UNMARKED

34: The Power of Observation

Blayre's arm was yanked hard by one of the men who dragged her into the camp. She yelped, despite herself and was deposited in a rather undignified manner onto her knees in front of the woman.

She looked up into a broad, but elegant face, the flickering flames making the woman's skin even more aurelian.

"A half breed?" The woman directed the question toward the men, voice somewhat accented, as if she had something in her mouth, and was trying very hard to enunciate perfectly. The mountain people spoke common tongue, but they were so isolated that their dialect had diverted considerably from the path of other Emarians.

Blayre raised an eyebrow, unsure if she should answer. Her father's phantom words ringing in her ears... Promise me. What if these people knew her mother and went back with news of a young woman who was half like them, half not? So what if they did. You weren't the one to tell her. It was too farfetched a thought though.

"That's ... strange." said the man standing behind Blayre. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

First make sure that they aren't going to kill you. And where was Caval? She couldn't feel his magic.

"Is your father from the mountains, girl?" The woman grabbed Blayre by the chin, calloused fingers pressing into her jaw. Blayre wanted to tear her face away from the uninvited touch but forced calmness into herself as the woman studied her face.

"He's...not." Blayre ground out.

The woman looked taken aback, and one of the men who had moved behind her to peer over her shoulder at their new captive raised thick dark brows. "Your mother then?"

"So I'm told." said Blayre through clenched teeth. Her neck was beginning to hurt and there were stones digging into her knees through the lightweight fabric of her leggings.

The three mountainers exchanged uncomfortable glances. "You have an Emarian accent. What became of your mother?

Blayre shrugged. "I don't really know anything about her." Caval, where in all Twelve Hells are you? "She - she's still in the mountain villages as far as I know. But I've never had contact with her, and I don't know anything more than that about her."

The woman's mouth was a thin grim line. "I see," was all she said, and she glanced at Blayre. "It is unusual that a mountain woman would give up a child, even a half breed. Especially a daughter."

"Well," Blayre shrugged, "She did." As far as I know. She added mentally. For all she knew her father had stolen her away in the dead of night. Perhaps if she was careful, she could learn something from these people - though there were so many mountain villages, the chances they could identify her mother... She told herself it wasn't likely. Better to keep her expectations low, rather than hold onto hope and receive disappointment instead.

The woman still looked unconvinced - or perhaps, perplexed was a better word.

Blayre felt suddenly frustrated with her father for being such a closed book when it came to the mountain clans. Part of it was that Marianna forbid he speak of it - out of pure bitterness, Blayre was certain.

But he could have made an effort. Especially as Blayre grew older. It wasn't as if she wouldn't have been discreet. What little she knew, she had pried from Seaver: The clans were matriarchal. They kept themselves mostly secluded and were not very accepting of outsiders. That same seclusion forced them into trade with the surrounding realms.

In this trio's case, the woman was very obviously in charge. She turned to Blayre. "What are you doing in our territory?"

Shit. Well, sticking as close to the truth as possible was probably best.

But what was the truth? "My friend abducted me and brought me to a camp of rebels who want information on the mysterious dragon caverns?"

"I'm from - Mountainvale. And I was hired by a man who is a...a scholar, ito bring him intothe mountains to do some research." Or just flat out lie, Blumore. That also works.

"What type of research?" The woman said, the question coming out like the snap of a wolf's jaws.

"On the geography - we were told there were... extensive caverns with excellent rock formations." Such as fossilized dragon remains...

The flash in the woman's eyes told Blayre that she'd hit on a potentially sensitive subject. But that also meant that perhaps she could weasel some unintentional information from these people. The power of observation. Caval wasn't the only one who could read people.

"Yes well, there are. But the caverns are in Clan territory and they're protected by magic wards."

Ha! Blayre thought smugly. They wouldn't affect her. Not that she was going to tell these people that. Did Caval know this? Is this why he insisted on bringing me along?

The woman nodded at the two men, "Let her get up." The man who was pressing his palm into the back of her neck, fingers splayed over her shoulders, lessened the pressure, and grasped her by the upper arm again as Blayre stood, legs creaking with soreness from being in one position for so long.

"Sit," Said the woman, voice commanding. "Pour her a mug."

Moon and Sun, they were probably going to drug her. Caval! If only he really could read minds.

"Zane hasn't returned yet." Said one of the men, glancing around.

The woman turned to Blayre, "Where is your companion?"

"I left him behind to search ahead." Blayre responded. "He's probably waiting for me. LIke I said, he's a scholar, he's not used to... uh... the outdoors." Blayre said.

The woman made a clucking noise in the back of her throat. Perhaps Zane has stumbled upon Caval. If he had, Caval wasn't using magic to defend himself. Which was interesting. Either he hadn't been found and was continuing to lie in wait, or he was pretending to be magicless.

"So these caverns," Blayre tried. She decided she was going with her "playing stupid" persona. "Are the wards there to protect the rock formations from human inflicted damage?"

For a few moments, it looked as though the mountain woman didn't know how to respond. Which was enough to tell Blayre that there was more than rock formations there- perhaps even more than fossils. Because who would go through so much effort to keep people away from stalactites and stalagmites?

"How do you even know about these caverns?"

"I told you the man who hired me is a scholar."

As if on cue, magic burst out like water spilling from a fountain. Caval's magic. The three clanspeople covered their eyes, screeching in pain. Though Blayre couldn't see anything. Only felt the steady thrum of her friend's magic as it pulsed through the small camp.

And then Caval appeared, cloak flapping in a breeze behind him, face set aglow by the dancing firelight. "Let's go," He said, and held out his hand.

Blayre lept to her feet and did not look back. 

A/N: This chapter was very difficult to write, because it kind of surprised me, so I had to figure out what was going on and why before I could actually write it. 

That being said, as I was writing it, suddenly the ending  of the novel- which has been vaguely floating around in my mind - became incredibly clear. 

We are still several chapters away. But we are getting there. GUYS I'VE ALMOST FINISHED WRITING MY FIRST BOOK. And guess what? It's all because of you! Knowing that readers are coming back week after week for updates, or sticking with me through my quiet spells, or new readers that are coming on and binge reading the nearly 90k words I have posted. THANK YOU. You are the reason I have made it further into UNMARKED than I have any other attempted WIP. Keep the reading, the votes, and the lovely and helpful comments coming. It helps more than you know!