Dusk Falling (Book 1) (11 page)

He was hungry, that much was obvious to him as well as his captors but he would not eat. In his mind, he should not be hungry. His kind did not need to eat every day. Nor sleep, his mind wheedled. Again, that Binding spell had one up on him.

And that girl! Why was she so nice? It was irritating. Finally he snapped, “I don’t want any of that, stupid girl! Why can’t you realize that?”

He took some small pride in seeing her draw back and her eyes widen. She rose to her feet silently and paced over to where their large satchel sat. That pride was squashed however when the Yarcka- Serrtin was her name- came up behind him much more quietly than he’d have expected was possible and smacked him none-too-gently on the back of the head.

“You’d best take solace in her kindness, wretch, ’cause you won’t be getting any from me. I’d see you starve but if you were to slip and fall out of exhaustion you might break your damn fool neck. Then I’d get a pay cut.” She met his cold stare with one of her own. “I hate pay cuts.”

“Your blood money is of no concern to me.”

“Blood money is it?” Serrtin barked a laugh. She walked around him and sat. “Alright then, while you are gracing us with your voice, tell me why our pay is ‘blood money’.”

“Serrtin…” Aya said, the Circuit rule of Don’t Ask Don’t Care coming to mind. Serrtin waved off her companions concerns.

The Elfkin attempted to adjust his cramped shoulders. “No.”

“No?” Serrtin exclaimed. “No matter. We don’t care. The Client who hired us is the only one who needs to care.”

There it was again. Aya was sure this time she saw a tinge of fear in those amber eyes.

“Well, whatever you did, you were not going to get away with it for long. White? That’s a very conspicuous color for someone to wear if they were trying to hide.”

“Who says I was trying to hide? I’ve managed to ‘get away with it’ for quite some time. I’ve killed everyone who tested me. And if I remember correctly, I’ve even killed a pair of Hunters. Just… like… you.”

This time the call of her name kept the saurian from permanently ridding the captive’s face of its ingratiating smile. Slowly, Serrtin sat again and lowered her taloned hand.

“But it’s not their lives you should worry about because as soon as I get this spell off me, I’m going to kill every one of you.” His sincere confidence gave Serrtin pause. “You really want know what I did? You want to know why they hired bounty hunters?” His eyes gleamed in a frightening light. “Seven. Seven perished before I even escaped their dungeon- captive, guard, it didn’t matter. They all died. Once out, I made sure to take as many of those bastards down as I could. But not quickly. Oh no. I made their wounds with my claws not my more lethal magic- gut wounds that would take hours of careful magical stitching to fix, if at all. Slashed arteries that would let them live long enough for them to think there may be a chance for survival. Then..,” He grinned wickedly and shrugged in dismissal. The manacles jangled with the motion. “I thought I’d taught them a lesson that time but I guess some just don’t learn. I’ll be sure not to let that lesson go unlearned next time anyone dares get in my way…”

It was a thinly veiled threat. Unfortunately for him, threats bounced off Serrtin’s scaly hide like droplets of rain. Aya and Agemeer however were not from the toughest of Demarian races. They glanced at each other. Though he could not sense fear, he could see it attempting to edge into the dark-haired girl. In fear, he hoped to find his freedom.

The Chase bulked when Serrtin told him to stand, that they were leaving. “Move. We have a reputation to uphold.”

The white cloth of his pants didn’t take well to being dragged and oddly enough it seemed to goad him to his feet a lot quicker than anything else Serrtin could have done to him. He grumbled, cursing in a language that sounded to Aya almost like broken Bren.

As she mounted up, she chalked it up to the close relationship of ancient Elven and Bren languages. She was just glad for rope and talented Asrai magic. It made their job much less stressful though not that much more pleasant. Traditional magic-fail bonds were far less trustworthy.

They continued their trek in relative silence for a couple of miles of open terrain. Aya watched the trees in the distance come nearer and nearer, wondering if they had passed through them on their way to Barda. They did not look familiar, were a straight-trunked breed of rough-barked tree. The leaves had an enchanting glimmer to them, like morning dew. But Serrtin had a great sense of direction, as did Agemeer, so being lost was out of the question.

Upon closer inspection, Aya saw that the leaves did in fact have a shimmering glow to them. The thin branches reminded her of the weeping willow trees that grew on in her homelands for these too hung as if reaching for the ground not the sky. Agemeer paused before entering the forest, glancing to the right and left. With a twitch of his furry tail, he headed in. The ground was loamy and littered with the shiny oval leaves.

“Serrtin,” The mage said, twisting in the saddle. “Are you sure we came through this way?”

The Yarcka studied the trees, the terrain. “No but we are going in the direction of the closest Hold. I am sure of that. We are probably only half a mile or so off our original path so let’s keep going.”

So into the forest they went. A pleasant breeze played through the leaves, adding natural music to their journey.

It did not take long before the Hunter named Serrtin to realize it was boring. Serrtin detested dull and was no fan of music either. The shiny leaves had been interesting but now were becoming a nuisance, with every incessant gust of wind the foliage would wave and sparkle anew, trying to draw her eye in every direction at once. She tried to focus on something else. “Soooo, Elf.” She drawled. It amused her to see his shoulders tense at her verbiage. He really did not like being called that. “That was impressive fighting in our first meeting- can’t say I like magical weaponry but those things were pretty effective. What are those things exactly?”

Orange eyes glared at her. “None of your concern.”

She took his answer in stride. “Not very effective against a sword though- or swordsmen. Defensively, there’re many flaws. Offensively, I’d say it’s more of a coward’s weapon.”

The snow-haired captive halted, back straight in indignation but was jerked back into a walk by the rope tying him to the bay mare. He eyed Serrtin over his shoulder with a look of hatred.

“Not like my weapon.” In a single smooth motion, she loosened her flamberge and with an audible ‘chunk’ sliced clean through the trunk of a sapling. Keeping with the inertia of the downward cut, Serrtin allowed the blade to spin over the back of her hand. She caught the hilt and brought the sword up to her critical inspection. The saurian grinned into the flawless metal.

The day wore on. In the warm balmy air, Serrtin lost interest in baiting their prisoner and the prisoner lost interest in his thoughts of revenge and mayhem. Aya’s eyes drooped, listening to the chimes of the forest around her. Resting one hand on the saddle pad, she leaned over on it and kicked her feet out of the stirrups. She lost track of time on the gently scented wind.

Agemeer was the first to notice something was not quite right. In fact, it was completely wrong. He too had begun to relax and lower his guard. It was so warm and peaceful and the area was so lovely and safe. His sense of hearing existed only for the rustle of leaves, the sound of the mare’s clomping footfalls and those of his companions were drowned out. His sense of smell was filled with the scent of loam and plant matter, no longer was a part of that sense occupied by the odor of leather, silver and horse. Brown eyes unfocused, the Wulf yawned widely. Too widely and the pinch of over stretched muscles made him stumble. Instantly, Agemeer woke up.

Turning to warn his companions, he saw he was alone. They were gone.

The glint of the leaves and the wispy breeze took on a sudden sinister glow and the Wulf came on high alert. Agemeer growled and the world began to change.

The illusionary spell lost its effect the moment Agemeer stopped believing what he saw was reality. The trees melted into the real spell, the underlying spell that the illusion took root from- a trap.

The sky was black and the terrain was a crumbly rock-like substance. High banks and low valleys, the substance was never flat for more than three paces in any direction. The substance flickered and purple washed over its surface like a wave of color.

“Serrtin!! Aya!!” Agemeer yelled in mind-speech. Frantically, beset with worry, he began to run back the way he thought he had come from.

~ ~ ~

Dull, Dull, Dull. The forest was boring Serrtin. It all looked the same. Same trees, same dirt, same stupid sparkling leaves. Walking with arms behind her head, she was beginning to think maybe her mind was playing tricks on her. The trees did look not just similar but oddly familiar. Real familiar. A ‘Y’-shaped bough, a crooked branch… a downed trunk sliced in half by what could only have been a sword.

She dropped her arms to her side and stared at the cut tree. It was the fallen tree she had cut with her flamberge as example to their irritating captive.

Captive. Serrtin’s eyes searched the forest in front of her to no avail. They weren’t there. She cursed brutally. She ran forward, backhanding branches out of the way, snapping limbs. She listened. Nothing. Nothing but the wind.

~ ~ ~

A snort from Trinket stirred Aya and she had to catch herself from falling off. She tried to mask her reaction and pretend she had not just been asleep. Under dark bangs, she couldn’t see Agemeer, the Wulf having must have gone ahead out of her range of sight. “He must be scouting for a better path.” She thought to herself, “Certainly not dosing off. Serrtin will ream me good. Maybe she didn’t see that.”

Aya did not see the Yarcka when she looked back, only the Chase, who was trailing with his head hung docilely. “He must be planning something. Wait, where’s Serrtin? She would never willingly let a Circuit captive out of her sight.” Aya pulled her mare to an abrupt halt.

The Elfkin continued to walk until he ran smack into the horse’s flank. He bounced off but caught his balance before tumbling. “Hey, what the hell-” He snarled. He blank heavily dispute appearances.

“Were you asleep too?” Aya asked, afraid to hear the answer.

“Of course not.” He looked in the direction the mage was looking in. “Where’s the lizard?”

“I have a bad feeling about this.” She tried to ignore the sudden gleam in his eyes. Tugging to the left, she pivoted Trinket. Aya’s dark eyes searched the sparkling trees, ears strained against the seemingly innocuous wind but gave up on those senses when they revealed nothing. The mage closed a fist and placed a knuckle to her forehead. Her fingers were cool despite the relative warmth of the outside air. Aya breathed out and lowered her mental walls.

Naught but the usual signs of life. She sent out a tentative questing tendril of energy and met with a barrier that bit back like a snake. Jarred, the girl gasped sharply. It felt like a static shock but to the most tender unprotected part of her mind.

The Elfkin eyed her with suspicion.

“It’s like… some sort of magical… cage. A trap or something.”

“What are you babbling about? I don’t sens-” He stopped himself midsentence with a frustrated snarl.

“You can’t sense anything because of the magic-dampening Seal. Anything having to do with magic- its use or its effects- won’t work.”

“I know that!” He responded sarcastically. Stupid girl. To himself, inwardly anxious, he thought, “A cage, a trap. A rogue mage wouldn’t do anything this elaborate, not here. That means… someone who was expecting them. Or me… damn.”

And he could not even sense the trap he had just been led complacently into. Implementing illusionary magic was not his strong point but he knew it well for its element of deception was ingrained in his ancestor’s blood. And now, arms tied as well as his magic ability, he had no defense. Without it, he was at the mercy of the girl, the young mage- she would have to figure a way for them to get out of this. Being a Circuit captive was much preferable to anything those behind this spell could devise.

Feh! It made his stomach turn to think of the situation as such. Stupid girl! If the Circuit wanted him that bad, why’d they send such amateurs? He would not be caught because of their ineptitude! “So? If you plan on continuing to go on living-” That is until I get my powers back. “-standing around here gawking isn’t going to do it.”

Aya reddened at the barb. She did not retort even though she wanted to but instead consciously blanked her face. She was not about to let her own prisoner make a fool of her. But she was out of ideas. Was this some sort of illusionary spell? If so, it was strong but at the same time ‘quiet’. She hadn’t felt the transition into it- not counting drifting off into half-sleep. Were the others still asleep, they too only now waking to find something wrong or were they still walking, oblivious the trap around them?

Then the thought came to her passed her worry for her companions: who was the one behind the spell and what were they hoping to accomplish? “Was this trap set… for us?” She said out loud to herself.

“My, my, how Circuit Hunters can be arrogant. I know of plenty of creatures who’d want your kind dead one way or the other but none of them would go to this much trouble.”

“What, are you saying this is to trap you?”

“The Circuit isn’t the only ones after me.” He said airily.

“And that makes you proud?” Aya asked incredulously with raised brows.

“I am used to it. My kind draw attention no matter if we try to or not.”

Aya glanced skywards. The canopy was still there, the spell still in place. “You mean Yierhna? Look, as you so blatantly said before, we don’t have time to just stand around. I for one do not want whatever the perpetrator has in store for you to happen to my friends.” She turned Trinket without looking back.

The tug at the saddle rope was strong enough to even draw the mare’s eye. Aya glanced back only to be pinned with a menacing amber-eyed glare. Even without his magic, he was still physically strong- someone to be reckoned with.