Kara
“I suppose you've first watch,” said Sly.
Kara stared into the dying fire, watching hypnotic swirls of flame peep out among the embers. Blinking away the after images, she looked over at the former bandit. The man was sitting back against a fallen tree, his hands up behind his head. Sly's eyes flicked over to the sleeping forms of Kallaster and Lore, indicating them with the barest movement of his head.
Kara sighed. “I suppose so. Are you going to sleep?”
“Me? No just yet. I like the forest during the night, especially with a moon like this one. You stare into the fire, and everything else is dark. But on a night like this, the forest is the most beautiful thing, and I know... I know that this is my place.” He looked up, and Kara followed his gaze to the moonlight sifting through the swaying limbs of the trees. “Do you ever get that feeling? Of belonging, and love for where you live?”
Kara's thoughts darkened, her eyebrows deepening. She thought of Manor Varnya, her prison, her home. She thought of her sister Raeravec, and then of her father. “Once. Once, I think I had a home, back when I was young, back with my father. But then he died, and I don't think I ever felt like I belonged again.”
“Home is a situation, isn't it?” Sly looked left, gazing down the path they had come. “I used to go on walks on nights like this. Leave my friends to their laughter and play, and seek some peace for myself. But now there's no laughter, no play, and I don't even feel like walking.” He smirked, his eyes flicking back to Kara. “Well, not that I'm allowed to go walking by myself. Someone has to keep an eye on me, and you need to stay close to the Lady Adventurer and her sorcerous lackey.”
“I'd let you go. Lore wouldn't—I don't know what she thinks—but I trust you. I'd even go with you, on your walk. You've been nothing but good to us.”
Sly's expression darkened for a moment. “You trust me like that? A former bandit? I used to prey on people like you. You'd be a hefty pay of ransom, if we had met during the fall.”
“It's like you said. We're all just people now. You used to prey on people like me, but in just a few days, everything has changed. People are just situations too.”
Sly smiled, a strange grimness tugging at the corners of his mouth. “That we are.” He opened his mouth to speak again, then closed it, looking up at the night sky again.
“What is it?”
“People. Situations.” Sly closed his eyes, and let out a shallow sigh. “I asked if any of you wanted to seek sanctuary in the forest. Ride out the winter in my camp. But it wasn't just for your good. Living all winter by myself in that camp? I don't know if I could stand it.”
“I'm sorry.”
“People need people. I can survive by myself, but it's not really living. And I don't know how long I can survive without living.”
“I'm sorry. Maybe after Parveno.”
Sly opened his eyes, stared at her. There was a strange, desperate light in his eyes. “No, not after Parveno. Parveno... isn't a good place. If you went there, I don't know if you'd come out again. Or be the same person. And then where would I be? Too much of a risk, no...” Sly shook his head.
“You think Parveno's dangerous? What wrong with it?”
Sly glanced away, flinching. Kara thought she could see his mind skittering away from things he had seen. His mouth worked, silently. “Just don't go there. The Lady Adventurer... she means well and all, but don't go with her. Come with me. Please.”
Kara sat there. Sly was spooked, and it didn't make her feel any better about their destination. But she owed it to Kallaster, Lore, and the rest of Sunder's friends. Maybe the man himself would somehow put in an appearance. And the prospect of spending the entire winter in safety, alone with Sly in some camp, somehow that prospect did not seem as enticing as it once did.
“No. I'm sorry.”
Sly shook his head. “No, I'm sorry.” He stood up, looming over the dying fire.
Kara stood up as well, and raised an eyebrow.
“You don't quite understand me. Lore does.” Sly pulled out his knife, and stepped around the fire. Kara felt a chill of apprehension shoot up her spine, and she found herself stepping backwards. “You think of me as a person, that as a bandit, I just did things. But that's not all. An outlaw—and Lore is one too—well, we think differently. You think of what is right, and of what is wrong, we think of what we can do, and what we can't do.”
Kara stumbled on Kallaster's rucksack and nearly fell. Glancing backwards, she caught herself against a tall, straight pine. Sly was standing inches from her, more menacing than she could have imagined. Kara almost cried out, but there was his blade, bare and hungry, and she felt her will melt away.
“It's a difference. It would be right for me to ask you to join me, and right for you to agree, and right for you to refuse. But it doesn't have to be like that. Now, I can't kidnap you if it's just me against the three of you, but I can mix some other herbs into their 'tea', so it's just me and you.” He smiled, but this smile wasn't like all the ones before. It was cold, it was cruel, it was mastering. “Go on, cry out. See if they stir.”
Kara opened her mouth, but all that came out was a strangled cry, trailing into a whimper
Sly stepped forward, bodily pressing her back against the tree, his knife gleaming in the moonlight. He leaned forward, past her, his mouth to her ear. “Ask me,” he whispered. “Ask me what happened after we saved those two noble ladies from their dead servants.”
Kara trembled, her tongue desperately trying to moist her suddenly dry mouth. She could feel his warm breath on her ear, his weight pressed up against her. Panic welled within her chest. “W-what h-happened?” she stammered.
“Well, we got away. The corpses didn't even touch us. No, it wasn't that... We took the two ladies, and led them through the woods to our camp. They came willingly. They thought we were heroic outlaws, like those fool tales of the Grey Wolf.” He pulled back into view, his forearm still pinning her to the tree. The corner of his mouth twisted cruelly. “But that's not the case. They were just goods to enjoy at the winter camp. I fancied the older one, so I took her, and gave the girl to the rest of the band.”
Kara's eyes widened as she realized what the man meant.
“Benefits of being the leader. Saved my life, too. The next morning I woke to screams, and the sound of combat. The girl had gotten free, chewed through her wrist to escape her bonds, and was attacking the rest of the camp. I took my ax and watched as they cut her down, cut her apart. But they weren't quite right. You could see it in their eyes. They twitched, they jumped at the slightest sound, their eyes darted back and forth suspecting everything and anything.”
Sly's grin soured into a disgusted, remorseful, hateful mess. “I don't know what started it, but in a moment they were all fighting each other. Axes, knives, clubs... they beat into each other, until there were just three of them left, the rest heaped on the ground. People I knew. Good people, by my standards, not yours. The three of them were back to back, and I demanded an answer as to what was going on. They told me that the others had gone crazy. And then, to my horror, my dead friends started to rise again.” He stared into her eyes, boring into them from inches away. “I'm good with my axe. I killed them all. Then the noble woman tried to run away. I caught her. I didn't know whether she was going to go the same way or not. All I knew was that I was sane. I knew I wasn't sick. So I killed her too: shoved her down and chopped her neck and back again and again until it was a mess.”
For a long moment they stood there, inches away from each other, staring into each others' eyes. His brown eyes full of calm predatory confidence, her own... not so much. Kara looked away. Sly grabbed her by the throat, and threw her to the ground next to Kallaster's bundle of blankets. Kara trembled, looking up at him as he stood over her in the moonlight. She knew she should get up, run, scream, but all she could think about was what he intended to do with her.
“It would be delicious irony to have you here, inches away from Kallaster Poe, Lady Adventurer, who killed so many of my brother bandits. You, the charge she seeks to protect.” He looked over to Kall's still form, and frowned. “But that would have been another day, another time. I don't have any argument with the Lady Adventurer any more. And you... you and I need to grab our packs and be far away from these two when the moon goes down.” He indicated her pack.
“W-why?” asked Kara. Sly's eyes flicked over to her. “Why me?”
“Because you are weak. Because you are helpless. They have fighting skills, magic... you have nothing, and deep down, you know that. You're the weak doe deer...” Sly gestured at Kall and Lore, “And your herd isn't there to protect you.”
Sly grabbed her by her long brown hair, and shoved her face first into her pack. “So get the bag, before I show you how helpless you are.”
Kara cried then, tears smearing on her pack, and on her face. She had always been helpless. Always at her sister's whim in Manor Varnya, always needing to rely on Sunder to protect her, and then Kallaster and Lore and...
Kara wiped her tears away and put her hand on her bag, getting up to her knees. Magic. Kallaster had taught her magic so she wouldn't be helpless. She glanced over to Sly, who was picking up his own bag, a foul expression on his face. Could she use it on him? Set him alight?
Gritting her teeth, she tried to feel for her magic, pull it out of her, concentrate it. Fire was just a little pull, or a little flick, like matter was made of thousands of harps. Just make Sly vibrate a bit. Not inside, Kara, remembered, where his own life energy would block hers, but his clothing, his pack, his hair.
But then he was looking at her, walking towards her, and she felt all her control melt away, magic seeping like sand from between her mind's little fingers. She tried again, but all she could think about was Sly, her fear of the outlaw. She really was helpless...
“What's the hold up?” Sly loomed over her. A slap came out of nowhere, sending her crashing into Lore's small form, her head ringing from the impact. “Don't make this hard on yourself. There's nothing you can do, so don't even try.”
Lore breathed underneath her, and Kara rolled off. With a start, she saw that Lore's eyes were open, watching her. The girl was awake.
“Help me,” Kara whispered. But Lore barely stirred. The girl's lips pressed together, with visible effort showing in Lore's eyes, and Kara realized that the herb was some kind of paralytic. Lore's eyes left Kara, and slowly, carefully, traveled upwards, looking higher and higher.
Kara looked up. Lore's thunderstick lay there, loaded and ready for Lore to jump to Kara's defense, if only she could.
“What are you doing?” Came Sly's voice. “She can't help you, nobody can. The only way to help yourself is to obey me.”
Kara took a deep breath to try to calm herself, then lunged for the thunderstick. Her fingers closed clumsily around the device, picking up twigs and leaves was well, and she spun it around, pointing it at Sly.
His axe was out, and he leapt at her, far quicker than she could have expected. But her finger found the trigger, and with the click of some internal device, the device gouted fire and shot with a thundering boom.
But, even as she pulled the trigger, she could see Sly realizing his mistake, and somehow the man twisted in midair to avoid most of the blast. Sly landed on top of Lore, where Kara lay moments ago, his axe still in his right hand, his left arm bleeding from a dozen small impact.
Kara dropped the weapon, not knowing how to reload it, and fled into the woods, as fast as her legs would take her. Sly was behind her, right behind her, she was sure. She didn't dare look, crashing through the underbrush, and scrambling over fallen trees.
Her weakness caught up with her sooner than she had expected. Her failed attempt at magic had wasted a lot of her energy, she realized, and running was still not her strong point. Chancing a look back, she realized that Sly was not, in fact, right behind her, but rather a painfully obvious trail of broken branches, crushed undergrowth, and obvious footprints left a path that even she could have followed.
Kara resolved to creep more carefully, attempting to step on rocks on the ground, rather than on the loam or on branches, contriving to walk around or between bushes, not through them... but in the back of her mind, Kara knew this was a futile effort. Sly was a tracker, he would follow her trail no matter how she tried. But then what could she do? She couldn't hide, she couldn't run, she couldn't fight...
Disheartened, Kara stopped and leaned against a tree. Even if she did slip away, how long could she survive in this wood? Kara looked around. All the trees had that mesmerizing quality of being different, and yet indistinguishable. Was she already lost? She could go back the way she came, find her own trail, but that would just lead her face to face with... well, it was not an option.
Putting one foot in front of another, Kara kept going, trying her best to keep her woolen skirt from catching on anything. Soon enough, she found herself on a creek-bed. A familiar one. They had been here earlier this day. She had somehow circled around.
But that wasn't necessarily bad news. She wasn't lost anymore and... well, if Sly was out following her trail somewhere, then he wasn't at the camp. Kara started back towards camp, and then stopped. What if Sly was still at camp? Kallaster and Lore were lying there, probably awake but helpless. What if he had chosen to do something terrible to them?
No... she couldn't consider that. She would go towards camp, quietly, and see whether Sly was there. If he was, then he wasn't following her. It would only take a few minutes to know. Then... then something.
Kara shook her head. She could figure it out when she got there. Stepping carefully from rock to rock, she made her way up to where the trail diverged from the creek-bed. Now she had to be quiet, careful... Kara looked back up the creek-bed, checking if Sly were following her, but he wasn't there. She started down the trail.
And tripped on a string of twine stretched across the path. Immediately, before she even fell to the ground, something grabbed around her ankle, and pulled upwards, flipping her over. Her head smashed into the ground, and everything went black.
* * * * * * *
Kara
Sensation came unpleasantly. Her head throbbed, her face was nicked and scratched from twigs and pine needles, and her right leg was being held in the air at a most unpleasant angle, craned up and over her head with... something cutting off her circulation? Kara rolled over onto her back, and looked up at her foot. A snare on a rope tied to a small sapling, the small tree bent over with her weight. The trap was not meant for her, she realized, but for smaller prey – the tree barely lifted her hips from the ground. Kara lay back and sighed. She could untie it, probably, but it wouldn't be pleasant or easy.
“You know, if you had told me that you were heading back to camp, it would have saved me a good deal of walking.”
Sly! Kara's eyes snapped wide, and she squirmed around, looking for the man. There he was, coming down the trail, a good length of rope in his hands. One of his arms was bandaged tightly. A sense of dread started building in Kara's gut.
“You know, you make this hard on yourself. Shooting me, running away through the forest...” Sly shook his head. “I wanted company. Friends. Folks whom I could trust to watch my back.”
“Then why all this?” Kara looked up at the snare again. There was no way she could get that undone quick enough to run.
“Because you said no. And if you weren't coming by choice, I'd have to convince you.”
“Convince me to go with you so you could have your way with me? That's what's going to happen if you take me with you.”
Sly halted, and stared at her, a troubled expression on his face. “That is what we did. Took a few for fun over the winter. But now... Hrm.” He lurched forward again. “No matter. You shot me, and if you want any freedoms, you're going to have to earn them, clear?”
The outlaw grabbed one of her hands, twisting the wrist and the arm, then levered her over, face-down again. He knelt on her, pinning the arm to her back, and pressing her down into the leaves and pine needles. He took her other hand and started tying them together. Kara closed her eyes, enduring the pain.
Earn freedoms?
“I'll leave your legs free, since I don't fancy carrying you and the bags, but you running off again isn't going to help you. Honestly, you're much safer with me than alone in the woods by yourself. Don't try it.”
Sly stood and untied the snare. Kara's foot came free, burning painfully as circulation was restored. Sly grabbed her by the back of her dress, and hauled her to her feet. She almost fell over, but Sly was still holding her with his good arm.
“Now let's go. I have neither time nor patience.” Sly pushed, and Kara stumbled down the path. The creek-bed was in front of her, and she realized that Sly had come from the direction of the camp.
Instead of following the creek-bed upstream, Sly and Kara simply crossed it, Sly leading her onto a small path, barely a trail at all. Kara stumbled, and Sly hauled her back to her feet again. He checked the way they had come.
“Keep going.”
The path narrowed, winding it's way through the trees. They were going uphill, Kara realized. Away from the creek, and away from Lake Parveno. If she got free, could she simply go downhill and downstream to the lake?
“Kara, down!” cried Lore.
Kara immediately threw herself to the ground, with Sly landing beside her at nearly the same moment. The resounding boom of Lore's thunderstick sounded from behind her, and she could feel the scattershot ripping over her.
The sound echoed in the forest, setting a flock of birds awing somewhere, but Sly was already hauling her back to her feet, holding her in front of him. Cold steel pressed against her throat.
“Don't try that again, Lore. I really don't want anyone getting hurt, but shoot me, and I'll slit her throat open, don't you doubt it.”
There was quiet for a moment, and Kara could hear Lore reloading, from somewhere. Kara scanned the trees. Lore came into view, her thunderstick already loaded and pointed at the two of them. But her step was uneasy, almost dizzy, and she leaned against a tree for support.
“Kill her and you won't make it out of my sight.” Lore slurred the words a bit, but her face was grim, and there was a certain cold steel to her eyes that Kara had not seen before.
“And so I stand here until the Lady Adventurer comes along, and my chances get worse. Sounds like I'm a dead man either way.”
Lore shrugged. “That's up to Kallaster. Maybe she liked that speech of yours. All I know is that you turned out to be the scoundrel, setting us up for betrayal all along. Good thing we didn't go with you to your bandit camp.” Lore made as to spit, but instead her saliva dribbled out of her mouth and down her chin. She wiped it on her shoulder, keeping the thunderstick aimed at Kara and Sly.
“Well, I'll have you know that I didn't. That was the plan at the start—take my revenge on the Lady Adventurer, and steal off with the two of you—but I got to know you folks, and I figured I'd rather have you all as friends. Even Kallaster Poe, Lady Adventurer. How strange for an outlaw to want that.”
“But you betrayed us anyway.”
“Desperation. You were going to go to Parveno, and I couldn't convince you otherwise. And I still had all the drugs in my pouch. So drug you both, kidnap Kara, and at least I'd have someone to talk to.”
“Yeah. Talk to. I was awake before Kara fell on me, don't play me the fool.”
“There are all kinds of needs. A need for conversation, and need for friends. A need to sate the natural lusts. But if I can only have one or the other... well, I figured I'd go with tried and true, then figure out what I really want on the long hike to the camp.”
“Don’t play me the fool.”
“But consider this. Of the women we took in the winters before, come spring, none of them wanted to go home. There was always some Fox or another they found themselves adoring. Now I have different priorities. Maybe once Kara got to know me better, we could stay out here, live in the woods, settle down, all that. The world can live or die, that's up to you and the Lady Adventurer, but we'd have our peace in these woods. It doesn't seem that bad to me.”
“Any yet we find ourselves here, me with my thunderstick, and you with a knife at Kara's throat.”
“A sad fact of life. Plans go awry. That's the rule of the world. If any of you had chosen to come willingly, things would be so much better for everyone. If Kara hadn't shot me, we'd be sleeping at some camp right now, not playing hostages in the starlight.”
“You still think you can win, don't you. That I'm not going to be able to hold this weapon up long enough, and that you'll overcome me, and take Kara away.”
Sly nodded. “The Lady Adventurer isn't coming. You're not a bad liar, but I saw it well enough. You just didn't drink enough of the tea.”
“The stuff was nasty. I don't know how Kall drank it.”
“But you did drink enough. So where does that leave us?”
“It leaves me telling you that I lied.”
“Oh?”
“I'm not the magician. I never was. Kara knows magic. No amount of ropes will stop her from using it.”
There was a long moment of silence. Kara wondered what was going to happen next, fearing the worse. Would he simply slit her throat, play it safe?
“I see. Then how do you light your weapon?”
“I pull the trigger-lever. Beyond that, I don't know. Selena never gave me an explanation I could understand. But it works.”
“Kara, you have a voice. My knife is at your throat, not in it.”
Kara swallowed. “I... I am a magician.”
“It matches, thinking back to last night. And yet you didn't use it, back at the camp. I find that strange.”
“I... I was afraid.”
“You're not a warrior, are you? You don't think of your weapons first. You've collected your wits now, and yet you haven't thought to use your magic.”
Kara nodded, slowly. She could have used it, she realized. The panic from before had settled, turning into... into an abject acceptance of her fate? Was that all that bound her? Her unquestioning acceptance that she couldn't fight back?
Sly spun her around, his bandaged left hand pulled her head back, the knife finding a new place on her neck. “Look me in the eyes, Kara.”
She stared up at him. His eyes were concerned, yet strong, looking deep within her. Then his expression softened, wavered, wrinkles cresting his brow, and for a moment Kara found herself wondering how old the man really was.
“Very well, then. I see I can't keep you safely, Kara Varnya.” Some strange semblance of a bittersweet smile passed over his features, with only a hint of vicious spite at the edges. “It's almost better this way... maybe. A word of advice, though: All the skill in the world is useless without the will to use it. Master your fear, and I hope you survive in the world out there.” And then he was kissing her: a short, greedy snatch of a kiss.
For a moment she stared at him, trying to understand what was going through his mind. But then he shoved her backwards, sending her careening into Lore, and when she next looked, the outlaw was nowhere to be seen.