Chapter 6 #2
A woman approached me, the mask making it impossible for me to recognize her.
“Your meeting has been canceled, sweetling. You are coming with us, Bogus sends his regards. Now shut up and let’s go.
” She grabbed my tied hands and shoved me towards the horses that were standing near the barn.
My stomach sank, tears were prickling behind my eyes and sweat coated my skin.
I looked around frantically, my vision turning blurry from my racing heart.
I needed to get to my bag, so I could grab my pen and somehow call to my heka. I waited.
One second, two seconds, three seconds.
I jerked on my arms as hard as I could. I managed to slip out of the woman’s hold, my eyes fixed on my bag on the ground.
She let out a surprised gasp and tried to grab me, but I evaded her grip by twisting my shoulders to the left and ducking slightly.
This would work, I just needed to get t—“Umpf!” A muffled scream escaped me.
Three of the men were already on me, one of them pulling on my tied hands in the back.
My shoulders were screaming in agony. I should have known better than to try and escape.
I should have tapped and counted and recited my verses.
I should have known that I’d make the wrong choice. Again.
One of the men dragged me back upright, while the older man who had captured me first stepped awfully close.
He was breathing heavily, his stale breath hot on my skin.
I hadn’t listened to my own mantra, I had angered him and I was going to pay the consequences for my actions.
He lifted his hands in a fluid motion and before I knew what he was doing, his hands were around my throat.
“You little bitch, did you honestly think we’d let you go this easily?” He seethed.
Panic rose in my chest as his hands started to tighten around my throat.
“Fates, please help me. I call upon your age-old wis—”
Before I could finish my thought, someone or something rushed out from inside the barn, tackling my captor to the ground. The force of the impact and the sudden loss of his hands on my throat threw me off kilter, and I landed roughly on my backside.
I looked up, only to see Caelan towering over the man in red, plunging a sword deep into the man’s chest. My breath caught in a silent scream as I watched Caelan retract his sword.
Oh Fates, the other two men who had overpowered me earlier were already dead, their lifeless eyes staring up at me.
I was going to be sick. The smell of wet dirt and blood flooded my nose.
I needed to get up and get away from those bodies, or I’d lose it.
I pushed myself up onto my knees and turned away from the scene in front of me. Around us, more priests dressed like Caelan had entered the field and were getting ready to attack. Caelan stalked over to me and cut through the ropes binding my hands.
“Hide.” He ordered stiffly. He didn’t have to tell me twice.
I backed away towards the barn and watched in horror as the priests attacked my captors with long swords and daggers.
In my mind, priests were supposed to be calm, kind and…
holy? But these people here were anything but.
They were warriors and killed with a precision that I had believed only soldiers possessed.
My captors fought back with fury, but the priests held the upper hand.
They were sharper, faster, and clearly more skilled.
For a moment, it looked like we might win.
Then I saw it: a flash of light in one captor’s hand.
He drew a small orb and with a single flick of his wrist, the orb exploded in a burst of blinding light.
The priests were thrown back like rag dolls, groaning as they hit the ground.
Panic tightened in my chest. This wasn’t brute force anymore—they had magic.
My heka recognized it before my brain could even make the connection and began straining under my skin. I needed to do something, or we’d lose this fight and I wasn’t ready to get kidnapped. But I wouldn’t make this decision on my own. Should I attack or lay low?
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
Red for the roses, white for the veil,
one to remember, one to betray.
Attack.
I reached into my bag, pulling out pen and paper.
There was a commotion behind me, the fight had drawn out spectators from the surrounding farms. Screams and whispers echoed across the field, the onlookers were equally fascinated and appalled by what they were seeing.
Magic wasn’t part of their reality, and although they knew that it had once existed in our realm, most of them had never seen it being used. I tried to focus on my spell.
The priests had recovered quickly and had drawn up what looked to be some kind of translucent shield around them so the magic of the orb couldn’t reach them anymore.
But my captors had still managed to get in a few hits, because two of the priests were laying on the ground, unmoving.
I closed my eyes and the world around me faded away.
One breath. One act. One choice.
Do good. Stay clean. Hold steady.
I scribbled down on my paper:
“Fates, I call upon your old age wisdom.
Slow down my captors’ movements and disable the orb.
As I command, so it goes.”
The ink settled on the page and a ripple of power erupted from my palms. The onlooking farmers gasped, and I felt a heady rush of pleasure and excitement pumping through my veins.
My captors’ eyes widened as my magic hit them, only allowing them to move in agonizing slowness.
The priests quickly caught on and went into offense.
One by one, they took my captors down with their swords until complete silence fell over the field.
A silence I had only ever heard once, and it was deafening.
The sound of death.
Caelan rushed towards me. “Are you all right, Maelis?” he asked quickly, eyeing me from head to toe.
“What happened here, Caelan? Are they all dead, did you kill them?”
The shock in my voice must have been apparent, because when Caelan spoke again, his voice was softer and calm.
“I came by your house earlier, wanting to speak with you again. Your mother told me you had already left to meet with someone. She had assumed that someone was me. I am sorry I wasn’t here on time to prevent them from hurting you.”
Caelan grabbed a water bottle and held the cold glass against my swollen throat.
The magical rush hit me, but slower this time. Maybe it was the shock that kept the high at bay or the spell simply hadn’t cost as much as other spells had, but I managed to stay in control of my emotions for once.
“Who were they?” I whispered, not wanting to look over there and see my captors bleeding on the ground.
“They are called the Heralds of the Forsaken. We know very little about their organization, but we assume that they are planning to raise an army. They probably knew I was here to take you to Auretheos so they decided to make their move. Are you all right to stand on your own?”
I nodded, but felt quite wobbly in the knees when I walked over to gather my things.
“I am sorry, but we can’t wait any longer, we have to leave right now. If there are Heralds here, others will be near and we can’t risk another fight in the mortal realm.”
As he was speaking, Caelan was already hooking my bag over his shoulder.
“I can’t leave! What about my mother? The Heralds know where I live, who knows what they will do to her if they find their friends dead?” I said.
“All right, all right. I will call for guards to watch your mother’s house, and we will get a message to her that you are well.
As soon as we know what we are dealing with, we will be sending for your mother to come to Aerethia with us.
But we need to leave now. The farmers have seen your power and word will get back to the authorities about your heka. ”
My head was spinning, this was all too much.
A couple of days ago I had never heard about the Gods continent and now I was supposed to just leave behind my whole life to help some old wrinkly God to fight the Heralds?
But what was left for me here? Bad memories, guilt and the danger of getting sent to the colonies for possessing magic.
I let out a shaky breath. I had worried about which path the Fates wanted me to take, but yet again it seemed like the Fates knew exactly how to force my hand.
“You promise to take care of her, Caelan? Swear to me that no harm will come to her and I will go with you.” I stared intently at Caelan, and he seemed to let out a sigh of relief.
“I swear to you on the sanctity of my temple, Maelis. But we need to leave now before anyone discovers us here.” I nodded, not being able to say anything more with anger and desperation clogging up my throat. Caelan headed back towards the group of priests.
They made quick work of undressing the men and women and set fire to their clothes. Then they pulled the bodies into the barn and set it on fire as well. One of the priests went to speak with the farmers, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying. One by one, they turned around and walked away.
“A mind spell. That should be enough to buy us some time,” Caelan said.
I stared at the pools of blood on the dusty ground and swallowed hard. Clearly this was no game if Caelan was willing to kill my captors without a second thought. But I had no time to mull this over because we were already moving again.
Caelan led me round the barn to the most western side.
“The reason I wanted to meet you here, is that the ruins over there once used to be a temple. It is one of the few places in this town where we can use the Pathways.”
I stopped. “Wait, what? What is a Pathway?” I stuttered.