Dragon (S)Layers Ch. 37

Volume 4: Dereliction of Duty

Chapter XIII: Worth Bleeding For?

There was no Felicia. There was only a muzzy awareness of pain and a cripplingly slow thought process trying to get itself in order, to form a thought and if it wasn't too much work, to orient the person who'd given it form. . .

But that was wishful thinking on a good day. Felicia knew who she was in an instant, where she was an instant later and that her head and shoulder hurt like all hell a moment after that. She wanted to crawl back into the blissful abyss of unconsciousness and pretend the world didn't exist. But by the gods was she denied that simple luxury- her shoulder was on fire, throbbing a steady beat of angry pain through her very bones; demanding something be done about it.

She opened her eyes painfully and almost instantly regretted it as she came to realize the pressure on her right side was due to her laying on her side and her left eye voiced its objection at being opened with a lance of pain all its own. The teenager tried to roll on to her back only to find she'd been tied to the chair she'd been sitting in. . .

As far as wakeups went, it wasn't the most pleasant way to start the day.

Felicia tested her limits- her hands had been tied in front of her and her ankles and waist to the chair. A wave of panic ripped through her as she remembered the blade she'd been given. Had it been stolen? Had Lostariel taken a symbol of her peoples' culture?

No.

It was still tied to her waist.

Why the hell hadn't she taken it? Felicia groaned pathetically in the quiet house, looking between the blade and the floor. Her body wanted to rest but the pain in her shoulder made it almost impossible to do anything but whimper, not even the sting of betrayal hurt as much as the ache from where the soldier's quarrel had punched into her flesh.

Of course, the other side of the problem wasn't that she'd been betrayed- coming from a family of hunters, Felicia knew that even human animals acted within their instinctual desires- no, the real issue, the one that galled her all the more is that Lostariel knew Felicia wasn't a threat such that she'd left the girl the means of her own escape.

Then again, she'd said it herself- Felicia didn't belong in their world. She was bestowing a mercy not many would have, certainly not Sarah or her father. . . For all her faults, Lostariel wasn't inhuman, at least. . .

Felicia curled into a ball trying to ease some of the weight from her shoulder and in that quiet house she cried tears no one would see. Lostariel wasn't a friend to her any more than Sarah was, how could she have been so foolish to leave her father and the farm to be shot at by guards, get wrapped up in slaving conspiracies and. . . .everything else?! Spirits of the ancients warned the plains walkers early on how untrustworthy people were, why hadn't she listened? Her mother knew! Her mother. . ."

A quiet sob wracked the chesty girl and she buried her face to the floor. Her mother wouldn't want to see her acting like this, she wouldn't want tears shed outside of childbirth or tears of joy. Why was it she had to die while her husband and Felicia got to live? Why couldn't she have been the one to keep Felicia safe?

"Stop that. . ." She whispered to herself. "Stopstopstop." She wasn't doing herself any favors, no one was going to come pull her up, no one was going to undo the rope and no one was responsible for her any more. She was an adult.

She needed to act like one.

Felicia drew in a shaky lung full of the musty flooring and took stock of her situation. She could get out of here and then she could head back to the plains- her father, the outsider, was dead to her any way. If the Elders asked she'd tell them the truth. Yes, she just needed to- to get out of here.

To get out of here and leave this insanity and its people behind. Yes. Yes, this would work.

Painfully she pushed her weight to her left attempting to roll over. After a few tries and a considerable amount of agony she managed- bent like an A with her butt in the air and the chair hanging over her like her father did sometimes was irritatingly familiar, even with her forehead pressed to the floor he felt more vulnerable than she should have. None the less, she pushed on and jerked her body left and right, forward and back.

The only thing she managed to do was run herself out of breath.

This was stupid and it was never going to work. Felicia thrashed against her chair trying to loosen the kukri from it's sheath with wormlike movements- bucking her hips back and up and trying to press her tummy to the floor while her knees and chest did their best to collect every fucking splinter they came across. "Ngh!"

Another thrash and the girl toppled over on her left side, slamming her weight into the kukri's handle which dug all the more in when it found a soft spot between her pelvis and where it connected to her leg. She bit down on her lower lip to stop the scream as fresh waves of agony crashed against the shores of her mind. She let out a long sigh through pouted lips, sucked in another breath and then- and only then- realized what kind of an idiot she was being.

With a little effort she turned her body along with the chair and managed to brace the first bit of the elder's kukri against the outside of the back. Then she turned and grabbed the end cap and pulled. It came from its sheath smoothly. . .

Lostariel had meant that to be the solution all along- she'd deliberately made it easy for Felicia to escape. She was just being an idiot. Felicia felt vaguely ashamed as she leveraged the weapon to free herself, then once free she slumped against the wall clutching her shoulder and her knees to her chest.

She needed time to think- was this really what she wanted? To go back to Mawik and hide? She had plenty of coin that could have set her off for the rest of her life, it wasn't like she couldn't do just about anything she wanted to do. . .

The girl scrubbed her face careful to avoid her blackened eye, she sighed. Her father's life was over, he'd seen to it, but Sarah's wasn't. Felicia could still warn her. She was honor bound to; no one abandoned their friends in times of need, even if there had been a falling out.

Yes. She'd warn Sarah and then she'd make her own fortune in the world.

Felicia rose painfully, nearly collapsed and after a few more attempts, managed to stay upright for more than a minute at a time. Once she was sure she wasn't going to fall over she made her way through the house, pilfering everything she thought might look useful and non critical- she wasn't about to steal Lostariel's medicine, for example. Once done, she wandered towards the door, wondering just how strong her new convictions really were. Would she really have the heart to just leave Sarah be?

#

Almost half an hour later she was standing outside the mayor's house knocking on the door and questioning her own sanity. When the tall western man answered again he looked shocked at her state but at least he had the good grace to pretend nothing had changed- and still absently steal a glance at her chest.

Felicia was too tired to care. Too tired to be subtle. "How well do you know Sarah? Uh. . . Marchioness Kettar?"

The man took a moment to reevaluate Felicia before he stepped out of the house and gently closed the door behind him. "Did she do th-"

"No, no, no. . . She's in great danger and I need to find her-"

"All right? Tell me everything-"

"Not until I know-"

"I'm a paladin, you can-"

"You're not doing yourself any favors," Felicia surprised herself with the strength in her voice. She didn't break his gaze as she produced the kukri she'd been given. "I come from a place where the gods have no power, your title isn't going to sway me. . . I'm sorry."

Surprisingly he backed away a little, eyeing the blade and her in turn. "Point made, can you put that away please?"

"Uh- sure. I need to warn her- someone's coming to kill her, the same person who killed the mayor and we just uncovered a slave ring in the fields and-"

"Hold on. Are you saying you work for this assassin?"

"What? No, no I was trying to convince her not to kill Sarah! Then we found this slavery-"

"And you knew she killed the mayor-"

"Ngh! Come on! Let me finish, will you! This is why you people never get anything done, she's right! You people talk all day instead of listening!" It clicked a moment too late what she'd said. "Oh shit."Felicia clamped her hand over her mouth. "I mean. . . .there are people who say that! Ye- yeah! You talk too much and do too little. It's time you changed that, but I can't do it alone. . . .so please, if you know Sarah, warn her."

The man was watching her. "Are you done?"

"Y- No. Look, there's a group of human slave traders under the village. They have a trap door out in the fields that lead to some tunnels. We ran into a bunch of people down there and we had to leave, but we helped some people! There's still more down there- tell the guard or whatever. . ."

"Why don't you, miss? You know where they are and-"

"Because the last time I ran into them they tried to kill me, so no! You 'civilized' people are insane. Just-" Felicia exhaled sharply letting her shoulders slump. "Just. . . Help her. I'll try and find her- the assassin- but I'm not. . ."

"You're not?"

"You were right. This is no place for me." She licked her lips. "You people are insane."

"So you keep saying," the man looked around warily. "Have you told anyone else about these slavers?"

"Uh- n- no?"

"Okay. . . See to it you don't, for your safety. I'll see what I can do about it, but please, be careful. Stay out of sight and-"

Felicia shook her head. "I'm going to get my things and leave, hopefully I can find Sarah before that but I wanted someone else to know in case I missed her. Please help her if you can."

Even before the teenager had finished he was straightening his posture and looking around for threats. "I will. . ." He said cautiously.

"Thanks," Felicia muttered as she turned towards the inn.

The first rays of sunlight were creeping over the horizon painting the sky a dull salmon color on its way into lavender with the threat of the familiar orange tint breaking into the clouds soon thereafter. For every step a little more color seeped into the palette adding to the variety and offering a new promise for the day.

At one time it'd been beautiful to Felicia, now it just felt like it was marking off another day. One in which she'd somehow failed her friend, her tribe and even herself, she couldn't pretend she hadn't. The elders always told children to stand by their friends because survival meant working together but if she couldn't even find them, what kind of good would she do?

Without a word in passing, the girl from the plains trudged her way up to her inn room and recovered her gear, making a quick cursory search through the building for any indication Sarah had been present. No one seemed particularly interested in talking to her and those few that did didn't recall seeing a curvy redhead half-elf come or go. . .

That was it, then. She'd done what she could, anything else was in the hands of the ancient or- she dreaded to think- the gods themselves. As she wandered over to the horse stables she noticed the square was almost completely empty- strange but it was still early yet.

She made her way to the stall where her horse had been sheltered trying to shake off the sense that something was off, but it wouldn't leave. . .

Felicia was wrong to just pick up and leave. That wasn't what friends did. She'd settle her gear on her horse and then together they'd go looking for her, maybe she could convince her to come and they could travel together for a while. . . Yes, that was much more preferable to just leaving without a word.

Leaving was something cowards did. But protectors, real plains walkers, they stood by their friends. Felicia saddling her horse and tied her equipment down, a sudden surge of confidence followed her change in focus. It felt good to be in the right again.

But like many things young and old, in stories told throughout history in innumerable languages, the universe was always ready to make a mess of the best laid plans of men and gods alike. . . A shout from outside grabbed Felicia's attention. A second and a third followed quickly thereafter and, upon peeking through the slat between the wall boards, she found out why.

In the middle of the square Sarah stood proudly in an ankle length coat with her arms outstretched as if presenting something, her body was cocked to show off the best of her allure and the smug grin she wore couldn't have been broken by anything short of an iron bar. She was flanked on either side by village militia and opposite her were several guards from Sorash. It almost seemed like the locals were defending her from the city guards.

But then a form caught the girl's attention at the fringes of the halo of lantern light; a wraith of shadow swooping in from behind the jail. It was Lostariel. She was just feet from Sarah. Just a few feet from her was a small group of other men in dark leathers brandishing clubs like the slavers had used. It seemed like no one had seen them while they made their way towards the figure cloaked in shadows.

Felicia looked to her horse with a sickening feeling roiling in her stomach.

You didn't abandon your friends.

You didn't abandon your friends.

You. Did not. Abandon them.