The Magnate's Huntress

There weren’t always dragons in the valley. Now, every morning, great black axe-wings and red ridgebacks blotted out the blazing sun over the once prosperous town of Malador, as the mighty lizards took flight. 

‘When are they going to leave?’ whispered Alissa, crouched amongst the tall reeds and bullrushes in the shallows of the spring river. 

Maya rolled her eyes, in that theatrical way she had that always got under her skin. 

‘What?’

'You've been asking the same question for two months. Why bother?' 

Alissa looked her sister dead in the face, contempt raw in her eyes, but she didn’t reply. She knew she annoyed Maya with her constant worrying, but who wouldn’t be worried about their town being infested with giant, fire-breathing killers? It was just good sense to wish them gone. The gigantic beasts swarmed overhead, shrieking as they scanned the town for livestock, or any stragglers that hadn’t made it to shelter. 

Stupid creatures, thought Alissa. You’ve eaten all the sheep and the cows and half the people, now piss off somewhere else!

After the liberation, it had only taken the locals two days and two bloody massacres to realise things would never be the same. Now, when the sun threatened to break over the mountains and free the valley from the dark of night, Malador turned into a town of stone; still and silent but for the lizard’s calls above. Alissa’s knees had seized up, and her feet had gone numb from the cold river, but she knew that a single sudden movement could be the end of her. So there she waited as the dragons circled and circled until they took their search for food further afield and finally left the town in peace. 

A minute later, the bells chimed and Malador laboured back to life; farmers emerging to tend scorched fields, traders and merchants making their way to pedal wares to the folk tentatively leaving their homes. Alissa’s knees crunched as she stood, and Maya yawned, stretched, and waded deeper into the river, spear at the ready. She never wavered, never moaned or panicked; she was all business. Alissa sighed, following with her net, creeping through the reeds, waiting for her sister to make a kill. It was difficult to keep the jealousy at bay, sometimes, being the talentless sibling of the most gifted huntress in all Scarfall Duchie, but she was thankful to share the same blood. 

At least one of us is useful, she thought bitterly. 

Without Maya, she’d have died of starvation weeks ago, like so many others, so she counted herself lucky and offered help where she could. She heard other hunters sloshing around to their left and prayed they wouldn’t be beaten to the catch. 

Come on, Maya, I’m bloody starving, she wanted to say, but left her to it. 

A moment later, Maya froze, scanning. She thrust her spear down into the river, falling after it, thrashing, struggling, grunting. 

‘Net!’ she screamed, her head barely above the water. ‘Net!’ 

Alissa leapt to her side and threw her net down beside the spear, her heart pounding at the thought of a good meal. Something brushed against her shins as she pushed the net down, Maya grappling with whatever lurked beneath. 

‘Come on!’ Maya grunted. ‘Come on, you bastard!’

With a great splash and a roar of triumph, Maya emerged from the water, hauling the knotted end of the net. 

‘Help me with this, would you?’ 

Alissa grabbed on, and the sisters strode back through the shallows to the edge of the spring river, and dragged the heavy catch out onto the dusty banks. A huge, fat water snake, ten feet long, writhed and wriggled; the tip of the spear stuck through its tail end, leaking bright red blood onto the dry, grey dirt beneath. Maya unsheathed a dagger from her belt and thrust it down hard behind the snake’s head. Seconds later, the creature had stopped moving. 

‘Good one!’ said Alissa, panting as she clapped her sister on the back. ‘That’ll feed us for days!’ 

‘Shhh, you idiot!’ Maya shot her a venomous glare. ‘The others hear you, they’ll come nick it from us! Just help me carry it back to the house. Quickly, now!’

Alissa did as she was told and lifted one end of the giant snake, whilst Maya twisted her spear free and lifted the other. Food had become scarce since the liberation, and the townsfolk fought over any scrap of meat they could get their hands on after the dragons came and ransacked their flocks and herds. It seemed less like a liberation to Alissa, and more like a subjugation, with the immense beasts now free to roam the countryside like colossal, murderous overlords. 

When war came to the Dukedoms, and the White Magnate’s armies crossed the Sorrow Sea on the backs of their magnificent flying steeds, they’d been welcomed with open arms. Since their victory, however, the Magnate’s dragon riders had lost control of their mounts; the unfamiliar sights and smells of this foreign land too tempting for them to ignore. Before long, the majority had deserted their domesticated ways and reverted to being naught but wild beasts of blood and burden. 

It almost makes me miss King Ezri, the horrible, fat bastard, thought Alissa. He was cruel, but at least there was no threat of being eaten alive. 

The sisters garnered jealous looks and conspicuous whispers from the gaunt, sun-bleached townsfolk as they heaved their catch along the hard, dry roads, through the rows of stout thatch-roof houses and empty pens where sheep once bleated, awaiting the slaughter. They picked up the pace and rounded the corner by the old abattoir to come upon their tiny, red brick cottage. Maya barged the rickety wooden door with her shoulder, almost taking it off the hinges as it swung open and clattered off the wall behind. 

‘Just here,’ she nodded to the table at the centre of the room. 

Alissa’s arms burned as she dumped the giant water snake down with a hollow thud and a wheezing breath. 

‘Shut the door, Liss!’ 

She turned and jostled the door shut, sliding the feeble iron bolts across that would barely keep a strong breeze at bay, but she was thankful for the placebo of security. It was more than most could hope for. No sooner was the door locked, had the banging and shouting started.

‘What you got in there, girls?’ came the voices, snarling, taunting. 

Bang, bang, bang. 

‘We saw you carrying something awful big! There’ll be plenty to go around!’

Bang, bang, bang. 

‘Get out here now, Maya, you little bitch!’

‘Food hogger!’ 

‘Selfish cow!’ 

Alissa’s heart pounded, waiting for her sister to respond. She felt the beads of sweat trickling down her forehead, gathering at her brow, and she wiped them away, edging back to the table. Maya ignored the tumult outside, gutting the snake with her dagger and throwing the entrails into a pail at her feet. 

‘Maya?’ Alissa urged, nudging her as the voices grew more frustrated, the threats more visceral. 

A great crash, and the bolts snapped, the useless door shattering as four men poured into the room before them, panting, sweating. The anger was plain on their skinny faces, mingling with their hungry, desperate smiles; yellow, rotten teeth bared, with shovels, pitchforks, and rakes in hand. Alissa’s breath caught in her throat, and her legs seemed boneless as they shuddered under her. Still, her sister refused to turn. 

‘Don’t fancy greeting us, Maya?’ said the foremost man with the pitchfork, his rough spun woollen tunic torn and tattered, the hard lines of his leathery face half burned and half browned by the relentless heat. ‘Or you gonna let your bitch sister here fight all four of us?’

Fight? Alissa thought, chewing her lip. I don’t know how to fight!

‘Nobody’s fighting you, Derron,’ Maya replied, sliding her dagger along the spine of the snake. 

‘Maybe if you give us a cut of your catch, there aint!’ 

There was a long, thick silence. 

‘That, I can’t do.’ Maya stooped to drop more off-cuts into the pail. ‘But I could teach you how to hunt, if you’d like? You might actually get some meat of your own then, rather than stealing it from two young girls; big, strong man you are!’

Derron’s face darkened, as did his companions, and he took a step closer to Alissa and the table. 

‘What are you doing, Maya?’ she whispered out of the corner of her mouth. ‘Just give him what he wants, will you?’ 

‘See, your bitch sister has the right of it,’ grunted Derron. ‘Just give us what we want and we’ll be on our way!’

Maya sighed, long and deep, and Alissa saw that theatrical eye roll she hated so much, thankful that Derron and his men couldn’t see it, too.

‘And what is it you want, Derron?’ she said, her voice quiet, steady. 

‘Are you simple, girl?’ his face contorted into an ugly scowl. ‘We want meat!’ 

‘You know what? You've convinced me!’ 

Maya twisted, quick as a snake, hurling the pail at Derron. It smashed into his teeth with a loud clack, spraying him and his mates with stinking guts and blood. He reeled away, screaming, as Maya snatched up her dagger and hurled it at the man next to him. The throw was straight and hard, and the blade punched him in the chest, spraying claret in a shriek of agony. 

‘Oh, shit!’ Alissa warbled, staggering backwards behind the table. 

Before she could beg her sister to stop, Maya snatched up her fishing spear, whirling it around her head in one smooth motion, bringing the point across the third man’s neck as he thrust a rusty rake at her. More blood and gargled screams as he dropped his tool and toppled forward, slapping face first into the table, sending the snake toppling to the floor as if it were still alive and wriggling.

‘Ah, you bitch!’ 

Derron spat blood through the gaps in his teeth, raising his pitchfork. 

He eased forward, wary, snarling, unperturbed by his three dead companions strewn about the cottage. 

All of this for some meat? Alissa thought, eyes wide, unable to look away from the horrifying spectacle. Is it really worth it?

‘You got no weapons left now, Maya!’ Derron taunted, smiling a cold, red smile. ‘Sure you don’t wanna just give me a bit of that meat, eh?’ 

‘Get your own, prick!’ Maya retorted, looking about for something else to fight with. 

I always knew you’d be the death of us, sister. I bloody knew it!

But it wasn’t over. Maya grabbed the fishing net from the table and flung it at Derron, tangling his pitchfork as he thrust and struggled forward. She lunged at him, knocking him to the ground in a mess of rope and curses. Down they went, and Maya climbed on top of him, wrapping the strands of net around his throat and pulled, pulled, pulled tight as she could; grunting, screaming. Derron’s legs kicked and scraped at the ground. He slapped at the floor, at Maya, clawed at the ropes around his neck. His face turned redder, darker, veins bulging in his forehead. Then it stopped. 

Maya rolled off him, onto her back, wheezing. 

‘Are you okay?’ said Alissa, peering out from behind the table. 

‘Fine,’ she panted. ‘Thanks.’ 

I should’ve helped, she thought, but she knew she’d have been no use. 

Before Maya could get to her feet, or Alissa could emerge from her hiding place, she heard a tramping outside; metallic, regimented. 

‘Halt!’ came the shout, then silence, but for the solitary footsteps approaching the shattered doorway. 

That quickly? Surely not!

A man in gleaming full plate armour, his helm removed to show a stern, full-bearded face, stood over Maya; his breastplate bearing the white gauntlet blazon, his long white cloak flapping gently in the morning breeze. 

An officer of the White Magnate, thought Alissa, a lump growing in her throat. 

‘Can we help you, sir?’ said Maya, getting clumsily to her feet and brushing herself down. 

‘I think you’re the ones in need of help, are you not?’ he said, his voice deep and gravelly as he stepped inside, surveying the carnage. 

‘How’d you mean?’ 

He looked at Maya, then at the four bloody bodies on the cottage floor. 

‘Well, it appears to me, miss, you’re guilty of quadruple murder, no?’ 

Maya looked back to Alissa, her face gone white as the officer’s cloak. The Magnate’s men only came to Malador when something serious had happened, but this was far too efficient to be coincidence. 

No way they’ve come for an arrest, Alissa thought. Derron and his friends are still warm!

‘They broke in and tried to kill us!’ blurted Maya, her usually steady voice turned feeble and girlish. ‘They were the ones who-.’

The officer raised a gauntleted hand to silence her. 

‘I said it appears you’re guilty. Not that you are guilty.’

Maya frowned. 

‘What do you mean?’

The officer nudged Derron’s body with a steel sabaton, then stooped and lifted the half-gutted snake back onto the table as easily as if it were a worm. 

‘You’re the huntress, are you not? Maya, is it?’

‘Y-yeah?’ she stuttered, unable to move. 

It was bizarrely comforting to see her sister as scared as she was for once, but she couldn’t truly enjoy it; the tension filling the room like a foul smell. 

Or is that the corpses and the heat? 

‘It turns out, Maya,’ the officer continued. ‘That his grace, The White Magnate, is just so in need of a hunter, or huntress as you may be.’ 

Maya’s face went slack with confusion, looking from the officer to Alissa and back. 

‘What could his grace possibly need me for?’ 

The officer smiled; pearly white teeth gleaming amongst his black beard. 

‘Have you ever hunted dragons, young lady?’