Villainous [Wattys 2021 Shortlist]

MALEVOLENT 10: The Hunt

She found Caldor running alongside the river, an area choked with brambles which caught at his clothes. Two guards flanked him.

"Leave me," he ordered, voice wild with desperation. "We can cover more ground if we split up."

"But, my lord –"

"Just find her!"

Men were so predictable.

Delilah remained at a distance, her skirts hiked to her hips and knotted to give her legs free reign. She watched Caldor running to and fro, steadily becoming more and more agitated as the fear for his daughter grew. He had seen the arrow hit her leg, he knew she was injured.

When he veered in the direction Nell had taken Kiri, Delilah picked up a pebble and threw it with all her might. It sailed past a thicket and made a rustle against branches.

Caldor spun around. "Kiri? Kiri!" he bellowed, and charged towards Delilah's stick... in the opposite direction.

Satisfied for now, Delilah picked the path Caldor had been about to go down. She dropped as low as she could while still maintaining a fast pace and stuck to the shadows and the areas most choked by undergrowth. Humidity thickened the air from the nearby river which made these lands so rich for farming, and made Caldor's family so prestigious.

Eventually she came to a clearing where Nell had left the unconscious girl propped up against a tree, no doubt waiting nearby to distract any lumbering men from getting too close.

Delilah hesitated before stepping into view.

She could easily get the girl into a headlock and wait for Caldor to find them before making her threats and laying out her terms; children's necks were easy to snap, it wouldn't be too difficult even for her weak muscles. But after she returned to the palace, what then? If his daughter's life was under immediate threat Caldor would comply with her demands, but it wasn't like she could take the girl with her and keep her under threat at all times –

Lightning struck.

What if she could...? Yes, it might work – but even so, what image should she portray when someone did find the two of them? She realised this moment was crucial to her future, the future she wanted to build for herself in Pelenu. She knew what the old Delilah would have chosen to do, the Delilah before the war.

She was not that woman anymore. Her old tactics had failed miserably, so it was time to play a new angle.

Gods help her.

Delilah walked towards the girl, smoothing her face into what she hoped was a soft, reassuring, open expression.

Kiri stirred at the sound of her footsteps, and gasped when she saw her.

"It's all right," Delilah said, coating her voice with honey the way she had often seen mothers or sisters talk to girls. "I'm here."

"Y-You." The girl stumbled backwards and tripped over a tree root. "You're the monster."

That brought her up short, and she tried to swallow the prickle of annoyance.

"You haven't heard," she said quietly. "The Dark King had me under his spell. But I'm free now, and I want to help you."

"D-Do you?"

"I jumped in after you, dearest. I was so worried. I wanted to make sure you were all right."

The girl blinked.

"Come here. You look freezing."

Hesitantly, the girl crossed over to Delilah, and flinched when Delilah enfolded her into a hug.