Hellfury

Chapter 11: Auri

Auri was back on the horse before the sun had fully risen. Mawr had been silent all through their breakfast. She'd watched him eat the dry porridge in complete silence. Something was wrong, she felt it in her bones. Her fire flared up every time she looked at him, and she knew she'd kept it in for too long. The flames crackled on the edge of her vision and her hand scorched dark marks in the wood when she rested her hand on the table. Heating him had not been enough, burning Nilfgaardians would never be enough.

She had found a flicker of hope when she opened her eyes that morning and found him holding her hand. His fingers laced through hers, like he didn't have a care in the world, and like he hadn't watched her sleep all through the night, moving her hair away from her face and calming her thundering heart when the fire threatened to overtake her. As though he hadn't placed a dagger to her chest-
   'You're eerily quiet this morning?' he said when they crossed the Ina. The river was near silent too, the clear waters made no sound as it washed over rocks, floating branches and pebbles covered in moss.
   'I have nothing to say yet,' she replied and kept her hands tangled in Sir's soft mane.
   'Are you angry with me?' he asked again.
   'Why would I be angry with you?' She lied. She was furious.
   'Because I touched you?'
   'I'm not angry. I'm still trying to figure you out, Mawr. Nothing you say makes any sense. I wish you would just tell me instead of hiding it. There is something about you, I will find out-'
'You shouldn't worry about that, it's fine,' he said dismissively and moved his legs away from hers.

She didn't know how to tell him that she hated to be touched, she didn't know how to explain that physical contact hurt her. Hands and fingers were always too cold, always too rough and always ignited the burning rage under her skin. Except for him. His touch did nothing of the sort. She'd felt it when he'd grabbed her arm in the cave and outside the inn. Even when he tried to hold her back and should have bruised her he didn't, his skin was merely the same temperature as hers and it made the fire in her die down bit by bit. Until he stopped touching her that was. She realized he'd been sent to kill her too. Of course he had, she'd been stupid to think otherwise. The rumors of her had spread to Temeria as well.

They rode on through the afternoon sun, it burnt the back of her head. When she couldn't stand it any longer she simply leaned back and rested the back of her head against his shoulder. He'd been quick to remove himself from her before but not this time. It felt like he was leaning into her, steeling himself in the saddle to keep her from-
   'DUCK!'

Auri threw herself forward when Mawr moved a hand behind her neck and pushed her down.
The whistling of the arrow reverberated through her head as it flew past her ear and embedded itself in the rocky ground next to them.
   'Shit!'

Mawr moved a hand around her waist and tightened the reins.
   'We have to flee, hold on to me.'

She did. She held onto his arms as Sir leapt across the river, his hooves clanged off loose stones and sent a small wave of water crashing behind them.
   'Scouts?'
   'Soldiers-'

The arrow hit her through her right shoulder. One moment she was fine, and the next she was in the river with the shaft of it sticking out above her collarbone. Auri screamed as the pain exploded through her.
   'Auri!'

She heard him turn the horse around, she heard several pairs of thundering hooves. Her entire right side was numb, she tried to get off the ground and move her face away from the rushing water, she managed to get to her knees when she saw them.
Six soldiers galloping for her, clad in night-black armor with the Nilfgaardian sun shining on their chests, swords drawn and glinting.

Auri reacted instinctively. She flicked her wrists and murmuring fire flared up in her hands. Her right arm was useless, she had to fight them off with the left. She aimed for the first of the sneering soldiers and sent a ball of fire flying towards his horse.
She moved on to the second one when the first one fell. Where the fuck was Mawr? Had he fled?