Nada's Escape

35- Human.

I am still human, I tell the land and sky, Warrior Mage be damned. Tracing the brown blemish on my hand, so foreign and small, I start unravelling the last few days. The monster, the body, escape. They must have found the body... why am I not being carted off for execution? I press my thumb hard into the mark but feel no pain. Could this tiny thing trump murder?

It already has. Before I even finish the question the answer slides through to me, so soft I can't tell that its Finley's voice. Tobias is comatose in a hospital far away. Slipping on a wet floor, such a clumsy thing to do. I wait for more but there's just the open radio static from before.

Good I need space to think. I let go of the weight of death I thought I'd been carrying since my escape; a breathy gust of air from my lungs. I don't think could have regretted that monster's death but I certainly was regretting that it had to be me to take it. But he's not dead, just gone to another place where he can't hurt anyone, I hope. The relief is strangely light, even if it shouldn't be.

My thoughts flutter on to deal with the next problem. Oh yes, Darcell's strange apology and a vial of shape-shifter pills. Yes that was right, the pills had turned me into a little boy. Then my body had tried to change back. Darcell had been there somehow, explaining it all to me. But how long-

Three days, four if you count the day they found you. The answer whispers unannounced through my mind.

Three days ... which means the day after tomorrow is termination day. Damn that's close. I put this worry aside in place of the next. When I woke in the night that gorgeous butterfly had been wandering my palm right where the Warrior Mage's symbol now mars my skin. Was that when the mark had been placed? Because I sure didn't meet the Warrior Mage... or did I? From the musty folds of my memory comes the shape of the Warrior Mage made from a cloak. That's right the dream...

But I wasn't given a choice like the Seven in the story. The woman in the cloak hadn't mentioned fighting evil creatures. She'd barely mentioned the Huntsmen at all and only after Finley showed up. It had all the surrealism of a dream... but surely that was too much of a coincidence? Did her obsession with a tether have something to do with why I've started hearing Finley in my head now?

I clench my fists. I'm certain all these strings are cryptically connected but it's all magic and politics and I can't find the end to prove it. Who's pulling these strings? I thought it was the Huntsmen and the Huntsmen think it's their Warrior Mage but the Warrior Mage I saw is not their Warrior Mage...

"You okay?" The voice is soft and real. I whirl, seeing Darcell leaning against the hedge in his black T-shirt and slacks. He doesn't seem to share the rest of the Huntsmen's ironic sense of colour.

"How did you know I'd be here?" I accuse.

"I followed you," he shrugs, rustling leaves. "Wanted to make sure you're not still mad at me."

"Yeah, we'll see." I reply, bitter at the world, "Let's get a few things straight: did you lead the wardens right to me four days ago?"

His eyes flash at me in defiance, "No. I wouldn't tell them you were there even after, when you were changing. But this is the thanks I get?" He falls forward onto the balls of his feet. The shadow of his injury reddens on his cheek and I gulp back some of my bitterness in favour of guilt. He'd truly taken a beating for me.

"Look I'm just trying to make sense of all of this." I wave my hand vaguely, not meaning to gesture at him but that's how it turns out. His expression twists from challenging to snide then.

"Well that's alright then," he sneers sarcastically. "But while you mull that over let me tell you the facts." I open my mouth to object to this interpretation but his presence fills the air as he strides towards the edge of the world.

"I heard about the stabbed warden and that you were missing, everyone did. It didn't take much digging to figure out Finley had been to visit you, middle of the night. It was simple deduction to figure out where you'd be. Mildrith told me about Tobias... " Darcell says this all glancing over his shoulder, shoes flush to the edge of the bluff where the brown dirt brightens to orange. I look off to the horizon, trying to make out the shape of the rocks out there.

"I don't blame you, even if the council would've." Darcell continues.

Neither do I, Finley's soundless voice concurs. All the moisture on my tongue is pulled up to my eyes. It shouldn't matter what they think, but it does.

"So, while I was talking with you the council had caught up to Finley and forced him on his oath to tell them your hiding place."

This true? I ask Finley. The only reply is the taste of his regret, bitter like sage leaves.

"The wardens that came were ready to deal with a dangerous fighter, not a tiny boy." Darcell rocks back and forth on the balls of his feet.

"Wait. Weren't the council suspicious that it had just been done with a pill?" I interrupt. Darcell cackles and Finley asks, what pill? I see a flash of a yellow melamine dresser, Finley's wrist with the leather bracelet I'd barely noticed before.

"The council?" Darcell rolls his whole head with laughter, letting the sunlight run through the strands. "Know about my father's experiments? They haven't a clue what goes on right under their noses let alone..." Darcell is overcome with the need to draw in more air to fuel his hilarity. I watch in concern, guessing at a hysterical quality to his mirth.

You may be able to hear my thoughts, but you can't know everything to do with me, I reply to Finley.

There's a hurt but placatory tone to his reply, okay Nada.

Darcell straightens suddenly, glaring at the sky. Muttering unintelligibly, he pulls a black watch from his pocket and swears.

"Damn it, I'm late." He straps the watch around his wrist. "You coming on a paper hunt?" he pauses mid stride, all attention honed on me.

"Like information?" I ask, feeling my mind light up in response to the thrumming energy that so recently materialised under his skin.

His teeth flash dangerously, "All the information you could ever want."

I take a gulp of the blue air and the answer comes to me. I'll escape and leave this mess of magic to the Huntsmen. I ignore the open radio to Finley at the back of my mind and roll onto the balls of my feet. I just need all the access codes, patrol times, a map and a learn to drive manual.