Agatine (Terres book II)

Chapter Twenty Nine

Wren barely felt the sting in her ankle with every pounding step it made against the cobblestones. She didn't notice the swelling, either, until she burst through the doors of the tiny apartment and ran straight into the center of the room.

"I need help!" she shouted, barely aware of her own injuries until she collapsed against the floor, unable to stand any longer. Rannok dropped the paper in his hands and reached up underneath her armpits, then helped her prop herself up against the wall.

"What happened to you?" Ittra demanded as she looked back and forth between them. 

"Sellswords--they took them away. They took Phina and Marion and someone else and loaded them up and they're gone!"

"Slow down," Rannok said. He picked up her ankle and started prying her shoe off. She let out a small yelp and collapsed into tears.  Elyn opened the door to the back room and popped his head out. He and Michael appeared like unwelcome voyeurs as Ittra pressed a cold cloth to her ankle, then disappeared out the front door just as quickly. Michael's face blanched of color when he saw the injury.

"It's all right," Ittra said. She gave Wren's hand a squeeze. Wren took a heaving breath and wiped the tears from her face. Rannok's eyes were dark, like he already had an idea of what happened. As if he could have any idea. She couldn't get the look on Phina's face as the man dragged her away out of her head. She sniffled once, then stared up at them.

"The sellswords came to the brothel. They took Phina and Marion, and at least one other. I don't know where they went, but I know it's bad. I just--" Her voice broke on the last bit. What was there to say that she'd be safe saying? That Armand had shoved her off the edge of a building and she'd very nearly died? That she only escaped because of him? That they'd kissed on the rooftop and she still had no idea how to feel? 

She swallowed the bile back down her throat as Ittra moved her ankle side to side. She winced, but it was only uncomfortable. Ittra nodded.

"She's not badly hurt. A little bruised. It'll be sore for a few days." She stroked the end of her chin in the way someone with a beard were, if they were thinking. "We need help, to fix this. Seltus'll come back to the brothel like he always does, but not until he's got what he wanted out of Marion. He probably won't kill them, but--"

"--But what?" Wren asked.

"He needs to be stopped. I'm tired of this. Agatine wasn't like this before he came around. Ten years ago, maybe twenty. You all would have gotten good jobs, you'd only have to stay in a brothel if you wanted to. Rannok wouldn't've been beaten to a pulp. If I knew, I wouldn't have taken you here." She gripped Wren's hand hard. "I'm going to ask you for something, Wren. You're probably going to hate me for it, and if you do, that's okay."

Wren got a dark feeling in her gut, like whatever Ittra was going to ask wasn't something that she could say no to. She gave her a squeeze in return and Ittra let go.

"What do you need me to do?" Wren asked.

"I need you to kill him," she said. "But I don't know how yet. Give me some time to think."

Wren's eyes went wide. She could already feel the blood on her hands and see Seltus' eyes draining of color. She could smell the sickly sweet iron of blood as it mixed with whatever else floated around in his abdomen. She could see the pained look on his face before the muscles all relaxed. She shuddered. But before she could say anything, Ittra was headed into the other room. She shut the door behind her.

"I don't know if I can," She said weakly. Rannok gave her an incredulous look, as if he couldn't believe what she was saying.

"You can," he said. "I know you can."

"What if I can't?" She could already feel the iron in her mouth from biting her own lip until it bled. She could see herself standing there abreast of him, with the dagger in her hand. Her hands shaking and frozen and him staring at her, laughing, before he pricked her back. The blood draining from the wound until she did not move anymore and her vision faded to black. 

"Then you'll have to figure something out," he said. He held his arm out and helped her to her feet. Now that the adrenaline was gone, the ankle ached and hurt to stand on. She leaned on him for balance as he helped her limp into the back room. He set her down in the corner and looked her in the eye, then gave her hand a squeeze.

"You're one of the strongest people I've ever met," he said. She laughed. It was not a funny sort of laugh.

"No, I'm not," she said. He shrugged and sat down beside her so their wings brushed, and she leaned her head on his shoulder. "At least I don't feel like it." She breathed in and back out slowly, trying to calm her still-shaking hands. He didn't move.

"You didn't die when we went across the desert," he said. "You're not afraid of reavers, and somehow you don't wake up screaming in the middle of the night. And you do things I'd never do." He sighed. "I'm not sorry you have to, though."

She wanted to leave now. She wanted to find Armand and bash his teeth in. She wanted to find Seltus and feel his blood in her hands, at the very same time that the idea terrified her. She wanted to make them hurt like she did. To make them remember it for the rest of their lives so they didn't sleep at night for fear of sleeping.

 She wanted to take their friends away and spin them up and pour out the contents of their brain onto the hot cobblestone streets. She wanted to make them feel as bad and confused and awful as she felt. And the worst part was, she knew exactly why she had to wait. She knew why she couldn't go after them alone, and it killed her. 

"They took Phina," she said. "They took her and there wasn't anything I could do. I just sat there and watched." The words made her feel sick as they tumbled out of her mouth. She didn't know if she would ever see Phina again. Worst still, she still didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. And that made her feel worse still, because there were far, far more important things to worry about.

She felt Rannok's ribcage rise and fall as he sighed, and she stiffened slightly.

"You're not friends, are you?"

She swallowed. She knew what he meant by not friends. He didn't mean like when they weren't friends, because they were at each other's throats. She didn't mean like people weren't friends because they didn't know each other or didn't like each other or because they knew things about one another that made people uncomfortable.

"I don't know," she said, only because it was the honest answer. He nodded and did not say anything else.