by Tiya Rayne
“I will gather as many as I can and send them here. I know that a lot of the peasants are more than willing to go to war for Lilly.” Rykan states. “I can have them all here in a little over a week.”
Avalia nods to Rykan.
“I will gather my army as well. It will take them five days by sea to get here.” Artimus complies.
“It will take longer for my men.” Fisgal agrees.
“Very well. Go now. Council is dismissed.” Avalia sits back down in her chair at the head of the large rectangular table.
One by one the kings disappear from the meeting room.
“You may leave us,” Avalia directs her guards.
Once the council room clears, Myself, Avalia, and my guards take seats around the table.
“Do you think your speech will work?” Augustus asks.
Rubbing her fingers in circles at her temples, Avalia answers, “For now, but they will be back at it again.”
Augustus shakes his head. “They’ve become obvious in their distrust.”
“They are like venomous snakes. The whole lot of them.” Hyland adds.
“It is to be expected. I do not trust any of them, yet I need them. I still do not know who is feeding information to the Dark King.”
“I suspect Fisgal.” Himrol suggests. “He seems too quiet, too calculating.”
“My money is on Artimus. He seems stupid enough to side with the Dark King.” Bilal adds.
“I agree.” Hyland replies.
“In due time, the traitor will make a mistake. Then we will know for sure. Hopefully he doesn’t get us all killed first.” Avalia turns to me, dropping the subject of the kings. “Any news?” and just like that, every one’s attention is on me.
I run a hand through my hair as I tell them what I saw in the dream. I tell them about the defeated look that greeted me in the beginning of the dream. I tell them about the new bruises that blemish her beautiful face and the new scratches that dot her skin. When I am done telling them of all the details I say, “But there may be hope.”
All heads seem to lift a little higher.
“What do you mean?” Augustus asks.
I take a deep breath as I scan the room. I am about to admit something to these men that I have not admitted to anyone but Avalia. However, I knew these men could be trusted.
“My relationship with Lilly goes back fifteen years. I’ve known Lilly since she was only six years old.”
“How?” Hyland asks.
“The how is not important right now.” Avalia responds. “What does your past with Lilly have to do with rescuing her?”
I nod at her impatience. I do not take offense. I know Avalia is just as anxious as I to get Lilly back safe.
“I have forgotten the most important character trait of Lilly. She is a fighter. Lilly will always be capable of saving herself. The spell she is under has made her forget her capabilities. Last night, I helped remind her of her strength. I have no doubt, that reminding Lilly that she is a fighter will make her seek her own freedom. If we can get her to escape her own captive, we may be able to find her more quickly.”
For the first time I see a real smile spread across Avalia’s face. Hope alights her eyes bringing back some of that brightness.
“So what would you have us do now?” Augustus asks.
Even he seems inspired by this new plan.
I feel the smile break across my face.
“We will do as we’ve been doing, only this time, we wait for Lilly to find us.”
Chapter Four
I awoke to the hard floor pressing into my back. My sides, shoulder, back, and belly aches. I didn’t know if it was from sleeping in a small ball or being pregnant. I place a hand on my belly and greet my boys. Boys. I never cared what I was having with this pregnancy, I just wanted them to be healthy. I was more concerned of getting them here and having at least two people in this world to love me. Now that I know what they are, it is like I have a further connection with them. I am even more determined to keep them away from Medina and that evil man Nicorias.
That’s when the dream comes back to me and the lesson the handsome man with the pointed ears taught me. He seems to believe that I am capable of the things he showed me in the dream. Part of me, that part that feels like a distant memory, believes that I am. Yet, this new me knows that I would never be able to get free of Medina and Plinket. But, just the thought of the handsome man encouraging me does make me want to try.
I’m startled when I feel something small and fury brush against my leg. I immediately jump pulling my legs closer to me. That’s when I see it, a small silver ferret. Its long body stops just in front of me, it eyes me warily. Then I notice the color of the eyes.
“It’s you!” I squeak.
“Quiet, or the Familiar will hear you.” The voice speaks inside my head.
It is a female voice, a young female.
“How are you doing that?” I ask in a whisper.
“The bite, from yesterday. I bonded with you. Now we can communicate and I can find you anywhere.”
“What if I didn’t want that?” I ask startled.
I do not trust Familiars and I definitely didn’t want to be tied down to this one.
“I don’t mean you any harm. Not all Familiars are like that one.” The ferret tosses her head towards the cabinet door indicating Plinket. “The names Tipper.” The ferret moves closer to me and holds up a small paw. I watch its hand cautiously before putting out my finger for it to shake.
“Girl.” I say.
“Well, Girl, I’m going to help you get out of here.”
“There is no getting out of here. Not with Plinket. He’s stronger and faster than I am. I might be able to get over on Medina, but not him.”
“Then we need to get rid of him first.” The little ferret says as if it was as easy as wishing him away.
“How? And how do I know I can trust you?”
The ferret, or Tipper, crawls up my leg sitting on my bent knee and looks through the crack of the cabinet door. I fight the urge to knock her off.
“You saved me from those witches yesterday. Familiars hate witches.”
“Doesn’t seem like it to me.” I say with an eye roll.
Tipper’s small head and beady eyes turn back to me. “Did you know that they cut out our hearts to take away our free will? They make us their slaves. We’re lost inside of our bodies, able to think and feel on our own, but unable to do anything about it. Even if we didn’t agree to what they made us do, we still have to do it. It is a horrible experience.” Tipper’s head turns back to the small crack in the cabinet door. “Both my parents and my siblings were taken by witches. I am all that’s left of them.”
For the first time I start to feel sympathy for Familiars. Maybe Plinket isn’t as bad as I thought he was. Maybe he is just doing as Medina wants because he has no choice.
“No, he has gone bad.” Tipper responds to my thoughts. “The longer a witch controls the Familiar, the more the Familiar disappears. It then becomes as evil and corrupted as its master. This one has been with the witch for centuries. There is nothing kind left of him.”
“You can read my mind?” I think towards the ferret.
A low laugh comes through my head that sounds like ice clinking in a glass.
“Yes, and I have to say your thoughts are entertaining. Who’s the elf?”
I immediately try to change the subject. “So how do I get rid of Plinket?”
The ice sound precedes the ferret’s response. “First, we need to get you out of this cabinet.”
I drop my head back against the wall with a slight thump.
“I might as well give up now. After what happened yesterday, Medina won’t let me out of here for a while.”
“Nonsense. The witch needs you, she just wants to know that she still has power over you. If you make her think you are agreeable and have learned your lesson, she will let you out.”
The ferret had a point. Medina does ne
ed me. She’s begun to rely on me for far too much to be able to function without me. I just need to remind her of that. A strong urge to back down and give up washes over me. This happens often when I think about running or fighting back. I get this panicky feeling as if I am doing something I shouldn’t be doing. Suddenly the dream comes back to me. The handsome man’s face appears behind my closed eyes. Just the thought of him makes me fight away that urge to surrender. I am stronger than this. I repeat the mantra in my head like a prayer.
“Of course you are.” Tipper states with confidence as if she has no doubt.
“But then what?” I ask. “Even if I’m out, I still can’t get pass Plinket.”
The Familiar has always been the real issue. He can track me anywhere and is faster than I am. If I run there is no doubt he will chase me down and find me.
“We just need to find the Familiar’s heart. The witch would have it buried somewhere near the house. If we find that, we can kill the Familiar.”
For the first time since I found myself in Medina’s care, I have hope.
Before my dream last night, I would have told this little Familiar to go away. I would have never dared any kind of escape from this prison; too scared of the soldiers in the woods. But my handsome visitor last night taught me to be brave. He showed me visions of a little girl, one that looked like me down to the hazel eyes and dimples. I watched a small version of myself boldly stand up to kids twice her size. I couldn’t hear what they were saying to her that made her eyes so sad and tears stream down her face. But I watched as the handsome man grabbed her little arms and swung them out. He guided her like a puppeteer, steering her arms and moving her feet to fight the taunting kids. It was clear the girl had no idea that he was the one helping her fight, but he was. He guided her in every fight until he was no longer needed. The many years of aiding her inadvertently taught her to fight. The silent stranger didn’t just show me the girl taking up for herself. He also showed me scenes of the same girl with an older man. The old man had tanned skin that looked like old leather from many days spent out in harsh weather. He was tall and thin, not as frail as Nicorias but not built like the handsome stranger from my dreams. The old man wore dark denim coveralls and a button-up plaid shirt. His salt and pepper hair was thin and cut low, but he usually wore a ratty ball-cap over his head. I remember watching the old man interact with the little girl and getting a sense of déjà vu. I could almost smell his scent of sweat, old spice after shave, and motor oil. The old man taught the girl how to fish, how to watch for tracks in the woods, climb trees and to wield a weapon. I could remember how rough but gentle his hands felt as he would cup them around mine teaching me to aim a gun or a knife. If I thought hard enough I could almost hear the deep slow drawl of his voice.
My dream last night was all the encouragement I needed to fight back against Medina. Yesterday, when I told her ‘no’ and stood my ground, it had felt empowering. It felt as if for so long I had been wearing the wrong size shoes. Standing up to her was like finally putting on the right size. The fight inside me seemed to fit me better than the frightened girl I have been.
With my courage up and a plan in place, I nod to Tipper who climbs down from my knee and turns into a small silver spider. Her eight tiny legs crawl into my palm and up my arm to rest on my shoulder. Without her even telling me, I knew that the smaller she was the harder it would be for Plinket to detect her.
“Alright Girl. This is your part, get us out of here.” She says into my head.
I knock on the door and in a submissive pleading voice I call out to Medina.
“Please, Medina. Please let me out.”
The door to the cabinet bangs and shakes as if it had been hit with a heavy object.
“Quiet.” Medina shouts. “Because of your ungratefulness, I am up at the crack of dawn having to ward my cabin all over again.” The sound of her feet shuffling through what I know to be the kitchen stops for a second then picks back up.
“Nicorias thinks I am a fool. He thinks I don’t know that he means to take you away from me.”
She’s not really speaking to me, but more to herself. I listen, it is times like these that she reveals so much.
“If you think that I am cruel, wait until you see what he would have in store. He would most likely cast you in a love spell, use your body for his playground.”
I cringe at the thought of that. She’s right that would be worse.
“Then when he’s done he would parade you around for the others to see. Use you to get good favor with the Dark King. I will make sure he only gets those bastards and nothing else. I thought he had discovered the value of your blood for a moment…..”
“Now!” Tipper whispers in my mind. “Now is the time.”
“You are right, Medina.” I say. “He is cruel. I would never want to be in his hands.”
“Of course I’m right.” She shouts. “You should be thanking me.”
“I am thanking you. You are so much smarter than me. I don’t know what came over me yesterday. I do not really want these…..” I have to swallow hard as I say the next part. “Bastards. The more I think about it, they would only remind me of the cruelty that brought them here. I just wish that I could be rid of them sooner. It seems the more I move around the more pain I feel. I think being active causes me to labor.”
And just like that, I set my bait and wait for her to fall in the trap. I knew the only thing that would get Medina to let me out, was the idea that I could deliver the babies sooner. With the twins gone, my blood was purer.
The silence on the other side of the door is nerve wrecking. Tipper and I seem to both be holding our breaths.
When the door opens the light that floods the dark room burns my eyes and causes me to turn and shield my face. Once my eyes adjust, I see Medina standing in front of me in her old lady form. Her hands planted on her frail hips.
“Pain you say?”
Gotcha!
I bite down on my inner jaw to keep the smug smile from my face.
“Yes. Yesterday while walking to the river, I kept getting sharp pains in my belly.”
The cruel smile that slants her lips, for once, did not put fear in me as it usually did. This time, it was exactly what I wanted to see.
“I think you have learned your lesson. You may come out of the cabinet.”
I step out of the tight confines and my legs are weak and barely able to hold up my weight.
“Thank you.” I say to her.
“Oh don’t thank me, by the end of the day, you will be cursing my name.”
As much as Medina tried to break me, nothing could take me out of my good mood. After sending me back out to the river to collect more of the black moss, I faked stomach pains. Plinket was more than happy to run back to the cabin and inform Medina. During his brief absence, Tipper and I found the spot that the witches abandoned yesterday. We located the small silver dagger that the witch had dropped. Using a strip of my skirt I secured it to the inside of my thigh. My biggest issue with breaking free was that I didn’t have a weapon. All the knives in the house were put away inside a locked box. If I needed one to cook with, I had to seek permission from Medina. And she always monitored my use. When I was done, she never forgot to lock the knife back up. The only blade that wasn’t locked away was the wood handle dagger that she uses for my blood. That one she kept on her at all times.
After getting back to the cabin, I spent most of my day in Medina’s garden. I dug up herbs and planted vegetables while Tipper searched the ground for Plinket’s heart. Occasionally I would fake a sudden pain in my belly to keep Medina appeased. Each time she got more and more excited.
By the time night fell and the moon came out, Medina’s good mood seemed to take a nose dive. She seemed a bit weary, frightened even. I couldn’t blame her, the pale moon was larger tonight. It seemed so large that it felt I could reach out and touch it. If the size wasn’t alarming enough, the hazy blood cloud that circled it surely was. Even the surr
ounding forest seemed to be disturbed by the ominous moon. Not even the night animals dared to make a noise.
Even with the heavy silence of the forest and Medina’s strange behavior, I didn’t let it change my mood. I accidently sliced into my hand while cutting potatoes for our dinner tonight. I didn’t even let the sharp pain deter my good mood. I just wrapped my hand in the small brown dish towel and continued my work with a hum.
While stirring a pot of Medina’s dinner over the fire, Plinket flies into the cabin. Even I could tell his black feathers were ruffled. Immediately Medina is out of her seat.
“I knew that moon was trouble. Quick!” She shouts. “Put the girl in the hole. I need to burn some lavender seeds.”
Medina flits around the kitchen in such a blur of fabric that I have a hard time keeping track of her.
“Medina, what’s going on?” I ask confused.
Medina grabs a container out of her cabinet and dumps a bunch of purple weeds into the stew I was just preparing. A huge smoke cloud rises from the pot and blankets the room before dissipating.
“Soldiers are coming here.” Medina says still moving around the cabin in a frenzy.
Plinket grips my arm in his human form and I flinch at his tight grip.
“Why would soldiers be coming here?”
Many times soldiers have come close to the cabin. Yet, she’s never been worried about them coming into the cabin. She mentioned once that her spells make her cabin undetectable unless you know where to look.
“He’s with them. He never leaves that damn castle.” She continues to talk, although I doubt she realizes it. “But I’m not surprised he chose to come out now, anything for his precious human. My spell is no match for him.” She absently pulls more containers of herbs out of the cabinets. “I need more lavender seeds to disguise the scent of your blood in the air.”
Plinket continues to drag me towards the middle of the kitchen floor.
Still confused and a little frightened I ask, “Who is with them?”
