The Princess and the Blade

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren sat slowly on the edge of the desk and watched Tenara take stock of the wagon. "You look like you need to do something," he observed gently. "Sit and rest. Whatever it is, I can do it for you."

[Emora Deen]

Tenara watched Milandra close the wagon door and heard the latch fall. Of course they would lock them in. She looked at Ren, and nodded, slowly sitting on the narrow cot.

“I don’t think I can rest,” she said, though she looked as if she could fall a sleep any second. Her eyes were heavy.

She made a home in the corner of the wagon and little bed, pulling her legs close. She curled an arm around her injured one in the sling, and rested her forehead against the wall.

After a minute of watching him she said, “You shouldn’t care for their safety or comfort. They don’t care for yours,” she said. “This isn’t your world Ren. Women are not worshiped, and monsters should be treated like monsters no matter their sex.”

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren looked down at the floor. "I know. I know now that this place is not where I belong." He took a deep breath and looked out the small window at the men preparing to go back on the move.

He walked slowly to Tenara and knelt in front of her, investigating her injured hand. "I can tolerate those Yurivie's behavior. It would only provoke them to say so, but compared with Kishva, they're not nearly as harsh or drastic as they think they are."

He pulled out the tome from the satchel at his waist and set it on the bed next to her. It looked like he was reading a bedtime story and not studying, but he seemed to intend to remain right beside her while he researched. "Our focus should be on getting you out of here," he mumbled. "There must be something useful in this damned thing."

[Emora Deen]

Tenara appraised the pages from upside down, but likely wouldn’t have been able to make heads to tales of it had it been right side up.

The wagon gave a lurch, and they set off. She braced a moment, uncertain how the swaying wagon would make her bones feel, but she eased into the rhythmic sway with minimal discomfort l beyond the existing ache.

“Just… don’t find him the spell he wants. Give him something else. Something that could help us—a distraction or portal, if there are such things.” She felt along the collar at her throat. “If I could just get this off…” Her voice cracked.

She’d fiddled with it until her fingers were sore and fiddled with it now to distract herself. She had not thought of Vardner since parting ways with Flynn that morning. She had done everything possible not to think of him. On the ride, while her body screamed the remnants of his touch, she had occupied her time by tearing small bloodstained strips of her slip and dropping it onto the path—a breadcrumb trail of ruined cotton. She had thought of Hajara's warm sun and hot sand to trick her mind into making her body a degree warmer. She had made friends with a crow who lighted on her shoulder because he liked the way her hair shined. She had thought of Havi in the moments when grief felt less, until it climbed up harsh and hot enough to scald. But she had not thought of Vardner.

She wouldn’t think of him now, if she could help it.
Tenara turned her hand on her dress and pulled the hem up so she could get to the ruined shift beneath. She began tearing a strip of red-stained fabric awkwardly with one hand, pinching it between her bruised knees for tension. She passed it to Ren. “When the coast is clear, will you drop this out the window?”

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren reached out slowly and curled his fingers around the fabric. The green of his eyes had shrunk to small, vivid dots against the black. This wasn't' even his Yurivis, so why did it hurt this much? He spread the bloody strip of fabric slowly across his now-shaking fingers. He vaguely remembered the cries he'd heard the night before, like glimpses of one nightmare from within another. How could this world be so hideous?

"I...," he whispered, tears welling up. He looked down at the agony in her expression and had a mad impulse to pull her into his arms. He struggled up to his feet and went to the window. Two men on horseback were riding abreast of the carriage. "Not yet," he murmured to himself in a daze, looking down again at the fabric. This time the tears escaped. He clutched the strip to his chest like he could somehow squeeze the blood and pain back where it came from. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

[Emora Deen]

Tenara shook her head when she noticed how upset he was getting. “Please,” she whispered. “Don’t…” Because if he started sobbing then she would and she didn’t want to cry anymore. She hesitated and reached out for him, curling a hand in the leg of his pants. “It’s not your fault.”

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren's world seemed to tilt on its axis. Not his fault? She was comforting him? "How are you worrying for me, when you're the one who's been so badly mistreated?" he huffed, trying to be calmer with every fiber of his being. Getting upset wouldn't help her.

Truthfully, he wanted to scream and kick and fall bawling into her arms.

But he wasn't hers. He wasn't his.

He wasn't anyone's.

He turned for the bed and glowered at the book, at the page that sat open to him. An idea filtered into his head, at first innocuous, but then gradually growing teeth. He touched the tome ruefully. "If I combine the right spells..." He crouched in front of her and placed his fingers lightly over the hand she'd clenched in his pant leg. "Give me just a bit more time. I'll make sure no Ivis will ever dare harm you again."

[Emora Deen]

Tenara nodded. “Thank you,” she said, and pulled his hand up and placed a kiss on his palm an held it to her cheek because she wanted so badly for him to be right. But she knew night would come eventually.

—

Laurius walked through the narrow passage. It was so narrow and slanted in places that he felt as if he were walking with his toes pointed into the earth. He slipped along, and scrambled up ledges, and squeezed through crevices that made him wish to be even more skinny than he already was.

When they reached the end, he clamored out of the hole as night fell, blanketing the forest in thick dim gray. “We won’t be able to find the clues in the dark…”

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi cast his senses in every direction, but couldn't find evidence of the road where they'd exited. If it really was nearby, it would take sunlight to find it. He tried to pinpoint where the sun had disappeared on the horizon, but there were too many mountains to get their bearings. *Fuck. She will be alone with them again tonight. Fuck!*

------------

It was just before dark when the caravan stopped for the night. Artisuren had been working by candlelight at the small desk. He raised his head impatiently when someone opened the wagon door. "Alright, pet. For both your sakes, I hope you've learned something," Narissa said coolly from the entrance. "Chop chop. Elias wants you both in his tent."

[Emora Deen]

Laurius wiped a hand across his face, and collapsed onto his knees. He heard the pain in Havi’s voice and felt it in his heart too. “I’m sorry. I tried to move as fast as I could…” He didn’t want Ren to spend another night with them either. He began to shake, and then he was sobbing and he couldn’t stop once he had started. He didn’t have time for this. He had to move.

——

Tenara gave Ren a gentle squeeze with her hand. She wanted to tell him they would be fine, or ask if he had found anything in his studying, but she knew vampires well enough to know Narissa would hear.

She dragged herself off the bed and to the door. She was only in the threshold a minute before hard hands dragged her out and across the short distance to Elias’s tent. Narissa motioned for Ren to follow them.

The tent was sparsely decorated compared to the night before. No collection of books. No small table. A place made for a very temporary stay. They must have been at the other camp for weeks…

There was the pallet of furs and wool blankets, a tray with his whiskey and cups, and the addition of a narrow tin tub barely big enough for a person. A troff, maybe, turned into a bath.

Elias stood next it. "I figured you'd like to wash Vardner off," he said, motioning to the steaming water in the troff. He met Narissa at the door and took the dagger from her.

Tenara had not thought of Vardner all day, and now she saw him in her mind, a memory like a punch to the gut. She wanted to claw her skin off, and her whole body shook. She wasn't certain if it were rage or fear or the cold.

"Let me help," Elias said, as if he had not been the reason Vardner had been able to touch her at all. He tucked the dagger into his belt. “And while you bathe, our friend can tell us all he’s learned.”

He came around and unfastened the buttons of her dress, peeling the outer layer away until she stood in the cotton shift. Then, he pushed that from her shoulders, peeled it down her arms, until it fell away to her feet, baring her to the cold air and his sight.

His fingertips traced bruises—her skin a watercolor of black and purple and green. Her thighs, hips, her ribs and arms, a necklace of fingers around her neck, a constellation of bite marks over her breast—they would have been far worse if Vardner had the patience to tear her clothes off. He hadn’t bothered, having no desire to see her like Elias seemed to. There was no appreciation for her beauty. She had been a thing to hurt and he had took joy in that.

Elias looked to Ren. “So? Did you learn anything?”

[Soran Nightblade]

It took several moments for Havi to realize Laurius was crying. He couldn't truly see the man, but he picked up on his breath and heart rate changing, and then his shaking, and then fully sobbing. The Ivis went quiet, concern and irritation bleeding together in his soul. Being helpless was among his least favorite emotions, and he was still furious that Laurius hadn't told them about Arken. But the man's efforts to save them and his heartfelt remorse made it so Havi couldn't seem to truly despise him.

*Enough,* he grumbled. *You moved as fast as you could, but you'll get injured if you try to move in the dark.*

*Unless...* Havi's senses were different in this form. He stretched out his mind into what he could sense of their environment, and then tested the boundaries of Laurius's thoughts. *I'm not certain if this will work. We've only done it for short bursts before... but what if I can supplement your senses and give you enough mental guidance to move through the dark?*

---------------

Artisuren's stomach balked at the sight of Tenara's wounds. His knees gave out, and if his stomach hadn't been empty, he would have vomited right in the prince's tent. It made him a little regretful that he hadn't tried to eat something.

He knew better than to try to argue with them to leave the princess alone. People like this enjoyed those types of reactions. Maybe they would even try to make him torment Tenara directly as a penalty. Instead, he embraced the discussion of the spells.

"I did find something." Ren set the book down on Elias's desk and opened it to a diagram. "This formula is held in extreme secrecy on my world. Since this type of magic is taboo, it makes sense why it's guarded so closely. The ritual produces a stimulant known as Toothsbane. It can regrow most bodily wounds almost instantly. It's also been used for... recreational purposes, by those with deep pockets and darker tastes. He frowned at Elias to confirm that he'd caught the man's interest.

[Emora Deen]

Laurius smeared the tears from his face. The night had come and the cold was turning them to ice along his cheeks. He nodded. "If you can, if it won't weaken you too much. I can go on." He stumbled up to his feet, adjusting the pack on his back. He hadn't stop to eat, but he was too worried to be hungry. He felt only this pounding in his chest, this weight in his belly. "The boy said the road was to the east... Can you tell where east is?" Laurius turned his eyes up, looking for stars, but it was too early in the night to see many of them.

-----

Elias glanced away from her to the book Ren was showing him. "That is interesting..." The Arken Prince helped her into the bath. At first, given how cold her limbs were, the bath was painful. It burned against her skin, but she sank down into it anyway, curling her legs up in order to fit. She spared a glance at Elias standing over the tub, and didn’t miss his obvious sign of arousal. Was it her pain or her nakedness he liked so much?

"So," Elias said to Ren, taking up a cloth and dipping it into the water. "We can find many uses for the knowledge in that book. But, that is not what I asked you to find." He rung the water from the rag and smoothed it along Tenara's shoulder. She shied away at first, but understood there was no where to go anymore. He smoothed the rag over her back and arms, careful of the bandaged one draped over the tubs edge, and over the curve of her breasts and down her belly. She caught his hand before it could go any lower.

Elias paused, his gaze sweeping over her before locking on the pendant. He glanced over at Ren. "I am looking for a spell that merges souls into one person, combines their strength and magic into one being. Did you find a spell like that?"

"I have seen how toothsbane works," Tenara whispered. "It could give a whole army immunity to injury. You wouldn't need to make a god with that..."

Elias smiled. "And its other uses?" he asked, looking to Ren. "Darker tastes? I like details... What is your name again?"

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi's ambitions swiftly wore away as he began to realize how depleted Laurius seemed. He was barely standing, hadn't eaten, and mentally exhausted enough to break down emotionally. Even if he steered the man around the woods in the dark and found the encampment before morning, his body wouldn't be strong enough to fight Elias's entire entourage, even if he puppeteered the man through the fight.

*You're not going to want to hear this, but we should use the night to rest. How much water and food do you have left?*

--------------

"I didn't find anything crazy like that... at least not yet." Ren failed to hide his distaste at the way Elias was looking at Tenara. He wondered if he'd made an error mentioning Toothsbane. Suddenly he couldn't think of an explanation that wouldn't make Elias immediately want to try it on Tenara. "It should never be used on Yuri-... on females, first of all. It can damage their fertility. In males, it has the same effect as an extreme aphrodisiac, or maybe a narcotic." He struggled with the technical terms to match his world's equivalent medicines.

"I could probably pull off the Toothsbane spell because it's practically a recipe, but my memory of the language isn't enough for the more difficult rituals. Even if that spell you want is in the book, soul magic is notoriously dangerous. I won't be able to translate it in enough detail to perform safely without a proper codex. The Toothsbane as well, needs an ingredient from my world. What if I can craft a portal... a temporary one to my world, just stable enough for one trip?"

[Emora Deen]

Laurius bit back the urge to scream, because Havitharon was right. He needed to rest. To drink and eat. He didn't want to be mortal, bound by these trappings. "I can turn snow to water, and I have some bread and jerky in the bag," he said. He trudged until he found an overhang of rock that had kept snow from collecting deeply. He wedged himself within and began digging through his bag. "I'll eat and sleep for a little. We shaved a day off our trip. Even if we are behind them, we are just behind them. If we are ahead of them, they may pass us as we find the road." Positive. He had to stay positive.

-----

Elias pondered Ren's words, continuing his probing exploration that masqueraded as help. "Craft a portal to your world, aye?" he asked, keeping his eyes on Tenara. "Have you no example of this Toothsbane? You are asking me to let you make a portal to your world without proof anything you say is real. That's a lot of faith your asking..."

"Artisuren," Tenara said softly. "His name is Artisuren."

"Artisuren," Elias said, smiling. He helped Tenara out of the bath. He dried her and scooped up her ruined shift from the ground. "How do I know you aren't lying to me, Artisuren? Wanting a way back to your home?"

"He doesn't lie," Tenara said. "Especially if you have the blade."

Elias mulled his proposition over. "If I had this Toothsbane, I would have a drugged up army that self-heals but no god? And if I cannot have my god," he said, and turned his gaze on Tenara. "What do I need you for?" His gaze darkened as he pulled the shift over her head, and she guided her arms into the sleeves. "I already have you, I guess. Everyone will think your dead. No one will come looking for you... I had planned to make you part of my god—to enslave you. I suppose I still could..." His gaze swept over her and then fell on the hem of the shift, at its jagged, half-hazard lines where she'd torn it away little by little to leave behind. "What's this?" he bent and appraised the edges—the lines where it had clearly been shredded in purposeful chunks. He lifted his gaze to her, and her words caught in her throat. "Have you been leaving breadcrumbs?"

Tenara shook her head, but he was on his feet, hand around her throat, crushing her against the post in the center of his tent. "Have you been leaving breadcrumbs?!" She wheezed a breath, eyes watering. "How long?" She couldn't answer him, even if she tried. He slung her on the ground, took out the dagger and snarled at Ren, "Hold her down!"

Just as the order left his tongue, he was out of the tent.

----

Narissa and Milandra were settling into their tent when the Prince stormed in. "She's been leaving breadcrumbs," he said, pacing and waving the dagger angrily. "Fucking bloody rags."

"So?" Narissa asked. "What does it matter?"

"Her father is a vampire, you nitwit, and will smell the trail out even if its years from now," he said. "I need you to backtrack and pick it up."

"Me?" Narissa frowned. "Why me?"

"Because you can smell it out! Find them. All of them. Destroy them and regroup at the villa," he said.

"I'll leave in the—"

"Now!"

[Soran Nightblade]

*It's as you say. Just rest. I will watch out,* Havi said, unsure why he was soothing the man who had gotten them into this mess. Maybe because Laurius actually seemed to miss Artisuren. Somehow, that had affected his opinion of the merchant. He waited, tracking the man's breaths. It was too cold out here, and he wasn't well clothed. Laurius's disregard for his health confused all his conceptions of who this man was. If the man couldn't rest, Havi wasn't sure he'd be able to use his body to fight properly. *We will find them in the morning,* he said quietly.

-----------------

Ren's fingers twitched where they touched Tenara's wrists. He knelt over her naked form, his entire body shivering against Laurius's command, but he held her down anyway. He met her gaze with wide, frightened eyes. His thoughts scrambled to adapt to what just happened. "Don't worry," he whispered. "I'm going to fix this." He gritted his teeth and waited for Elias to come back.