A Court of Death and Shadows

Chapter 4: Distractions

Chapter 4: Distractions

Nyah

                The mercenary was a formidable-looking woman. She had dark dark brown hair, a shade or two darker than mind, cut to her chin and nearly black eyes that took us in as we approached. Feyre shrank back slightly so I stepped forward.

               "I don't barter goods, only coin for my services."

               "Then you'll be out of luck in this place," Feyre said softly.

                "We have a wolf pelt and doe hide for sale." I cut straight to the point, small talk never got me anywhere when it came to bartering.

                 "You steal them?" The woman asked sharply, taking in our starved and slim forms.

                 "We hunted them ourselves," Feyre answered sounding offended. The woman's eyebrows raised.

                "How?" She asked. Feyre quickly and quietly explained, talking softly enough that the snoopy villagers wouldn't overhear. The mercenary ran her hands over them and named an extravagantly high price.

               "I assume those two brassy haired girls over there are your sisters. You all have that hungry look about you" She was right of course, but it still irked me nonetheless.

               "We don't need pity or charity," I said cooly.

               "No, but you need the money and bartering has been poor all morning thanks to the doe-eyed cloaked people in the square. So it's up to you."

                "Why?" Feyre awsked softly. I tried not to roll my eyes, the woman didn't have infinite patience and we had too many mouths to feed to care about why this woman was being so kind.

               "Someone helped me once, now I'm passing it along. Plus this saves me the trouble of having to kill them myself." I nodded at her words. Such was the way of the world where kindness was hard to find so it had to be passed on from person to person. Feyre took the coins and handed me the majority, keeping only a few to hand to our sisters I assumed. I tucked them into my pocket. I glanced at my other two sisters, Elain had gone ghostly pale and Nesta's mouth was pressed into a thin line.

                "What happened in the five minutes we were gone?" I snapped.

                 "We were robbed, he got away and took the bit of coin we each had." I gritted my teeth, of course, they were robbed. Target the poorest-looking people around, how brave. I shook my head, long braid swinging behind my back. How lovely, as if we weren't already hard enough done by. I noticed Nesta shoot a cold smile behind Feyre.

                "Your friend is waiting for you." And indeed Isaac was watching nonchalantly from by a building. I jerked my head towards him, a silent request for Feyre to leave. Goodness knows we all needed some sort of distraction these days. She swiftly left after pressing a few coin into Elains palm. I decided to go for a walk to clear my head, leaving the village and entering the quiet paths in the woods that surrounded our home. I started into a swift jog, keeping in good shape was always important for me, when I was young it was a welcome relief from the tediousness of all the parties and social gatherings. Now it was to keep the stress away, after dark started to fall I finally made my way towards home, taking the back paths to avoid people. I saw a small pile of wood chopped, Nesta must have been grateful for some money to spend as she liked and decided to help out finally. Suddenly the hair went up on the back of my neck and ducked into the safety of the shadow of a nearby tree. Crouching down my eyes swept the surroundings and my mouth went dry as I heard a roar, louder than anything I've ever heard before, and a heartbeat later my sisters started screaming. I took off at a full sprint and stumbled as I saw a massive beast standing in the doorway of my home.  As I got nearer I took in the beasts form. It looked somewhat feline but I could see large antlers towering above our doorframe. I knelt quickly and grabbed my knife that was tucked in my boot, holding it in front of me I walked as quietly as I could, moving from tree to tree, using the shadows as cover. As I got within clear sight of the house it let loose a single word, roared so loud I fought the urge to cover my ears and curl up on the forest floor.

               "MURDERERS" it roared and echoed throughout the forest. I stepped forward more and leaned against the side of the house, breathing heavily but as quietly as possible. I saw inside, the beasts head had a wolfish shape but it didn't look like anything I'd ever seen. Faerie. The word tumbled around in my head and I caught Feyre's eye through the small window. Her eyes widened slightly and then flicked to our bow and arrows across the room. I shook my head, there was no way to get to it without getting in pouncing range of the faerie, I had to distract it. I saw my Father and Nesta trying to reason with the beast but it only snarled, drowning out their words and paralyzing them with fear. I stepped forward and was nearly even with it's shoulder, it reached even with my head, I had never even heard of a beast this size, even in all the legends of the Fae that I had gathered over the years. I heard a clatter and the beast took a step forward.

                "Who killed him." He snarled. I heard Feyre's voice but not her words. "The Wolf." the beast responded and my heart skipped a beat. "The treaty demands payment between our realms. Now, who killed him." I stepped forward and drove my knife into it's shoulder, all the way to the hilt and answered at the same time Feyre did.

                 "I did." The beast let loose a roar and swatted the knife out of its flesh with a giant paw. I took the opportunity to bolt inside and stood next to Feyre, staring into the beasts cold green eyes. It lifted it's lip.

                "Did it attack you? Were you provoked?" His voice seemed to rumble throughout the cottage.

              "No." I snapped.

               "But considering all your kind has done to humans, I know without a doubt it was deserved." Feyre's cool voice seemed to strike the beast with those words.

              "What is the payment your treaty demands?" I asked, my voice sounding much stronger than I felt. The beast stared only at Feyre as it responded, 

              "A life for a life." my heart dropped, Feyre had indeed dealt the killing blow but I had helped, perhaps it wouldn't care who it was and I could offer my life in exchange. Feyre could keep the family alive on her own, I had taught her everything I knew and she would make it work.

              "I killed it. Not her, it was me." I pushed her slightly behind me and stared into his eyes. A cruel light seemed to fill them as he took me in.

             "Interesting, not a lie, but not the truth either."

            "Do it outside. Not in here, please," Her small voice said from behind me.

              "For having the bravery to demand where you die I will give you a choice. You die tonight or live out the remainder of your life in Prythian, completely forsaking the human realm." He turned his cold gaze to me. "You are safe it would seem, I don't believe you killed the Wolf. Helped perhaps, but I sense a lie. Nonetheless, you are coming with me. Whether your sister chooses to die tonight or not. I will grant you permission to live in peace on my lands." I snorted and he snarled. Pure fury filled me, chasing away any feeling of fear. Our Father stepped forward, offering money, anything, to keep us at home. He was shut down by a growl and sat heavily. At least he had tried, more than he had done in the past several years. I squared my shoulders and gripped Feyre's hand tightly.

            "When do we leave?" She asked, holding my hand so tightly it hurt.