by C. S. Moore
“Impatient is not the same as having A.D.H.D., and I’m serious. Our situation is serious. We need to leave!”
Armaan stopped laughing, and Cole looked apologetic. “What’s with you two being chummy all of the sudden anyway?” she asked, half wishing Cole was still giving Armaan the cold shoulder.
“He just explained some things to me last night. I didn’t want to trust him, but what he said makes sense. I don’t know. I guess I believe him. Of course, I’ll be watching you and won’t trust you until you deliver Amanda to Shiphra safely, but until then…” Cole pointed to his eyes and then at Armaan.
“Well, I’m used to having people’s eyes on me, so I’ll barely notice,” Armaan said through a fake yawn.
“Okay, I just want to know when we’re leaving. Can one of you just give me that small bit of information?” she asked, rubbing her temples.
Why was it when you got two men together they acted half their age? The math just didn’t seem right. She felt sorry for mothers who had more than one son.
“We can leave whenever you’re ready,” Cole said. “Armaan, can you check on Madgie real quick?”
Armaan crossed the room, and Cole spoke.
“I know that you are in a hurry to get to New Hovel, and I understand that, but we can try to keep our moods light when we have the chance. It makes things easier between Armaan and me, most of the time. When he and I are joking, I can pretend he is the same person I knew, although he’s changed. Right now, in this cave, no one can get to us. When we step out of these walls, it isn’t going to be that way. We aren’t exactly safe out there. Don’t think I don’t take this seriously. Your safety is everything to me. There isn’t anything I take more seriously,” Cole whispered making her feel guilty.
“I know that. I’m sorry if I made you feel like I didn’t. It’s just that I need to get to New Hovel, to make sure Madgie gets the care she needs, to see Nell so I know she’s safe, to meet Shiphra so she can tell me what’s happening to me, and to find Kaedin before it’s too late.”
“Wow, that’s a long list of needs, and shoes weren’t even on it. What kind of girl are you?” He nudged her with his thick shoulder playfully. “I didn’t stop and think of how stressed out you must be feeling, just been so worried about keeping you safe. Never occurred to me to, you know… talk. Curse of the gender, you know, and based on that small tirade, you’ve been needing to talk.”
Amanda hadn’t thought about how much she did need to talk to someone. She was so used to repressing her thoughts and feelings. Amanda wondered if things would be different at the New Hovel, or if it would be the same old thing with a different label.
“You can talk to me about anything. You know that, right?”
“Of course. You’ve always been the person I talk to. I’ve just gotten used to keeping my thoughts to myself. They always got me into trouble growing up, if you recall.”
“I know what you mean. There’s something I’ve been keeping to myself for a long time. It’s nothing you don’t already know, but I’ve wanted to tell you for as long as I can remember.” Cole stopped talking and rubbed the back of his neck. He averted his eyes, and a blush kissed his cheek.
He’s nervous? Cole was never nervous, she thought, but was only clueless for a moment before his emotions overwhelmed her.
“I lo—”
“Can we leave now?” Armaan’s impatient voice asked from across the room.
“Yeah, sure,” Cole said, jumping up. “I’ll carry Madgie so that you can lead the way.”
Cole hurried off toward Madgie awkwardly, and Amanda was left sitting next to an invisible wolf, wishing he had finished his sentence and that there was a club handy to beat Armaan with. When she’d first realized what he was about to say, she was nervous, not knowing what she would say back and not sure of how it would change their relationship. If there was one thing she’d learned as a Healer, it was how badly I love you could end. Now that it had gone unsaid, she was full of hollow disappointment.
Stupid Armaan! I’m glad I never had a little brother. Could you nip his ankle for me, you know, just a little? she asked, scratching the animal behind the ears. She wasn’t sure, but she thought he seemed pleased by the idea.
By the time she exited the cave, Cole and Armaan were at the edge of the clearing, heads bent together, talking in hushed voices. She didn’t understand why the discretion was necessary until she was a foot away from them. Beyond the clearing was deathly quiet, without even the rustling sound of the wind moving through branches she’d grown so accustomed to hearing the past few days. Not a single woodland creature seemed to be on the move today, but other more sinister creatures were. She looked up as soon as she felt their presence and noticed that Cole’s big arms, cradling Madgie, were shaking.
“You did this,” Cole whispered. “You lead them to us?”
“No, no I swear. They have Ancients on their side too, you know. Calm down, and we’ll find a way around them,” Armaan said.
“You swear? You think that your promises mean anything to me?”
Her brain caught up to the conversation, and she interjected. “We don’t have time to argue. They found us when it was just the three of us,” she said gesturing to Madgie. “This has nothing to do with him! We need to get out of here.”
“Okay, but we are not taking the path that he chose for us. We’ll go this way,” Cole said, turning on his heal.
“You saw what was down that path — nothing but rocks, fallen trees, and overgrown brush! This is the best route, and you know it. Go that way and you’ll have to fight the Guard and nature. We can’t carry Madgie safely through that way.” He looked down the path that they had chosen together.
Amanda’s wolf stood partway down it, beckoning her to follow.
“Just trust me, please!” Armaan pleaded to them both.
Cole stood unmoving, glaring at him as if his mere stare could start the boy’s hair on fire.
“I do,” she said, taking off down the path after her wolf, knowing that Cole would follow her, and he did, begrudgingly, taking up the rear.
“Do you even know where you’re going?” Armaan whispered behind her.
Her feet were flying over the terrain without her telling them to do so. “I think so. I kind of feel like I did last time when Shiphra was pulling me where she wanted me to go.”
“Stop!” he said, grabbing her arm. “This isn’t like the last time. You need to follow me, not that pull.” His voice was so commanding she looked at Cole for help.
“You’re hurting my arm. Let go of me!” She struggled out of his grasp. “Madgie told me to follow this feeling, and I’m not going to follow you if you’re telling me to ignore it!”
Cole was at her side, glowering into Armaan’s face. “I knew you’d try to lead us to them! You are your brother’s lap dog,” he said, his voice full of venom.
“Wait! Please don’t go that way. It isn’t Shiphra. This is nothing like the last time you escaped the Guard,” Armaan pleaded as they backed away from him.
She turned to follow where her feet told her to go, but was stopped short by her wolf’s unmoving frame. Calm down just leave him be, she thought, seeing the fur on his haunches standing on end, reminding her of a deadly pincushion. The invisible string pulled tighter, and she stumbled trying to stay on her feet.
“Come on, Cole, we need to leave here.” She tried to step around her wolf, but he spun, knocking her to the ground. “What’s the matter with you?” she yelled.
Cole was next to her in less than a second. “Are you all right? What happened?”
He helped her to her feet, which she was having a hard time staying on. The tug was so great that it felt like a rope had been lassoed around her. The sensation was heavy and forced, nothing like it had been last time.
“It isn’t her, it’s not Shiphra!” she screamed.
The invisible rope around her burned as it tightened, and she just had time to look at Cole pleadingly before she was pulle
d off her feet and disappeared into the forest.
HER FLESH BURNED, AND HER body cried out in pain as she flew through the forest, sharp branches tearing chunks out of her exposed skin. Tears streamed down her cheeks in a reaction to pain or anger, she wasn’t sure which.
Why couldn’t she have listen to Armaan? Shiphra had given her so many signs.
As she drew nearer, the entity pulling her in, she hoped Cole and Armaan would stay away. They didn’t stand a chance. The power of an Ancient was nearly limitless, and they were just two young men.
“No!” Amanda screamed, holding back tears. She was so sick of people that she loved being hurt because of her. She thought of Madgie and how close her old friend had come to death. Amanda would try to stand on her own, even though she could feel her energy draining with every inch put between her and her wolf.
Just as Amanda began wondering how long she’d be dragged through the forest, she started feeling the dark energy of the Guard. There weren’t as many as the last time Amanda had encountered them, maybe seven or eight, but she barely noticed them. The brilliance of a single Ancient drowned them out like a full moon blots out the stars.
She came to a halt twenty feet from the towering figure, still in the air and held captive by the invisible rope. He was stroking a large peacock with disjointed hands, looking bored. The bird was dazzling and larger than any she’d ever seen. It seemed to light up the dim forest like a strange sun.
Tearing her eyes from the creature, she glared into the Ancient’s hollowed face, attempting to convey as much confidence as possible in her current state.
“All of this trouble for such a little thing?” He studied her so intently she felt the need to cover herself. “You seem hardly worth the effort. If it were up to me, I would gladly let you frolic off into the sunset. But Baal was quite insistent. It’s a pecking order thing, you understand,” he said sympathetically. “I’m ready to go back home; may Heaven receive you and all that.”
Amanda didn’t feel him gather energy; he didn’t need to. It wouldn’t take much for him to do what he had in mind. Before she could close her eyes, she felt something tear through her chest. She screamed out as the pain rippled across her body. The dank smell of sulfur reached her nostrils, and she looked down at her still smoldering shirt. A terrible wound peeked through the hole in her clothing, dark red and charred around the edges. In her shocked state, she wondered why blood wasn’t gushing from her wound.
Madgie’s shoulder had looked like a river of blood, and Baal loved the sight of blood. Her blurred vision turned the colored light of the peacock into a mesmerizing kaleidoscope. Shaking her head, she regained her vision slowly, and she noticed that The Ancient’s face was full of confusion.
“Taunt him,” a familiar voice urged her.
“What? You’ve got to be kidding me! Did you not notice what he just did to me without any taunting?” Amanda asked internally as her head cleared up.
“He will hurt you more, but if you listen to me, you will live. Amanda, trust me. We must weaken him,” Shiphra’s voice commanded in her mind.
She decided that she’d be dead no matter what, so she might as well go out in style. Her energy started coming back to her. “I know that you said I wasn’t worth the effort, but really, you could put in just a little,” she said, trying to keep her teeth from chattering.
She had to get control of herself. She drew in a large breath to get her body out of shock, but before she could exhale, she felt The Ancient’s temper rise. She knew he was angry. She felt it, but she couldn’t read the Ancient’s emotions in the arena. Why could she now?
He gathered his energy, and another attack ripped at her chest. Her head was spinning, but miraculously she was still breathing, though she was surprised that she still had lungs.
“Make him draw more energy,” Shiphra’s voice encouraged. Amanda put her faith in her since they’d left the Hovel and couldn’t turn back now. “You can’t kill me? But I’m just a little thing, and you are supposed to be all powerful, right?” She coughed out every word. Her chest heaved in and out painfully, and she wished her wolf were at her side giving her the energy to heal herself.
“No! Don’t call him… not yet. Tell him to stay away. He mustn’t see your wolf!” Shiphra’s voice shouted quickly. “Tell him to stay away, Amanda.” Shiphra’s every instruction went against her instincts, but trusting her was her only option.
Stay away. Don’t come here. Don’t come here. The thought of her wolf not coming to help her made bile rise to the back of her throat, and the pain began to overcome her.
“Stop it! You are stronger than you know. Now face him, and fight him. Make him waste his energy in anger.”
Amanda drew in a shaky breath and took the blinding pain that came with the oxygen. The last thing she wanted to do was make him angrier. After the attacks she had endured, she wasn’t sure why she was still alive.
An Ancient could snuff out a Healer’s life in the blink of an eye, so how was she still be alive? Of course, a demon attack wasn’t something a person normally lived through either.
The same question seemed to be ringing in the minds of the Guard. Their faces were contorted in anger and confusion. Some of them seemed to think there was something wrong with their vision, shaking their heads and blinking their eyes as if in doing this they would see her lifeless on the ground, but floating in the air she stayed. She was wincing in pain, and her clothes were in tatters, but alive nonetheless.
The Ancient must have read the Guard as she had, because his bored demeanor changed from that of a person on an errand to someone with a personal vendetta. The invisible ropes tightened in on her, shooting more pain through her body.
“Enough of this!” she screamed, tired of being held against her will. She imagined a pair of scissors cutting her ties, and she fell to the ground. Her captor let out an audible gasp. The Guard, looking unsure, inched away from where she landed. Amanda straightened and gazed into the Ancient’s hollow eyes.
“What are you?” he demanded.
“Nothing special, just a Healer. What are you? Surely you can’t really be an Ancient,” she said, blocking an attack seconds after the words left her mouth.
The temperature seemed to rise with his anger, and the cool breezy morning was replaced by hundred degree temperatures. The attacks were getting more powerful! He was pulling more and more energy. She cried internally, not letting the pain show on her heat-reddened face.
“An Ancient would be able to keep me contained!” she shouted, wiping the trail of blood that was running down her chin.
Sweat poured off one of the Guards, landing on the ground with a muffled sizzle.
“Attack him,” Shiphra prompted.
“No.”
“You must weaken him. Defend yourself. He is trying to kill you!” Shiphra urged.
Carter’s last sputtering words ran through her mind.
”Murderer! You did this to me…” and the gruesome hacking that followed.
“I won’t. I defended myself against Carter, and I will forever have to live with his blood on my hands. I will never choose my life above another’s again.”
“Do what you must,” Shiphra said.
Do what she must? How was she supposed to know what the right choice was? Another blast of dark energy hit her shield.
“An Ancient would be able to kill me!” she screamed as loudly as she could manage through the pain.
A wave of heat erupted as The Ancient shouted, “This ends now!”
She stood tall, as the plants around her burst into flame.
Unnatural black smoke circled the clearing, choking out the sunlight and the Guard. It started with one man falling to his knees and holding his throat, but after mere seconds, all of them were coughing violently. They collapsed one right after the other, unable to find enough oxygen. The Ancient either didn’t notice or didn’t care that his followers where struggling for air. His attention seemed to be far off in the woods behi
nd her.
“No Healer could possibly withstand what you have,” he said, as the smoke began to thin. The Ancient being looked at her sweat smeared face with excitement dancing in his eyes.
What did he have to be excited about? He was on the ropes, but somehow the dynamic had shifted. The look in his eyes told her she was the one backed into a corner.
“Maybe you’re just getting rusty. Your Guard has done all of your dirty work for so long…” She trailed off as she felt a presence nearing, understanding why his eyes said he had the upper hand.
He did.
“No!” Amanda shouted as Cole came crashing into the clearing. Bloodied from the forest, he fell in a heap at the Ancient’s feet.
“That demon changed something in you. You know this to be true. What did it do, how are you so powerful?” he demanded. Why was she so powerful, what was happening to her?
She was desperate to answer his question. She would give him anything and tell him anything to keep Cole safe. He knew it too. His cocky demeanor had returned, and he went back to gently stroking his giant peacock. The action soothed him, and she recognized the feeling.
“Call him. Call your wolf,” Shiphra whispered.
Come, I need you. She knew she was something different. She felt the change in her body, but what was she?
“I don’t know why or how this is happening; please don’t hurt him!” she begged.
Her words stretched a crooked smile across his gruesome face. Cole struggled against his bonds and turned to look at her, chocolate eyes pleading.
“Run, Amanda, get out of here!” he shouted.
“Quiet you!” the Ancient said, clenching his fist.
Cole was immediately silenced, arching his back and searching for breath like a fish out of water.
“Now, be a good girl and tell me what kind of trickery you are playing… or your friend here will be in a lot of pain.”
She stammered, grasping at straws, wanting to tell him whatever it was he wanted to hear, but she stopped short. Amanda looked at the giant peacock and the light and energy that came from it, just like her wolf…
