by Elina Vale
Shri’s stomach rumbled, but she refused to eat anything the woman had.
“I’m sorry, we came into the wrong place,” Teron said, stepping on Shri’s toes as he scrambled away.
A dirty hand wrapped around Shri wrist, and she turned to see one of the patrons grinning back at her. “Don’t go just yet, missy!”
Shri tried to break free, but the man wrapped his other arm around her shoulders. Teron turned to help, but when he tried to cast a spell, the man who appeared to be sleeping jumped up and hit Teron with his huge fist, knocking the young baron to the floor.
“Teron!” Shri screamed. She kicked with her feet and twisted her body to get free, but it was like fighting against a brick wall. If she only could reach the knife she had hidden in her boot.
Squeezing her way out from behind the counter, the woman fondled Shri’s belt with her fat fingers. “Whatcha got in that pouch of yers, girlie?”
“Don’t touch it!” Shri shouted. “Leave me alone! TERON!” As she twisted to free herself, Teron’s attacker approached. The second he was in range, she instinctively kicked upward and struck him on the chin with her instep.
His head snapped back, and he stumbled away. Recovering, he glared at her with malice. “Stop it, you bitch!” He pushed his face close to Shri’s. “I’m gonna show you what we do with rats like you!”
Shri panicked as he unbuttoned his trousers. She saw her fountain again, glimmering deep inside, but she couldn’t touch it. “Let me go!”
“You look pretty,” he panted, licking her cheek. “And ye taste good.”
“Teron!” she cried. “Please wake up!”
A clay pot flew through the air and shattered itself against the would-be rapist’s head, sending him to the floorboards. The man restraining Shri gasped, and his grip loosened. He tumbled to the ground, where he began to claw at his own throat, gasping for breath. The fat woman backed up a few steps, holding her hands high.
A voice from the doorway said, “Leave the girl alone, Nandera.”
Nandera grimaced. “How’s I suppose to know they’re your friends, Vojmar?”
Shri took a breath and faced the senatai who stood at the doorway. Blond hair reached his shoulders in curls, and a neat mustache decorated his upper lip. Lazy eyelids hung over a set of small eyes.
“You shouldn’t steal from kids,” he said.
“You’re ruining my business, Vojmar.” Nandera pushed back behind the counter as her customers slowly picked themselves up.
Shri knelt at Teron’s side. “Wake up. We’ve been rescued.” She glanced cautiously at the blond man. “I think.”
Teron opened his eyes and pushed himself onto his elbows. Studying the senatai, he wondered, “Who are you?”
The senatai leaned closer. “I’m Senatai Vojmar. And you must be from the island. There’s no way any trainee of the Spike could wander Glasswater unnoticed.”
“Island?” Teron scoffed as he stood and wiped the dust from his jacket. “What island?”
Vojmar squinted his eyes. “Don’t play dumb. I saw you trying to cast a spell before you were knocked out.”
Teron frowned again and grabbed Shri by her sleeve. “Come on... Eleana. We must leave.”
It only took a moment for Shri to understand why Teron had called her by an unfamiliar name. They had no idea which side this man, this Vojmar, was on. He could be one of Shea’s.
Vojmar grabbed Shri by her other sleeve. “Not so fast. It’s my duty to escort the pair of you to a ship and get you back to the Island.”
“We are not going anywhere with you.” Shri pulled her arm away from his grip.
His expression darkened. “Yes, you will. You’re children, and your training must be incomplete. That makes you a danger to this city.”
“Danger?” Teron said. “Us? We’d have been devoured by these scavengers if you hadn’t come along! How dangerous can we be?”
“Dangerous enough to attempt unpracticed elemental casting!” Vojmar argued. “Why, you might burn down the entire city with one misfired spell! No more talking. If you won’t come willingly, I will force you to obey.”
When they were outside, Vojmar held them by their arms, turning his head to decide which way to go. “That way, apprentices.” He pushed them forward. Shri stumbled and nearly fell, but the senatai didn’t seem to care. He walked with broad steps, and he kept prodding Shri and Teron in their backs.
It was late afternoon, and the city was still crowded. Bystanders watched with curiosity as Vojmar dragged his captives through the streets.
“Stop it!” Shri said when his hand painfully squeezed her neck.
“Quiet!” he insisted. “We have to hurry if you’re going to make the ship before it departs.”
The senatai led them to the city’s outer neighborhood. The stone-carpeted streets gave way to sandy paths, and the city walls rose in front of them.
“This is not the way to the harbor,” Teron said.
Vojmar didn’t respond.
“Hey!” Teron shouted. “Where are we going?”
As Vojmar turned, Shri saw the spark of magic glowing in his eyes.
Teron’s eyes lit up in response to the threat. He hopped in front of Shri, his hands high, ready to protect her.
“What is going on?” she demanded.
Vojmar’s mouth curved into a wicked smile, and the citizens scattered when they glimpsed the power building around him. They dared not intervene in senatai matters.
He took a threatening step forward. “’Eleana,’ he scoffed. “As if Shri Moongale, with her white hair and bold gaze, could hide behind such a name. My mistress is looking for you.”
“Shri, hide!” Teron shouted, thrusting his magic towards Vojmar.
The senatai stumbled backward a few steps, laughing. “Is that the best you can do, child? Your powers are no match for mine. Play nice and I won’t hurt you.”
“Why does the High Mistress need me?” Shri asked. If she could get into Ironflare diplomatically, maybe she could negotiate to free her father.
“Does it matter? What she wants, she gets. She is power itself! She is our queen and ruler, our god!” Vojmar’s eyes grew wide as he preached. “Tremble before her might!”
“Teron, I should go with him,” Shri whispered.
He stiffened. “Shri, you can’t continue jumping without a plan!”
She faced him. “I have a plan.”
“Your plan is to us get captured?”
“Not us. Me.” Before he could stop her, she stepped forward. “I come willingly, but you must let my friend go.”
Vojmar laughed. “I have no need for the boy, but I can’t let him run back to the Island and tell Firestone what has happened here.”
“Then cast a memory block!” Shri insisted, holding a protective arm before Teron.
“Memory blocks can be removed,” Vojmar said, “which is precisely what Firestone will do when she realizes that he’s been away and can’t recall his adventure. No, there’s only one way to ensure his silence.”
“He’s the son of a prominent noble!”
“But he attacked a senatai,” Vojmar said, his eyes blazing with hostile energy. “See how powerful your word is against mine!”
Before he could cast, Shri sprang forward and grappled his hands, hoping to break the enchantment. He pushed her off and released an energy wave that threw Teron backward onto the ground.
Shri knew she couldn’t withstand Vojmar’s magic for long, but he was a small man. Whatever drokashai training she had absorbed from Boa was her best chance. Locking her leg behind Vojmar’s knee, she hooked him off-balance and tackled him to the ground with all her weight. As he prepared to cast another bolt of force, she planted her foot, wiggled her blade out of her boot, and punched it into him.
He cried out as the blade pierced his chest, but his voice soon faded, and he lay still.
Shri stumbled up, bloody knife in her hand. The crowd, safely distant from the violence, watched her with h
orrified eyes. She had killed another man. Not just any man, but a senatai. To disobey a senatai was worth imprisonment; killing one was punishable by death.
Rising to his feet, Teron grabbed Shri’s hand. “Let’s get out of here before the guards arrive! Quickly!”
Shri took a shaky breath and ran after Teron. She had solved the conflict quickly enough, but once more, she had done so by murdering the problem. Why was death always her only solution? Did it say something about the people who had confronted her since she entered the Gate Run, or did it reveal something about her? Worse, she had lost her only expedient way to meet with Shea.
Teron skittered back to the busy parts of the city, his pack bouncing on his back. He turned into an abandoned alley an ordered Shri to remove the bloody shirt and jacket, giving her clean ones to change into. She tied a scarf over her head, knowing that her white hair would be the first detail witnesses used to describe the senatai-killer. Desperation clawed its way into Shri’s mind. Once again, she had barely survived, and this time, she had almost gotten an innocent friend killed as well. If she couldn’t disarm one senatai without getting close enough to stab him, how could she possibly handle Shea, Doria, or their strongest minions?
More than ever, she needed magic.
CHAPTER 10
“MAYBE WE’LL HAVE BETTER luck here,” Teron said, as they stopped in front of another inn. It was a clean-looking place, echoing with laughter and music. The dining room held about a dozen tables, and nearly all of them were taken. Patrons drank from frothing mugs of ale and ate hearty stew and bread.
“Is it safe in here?” Shri whispered. “Surely, word of my crime must be making the rounds.”
“Don’t worry. Just keep that scarf on your head.”
They sat down at an empty table by the wall and ordered some food. Teron even ordered some wine, insisting that Shri needed it. The food was good, but the wine tasted odd to Shri, who had tasted any before. It was bitter, but it filled her mouth with aromas, and it made her woozy.
Teron dug his black book from his pack and started reading, while Shri scratched a drop of dried blood on her nails. Again, there was blood on her hands. What would Papa think if he knew what Shri had become? An ache had set into her heart, created by longing for her loved ones and feelings of inadequacy.
A burst of laughter from the nearest table woke Shri from her gloomy thoughts.
“That’s not fair, Lodan!” one of the men called.
“I won fair an’ square! Don’t you try anything!”
“You cheated! You know, I heard the senatai have been messin’ with people. They turn you into a scoundrel?”
“Ha! Those bastards wouldn’t dare touch me!”
“Shush, you fool!” shouted a third man. “You don’t know where they could be. You know they ‘ave eyes and ears everywhere.”
“Let ‘em come!” The drunken man said and lifted his cup higher. “My great-grandpa sailed with the rogues themselves! He's seen the Thunder Islands!”
“That ain’t even a real place, you drunken ass! And even if he did, that don’t make ‘im any better than a senatai, idiot. Rogues are nothing but burnin’ pirates; the senatai got magic!”
“Yeah, and your grandpa never sailed with no rogues,” the third man said.
“You think I’m lying? When I sober up, I’m gonna find a pirate, and he’ll tell you that my grandpa was one of ‘em!“
“But Lodan, you ain’t never gonna sober up!”
Lodan frowned and attempted to fix his drunken eyes on his friend. Banging his fist on the table, he roared, “No way! Not as long as my wife’s dowry chest has any copper in it!”
The men laughed loudly and banged each other on their backs. One of them fell backward off of his chair, taking an innocent servant to the ground with him.
“I need some fresh air,” Shri said.
Teron’s looked up from his black book. “That’s not a good idea. People will be looking for you.”
“I’m just going outside the tavern for a few minutes. It’s much too stuffy in here.”
Sighing, he said, “Stay to the shadows, okay? And try not to be seen. If anyone shows interest, come back here at once.”
“Teron, I survived the Gate Run and years in the Pit before that. I can handle myself.”
She stood outside the Inn of Three Coins. The sky had turned gray and small drops of rain dripped off the inn’s eaves and onto her face. The sun had long since set. Autumn was drawing to an end, and the days were growing shorter. All the happenings in Glasswater had exhausted her, and the two chalices of wine had made her dizzy. The cooling drizzle was welcomed. It cleared her head and eased the heat on her flushed cheeks.
Dark figures walked in the rainy streets, and Shri lazily followed them with her eyes. A few people hurried past her, wearing hoods to save themselves from the rain. The roads here were carpeted with smooth, round rocks to keep them from getting muddy. Shri wandered around the side of the building, searching for a relatively private spot in which to collect herself. Thanks to her earlier actions, finding a guide to Ironflare was beginning to look futile. Everywhere she went, she heard rumblings about the murdered senatai and the white-haired girl. There had been no descriptions of her face, however, so as long as she kept her head covered and got out of Glasswater quickly enough, she figured she would escape notice.
Around the corner, Shri heard the door open, and footsteps came out of the inn. As Shri listened to the low chatter of two men, something caught her ear.
“Did you hear about the murdered senatai?”
“Yeah, turns out they can die like normal people.”
“They said it was some girl with white hair.”
“Or maybe a fairy riding a phytoncougar? You know rumors can be a big fuss over nothing, Don. How could a girl kill a senatai?”
“I don’t know. But the rumor said she was with a red-haired young man.”
“So?”
“So, did you look in the back corner?”
“Come on, there’s any number of red-haired men in the city.”
“The girl he’s with is wearing a scarf on her head.”
“Oh. Hiding her hair, eh?”
“I saw her come out here. They’re offering seven silvers for bringing her alive to the city guards.”
“She couldn’t have gotten far.”
Quickly scouting her surroundings, Shri pulled deeper into the shadows, pressing her back against the brick wall of the tavern. The alley dead-ended at a boarded fence.
Where can I go?
A rugged man appeared that the mouth of the alley. “Here she is!” he cried, pointing at her with his finger. “She’s right in the damn alleyway!”
Shri darted toward the fence, reaching it as both men began to follow her. Her heart pounded, her entire body filled with thrilling adrenalin. She wasn’t scared. She would lose them; this was something she knew how to do: run in the streets of a city. No matter if it was a different city than Ironflare, she would adjust.
She started to climb. The fence wiggled under her, and the wooden boards were slippery from the rain, but it didn’t slow her. When she reached the top, she saw another narrow alley leading out to the adjoining street. As she swung her legs over to the opposite side, her pursuers attempted to climb after her. They were on the heavier side, but that didn’t stop them.
“Stay where you are, girl!” one shouted. “We want those seven silvers!”
Shri jumped down, landing softly on the rocks. Oh yes. This was exactly like her training days in the Pit. The climbing and the running felt much more effortless now. Maybe the proper food and daily training routines at Senatai Island had made her stronger. She ran through the narrow gap between the buildings. The storm clouds had shadowed the neighborhood, and there were no street fires, like on the main avenues of the city. Shri turned left and ran from the tavern. Within seconds she nearly collided with an opening door. A man in ragged clothes shouted something at her, but she had no time to stay a
nd apologize. She pushed past him and raced to the next corner, turning into another alley.
It was a dead end.
Brick walls surrounded her.
Desperate to find another route, she turned around to see her pursuers blocking her into the passage.
“There, there, wildcat,” one said. “You come nicely and nothing bad will happen.”
Shri pulled her dagger out. “You touch me, and something bad will happen.”
The men came closer. The second one lit a torch, lifting it to light Shri’s face. “Look, Don, she’s pretty. How could anything that pretty have killed a senatai?”
“Does it matter?” Don said. “If they’re gonna pay for her, we’ll give her to them.”
“Not so fast,” the other said. “I wanna get a little taste.”
“Yeah, yeah! Good thinkin’, Knudson. She won’t mind, will she?”
“Don’t you dare touch me,” Shri growled, preparing herself to fight. “That wasn’t the first senatai I killed. If I can kill a senatai, surely I can kill either one of you.”
Knudson laughed. “You’re never gonna beat the two of us with that sewing needle of yours, girlie.”
Shri waited until he was just within reach, then snapped her knee outward, driving the ball of her foot into his gut. The attacker double over and dropped to the ground.
“Bitch...” he gasped, barely able to speak. “Get her...”
Don pulled out his own dagger, approaching Shri with the stance of a trained fighter. She suspected she could take him, but the other man was already recovering, shaking off the attack like a warrior. Shri may have possessed the training to beat one of them, but she hadn’t studied enough combat to take on two practiced fighters. Were they veterans? Mercenaries? If she was to escape, she needed her magic. Her thoughts skimmed around her mind to see the silvery ball, but she was groping thin air.
“I’m taking you right here in the alley like the trash you are,” Don murmured and pushed through Shri’s defenses. As he grabbed her neck, she tried to push her dagger into his stomach, but his other hand caught her wrist, twisting until she lost her grip.
