Low voices pulled the disguised half-fey soldier awake.

Arden shifted slightly, opening his eyes.

To his surprise, he saw Marri was out of the tub, and was lying face-down on a blanket spread out on the floor of the wagon. Immediately, he noticed she wasn’t wearing a shirt, and knew he should look away, but he was transfixed with horror at the sight of the horrible scars that criss-crossed her back.

Serha was bent over Marri’s back, working quickly as she peeled the wet bandages away, revealing more and more of the terrible marks.

A gasp of shock at the awful sight escaped him as he scrambled into a sitting position. She’d previously implied it had been just a few licks with a whip, although even just a few were too many.

No, she’d significantly downplayed the severity of the beating. It looked like the whip had struck her back countless times. Anger coursed through him. Bellows was truly the scum of the earth.

Serha looked over at him, startled, “Oh! I didn’t think we’d wake you!” she grimaced.

“What?! Who woke up?!” Marrina’s voice was full of alarm as she looked up wildly.

Arden turned his gaze away to give her some privacy, “It’s just me.”

It was quiet for a few moments.

“You…saw, didn’t you?” Her voice was dull.

“Just your back, nothing else.” the half-fey soldier said quickly.

“Right.” The mermaid’s voice was strangled.

“I’ll go so you can have some privacy while you finish.”

“Well, you might as well stay. You’ve seen the worst of it.” she snapped.

“I’m sorry.” he said quietly.

It was quiet for a few moments as Serha continued to work.

“No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped.” Marri sighed. “It’s not your fault you saw, we thought we’d finish before you woke up. I just…I…know it…looks bad.”

“Of course it looks bad. He beat you. Mercilessly.” Arden said softly, keeping his gaze averted. “I…didn’t realize how badly you were hurt. You implied it was only a few strikes with the whip. Not that even a few strikes is okay. I just…didn’t realize the severity until now.”

“It was bad.” Serha murmured. “Very bad.”

“I’ll say!” Arden agreed, gritting his teeth to bite back his fury.

It was quiet for a few moments, and he took a few calming breaths before asking, “Can I help, somehow? I can hold a blanket or something to give you some actual privacy.”

“Yes, please. Rowan can sleep through anything, but we had to send Irving out, and I’m working as quickly as I can and just hoping no one sees.” Serha replied, handing him a blanket.

“Except I woke up.” Arden sighed, standing and unfolded the blanket, then holding it up like a screen, his back to them.

“I…I don’t care if anyone else sees the scars, but I’d…hoped you wouldn't. I-I know you wouldn't ogle, so I-I’m not worried about that, but…th-the scars…” Marri’s voice broke.

HIs chest ached at the sound of her tears. “I’m not going to turn around, I don't want to upset you more, but…it’s okay.”

“Th-they’re j-just a mark of wh-what I-I am! I-I’m j-just a worthless sl-slave!” she sobbed.

“You’re not worthless, Marri. None of you are. How you’re being treated is terrible and wrong.” Arden told her, tone low, but firm.

It was quiet for a few moments, and Arden longed to comfort her, but stayed put so she could have privacy.

“You can look now.” Serha murmured.

Arden lowered the blanket and turned. She was all bandaged up and wearing her shirt once more. Her lovely eyes were red with tears. The mermaid sniffed, wiping her face with her hands.

“Here.” He knelt and pulled out a handkerchief, holding it out to her.

“Thank you.” she muttered, taking the cloth and wiping her face gently as he settled down beside her.

“Do you want to sit in the tank again? I think I can get you back in it, if you’d like.”

“No, I’ll stay out for a while. It actually takes quite a while before my scales start being uncomfortable, and the bandages getting really wet feels more uncomfortable than really dried-out scales.” she sighed.

“Alright.”

With the anger at the true severity of the beating the mermaid had received had also come a powerful sense of determination. Arden had made up his mind. He wasn’t waiting more than one or two more nights. He would be getting Marri out of there. Just as soon as he could come up with a plan, anyways. To hell with keeping his cover as long as possible, and waiting until he was closer to Winna and Lear’s house. He would leave, and Marri was coming with him.

All he needed was a distraction.

But what kind of a distraction? It’d have to be a big one in order to hide the fact that he was using powerful magic to suppress the runes on the metal band on her tail. But carrying her all the way to freedom would be difficult for just one person, even as strong as he was.

His eyes flickered to Rowan. So he’d be busting out two people. He could manage that.

Rowan was the obvious choice for the job. The centaur was the most powerful magic user among the captive fey folk, other than Marri of course, from what he could tell. Yes, Marri could do strange things with her singing-magic, but he didn’t know whether or not she could make the magic work swiftly enough to protect them from some kind of direct attack. But Rowan’s magic should be able to. So if Arden could suppress the runes on the metal bands for them both, Rowan could potentially protect them as they left. Marri could possibly contribute to that protection as well, but without seeing more of her magic, Arden didn’t want to count on that.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Yes, that could work.

But what distraction could he arrange that would be big enough?!

Big. Think big…Big like the footprints and dragged club, which was actually the trunk of a large tree, that had likely caused all the ruts and potholes in the road? Hm. Yes, that was big. Quite possibly big enough.

Giants weren’t difficult to provoke. They weren’t incredibly smart, but were also very dangerous when angry.

Yes, that could work.

A flash of anxiety flickered through him. He’d be getting Marri to freedom soon, but that also meant she’d know what he really was. Would she not want him once she found out he was only half-fey? Like Meeks?

Would she look down on him too? No, surely not. Her issue with Meeks was how he treated the captive fey folk. If he treated them well, she wouldn't mock the manager for only being able to turn into a cow because she really didn’t care.

So surely it wouldn't be an issue for him. He was genuinely fond of her, and thought it was criminal how she, and all the others in the circus, were treated.

Whatever the case was, he would soon find out.

-

Something shook me, pulling me from my sleep. “Mm?” I rubbed my eyes.

“Shh, it’s me.” Arden’s voice whispered.

I blinked the sleep from my eyes and the back of the wagon came into focus around me.

We’d stopped for the night, and the circus employees had pitched their tents. Our choices were to sleep in the wagon, or to make do under the stars, as was usually the case when we traveled. I’d elected to stay in the wagon, whereas everyone else had wanted to sleep beneath the stars, since it was a nice night out. Arden had his own tent of course, as staff, so he’d gone to sleep there, which we hadn’t begrudged him.

“What’s going on?” I yawned, rubbing my eyes.

“You’ll find out. Stay awake, okay? I’ll be right back. I have to make sure Rowan is awake.”

“What? What for?” I frowned, deeply confused. What was so important that I had to stay awake in the middle of the night?

“Just trust me, okay? Can you do that?” His tone was urgent, “I don’t have time to explain.”

I frowned, coming fully awake now. “Arden, what-”

There was a loud thudding noise outside, and we both jumped.

Arden swore, then said, “Please trust me, Marrina. And stay awake. I’ll be back for you as quickly as I can.” Then he darted from the wagon with a surprising speed.

What was going on?

There was more thudding and I heard a loud bellowing cry, then some crashing noises. Screams and cries rang out.

“What’s going on?!” I cried as more screams rent the night air.

Fear gripped me. If a quick escape was needed, I was out of luck. Running was clearly not an option for me.

Rowan’s face appeared in the opening of the wagon.

“Oh good!” I sighed, flooded with relief at seeing his familiar face.

He motioned urgently for me to move to the back opening of the wagon. “Come on!” his voice was a hiss.

“What’s going on?” I asked as I rolled over to the back opening of the wagon.

Arden appeared beside the centaur. “Giants are attacking the camp. We have to go. I can bust you out of here during the chaos. But we need to go now.” As he spoke, he hopped into the wagon and helped lift me onto Rowan’s back.

I stared at him, “But Arden, the runes…”

“I have a plan. The giants were furious to hear how you all were being treated. They were happy to help.” Arden flashed a quick grin at me. “Luckily, it’d be very difficult for Bellows to subdue any of them, as resistant to magic as they typically are.”

Realizing that this meant Arden had gone to the giants and arranged the attack, I stared at him. “You’re devious! But-”

Arden cut me off, smile fading, “I’ll explain later, but right now we have to go, alright?”

There were hoarse cries and shouts from everywhere now, and people were running too and fro, panicking. The towering figures of giants crashed about, clubs swinging wildly.

“Alright.” I shrugged, clinging to Rowan’s back, still not sure how Arden was going to get us out of there, given the runes carved into the bands Rowan and I wore.

“Stay low and try to hide behind the wagons. The fewer people that see us together, the better.” Arden directed. He led us through the chaos of the camp, keeping us mostly behind wagons and crates.

At one point, after ducking between a giant’s legs, we ran behind a stack of crates, then came face-to-face with Serha.

“There you are!” she gasped, putting a hand to her chest. “I was so worried you were still stuck in the wagon! But I was so disoriented with everything that I couldn't figure out which wagon you were in anymore!”

Arden answered for me, “No, I got her out. Serha, I’m leaving, and I’m taking these two with me. I can only manage two, but I will come back for the rest of you.”

Shock filled the lovely selkie’s face, “What?! But we can’t-” Serha cut off as Arden pulled what looked like a necklace from beneath his shirt, and showed it to her.

I tried to see what exactly the pendant was, but it was too far away.

“Oh…I see.” Serha looked up, expression now determined. “And Rowan can carry her more easily. I’ll try to cover for you as long as I can.” she turned her gaze to me and Rowan, “I love you both! Go!” she cried, then darted off.

“What’d he show her?” I asked Rowan as we hurried along.

“A pendant. It had runes on it.” the centaur replied quietly.

“Runes?” I frowned.

“Yes. I’m starting to suspect Arden isn’t what we think, which is why he insisted he could get us out.” Rowan muttered.

We ducked and dodged along behind Arden for a little while longer until we were shielded by a large bush at the edge of the camp. All that stood between us and freedom was a stretch of land where there was nothing for us to hide behind until we reached the trees.

I could already feel the runes starting to sense we were starting to get too far away from Bellows. They stirred, starting to urge us to head back, but not forcing us to yet.

“You said I wasn’t what you thought I was, and that’s true.” Arden said. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t been able to hear us, given how closely Rowan was sticking to him. He turned to face us, and pulled out the necklace that he’d shown Serha. It was carved with runes.

“Those are disguise runes!” Rowan gasped.

“My magic is strange in that I’m able to suppress basically completely, so no one can feel it.” Arden explained. “I’ll tell you more later, but that’ll have to do for now.” he took a deep breath, then bent and pulled the metal band on Rowan’s hind leg up high enough so that he could stand and also reach the one on my tail. “Alright. Once I start using magic, we need to cross that area as quickly as possible. Rowan, if anyone sees us and tries to stop us, I need you to intervene. Marri, you can too. Once we’re far enough away, these runes will malfunction totally, and I’ll be able to let go of them and take over protecting us from there.”

“Right.” Rowan nodded.

I had many, many questions, but knew it wasn’t the time for them.

Arden took another deep breath, and I felt magic suddenly pouring from him. It was powerful and strange, and flowed into the metal bands. The runes flickered feebly as the magic interfered with them.

“Let’s go.” Arden said. “As quickly as we can manage without breaking my contact with the restraints.”

Without another word, Rowan started forward, and Arden followed along, keeping pace, gripping the bands tightly and keeping the magic flowing into them.

There was no pull from the runes. They didn’t flicker again. Whatever Arden was doing, it was working.

I stared at him, curious. Humans who could use magic were few and far between, from what I understood. Why did he wear a pendant with disguise runes on it? Was he really recognizable somehow without it?

Wait…was he…not human? Was Arden fey?! That…that had to be it! Arden was fey.