Rubrum Arcane

Red: Act III

The hand that gripped around her refused to let go. Red pulled to get free, but it was a bootless strive. The grip was harder than bone around her wrist. Pale skin, dirty bitten nails and that birthmark, like a rod just below the palm. It was half veiled by that
brown, quite too long and always soiled, linen sleeve.

With a sudden jerk it pulled, so hard that Red lost her balance. For a moment she balanced on just one foot, but ultimately fell, headlong, into the narrow alley. Swallowed by the sweet scent of honey and the urine's sour stench.

Before breaking her teeth against the cobblestones, she got the balance back. The hand that clenched her wrist, had helped her from falling. Around her, and the deafening pounding in her chest, everything was black.

"Ci?"

Silence came as answer.

"Ci! Is that you?" She said again, after she had swallowed down the lump of dread that burned her throat.

"It is me," a thin whisper replied.

"Ci, your arse," she began, and made a new attempt to regain ownership of her own arm, "Let me go!"

"Please be quiet!"

The hand let go entirely and Red jerked it backwards violently, clenched her fist and punched against the darker lump in the already black alley. Her knuckles met something soft, a shoulder or a chest, she did not really know. A groan could be heard, a quelled groan.

"Be silent," said the boy-like voice in a desperate whisper, and the lump seemed to hold up its hands to shield itself against further flying fists.

"Have you hit your head and become a fool?"

"Do you want to die, Red?"

"What would you mean by that-"

"Something is not right," Ci began, took her hand in his and dragged her, between two barrels, deeper into the alley. "You must trust me."

"Two weeks ago you and your pig-riding friends yelled stupid names to my back. And now you scare the soul out of me and try to break my damned arm." Red gave him a soft punch in the chest, just to show him that he had lumbered into the river, deep this time. The boy hissed like a wildcat defending itself.

He grinned there in the dark, Red knew that. Ci always smiled teasingly when something indecent had been done and particularly when he himself was behind it. Often in defense, or to conceal that he felt half-ashamed. For he did things without thinking. That grin made Red fret every time, still there was some kind of charm to it. In any case, she had begun to whisper, because for some reason, she felt frightened from hearing Ci's words. It was as if the pounding in her chest warned. Warned of something. That feeling, cutting inside, like a knife through the wood of a goat willow.

This day was baleful. The lack of everything and everyone, was the sinker to the fishing float, where the lead heavy mist had filled all the void and absence of things. Even inside the narrow stench-cloaked alley to the Furry man, the mist was as heavy to breathe. Like breathing under the surface of a black lake.

She had been acquainted with the boy for a long time; an autumn older than her, and terribly annoying when he was in the mood. He was part of a small group of boys whose only quest in life was making mischief. Like sitting together on the roofs in the evenings, singing instead of sleeping, stealing instead of working and frighten the younger children. There were many such kids, and Ci was one of them. He was the right hand to Ved, the prince among boys.

"So why would I trust you?" Red said in a whisper.

This boy, that now held her hand, Red hated the least in Aen; Or most. That depended on the day, on her mood and what he did to spite her at that particular moment. Still he had a bright mind, even if one sometimes could think otherwise.