The Gathering of the Hunt

CHAPTER FOURTEEN (Part Two)

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The knife made its first cut against her skin. 
   
The Emperor hovered in the corner, a looming shadow that absorbed all the light in the world. He drank in her screams like they were the finest wine. 

The knife was ripped from her body. She didn’t know that it was possible to miss the feeling of a knife buried deep inside her flesh until it was gone, leaving her to spill crimson blood from the gash. It was hued with gold, glittering in the dimness.  The world became consumed with shadows and stars. 
   
“Please,” she whispered, begging the faceless deities that had ruled her life for far too long. 
   
Another cut was made, it’s sting worse than anything that she remembered.

“Please.”

A scream was coaxed from her lungs, as gently and as slowly as the blood that dripped on the floor, hovering in the air.

“Please,” Aesira cried.

She wasn’t sure who exactly she was begging, only wanting that pain to stop. 

“Stop,” Aesira pleaded

The knife trailed down her thigh, ripping her skin wherever it touched. 

She didn’t know what they wanted from her. She knew all the answers and yet she knew nothing. 
The walls were red. Everything was red. There was nothing left that wasn’t covered in blood. 

“Please,” Aesira beseeched.

The world shattered into tiny fragments, creating a world that was every bit as tremulous as she was.

“I’m sorry,” Aesira sobbed.

She had nothing left. They left her body open and weeping, nerves and veins exposed.

“I don’t know!” Aesira implored.

The General laughed and questioned. 

Aesira screamed and prayed. 

The Emperor laughed and gave suggestions. He caused her more pain, joining in when she thought that she was strong enough to not give in. 

She was not supposed to beg for mercy. She was not meant to be given it. But the steady torrent of appeals spilled out from her mouth, mixing in with the screams. 

“Help!” she wept.

“No one is helping you now, girl,” the Emperor growled. “Not when you are past saving.”

Maybe they got bored of her petitions, or maybe they realised how pathetic she was, so they left her alone, leaving her body to burn in the darkness. 

I will not burn.

I will not burn. 

I will not burn. 

But she did.

Her body was consumed in an inferno that turned her body into ashes.

The healers came in, their touch too gentle. They fixed her just so they could break her all over again.

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Kaedon stared at Talen like he had just proposed stabbing her in the gut as a solution. I might as well have. He was already regretting speaking up. But he stood, straightening his spine and pulling his shoulders back—ever the perfect soldier. 
   
“I can help,” he repeated. 
   
“I knew you were dumb, but I didn’t think you were deluded,” Kaedon said bluntly, hands still placed on Aesira’s brow. “Sit him down again.” He directed his words to Stralva who obliged, sweeping over with a breeze following him. His legs were kicked out from beneath him, and he was falling. 
   
He hit the grass with such force that the breath was knocked from his lungs. 
   
“You can treat me like a prisoner all you like, but right now I am the prisoner with the power to save his sister. So, you can either let me help her, or you can give her the death sentence.”
   
Kaedon looked at him with eyes that seemed ancient, intangible pain swirling in it’s depths, creating an abyss that threatened to drag people into it. 
   
He took a breath so deep that his whole body shifted. “And why should I trust you Krega?” His words were a blow into his ribs, stealing away his breath and all rationality.
   
“Because she’s my sister. She’s my flesh and blood.”
   
“And here, Stralva, we have the exact example of a wrong answer. That fact didn’t stop you from hurting her and leaving her dead last time. Why should it mean that you will save her now?” 
   
“Because I’m the only one that can save her. You’re wondering why your magic makes no difference, right? Even infamous healers wouldn’t be able to save her now. Her body succumbed to the infection in her bloodstream, now she’s well into the grips of death. It’s only a matter of time before she’s too far gone to be saved. Only a Corpsemaker could possibly save her now and bring her back from the entrance to La Vieralina.”
   
La Vieralina was their afterlife, the blessed realm where they told the Hunters where they would go after their death. They had to be promised something good when their blessing ended a death sentence most of the time. 
   
He remained silent for a few breaths watching Talen with eyes that seemed to see past the obvious and into the very soul of him. “Was it you? On that ship, was it you who told the Cardovins where we were?”
   
He shook his head. “Why would I when I defected? I’m as wanted as you are.”
   
“And yet they don’t act like you were. Why?”
“How am I supposed to know? I know just as much as you do. But one thing is for sure. I wouldn’t hurt you when you are my one shot for survival. As soon as word gets out that I helped you escape, I’m a dead man walking. It’s only a matter of time.”
   
“Okay. Okay.” Kaedon loosed a breath. “It’s the iron, right? It’s developed into a poison. She was exposed to it for too long.” It wasn’t a question, but Talen nodded in confirmation anyway. He cursed under his breath dragging his hands through his hair enough to make it practically stand up on end. But he was wavering, he could see the indecision in his eyes. 
   
Aesira thrashed again, narrowly avoiding Kaedon’s face. Whatever feverish dreams that plagued her were riddled with monsters that devoured any sense of realness.  He pulled back and straightened up, his decision clear in his eyes. 
   
“Unchain him.” His voice came out rough and unsteady. Talen calmly offered his wrists to Stralva, narrowing his eyes when he unnecessarily tightened them before releasing his wrists entirely. “You try anything, anything at all and you get put straight back in them, no matter what happens to Aesira.” He was thinking like a soldier now, pragmatic and calm, all emotions locked away completely. 
   
Talen grinned crookedly. “You can try.”
   
“You’re not inspiring much confidence, and lately I’ve been finding myself rather. . . vigilant. And I guarantee no matter how good you think you are, I can be just as good, simply because I give myself any other option to not be. I will strike you down before you get two steps away from me.”
   
He rotated his wrists. “I’ve got it,” he said simply. “You won’t have to worry.”
   
“The only reason that I’ve survived so long is because I worry,” he replied, crossing his arms over his chest. Talen noted that he still kept his hands in easy reach of his blades on the belt around his waist. 
   
He frowned before dropping into a crouch beside Aesira. He hesitated before resting his hand on her forehead. The old doubts were back, whispering in his ears and wrapping around his shoulder. He shook them away, refusing to yield to them. If he lost control, Aesira might die. If he didn’t try at all, Aesira would die. 
 
He reached out, probing at her blood gently. Aesira twitched slightly. He took hold of it, feeling the absolute wrongness of that iron taint. He took a shuddering breath, feeling Kaedon’s brand-like stare on the back of his neck. Talen removed his hands and cupped them in front of him, tracing the runes that spoke of life. 
  
 
He closed his eyes and let the magic flow out of him, placing all his concentration on the single task—removing the iron from Aesira’s blood. One slip up and he did something wrong, it would mean that he would take a life instead of saving it. 
   
Seconds turned into minutes, but he still probed at her blood collecting the iron and purifying his sister’s blood. 
   
“Why do I feel like he has no clue of how to save her?” Stralva’s sly comment reached his ears from where she was standing beside Kaedon, hands resting upon his weapons. Talen knew that despite his aloof actions towards Aesira, he wouldn’t hesitate to save Aesira’s life. 
   
“He doesn’t” was Kaedon’s reply. 
   
“Do you trust him?”
   
Kaedon hesitated. Even with his back to them, he could sense the indecision. “No,” he said finally, “I don’t trust him. But . . . I trust his anger and his sense for self-preservation. The moment he helped Aesira and I, he chose his fate. He knew that it would mean death if he ever got caught, and yet he did. He wants to survive and he’s angry at them—angry at the world. I trust that these feelings outweigh anything else.”
   
Aesira coughed and his heart seized. His magic bucked beneath his firm grip he kept wrapped around it. The air charged around him. “I’m warning you now, Krega. You hurt her and I hurt you. I won’t give you any other warnings.”
   
He did not deign to defend himself. The world around him became muffled as he sunk deeper, his mind travelling through the corpse-like body of his sister. All he was aware of was the thump of her heart, the rush of the blood, the song of the magic in her veins.

Slowly, slowly, slowly, her blood felt cleaner. Free of the iron taint. Her breathing jumped before returning to its usual rhythm. He spooled his magic back and cocooned it into his heart. Fear seized him when he felt her heartbeat speed up. He pulled back his control completely. “I’m done.” His words came out evenly despite the throbbing pulse in his ears. “Her blood's clean. I think.”
   
“You think? Forgive me if I don’t take any comfort in you thinking something.”
           
“I know. It's gone from her blood. Iron transfer still lingers in the wounds but she's safe. For now. Until the infection spreads again and it’s too late to draw it out of her blood.”
             
Kaedon nodded, confirming his words. There was a darkness in his eyes—not anger exactly, but a sort of feeling of discontent. “I don't know how he did it, but the infection in her blood, it's lessened. It's still there, but not as . . . potent. She's not about to die.”
   
An unsettling silence suffocated the group when they reached the startling realization that the so-called Krega—the infamous traitor—was the reason that their queen had lived.

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Surprise update because it's my birthday and I wanted to celebrate it.

- A xxx