43. Rahzlyn #2
A group of dancers moved fluidly, gracefully, and without abandon. The scene reminded me of how I must have once looked, lost in my own world when caught in a symphony of wind or rain. I missed that feeling.
A young girl ran up to me despite her mother’s objection, inviting me to dance with her.
She appeared the same age as the desperate, starving boy.
I swallowed past the emotion obstructing my throat in remembrance of him.
Obliging the girl, I lowered my scarf to smile warmly at her mother, showing I meant no harm.
My body was curious about the foreign music, eager to dance and be free from the weight on my shoulders.
The rhythm guided the dancers’ hips and shoulders. Unlike Gemini, where tunes were lively and often resulted in skipping or jumping into the air, this was rooted in flow and ease. Surprisingly, many of the movements I learned from Yarah and Allory as the Black Rose fit perfectly to this music.
My stomach soured thinking of the blonde-haired snake.
I ignored the unwanted thought and returned to my body, feeling lighter than I had in a long time. It may not have been a normalized occupation, but my body was born for this.
Even some of the bathers in the thermae moved to the music, as if they couldn’t help themselves. Just like I couldn’t help myself, either.
The realization hit me like a bolt of lightning: the music, the dancing, the nearby swimmers and onlookers, the painters from the gallery…
Everyone's passions and dreams centered around water. Water was not a basic necessity here, it was a way of life, and one that I’d lived without even knowing.
My love for dancing in the wind, in the rain, had been with me from the start.
Deep down, I’d always been Scorpion.
This was my home now, my people, my… queendom.
There was so much I still needed to learn about it, but whatever it meant to be Scorpion was worth protecting. Just not at the cost of so many other lives lost. There had to be another way to bridge the disparity besides Maryn’s dividing oversight.
There was, of course.
By becoming a queen.
The glimmering surface of the thermae’s water caught my attention.
I stared at it, listening for a voice or a feeling or something that would resemble the call of hudro I was supposed to find.
I’d loved rainstorms and baths growing up, but that was all they’d been to me. Nothing as significant as the wind.
I was standing in my own way, as Gregorios so kindly reminded me every day.
I didn’t understand what that meant. I’d accepted my new life, hadn’t I?
Raithe had helped me connect with—and face—the parts of myself that I was ashamed of from my life in Gemini.
He saw them and didn’t look with judgement, but acceptance. Wonder, even.
Or so I’d thought. Given his solitary nature, he was likely scared by what we’d almost done—he’d never experienced such intimacy before. But that didn’t justify his cruelty. Not after what we’d shared and the friendship we’d formed. It went beyond that of a guardian and his princess.
A small black critter crawled near our shoes. I screamed, lurching backwards. Felaf spun me around and assumed a defensive stance. She sheathed her sword before chortling at the sight that had caused me alarm.
“It’s a scorpion,” she announced to me and the alarmed dancers nearby. “Plenty of those around here. My mother thought it meant good luck, while my father believed it to be an omen if one crosses your path. Either way, it’s a sign that our Astral is nearby.” Felaf looked around diligently.
I recalled all the wooden scorpions that decorated Raithe’s bookshelves. “Well, let’s hope for good luck then.”
As my heartrate settled down, I stared at the black creature that was the symbol of Scorpio. It wasn’t hideous, but its curved tail looked awfully menacing. I pulled away from the dancing crowd.
“Thank you, Felaf,” I said. “For bringing me here. I needed this. I apologize if I made you uncomfortable by doing so.”
Felaf steered me away from the eavesdropping swimmers. “I serve you, of course, but—”
“But you don’t like breaking the rules?”
“Rules are there for a reason. I only hope you were able to get what you needed out of today.”
A heavy silence lapsed, drenched in the memory of that boy’s final moments. “I did. But, Felaf, rules aren’t always meant to be—”
Felaf’s head jerked as though something caught her attention. Her sudden movement reminded me of a predator sensing a prey.
Maybe even the opposite.
“Felaf?” I asked, staring into her widening, glowing eyes.
“I thought I heard…”
A thunderous boom sounded, followed by another and then another. Heat seared my back before Felaf’s arms wrapped around me. Our bodies were tossed from the force of whatever violence exploded from the buildings around us, including the bathing house.
“I’ve got you!” Felaf yelled, tucking me to her. My scream was drowned out as we tumbled amidst smoke and green and debris. Our blunt landing into either the ground or some immovable force punched the air from my lungs.
My ears rang. I couldn’t see anything beyond Felaf’s scratched face, her blonde hair singed and covered in soot. My head spun as I struggled to reconcile what had just happened.
“Another attack?” I panted.
“We can’t stay and find out. Let’s—” Her words broke on a gasp when a squishing noise pierced my ringing ears.
I cried in horror, both of us looking down to something that had pierced her flesh. I couldn’t discern what was happening until I touched the center of her stomach, where a sharp edge protruded. A sword, but I couldn’t see it with my eyes. How was that possible?
She whirled around, unsheathing her own sword. “I’ll be fine—”
The tearing of flesh reverberated. With an angry yell, she lunged forward, slicing into the smoke that blanketed us. In that same moment, hands gripped my arms. Then my legs.
They were hands that I couldn’t see, somehow shrouded by the cover of the explosion’s aftermath. I thrashed against the unknown restraints as I was pulled away.
“Stop it! Let me go!” I screamed. “Fel—”
A wet cloth clamped over my mouth, muffling my shouts. Pressure squeezed at my cheeks until a familiar, lemony flavor seeped into my mouth and trickled down my throat.
Vervain.