Lachlan was dead.

Isla knew it, people didn’t tend to recover from being beheaded. Still she held his limp body in her arms. Still she rolled his name in her mouth.

“Say something.” She whispered to him. Anything at all. She didn’t care what it was, something stupid, something inane, manly, but Lachlan didn’t say a thing. Lachlan was dead, and the dead didn't speak.

Isla looked anywhere but at her friend’s corpse. She met the stranger’s eyes, the one that was alive where Lachlan was dead.

“What’s in the folder?” Isla asked, she heard the venom in her words, it sounded appropriate to the fire in her chest.

“I can’t-”

“What’s in the fucking folder?!” She didn’t know when she’d moved, but the man was suddenly pinned against the wall, neck trapped between one hand’s fingers while magic crackled in the other. Terror haemorrhagedd from him so thickly that it almost choked her to behold.

Good, you should be fucking terrified.

“Names, a list of names,” He stumbled out. Isla’s eyes were enough of an indicator for him to elaborate. “Exiles of the Have Empire, people who the Great Empire banished, it contains their names and their last known location.”

“Why does The Lady Yemisi want it?” Isla asked.

“Vengeance, she has enemies on that list, ones the Empire forbids her from harming,” hatred bloomed in his eyes. “She’s decided to take justice into her own hands.”

“And why do you have it?” She asked. “Let me guess you stole it to sell it back to her for a steep price.” Lachlan died because of a fool.

His eyes hardened. “I stole it because my husband’s on that list.”

“Why didn’t you burn it the moment you could, then?” Isla asked.

“Because she already got to him.” He snarled, resolve crystalising across his features. “The document is the only evidence I have to bring her to justice.”

His words twisted her and Isla suddenly found her anger lacking direction, that only enraged her further.

She paced, tried to clear her mind, it didn’t work, Lachlan was dead and soon they might be too.

“Fuck!”

----------------------------------------

“It’s really deep in there,” Ethi sighed.

“Yes, I can fucking see that.” Cut groaned, glaring at the axe buried into her thigh.

“Yes… sorry,” Ethi apologised.

Cut’s features softened. “It’s fine.” She muttered, gaze falling to the floor. “It’s all gone to piss, hasn’t it?”

Her words voiced Ethi’s thoughts. It was over, there would be no grand achievement, no returning home, no rise from grace. She was a fool to think it could ever be that simple. Grab a folder and you’ll be welcomed home with open arms. Idiot.

Lachlan was dead. Ethi tried convincing herself she’d deliberately kept from thinking about it to ensure her composure, but that was a lie. Her mind had been far too weighed by her own fate. Selfish.She found rage in her sadness. What sort of family casts their own child away.

The answer was clear, it didn’t matter what sort of family, it was her family and she longed for them. Her mother’s smile and her brother’s hug.

She would never see them again.

“I have some bandages I could use to wrap the wound, stem the blood flow.” Ethi turn at the unexpected beckoning. Standing above her was the man they had nearly killed.

The tension in his eyes told surely that he remembered that. Ethi only stared at them for several moments before realising it was her turn to speak, she did so shakily. “Y-yes… That would be helpful, thank you.”He left, and returned soon enough. They worked on Cut in silence, only ever exchanging words with one another to swap information or advice. Ethi did more of the asking than answering, for the stranger’s deft hands told of his experience working on injuries.

“Seris,” he said, after a while. “I figured you girls should at least know my name if we’re going to be dying together.”

“Ethi,” She replied then turned her eyes in Cut’s direction expectantly.

The woman grimaced at Ethi, then turned away.

“Adair.”

“Adair?”

Cut met her gaze incredulously. “Yes, were you under the impression that my mother named me Cut?”“I…” The woman snorted and Ethi felt the heat rise to her cheeks. She looked at the man- Seris, who had gone back to wrapping along Cut’s thigh. He had a distant smile tugging at the edge of his lips.“I imagine my daughters would have been like you two, if I’d ever had any.” Seris’s smile was a sad one now.

“I think what you did was brave.” Ethi found herself saying.The man had been far too gentle for her to expect the edge that came with his response.

“I wish I could say the same about what you’re doing.”

Ethi felt guilt worm into her heart and dig its teeth in. She hadn’t known, she couldn’t have, and yet it was clear from the start that an operation like this wouldn’t have been clean. She had simply let herself believe it was.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“I did it for my family.”

Seris met her eyes and nodded in recognition. “I suppose we both are slaves to our kin.”“It’s not over!” Isla declared. The woman stepped into the room with fire in her eyes and lightning in her feet. “We’re not going to die here.”

Ethi’s eyes fell on her, and on any other day, in any other circumstances, the woman’s confidence would have been infectious. But not today, today Ethi could only raise questions.

“How? Siobhan is still out there, she’s probably watching this cabin, waiting to kill us right now.”“Yes, that’s her mistake and she’ll die for it.” Isla stated with a certainty. Beneath the confidence, Ethi could see, was a barely restrained malice. Her eyes flickered to Seris. “You… you’ve had a while to scope this place out, surely you’ve been preparing for an attack, what would be the best place to ambush a person from?”

Seris was quick in his answer and he pointed outside to a hill Ethi reckoned would be a few minutes away. “There’s dense enough foliage to obscure about half a dozen people.”

“That will be her dwelling then.” Isla nodded.

“And how do you intend on making that happen?” Seris challenged.

“We still have what she needs,” Isla pointed to the folder by Ethi’s side. “She’ll go wherever the folder goes, all we need to do is to have someone take it there.”

Seris gave a reluctant nod and then there was heat in his eyes again. “And when this is over you’re going to kill me and sell the document to the highest bidder.” He replied. “It’s what you thought I would do in your position, so it’s what you will.”Isla didn’t flinch, not at his glare and not at his accusation, instead meeting both with a certainty of her own.

“Sir, my friend just died and today will decide whether he did so for nothing or not.” Her words put a chill in Ethi. “I don’t want to hurt you, but if you get in my way, I won’t hesitate to put you in the ground with him.”

Seris said nothing at that, only his eyes spoke of his intentions and they were to kill Isla.

But that wouldn’t be happening now, for now their lives depended on them working together.

Isla’s eyes fell on Ethi and she nearly flinched. They held a warmth to them. “I’m sorry it turned out like this, but I told you I’m getting you home, so I’m getting you home.”

Ethi appreciated the sentiment but didn’t need Isla’s lies to keep her going. The fear of death was enough. “You don’t need to lie to me.”

Isla met her eyes with resolve. “Lies are for people too stupid to make their promises into truths. How much do you think a noble title costs in Unix, a million stars?” She asked. “A grave sum of money. For Unix. But not nearly as strenuous to a Have, we might well make that from Yesmin, and even if not so much you could live in luxury for a century.”

Ethi was drowning in a sea of despair and those words were a steady hand to guide her onto shore. Whatever expression she had on made Isla snort.“Lachlan isn’t going to die for nothing, I’m going to become noble and you’re going to be welcomed back home with open arms, because I’m not a fucking liar.” She grinned.

“You’re going to doom so many people for what? Money?” Seris spat at Isla’s feet, and Ethi felt her heart drop out at his words. Hearing the matter framed so starkly sickened her, but before her mind could dwell longer on it, he carried on. “Fine, the girl serves as bait.”

Ethi realised he was looking directly at her. “Me?”

“No,” Isla snapped and the steel in her voice shook Ethi. “She’s been through enough danger.”

“She’s the fastest and the strongest amongst us.” Seris countered. “Obvious choice.”

“I’ll go.” Cut declared. The feasibility of that became apparent when she tried to stand, crumpled and fell against the wall before sliding down onto the floor with a groan. The woman wouldn’t be able to even help ambush Siobhan.

Seris and Isla looked as if they were just moments away from coming to blows.

“I’ll do it.” Ethi heard herself say. Her voice was small and sounded a distant thing.

“Are you sure?” Isla asked, concern lacing her features.

“No, It’s massively fucking dangerous but anyone else would die so I’m the obvious choice.” Ethi babbled back.

Isla gave Ethi an apologetic look. “I’m sorry.”

“I am too.” Ethi hissed, fighting back her own hysteria. “Now hurry up and send me out before I change my mind.”

“You should take the blunderbuss.” Isla said, pointing to the big gun that had done such a number on Siobhan.

“No,” Seris interjected. “It’s best if you look like you betrayed us and fled with the document.” He shook his head. “Plus, a well placed shot from this might kill a mystic of her power dead, better to use it on the ambush.”He was right, Ethi hated that he was right but he was no less right for it. She grabbed the document, eying it, eying the folder. It was light, and yet Ethi had never held anything heavier in her life. She moved over to Cut who glared at her useless leg. It wasn’t bleeding anymore, that was good.

“You could save yourself, you know?” Cut breathed, eyes down, face hidden. “Show her the folder’s emtpy, tell her where we are and run as fast as you can in the opposite direction. You’d get away. I wouldn’t blame you, would I be a but miffed, well yes, you did just fuck us all.” She half laughed, the way people did when they didn’t really want to. Then grew grave. “But I would understand.”

Ethi smiled and Cut turned to face her. She quested for words but none came, at least none that seemed any better than the silence that encompassed them. Cut, it seemed, agreed. “Goodbye Adair.”

Ethi used the window for her exit, it was what she’d use if she were trying to sneak out without being seen. With the folder in her grasp, she leapt into the woods. Magic came to her quick, for today fear was as natural as breathing itself.

She sprinted through the forest. The hue that coloured her vision made her keenly aware of how thick a pale glow was now billowing around her.

Siobhan would see that beacon, and she would follow it. When she came Ethi would be alone and there would be no words in the world that could keep the woman from killing her. And now translocative Sieve magic.

The only thing that would separate her from death was her magic.