Caracara's Hunt

She didn"t spare even the slightest bit of thought for that story. If Corwal wanted to trick her, he had to try harder. Although Arawn was a strange young man with plenty of secrets, he was not a violent person. He had begged for them not to kill the guards, for G.o.d"s sake!

"I"d ask him to give you a show of his true power, but I"d rather keep my life for the time being. Then again, not wanting bloodshed had never stopped you, did it?" Corwal asked with a mocking smile and took a step forward.

He walked over the mark left by the ether in the ground and looked at Arawn. "How did it feel like to kill the woman who birthed me? I heard you tore her throat out. That must have been a beautiful sight, wasn"t it? Dashing at the army general and drinking her blood."

Arawn growled once more, but his voice was different this time. Its tone was strangely mellow, accepting despite the taunting.

"Do you actually understand what I"m talking?" Corwal asked in surprise. "I was told you had no brains in this form."

"And you just chose to antagonise him?" Val asked with anger evident in his voice. "You just said he could kill us al!"

"Without batting an eye. I saw him ma.s.sacre a whole caravan full of people, innocents and all."

Still not believing it, Rain looked around. For the time being, they were in a stalemate because of Arawn"s transformation, but this would not last. Whether he turned back or someone came to check out where the light had come from, they would be over. She needed to get them out of there.

Betty gasped for breath at her feet, and Rain"s heart clenched. When they had set out on this journey, they knew it would be dangerous, but neither of them had expected that they would be faced with such circ.u.mstances. Who was their friend and who the foe?

It did no matter at that moment, however. Their top priority was to get out, and then they could look through what they knew to make better judgments.

"Arawn…" she called out in a gentle voice. Her hair stood up when the bright yellow eyes without any pupils turned to her, but he was the only one who could help her at that moment. "Arawn, please, help Betty. I know you can heal."

The strange, glowing youth kept looking at her without any expression. She tried telling herself he was still Arawn, but it was getting harder with each moment. If it was him, he would have run to her side by then and done all he could to help Betty without even being asked.

Instead, he tilted his head as if thinking or listening for something. For all Rain knew, he could be doing both or neither of those things.

"He won"t help you," Corwal said, getting in the way as always. "He simply doesn"t understand what you"re saying."

"He seemed to understand you well enough," she hissed and turned to the glowing youth again. "Please, Arawn. You can save her!" As she said that, she went down on one knee and put her hand on Betty"s chest, which was slowly losing more and more blood.

The blade had struck to the left of her heart, missing it as well as any other vital organs, but if the bleeding wasn"t stopped, she would die either way. Rain had tried learning healing before, but she couldn"t get past the entrance point of removing sc.r.a.pes.

Yet even with her demonstration, the glowing youth didn"t move. He continued sitting on the ground with his blazing eyes on her, but there was nothing within them. She couldn"t tell what was happening in his head. Was there any humanity left in him?

"He won"t help you, but I can," Corwal said. She looked up at him in surprise, and he pulled out another talisman like the one he had used to heal Val"s arm. "What do you think?"

"You said it was valuable," she whispered, finding his suggestion incredulous.

Ether artefacts were treasures no matter how strong or weak they were. They could give people abilities they did not possess, or save them when they had ran out of power. This meant that there were never enough of them, especially in a dest.i.tute country like Ayersbert which had to focus all its resources on combat mages and not craftsmen.

The man shrugged and threw the talisman up and down like it was some kind of useless toy. "Should that concern you? It"s the real deal. You"ve seen it work before." Then, as if on an afterthought, he added, "There"s a price for it, of course."

"What price?"

As long as it was within her power, she would do anything to save Betty. The question about price was only there for appearances sake.

Yet Corwal pulled out onyx handcuffs from his cloak and threw them at her. She didn"t catch, and they clattered to the ground with a loud noise. Even the glowing youth growled in annoyance, and the light around him grew stronger.

"What"s this?" she asked. A bad feeling rose within her heart.

"Did you think I was here by accident? I was waiting for you all, and I"m really glad you were in such a rush to deliver yourselves to me. Now be good and cuff yourselves so I can bring you to your cell and go on an early holiday."

Curses streamed through Rain"s head, but it had always been a possibility. Neither Corwal himself nor Arawn had hidden that he worked for the king, so it was only natural that he would tell him about their actions. Yet she had still hoped that Arawn had been exaggerating. What father could "kidnap" his own daughter and hold her prisoner for months?

It seemed that the man was king first and father second, however. She looked at the black handcuffs on the ground and Betty dying at her feet. They met eyes, and there was refusal in her friend"s gaze. She tried speaking, but her breath came in short, pained gasps, which made speech a feat unworthy of the price paid for it.

"Stay still, you"re going to be fine," Rain murmured, squeezing her friend"s shoulder in rea.s.surance.

Her options were not worthy of consideration. There was Arawn, which was out of it and could no longer be relied upon, and Corwal, a man she wouldn"t trust if he said what was the weather outside. Yet he was the only one who could still save Betty.

No matter how small was the chance that he was telling the truth, Rain had to take it. If she did nothing and ran away, which was a dicy option in itself when Corwal could use his element and she could not, she would never be able to forgive herself.

She picked up the large and heavy onyx handcuffs. The cold stone sent a chill through her, but worse was the sensation of the ether being pushed away from her. Even when just holding such a huge piece of onyx, she could barely feel the light particles around her.

"Swear it," she ordered upon raising her head. "Swear that you"ll do it and we have a deal."

"Rain, are you crazy?" Val demanded. His hand even rose toward his waterskin, but he refrained from calling to the ether.

"Which G.o.d? Or do you prefer saints?" Corwal asked, chuckling to himself.

His reaction dashed the last of Rain"s hopes. The man didn"t seem to even believe in the G.o.ds, so was there anything sacred to him in the world?

As if sensing her thoughts, the man grew serious again. "You can trust me on this. I did heal him despite it not giving me any benefits, did I not?" he asked while pointing at Val with the talisman.

"I haven"t forgotten about that," Val hissed, his voice barely pa.s.sing through his tightly gritted teeth.

Only at that moment did Rain remember Val"s situation. He was faced with the man that had crippled him, indirectly, and he had yet to attack. What was this show of self-control? It didn"t fit with his rash actions throughout the last half of their journey.

"You have something to say?" Corwal asked with a raised eyebrow. There was not an ounce of regret in him.

"Where"s my sister? What did you do to her?"

His voice was like a tightly strung lyre. If anyone touched a single string, they would be left with b.l.o.o.d.y fingers.

"Oh, you"re worried about her? Not here. I had her removed so she would not get killed if Arawn let loose."

"She"s still alive?" Val asked with such intense hope in his voice, Rain could barely recognise him. When had he come up with an idea that his sister would be killed? Had that been what rushed him and not the injury?

Corwal nodded, clearly taking pity on the man. "For now." But his next words destroyed any illusions of kindness. "It will not last if you don"t do as I say though."

Rain looked at the emotions pa.s.sing through Val"s face, and he lifted his head at that moment to look at her. They exchanged a long look, and she could see the surrender in his gaze. Just like she could not let Betty die, he could not risk his sister"s well-being. If she was a grown up, there might have been a chance that she could have run away, which was why she was missing, but she was just a child.

With a heavy heart, Rain opened the handcuffs and placed them on her wrists. The locking mechanism closed with a click, and her connection to the ether was shut just like that. She could no longer even sense it in the world around her. If her eyes didn"t see the white light particles everywhere, she could have sworn they had disappeared.

Corwal then went to Val and locked his arm to the belt. He did it with such ease, it was clear it was planned. He even had a specially made handcuff for only one arm.

Once he was done, Rain held her breath. Would he do what he had promised or would he not?

She moved her arms, but her wrists were locked tight. The handcuffs were some three centimeters in length and four in thickness. For most intents and purposes, she couldn"t fight, but if Corwal refused to heal Betty, she would have to.

When the man noticed her actions, he smirked, but didn"t say anything. Instead, he came over and crouched down by Betty. Without any gentleness, he drew the blade out, and Betty screamed. Her voice rang through the empty staircase like the screech of a restless banshee.

Corwal threw the talisman at her wound gushing out blood in torrents while pulling out another set of handcuffs. While the wound closed up, he was done and stood up, stretching as if after a good exercise.

Rain didn"t bother with him and fell by Betty"s side. Her friend was still deathly pale, but her breathing eased. "Betty? Betty!"

The woman nodded, a little dazed. She tried to push herself up, but her hands were locked before her. Upon noticing her actions, Rain helped her up. If not for the handcuffs, she would have thrown her hands around Betty and hugged her in joy, but all she could do now was rest her head against her shoulder for a moment in sympathy.

"I"m…" Betty murmured in a low croak. She coughed a few times, clearing her throat, then spoke with more confidence. "I"m fine, but you shouldn"t have done that Rain! He"s gonna—"

"Yes, I will," Corwal said. He clapped for attention and upon getting it, smiled at them. "Now get up and let"s go. Your cells await you."

"What about him?" Val asked, inclining his head in Arawn"s direction.

He was still sitting like before, unmoving. His body continued to glow with a steady stream of ether that seemed to do no harm to him. This went against any kind of logic, but Rain had stopped trying to understand how it all worked since his fatal injury had closed in a matter of seconds. No human should have had the mind to do it so perfectly when on the verge of death.

"He didn"t tell you?" Corwal looked at them with what could almost be identified as pity. "As crazy powerful as he is, he"s still a trained animal. Watch."

The next moment, there was movement at the bottom of the stairs. Someone was climbing up with unhurried steps.

When the shadowy figure came into the light provided by Arawn, Rain saw an old man. He was walking without the help of a cane and his face was wrinkle free, but his long, gray hair bound behind his back was a dead giveaway of his age. It took her a moment to place him, and her eyes widened in shock.

"Archmage," Corwal welcomed the newcomer with the bow of his head.