Boundaries

Katnir wasn’t surprised to hear a loud snoring on the other side of the dwindling bonfire. What did surprise him, however, was the fact that apparently the nearby trees grew eyes while he had been asleep. Large, orange eyes.

He got up immediately and grabbed his sword from Satine’s belt. He couldn’t use his magic, but he still had his swordsmanship.

The eyes moved closer, revealing dark, human-like silhouettes the size of a child. Rows of sharp teeth shone in the fading light of the fire. They were surrounded by at least twenty or thirty monsters.

Wealdlings… – he thought.

“Wake up, Satine! We’ve got company!”

She groaned something in response. He gave her a solid whack with his boot. When she finally came to her senses, a pure shock lit up on her face. She started tapping her belt, desperately searching for the sword.

“I’m taking the sword!” – he said. – “Watch my back, battlesister.”

After a moment of frightened doubt, she nodded and reached for the spear. She understood it wasn’t the time for arguments.

The monsters moved closer. Katnir could now make out the texture of their bark-like skin and manes of leaves. Their arms were long and twisted like branches, crowned with a set of claws sharp as splinters. The sword flashed in the dark and cut the nearest wealdling in half, tearing its wooden flesh with a ripping sound. As soon as it fell, making a horrid hiss, all hell broke loose.

They attacked from all sides simultaneously with a vicious screech. The wizard spun his sword, catching three of them mid-jump while they were lunging on him. Hewn limbs flew across the camp, spilling the brown sap. Fueled by it, the bonfire came back to life, illuminating the entire glade. It wasn’t twenty or thirty wealdlings, but an entire throng.

By gods, if I only had my magic, I could burn them to a crisp!

The wizard pressed on, slashing left and right, giving the monsters no moment of repose. Satine kept close to him, stabbing with her makeshift spear whichever monster came close enough. She quickly learned that the glowing eyes were the weak spot, being unprotected by the bark.

One by one, the slain beasts covered the grass, but there was always even more waiting on the edge of the darkness. One of Satine’s strikes left her spearhead lodged in the wealdling’s eye socket and it broke in half with a loud snap. Now she only had Katnir’s dagger.

Even with her offensive output diminished, Satine was relentless in combat. She was nimble enough to evade the swipes of the claws and strike when the beasts were the most vulnerable. Suddenly, she felt a paralyzing pain in her side. Her wound had opened, and she collapsed, bleeding profusely.

Seeing this, the wizard backed off and rushed to her rescue, cleaving through the monsters. With a few wide slashes, he gave her enough breathing room to break free of her toils. She crawled away safely and, after a moment, found enough strength to tighten her bandages and stand back up.

With the corner of her eye, Satine caught a sight of wealdlings flinching from the flames. Thinking fast on her feet, she grabbed a chopped off arm, lit it on fire, and waved it around like a makeshift torch. Screeching with fear, the monsters kept their distance.

Katnir stormed from the other side, trapping the monsters between Satine’s twirling flame and his hewing rage. Soon, they began to flee the glade which by that time had caught fire from all the spilled sap and had turned into a blazing inferno.

They forsook chase, mopping up any stragglers instead. When Katnir finished off the last one, they heard a loud thunderclap over their heads. A heavy rain began to fall, slowly dousing the burning remains.

“You fight well” – Katnir said.

As he was turning towards Satine, he felt a cold touch of steel. She was holding his dagger against his throat.

“Drop your sword” – she said with a cold voice.

“Are you serious?”

“Drop it!” – there was no sign of hesitation in her tone.

With a growl of wrath, he pinned one of the corpses with his sword, leaving it sticking upright.

“Turn around and ten steps forward.”

He obliged and she took his sword, not without a struggle. He had purposefully thrust it deep, out of spite. Even though it was reasonable of her to distrust him with a weapon, he still felt betrayed. Anger mixed with grief in his heart as he recalled her frightened gaze when she threatened him. With a note of sorrow he realized how much of a threat to her she still thought him to be.

The rain soon extinguished what was left of the wealdlings, but they didn’t need to light the bonfire anew as the new day was already rising, and with it a new idea in Katnir’s head.

***

It couldn’t escape Liesë’s attention that Taevine had been acting strangely since they embarked on their journey. She was as if sent against her volition, even though they were searching for their friend.

Even stranger was Katria’s torpor. She spoke little when asked. When not asked – she kept silent. It was in her nature to be a little reticent, but her current attitude was well beyond that. Liesë could tell that something was wrong. She exchanged glances with Sonia. She probably thought so too.

Last night Liesë had fallen asleep mid-sentence while reading a book. Woken up by aggravated Taevine barely ten minutes before their departure, she had had no time to share her findings with Sonia. She trusted no one else while Satine was gone and Taevine was playing some mind games with them, acting as if she had already been elected Satine’s replacement.

It took them most of the day to reach their starting area. They decided to search the eastern bank of Moza, but deeper inland, as they had found no traces of either Satine or the sorcerer near the river itself. They were to split into two pairs: Taevine with Katria and Sonia with Liesë, and meet up in the village of Greefall, on the northern border of Inelin province.

“Your thoughts?” – Liesë spoke to Sonia as soon as the other sisters disappeared behind the bend.

“Taevine’s up to something, and Katria probably knows, but doesn’t want to tell.”

“That’s what I thought too. We should find Satine.”

“I mean, yeah, that’s why we’ve come here.”

“No. I meant, we should find Satine.”

It took Sonia a second to realize what Liesë had told her.

“You scare me when you use that voice. But… God… I don’t want to believe it.”

“Yeah, me too. We should get going.”

Sonia spurred her horse and rode into the woods. Liesë followed closely behind.

***

Taevine was trotting down the road without saying a word. Katria grew increasingly anxious, knowing that they should search the forest, not the tract, but she was too scared of Taevine to say anything. Suddenly, Taevine stopped her horse and turned around.

“What did you hear last night?” – she asked, trying to sound casual.

“I… I… heard you and mother Mina yelling at each other…”

“And what exactly did you hear?”

She was now right behind her, piercing her with her brown eyes. There was something scary about her look.

“I… I…” – Katria hesitated. She was too afraid, and couldn’t keep the serious Katria in check. She slipped and let her take control for a second. – “…I couldn’t hear you clearly enough.”

“Liar!” – Taevine screamed.

Something in her voice made the serious Katria more entrenched.

“I really couldn’t! The door was too thick.”

“Yeah…” – Taevine’s tone went softer. – “Come to think of it, the door to the old hag’s cell really is thick. Sorry if I scared you, sister.”

“No… no… don’t mention it” – now that the threat was gone, the real Katria regained control. Still, she was remorseful for lying to her sister. Even if it was justified.

“This is a good place to start our search, don’t you think?” – she pointed at a grassy ridge going down the slope towards the river. It had excellent visibility. Katria nodded mechanically and followed Taevine off the road.

***

“A fire?” – Liesë couldn’t believe her eyes.

A large swath of the glade was burned to the ground, with charred chunks of wood scattered across the area. She felt her amulet shivering gently.

“It wasn’t an ordinary fire” – Sonia said, lifting a bough from the ground. It was flatter and wider at the end, splitting in five thin branches which looked like curled talons.

“Let me look” – Liesë took the wood from her to inspect it closer.

“Here’s a better one” – Sonia nudged a half-burnt piece with her boot. When she rolled it around, it revealed a monstrous face. Liesë flinched with disgust.

“Do you think it was Einhart’s doing?” – Sonia asked.

“No… There’s hardly any residual aura, just enough to have been left by the wealdlings. Had any fireballs been cast here, the amulets would have picked that from afar.”

“Let me see if I can find any tracks.”

She was soon able to locate the remains of a bonfire and two sets of footprints impressed in the ash. They led east, into the forest.

“Male and female judging by the size and depth. Could it be that they both survived?”

“I don’t know, that seemed like a dire fall.”

“And there’s some blood. I don’t like it.”

“Not enough to kill. Whoever left it, most likely walked it off.”

“In any case, one set matches Satine’s boots and walking pattern.”

“How do you know that?”

A cheeky smile crawled on Sonia’s face.

“What kind of tracker would I be if I didn’t memorize y’all’s shoeprints?”

Liesë chuckled silently.

They followed the traces into the woods. Even though the rain had washed them down a little, Sonia was still able to stay on the track. They traveled by foot for several miles, leading their horses. At one point Sonia stopped so abruptly that Liesë almost stumbled into her.

“What is it?”

“That’s strange… They stopped here, as if observing something and then…” – she took a few steps further. – “Look here.”

There was a spot of flattened grass, as if someone had laid here.

“I think someone fell here… and was dragged” – she pointed to two ruts leading away.

“I have a bad feeling about this.”

As they continued their tracking, they reached the edge of the forest. Some distance into the open field, over a hill crest, they spotted a silhouette. A golden sun was glaring on her breastplate. They recognized Katria.

Sonia swiftly mounted her horse and rushed forward. Liesë followed her lead. Katria spotted them and waved her hand. Soon, they crested the ridge. Behind Katria they saw two horses and Taevine hunched over someone laying in the grass.

They both jumped off her mounts and made their way towards Taevine. She turned her head, her face without any expression. Liesë looked at the other person. She recognized Satine. She was pale and motionless. When she grabbed her hand, it was cold to the touch.

“What happened here?” – Sonia asked. – “Is she…”

“She’s alive” – said Taevine. – “Just lost a lot of blood.”

“How did you find her?”

“We didn’t.”

“What?”

“The sorcerer carried her out of the woods.”

“What?!” – they both gasped. – “But how? And where is he?”

“Don’t know. He ran.”

As they spoke, Satine’s hand moved and she slowly opened her eyes. She looked around at her sisters and spoke with a weak voice:

“Why are you looking at me like that?”