Jade picked her way back along the path towards the camp. But just before she reached the clearing, she heard a sharp crack, followed by a yelp. Jade froze in her tracks, then carefully edged towards the clearing until she could see the source. She had to bite down on her lip to stop herself from gasping; two men were standing in the ring of firelight. Mikiva was there too, bound to a tree, blood flowing from her nose.

“Where is she?” the first man snarled, slapping her across the face, echoing the sound Jade had heard a moment ago.

“I already told you,” Mikiva protested “The servant and I parted ways immediately after we left the property. She said she had business to take care of in Ayveness.”

“Liar!” the man smacked her again. “We know that she was the one who talked you into this. We know that you are helping her.”

Mikiva winced, straining against her bindings.

“We know she came here with you; we tracked you both here. You have two horses, two bags of supplies. Do you think we are fools?” the second man sneered.

“Tell us where she is and we might let you live,” the first man said, voice full of quiet menace.

“She left me her gear, and the horse. As payment for helping her escape,” Mikiva insisted. “I want no part in this. I’m not involved.”

The first man pulled something out of his pocket, it flashed silver in the moonlight. As he turned into the light, Jade recognized him; G’arik, a brutal thug that Avrinly often used for her more distasteful errands. He was a hired killer, and not particularly shy about it.

“If that’s the way you want it,” G’arik toyed with the knife in his hand.

Mikiva’s jaw was set, she turned her face away and said nothing. Jade watched for a moment then she backed away, further into the darkness. She wouldn’t go back with them, she thought grimly, no matter what.

Mikiva glared defiantly as G’arik stroked her chin with his blade. She would never give him the satisfaction of appearing afraid, but she had been tortured before, and it hadn’t been an experience she’d wanted to repeat.

“You are a beautiful girl,” he drawled. “It would be a shame to ruin your pretty face. Just tell me that she is here with you. What harm will it do? We already know she is. Just confirm it, then we can go search the woods for her, and you can be on your way. The lady Avrinly wants you dead, of course. You did steal her property after all. But she doesn’t have to know. I would willingly trade your life for the slave, wouldn’t you?” G’arik spread his hands magnanimously.

“She isn’t here. You’re looking in the wrong place,” despite her best efforts, Mikiva’s voice betrayed her disgust.

The other man stepped forward then, leaning in to whisper in her ear,

“She lied to you. We know that she promised to help you find your family. She can’t. She doesn’t know who you are any more than you do.”

Mikiva furrowed her brow, what in the Void was he talking about?

“So, why are you protecting her?” he continued. “She isn’t protecting you. She’s probably hiding somewhere in the dark, waiting for us to finish you off and leave. Or, more likely, she’s already on the run.”

Mikiva turned and studied him for a long moment; then leaned forward and spit in his face. The man reeled back, wiping the oozing glob from his eyes.

“You are going to regret that!” he growled.

He balled his fist, but G’arik shot out a hand to stop him.

“We want her conscious, Br’yr” G’arik reminded his partner. “Besides, she’ll suffer plenty.”

“Then let me do the honours,” Br’yr smiled maliciously.

“Fine,” G’arik acquiesced, handing him the knife.

Br’yr stepped forward and flattened one of Mikiva’s hands against the tree, reversing his grip on the knife as he did. Mikiva knew what was about to happen, he would break her fingers, then her hand, then her other hand, and he would continue until she talked. It was a common and effective technique, for those with no magical skill.

“Do you have anything to say, before we start?” Br’yr asked.

“I do, if that’s allowed?”

Br’yr spun to his left, looking for the source of the new voice. He crumpled as the hilt of a dagger connected solidly with his temple.

“Looking for me?” Jade stepped over Br’yr’s fallen form and into the clearing.

“Well, well,” G’arik chuckled. “It seems that you aren’t as smart as your master thinks you are. If I were you, I would have run and not looked back.”

“What I coincidence, I was just about to suggest that you do that very thing.”

“What, run? From you? Avrinly said you were a cheeky one,” G’arik sneered. “But you are also a very foolish girl. You may have been able to catch Br’yr off guard, but now you have to face me. And what can a little servant girl know about fighting?”

“I know where the pointy end goes,” she deadpanned, adjusting her grip on Mikiva’s blade.

“Between your ribs?” he shot back.

“Ooh, terrifying,” she put her hand to her heart.

“Look,” G’arik said. “All you have to do is come back with me, and I won’t have to hurt you, or your little friend.”

“Anyone ever tell you are an arrogant prick?”

G’arik sighed loudly,

“You’re coming back with me, either way. But at this point, I think I am going to enjoy making you scream a bit first.”

“Well, you’re free to try,” Jade shrugged.

G’arik made the first move, closing the gap between them in an instant, but Jade was ready; she deflected his blade with her dagger and metal rang in the quiet night. G’arik pulled back, twisted his blade and brought it around from the left. Jade spun, dodging the sword and bringing her weapon up, aiming for his stomach. He blocked the blow and drove his own sword forward; Jade couldn’t fully deflect the powerful swing; it bit into her forearm, and blood flowed eagerly from the wound. Jade inhaled sharply, but she didn’t have time to worry about the wound. She brought her blade around to the left, dropped it down and then jerked it up sharply; it grazed G’arik’s flesh, a scratch, barely enough to draw blood. But the mercenary looked surprised, he had expected Jade to go down easily; he redoubled his efforts. The sheer power of his blows forced Jade back several steps, she stumbled and fell back over a tree root. As she fell, she lost her grip on her knife, and it slid under a bush. G’arik raised the sword over his head,

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Well, it was a nice try, little girl,” he sneered.

“I’m not done yet,” Jade muttered, sliding her hands into the ground below her.

As G’arik brought the blade down, Jade flung her fistful of dirt into his face and rolled to the side. G’arik reared back, clawing at his eyes. From her position on the ground, she scooped up a large rock from the underbrush. As G’arik went to draw back his sword, Jade regained her feet and took her opening. She shifted, grabbed his blade with her bare hand, pushing herself up while taking him off balance again. The blade sliced into her palm, but she ignored the pain. Using her forward momentum, Jade swung around and kicked him in the throat; G’arik choked and loosened his grip on the blade. Jade wasn’t planning to let him recover; bringing her right hand around, she smashed the rock into his temple and G’arik finally fell to the ground. She leaned over him,

“You can tell the lady that I am never going back.”

Then she hit him again, and he slumped into unconsciousness. She dropped the rock and kicked the sword away from his hand, just in case.

“Is he dead?” Mikiva asked.

Jade knelt down and checked the man’s pulse,

“Well, no guarantees with a head wound, I suppose. But they should both live. I think.”

“That’s a shame,” Mikiva muttered.

“I know,” Jade smiled, “But if it makes you feel any better, Avrinly will probably make them both wish they were dead.”

“She did seem to be the type,” Mikiva agreed.

“I will tie them up and leave them for their patron to find. We can’t have them catching up to us again, can we?”

Using G’arik’s sword, she sliced through the ropes binding Mikiva to the tree.

“Thank you,” Jade said softly. “I don’t know what I did to deserve that kind of loyalty,”

“Oh, they would have tortured or killed me, either way. And I figured you would have done the same for me,” Mikiva eyed the wounds Jade had sustained during the scuffle. “I guess I was right.”

“It was nothing. I couldn’t just leave you there.”

“There are plenty of people who would have.”

Jade simply shrugged,

“It wouldn’t have been right.”

Mikiva smiled but said nothing. She climbed to her feet and began dragging the two unconscious men over to the tree.

“Well, it wasn’t pretty, but you certainly got the job done,” Mikiva examined G’arik’s head wound. “Who taught you how to fight?”

“A friend, back at Avrinly’s place. I didn’t exactly have much else to do with my time, so I got a lot of practice in, but not much with other people. I clearly still need some work, still.”

Jade began wrapping a bandage around the wound on her hand. The blade had gone deep but it didn’t seem to have severed anything too important. Still, it would likely take some time to heal. That done, she headed off to look for the dagger, finally retrieving it from under some brush. Mikiva had managed to prop G’arik and Br’yr up against the tree by that point, and Jade returned the weapon to its rightful owner before taking over the task, busying herself tying them up, while Mikiva cleaned the blood from her face.

“Why would Avrinly send someone like this after you? Especially with instructions to bring you back alive, instead of killing you outright. I didn’t think masters cared about their servants’ lives,” Mikiva frowned.

“They don’t,” Jade’s brow creased. “I don’t know why she would do something like this. Unless she took my escape personally, wanted to punish me herself…”

“Maybe,” Mikiva didn’t sound convinced. “Though, that reminds me. Where did they get the idea that you talked me into helping you escape? The meathead said something about my family?”

“Oh that,” Jade laughed. “I might have left a little goodbye note that suggested something to that effect. I figured it might keep them from being suspicious about you, if they bought it. Wouldn’t want all of our hard work to have gone to waste.”

“Smart,” Mikiva sounded impressed. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

Jade tightened the last knot and straightened. She walked over and picked up G’arik’s sword; returning to the tree, she placed the blade several feet away.

“What’re you doing?” Mikiva enquired.

“I don’t want to kill them; I just want a head start. This way, they will be able to get out, once they have worked the ropes for a while. It should still take them some time, though,” Jade grinned. “We take their horses, and we should be safe.”

Mikiva finished cleaning her face, there was going to be a nasty bruise under her left eye, but otherwise she had sustained no serious damage; she had been lucky.

“Still, we had better get moving,” Mikiva advised.

“I think that would be wise,” Jade agreed.

“We’ll be in Telvanar in a couple of days, but we still need to get across the border. And frankly, the sooner we get out of this Void-taken country, the happier I’ll be.”

Jade sighed inwardly; it looked like sleep was going to have to wait awhile. Of course, with the amount of adrenaline pumping through her veins, she doubted if she could have managed anyways.

“Oh, and I’ve thought about it,” Mikiva continued. “I think my boss does need to meet you after all. If you are still interested?”

Jade smiled and nodded,

“What changed your mind?”

“Two things. For one, you stuck your neck out for me. Least I could do is return the favor.”

“And the second?”

“Avrinly seems to want you back pretty badly. More than is reasonable for a slave.”

“What, you saying I’m not worth the trouble?” Jade smirked.

“You know what I mean.”

“Just giving you a hard time. But why does that matter?”

“It’s possible that they need you back for a reason. Perhaps you know something even you don’t know that you know. Something we can use.”

“I really don’t think I am that important.”

Mikiva shrugged,

“You never know.”

“I suppose not,” Jade shook her head. “Whatever your reasons, I won’t turn down the opportunity. Thank you. Now, we really should go.”

Together, they doused the fire, packed, and mounted up. As the sun rose over the woods, the travelers cantered out of the glade and back towards the road.

**

Istaria’s honey-brown ringlets cascaded down, framing her pale face and falling over the plush velvet of her collar. Sitting in the throne room- her throne room, she corrected herself- she would have appeared, at first glance, to be relaxed. However, her violet eyes flicking back and forth restlessly betrayed her agitation. Dawn was breaking and she had not yet heard any word from Avrinly Carayn. Perhaps Istaria was simply worrying about nothing, but with the war looming ever closer on the horizon, she just couldn’t condone loose ends like this. Not to mention that He was going to be most displeased when He heard the girl was gone. She didn’t know why He was so concerned with her fate, but the last thing she wanted was to displease Him, for any reason. Sighing, Istaria watched in abstract amusement as her servants flitted around, darting between shadows like frightened animals, moving silently, hoping to avoid incurring their mistress’ wrath. They had learned quickly that when Istaria was displeased it was better not to draw her attention; no good could come of that. Istaria’s eyes came to rest on a young female, quivering with fear as she moved cautiously across the floor, carrying a large carafe. Istaria was fairly certain that she could make this girl cry with minimal effort and had just decided test her hypothesis when she felt a familiar tug on the edge of her consciousness. Avrinly was calling. She closed her eyes and slipped into the Stream,

“My liege?” Avrinly greeted her queen.

“Who else would it be?” Istaria snapped. “What is happening down there? I expected word hours ago.”

“I am sorry, your Majesty. The news is… not good,” Avrinly’s voice trembled slightly. “I sent men after the fugitives, but I fear they have been unsuccessful in recapturing her.”

“This is indeed bad news, Avrinly,” Istaria replied coldly.

“I am sorry, my Queen.”

“Well, I suppose it was to be expected,” Istaria sighed. “You sent third rate thugs after a very dangerous quarry. Poor judgement on your part. From now on, I will take care of this matter personally. Go back to focusing on your military duties Avrinly; I will determine your punishment at a later date, when I have the leisure to enjoy it more.”

“Thank you, majesty.”

Istaria severed the link, feeling even more irritable then when she had begun. She rang the bell, summoning her personal messenger to her side.

“I need you to find me a contact,” she commanded.

“To whom?”

“The Telvanar chapter of the Azure Scorpions.”

The man gasped,

“A direct link from the palace to an assassins’ guild? Isn’t that rather… blatant?”

“This is not up for debate. Find me someone to contact, now!” Istaria snapped.

Wisely realizing the danger and the futility of arguing, the man turned and hurried off with no further argument.