by Jada Fisher
She let go and shoved the man back, where he stumbled into the pile of implements from his table. Ukrah felt like she was watching some sort of bizarre play unfold, the kind that were only performed rarely in the capital and would be the talk of the city for months.
Ukrah wasn’t sure what she expected, but it certainly wasn’t for Roaric to grab a long, slender spike and hold it threateningly toward her. The girl paid no mind, however, straddling his lower legs and looking at him intensely.
“I can see your fear, you know. What coils in your belly and burns in the back of your mind. You’re so scared of being less than, of being weak, and yet weak is exactly what you are, isn’t it? You’ve always been weak, haven’t you? And what happens to the weak?”
The man’s face grew ashen, his hand shaking. Slowly, the long, slender spike in his grip lowered and turned until he was pointing it at his own face. “The weak must die.”
“That’s right. And you’re so weak, so terribly weak. You can feel it, can’t you? Rotting inside of you. Everyone knows how weak you are. They mock you, laugh behind your back. There’s no way to come back from that, you have to know that, right?”
“That’s… That’s not true.”
Ukrah’s tongue grew heavy in her mouth as she watched the scene unfold. She felt like she needed to stop it, but at the same time, she had watched the man ruthlessly torture a witch right in front of her. She also knew that there had been many others; she was wearing the clothes of some of them.
“It is. They all know. The only way out is to end it all now. End it all now, Roaric.” The man’s shaky hand grew closer to his face, that sharp spike headed right toward his eye. “Go on, you can do it. It would be so easy. And then you’ll prove that you’re not as weak as they all say you are.”
“I… I’m not weak.”
“Then prove it, Roaric. Show me that you’re not.”
He licked his lips and his muscles tensed. Ukrah didn’t think that she had ever moved so quickly in her life. One moment, she was crouched there, enraptured, and the next, she lunged forward, grabbing the man’s hand and forcing the spike to the side.
“I have to do it!” he screamed. “I have to prove I’m not weak!”
Ukrah knew that maybe she had no room to talk considering all that she had done, but she couldn’t just sit there and watch as the girl made a man kill himself. That was a line that shouldn’t be crossed during her awakening. Ukrah wished that there was someone who had been around when the old spirit had first welled to life inside of her.
“Stop this! You stop this right now!” The girl looked to her, her eyes flashing, and she snarled. Ukrah just responded by pushing her off the man and crowding her. “I understand you have every reason to be angry, and that he deserves to die, but not like this. You got that?”
The girl just stared at her for several long moments, like she was thinking, and Roaric whimpered at their feet. But as the entire room shook again, dirt and dust raining down, she shoved past Ukrah and gripped the man again.
“I changed my mind. You can’t end things now, there are too many people here to meet you. Your victims, all of them, are all in here. Every single face is here, looking at you. Waiting for you. And I want you to look at every single one of them as they do to you exactly what you did to them.”
“What? No! That’s not possible. I—” The man was looking around frantically, seeing things that Ukrah couldn’t see, but soon, he was screaming raggedly, his voice broken and truly terrified.
Ukrah wanted to ask her if she had put that illusion in his mind or if she had indeed summoned all the spirits of his every victim. But once more, she didn’t have a chance to act, because there was another booming sound and stones fell around them again.
But unlike the other times, it didn’t stop. It picked up, with whole chunks of the ceiling crashing down.
“Look, old spirit inside of that witch right there, I realize you’re probably a bit drunk on being alive, but if you want to continue to be alive, we need to get out of here now.”
The girl stared at her for another moment, but then the room shook again, and she flickered back to normal. Or at least to what Ukrah assumed was her normal, given they’d only known each other for a couple hours.
“I… I’m so tired,” she whispered, her voice raw and broken. “What’s going on?”
“I’ll explain later. But come on, we need to go.”
The girl nodded and took Ukrah’s offered hand. Fingers solidly intertwined, they raced through the underground levels in what was clearly a full collapse.
And just like the room, everything was an utter cacophony. Men were running around, fighting each other, screaming, looking behind them as if dashing for their lives. It was like they were all living their worst nightmare, locked out from the rest of reality.
From the corner of her eye, she saw chains and weapons littering the ground, but not a single witch. Good. That meant Elspeth and the others were getting them out.
Surely some of the witch hunters were escaping too, but Ukrah had no doubt that they would be easy to pick off. Especially if Sleipffynor had managed to fly back to Rothaiche M’or and bring more riders. She wondered in the back of her mind if any rescuers would be too confused by the crazed men for their first few moments.
But that was a thought for once they were out in the open, not underground in a rapidly-collapsing set of rudimentary floors. Rocks were falling all around them, big, small, and dust. It was making running up the ramp much harder, with both falling back every few steps or having to dodge to the side.
Yet she persisted, wishing that the bubbling magic within her that allowed her to turn men to ash at the drop of a hat allowed her to move as fast as a blink or even fly. But all she could do was run as fast as she could, pulling the dazed vessel behind her.
Finally, they were up past the empty guard posts, past where all those witches had been huddled so listlessly. Yet despite how listless they had been, all of them were gone, leaving only their chains.
If it were any other situation, Ukrah’s heart would have soared at the revelation. But she couldn’t feel anything but panic until they were out in the forest again.
Finally, it was in front of her, a shining sliver of an entrance just visible between the stumbling and screaming witch hunters all around them. She put the last of her energy into a final burst, trying to get them out in time. It consumed her mind, spurring her body to move faster, more urgently.
“Wait!”
The girl’s grip on her hand tightened, yanking Ukrah off her feet and backward. She had no idea how the girl had so much strength, considering her relatively slight form and everything she had been through, and yet her back hit the earth and she slid several feet down the steep incline.
Suddenly, a support beam from where they had been collapsed, sending rocks descending all around them, blacking out the rest of the world.
7
Crush
Ukrah would have thought being buried alive would have been more silent, but as she laid there, curled in a little ball, she didn’t know if she had ever heard anything noisier. There were booming sounds and scraping sounds, thunderous crashes and shaking. It was like the world was turning itself inside-out, shrieking and exploding all around her.
She laid there, hands over her ears, trying to protect herself with some sort of shield. It was hard to tell if she was even doing anything or not, because everything was pitch-black around her.
Her heart was in her throat, beating so hard she almost felt like she might gag. But as the moments passed, and the terrifying sounds began to slow, she realized that she still wasn’t dead. Still wasn’t crushed into a fine paste.
And then, after what felt like an eternity, it was finally quiet.
She laid there for several more moments, her breathing slowing down, but it was hard to completely put aside her panic when it was so dark. She couldn’t see anything, and even if she could summon her magic for mundane tasks, she did
n’t know how the bubbling, vindictive blackness within her would help illuminate anything.
She closed her eyes, realizing there was no difference if they were open or not, and tried to think of anything that would help. But the more she thought, the more she felt the walls closing in on her, her tiny space becoming less and less until she was squeezed into nothing. She was going to die! Buried under all that rock and rubble with not so much as a—
“Sorry, I think that’s me,” a familiar voice rasped, barely audible even in the perfect silence.
And yet it was enough to snap Ukrah out of the spiral that she was quickly falling into, and just like that, most of the fear vanished.
“Is that you?” Ukrah asked, hoping it was the girl but almost unable to believe that she had survived too.
“Yeah,” she said, but she sounded so weak, her voice wavering on the edge of audible.
“What did you think was you?” Ukrah asked, just catching her actual words after the shock had worn off that she was alive.
“You were afraid just now, weren’t you?”
Ukrah nodded, before realizing that no one could see her move at all. Right. “Yes.”
“That’s what I meant. Somehow… I think I make people afraid. Like, really afraid. Enough to make them sick or hurt themselves. Maybe even others.” Her voice hitched, and Ukrah started to slowly scuttle toward her. “I’ve never heard of a witch being able to do that.”
“That’s because you’re not really a witch,” Ukrah said matter-of-factly. “Or you might be, but that’s not what’s going on.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s… It’s a bit much to explain now. But you’re like me, and I’ve been looking for you.”
“What? For me specifically?”
“Well, uh, I didn’t know it was you, but I was searching for exactly what— I mean, who you are. I, ugh, like I said, it’s a bit complicated and we have had a very long day.”
“Yeah, well, I’m worried the day might not end up all that long for me.”
A spike of alarm surged through Ukrah. “What do you mean?”
“For the most part, it appears that a lot of me has been crushed.”
That alarm spread right into full-blown horror. “What?! Are you alright? Can I help?” Those were both fairly stupid questions. Of course she couldn’t help. She couldn’t see a thing and it wasn’t like she could lift rocks. She had no idea if they were buried under tons of rubble or just a few feet, and if she started trying to move things around, she could end up causing further collapse.
And of course the girl wasn’t alright. If any part of her body was in any sort of position that could be called ‘crushed,’ that was a pretty strong indicator that things were the opposite of alright.
“I… I don’t think there’s much to be done. I…don’t think I’m bleeding? I’m not sure. There’s not that much feeling. I’m just kinda…pinned, I guess?” Her breathing was slow, sluggish, along with her words, as if the very act of speaking was exhausting. Ukrah wished more than anything that she had a light, some way to see the girl, but there was nothing but rocks around her.
“I’ve gotten so used to hanging around dragons that I forgot to bring anything for a light source,” she said, trying to pitch her tone towards levity. She didn’t think she quite made it there, because there was not a whole lot that was funny about being trapped in a cave with one of them pinned under who-knew-how-much debris.
“Wait, I think I can…I think I know something for that. Hold on.”
“Don’t tire yourself out. It’s not that—”
But then light shimmered into being around them. It wasn’t anything as powerful as a fire, or even a full witch-light, but it was a gentle sort of glow that veined across the rocks, and compared to the perfect pitch darkness, it was a blessed relief.
Or at least it was until she saw the girl.
She was indeed pinned, one of her legs jerked to the side, and her arm not visible below the bicep. There was some blood trickling around the limb, but not much more than the parchment cuts Ukrah got when her hands were particularly dry. Strange.
“Hey there,” the desert girl said, crawling over to her. “There you are.”
“So, how bad does it look?”
“Honestly…not great. But not the worst.”
The girl chuckled weakly. “What would be the worst?”
“Well, once I was run right through my stomach with a sword.”
“What? That’s not possible.”
“It is, and I’m here just fine. All I got is a scar from it, so not entirely awful. I’m sure you’ll be just fine.”
“Ah, I see you’re an optimist.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever been accused of that before.”
She laughed gently again, but it tapered off into a groan. “First time for everything.”
They drifted into silence for a moment, Ukrah’s eyes adjusting to the light. Although she hadn’t said as much to the girl, she wasn’t certain about either of them surviving. They were who-knew-how many feet underground with no food, no water, and magic geared more toward destruction than life.
“You know, I don’t think I ever told you my name and asked yours.”
“Oh, right… That definitely didn’t happen. I’ve been calling you the tall one and the short one in my head.”
Ukrah gave the girl a sharp look. “I am not short. I’m taller than most women, and I’m not even done growing.”
“It wasn’t meant as a commentary on your character. She’s just taller than you. It made it easy. I know she’s some high-ranking leader of you dragon folks, but I don’t recall her name. Not exactly important where I come from.”
“And where is that?”
“Very northern Margaid, practically Baeldred, to be honest.”
“Ah, I don’t think I’ve ever been there. Well, her name is Elspeth, and I’m Ukrah.”
“Well met, Ukrah. I’ll look forward to telling Elspeth the same.”
“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. She’d like that.”
“Well, my name is Marcellin, just for your information. What have you been calling me in your head?”
“Just the girl. I’m not the best with common, and I don’t even know what Margaidians speak, but isn’t Marcellin a boy’s name?”
“You’re really asking me about that? I would have thought the cat would be out of the bag by now.”
“I’m sorry, what?”
“Huh, it must be worse than I thought if you haven’t even looked at my face or anything else.”
“I don’t…” Ukrah trailed off, finally taking a moment to really look at the girl since the lights came on. Her face was covered in dirt and it looked like she had a sharp cut over her brow. A brow that she hadn’t been able to see so much of before, because it had been covered by her thick, black hair.
But there wasn’t any black hair to be seen. Instead there was just a short shock of curly, honey-brown hair framing her very pale face.
“I—” Ukrah swallowed, beginning to wonder if she was missing something obvious. “I don’t entirely understand. Why did you wear fake hair?”
“By the ancestors, I know I’m pretty, but I thought the answer would be obvious by now. I’m a boy.”
Ukrah just sat there a moment, trying to puzzle it all out. “You’re a…a what?”
8
Self Rescue
“This is not that hard to get. I’m a boy! A man! Of the male persuasion! I’m aware that it was a good wig, but can’t you tell now?”
Ukrah looked over her—his?—dirty, battered face, and he didn’t really look much different to her beyond his hair. “I… I’m still learning pale faces, I suppose. Do you look particularly masculine for a southern Margaidian?”
“Do I look?” he huffed for a moment, clearly offended, but it quickly broke into a soft bit of laughter. “Look at me, getting all ruffled over something so silly. No, I suppose I’ve never looked like what most would
consider a man. I’ve always been a bit too slender with features that were too much like my sister’s. I always considered it a curse until…well, until recently.”
“Why were you dressed as a woman if you aren’t one and don’t want to be one?”
“My sister’s idea, actually. I got into a spot of trouble, if you will, and we needed a way to hide me until she could find a way to get us out of the province. Ergo, she suddenly had a little sister with some very pretty hair.”
“What kind of trouble could you get into where you would need to disguise yourself as a female?”
“Well, the sort of trouble where you make a man run into a wall repeatedly until he stops moving entirely.”
“Oh.” She sank down next to him, careful not to jostle his body. “It sounds like there’s a story there.”
“Isn’t there always?”
“Do you want to tell it?”
“There’s not much to tell. The brother of our village chief had it out for this particular family. I… I suppose you could say I had a bit of a crush on the middle daughter, so I visited their farm more often than not. They didn’t mind any of us orphans dropping by.
“I was bringing her flowers, her favorite that I happened to find when I was looking for mulberries by a creek in the woods. I just happened to stumble across her and her youngest sister in the barn. They were cornered by the chief’s son, and he was screaming and waving a knife. It looked like he had already hurt them, at least a bit. They were crying, and the way she looked at me… Well, I don’t think I’ll ever forget that.
“We fought, because what else was I going to do? But he was so much stronger than me. We ended up on the ground, and the next thing I knew, a knife was going into my neck. But I didn’t die. In fact, I was perfectly fine. The only thing was that I couldn’t control my body, not really. It was like someone else was in charge and I was just there, watching.
