The Blessed City

They parted ways before breaching the camp, circling around it above the clouds for cover. Below, Maleah could hear the deep-bellied laughs of the malicious men and shivered as they rumbled in her ears.

"Where do we land?" Arik leaned over the cloud to peer down.

Maleah shook her head. "We're not going to land."

He cast her a puzzled look. "But Rowena -"

"Wants us to distract them while the others retrieve Tally. But her plan isn't sufficient to get them out."

"And you have a better plan?" She nodded. "Care to share?"

"I'm going to jump." His jaw dropped, eyes popping from his head.

"You cannot possibly be serious," he said at the same time Varen scolded her the same.

"Deathly so, I'm afraid." She was, too, afraid. She'd developed a plan separate from Rowena's even as the god has shared hers. As efficient and thought-out as it was, it would not provide enough cover for Rhys and Cam to exit the camp unseen. Even with practice, the lords would recognize the gimmick and her distraction would arouse suspicion.

"What do you plan on doing after you jump? How do you plan on returning?" She looked solemnly over her shoulder. Her brow lowered and her lips turned down. "You don't plan on returning." Fury contorted his face. "Maleah, I will not allow it."

Nor will I, Varen reprimanded.

"You have no say in the matter. This is the only way they won't return anytime soon. If I surrender myself to them they will leave and at best not return for many moon cycles. They will return, however. But my surrender will give Sabhille enough time to escape and rebuild elsewhere. You have to let me do this."

"But what about your freedom and safety? You've spoken of it enough times, I find it difficult to believe you'd give up on it all so easily."

She glared back at him. "You think this is easy? You forget I know what these people do to people like me. Four years in the borstal, Arik. Four years of isolation, torture, starvation. I've seen what Lord Brae can do. It pains me to think about it. Yet, I see no other way to protect the people who've protected me."

"I cannot condone this. We need you here. Without you, all hope is lost. Not only for Sabhille but for the world."

She smiled slyly. I have left my journals in the library. It should be enough to guide you where you need to go. I will not argue any longer on this. I have made my decision. Just," she shifted to look into his eyes. Big and sad with a hint of desperation. "Make sure Rhys and Cam are safe. And take care of Varen."

Varen groaned heatedly at her and she patted his neck with sympathy. Gazing into the camp, Maleah waited for the signal. When, at last, the bird cawed in the distance, she nudged Varen along. Gliding over the camp, he lowered them close enough for her to jump. Sliding her leg over the side of the saddle, she prepared to jump.

"I wish you wouldn't," Arik said. She gave him one last glance filled with apologies she may never be able to say aloud. Then, she closed her eyes and felt herself fall.

She cleared the ground of King's Men, pushing them aside as she padded her landing with a thick pillow of air. When she landed, she stood graciously tall and looked around. They stared at her. Astonished and confused in their scorned uniforms. She noticed the marks of different lords padded their clothes. Colors vary in shade and shirts in thinness. Then, their eyes became daggers, and she their target.

She fought the urge to squirm under their aim. With her heart pounding in her chest and the air struggling to fill her belly, she lifted her chin to the men.

"I demand to speak to Lord Brae." Silence clung between her and the men. The laugh started as a slow stir among some of the men but grew to challenge an audience's applause. She turned in a circle, glaring into the increasing crowd. Surrounded and defenseless, she thought as they closed in around her. If she hadn't planned on surrendering, she would have believed it near impossible to escape.

Then again, she chuckled silently. It wouldn't have been the first time the impossible happened to her.

The men broke apart, creating space for the man to strut through. She turned to watch as the Huntsman approached her. He was at least a foot taller than her and was forced to turn his head down to look her in the eye. Up close, his face was kinder than she imagined and she didn't feel the immediate sense of danger that twitched under her skin when she was near Lord Brae. But she didn't let his gentle features trick her. He was a servant to the king, which meant he was a danger.

She straightened her back, jutted her chin out. Defiant, confident, she kept her voice firm. "I demand to speak to Lord Brae."

"I seem to recall the lord requiring all three traitors." He looked her over slowly. "Not one."

"I believe the lord will be satisfied with me. I am, after all, the one the king desires." She almost thought she saw him flinch, but his demeanor did not change.

"Restrain her." At his command, several men leaped behind her. Big burly hands and scrawny limbs fought to tame her. She did not struggle against them and let the twist and pull her. Despite the pain, she did not let out a sound.

They escorted her to the largest tent in the camp. With space enough to accommodate simple sleeping quarters and a war table. Maps laid atop it with small figurines cluttered its surface. A single cot lay nearby but looked unruffled as did the man to whom it belonged.

Lord Brae stared intensely over the maps as they entered his tent. His face strained with focus. Dark circles seeped around his eyes and his frown seemed permanently wretched across his face. He did not look up when the Huntsman greeted him.

"Yes, what is it?" the lord hissed.

"The girl from The Burrows, she is here." At her introduction, the lord raised his head. At first, his face lay grim and uncertain, then came his grin. She recognized it as the same one from the borstal. It was one of pleasure and greed.

"I'd say it's a pleasure," she said simply. "But that would be a lie."

His laugh was more an exhale of breath. "Sharp tongue. I would expect nothing less. Doc had said that much about you in his papers. What he failed to report is precisely how valuable you are. Tell me, child, how is it a young and inexperienced naturalist come to possess such a talent for summoning the wind?"

"I suppose you can say I was born with it. Just as you were born with your blessing. Why does it matter?"

He shrugged. "I suppose you can say I was born curious." His mocking tone did not faze her. When he saw no change in her features, he continued. "I have come a long way in search of the one who created the portal. Yet, I cannot begin to comprehend how that could have been you."

"Then allow me to put that qualm to rest. I did not create the portal. I simply used it when the opportunity presented itself."

He eyed her oddly. Allowing his eyes to waver up and down as he considered his response. "Let's say, hypothetically, that it wasn't you. Then who was it?"

"I do not know."

He began to pace. His feet courted the ground beneath him as his face wrenched in dis-certainty. She could smell the swamp on him. Days of travel without a proper bathe plated her nose as he drew closer.

"By order of the king, I am to bring the one he seeks. The one who created the portal. If not you, then, your friend."

Maleah narrowed her eyes. "I can assure you, she is of no value to the king."

He did not hear her. "It would make sense. There is no record of her blessings in Doc's papers. Only inquiries and suspicions." He stopped in front of her then, turned.

"My lord," a man interrupted at the foot of the tent. Brae looked to the man and waited. His smile grew slimly over his meek face.

"You did not come alone." She heard the question in the statement but did not answer. "Bring her in."

Maleah heard her struggled grunts and curses as several men push Rhys into the tent. Arms bound and weapons hitched to the sides of her captors, she held their gazes with the flames of her violets. Her arguments ended when one fisted her hair and yanked her head back.

"You two have been clever from the start. Riding as far south as your horses could take you and farther still. Discovering the hidden city without so much as knowing the value of which you have led us to. But the knowledge of war and strategy eludes you."

Heat flushed her face. Her eyes grew into daggers as his glare turned ugly and dangerous.

The realization weighed heavily in her chest. "You planned for this," she hissed.

He nodded. "And now that I have you both, we can more properly begin. Huntsman, gather the men. There is a blessed city we shall be seizing."

"As you wish, my lord." The Huntsman bowed, leaving with a final glance at Maleah. If she wasn't concerned with her impending fate, she may have believed sympathy lay in his face.

"What will you do with us?" Rhys spoke through clenched teeth. She winced as the man yanked on her hair but kept herself straight when Brae ushered them outside.

"While my men lay siege to your precious city, I will be proceeding with your judgment. We were so abruptly interrupted last time with that unfortunate scene in the borstal that I never had the chance to properly finish your examinations. And as it is unclear which one of is you responsible for your escape, I have no other choice than to be certain before taking you before the king."

They rounded the edges of the tents and entered a clearing where two poles were erected from the ground. The men waited for them, each swinging rope from their hands with grisly grins plastered on their snarled lips. They were bound to the poles with thick knots.

"The game is simple," Lord Brae began. "I ask a question and you answer it. Do so swiftly and the pain will be as if it never happened. Take too long and you will be wishing you had answered swiftly.

"We are not afraid of you," Rhys spat. Her scream erupted deftly. Maleah turned her ears into her shoulder as best she could. The sound of agony leaked indifferently through the cloth. When Rhys' cries fell to sobs, Maleah peeled her head back.

Maleah wasn't sure why Lord Brae began with Rhys. If not for her outright defiance of the man, then for the simple reason that it did not matter with whom he started with. Maleah shriveled each time his eyes blazed red with the fierceness of his intentions. Rhys' pain echoed throughout the clearing.

Frustrated with her closed-mouth replies, Lord Brae turned to Maleah. She watched the red beads pulse bigger in his eyes. She prepared to answer his questions efficiently.

"Who created the portal?"

"I do not know for certain."

"And if uncertainly, who created the portal?"

"Only a god can create a portal if they possess enough magic."

He cocked his head. "The only god that remains is the king. If you are accusing -"

"I accuse no one. I speak only what I know." Maleah caught the concerned gaze of Rhys but remained focused on the lord.

It was a twitch at first. An uncomfortable twist that started in her stomach and spread wildly through her body. She wanted to crumble. To drop to her knees and curl into the pain. But the ropes prevented her from burrowing into herself. Still, she did not scream.

At last, he released her. She gasped with relief and leaned against the pole. When she met his eyes again, he continued. "How did you escape the courtyard?"

"As the King's Men swarmed out to aid with the shadowed beasts, they left the door to the borstal open."

"And you took advantage of the distraction." She nodded in confirmation. "Who's idea was it to escape?"

She hesitated not wanting to condemn Doc for his courage to protect her but also knowing that a lie would be painful. "Mine."

"But you ran back to your cell, did you not? Some would say you were running to escape the chaos in the courtyard not to evade indefinite solitude."

"I did. I had no intention of escaping altogether. I only wanted to be relieved of that scene and the horror that ensued inside it."

He smiled cockily at her then aimed his head at Rhys. "Then it was you who desired to escape."

Maleah's forced her eyes to remain still, though they threatened to bulge at her implication. "She had only the desire to leave the yard behind as I did."

"One of you is responsible for the idea and the execution of your leave. The king will have you, whoever you are. It is as he wishes, so it shall be. But if you will not tell me . . ."

Agony blistered her body. Her blood boiled from head to toe. And her outcry pierced the clearing from swamp to sea and everywhere in between. Tears clung with heated ferocity as they spilled down her cheeks. She hadn't time to witness her first tears in years as her mind numbed from the pain.

When the pain subsided, she heaved and forced herself straight. "I will not be saying it again. The king will have nothing to do with her. Stop your siege, return the nymph and Rhys to the city and I will go with you willingly."

"Maleah, you cannot -" a swift look from the lord silenced Rhys.

"You may make any plea you wish, but you have failed to prove to me your value." He commanded the men, their battle cries were plagued with excitement as they scattered throughout the camp to join the Huntsman and the others.

Left with the company of her own shock and grief, Maleah stared at the ground.

What had she done?

. . .

She had been selfish. Daring to stop a war before it had begun in the sacrifice of her own freedom for the whole of Sabhille. But her foolishness only brought it sooner, endangering everyone she had met, everyone who had helped her. The blood that would spill would be on her hands.

She looked to Rhys, finding her watching with silent concern. She opened her mouth to speak.

"Do not apologize. You will only anger me." Rhys frowned, shook her head. "I knew the danger coming with you. You are everything Doc said you would be. More, I would think."

"Are you ladies finished? All this soppiness is depressing." Maleah twisted to see Cam standing behind them. Frantically, Maleah searched for the guards set to their watch. They lay motionless on the ground, arms and legs bound and mouths gagged.

"Cam!" Maleah expressed with great relief. He pulled a knife from his boot, cutting the ropes quickly.

"Where did you go?" Rhys hit him across the arm when she was free. By the lack of force, Maleah knew she had been weakened.

He swat back in defense. "Someone had to finish the plan while the two of you were playing prisoner."

"How did you. . ." she stopped when he frowned at her. "Where is Tallulah?" She moved with Cam against the dimming daylight.

"Safe. I have her waiting with the fae bird at the far edge of the clearing near the ruins." She accepted the dagger he pulled from his waist, clutched it tightly.

"Have you seen Varen? Arik?" She asked when he handed Rhys a fae jewel earning himself a grateful nod.

He shook his head. "I've watched the skyline and there isn't a sign of either of them."

They were halfway to the old ruins when Maleah froze at the deadly cannon of cries. Rhys flinched midstep and turned nervously to peer behind them.

"Quickly!" Following Cam, they began a pace near too quick for the girls in their weakened state. Yet they ran, still, with the push of fear luring them forward. She heard Lord Brae's fatal call for their heads. The brazen of metal clanging as they banged against metal.

They were too fast for them. Too many to outrun. Soon, they trailed them, too close for comfort. At the ruins, they stopped. Turning to face their outnumbered forces, Maleah looked to the thicket of bodies that held no means of getting away. Rhys held her fae jewel as it formed a sword in her hand. Cam stood, fists clenched, a dagger in hand just as Maleah did.

"We will never fight our way through them," Rhys stated bluntly behind her shield.

"We have no other choice. Maleah." She knew what he would ask of her even as she prepared herself to do it. She hadn't much strength to reproduce her previous defenses and very little to force an attack from the elements. Still, she nodded.

The first wave reined upon them. Swinging their weapons viciously at their heads. Dodging as she was trained to, she channeled any strength she did have into surviving. Tugging at the air beneath her attackers' feet and pulling it under them in their distraction.

Twisting to block a strike, she felt the sharp pain of a blade slicing her skin. Warm blood filled her palm as she reached to calm it. Her blood dripped from the man's sword, his scowl worn with pride as he geared to strike again.

A blaze of fire sizzled between them. The grass began to burn orange where she had stood. Its flames lit the dusk littered camp and illuminated her enemies. A high-pitched screech penetrated the sounds of battle. Gazing up behind the wall of fire, Maleah caught the orange bird circling the ruins above. A man in red robes stood atop its back; a woman in blue sat behind him.

From the sight of Connaleigh and the relief of seeing Tallulah, Maleah let herself breathe a little deeper. The rest of the High Court joined them. Penni fed the fires now sweeping the ground around them with fierce gashes of wind. Juniper dove low, coaxing roots and vines from the earth to fashion knots around the men until they tumbled in the weeds. The earth opened like a mouth desperate for water. But instead, it swallowed those unfortunate enough to fall into its womb.

Taking advantage of the moment, Maleah ripped through the fire, clearing it enough to slip to the other side. Finding Cam and Rhys, they ran together over vine and men, thrashing their way through the fires.

Maleah. Looking up, Maleah found Varen descending. Arik reached his hand for her. All too grateful, she let him pull her atop. Nearby, the nymphs gathered Rhys and Cam.

The nymphs guided the birds into a circle. Collecting their magic, they attacked the camp with all the elements. Warping the land in smoke and earthly debris. The sizzling of mist over the fire as it fought to burn through the camp.

Maleah found Lord Brae surrounded by the chaos. He stared abhorrently at her. She knew his hunt had only begun and that his fury would feed his vengeance. But she did not allow herself to dwell on the threat that would follow her forever.

As the nymphs drowned the land in an elemental symphony, Maleah glared as the red in Lord Brae's eyes disappeared into the thick grey around him. A funnel enclosed around the remainder of the camp. When it cleared, all that was vanished.

On their directive, Maleah followed the nymphs. Arik's hand slid onto her shoulder, his brow lowered to catch her eye. But she couldn't muster a smile nor a nod. As her body caved in to the exhaustion, she leaned back and let Varen take her home.