22.10.10

7: Cornered Tigress

“Catch the traitor,” a sentry called from somewhere in the distance. The once peaceful night had been torn apart by warning bells and guards shouting, hounds barking and fires blazing. The whole city was wide awake and looking for him.

Bass Mason had gone through his entire life having never been truly important for anything. He had enlisted as a soldier as soon as he was eligible, fought in a few major conflicts even, but even then he was nothing but a background character to someone else's heroics. He was thirty, unmarried and convinced there was something more for him to do, some higher purpose to which he would be called.

Just ten minutes ago he'd stumbled upon that calling. He hadn't known it at the time, but the small scrap of paper he found discarded on his commanding major's desk would not only decide his fate, but ultimately the fate of the entire world. He wasn't even going to read it at first, but curiosity got the best of him.

Now that he'd seen the contents of the letter, and now that the commanding major knew he'd seen it, there was no turning back. He knew that he had to tell someone what he'd seen, what the commanding major was planning, but he now knew that no one in the city could be trusted.

So he ran, hiding from the men he'd once called allies but now most likely had orders to kill him on sight. They were calling him a traitor, not knowing that they were the ones who were betraying their oaths. As someone who had once stood sentry on the walls surrounding the city of Inari, Bass knew it was impossible for him to make it out of the city alive. Inari was an impenetrable fortress, and its defenses had only increased since it became a city.

Bass would never escape, but the letter he'd discovered could. Instead of trying to work his way out of the city he worked his way farther in, away from the walls and toward the domed roof of the falconry. He ducked behind corners and into shadows to avoid the many patrols that came looking for him. Nearly every sentry in the city had been put on alert, no doubt by the commanding major himself. Bass had never been very good at sneaking around, but now more than his own life depended on his making sure the letter escaped from Inari.

His heart stopped every time he heard a voice or footstep coming from around a corner, but after ten minutes of sneaking around he finally reached the door of the falconry. Since no one had expected him to move farther into the city, the falconry was empty save for its birds.

The falcons didn't like being woken when he opened the door and voiced their discontent as loudly as they could. Bass knew the noise would attract the guards so he worked fast to fit the crumpled letter into a scroll pouch with the note, “Take this directly to the grand magister. Trust no one.”

With that done he took out the nearest falcon, not bothering to put on a protective glove. The bird's talons dug into his forearm as he slipped the scroll pouch onto its leg, but he gritted his teeth and bore the pain long enough to tell the falcon where to go and letting it loose into the night.

He watched the bird disappear into the dark sky, nursing his bleeding arm and praying his message arrived safely. He couldn't think of what would happen if it didn't. But there was nothing more he could do. His short but vital role in the things to come was over.

The door to the falconry swung open, making Bass jump as he turned to face the newcomer. He expected to see a platoon of sentries staring at him with weapons raised, but instead there was only one person watching him; a young man with silver hair, a chain wrapped around his waist and a dark, terrifying look in his eyes.

“Ya just 'ad to go digging your nose where it didn' belong, didn' ya?” he said with the thick accent of a northerner. “Real unfortunate that. Sorry, but I'm 'fraid ya know too much for ya own good.”

“You're too late,” Bass said, falling back despite himself. He was a trained sentry, and both older and bigger than the boy. But even so he couldn't help but be terrified, without even knowing why exactly he was so scared. Still, he worked desperately not to let his fear show. “I've already sent your plan to someone I trust. Soon everyone will know about it.”

“Well why'd ya 'ave ta go an' do such a pointless thing as that?” The boy reached down and uncoiled the chain at his waist. Instead of falling to the ground like it should have, the end of the coil rose up to rest on his shoulders, like a metal snake. It was clearly just a chain, but it moved like a living thing. “Now I 'ave ta kill ya friend too.”

“You won't.” Bass staggered back, alarmed by the boy's ruthless smile. “I'll never tell you where I sent it.”

The boy's smile grew even wider. “Somethin' tells me ya will.”

And then the boy's chain shot forward as fast as lightning, wrapping itself around Bass's neck before he even saw it coming.

The last think he saw before the chain squeezed the last bit of air out of his throat was the silver-haired boy staring at him, still smiling.

*          *          *

“You do realize we'd already be on our way home right now if you hadn't let her get away last night, don't you?” Zephyr asked, reminding Trace for the third time that morning how she thought he'd screwed up the night before.

“It was dark,” Trace said with a sigh. He was getting tired of defending himself, especially when he was the only one who went into the woods after the thief. Not that he was going to mention that out loud. “She caught me off guard.”

“But I guess you weren't totally useless. At least now we know we're looking for a person.”

“Sort of,” Trace said under his breath. When he'd told Zephyr and Gregor everything that had happened in the woods the night before he'd left out a few key details about the thief. Namely that she wasn't entirely human. He still couldn't believe that despite having seen it himself. But then again it had been late and so dark he could hardly see his own hands. Surely he'd just imagined the fact that she had a tail.

As they talked Trace led Zephyr through the woods. He was trying to retrace his steps from the previous night, but everything looked different in the daylight and he only had a vague sense at best of where he was going.

But he had been taught to hunt and track back in Withestrop, so although it took him some time he did manage to lead Zephyr to the spot where he'd lost track of the thief the night before. He recognized the rock he'd hit his head on after she'd kicked him.

“This is where I lost her,” he said, already trying to catch her trail. She had to have left behind some kind of hint of where she went, a footprint or some broken twigs or something like that. No one, tail or no tail, could move through woods like that without disturbing anything. But no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't find anything.

While Trace scoured the ground and nearby trees, Zephyr reached into her pouch and pulled out a handful of silver powder which she sprinkled on the ground. A few seconds later two sets of glowing orange footprints appeared hovering right above the fallen leaves.

Both sets of tracks came from the same direction, back from Avaril, but while one of them ended right where Zephyr was standing the other continued off further into the woods. Trace, who was still searching for snapped twigs and crushed leaves, didn't see any of this.

“Trace,” Zephyr called, waiting patiently for him to notice what she'd done.

“Hang on,” he said without looking up. “I've almost got it.” And so he thought, but he was nowhere near the footprints Zephyr had revealed.

Zephyr rolled her eyes. “Great. While you do that I'll go catch the thief.”

“What do you...?” Trace stopped mid-sentence as he looked up and finally noticed the glowing footprints. “How'd you...?” He already knew the answer to that question so he asked another. “Where are mine?” It was true there were only two sets of footprints, one belonging to Zephyr and the other supposedly to the thief.

“It's magic, remember? It doesn't work on you.”

“Right.” He pointed at the trail leading further into the woods. “So those are her footsteps?”

“Yeah. And this spell won't last forever so if you don't mind.”

“Of course.”

The two of them followed the trail of glowing footsteps deeper into the forest. It was more or less a straight line, turning only to avoid trees. It even went over some of the larger rocks, with the footprints on top being replaced with hand prints like the thief had hurtled them. The thief had made no attempt to try and lose anyone who might be following her. Either she was confident that no one would find her or she just hadn't thought about it.

Now that they could see the thief's footprints glowing on the shadowy forest floor it didn't take them long to find where she was hiding.

“Why didn't you do this to begin with?” Trace asked as they walked.

“You looked so proud retracing your steps,” Zephyr answered. “Besides this spell doesn't last long. I wanted to get as far as I could before casting it.”

“Couldn't you just cast it again?”

Zephyr glanced up at him in irritation. “Do you know how long it takes to make this stuff?”

Just like Zephyr said, the glowing tracks faded away before they reached wherever the thief was hiding. But since she'd gone straight so far, the two of them kept going in that direction and soon enough they reached her hideout.

The whole time they'd been walking, the woods had been gradually getting rockier as they moved away from the center of the forest and more toward the mountains beyond. They had even seen a few bare cliffs along the way, though none of them reached much higher than Trace's head.

Even though the glowing trail had vanished, it was easy enough to see where it was leading. For a hiding spot, the cave the thief was taking shelter in wasn't exactly hidden. Then again, that far in the woods it didn't exactly have to be.

“What if she noticed that her footsteps were glowing?” Trace asked as they stared at the mouth of the cave.

“That's why we're not just gonna charge in there like morons,” Zephyr answered with a roll of her eyes. “Now hide in that bush, let's see if she's still here.”

Trace eyed the bush she was pointing at with suspicion. “In there? It's so small.” He could feel Zephyr glaring up at him so he amended quickly, “I mean, for two people. Not that you're short or anything.”

She glared at him. “Just shut up and get in the bush.”

Trace knew better than to object any further so he just nodded and followed Zephyr into the bush. It was cramped, barely big enough for one of them let alone both. Despite that Zephyr insisted that the two of them hide in the bush silently, waiting to see if anything moved inside the cave.

Nothing did. For five whole minutes they stared at the empty opening to the cave, shifting uncomfortably so they could both fit in the shelter of the bush. Trace was just about to say something, but someone beat him to it.

“What're you looking at?” It was a voice neither of them recognized, so both of them whipped around to face the speaker. It was a girl roughly their age, tall and thin with ragged clothing that left her stomach exposed. More noticeably, she had long, pointed ears, golden eyes with thin slits for pupils and a short coat of tan fur covering her whole body like an animal. Not to mention her tail, swishing capriciously through the air behind her.

“You,” Trace yelled, struggling to his feet as he drew his sword. But by the time he'd gotten to his feet the tailed thief was already safely out of his reach.

“Who else did you think you'd find all the way out here?” the thief said with a smile.

“Mind filling me in?” Zephyr said, picking herself up. She'd lost her balance when Trace suddenly stood up and only just then did she manage to face the girl who had been standing behind them. “Who is she?”

“The thief,” Trace said, keeping his eyes and the point of his sword trained on her.

“You didn't think to mention she was a leonid?” Zephyr asked.

“A what?”

“The tail, the fur. Don't you know anything?”

“Hello?” the thief said, waving at them. “Mind telling me what you're doing all the way out here.”

“We're here to arrest you,” Zephyr said, brushing some twigs out of her hair.

“Under who's authority?”

“The mage-knights.”

The thief smiled. “So that's it. You're mages. That means I don’t have to listen to you.”

Zephyr struggled to keep her composure, bristling with anger. “And why’s that?”

“Because someone who only relies on magic is no match for me.”

“We’ll see about that.” As she said that Zephyr reached into her pouch, pulling out a handful of silver dust and spreading it in the air in front of her. Almost instantly it began coalescing, thickening with the power of Zephyr’s spell.

But the feline thief was just as fast, if not even faster. Before Zephyr’s cloud could do more than shimmer with power the thief broke through it at a sprint, jumping up at the last minute to land both her feet on Zephyr’s chest. The force of the kick sent Zephyr flying back, breaking her focus on her spell. Without her concentration behind it, all the power faded from her silver cloud and it dropped to the ground in a rain of harmless powder.

“See?” the feline thief said, leaning over Zephyr as the smaller girl struggled to regain her feet. “You’re no match for me.”

“We’ll see about that,” Zephyr said. Still on the ground, she grabbed another handful of silver powder, but instead of throwing it like she usually did she held in front of her face and blew it out of her palm.

As soon as it left her hand, the stream of powder turned into a jet of flame which shot straight toward the thief. But once again the thief proved to be faster than Zephyr’s magic, dodging out of the way of the stream of fire looking completely unconcerned. She was even humming to herself, though it might have been a purr.

Zephyr stood up, glaring at Trace as she pulled out another handful of powder. “Are you just gonna stand there or do you want to help me out?”

Trace, who had just been standing there watching the two girls fight, nodded. In truth he was torn about what to do. It was his job to apprehend the thief, to stop her from the people of Avaril, but she didn’t seem like such a bad person. True she had stole from the village, but she hadn’t hurt anyone, and that had to count for something.

Still, his partner was under attack, and Trace had to help her out. He just slid his sword back into its sheath before doing so. Even if she was a thief he didn’t want to kill her.

“What? You a mage too?” the thief asked, turning her golden eyes on Trace.

Trace didn’t waste his time answering. He swung his sheathed sword at the thief. She managed to get out of the way, but just barely. And despite the fact that his sword passed less than an inch from her head, she came up smiling. “Direct. I like that in a man.”

“Then how about this?” Zephyr had taken advantage of the pause Trace had given her to prepare another spell. As soon as it was ready a stream of lightning bolts shot out from the silver cloud in front of her, lunging straight for both Trace and the thief.

Trace lifted his sword while the thief dove out of the way. Both of them managed to avoid getting roasted by Zephyr’s lightning.

“That’s really annoying,” the thief said, coming out of her dive and sprinting around behind Zephyr. Trace tried to catch her, but the thief was too fast and had too much of a head start. Trace was too far away to be any help and Zephyr didn’t have time to pull out any more of her magic powder. Instead, she lifted her arms to cover her face, expecting the worst.

Instead of punching her or kicking the defenseless mage, the thief reached down and grabbed her pouch, the one holding her powder. “That’s better,” the thief said, tucking the stole n pouch into one of the few folds of her meager clothes. Without her powder, Zephyr couldn’t fight and the thief seemed to realize that. She turned to Trace, still smiling. “Now then sword boy, let’s see what you can do.” With a big wink, the feline thief ran off into the woods.

Trace didn’t stop to look back at Zephyr before chasing after her. He knew if he did he would never catch up. Not only was the thief faster than he was to begin with, but she also knew the area much better than he did. It would be all he could do just to keep up with her, if she had actually been trying to run away. Which, he soon found out, she wasn’t.

Humming, skipping and running just fast enough so he had to chase her while not fast enough to shake him, it was like she was toying with him. To be fair, that was exactly what she was doing.

“What’s wrong?” she said, looking back at Trace while still managing to outrun him. “I thought you’d be more fun than this.”

“You can’t keep running,” Trace called after her, though it was becoming more and more apparent that she could. Even in as good shape as he was, Trace was already starting to pant while the girl still seemed perfectly fine, as if she’d only just started running.

“I could,” she said, slowing to a stop, “but where would the fun be in that?”

“Why are you stealing from the people of Avaril?” Trace demanded.

“Have you ever tried the berries out here?” The thief said, stopping to face Trace.  Trace didn’t believe that, so she said, “Maybe if you beat me I’ll tell you.”

Trace lifted his sword, still in its sheath, savoring the chance to catch his breath without showing it. “No. If I beat you then you have to stop. Whatever your reasons, the people of Avaril need the food stores you’ve been taking to make it through the winter.”

“Oh? So you won’t let me take anymore, is that it?” the thief asked, grinning wildly.

Trace steadied his sword. “Exactly.”

“Let’s see if you can back that up.” Without any more warning than that, the feline thief lunged at him. She was incredibly fast, but even so Trace was ready for her. He swung his sword just as the thief came in. She slid underneath his sheathed blade, sweeping his legs out from under him as she went.

Trace took the fall gracefully, coming up on his feet in time to get his sword in front of the thief’s next punch. He pushed it away, but the thief just went with it, throwing her other fist at him. He ducked under her arm and rammed his shoulder into her stomach.

Once again the thief was one step ahead of him. Instead of the solid contact he should have felt from the tackle, he barely brushed the exposed fur of her stomach as she flipped over him. She reached her hands around to grab underneath his armpits. The next thing he knew Trace was pinned to the ground, the thief straddling him and his sword laying at the foot of a tree a couple feet away. And despite how much lighter she was than him, he couldn’t shake her off.

“Not bad,” the thief purred, pressing his wrists into the ground with her hands. “What’s your name?”

“Trace,” Trace said, pushing the word out against the pressure on his chest. “You?”

The thief smiled. “Rin. Give up yet?”

Trace had never practiced much wrestling, but that didn’t mean he was completely useless without his sword. Rin was nimble and surprisingly strong, not to mention a good fighter, but Trace was strong too, and he was desperate. Losing here meant letting down all the people of Avaril, failing them. He couldn't let that happen.

“Not yet.” Trace summoned all the strength he could and pushed with everything he had. Despite her resistance he managed to lift Rin up and switch places with her. She fought against him, punching and kicking and flailing everything she could. She even tried using her tail, though it did little more than tickle the back of Trace’s neck. She was strong and ferocious and desperate, but Trace had his body on top of hers and both of her hands pinned.

He let go of one of her hands, risking the scratches and punches it threw at him to press his forearm against her throat. It was the most effective choke he knew, and its effect was almost immediate. He only applied a little pressure and Rin stopped wailing on him with her free hand.

“Do you give up?” Trace asked, panting with exertion. Rin tried to wriggle free one last time, but both of them knew she wasn’t going anywhere. She nodded as best she could under the circumstances.

“And you promise not to steal anymore?” Trace asked, easing off her neck only slightly, just enough so that she could answer.

“Yes,” she coughed. “I promise.”

That was good enough for Trace. Still sitting on top of her, he took his arm off her neck, letting her cough and rub it with her own now free hands. “I'm not gonna run away,” Rin said, rubbing her neck and staring up at him, “you can get off, me if you want.”

Trace had nearly forgotten he was sitting on her, keeping her pinned. He leapt off her, looking away as he went to retrieve his sword.

“So that's it?” Rin asked, brushing the dirt and twigs out of her fur. “I promise to be good and you let me go?”

Trace slid his sword back into his belt before answering. “Not exactly. It's the people of Avaril who will decide whether to punish you, not us. But it's a start.”

“And you think I'll just go with you? Just because I promised I would?”

Trace shrugged. “Pretty much.”

“Why would I do that?”

Trace looked at her, his dark eyes meeting her gold ones. “Because I don't think you're a bad person. I don't know why you thought you had to steal from them, or why you're living out here in the first place, but I think if you explain everything to them they'll forgive you.”

Rin looked at Trace, blinking a couple times before a smile blossomed across her face. “You're surprisingly naive, aren't you? It's cute.”

Trace wasn't sure if that was a compliment or an insult. “Are you going to try and prove me wrong. I'll fight you again if that's what it takes.”

Rin held up her hands in a lighthearted gesture of surrender. “You won fair and square. I'll respect that.”

Trace let out a sigh of relief. Honestly he thought it was more luck than anything else that he'd managed to beat Rin once. He didn't really want to try it again. “Good. Let's find Zephyr and hear you out. Then we'll figure out what to do with you.”

Whether she agreed or not, Rin followed Trace back through the woods to where they'd left Zephyr.

*          *          *

Aurellia tapped her foot impatiently. She'd been standing guard by the door for nearly an hour and for what? Just so Rex could stuff his face. Even from outside she could hear him eating, an unfortunate effect of her sensitive ears, and it made her sick. How could anyone eat like that?

“Are you finished yet?” she asked, opening the door to scowl at him. She didn't step foot inside. The room stank of food, wine and blood.

“Almost,” Rex grumbled, pulling a whole cooked hen toward himself. It was one of nearly a dozen he'd already eaten, judging by the remains left on the table in front of him. Aurellia's stomach turned just looking at the mess he'd made, and not just of his food. It wasn't disgusting, nothing was to her, just repulsive.

“You should eat,” Rex continued through gigantic mouthfuls of roasted bird.

“And you should show some restraint,” she countered. “We're trying not to raise suspicion, remember?”

Rex shrugged, throwing the rest of the hen in his mouth, bones and all. “I was hungry.”

“How does that excuse making such a mess?” Aurellia waved her hand around the room. It was just as messy as the table in front of Rex. Broken tables, plates and glasses covered the floor. Dark splatters of blood covered the walls, floor and even parts of the ceiling, all coming from the dozen or so dead bodies scattered around the room. Just looking at the scene would have been enough to turn a normal person's stomach. But Aurellia wasn't normal, nor was Rex. Both of them had killed more people than they could remember, enough so that they no longer thought about death.

“We don't have any more time to waste here,” Aurellia scolded. “We have to gather the next artifact.”

His meal finished, Rex stood up. The wooden floor of the building trembled underneath him, as if it knew what unspeakable act he'd just committed upon it. On his way toward the door, he stopped at the front counter. He pulled a leather pouch out of his pocket, pathetically small in his massive hands, and dropped a small pile of gold coins on the counter before walking out without a word.

Aurellia shook her head, as she always did after Rex's strange ritual. “What's the point of paying after you've already killed everyone?” she asked.

“Eating without paying is wrong,” was all Rex said before the two of them continued their journey in silence.

*          *          *

“I can't believe they just let her off like that,” Zephyr said, still fuming despite the fact that they'd left Avaril over an hour ago.

“She didn't mean any harm,” Trace said, trying to calm her but knowing it wouldn't work.

“She fooled you,” Zephyr insisted. “All of you. Was it those big gold eyes or the tail?”

Trace sighed. “You're just mad that she stole your powder, aren't you?”

“She's a thief,” Zephyr countered, neither confirming nor denying what Trace had said, “and they just let her go. And for what? A sob story.”

“No one said what she did was right. Everyone makes mistakes.”

“But apparently not everyone pays for them.”

“It's not nice to talk about people behind their backs you know,” Rin said from behind them, causing both Trace and Zephyr to jump.

“You,” Zephyr demanded, regaining her composure and readying her pouch of silver powder. “Would you stop doing that?”

Rin shrugged, smiling. “It's not my fault if you're not very observant.”

“What are you doing here?” Trace asked, just as surprised as Zephyr but not nearly as defensive. “I thought you were going to stay in Avaril.”

“That place was way too boring for me,” Rin said, skipping up to the two mage-knights. “So I thought I'd go with you.”

“No way,” Zephyr said.

“Don't be like that,” Rin purred. She walked up next to Zephyr and pet the top of her head, a gesture which didn't make Zephyr any happier. “I have to come with you.”

“And why's that?” Zephyr asked, eyes narrowing in suspicion.

Rin made her way over to Trace and threw her arms around him. “Because we're engaged.”

Both Trace and Zephyr were so shocked by that announcement that they nearly fell over. Once the shock passed, Zephyr looked at Trace with both suspicion and fury. “Just what were the two of you doing in the woods without me?”

Rin smiled suggestively, but Trace answered more honestly. “I have no idea.”