin from her belt. The blue rope moved with a smoothness that resembled life as the woman readied it meaningfully.
“My connection to her was just suddenly cut away,” Irina went on and pointed to her own neck. “I was confused. I had forgotten how chaotic it all is, without guidance and clarity.”
Bors was right behind her.
“Well, not to worry,” Ana said. “You will have guidance again.”
Irina’s eyes darted to the crimson collar around the woman’s throat.
“Come,” Ana said and reached for her wrist.
Irina moved as if to give herself over. Then she shifted direction, Ana grasped at nothing, and Irina grabbed her in turn. She flung the woman around, straight into Bors, and they both fell.
Once again she ran for the trees. There was a familiar swish in the air behind her and she timed her leap to the side perfectly. The blue cord missed, grabbing at air.
“Don’t be difficult, Irina,” Bors said with mild exasperation as she made it to the trees.
She wove between trees, making herself hard to target with the ilthin. Rapid footsteps followed her.
“You know how this ends,” Bors added.
Irina dove into a running crouch to get by a long, low-hanging branch. She glanced back to see Ana break it with a swing of her hand. She turned her eyes back front and heard Bors throw his ilthin. She held the club out behind her and the rope wrapped around it instead of her. She let go before the man could yank and disrupt her balance.
Irina leapt over a fallen log, darted left and then right, clinging to a faint hope that they might lose track of her.
“Split up!” Bors shouted at Ana.
Irina burst through a narrow gap between two thorny bushes, paying for it in scratches. She looked back again and saw Bors simply leap over them. She jumped down an incline, past a large boulder, and then lay down flat behind another fallen log. It was a desperate gamble, but given the state of her stamina it was all she could do.
Bors’s quick, powerful footsteps arrived on the scene.
“Irina!” he called out a few steps away from her. Then he darted off into the general direction she’d been heading in.
“Irina!” Ana called from nearby. “Stop this! Come back to our mistress!”
It sounded like she was getting closer and so Irina got to her feet. She ran back the way she’d come, but a miscalculated turn brought her straight into unfamiliar territory. She found herself all hemmed in by various large plants on two sides, and a house-sized rock on the third.
The rock. She could hide on top of it. Above sight.
She selected the tree nearest the rock, then selected a branch that could deliver her within reach of the top. Summoning what remained of her reserves she ran at it and managed to propel herself up against it, high enough to reach a low branch. The momentum sufficed to let her hoist herself up. She put a foot against the bark, grit her teeth, and reached for the broken remains of a branch. She made it, then set her foot again and reached for that higher one. The one that almost touched the rock top.
Her fingertips touched it and she dared simply let go and shoot her other hand out. Her fingers clamped around the branch and her feet dangled in the air for a moment.
The branch snapped.
Irina plunged downwards, straight into Ana’s arms. They closed around her and the chalu immediately drove both of them face-down into the ground, with Ana on top.
Irina knew it was over. Her body still went through an instinctive burst of resistance, but Bors grabbed her ankles and held them fast.
Ana folded Irina’s forearms together behind her back, then looped her ilthin around them. The rope cooperated subtly with its owner’s will, flowing in place and gripping as Ana looped it around again and again. Irina then felt the knot being cinched in place.
Bors released her ankles and Ana sat up, straddling her while still holding the ilthin in her hand.
“There,” she said, and patted Irina’s shoulder teasingly. “I got you.”
5.
Ana was as thorough as ever. She wrapped her ilthin around Irina with quick, smooth skill, forming a harness that kept her arms pinned to her torso
“I told you I would get her first,” she said in the middle of her task.
“Yes, yes,” Bors replied. “If you’re going to brag do give some credit to that branch.”
Irina glanced to her left, at the broken branch in question.
Ana finished the harness by tying off a knot between Irina’s shoulder blades. What followed was a brief silence. Bors stood where he was, Ana still straddled her, and Irina lay completely still, defeat now added to the storm within.
They had her.
Ana then turned her over onto her back.
“Mm. You’re hurt,” the woman said.
She put one hand on Irina’s cut cheek and the other on her shoulder. Irina felt healing energy course into her, triggering a tingle in her various cuts as they closed.
“There,” Ana said soothingly and switched to stroking the cheek. “As pretty as ever.”
Irina could think of nothing to say, and the two chalu just spent a few moments taking her in. Her eyes darted between their faces and their collars.
“You know, it’s strange seeing you like this,” Ana said. “Cut off, and...”
Her voice trailed off and she touched Irina’s bare throat.
“Don’t,” Irina said and tried to shift away from the touch.
“All right, all right,” Ana said placatingly and shifted a hand to Irina’s other shoulder. “But let me ask you again: Why did you run?”
Painful emotion had never been much of a feature in Irina’s life as Lady Lumiara’s slave. But she tried to imagine her own reaction if either of the people above her had done as she.
She would have felt hurt, and guilt now warred with her desire for freedom.
“Who knows what the heart wants?” she replied. “It is a wild thing, and sometimes it comes into conflict with itself.”
“Yes,” Ana replied. “But wild things can be tamed, and it is for the best.”
She ran a finger along her collar.
“How did that happen, anyway?”
Irina hesitated. It seemed a sure thing they would chase after Jon if she told them about the knife.
Ana sighed at her foolishness.
“Irina, you know full well you will happily explain it once we deliver you back to our mistress.”
“Then show some patience, Ana.”<
br />
The woman just gave her an annoyed look.
“Do let her stand up, Ana,” Bors said.
“Fine, fine.”
Ana stood, then hooked a finger in the front of the harness and used it to pull Irina to her feet. The aches in her muscles were every bit as healed as the cuts. Lady Lumiara’s power had restored her to perfect condition... at the cost of captivity.
Bors put a hand on both their shoulders.
“Look, you two... we are companions. United in service and in standing by one another. Soon none of this will matter.”
Ana conceded with a nod.
The man then took a step back and Irina recognised the distant look that came over his face. His body stiffened, he slowly tilted his head back, and when he tilted it back forward his whole manner was very different. He gently took both her shoulders.
“Irina,” Lady Lumiara said through her slave, her ethereal voice imposed over his.
The power of her presence wasn’t fully on display through another body, but Irina still found herself transfixed, her shoulders slumping in an involuntary display of submission.
“I am glad you are unhurt,” the strange double voice said. “And glad that we will soon be reunited. Do not fear. You need fear no more than I need anger.”
Bors’s body language slowly went back to normal and he took a few moments to compose himself. Irina remembered how disorienting these direct channellings were.
“That is that,” Ana said. “Let us go.”
They each took hold of one of her upper arms and walked off with her between them. Irina suppressed any urge to dig her heels in. Carrying her wouldn’t tire them out at all.
They walked a short distance until arriving at a distinctive-looking tree. Placed at its roots were their travel packs. Irina’s own kayros stuck out of one of them and presumably her ilthin was packed away somewhere as well.
“I found your ribbon too,” Ana said and pulled up her sleeve. It was wrapped around her wrist. “I suppose I should hold onto it until you can be trusted not to throw it away again. It was clever, that bit with the ferry,” she added reluctantly. “But you’ve always been clever.”
“But how did you find me?”
They took her arms again and continued the walk.
“Oh, how does one find quarry, Irina?” Ana replied. “We felt you had to be keeping away from settlements. This area is the least populated way to the border. We asked about ruins, caves and other potential resting places along the way. All we could do after that was check them, look for tracks, and hope for the best.”
She turned to Irina and flashed a small smile through the irritation that clearly hadn’t quite left her blood yet.
“I really am glad we found you. Our mistress will take you in hand again.”
She would. Lady Lumiara would take her back and objections would get Irina absolutely nowhere. The Bright Lady would simply smile tolerantly, as one might at a small child, and slip a collar around her neck. And arguing with these two would be every bit as effective as trying to escape them with her hands tied.
She was caught and her inner war of emotions simply would not let up.
Dismay at having gotten a taste of forgotten freedom and then being taken again. Shame at having fled in the first place. Relief at seeing her two friends again, coupled with despair at having lost her other friends a second time. Sadness for Jon and Elseth, but also joy at the prospect of seeing her mistress again. Then of course there was a certain relief at having choice simply taken off her hands again. How could she agonize over decisions when she could not make any?
A part of her wanted to be angry at the two of them, even as reason reminded her that they had no more choice than she currently did. And then there were the little moments, such as when Bors gave her a simple reassuring look, clearly noticing her turmoil.
“Where are we going?” she asked after a little while. She needed a distraction from it all.
“Our mistress has decided on a slight change of plans,” Bors said. “She will make an unannounced visit to Vyslak, on the river.”
The town we circled to avoid.
“We will pass through there and meet with her on her way,” Ana said. “You should see her again in a mere three days.”
Three days. Three more days of her thoughts being entirely her own, for better and worse.
She briefly thought of Jon and his special knife and the possibility of a second rescue. But no. The first one had been a fluke. How were they to find her within three days? They didn’t even know for sure that she’d been taken. And once collared again she herself would be on alert for them.
It was so tempting to simply give in. To accept that she could do nothing and just relax into that fact. Just let herself be walked back to Lady Lumiara and spend the rest of her days in induced satisfaction.
“I could do with a rest,” she said.
“It does seem that you could,” Ana said.
They found a log to sit on and lined up on it, with Irina in the middle. The two chalu opened their packs and took out their modest provisions. They didn’t untie her, and since Ana had caught Irina it was the woman’s job to hand-feed her.
She was glad to have her belly filled out better and embarrassment at the whole thing contended with camaraderie. There was a bit of mockery in Ana’s manner, but it was playful.
After a quiet while of sitting the two of them stood up and pulled Irina to her feet. Bors sent a bit of healing energy into her, and the mild discomfort that had built up due to having her arms fastened in place vanished. There were several reasons why no one ever escaped her situation and one of them was that there was never any need to loosen bonds, not even for the sake of kindness.
Irina couldn’t help but laugh a little.
“What is it?” Ana asked, looking confused.
“I have to admit, this is all a perfect metaphor,” Irina said. “Comfort, safety, direction, kindness... at the cost of tight control.”
Ana looked annoyed with her again and tugged on her arm, starting the three of them walking again.
“We are going to share a big laugh over your complaining once you’re wearing a collar again,” she said dismissively.
“Are you saying that is a poor trade?” Bors asked Irina more sedately. “We serve something bigger than ourselves; something better than human beings who claw and grope for power. We help maintain order and all those good things you mentioned. Mid-Melgen is a better land than ever before and us servants have direction and purpose. Would you say all of that is worth less than an abstract notion of liberty?”
Irina had no good reply.
They reached an edge overlooking the area’s main road. A bird’s flight between Vyslak and the ruined village wasn’t actually that long, but walking the distance required going around a steep ridge. Unless one had the strength and speed of a chalu.
Ana picked her up in her arms and Irina clenched her stomach. The two of them leapt down, skipping on protruding ledges and bumps, until they landed on the road. Ana put her back on her feet, Irina let out the breath she’d been holding, and their walk continued as if nothing had happened.
She thought about Ana’s words. Yes, she was clever. It had always been her greatest strength in the adventuring life, before she was turned into a channel for otherworldly power. She’d always had an eye for solutions; those narrow cracks in problems that one could slip through.
There was never any use in wasting time wishing for unavailable means. She did not have the means to break free, nor to talk her way out of this. So what means did she have? There was the double issue of escaping her bonds and the two chalu. What could possibly achieve that?
She went over it all in her head, taking advantage of the silence of her captors to examine the facts one by one. The two of them were on alert as it was. Any show of defiance or an ill-conceived escape attempt would only make them more so. If she worked out some opportunity it would be her only one.
In time an awfu
l idea struck.
“Did you encounter the bandits?” she asked.
“Bandits?” Bors asked.
“We met them in a ruined village east of Vyslak. They were a few dozen strong. Gathered from here and there about the land, as if someone was trying to form a large band out of what is left.”
“No, we did not encounter any such thing,” Ana said, looking thoughtful.
“When we would not join them they meant to murder us for being witnesses,” Irina went on. “Some of them were quite well equipped and their leader seemed intelligent. It is... worth keeping in mind, I think.”
“Yes, we should pass this along,” Bors commented. “Thank you.”
They started encountering traffic; ordinary folk moving produce to or from the nearby trade centre. Bors and Ana greeted each person briefly but respectfully; the right-hand agents of the Bright Lords were duty-bound to make a good impression.
Irina supposed chalu weren’t commonly seen in this part of Mid-Melgen. In her earliest days as a slave some people had reacted to her with a certain awkwardness. It was on plainer display here. People clearly didn’t quite know how to treat them or how to conduct themselves. A mother quietly hushed a young boy who pointed at the collars. A man who led a donkey next to them for some distance fought a long and visible battle with himself over whether to speed up to leave the trio behind, slow down and fall behind, or just stare ahead.
Irina herself mostly elected to stare ahead, feeling very self-conscious about being a bound captive in public. The irony wasn’t lost on her; that she’d walked with ease and pride while bound in a far more fundamental manner.
They stopped twice more on the way and Ana fed her again, completely heedless of the farm folk who passed by as she did so. The sun was reaching the horizon when Irina again heard the din of the river.
Vyslak was a pretty little town, big only by the area’s standards but clearly doing well. The light was turning dim and the day’s trade had mostly ended, but the houses were in good condition and the air smelled rather clean.
Bors addressed the first person they encountered and asked for a resting place. The woman he spoke to looked taken aback a moment, but stammered out a direction and then said she would notify the mayor of their arrival.
