Short Stories

Healing Lights

Xanna trembled against the river bank. Her gloved hands shook as she hauled the dirty dishes to the water and began slowly scrubbing them clean. She watched with veiled eyes the smears of sauce and crumbs dance down the current freely, and sighed. 

She'd volunteered to clean the dishes, despite it being her least favourite chore of hers. She needed to get away from her crew for a moment to breathe. The soothing ripple of the river being the only sound in her ears finally allowed her the chance to reflect. 

Xanna hailed from a town south of the evil capital of Thren, a few hours from where she was now. Her town was her entire life until a few months ago when she went from assistant to her childhood friends Lord Maryn and his sister Lady Myrtha, to the final companion in the crew destined to take down Thren's ruler. 

The crew...They'd become her misfit family. 

Her town was perfectly ordinary but oblivious to anything outside its borders, so when the crew strode into the main hall, standing on the finely woven rug running between the Lord and Lady's thrones and the large doors, with their mud-stained rain-soaked gear and fierce gazes, Xanna was shocked. 

They came with news of a rebellion - Thren was going to be overthrown. 

Maryn and Myrtha didn't believe the crew at first but took them in so they could replenish their food, clean their gear, before they set off again. They held a feast for their guests that night, the last blissful night in her town, and Xanna had spent it waiting the noble table holding the Lord and Lady, and all six members of the crew. 

She remembered it all too well. It was the last good memory before, like the old food she was scrubbing off their rough-edged plates, her happiness drifted away with no chance of recovery.

Xanna went from pouring the crew drinks, witnessing them laugh and joyously revel in having a night of rest, to having her bag packed by Maryn as Myrtha fought off Thren soldiers, the Lord of her town pushing her towards the crew. 

"Go with them Xanna," Maryn had said, his eyes had been wide in fear and desperation. "You're the only one Thren fears!" 

Xanna had cried sitting on the back of one of the crew's horses, her gloved hands tight around Rijo, the right-hand. He was the quiet sword master and had merely patted her hand to comfort her as she sobbed into his broad back. 

Amar, one of the four other members besides Rijo and the Captain, had quickly become a fierce friend. Her wit was as sharp as her daggers, and Amar kept Xanna under her wing while she adjusted to the crew. 

Xanna could hold her own, in a way. She had seen a lot of training sequences when she accompanied Maryn and Myrtha around her town, but her talent was in numbers. She was a statistician, had to be as the assistant to the Lord and Lady, but her talent wasn't used a lot amongst the her misfit rebels. 

Between campfires under stars when there was nowhere else to sleep and travelling on horseback north to Thren, with the Captain's ominous plan to overthrow the tyrant who lived in marbled lapis lazuli halls, Xanna had to find her feet quickly. She learned to ride a horse, Amar and Rijo taught her to wield a knife. 

Carter and Eunice tried to teach her archery, but Xanna wasn't strong enough to wield a bow. The knives she could handle, but she wasn't as fast as Amar. She couldn't lift a broadsword with ease like Rijo, so she took to tending to the crew. She became the assistant once more. 

Her mind came into use when they started discussing how they were to get into Thren - she worked hectic schedules around like easy puzzles, so planning and strategising was her forte. The Captain appreciated the second opinion, even praising her to his brother, Jorde, but he had been looking at her warily ever since the crew arrived in her town.