Fear coursed through my veins as a warm tongue hovered over my face. I winced as a drop of saliva fell onto my cheek. It burned with heat. I was petrified into stillness as the heat grew, mixing with the fire of my blood and exertion. Hyperawareness pulled at all my senses as I laid waiting…the bite of the undergrowth in my back, the weight of the beast standing on my chest, and the snarling breath that was too close.
“Please don’t hurt me.” I murmured in prayer, and the heat at my center surged. “Please... Delvin The Just One, Aphea... anyone...” Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes as I laid motionless, waiting.
Suddenly the weight on my body shifted, then the pressure was gone as the beast stepped off. A happy bark startled my eyes open. Instead of a blood hungry wolf, a large dog wagged his tail in excitement.
I nearly passed out in relief. “It’s just a dog, I can’t believe that it’s just a dog.” I exhaled, eyeing the creature skeptically. I’d never been so close to a dog before, and the few dogs I’d come across were not meant to be pets.
It cocked its head to the side, in that way that I’d seen dogs do. Almost as if to say 'Yes I am a dog.' I didn't know how I knew, call it instinct, but it was a young male. He had a dirty golden coat, barely more than a puppy and clearly a stray.
Shakily I got back to my feet, quickly scanning the ground for my knife. “I can’t believe that after weeks of planning, everything was almost undone by a dog.”
The dog in question bounced around me, sticking its nose in my hand. He moved his head into my palm, begging for attention.
Tentatively, I scratched his head behind his ears. “I don’t suppose you saw where the knife went?” The warmth in my chest still hadn’t dissipated after my near heart attack, a product of adrenaline and anxiety that would probably last well into the night.
“Do you know where the knife went?” I asked as a joke, but the dog’s head swiveled quickly to the left.
Between blinks, its nose forced its way between dead leaves, sticks, and tufts of grass. After a moment, it whipped its head at me, and continued to bark until I came closer.
“How did you...” I trailed off, picking up the blade carefully. “You’re strangely well trained for a stray dog.” It could have taken forever to find it on my own, having slid into the shadows and partially buried itself.
I wasn’t sure how to interact with the dog. My parents absolutely hated animals, so we never had any pets. In fact, the only animals I’d ever had the opportunity to interact with were the horses that I’d been trained to ride, but I’d never been allowed to groom or feed them, not even to sneak a sugar cube.
Carefully, I reached out to pet the dog’s coarse fur, imitating what I’d seen others do. “You’re not so bad now are you?”
Perhaps if you could bloodbind something other than human, my father would have liked them more.
The sudden, nearby crunch of gravel snapped my attention back to the task at hand.
The road.
The sound of gravel being crunched under foot snapped my attention back to the task at hand. I looked back at the dog and pressed a finger to my lips.
“Shhhhh…”
The dog closed its mouth and crouched close to the ground. Even his tail stopped wagging. He looked at me, almost as if seeking my approval. The earnestness in his eyes would’ve made me laugh if it didn’t seem so out of place.
We waited in the brush as the first bride passed us. With the crowd gone, she had stopped smiling. Her face looked tired, but more from exhaustion than from misery.
The second bride rounded the bend, and while she hadn't looked happy before, now she shook and trembled as silent tears slid down her face. My heart tightened for the girl, barely a woman, marching into an unknown she clearly didn’t want.
I gripped the hilt in my hand tightly. I can’t save everyone, I’m here for Alexia.
Minutes passed, and when the third bride finally appeared, I slowly rose from my crouch. The two brides before Alexia had no reason to turn around, and it would be a couple of minutes before the fourth bride would come around the bend and possibly see us.
I can do this. My heart raced as I came up beside her on the road.
“What are you going to do?” Alexia's voice quivered, but there was no masking the relief on her face.
“There’s no time to explain, we have minutes at most.” I reached for her hand. “I think I can use a bloodbinding to move you off of the path.”
Her eyes noticeably rolled. “Thomas said you threatened him with a bloodbinding.” She sighed. “Daelyn, we both know that you don’t have one. You can’t do it.”
I stayed in step with her as she continued forward and closer to the docks. “There’s no time to explain, but I think I might have bound the Duke of Deva’s son at the ball. Please, you have to let me try.”
She hesitated. We both knew what I was truly asking of her, what she was risking by trusting me to get her out of the Bridal Path,, and whether or not she trusted me with the knife.
Finally, Alexia nodded.
I readied myself, bringing the knife up as I continued walking in step with her.
“I’m going to have to cut you, but I’ll try and make it quick. I’ve seen my father do it multiple times.” I gripped her hand firmly. “Curse it all, this is so much harder when you’re moving.”
Alexia clenched her eyes shut. “Just do it before I lose my nerve.”
Spurred by her growing panic, I slashed the blade as quickly as I could, but missed as she reflexively pulled her hand out of my grasp.
“Alexia!” I groaned.
“I’m sorry! Can’t you do it faster?!”
“Don’t rush me!” I grabbed her hand in an iron grip and turned her palm towards the sky before swiping the blade again, this time cutting into her flesh. Blood immediately bubbled to the surface.
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“Ow!” She yelped, louder than she should have.
My hand flew to cover her mouth, dropping the knife.
“Someone might hear!” I hissed. Her eyes grew wide with fear, and I slowly removed my hand from her lips. “I think that should do it.” I gestured to the bleeding wound on her arm.
“You THINK?” Alexia replied, incredulous.
I dipped my fingers as gently as possible over her new wound. She winced, but remained silent. I tried to dig into my core, to drown out the distractions of the forest. I willed every ounce of my being into the command.
“Walk off the path.” I commanded.
Nothing happened.
I tried again, this time closing my eyes, trusting Alexia to keep me from falling. I breathed in and out…in and out, drowning out the distractions of the forest path. I willed every ounce of my being into the command. “Walk off of the path. Move into the forest.”
Still nothing.
Alexia glanced over her shoulder. “Hurry Daelyn!”
The fourth bride was coming around the bend now.
“I’m trying!” I took a deep breath before continuing, “I command you to walk off of the path and towards those bushes!” I gestured to the foliage on the side of the road. Heat began to build in my core. It was there, but almost as if it was a caged thing that would not rise to the touch. It did not respond to the blood pooling in her palm.
I…I could not bind Alexia. Tears threatened my vision.
“Why isn’t it working?!” Alexia’s voice rose in fear.
Think. Think. Think.
“What are you two doing up there?!” The fourth bride yelled from behind us, gaining the attention of the second bride in front of us.
I ripped the ribbon that held Alexia's sleeve down, and shoved the fabric up to her elbow. “It’s fine!” I hissed, fighting to keep calm. “I have another plan. I just need to get the cuffs off—oh no!”
The knife! I’d dropped the knife when covering her mouth earlier.
“You can't take them off!” Alexia was nearing hysteria.
“What are you two doing?!” The second bride cried over her shoulder.
I ignored the girl and grabbed Alexia by the wrist, turning it left and right. The cuff was made of gold and covered in intricate symbols. As my fingers grazed the metal, I could feel the hum of magic pulsing in the band. It was so hot, I expected it to burn as I felt along the metal for its seam, but it didn’t.
“Of course I can take them off, they have to come off!” There was no latch. I sucked in a sharp breath.
No no no! I couldn’t believe it. There was no beginning, and no end to the cuff. Smears of blood were starting to cover the runes as she continued to bleed down her arm.
“A flamebinder placed the cuffs.” She began to shake.
“A flamebinder…” I met her eyes. “There’s no way to remove them without another, is there?”
She almost stumbled as she fought the forward march. “No. The gold was still molten when it was sculpted around my wrist.”
It was hopeless. I had failed. I began to dig and yank at the cuffs, digging my nails under the metal to try and pull them away from her skin, but then the screams started.
Without warning, Alexia began to emit a horrible shriek. And then the second bride, the fourth, and all others down the line joined in the terrifying chorus. Their screams rose, echoing through the trees.
I let go of the metal, and clamped a hand over Alexia's mouth. “Stop it, Alexia!”
She continued wailing through my hand like she couldn’t hear me. My friend was gone and her eyes were vacant as her shrieks continued to rise with those of the brides around us.
Shouts joined into the chorus of screams, the gruff voices of men. Everything was going wrong. I tried to drag Alexia to the trees, but the cuffs had made her into a walking statue, she wouldn’t budge. My attempts to move her were as successful as they would have been trying to push the Hillcrest fountain.
Tears ran down my cheeks as I let go of her hand. The screams continued, alerting all of Astalia to my failed rescue attempts.
I stopped, letting Alexia continue walking without me. My arms fell limply to my sides in defeat.
Hoofbeats suddenly thundered towards me as their riders raced down the path. Still, I did nothing. Everything was a blur through my tear filled eyes. Someone tackled me to the ground without warning, and my chin exploded with pain as it connected with the road. Dirt and rocks scraped into the skin of my throat and arms as I snapped out of my defeated stupor and struggled in vain to rise up off of the ground. The man on top of me barely budged.
The metallic taste of blood filled my mouth, and my tongue throbbed from where I’d bitten it. “Get off of me!” I screamed.
“Continue until you reach the first bride.” The man’s voice was gruff as he instructed others that I couldn't see. “Make sure she's the only one.”
Unable to move, I watched helplessly as Alexia continued to walk down the path. Horses with their riders continuing on ahead as they checked the road for others.
This wasn't supposed to happen. I pulled a hand free, and uselessly reached out to her. “Alexia—” My cries were cut off, instantly transformed into a shriek as the boot of a second man crushed the bones of my palm.
The pain unleashed something feral within me. Stop him, hurt him, kill him! As if to mock me, the boot swiveled at the heel, grinding my flesh into the dirt. Lifting off and stomping on my hand again, and again until bones began to break. I screamed.
“What do you think we should do with her?” A younger voice asked, a third man.
The first one, who still held me trapped on the ground, chuckled. “She broke the law,” his hand drifted up my back, rubbing the skin of my neck. “I don’t see anything wrong with providing our own punishment before handing her over.”
I clenched my eyes shut, praying to the old gods to be saved. To the Cunning One, or The Lost One for protection and for escape. The fifth bride passed us, and I realized that their collective screaming had stopped, replaced by an unsettling silence.
The man spoke again. “Looks like this was the only one on the path.” He spat onto the ground near my face as he hauled me up, and forced me to my feet. They led me off of the road and into the trees.
“We’ve got some time before we need to turn her over. Grab her arms.”
I wasn’t sure which of the other two men said it as my face was roughly grabbed.
“We’re gonna enjoy you.”
I was blind with tears. Pushed backwards until my spine collided with a tree trunk. Hands fumbled with the front laces of my bodice. I refused to look at them, and instead, squeezed my eyes shut against the putrid smell of the first man’s breath.
The laces loosened row by row.
At my core, heat flared with fury. It rose to the surface of my skin, burning my flesh, and I tried, one last time, to reach my magic.
“Save me.” I whispered, no, begged the old gods for help.
Heat from my chest coated my throat and emanated outward, but there was no answer. I trembled as I tried to back away, but succeeded only in pressing the jagged bark farther into my spine.
“What is—” The voice cut off into a scream, assaulting my ears as I was released.
The dog.
Gone was the friendly stray I’d encountered in the forest, and in his place was a predator. The dog had launched itself at the man restraining me, forcing him to the ground. When I peeled my eyes open, I found him standing on the man's torso, with his jaw clamped onto my attacker's neck. The man tried to pry the dog’s jaw open, his fingers fighting to get between skin and teeth.
But the dog was vicious as it ripped at his flesh, not stopping until it found his voice, and ripped out the man’s throat. It was so fast. There was so much blood bubbling out of the hole in his neck. I was transfixed by the horror of it. The other two men ran before the dog decided they were next.
Instead of following, the dog turned to me, its maw covered in gore.
Any gratitude I felt was smothered by fear. The dog took a step towards me, and I flinched away. It barked rapidly, stomping its forelegs into the ground. Its head swiveled to the side, listening, then suddenly taking off to chase after the men.
I slumped with short-lived relief before the smell of blood assaulted my nostrils. The stench of the mutilated man at my feet was nauseating. I barely had time to turn away from the body before I retched onto the ground. Sour bile burned my throat, while I spat out the remnants of the honeyed roll from earlier. Tears built at the corners of my eyes as another wave sent me to my knees.
Hoofbeats sounded from the road, and new screams and shouts rose with the start of what I assumed was the dog’s second attack.
I have to move before they find me.
I tried to rise to my feet, pushing off of the ground where I’d vomited. I had to escape the men, I had to move deeper into the woods. My head spun from the movement, the ground suddenly not as steady as it should have been. Another wave of nausea twisted at my empty stomach.
I was going to faint.
It was suddenly too hot as my body continued to burn. Fury, pain, failure, and fear all swirled inside of me, threatening to suffocate me. I stumbled like a drunk, moving deeper into the trees. The axis of the world took a sudden tilt. I shot my arms out to stop myself, but the agony of my broken hand catching my fall was unbearable. The pain was all encompassing, as spots clouded my vision. When darkness swept over me, I couldn’t fight it.