Chapter Three - Rhea
The final rays of sunlight burned out in brilliant hues of orange and gold as Neera approached the riverbank. The ride had taken longer than we’d anticipated, and it had seemed that luck would not permit us to arrive at any time before the fading of the light.
I swung my legs from the saddle and brought Neera to a clearing well away from where the letter had indicated I should meet the beast. She made a sound low in her throat, one I’d come to know as worry.
“It’s alright, girl. You stay here as always. Keep the food safe for me.” I gave her warm side a pat and left her to graze on the long swaying grass of the meadow. Then I turned towards the darkening wood that lined the river.
The underbrush was thick and particularly difficult to move through. I made note of that in the back of my mind. Should I need space to move, I’d need to get to the grove of pines some distance from the bank of the river to give myself space to evade, not to mention to swing my sword.
The letter had indicated that the beast would be found at the split in the river, and so I made that point the center of the area I moved through. I was careful to avoid stepping too close to that split. Instead, I surveyed the land around it, the twists and turns of the river, every loose and solid stone.
When I was sure I had the lay of the land well ingrained in my mind, I found a defensible spot where two huge stones burst from a hillside and planted my back against them. The familiar fear was back, threatening to take hold of my senses. But I knew well how to counter it by now and began the methodical work of preparing myself to fight.
I practiced slowing and controlling my breathing as I cleaned and sharpened each blade. Then, I checked the straps on each of my shoulders, on my back, and at my hips. Finally, I threw back an elixir of energy and made sure the others were within easy distance from my hands should I need them quickly.
One final, slow breath. In and out. And I stood, my blood boiling with the need to go , to do something. I bounced on my toes to relieve the tension, then I took a long drink from the elixir that heightens my senses. The taste was acrid and metallic and left my face in a grimace as I swallowed. But the effect was well worth it.
All at once, the world around me became understandable in a way it wasn’t before. Each scent that came to me told a story. A fox in its den, hungry and desperate for the hunt it would soon embark on. The rushing river and all of the life it hid beneath its currents. And through it all, the smell of electricity in a storm as it traveled over sea, salt and heat and sweet anticipation.
Tonight, with no true beast to hunt, I followed the scent that had been hanging about me like a cloud these past months. What was the tempting place or thing that filled my nose and head?
I crept out from the rocks and towards the river, following the flowing waves of scent that rushed over me and set my heart beating with the sweet rush of pursuit.
I kept a hand lightly covering the hilt of my silver sword, and I kept my head swiveling from side to side as I moved silently through the darkening forest. Nothing moved, save for the gently swaying canopy of leaves above my head and the rushing river by my side.
My feet moved in the spiral I’d decided on from the perimeter I’d created and slowly, slowly closer to the heart, to the place where the river split.
There was nothing here. At least, there appeared to be nothing more than an outcropping of rock that jutted out into the rapids of the river, forcing it to follow two separate paths. One stretched to the east, towards the rising moon, the other towards the south, into the darkest part of the forest.
I drew my sword and turned in a circle, but still nothing came. Nothing stirred at all. Could it have been that the letter was a lie? Some kind of unfunny joke from one of the lords of the outer cities?
I chewed on my lip and lowered my sword. The scent I’d followed all this way was thick around me now, making my head heavy with its intoxicating aroma.
I closed my eyes and breathed it in, letting it fill my head and lungs.
Something shifted behind me, almost imperceptibly altering the flow of air and scent. I whirled, my sword striking quickly. But there was nothing around me, no indication of a beast.
My heart thundering, I could still feel something unsettling hanging around, as if the darkness itself had mass and weight. The air was heavy, thick like an imposing layer of mist, but it was clear and warm.
A stick broke near the side of the riverbank, and I whirled again. My sword sliced through shadow. But my eyes caught sight of something in the dark line of trees across the river. Something vaguely human. I squinted, trying to make out what was standing there between the pines, when another branch snapped.
Another whirl, another slice of nothing. This time, when I turned back to examine the shape across the river, there was nothing to see between the leaves and needles.
An icy shiver ran up my spine, and I froze.
“Finally, you’re mine,” a voice like gravel whispered in my ear.
There was no time to turn, no room to fight, and the luck hanging around my neck was ice cold against my skin. My mind screamed at me the only choice.
Run!
And so I did. My muscles released the tension built up inside of them like a crack of lightning, and I sped away, passing beside the riverbed, my sword in hand slicing through the leaves and branches that rose to block my way.
If I could only make it to the clearing, if I could get Neera running, I could still make it out of this. Whatever this was.
I ran on, but the perimeter I had memorized earlier seemed strange and foreign to me now. My mind was still clouded with the scent of the thing, the shadow that had spoken, the one that must have been close behind me, maybe right behind me even now.
I had been wrapped in this scent before. It had haunted me for maybe a month now or longer. How long has it been watching me? How many nights did I spend alone in the woods while it watched me from the shadows?
I shuddered, and the shadows in the branches of the pines seemed to respond to my thoughts, filling the space between trees until they left only one single moonlit path open to my ground-pounding boots.
I dashed through and couldn’t stop the whimper that escaped my lips as my skin crawled with the feeling that the shadows were grabbing at my legs.
A tree branch snagged my braid and pulled me back. I yelped at the sharp pain in my neck as I came to a sudden stop. I pulled at it, cursing myself and the bad luck of it, something I'd never experienced before. Why had my gift chosen this moment to abandon me?
The shadows crept up over my legs, caressing me tenderly. I whimpered again, finally untangling my hair as I heard something walking towards me from the darkness.
With a final gasp of pain, I broke the last few strands of hair still tangled on the branch and threw myself into a run in the opposite direction of the sound of footfalls. I was nearly delirious, disoriented, and terrified as I ran on through the woods, not knowing where my feet were taking me.
I slipped behind a towering rock and tried to slow my heartbeat, cursing myself and the untethered panic of my thoughts. I had fought a thousand horrifying beasts—I could face this. Whatever it was.
I breathed in through my nose, slowly and steadily.
I will not fear , I said in my mind as I had said a hundred times before. I am not my body, and I will not fear.
My heartbeat slowed as I drew my silver dagger.
I am more than my body.
From the far end of the forest, maybe 50 feet from where I sat with the stone at my back, the dark figure from the riverbank again appeared. I quickly ducked back behind the rock, hoping it hadn’t seen where I was hiding. I counted to ten, slowly and purposefully.
Then I looked again.
To find his shadowed face only a few feet from mine.
I froze, looking at the cloaked dark figure. He was tall and muscular beneath the billowing shape of his cloak. His face was masked in shadow, even though the bright light of the moon should have revealed him.
I couldn’t will my legs to move as he moved to close the space between us like mist moving across a pond.
“Here is the Shrike,” he said in that rumbling voice I’d heard whisper in my ear. He sounded almost like he was amused. “A little bird caught in a trap. Will you try to fly, bird?”
The taunting sound of his voice, and perhaps the realization that the creature chasing me was nothing more than a man, had me seeing red. But I swallowed the rage, as I had so many times, and instead flashed him a bright smile that made him tilt his hooded head to the side. Then I moved like a whip, planting the silver dagger in his shoulder.
“What’s a shrike without its thorn?” I hissed before I slipped away from him, purposefully putting the boulder between us.
The shadows were lessened now, but I didn’t make it far before they’d closed themselves around my legs, sending me tumbling through the underbrush.
They tightened about me, pulling me up and making it impossible to move. The hands of the shadows turned me until I was standing face-to-face with the man, the creature. With a last desperate movement, I threw my head at him, hoping to connect the hard bone of my forehead with the soft flesh above his eyes.
He moved in a blur, and the motion sent his hood falling away.
Half his face was masked in shadow, but I could see his brilliant teeth drawn in a sharp sneer and the long point of his left ear.
“You’re fae,” I breathed, astounded. The fae hadn’t been seen on this side of the veil for decades. Thankfully.
He didn’t respond, but when I saw the black feathers that were just as much a part of him as the soft wisps of black hair that stirred about his face in the breeze, my breath stopped in my chest.
“You’re the Grim. Is it my heart you’re after, then? I’ll save you the trouble. I’ve sold that useless thing to the highest bidder ages ago.”
He looked me over, and his eyes caught on the leather belt of elixirs around my chest. His lip drew back in a snarl, and with a slash of a sword, he cut the belt away. The small glass bottles shattered to the ground.
I let out an indignant shout as I watched the liquid seep into the dirt at my feet.
“I hope you have the gods’ gold you promised, those cost a fortune,” I ground out.
His hand flew up and closed around my throat. Gods he was fast, and the strength in his slender hand was just as daunting as his speed. I swallowed thickly as my throat closed beneath the pressure of his long fingers.
“You could never pay the cost you owe for wearing those.”
His other hand reached for the hem of my shirt. With a sudden panic, thinking this was headed in a direction I most certainly did not like, I struggled furiously against him. From his chest came a sound that was in no way human, a deep, primal growl that had me stilling in some kind of instinctual self-preservation response.
The fae drew his hand up slowly, my shirt lifting with it. I closed my eyes tightly, but as his hand reached my breastbone, he froze. I blinked my eyes open to see his one visible violet eye widen. He ran a warm finger over the sensitive skin of the scar, the mark of the dove that stretched between my breasts. I couldn’t stop my body from arching beneath the delicate touch of his finger.
He drew in a sharp breath and released me.
My knees hit the ground, and I looked up at him. He reached down and touched my face with a ringed hand. And the world went dark.