by Jada Fisher
“Put down your weapons!” Elspeth ordered, sitting up to her full height while Sleipffynor spread her white, luminescent wings. The men all looked to each other, as if uncertain, but it was one on the end who spoke.
There was something familiar about his stance and his crossbow, but Ukrah couldn’t put her finger on what it was. Perhaps he echoed in some part of her memory that was still connected to when she had been brought to the pale lands. Perhaps she was just crazy.
“Just give us the girl. We mean no harm, we just need to collect her.”
“And what legal reason could you possibly have to bring this girl in?” Elspeth asked, her voice grave and full of ice. Although Ukrah had seen her be serious many times, it was another thing entirely to see her fully turn on her dragon rider demeanor.
“She has a bounty on her head.”
“That’s a lie!” the girl cried. “They kidnapped me! Said they’d kill me if I ran!”
“Oh, did they now?” Elspeth asked, her tone accusing, but the panic in the girl’s voice set Ukrah off.
She knew those threats. She knew that fear. She had no doubt in her mind that they were slavers. Slavers who chased down and set dogs upon anyone who dared to escape them. Slavers who took what they wanted and didn’t care who they hurt.
Anger and protectiveness surged through her, so white hot that she was surprised she didn’t combust right there on the spot. Her vision went white, except she could still see all the men, standing there like glowing points that she needed to crush. Obliterate.
She needed to protect.
“I said, put down your—”
Maybe Elspeth finished her sentence, maybe she didn’t. Either way, it didn’t matter, because without the interference of Voirdr, the inky darkness within her bubbled up, declaring justice from the slavers in front of her.
It hit them with such a force she was sure that even her ancestors felt it, burning bright and rushing through them like they were parchment. By the time Ukrah’s vision cleared, the air where they had been was full of ash, and everything was deathly quiet.
There it is! Scrubbing the world of filth, righting the wrong, protecting the innocent. This is what you were meant to do! Doesn’t it feel good? Doesn’t it feel right?
“Ukrah…” Elspeth worried, her tone indicating too many things for the young woman to catch all of them. “Did… Did you just do that?”
Her tone was a direct opposite of Tayir’s, and the juxtaposition made a strange feeling bloom in her chest. She didn’t like it. Why was everything so complicated?
“I don’t abide slavers,” was all she could answer, and even still, her voice sounded wrong, too laden with all the layers of everything within her.
“Right. We’ll need to talk about that…later. For now, you, girl, come with us.”
But the girl just pressed herself deeper into the bracken, the thorns biting at her pale skin and leaving behind little pricks of scarlet red. “No! We can’t go! We have to save them!”
Elspeth definitely didn’t miss her wording there and straightened.
“Save who?”
“The witches,” the girl practically sobbed. “They have so many of us, and I think they mean to kill us all.”
4
What Lies Beneath the Soil
Somehow, they had gotten the girl to relent enough for them to fly her up to the same knoll they had just been on, although it was clear she didn’t quite trust them despite them saving her. Her big, brown eyes were wide with uncertainty as they flicked repeatedly to the woods.
“Alright,” Elspeth said once they were on land and most likely out of the range of fire if any more of the slavers could find them. “Tell us everything that happened. Where they are, how many of them there are, how many witches they have.”
“I-I don’t know how many of us they have. Only a few of the captives are witches who can use magic, most of us are just witch-accused or marked.” Her voice was just as strange as the rest of her, low and raspy and barely above a whisper. Ukrah guessed that maybe it was hoarse from screaming, but then that made her think about what could have made the girl scream so hard that it damaged her voice, and that just had her seeing white again.
“There are a lot of us. So many of us. Maybe a hundred? Maybe more. It’s hard to say. I’ve been there a week and they always seem to be finding more of us, every day. Bringing more and more of us down into their caves.”
“I’m sorry, did you say a week?” Elspeth hissed. Meanwhile, Ukrah was pondering the word caves.
She nodded, her sharp chin casting a striking shadow across the earth. “I was traveling in a caravan from northern Baeldred. We were disguised as a typical sort of affair, with families and traders, but it was actually entirely populated by folks looking to get to Rothiache Mo’r and their refugee center. It’s dangerous out here for anyone who might be changed by the cleansing.”
“What happened to the caravan? Were you attacked?”
She shook her head, those ringlets bouncing. “No, not at all. We were all eating a meal that had been cooked for us by one of the leaders of the caravan, and the next thing I knew, we all woke up chained together in the back of a wagon, going over much bumpier roads. For the couple of us who could do magic, they had…” her voice warbled. “They’d been b-branded, I think. Some sort of rune, or runes in their palms. Whatever it was, it wasn’t anything in our language and it stopped them from being able to do any magic. At all.”
Elspeth turned away from the escapee and cursed, beginning to pace.
“They’re underground, you said?”
The girl nodded. “It’s manmade, from what I can tell.” Ukrah didn’t have to ask a girl from Baeldred how she could discern that. “And they’re always adding to it. If I had to guess, they’re hoping to make a sort of stronghold here, under the earth, close to a lot of the travel routes to Rothaiche M’or.” Her lips trembled again, her features somewhere between the chubby sort of boyishness of youth and when young women began to really look like their mothers. “I think they mean to take a lot more of us as well.”
“I don’t understand all of this,” Ukrah said, worrying at her lip. Part of her wanted to go down wherever these men were and burn them all to a crisp, to snap her fingers and have them turn to ash. But another part knew that wasn’t a possibility, at least not yet. Apparently, there were a whole lot of people who needed to be rescued or they could be put in harm’s way. “If it’s slavers, they usually want to move merchandise as fast as possible and then set up an auction in less than a week once they have enough. It sounds like they have more than enough captives, so why are they trying to get more before moving what they currently have?”
“Because these aren’t slavers, Ukrah,” Elspeth said slowly, her tone completely serious. Before the young woman could even ask, she continued, “They’re witch hunters. Like the ones who took Eist.”
Ukrah paled at that. Of course she knew of the threat of witch hunters, especially considering the ordeal they’d gone through with them less than half a year ago. And yet she had somehow forgotten they were a real, tangible thing that haunted so many folks in the civilized lands, not just Eist.
“Witch hunters?” the girl said, sounding horrified and shocked. “But they don’t act like any witch hunters I’ve heard of. They’ve barely even killed any of us. Just most of us who…” She swallowed, and the movement made the bruising along the side of her neck more noticeable. “…made trouble.”
“It’s got to be the Sect of the Three. From what Eist has told me about the time they held her, they definitely are planning something.”
“What is the Sect of the Three?” the girl asked, her face ashen.
“A group of fanatics who believe that the Three were our true gods, and that Eist is a blasphemer sent to lead us all to death and a vestige of the Blight that the Three barely managed to banish. From what we gathered, they wanted to use her and her newborn as blood sacrifices to restore the power of the Three.”
/> Ukrah didn’t think it was possible, but the girl paled further. “T-they didn’t say anything about rituals, as far as I know, but they did seem like they were searching for something from us. There were these tests they had, and times they made us repeat words. I mostly tried to hide and blend in, but I watched a lot. They made us hold crystals or other things. They always seemed angry though, like they weren’t getting what they wanted.”
Elspeth rubbed her face, letting out more quiet curses that Ukrah couldn’t quite catch. It was at that point that Tayir finally hopped out of the pack and made his way to the white dragon’s back.
I hope you’ve learned from the past and aren’t going to just rush in recklessly. That hasn’t exactly worked well for you in the past, has it? Especially considering your little lizard’s temper tantrums.
The girl let out a sharp sound and jumped back, her face pulled into an expression of confusion more than horror. “Why is the bird talking? I am almost certain I heard that bird talking.”
“What? No one is talking.”
Tayir let out an exasperated sound. What is the point of being blessed with divine communication if everyone can understand it?!
“Divine communication? What does he mean? And why…” She licked her lips. “Why does he feel so rude?”
What? I am practical and forthright. I am not rude.
“Actually, Tayir,” Ukrah interrupted, “you are pretty rude.”
He let out an incredulous noise again, but this time, it was Elspeth who spoke. “What exactly is going on here?”
“That bird is talking,” the girl said, pointing with a shaking hand. “Can’t you hear it?”
“No,” Elspeth said dryly, her gaze going to Ukrah. “But apparently you can?”
Ukrah shrugged slightly, feeling her cheeks burn. “Uh, it’s a familiar thing?”
I am not a familiar!
“Uh-huh. Remind me to tell Eist to work on your lying. You’re terrible at it. But let’s return to the matter at hand, shall we?”
Wait a moment, actually, Tayir said, flying over to the girl. She made a soft sound of alarm, but the next thing anyone knew, he was landing on her head. That boy of yours and even the bright-eyed girl took quite a while to be able to hear me. But you could right away. Don’t tell me that you’re… he trailed off but then a soft song emanated from him, one that started off as the simple chirping of a bird but quickly built into something heady and enticing.
“What is happening?” Elspeth asked, alarm clear in her tone.
“What is that?” the girl asked, her eyelids drooping heavily. “It’s so pretty… I… I think I recognize it?”
The song cut off, and Tayir let out a caw of triumph. Ukrah, she’s one of us! She’s a vessel!
“I’m a what?”
She must not be awakened yet, that’s why you didn’t sense her, why you two weren’t drawn to each other, but I’d know a vessel blindfolded! Ukrah did not point out that he didn’t know she was a vessel, at first. This is brilliant! We just need to whisk her to safety so she can awaken and—
“No! We have to save the others.”
Elspeth stood there, frowning, with her arms crossed. “So I’m not exactly certain what’s going on here, but I do agree that we don’t have time to fly her to the city and come back before they start to get suspicious about some of their men going missing while their dogs returned to them with no prisoner. These people are wily, and I wouldn’t put it past them to add two and two together. If we do something, we need to do it now.”
Her gaze hardened. “But I don’t think taking an untrained, battered, and weak civilian into a hostile situation is wise either. So, you show us where everything is, help us make a plan, and then we’ll get you all out of here.”
“No.” The girl answered so resolutely that Ukrah thought she must not recognize the legendary woman in front of her.
“No?”
“No,” she repeated just as firmly. “Look, I know what it’s like in there. I’ve been watching the guards and understand who is who and which men will do what and what others will let slide. I’m more familiar with the terrain than either of you, and I’m known. Me staying out while the two of you go in doesn’t make any sense, so let’s get over that part and get to planning something that will actually save my brothers and sisters in there.”
If it were any other situation, Ukrah might have been impressed with the battered girl so firmly standing up to someone, but at the moment, it felt a bit foolhardy. Elspeth was just trying to protect the girl, who was obviously exhausted, and maybe a little beaten too. It wouldn’t do anyone any good to put her in the line of danger only for her to end up passing out from overexertion, or worse, ending up dead.
“You are a refugee. I’m not using you to—”
“You’re not using me at all! And the longer we stand here and argue about it, the closer we come to them maybe realizing that something is amiss. So perhaps we can stop this silly debate and get down to planning something that will actually help?”
Elspeth took a deep breath. “When this is all said and done, you and I are going to have a very long talk about risk, reward, and respect. But for the moment, I agree. So, tell us all that you can about their set up and the personnel. We have to have some semblance of a plan or else a lot of people could die. I know Eist’s style is to rush in and ask questions later, but that rarely works in hostage situations.”
Ukrah had no doubt that the last part was for her benefit. Nodding, she looked at the girl who seemed surprised that Elspeth had relented.
“The entrance isn’t that far from here, sort of hidden between some rocky outcrops and a thicket of dense pines…”
Ukrah crept forward on her belly, trying to stay as close to the earth as she could. The ground was damp, and no doubt had all sorts of crawly bugs in it, but she tried not to think about that.
And it turned out not to be that hard to put those thoughts out of her head once she saw the lookouts that the girl had warned them of, cloaked similarly to how the guards had been at Eist’s kidnapping.
They had talked quite a bit on what to do with the dozen or so men she had told them were posted at various points. Apparently, after a week of watching and learning their routes and habits to avoid them, she had still managed to be spotted during her escape. That didn’t exactly bode well for three of them trying to get past these guards without raising any sort of alarm.
So they’d decided to set off an alarm before they tried to get in.
Thankfully, that wasn’t particularly difficult considering that they had the white dragon traveling with them. She was ordered to fly low, to linger just long enough to draw attention, then land just far enough for the sect to not know that she had found them but close enough that they couldn’t resist sending out some of their men to investigate, or, if they were really lucky, a whole cadre of men to try to take her down.
Of course, Sleipffynor would fly away before any real trouble happened, or before they could figure out she was without her rider, but it would be enough to get a good number of the armed men out of the caves and make rescuing all the captured witches that much easier.
Or at least they hoped that’s how it would happen.
It was just pretty hard to believe that the sect would be able to resist taking Elspeth captive. Sure, she was no god-woman, no herald of the Blight, but it was well known that she was Eist’s ally and had been an advocate for the increasing number of witches. She’d even helped overturn the law making witchcraft illegal, although that had faced plenty of pushback in the two years following the cleansing.
Having her in their clutches would be a huge boon. It might even help them with their ‘plans,’ whatever those were. Of course, there was always the risk that they might be suspicious, but it seemed one worth taking, given the potential benefits.
Ukrah looked to her side, vaguely making out the shape of Elspeth up in the tree she had pointed out earlier. Even though Ukrah knew she would be there, the
woman was hard to spot, as coated in mud and dirt as she was. The desert girl had been surprised when she had started to coat herself in grit, but she had explained that her white hair and pale skin made her stick out far too much for any stealth mission and that she needed to disguise herself if they didn’t want to be spotted instantly.
Granted, once they got inside, that was probably going to make blending in a bit more complicated, but the girl seemed confident that they could get her cleaned up just enough to not stick out.
Ukrah supposed she should have asked the girl her name instead of just thinking of her as ‘the girl,’ but surprisingly, it hadn’t come up. Or maybe that wasn’t surprising at all. Their entire conversation had been so centered around how to save the rest of the captives that they hadn’t really learned much about the fugitive. Even how she escaped was mostly left unsaid, although Ukrah was sure there was a story there.
Perhaps another time, when everyone was safe and warm without the worry about anyone being killed.
There was a strange and yet somehow familiar sound above, then a shadow passed overheard. Only a moment later, Ukrah realized that it was the white dragon making that noise, almost as if she was singing to herself, or perhaps to Elspeth.
The thought was surprisingly heartwarming as Ukrah wondered if that was exactly what Sleipffynor did on long journeys, making a humming sort of dragon melody for her rider of so many centuries. Would the desert girl ever have that sort of bond with Voirdr? She certainly hoped so. After so much of her life feeling removed from the whole, it was comforting to know that she would have a soulmate for the rest of her existence.
However, that was less comforting when she realized that she was yet again doing something to put her existence in jeopardy.
A habit she couldn’t seem to shake.
Her self-critical thoughts ebbed, however, as nearly a dozen different figures suddenly stood, looking toward the sky. The sun was setting, giving the three women the advantage of the light changing between day and twilight, without all the added guards that would no doubt be on the night shift. It also helped with the lookouts becoming light-blind as they scanned the sky, staring after the alabaster dragon.
