It might have taken two days of walking to reach the trail leading to the mine, but Ferene ran it in less than half the time. Slowing to a walk as she reached the signpost at the side of the road, she felt that same dull ache from the previous morning. Her entire body hurt, her legs were sore, and she breathed deeply and slowly.
The difference being, this time, it felt good.
No more coordinated soldiers blocking her every movement. No more watchful eyes of Linara, judging her as she cut down the rich man's guards. No city streets, no fancy hotel rooms, none of it. Filthy, desperate criminals that would turn on their comrades at even the of a hint of gain for themselves. Dirt roads, open fields, and Ferene, the hunter, alone. She steadied her breathing and drew her sword, walking off the road a distance away from the trail. How many of them were there? Four less than there were yesterday morning. One of them had mentioned bounty hunters killing three others. Were the rest of them hiding in their hole, waiting to ambush anyone who came inside? Or were they out, seeking revenge? Unlike when she worked with Tullund, Ferene had no information on the state of things. Numbers? Habits? Layout?
Yet she found this exciting. Through the pain, she found her blood pumping, her heart pounding. The path lead towards a small hill, curving behind it. Ferene slowed her pace, walking silently around the hill the other way. Sparse grass jutted up between rocks, a far cry from the farmland on the other side of the road behind her. She could hear and feel the rocks crunching under her feet. The sound would not carry, but it felt good. A reminder that she was not on the main path, she was not following the footsteps or seeking the approval of anyone, instead making her own path, finding her own revenge, creating her own justice.
She did not make it all the way around the hill, coming across another entrance less than halfway. A wooden frame set into the side of the mound, the path leading to it completely grown over with grass. Ferene ducked down to peer into the half-covered opening, as both the roof was sagging inwards and a good amount of dirt covered the bottom. Her eyes could not penetrate the darkness, but that only meant the path was not completely blocked off. Bent over halfway, Ferene stepped across the pile of dirt and carefully put her foot down inside the tunnel. The ground inside seemed solid, so she took another step, and another.
The solid walls on either side of her brought a sense of nostalgia. She grew up in a place not unlike this one – a group of outlaws making their den in the upper levels of an abandoned mine. That had been an entire community, the ambitious leader taking in desperate people to be the so-called camp helpers. Ferene's mother was one such helper. Ferene herself had been born and raised in the tunnels, along with several other children. It could have been an isolated community of people working together, away from society.
Except that the people living in those tunnels would leave to search the roads, killing and stealing for their community to survive. As Ferene walked through the darkness, she wondered if this place was trying the same sort of setup. Children could be taken to be sold, or used as helpers. Or taught how to fight and kill.
The walls on either side of her were tight, close enough that she could not even extend her arms fully. She held her short sword in one hand, and kept her other pressed against the side of the tunnel. It was a straight path, no branches, and Ferene kept walking, into total darkness, until she saw light ahead. She stopped completely, not even breathing, waiting for her eyes to adjust. Right now, she had all the advantages of surprise, but if anyone saw her, she was trapped in a tight space, not able to move at her full speed, an easy target.
Slowly, she advanced, taking a long breath. She started to make out voices as she approached the light, the path curving to the side, light filling the tunnel. At the edge of the darkness, she stopped, leaning into the light just enough to look towards the source.
A large chamber, almost as big as the dining room back at the farmhouse, held a small table with a lamp on it. A woman sat at the table, scribbling on paper, while a man paced back and forth. Neither of them were armed. Ferene pulled herself back out of the light and listened.
“I told ya tha last four times ya asked, they gon wait us out, kill anyone which leaves, and wait until there be none o us lef. Issa only plan tha make sense.”
“So get everyone together, go out, find them, and kill them. You knew how many of them there were, and now you know where they are. You outnumber them. What's the problem?”
“Tha problem issat ya think ya smart but ya doan know bout fightin. Ya know math an all that but what do ya think will happen if all of us get together? Big group milling about? Against trained soldiers? We'd win, o course, but it ain't gon be bloodless an my people ain't goin out knowin they gon be killed.”
“So take a group big enough to get it done and leave the rest, then.”
Ferene wanted one of them to say how many were here and how many were out. She was still vulnerable, if undetected, in the tunnel. The two people seemed to not be aware that they were exposed this way. Ferene remembered exploring unused tunnels as a child, and the adults telling her to stay away from them, not knowing if they were stable or not.
Poking her head around the bend again, Ferene glanced into the room. Neither of the two were facing her, but it would take her several seconds of walking through the tunnel to get into the room.
“An what, leave ya ere, alone? Knowin I'll be comin back with some o my best dead? I ain't stupid.”
Ferene took her first step into the light, her fingers tight around the hilt of her short sword. The tunnel widened, allowing her to see into the room, but it wasn't big enough for her to be swinging her regular weapon around, and it wasn't tall enough for her to run freely. She desperately wished Linara had taught her how to throw that knife so accurately.
Step by step, she walked forward, completely exposed, hoping neither of them turned to her. The woman was still scribbling at her paper, her back to the man. He had stopped pacing, turning to talk at the back of her head. Ferene saw a knife hanging from his belt, but no other weapons, and the woman seemed to be entirely unarmed.
When she reached the mouth of the tunnel, only a few arm's lengths separated Ferene from him, a distance she could cross nearly instantly. He didn't even have the time to turn at the sound of her suddenly heavy footsteps before she plunged her sword into the top of his spine. The woman stood up, turning to face Ferene as she dropped the body to the floor.
“Please! Please don't kill me! I'll give you whatever you want!” She adjusted fast, throwing her hands up, palms out. Stepping forward, Ferene put a hand over her mouth, pushing the tip of her still-bloody sword against the woman's stomach.
“I'm going to let go, and you are going to very quietly tell me how many others are here. If you scream, you'll be dead and I'll be gone before they can catch me.” She put her face right next to the woman's, looking directly into her wide eyes. She was afraid, trembling, but not witless. Ferene pulled her hand back, but kept her sword where it was.
“Fourteen inside, and more on the outside.”
“How many outside, and where?”
The woman hesitated. “If I tell you that, you'll kill me. Let me live and I'll help you.”
Ferene sighed. All she wanted to do was run the woman through, but it seemed the woman knew that. She briefly considered doing it anyway, before stopping herself.
What would Linara do here?
Ferene punched the woman in the side of her head.
She immediately fell over, clearly rattled from the blow. Ferene turned away, using her sword to cut the man's now-bloody shirt off his body. Luckily for her, he also had a belt on, with a large, fancy-looking buckle. Ferene sliced that off and tossed it away. Turning back to the woman, who was still leaning against the wall, holding her head, Ferene grabbed her hands and used the belt to tie them together, then stuffed one of the pieces of the shirt in her mouth.
Though it sickened her, Ferene knew how to play these games. The woman was clearly important to this group, and while the dead man should have been the leader, whoever else wanted to take over would want her alive. So, Ferene had a hostage that they would hesitate to kill.
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Ferene pushed the woman towards the other entrance to the chamber. She looked back at her captor, and Ferene gave her another push, walking forward behind her. The woman figured out what she wanted, and walked into the tunnel grumbling. Ferene had people to kill, and she was not going to leave this one behind to find a way to escape, or worse, stab her in the back.
The first encounter was unlucky. A man turned a corner in front of the two of them, bumping into Ferene's hostage. This pushed the woman into Ferene, making her stumble backwards for a moment. This gave the man time to draw his sword and swing wildly as he started yelling. Ferene brought her own weapon up, knocking his away and to the side. The woman scrambled backwards, getting behind Ferene. She parried another swing from the man and grabbed his wrist, twisting it, causing him to drop his weapon. He swung his other arm at her, but she stepped behind him, twisting his arm further. He cried out in pain for a moment before she slit his throat.
More voices filled the tunnels. Ferene looked over her shoulder, but did not see her captive, only the signs of her escape. Footsteps quickly approached, and Ferene turned back, peeking around the corner to see three more of the scum running towards her.
The next several minutes were filled with blood and violence. Ferene stepped around the corner to meet the three, killing the first of them instantly by driving her sword into his eye socket before he could react. The woman beside him kept running forward, while the other man stopped, leaving them surrounding Ferene. Pulling her sword free of the first man, she charged at the second while the woman was still moving to her side, causing her to move too far away to be an immediate threat. The man blocked with his shield, and Ferene turned away from him, ducking under a swing from her other opponent's axe. The attack missed, and the weapon struck the rock wall with the force of the two-handed swing. Ferene stabbed upwards as the woman recoiled from the blow.
The man with the shield held his sword up, aiming the curved tip at her as he slowly walked backwards. She advanced, keeping the same pace, unsure if he was trying to draw her after him into a trap, or stalling for time. The retreating stare down continued for several paces, ending as he turned and dashed down a side tunnel. Ferene bolted after him, quickly catching up to him as he entered a larger chamber. She failed to drive her sword through his back, instead knocking him down with the force of the off-center impact. He fell face-first to the ground, and she tried again, stabbing downwards as he lay there.
After making sure he was dead, she turned and looked around the room. She was not alone. A boy sat against the far wall, dressed in dirty rags, staring wide-eyed at her. The room had no other exits, but several beds scattered around. He couldn't have been more than a few years older than the farmer's son. Ferene smiled at him. “I'm not going to hurt you.” He looked at her, then at the body on the ground, then back at her. “You want to get out here? I can get you out of here. I just have to kill the rest of them.” She waited for him to nod, then turned towards the entrance. Looking down the tunnel, she waited, watching. “I killed four men and a woman, and another woman, the smart one, ran away. Can you tell me how many there still are?”
At one point, she had been in that boy's position, living a horrible life controlled by criminals, being trained to fight and kill just as they did. Every day she woke up, thinking only about how to prove to them that they shouldn't kill her, or use her as a distraction. A way to prove to them that she was useful.
Those thoughts came slightly too late, as she felt the knife slide into her flesh, glancing off her rib as she realized her mistake. She spun, sticking her arm out, trying to bat him away before he could try anything else. Ferene felt her fist connect with something, and felt something break under the force.
She saw him lying on the ground, his head tilted to the side, not moving. She limped the few steps towards him, the dead man's knife still in her, and crouched down next to the boy. His eyes didn't follow her. She brought her hand up to the side of his head, gently pushing against the side of it. She felt his shattered skull move under her fingers.
Time seemed to stop. The sharp pain in her side grew dull. She took one deep breath, then another. The boy transformed before her eyes, growing younger, becoming the farmer's son, wearing his clothes rather than the dirty rags. Then he became a young girl, orange hair spread out beneath her, pointed ears jutting out from the sides of her head. Ferene blinked as she saw herself, and the body switched again, becoming a third boy, of the same age as the first, with pure white hair standing out against the dirt floor. Ferene scrambled to her feet, turning away from the sight of it. The pain in her side came back, sharp, overwhelming. She gasped for air as she took a step towards the room's exit. She needed to run, to get out of this place. She couldn't control her legs, tripping over her own feet as she fell to the ground, just like her victims. Her vision blurred, twisting, and all turned to black.
No.
The thought stood out in her mind, above all the pain, above all the hate. Hate for the people she killed, hate for the people that made her into her current self, hate for the world for letting it happen, and hate for herself. Through all of that the single thought prevailed. She opened her eyes, grit her teeth, and pushed herself to her knees. Ferene wrapped her fingers around the hilt of the dagger, covered in her own blood, and yanked it out.
She screamed as the pain doubled, but refused to fall over, refused to pass out. Grabbing her sword, she stood up, leaning against the wall for support. If she died here, before finishing the job, what did it all matter? She needed to stop these people. The farmer and his wife and their son, those people needed her. People who didn't know how to fight, didn't know how to kill. Innocent people needed the protection of ruthless murderers or they would end up dead. Ferene took a step forward, out of the room, leaving the two bodies behind. Then she took another. Slow, painful, agonizing steps, fueled by pure anger. “I'LL KILL YOU ALL!” She yelled into the tunnel. It would be less painful for them to come to her. The less energy she spent, the better. One at a time or all together, she would kill them.
Someone appeared in front of her. A weapon swung, but she batted it out of the way, stumbling forward onto her surprised opponent, grabbing with one arm as she thrust her sword forward with the other. One stab, then a second. She screamed as she killed the person, throwing the body to the ground. Everything hurt. She saw more people in front of her, their wide-eyed stares. She raised her weapon and took a step forward, but they turned and ran. She took a second step, the pain becoming worse, and then broke out into a run. Ferene specialized in running, nobody could outrun her.
She got two full leaps before she stumbled, the pain stopping her, the agony unbearable as reached out for the wall, trying to prevent herself from falling again. Once more her vision twisted, and she tried to hold on to the hate, hold on to that thought that she would not fall.
Dropping her short sword, she pulled the great sword off her back, driving the tip into the dirt ground, leaning on it. Step by step, she moved forward, stabbing her sword into the dirt, moving her feet, then ripping it out and repeating the process. She rounded the corner, and saw light ahead of her. Despite the pain, she moved faster. If there was one place she did not want to die, it was in an abandoned mine. She would not end up like her mother. Stab, step, yank, stab, step, yank. The path curved upwards towards the exit. Moving became harder, but Ferene pushed, moving faster.
Stepping into the light, she found a confusing scene. The hill sloped gently down in front of her, littered with six clearly dead bodies. Clearly dead because other still alive bodies stood around staring up the hill at Ferene.
“They ran from that?”
She heard a voice from down the hill. A woman stepped forward, waving an empty hand at her. She did not hold a weapon but was far from unarmed. Two short axes hung on her hips, and she was wearing a loose collection of red plates, connected by leather straps. She smiled at Ferene as she approached.
“What...happened? Who?” Talking hurt. Her whole body hurt at this point, but the pain in her side, right below her ribs, was the worst.
“Me an' me crew were settin up to wait this lot out, having a nice stare at the guards outside, when five more of 'em came runnin out the tunnel, screamin bout a demon. That distracted the guards so we made our move. You should see yourself, you've got enough blood on you to be dead twice over.”
Ferene sat down, hard. Her impact with the ground caused more pain, but she didn't care at this point.
Lana – the captain of the bounty hunters - gave her the full story when the six of them reached the bounty hunter's campsite. Lana's team had set up the siege several days ago, after following a survivor of their first attack back and waiting for another group to leave. A bit of description confirmed Ferene killed that group on the road. The bounty hunters then ambushed the next group to leave, and were waiting for another, intent on slowly cutting down the numbers. If Ferene followed the path to the main entrance, she would have run into them.
Lana was thrilled to hear Ferene's part of the story, sending two of her people to try and track down the woman that escaped. With her wound bandaged, and surrounded by people who did not want to kill her, Ferene lay down and went to sleep.
She woke up the next morning to the sound of Rauld, Lana's second in command, banging a metal spoon against the side of a pan. “Get ye mugs up! Food's ready!”
Looking around, Ferene saw that while Lana herself was already awake, the other three, two of which had been out to look for signs of the fleeing woman – were just waking up. It seemed they did not find her, which was unfortunate.
Ferene ate a meal of hard road bread, declining any parts of the birds they had caught. This got her a few odd looks, but was forgotten as the group started eating. Ferene watched them as she ate. Rauld might have been massive, taller than even Linara and with wide shoulders, but his movements were slow and precise. Yelt, a much smaller man that Ferene rarely saw talk, sat right next to him, their elbows nearly touching as the two moved. Across from them, a man and a woman, Bolen and Tessa, laughed as they ate, clearly very close. Tessa and Yelt were the two that had gone to look for tracks. Lana sat by herself, smiling as she ate. The five of them talked and joked and laughed. It was hard to imagine that over the last few days, they had slain ten or more of the bandits.
Ferene found herself frowning. She could not let go of her hate – even now she felt it, deep inside, just waiting to rise to the surface. Were they like her, hiding the same amount of rage? Or was this just how they were all the time? The question bothered her, and she couldn't think of an answer, so she finished eating, stood up, and thanked them. She told them she dropped something in mine and was going to go get it.
Ferene walked back to the mine, retrieved her sword, and started walking north.
“I figured you were leavin, since you didn't say you would come back. I was plannin on offerin to take you on.”
Ferene stopped, turning around. Of course, Lana stood behind her, grinning. “On?”
“Join my team. Five of us could use another set of arms, especially if you can do that sort of thing alone. Think about what you could do with us helping.”
Ferene stared down at her. Lana might be short, but she had broad shoulders and thick muscles. Without seeing them fight, Ferene wasn't sure how skilled the group was, but it would be better than fighting alone again. With Tullund and with Linara the victories came easily, but when fighting alone she got captured before, and now nearly died. Her gaze shifted upwards, looking Lana in the face. Deep blue eyes under wild black hair. The day before, she had worn it in a ponytail, but today it hung free.
At that moment Ferene remembered the boy she killed. The part of the story she didn't tell them. She wanted to save a child. She turned her back on an enemy. She killed a child. Several failures in a row that she couldn't share with them.
“There's something I have to do, and there won't be any business for you there.”
“The northern mountains? Does it have to do with your...heritage?”
Ferene nodded. The way Linara fought, that was how she wanted to fight. However skilled Lana might be, Ferene could not believe that she was anywhere near Linara's inhuman ability. That was the truth of it. Ferene was not human, not entirely. She would never, could never be human. Perhaps that was the problem. Her desire to go north felt even stronger now. The pain in her side was fading, the rate of her healing shocking the entire group of bounty hunters. Humans didn't heal that fast, but Ferene did, another reminder of how different she was from them.
“If you ever come back this way, feel free to find us. You helped us out here, and we won't forget that. I'd love to have you as part of my team.”
“I'll remember that.” Ferene wanted to smile, but couldn't bring herself to do it, so she just nodded again, then turned and resumed her journey to the north.