by Terah Edun
Her father turned to Donna Marie formally and said, “I want to thank you for trying to help my misguided daughter but we’re going to have to end this ritual right now. She won’t be completing anything.”
Mae’s shoulder drooped in disappointment as if he had physically hit her himself. She had known this from the beginning, but to say it in a formal acknowledgement to the strangers was to make it real. But she was silent behind him. She had no authority here and now. It had been ripped from her and she would go before the Council of Elders to receive her punishment for stepping out of line.
Mae glanced out of the corner of her eye at Rivan and Donna Marie to see how they were taking the news. Donna Marie had expended considerable time and effort in getting this ritual ready. Even her ‘compensation’ as it were was only half complete as she’d unlocked Mae’s gift but Mae didn’t think she’d had to time to study it as she wished.
Her stepmother stepped forward and said to Donna Marie, “I know this must have been a tiring day for you and I apologize for that scheme my daughter sought to run behind our backs. If she promised you anything for keeping your silence we will, of course, honor it.”
“She didn’t promise me anything you can give,” Donna Marie said flatly as Rivan shifted awkwardly back and forth next to her.
He obviously didn’t want to be here.
Which was fair, neither did she.
Mae’s father cleared his throat.
“I understand this must be a terrible turn of events for you if you were promised something worthwhile, but seeing as we’re willing to explore compensation surely there doesn’t need to be any sort of grievance.” her father ventured, still being fair.
Although Mae could see it hurt him to be courteous as the foreign woman had as much guilt for being involved in Mae’s scheme as she did. It would be up to the Council of Elders to say if they wanted to pursue the strangers for their part in this, the thought of which made Mae squirm, but at this point the worst her family would do to them was banish them from their lands.
No hard loss in Mae’s eyes currently.
“Enough of this bibble-babble,” Donna Marie spat out with surprising venom.
Mae’s family turned to her with surprise and disquiet in their eyes.
For the first time Mae noticed that the mage guards had moved. To the far corners of the room where they were currently bracketing her family in as she looked over her family’s shoulder to spy on them. Her father didn’t notice because he was resolutely and courteously focused on appeasing Mae’s former associates.
“What did you say?” her father choked out.
“I said,” Donna Marie replied without blinking. “That I am done discussing this. The ritual goes on.”
Mae’s father face turned hard as Richard stepped forward with bluster this time and said.
“Now see here,” Richard angrily blurted out. “I don’t know who you think you are but you are a guest in this household. Whatever a young girl could have promised you in payment couldn’t have been worth pissing off your entire host family.”
The threat was clear.
The question was would Donna Marie fold under the gauntlet or call their bluff.
Seeing where the mage guards where located currently in the room, Mae had the disquieting thought that it was her family’s bluff that was being weighed and found wanting.
Fear wormed itself up Mae’s back as she wondered what three trained mages could do her father and stepmother who clearly had no idea what they were dealing with.
As Mae wondered what she could say to stop it before the situation escalated.
26
“Why are you doing this?” Mae’s stepmother asked in a distressed voice.
In a mockingly sweet voice, Donna Marie replied, “Because I can. Why? You think we know each other after spending the last two hours chatting over inconsequential nothings?”
Her stepmother blanched at the rudeness in her words and Mae’s father stepped forward.
“Now see here…” he started to say.
“No, I will not see,” Donna Marie drawled out in a bored tone.
Mae cringed. She’d never seen anyone cut her father off ever. He was respected even among their family. Determined not to let this escalate to blows, Mae prepared to speak regardless of his rules.
But in that moment, someone else entered the room.
They were all shocked because until that time it had been an intensely focused conversation and she, it was a she, let in a breath of fresh air they didn’t know they needed.
“Ember go get the holding guard!” Richard shouted.
Apparently, he wasn’t as dumb as he looked. He saw the danger as clearly as Mae had.
Unfortunately Mae had one thing over him.
Mae’s stomach dipped in unease as she said, “That’s not Ember, Richard.”
She’d forgotten her vow of silence to her father as she spoke but her father didn’t chastise her. Instead he looked in surprise alongside Richard as he viewed the person coming into the room who indeed was not Ember. They all realized that as the light of the braziers fell on her face.
What Mae found curious though was that her stepmother just grew paler.
She wore the cloak in the style of their family and she carried the family’s traits in her face and her bearing but Mae had never seen this woman in her life.
She looked like a startlingly-older Ember though.
This new woman immediately walked over to Donna Marie and took up a place by her side. Behind Mae she heard her father gasp in shock.
“Who are you?” roared her father, obviously upset he was being ignored in his family’s own home.
As for Mae she trembled as she wondered what in the world was going on.
“My name is Ava and oh my, what an interesting group this is,” the new woman said as she looked over them all before her gaze lingered especially on Mae with her glowing glyphs. The avaricious look in her gaze was unmistakable even from this far away.
Disturbed Mae tried to hide more behind her father as he stiffened and glared in anger. It didn’t faze the woman though.
She briefly flicked her eyes to meet Mae’s stepmother’s own and that was enough for her to ask, “Don’t I know you?”
The woman called Ava responded with a chilling laugh.
“Don’t!” whispered Mae’s stepmother in confidence to her father beside her.
He looked like he was ready to rush both women.
Mae wondered what in the world they were whispering about.
Too late Mae realized the danger wasn’t just behind her. It was in front of her.
Because in that moment Donna Marie grew tired of toying with them.
She raised her hand and flung wild glowing magic at them. The same that hours before Mae had been eyeing enviously. Now that she saw it coming toward at her as a threat, it was far less beautiful.
“Mae, run!” her stepmother had the presence of mind to scream as the magic hit her square in the stomach so hard that she was hurled through the air to land against the far wall with a sickening crunch.
Her father didn’t go to his wife. Instead with a roar and weaponless he rushed the two women.
That was a fatal mistake.
Ava called a similar ball of magic into her fist and she threw it directly at him.
He was stopped dead in his tracks. His back too still and his cries too urgent to be anything but seriously hurt.
Letting out a cry, Mae felt her heart break into two as first he fell to his knees and then he fell over to his side unmoving.
Looking to Richard in desperation, she saw he was already grappling with the second mage guard who for some reason was fighting with a sword while Richard only had a candlestick to hold him off.
Over his shoulder Richard still had the presence of mind to yell, “Just go!”
Mae didn’t need to be told twice and she took off for the exit into the hallway. To call for reinforcements, to get family to aid
them.
But the harder she ran, the slower she went. It was the most confusing sensation until Mae looked down in astonishment and realized that she was actually running on air and going nowhere.
A cruel laugh originated behind her and Mae turned to see Donna Marie with an especially cruel look of mirth on her face as she pinched her fingers and dragged the wind back towards her.
“Did you really think you were going to get away?” the woman asked with amusement.
“Let me go!” Mae yelled out ineffectually.
“No,” Donna Marie said flatly.
Finally tiring Mae stopped struggling in the air and she looked around for her relatives. All three were crumbled on the floor and against the wall in various positions that hinted at serious injuries. They looked like broken dolls to her horrified eyes.
“Thank the gods, all that family nonsense almost made me hurl,” Donna Marie said with such a dark disgust that Mae flinched.
Tears welled up in Mae’s eyes. Her stepmother hadn’t deserved that. Neither had her father or Richard. What had she brought down on her family after all?
Trying to get away still and end this, Mae turned for help from her last corner.
She looked for Rivan.
He stood expressionless and leaning against a back walk nonchalantly.
Mae felt her heart break into two as he looked at her and then looked away.
“He can’t help you dear,” Donna Marie said smugly. “He’s as bound to me as you will eventually be. No free will of his own.”
An expression of absolute self-hatred flashed over Rivan’s face at her words as the foreign woman laughed.
“I won’t ever be in your control or help you!” Mae snapped. “Now put me down and get out of our family’s house before the guards rush into this room and take off your head.”
Donna Marie laughed gaily as she walked over and cooed in Mae’s face and then she instructed her wind to toss her on her head.
Brushing the now upside-down Mae’s hair out of her eyes as gently as if Mae was her own daughter, Donna Marie said, “I don’t need you willingly now dear. Not after you so bravely unlocked your gift earlier today.”
The fact that she was mocking Mae was all too clear in that moment.
“Besides that you have already brought me everything I needed and more,” Donna Marie said as she leaned back in satisfaction.
Mae couldn’t help the shocked look that descended on her face as even Ava reacted by sucking on her teeth and whistling.
“Oh you didn’t tell her Donna Marie?” she asked in an impressed voice.
“Of course not,” Donna Marie said as she turned back to Mae. “You see girl, I planned for this eventuality. All of them really. None of your family are coming to your aid. The whole castle has been subdued.”
“By who?” Mae asked frantically with wide eyes.
Donna Marie smiled. “I think the better question to ask is by what?”
She stopped toying with Mae as she turned her head and snapped her fingers and shouted, “Bring her!”
Into the room poured the mercenaries Mae had thought they’d left behind in the forest, and struggling between their unrelenting arms was a wide-eyed and frantic Ember.
“Don’t you touch her!” Mae screamed in panic as she met her sister’s gaze and saw terror she’d never before seen in Ember’s eyes.
Only laughter was Mae’s answer as they dragged the helpless and barefoot Ember forward and Mae was dropped to the floor so abruptly, she bruised her wrist breaking her fall.
But that didn’t concern her, not with her family lying broken and bleeding all around her.
Instead Mae was wondering how it had all gone so wrong, so quickly. But Donna Marie didn’t give her time to collect her thoughts, instead she pointed at Ember and told the guards, “Bring her here.”
Mae couldn’t do anything but stand and watch helpless as this time Ava performed the start of the ritual, the same one that her fellow female mage had performed on Mae. Mae watched the glow of magic gather on Ava’s hands and then transfer through the tight grip she had on Ember’s struggling forearms.
No matter how she twisted and turned though her sister couldn’t break out of the grip of the mercenaries who held her.
As she watched the glow travel up her arms to settle over her chest, Ember finally called in fright to her sister “Mae!”
“It’ll be all right Ember!” Mae shouted back hoarsely—desperate to reassure her sibling when truth be told she had no idea how to stop it.
Mae had never heard such fear in Ember’s voice. Her sister was a nosey snoop and a do-er, in that order. If something messy needed to be done, their stepmother had called Ember. If she needed someone who was tenacious and would stop until the job had been finished, she called Mae. But in this situation, where the magic was crawling up Ember’s arms like a lightning storm, Mae could see that the panic was growing on her sister’s face. She wasn’t equipped to handle this, neither of them was and what was worse…their family laid around them in discarded piles.
From the corner Mae heard a commotion and she turned to see three guards manhandling her cousin. He was bleeding profusely and had a broken leg but at least he was standing. She didn’t like the way they were treating him though.
“Leave him alone, he’s injured,” Mae cried in distress and she rushed over to Richard’s side.
“You need me to unlock the script,” Mae heard Richard say stubbornly. “I don’t know what you want to do with it but I’ll never help you.”
For once Mae was grateful for Richard’s pigheaded stubbornness. He would never let her hear the end of it, but his caution would end up saving the day.
Donna Marie overheard his bluster though and this time she called his bluff.
Turning to him while Ava dealt with Ember, Donna Marie said with a smile in her voice, “You’ll never help us, huh?”
“Never,” Richard said proudly even as pain clearly overtook his voice.
“Very well,” Donna Marie said.
As she turned away, she looked at the Cross Guard leader with a serious stare that chilled Mae to her bones. No words were exchanged between the two but apparently the leader could read Donna Marie’s expression just fine.
He nodded to his subordinate and that man grabbed Mae away from Richard with a rough yank
The Cross Guard leader then pulled out a knife out of his waistband, turned, walked over to Richard, and as Mae screamed and pleaded for mercy, cut his throat.
And that is how Richard Darnes was the first to die for the cause, but not the last.
But once he was dead, there wasn’t anyone else to thwart her plans within the room, so Donna Marie ordered the Cross Guard leader swiftly to secure the rest of the holding that was free and report back when called upon.
It was a clear dismissal of the excess number of mercenaries in the room.
With one last look around, the Cross Guard leader folded out into the hallway with his men. Once they were gone Ember scrambled to her feet and ran to Mae.
They ended up in a corner of a room, far from their family’s bodies as they watched the proceeding with wide eyes. From then on, the night was just a blur. Mae remembered huddling up in a corner of the room with her sister by her side, both of them glowing like miniature suns as their glyphs shown in the dark.
Before long, it began. Darkness swirled around the room like a funnel, Mae looked up into the arched ceiling of the second story with wide eyes. As Mae watched what she knew as stone arches and ceiling work peeled back until she saw nothing but stars.
She began floating up, up, up unable to control her body. Unable to tell it to stop.
“What is this?” Mae asked afraid.
“This is it,” Donna Marie said in a voice that was both near and far away.
Mae could barely force herself to turn her shaking body to look at the foreign woman agape.
“This is the casting,” Mae said unbelievingly.
“I
t’s more than that,” the foreign woman assured with a blinding grin. “This is everything you ever wanted Maeryn Darnes and it is more than I ever hoped to accomplish.”
Before long, her body dropped back down to the floor with a crash.
Ember fell at the same time. They looked up and Donna Marie began the ritual again.
They floated at least three or four times before Mae stopped counting. Instead she just readied her body to brace for a fall.
After the last one, she moaned as low as she could so as to not disturb the ribs that she was pretty sure was broken.
When she looked up, Donna Marie stood over her with a smile of anticipation.
“When will this torture be over?” Mae asked through gritted teeth as she found her sister’s hand and felt in relief Ember squeeze back. She was silent but still holding on.
“Never,” said Ava with an evil giggle.
“Why are you doing this?” asked a broken Ember from beside Mae, both of them still alit with glowing glyphs.
Donna Marie leaned over and whispered in her ear like she was a lover instead of Mae’s abuser, “Let me tell you a secret dear. Your family weren’t adventurers and cartographers or whatever it is your lore tells you.”
She leaned back with a self-satisfied smile on her face as Mae looked at her confusion and coughed up blood.
Still Mae managed to ask of the woman who had upturned her entire world with secrets and deception she had never seen coming.
“What were they?” Mae asked weakly.
Donna Marie look down at her with soft fondness pasted on her face as the foreign woman reached down and used a handkerchief to wipe blood and lickspittle off Mae’s bruised cheek.
“Well they were demigods dear,” Donna Marie said with laughter in her voice and mania in her eyes.
“Demigods once and demigods they will be again now that I have you under my control,” Donna Marie said as she kissed Mae’s forehead warmly.
Then she stood up and Mae knew even as she was delirious with dizziness and pain that she was about to begin again.
