The Cinders of Dezu

22nd: The Fuja (4)

To his sides, the Fuja men were latching and locking the other two cages. Cairo just looked up at Cosh's mouth moving with his sharp glistening teeth. He'd only ever seen a creature like this talk in movies. Up close this was all becoming much more real.

"Of course you don't," Cosh said, "Heres all you really need to know: do you like your right foot?"

Cairo swallowed and nodded.

"Well, the Kline stones like it too, because it's pulsing with all that Vincarsee blood you have pumping through you. If you try to activate your Vincarsee powers, the Kline stones get real excited about that. They might like your foot a little too much. Maybe even enough to take it off you. You understand?"

Cairo slowly nodded again. Cosh smiled a sharp toothy smile.

"Good!"

A large garrison of Fuja gradually came out from their search in the trees as all the soldiers realized the bounties had been caught. They were large and fearsome looking warriors and as their numbers increased, the more hopeless the situation seemed. They gradually organized themselves and moved out with them in the cages. It was a litter held up by Fuja with carrying poles at the four corners of the back and front. The cages looked to be adaptable and latched together with metal clasps at the sides. With Cairo in the center and Talia and Julian at his left and right, the walking vehicle seemed very steady as they marched along. Ahead of them were two bispin riders following the lead of a towering General Dai and his brother. The rest of the Fuja followed at the sides and behind them, mostly on foot but some on bispin and horseback.

It was a long first hour of the three of them in silence. Talia wouldn't even look at Cairo or Julian but instead sat looking to her left out of the cage bars. Her right leg was bent at the knee to keep the pressure off of the spiked Kline stones. Cairo kept looking at her to see if he could get her attention but he couldn't. Julian was looking straight ahead, glaring with his arms folded. Cairo didn't want to get his attention even though he knew he could. He already knew what he was thinking.

The Fuja had been relatively quiet at first too, but after a while they started up conversations with each other. Cairo had been worried about muttering to his friends and drawing attention but now that their was a low hum of socializing, Cairo felt comfortable whispering to the young woman next to him.

"Talia!" he said under his breath, "Talia, what do we do?"

She still wouldn't look back at him. He saw her black hair gently lift in the wind.

"What are you asking her for?" came Julian's voice on the other side of him. He wasn't whispering, "If she was planning something else she would have done it already. This IS the plan."

Cairo looked over at him with a look of dismay. He glanced over at the Fuja who were carrying the cages. The one at Julian's front corner had his ear turned towards them.

Cairo whispered, "Can you not-"

"You know what?! This is so you! Trusting everyone! All the time! You always think everyone has your best interests at heart! And I followed you even though I knew..."

Julian shook his head and looked away.

"This is so stupid..."

Cairo looked back to his left.

"Talia, what do you think?" he whispered, "Maybe since we're going to the castle or the kings palace or whatever then Raina will be there, right? She'll be okay, like you said, and then we could get-"

"You aren't making it to Muldoon," came a voice from ahead of them.

Cairo looked up. Cosh's yellow eyes were looking back at them.

"The kings palace. He'll never let you see it."

Cairo turned forward and swallowed.

"Uh... wh-why not?"

Dai looked back at them briefly as he walked with heavy steps that were still surprisingly quiet. He looked ahead again, letting his smaller brother talk.

"Because the king doesn't need a counsel to judge Vincarsee. He'll make his decree after we deliver you. If he were here now, he'd sentence you the punishment for willful endangerment. It's a capital punishment. A swirl of fire, and your gone. I've seen it myself."

"Cosh, what do you get out of this?" said Dai in a somehow passive rumble.

"Here's the catch though: if he makes his decree for the same crime on a Vincarsee near a Crossover Sanctuary it's a different sentence. Banishment to the other side. You get to go home!"

He had wide eyes and an almost cheerful tone as he said it. Then he squinted an eye in consideration.

"Only... I've seen that sentence carried out too. And somehow... it all looks the same to me."

He stared at them like he was meditative, trying to sort it out. Then a smile crept across his face. He faced forward again.

Cairo was staring at the back of Cosh's horned head and hardly breathing. He leaned back in his cage and looked down at his Kline stone brace. He was extremely still as he tried to just barely produce a few tiny crystals of ice on his finger tips. The Kline stone daggers buried themselves into Cairo's skin, threatening to puncture through. He jumped as he stopped and gritted his teeth. It was no bluff. The Kline stones worked as advertised.

He looked over to Talia. She was looking at him. Her head was leaning on her knee as her eyes met his. He saw them shimmer with tears before she blinked them away. Then she turned her head back to the other side and Cairo saw her hair fall all the way down to her own cuff. Below it, small droplets of blood were just starting to soak her shoe.