Rosalea awoke near dawn, feeling stiff and like her shoulder was on fire. She crawled out of the log, listening. Everything was silent. The swamp creatures, after several minutes of asking, could inform her that things had been quiet since early last afternoon. She crawled out of her hiding spot and kept along the outside of town and worked her way to the north side, and to her semi-permanent camp.
She checked to make sure no one was there, and she found that no one was there now. She looked around.
The place had been ransacked. All her goods had been stolen. The only things that remained were her makeshift tent, with the main tent pole broken, about half her bed roll, and some of her clothing. Everything else had been taken. All her gold, her pack, her supplies. Everything.
She walked forward in a daze and then knelt down on her strewn out clothes at the mouth of the tent. She was dumbstruck by the maliciousness of it all. I should not be surprised. They are all petty murderers that grovel to a dragon. They killed Annie just to be petty because I could not do something I told them I could not do. She was silent a moment, taking this new loss in.
Without my supplies, I could die. She acknowledged the bitter truth of it. She slowly stood up and gazed back toward the town. I will not let them kill me. I am going to fight them. She rubbed her injured shoulder gingerly. It is two months until winter. I am not going to die here.
She gathered up her clothes, rolled them up in the bed roll, took the tent down, rolled it all up, and carried it away. She knew she could not go into town to try to get more supplies. For one, she did not have any money. For two, just yesterday, they were looking for her with intent to kill. My bow was in my pack and that is gone… the only thing I have is the knife I have on me right now.
She returned back to the swamp, slogging toward an island that had been hidden among the cattails and which was pretty well surrounded by boggy water that was more than waist deep. I hate them so much; I am going to live for years. If I have to, I will be the beast girl they want me to be.
For the first time in her life, she admitted to herself that she had access to all magics, and for that, she was glad. She could not leave, but they could still pay.
***
Kaylar sighed. Was there no end to this sort of bad luck? Shortly after Rhainnon had arrived, she developed an almost instant nagging cough. Kaylar felt he had put her through a considerable amount of stress, and it was not uncommon for people he brought here under the circumstances that he typically used to get a little sick after the stress abated. He didn’t make these rules, but he did follow them, and so the situation sometimes was what it was.
But the cough persisted and slowly worsened. He had her working at first, very lightly, with the other shepherds, but after about two weeks had taken her off that in favor of keeping her indoors with the help of a true weather mage helping to keep her environment as ideal as possible. Two more weeks passed without it getting worse, until abruptly she developed a fever that clung to her and exhausted her. Then Galena reported that she had a rattle in her lungs last week, and now she seemed to find everything effortful this week and rarely got out of bed for more than a few hours at a time. Even if she could heal, which was why he had wanted her, she could not heal herself.
And I only have but one more option to choose from… short of raiding the Uryans directly. He sighed. Just thinking of the silver-haired icy girl made him tired. He was glad that if Rhainnon was going to be sick, that she had gotten sick while under his care because she was getting the best chance to get well that could be afforded to her, and if she had been sick like this at home, he was sure she would have gotten worse much more quickly without as much opportunity for him to help.
The Mayor was tasked with sending him reports, and the last one had reported the loss of the prize stallion and, confusingly enough, claimed that the outsider had killed it. She may recover yet, he thought as he moved toward Rhainnon’s current room in his main castle. I can always make a new decision tomorrow.
***
Frost had come early this year, as if it was spiting her. Rosalea had not been able to bring herself to raid the town for supplies more than once. She just did not have energy for anything, and she never got warm at night because it was so wet that it was hard to burn anything. Besides, she liked this little island surrounded by bog because it felt safe.
She had repaired the tent pole and lay in her tent with the zipper undone, caelus magic pushing back the insects with a barrier as she stared out at a frog swimming over the muddy water. She was surprised that things like him and the snakes handled the frost at all.
Despite her initial rage and the promise that she would make them suffer for hurting her, the depression that followed took all the energy out of her. At the moment, just laying here, staring into nothing, was all the energy she had.
Besides, it was her mistakes that had caused all these problems. Should other people really pay for that?
It seemed fair that if she had killed Annie then maybe she should also die. She thought about it a lot. Sometimes she thought about ways of making the townspeople do it for her.
It didn’t have to be today. A crow cawing overhead drew her attention away from the frog.
She spent several more low energy days that were not helped by the truly cold nights. Then, one morning, sloshing through the bogs scattered the frogs a bit.
Rosalea gripped her knife from her boot and stared out, ready with her magic, as someone approached. As this person came through the cattails - Rosalea noticed they were bending out of her way - she put her hands up in a friendly way, to show she meant no harm.
She was tall, pretty in a way Rosalea had never seen before. Her skin was fair, but almost purple in a way. She had clearly pointed ears, unlike anything Rosalea had ever seen in real life, and a body that was utterly delicate looking. An elf?
“Rosalea, I live in the town. Rhainnon and I were, um, friends, and I was talking to Ian recently, and I, um heard about you. You used my dress, you know, last time.”
Rosalea met the intense, almost glowing purple eyes of the elf, and frowned. She did not know why she felt like the woman was lying to her, but she was entirely positive that she was lying. How old was this person? Were there even any elves in this backward and awful little closed off bog-town? The woman did not look away, even as Rosalea tried to stare skeptical hostility back at her. Rosalea let go of her knife and gripped her caelus magic. “I would apologize for the harm done to the dress, if I thought that were true,” she said flatly.
She expected a negative response after implying the woman was a liar, but the brown-haired woman laughed as if highly amused. “Fine, fine. I am a lost one a bit like you, and I came here for a friend to us both. I hope that a little kindness will help you get through to the better things that are waiting for you.” The difference between the introduction and the woman’s true disposition after she was confronted were completely discordant to Rosalea.
She set a backpack down, which she pantomimed taking off, but Rosalea was half sure she had somehow not been wearing one and it had actually appeared from nowhere. The mysterious woman set it on the island, turned, and walked over the water with light sloshing sounds away. The cattails bent out of her way as they had before. Then everything was quiet again. Rosalea was unnerved, and she stood up to follow the woman, but she was completely gone from sight already.
When she returned to her island and carefully opened the pack, she found a warm, fur-lined cloak and small pot that had the lid tightly tied down that contained warm, thick soup and a lot of warm sweet bread.
It occured to Rosalea that it could all be poison, but she was so hungry that she could not bring herself to care as she put the warm cloak on and devoured the warm food. Best of all, there was a canteen full of hot tea.
***
Kaylar took a deep breath and slowly let it out. Rhainnon had recently gotten much worse. She had gotten better for a little while, but then it seemed like she just couldn’t quite overcome the pneumonia. She needed a healer, and he knew where to get one. It did not matter if she was difficult. He would just have to deal with it. He pushed his way into Rhainnon’s room, resting his head on the foot of her bed, until she woke up on her own.
She smiled at him, and rasped out something that sounded like good morning, even though it was fairly late in the evening.
“I am going to go get a silver-haired friend of yours from Mire. She can heal, and I will teach her how. What do you think of that?”
He noted that her entire face lit up with an excitement that he had not seen before. He was not surprised; she had often thought about Rosalea with regret.
***
She saw the dragon fly over her before she knew it was there. Again. She felt a powerful surge of hatred, so potent she found it hard to breathe. Whatever mistakes I made, it is your fault more than anything! If not for you, I could have left this horrible bog! She thought-screamed at it, not sure if it heard her or not.
She watched him land in the town, as she was currently uphill from it. You cannot make me cooperate with your stupid game either. I do not care if you have come for more people, I refuse.
She packed up her stuff and moved from her spot. She began moving. A moment later, she saw the dragon take off.
Within half an hour of that, she noticed that the woods became crowded with men and women looking for her, and calling for her. Hmph. I guess my category got called for. I wonder how much trouble it will cause them if they cannot find me in time? I wonder if it is only a couple of days again? That could be tricky if they keep looking this hard all week…
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She retreated to the furthest edges of the spell and settled where the water was thick and swampy. She was not going to comply. She hoped they all suffered if they could not find her for the dragon.
***
Kaylar saw that she was far outside the town as he circled and prepared to land. That was not the best sign, but he knew from Rhainnon that she was a wild wanderer before she came here, maybe she had opted to be anti-social? “I want everything set up by tonight, even if you have to make concessions in presentation.” He removed himself from the area about as abruptly as he arrived. He was in no mood to put up with watching Rosalea make havoc for the next several days. Besides, this time his mind was already made up.
***
Rosalea heard a crow cawing pretty loudly somewhere nearby. She frowned, I feel like I keep seeing you around, she thought, though it did not normally make this much noise so close by. She began to move toward it, thinking maybe to ask it for help since it could fly, and she realized for the first time that she could not sense it at all. She frowned, drawing near her. It looked right at her with its yellow eyes, and she stopped and immediately began to backtrack. No matter how hard she focused on the crow, she could not sense it. Coldness swept through her.
Ieshans are here. Here she had thought that things could not get worse, but she clearly underestimated it.
As she was fleeing, she nearly walked into a grove where a man was standing in the middle hollering her name, and where another was climbing one of the few trees to see if higher up would give him a vantage point. “ROSALEA!” She crouched down, laying close to the ground. “Witch! You must report to the square with everyone else! ROSALEA!”
Keep calling, she thought, recognizing him as one of the men who had been with the mayor. I will never come out. You are lucky I do not just murder you all the way you murdered my horse. I could make these trees hang you upside down and rob you the way your people robbed me. She did not though, instead she just held perfectly still and waited. She felt a flash of paranoia about her name getting yelled into a swamp of Ieshans, but she knew it was too late to worry about that; they already knew she was here.
“I see her! Over there! By those bushes!” Rosalea thought about cursing under her breath as she darted away, diving into a ditch and racing along it. “She’s going along the ditch! Jass, you can grab her!” Rosalea skidded to a stop as she recognized the voice. Ian?!
Which instantly told her why she was being seen. He was very reliant on his essa magic and could see her magic, no matter how close she kept it to herself. The man presumably called Jass slid down into the ditch with her as she was frantically backing up, trying to get to the other side.
The spell chose that moment to interpret her instinct of running to mean that she was trying to run away from town, and she was slammed roughly to her knees. Which afforded the large man plenty of time to lunge over and grab her roughly by the wrist, drawing her to her feet. “I got her!” he shouted triumphantly.
Rosalea sighed softly and thought all the curse words she knew.
He hauled her roughly out of the ditch, dragging her by her arm. “We gotta get her hands bound!” someone shouted to her. “She’s always used her hands when calling magic; we take that away she got no way to do us harm again.”
Jass nodded. “Get her weapons!” someone else instructed.
Rosalea looked at the smirk he had on his face and did not like the idea of him feeling her up in search of weapons. “Listen, I will let you tie me up. I will turn over my weapons- just… do not touch me.”
He laughed but let her go, his hand on his sword at his side. She slowly reached for the knife sitting in the belt around her middle and placed it on the flat of her palm, handing it to him. I do not think I will ever see it again, she thought sadly. She had really liked it, it was small and just suited to her size and strength, and had a white hilt with only minimal ornate decoration. “This is the only weapon I have. The rest… were taken when my camp was raided.”
He reached out and grabbed it by the hilt and glared at her. “Don’t call no one a thief, witch!” he dragged it viciously across her palm, slicing into the flesh near the base of her fingers. “Not a one of us is as low as bandits. You’re the scum here, changer.” She gasped and her eyes swum. What else was I supposed to say to explain it? He wrenched her arms around her back and bound them. She refused to cry for him, and so she gritted her teeth and blinked rapidly. Her hand tingled and burned with pain, but she hoped it was not very bad.
He pushed her forward. She grabbed one of the ends of the rope, pressing to her injury. “I got her. Let’s get back to town!”
She walked uncomfortably along, and they soon rendezvoused with everyone else and messengers were dispatched to spread the word about catching her. Ian volunteered to take her back to his home, which everyone agreed was a good plan.
Ian looked very sorry about the whole business. Rosalea followed him back, and once they reached his home, he ushered her inside. “I am getting these ropes off, Rosalea, I am sorry.” She didn’t say anything, but she thought he could have stood up for her before. Her whole body ached from even walking that short distance with her arms bound. “You are hanging on to a piece of the rope-” Rosalea slowly opened her hand. “You are bleeding!”
She felt him carefully extract the rope and a moment later she was able to finally bring her hands around to the front of her. She looked down at the one that had been cut, but it was so obscured by blood and bits of rope fiber that had stuck to it she couldn’t tell how bad it was. She told herself it wasn’t so very bad, after all, she could still move her fingers.
“Haidi!” Ian called. “Bring the bandages!”
“Whatever for?”
She saw Ian’s face twitch as he answered with obvious, “She’s been hurt.”
Rosalea heard a disgusted noise. “I don’t see why we had to volunteer to help her. You admitted she taught Rhainnon magic!”
“Because I asked her to.”
“Whatever,” Haidi said, and the look she gave her husband was absolutely filled with a contempt like Rosalea had never seen. “The mayor was looking for you.” She announced as she came into the room. She had a dress over her shoulder and a basket of things. “Besides, she clearly needs to be bathed, and I don’t need you underfoot.” Ian sighed. Rosalea looking at both of them saw how haggard they both looked and felt responsible, and all but accused of it by Haidi. Ian went outside, closing the door behind him. Haidi walked up to her quite aggressively. “Let’s see it.” Rosalea extended her hand, and Haidi grabbed it not quite roughly. “Knife?”
Rosalea nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
She looked with the most profound distaste at Rosalea, that she about made up her mind not to say anything else at all. “Well, we shall have to clean it out, and get it bandaged up. Get out of those mud-filthy clothes; you are taking a bath.”
Rosalea flushed, but slowly struggled out of them with one hand as Haidi checked the huge cauldron over the fire and declared it warm enough, and used a mechanism to swing it out from the fire and closer to the middle of the room. Rosalea, seeing its size, hypothesized that it was probably frequently used for this purpose of bathing. It would have made gallons of any food otherwise.
Haidi helped her into the bath-sized cauldron, and Rosalea was quite relieved to find the water quite warm. It felt so good on her feet and legs; parts of her body that she had wondered if they would ever be warm again. The whole sensation was quite relaxing, despite all that was going on. Haidi got a bowl and dipped it into the cauldron and made Rosalea hold it with her spare hand, and then instructed her to wash her hand within it.
Rosalea began washing the blood away, which started it sluggishly bleeding again, and she could see that the wound was really quite bad. It ran along the meaty part of her palm that served as the base of her fingers and had gone quite deep. It will be difficult to care for, Rosalea thought. But not so hard as the arrow wound to reach.
“What an ugly scar,” Haidi stated, scrubbing her shoulder. “What did you do, get shot?” Rosalea shrugged, seeing no reason to answer that question if she did not already know. “You are done cleaning off your hand?” It was the sort of question Haidi obviously didn’t feel deserved an answer as she stepped to the side and got her basket of things. Rosalea held up her hand as Haidi asked for it. The woman took out a small jar of salve and rubbed it in. That hurt terribly at first, and her hand burned, but then it went numb. Then she rummaged around to the bottom of the basket and pulled out something else. She sprinkled and packed it into the wound. Whatever herb it was, it was bright yellow. “Stuff to… prevent infection,” Haidi stated. Rosalea had assumed as much already. Haidi began to wrap it securely up. The pressure also helped her to feel much better.
Haidi wanted her to keep the bandage out of the water and to finish bathing, which was a little tricky. She started to feel tingly all over, and a bit weird. The closest way she could think to describe it was that she had managed to hit herself with another lightning bolt. She felt all disconcerted and distinctly dizzy.
She got out of the bath water and swayed badly enough Haidi gripped her shoulder firmly. “What’s the matter with you?” Rosalea shook her head. She didn’t know. She willed the sensation away, and it got a little better. Haidi helped her towel dry, and Rosalea thought she could feel her pulse in her hand, though she couldn’t feel much else. I must just be stressed, she thought. I am really worried about getting away from this place again. How am I going to deal with Ieshans? Can they even get me away from this place if they try with my curse? She was also wondering how she was going to fare once she did get away with not even her knife. She really wished she had hidden it with the rest of what remained of her gear…
Haidi wrapped her in a robe and had a brush out and was working on untangling the hair they had just washed. She was a little rough but not painfully so. Ian knocked on the door, “Is it safe to come in?”
“Of course!” Haidi called. “We finished some time ago.”
Ian came in. “Rosalea, the dragon came looking for a girl in your age group. I have also learned he wants everyone in the square by sunset.” Rosalea felt her dizziness surge up and reeled a little in her chair. “Rosalea!” Ian caught her shoulder and steadied her in her chair.
She looked up and shook her head, “I am all right. I … am just a little worked up given all the stuff that has happened so far today.”
Ian looked away, and Rosalea looked outside. There was still several hours to sunset. It set earlier now that it was nearly fall than in the summer. “We need to get your dress fitted to you,” Haidi said. “You are much skinnier than we expected.”
Rosalea wanted to make some comment about how that was not her fault. Or really Ian’s either… But she let it go. Haidi did not need antagonizing, and Rosalea already felt she had caused them enough harm. Ian disappeared as Rosalea slipped into the dress and Haidi stuck some pins in it to show where she needed to hem it and take it in. Once that was done, she told Rosalea to lay down and nap or something. Laying down on a small couch made her feel better and the rocking of the room was not so profound. It was also the most comfortable thing she had laid on in a very long time. She was surprised by how quickly she was able to fall asleep.
She blinked awake to Haidi unwrapping her bandage. Ian was not around again, and she realized it must be about sunset given the lighting in the room. She tried to sit up and the room reeled and she slipped back down again. “Be still,” Haidi said. Haidi unraveled the bandage the rest of the way and rubbed more salve and put some more powder on her injury and wrapped it up again with fresh bandages.
I feel really sick, Rosalea thought as her stomach began churning. What is wrong with me? Am I really that upset? Haidi helped her stand up. Rosalea closed her eyes and felt like the room would not still itself no matter how she tried to hold herself still.
“You are all sweaty,” Haidi observed. “Are you sick? Or just scared of meeting the same fate as my child?”
Rosalea nodded, but she wasn’t sure what she was agreeing to exactly. Maybe she was actually really scared now that she understood what could happen better. She slipped into the dress. This one fit her much better than the other one, and it was black. Haidi, having her look into a glass while she styled her hair, gave her a chance to appraise the look. It made her hair and eyes really stand out, much more so than the browns she was usually wearing. In fact, she thought with the black dress, people could see that her eyes were yellow from a good distance away.
Haidi pulled the hair back from her face and made a loose bun behind her head. She left two pieces of hair to frame her face, and heated a metal cylinder in the fire, and took a moment to wrap the hair around it. When she pulled it free, Rosalea’s hair behaved nicely in spirals. Rosalea closed her eyes and just tried to not feel like she was just going to faint or throw up.
There was a knock at the door. Haidi opened it up. “It is time,” a man said.
“She is ready,” she replied.
A pair of men entered, and a dark blue cloak was produced and fastened to Rosalea’s shoulders, with a bright silver brooch. Her hands were bound behind her once again with a silken scarf. “Can’t have ya doin’ any magic,” the one who bound her said.
She should have liked to point out that with the dragon near, there was certainly no chance of that. But, perhaps like her, they were concerned with when the dragon left if it did not take her.
Without her arms in front of her, she had to rely greatly on the men on either side of her to prevent her from falling. Neither man seemed to notice or care that she was struggling to walk, as they marched her straight to her spot and left here. I just have to stand here, Rosalea said to herself as the last girl assembled. A moment later the dragon landed. She felt too dizzy and sick to even feel her customary potent dislike for him. I cannot worry about how, if I survive the dragon, I am going to survive long enough… enough to get away from all the bad things here. But no matter what she told herself, she was afraid.
She stood as still as she could as the line of people assembled around her. Just stand here, avoid the dragon, avoid the townspeople, avoid the Ieshans. It was too much to bear.