Dragon (S)Layers Ch. 41

"Look around you."

"Hck! L-"

"Look! You stand before a god's bounty! Everywhere around you lies unspent potential, dreams and hopes that never came to be." She pivoted and slammed Felicia to her knees, bracing her hands against either side of her neck from behind, she took a fist of hair and jerked the girl's head back even as she fought for air. "Is this where you want to end? Do you want to die?"

Felicia coughed. What was she trying to say? In a desperate attempt to get her wits about her she pushed back against the assassin and groaned, "Let me go!"

"Listen!" Lostariel pulled her tighter. "Do you not hear the dying wind of time passing you by? If you walk this road, you will chase your death and inevitably you will find it."

"I don't care! I can't lose you both!" She added in a whisper, "you're the only friends I have. . ."

Another irritated chuff. Lostariel got to her feet and batted Felicia's ponytail as she rounded the girl. Looming, the short woman braced her knee to Felicia's wounded shoulder- high enough that it dug in and burned like hell. Felicia grabbed the woman's hips and tried in vain to push her away. As she squirmed, Lostariel pushed her head back so they were watching one another.

"When you're laying in a ditch bleeding out alone, looking to a sky that won't mourn your passing and you're surrounded by the dreams and talents you could have developed had you not come this way, will you still say this is what you want? When the faces of people you could have touched are looking down at you, angry and as lost as you are- when they tell you that what they could have been is going to die with you, will that be when you're happy?"

"Nghh!"

"You've ruined my work, the least you can do is answer me!"

"Ngh- No!" Felicia punched the woman's inner thigh forcing her to wobble just a tiny bit, and in the process she bought herself enough time to draw back and protect her shoulder. "I'm not going to be like you, dammit! I want to stop people from dying for nothing, and you're not going to change that! Just show me how- teach me how to fight!"

Lostariel went quiet at that, staring down at the chesty teenager from the lowest of the low lands. Her purple gaze lingered with a dangerous edge to it, searching the girl over as if she could read her very soul. Some part of Felicia believed it was possible.

"I-"

"You wish to lead a dangerous life, is that it? You think you'll find your own meaning, is that it?" She balled her hands into fists once more. "Do you believe you're worth it?"

"Do you think you are?" Felicia shot back in petty defiance. She'd already shown the world she was prepared to do what needed to be done, she didn't owe Lostariel anything. . .

Lostariel's right hand trembled in anger and frustration, her glove groaned in protest when she tightened her fist and for just a moment she looked about ready to strike Felicia but instead she dotted the girl's forehead with her finger and pushed her head back to a nearly painful angle. "They're going to be searching the roads for you and I. . ."

"Y- Yes, I know."

"We don't have much time. . ."

"N- No we don't. Will you stop that?"

Almost reluctantly she did but the reprieve was short lived as she crouched down in front of Felicia again. "You're not going to slow me down, you won't stand in my way-"

"And you won't kill anyone in the meantime," Felicia said firmly as she held Lostariel's gaze. "Nobody."

"This isn't a discussion-"

"Then you're not going anywhere. My horse is terrified of you and those soldiers have horses of their own." She didn't blink. "You can't outrun them."

Lostariel blinked. She looked at Felicia as though the girl had lost her mind.

"My horse can get us out of here and you won't find another rider like me. . ." She swallowed. "We need each other right now."

Another eye twitch. "You stand in my way and yours will be the only body they find- remember that."

She knew better than argue or push her luck, but she wasn't about ready to give up just like that. She plucked the assassin's blade from the dirt and turned it over to its owner pommel first. The two women looked at one another, and when Lostariel plucked the blade it was as though some covenant had been made. They ran for the horse at the same time.

They had a lot of ground to cover if they were going to make it out of the region, and Felicia had serious doubts about how far they'd manage before their head start became a dead end.