Chapter 13
Tal sighed and paid the barkeep for her drinks.
It was well past the appropriate time to be walking alone at night, but she was no stranger to moonlit—and sometimes drunken—patrols.
She hadn’t tried to rope one of her friends into joining her.
Her thoughts were too jumbled, jumping from frustration over Daire to thoughts of Faron for the last two days.
She stumbled over a stone and veered to the right thanks to the several pints of ale she’d had.
To an observer, Tal looked like just another drunk who had nothing better to spend her money on.
They didn’t know that ale often kept her fury at bay.
Some nights, she could sneak away somewhere to unleash it and calm her emotions, but the resulting risk of losing days at a time to pure exhaustion often stopped her.
Other times, she could fight the frustration out without giving in to the magic’s call.
And then some nights, like tonight, she hadn’t the energy to do either and opted for the numbness that ale provided.
She gladly let the townsfolk peg her as a lowly bounty hunter who spent her nights at the taverns.
There was no telling which of them would sell her for a hefty reward should they learn of her magic.
Tal stumbled into a particularly dark section of town.
Cobblestone ended and gave way to dirt and gravel.
She knew the area well enough to traverse it in the dark.
She’d even memorized the way across the rooftops.
Tonight however, she chose to walk on the street.
She passed by several dilapidated buildings when a figure stepped out of an alley and blocked her path.
The male stood a head taller than her without a scrap of muscle on him.
Tal tried to side-step the man, but he followed, blocking her further.
Another stepped out of the same alley and moved behind her, while a third guarded her from the side.
“Where you headed, miss?” asked the one in front. His voice grated on her nerves. He flicked a gold coin into the air, caught it, and sent it flipping again.
Tal sighed but said nothing. She made another attempt to step around him, and he blocked her again.
“Woah! Where you off to in such a hurry? This is not a safe place for a woman to be wandering alone at night, especially one with hair as pretty as yours. Would you say there’s a bit of red in it?”
She froze. Her eyes flicked from the flipping gold coin to the hand reaching for her hair.
“There’re some dangerous criminals in this part of town,” said a gravelly voice behind her ear.
Tal spun around to the man who tried to sneak up on her, wrapped her arm around his neck, and held a dagger to his back. He was shorter than the first, but stockier. He stiffened against the blade.
“I know,” Tal whispered in his ear. Her breath wreaked of stale alcohol, and the man gagged when it reached his nose. Tal tsked, offended. She took her arm from around his throat and kicked him in the backside with enough force to send him stumbling into his buddy.
“Bitch,” he swore.
“What do you say boys? This one looks good enough. You got that red stuff to fix her hair, Gully?” said the man to Tal’s right.
The tall one, Gully, nodded. “I think we can have some fun first. They didn’t say what condition they wanted her in. Besides, someone needs to show this one her place.”
“My place?” Tal scoffed. “I think you boys mistakenly believe that anyone can tell me where I belong.” She sheathed her dagger. She wanted the satisfaction of knocking them down with her bare hands.
The short one spat and stomped toward her.
He swung his arm to backhand Tal across the cheek.
She easily dodged, scraping the side of her boot down his shin.
He cried out and lost his footing. She pulled his head down to meet her knee with a sickening crunch, and he grabbed his nose, howling in pain.
Tal threw him to the ground. She turned for Gully’s attack next.
He stalked toward Tal slowly, calculating.
Once within reach, he feigned left, making Tal react and adjust her footing.
He feigned to the right. Tal shifted again, but all her years of training failed in her drunken state.
She stumbled. The third man caught her by the shoulders, and the two attackers snickered.
The stocky one came to stand beside his taller companion. He spat blood on the ground and sneered at Tal with hatred in his eyes. His friend beside him snickered, and despite the low lighting, she could see how rotten his teeth were. She swallowed a gag when he licked his dry lips.
Tal tried to remove herself from the third man’s grasp, and he laughed in her ear.
He ran the backs of his fingers down her cheek.
The smell alone told her it wasn’t dirt beneath his fingernails.
She managed to unsheathe a knife in her sleeve and jabbed it into her captor’s gut, causing him to release her.
She spun around and sunk the knife into his neck, then turned to the other two.
They pounced. She spun into a fist that connected with her cheek.
Before she knew it, her other cheek slammed into the ground.
Darkness briefly stole her vision. In a panic, she tried to call on her fury, but none came.
Pebbles dug into her cheek. She cursed the ale that poisoned her blood, nulling her connection to the fiery element.
Tal groaned and tried to push herself up but was kicked onto her back.
Two figures stood over her in the dark. She braced herself when one of them kicked her in the middle.
She grunted and coughed while they swore at her.
Tal swore right back and reached for a dagger, but they kicked her again.
She curled in on herself to protect her abdomen.
One of the men grabbed her ankle and yanked until she returned to her back.
He tugged at her trousers, but her belt held them in place. Her hands fumbled over her weapons.
One of the men suddenly let out a sharp cry, and the other swore, releasing her.
“Leave now, or I will not be as kind as the lady was to your friend over there,” that familiar voice warned the attackers.
Tal blinked into the darkness. She couldn’t make out the newcomer in the moonlight, but she recognized the voice of the man that was quickly becoming a regular presence in her life.
“You’re outnumbered, mate,” Gully said in that grating voice.
Tal pushed herself onto all fours.
“Wrong answer.” Metal singing through the air filled the night, followed by mirroring cries of pain from the street thugs. Hurried footsteps scraped on the gravel road accompanied by retreating swears and threats. The men escaped.
“I’m beginning to think you like trouble,” said the smooth voice behind her.
“They can’t get away. They know about the mages,” she said to the ground. Despite the spinning and pounding in her head, the flipping gold coin and talk of red hair were clear in her mind.
“I think your health is more concerning. I can track them once we look at your head.”
Tal put her feet underneath her and promptly fell over. With a frustrated exhale, she said, “Were you following me, Faron?” She sat and hung her head between her knees to stop the spinning.
He laughed once. “You must have a death wish if that’s your only concern.”
“I didn’t need your help.”
“It certainly looked like it.” He squatted in front of her. Tal raised her head and met his eyes. In any other person, the sympathy in Faron’s gaze would have infuriated her, and yet she couldn’t help how her stomach flipped at the way he watched her. “Are you alright?”
“Peachy. I’ll be even better when those maggots stop breathing.” She gestured in the direction the men had fled. She didn’t add that she would torture them until she learned who was searching for a red-haired woman and where they got the coin.
“Well, you got one of them.” He nodded to the thug she had stabbed in the neck. Blood pooled under him where he lay sprawled on the street. His body would cause little commotion in the morning, certainly not enough to elicit a manhunt for his murderer.
Faron handed her a vial of yellow healing elixir, but Tal waved it away.
“It won’t work.” He nodded and pocketed it.
Healing elixirs were powerful remedies when brewed by the right person, but they only worked when the individual taking it was of sound mind and body.
Ale, among other mild toxins, as Septimus described them, interfered with the elixir for the first twenty-four hours.
Tal would have to heal naturally, at least for another day.
“Is it dangerous to take too often?” he mused.
“Only to my pocket,” Tal quipped and rose to her feet, swaying a bit.
Faron, who stood with her, rested a hand under her elbow briefly.
All elixirs were expensive, and her stash dwindled thanks to recent events.
Septimus’s elixirs were the priciest in town, but also the most effective.
She wouldn’t dare buy elsewhere for fear the old man would poison her for not staying a loyal customer.
She would receive enough grief for taking Faron’s elixirs the other day.
“Is it a normal thing for you to get into trouble daily?” They began walking with Tal leading the way. She stumbled a bit, partly from the ale, and partly from the blow to her head. She noticed Faron tensing every time she staggered or swayed, a hand held up to offer stability.
“It only seems to be normal when you’re around,” she responded.
“Are you accusing me of putting you in danger?” he teased.
“Well, two days ago was your fault, but no. I’m accusing you of being bad luck.”