OF ASHES AND BLOOD

The Spire

CHAPTER TWO: HOME AGAIN

Her feet dragged through the mud as thick rain drops spattered against her tattered robes. She could still hear the cries of the bookkeeper echoing in her head. Her stomach churned just thinking of him, thinking of what he had done, what he would have done if she hadn’t stopped him. How could he hate her so deeply? He didn’t even know her name…She shook her head, unable to swallow past the fear that stuck in her throat.

Two steps more and The Spire was in sight. It was as much a haven as a prison for her kind, but at that moment, she had never felt more blessed to see it. Before she could make it to the gate, the wrought iron doors opened, and a severe looking woman with pale eyes and black, greying hair stepped out to meet her.

“Maeda!” Collis cried, rushing forward with her arms outstretched. She fell into her mentor’s embrace, the warmth of those loving arms wrapped around her seeping into her bones, and at last, she wept.

“Hush, Collis, hush,” Maeda whispered into her ear. She smoothed the young girl’s hair back from her face and tilted her chin upward.

“What happened?” she asked, and for a moment Collis couldn’t speak. She wiped the tears from her face, angry at her own weakness.

“Stationer Haan died two weeks ago,” she explained, pausing every now and then to breathe. “The man that replaced him…his son…he…he hates Druids Maeda. Once he figured out what I was, he called for the Nightguard and then…he…”

She couldn’t bring herself to say it. Couldn’t bring herself to utter those terrible words. If she had been just another powerless young girl, the fate that awaited her in that shop would have devastated her. It was only because she was Druid that she was able to escape. Her blessing, and her curse.

“Did he…did he force himself on you?” Maeda asked, her eyes searching the other’s face. Collis swallowed hard, fighting back the wave of tears that threatened to drown her.

“He tried,” she whispered. “But I stopped him.”

“How?” Maeda asked, and her thin fingers gripped Collis so tight she felt her bones might break. “How did you stop him Collis?”

“I — I burned him,” she admitted, chewing her bottom lip.

“You burned him?”

“His face…and…I’m sorry Maeda, I was just so angry…I couldn’t stop…”

Maeda pulled Collis against her once more, shushing her until at last Collis seemed to regain her composure.

“What else did you do, Collis?” Maeda repeated, still smoothing the young girl’s hair.

“I burned down the bookshop,” she whispered, clinging to her mentor. “I’m sorry,” she said again, but Maeda promptly pushed her away.

“You were stupid,” she said. “And careless. I sent you there because I believed you were ready to face the world. I thought you would be able to comport yourself with wisdom. This world will be against you at every turn. All you did was feed the fires of hatred that rage against us.”

“What should I have done?” Collis shouted, and the heat of her rage returned to her then. “Should I have let him rape me to protect the name of Druid? Is that really what you would ask of me?”

“No, child, no,” Maeda shook her head. “I’ve been where you are. I’ve experienced the same hatred, the same fear. I’ve felt the same rage pressed against me. But you need to learn that the only way to fight that hatred and ignorance is with compassion and understanding. You can’t take their abuse, but you can’t feed their anger either. You must find a way to diffuse the situation before it escalates to that point.”

Maeda sighed and rubbed her brow. “I’ll have to make a case to the elders,” she murmured to herself.

“The elders? Maeda — ” Collis began, but her mentor interjected.

“They already know,” she explained. “They know what happened. Well, they know the Nightguard’s side of things. I’ll relay your story to them. Maybe they will grant you lenience.”

“Maeda, please, what are you saying?” For the first time in her memory, Maeda seemed frightened.

The elder Druid placed her hands on Collis’s shoulders and stared deep into her eyes. “Collis…The man in the shop…Haan’s son, Habfpor. He died in the fire you set. Our rules are very clear. We are granted a stay of protection by the Nightguard unless we incite violence. If the elders don’t do something to mollify the Nightguard, our entire existence will be in jeopardy.”

Heart thundering in her chest, Collis asked the question she wasn’t sure she wanted an answer to. “What’s going to happen to me?”

Maeda wrapped an arm about her shoulders. “Come inside,” Maeda said softly, urging her toward The Spire. “We’ll get you out of those clothes. I’ll figure something out.”

In the safety of her quarters, Collis stared at her reflection in the mirror. Dark streaks of soot marred her porcelain complexion, deep hollows of purple ringing her eyes. Bruises along her jaw and cheekbone were beginning to blossom, the black and purple clearly marking where she had been struck. Honey-coloured eyes stared back at her, devoid of life. She was nothing more than a shell of the girl she had been only hours before when she left that very same room. How quickly things could change.

Dipping her hands into the cool water of her washbasin, she soaked a cloth and rung it out, twisting the sparse bit of fabric between her hands. Gingerly, she wiped the ash from her face, careful to avoid the places that still stung when she touched them. She moved from her face to her neck, dipping the cloth and ringing it out over and over, moving down to her arms, then her legs. By the time she was done, the water in her basin was blacker than coal-water.

She slipped free of the robe bound about her waist, and it fell to the ground in pieces. It was nothing more than bits of cloth held together by a single string. She replaced the robe with a soft woolen dress, one that hung to the floor. It was a modest dress, a delicate cream that surrounded her with warmth. How desperately she needed that warmth now that her insides were frozen with fear. She felt numb, empty, devoid of any real care. Was she happy that Habfpor was dead? Had she wanted that?

In the emptiness of the room, she shook her head.

“No,” she whispered. “I didn’t want that. I just wanted to leave.”

Her voice broke, and her body crumpled to the floor like an empty sack. She tried hard to breathe through the lump in her throat, tried not to let the wails escape her as the reality of it all came crashing down around her. But she couldn’t stop it. She let all of the pain and horror she felt come undone from within her, the knotted ball of anxiety and terror loosening string by string. And she lay there, on the floor, her body wracked with silent sobs. Tears spilled from her eyes and fell onto the stone beneath her head, a delicate puddle of dark grey on the otherwise white stone.

In the milky light of the moon, Maeda could almost imagine it was all a dream. But the harshness of reality stung her like the bite of a knife, and despite the beauty of the night around them, she felt the blackness of it in her soul.

“They’ll be here any moment,” Asha said. Maeda cocked an eyebrow in the elder’s direction.

“And what will you tell them, when they arrive?” she asked. Asha’s lips tightened into little more than a thin line.

“I’ll tell them the truth,” she said. “And I’ll tell them what we plan to do about it.”

“Which is what, exactly?” Maeda pressed. The cool of the evening settled in around them, a strong wind blowing in from the east. Its fingers found their way into Maeda’s robes, slipping through the folds to settle in her bones. The ring of trees around them shuddered in the wind, their leaves billowing against the unseen scourge.

Asha sighed. “You know the rules, Maeda. You were there a century ago when we made them. It was for their protection as much as it was for ours.”

“She’s just a child,” Maeda said, staring off into the distance. She tried to ignore the hammering of her heart, tried to ignore the heaviness of it as it beat inside her ribcage. But the truth was, she ached for Collis. She ached for everything Collis had been through. She ached to protect her, and care for her, and spare her the terrible people in the world. But that wasn’t her place, no matter how desperately she wanted it to be.

“She’s a child with more power than you or I ever had at that age,” Asha replied, folding her cloak tighter about her shoulders. “She’s a child with more power than she knows what to do with, let alone how to control it. We can’t begin to teach her quickly enough to let her out into the world.”

The rhythmic pounding of horses’ hooves sounded over the wind, and Maeda squared her shoulders.

“Just tell me one thing, Asha,” she said, the ring of steel in her voice. “What would you have done, in her position?”

Dark horses, their coats slick with sweat, galloped to the gates. Asha nodded to the two Druids that flanked either end of the iron bars, and they swung the doors wide, granting the Secta and his Nightguards entrance.

The Secta swung down from his saddle, pulling the collar of his cloak up higher about his neck.

“Bitter wind, this,” he said by way of greeting. “Asha, Maeda. Good to see you again, though I do wish it were under different circumstances.”

“As do we, Secta Rawlings,” Asha replied with a curt nod.

“It seems we have much to discuss,” the Secta said.

“We do,” Maeda agreed. “Please, Secta. This way.”

As Rawlings moved toward the entrance to The Spire, Maeda gripped Asha’s elbow.

“What would you have done, Asha?” she asked again, the ghost of desperation in her voice.

Asha was silent, but the absence of her words was an inconsequential victory. One way or another, Collis would pay the price.

Collis lay there for hours, crying until at last she felt empty. There was nothing left inside of her. No terror. No sadness. No anger. She was bereft of it all. She peeled her stiff frame off the floor and stood, her bones aching. The gentle knock at her door hardly startled her at all, though she wasn’t in the least expecting it.

“Come in,” she called, and she didn’t recognize the voice that seemed to croak from her own throat.

The door swung silently open, and Maeda slipped into the room, closing the door with a soft click behind her.

Collis noticed the way Maeda’s lips were downturned, saw the way the delicate lines around her mouth and eyes seemed deeper than they had before. It seemed as though her mentor had aged years in the span of a day, and the pang of guilt she got knowing that she was the cause of it felt like a stab to the gut.

“I’ve just spoken to the elders,” Maeda began quietly, words so silent Collis thought for a moment that she might have dreamed them.

“What did they say?” she asked, smothering down the sharp bit of fear that pulsed within her.

Maeda closed her eyes for a moment, and in that moment, Collis knew.

“Is it the short drop for me, then?” she whispered, unable to fathom it. Unbidden, her hand made its way to her throat, and she gripped it, as if she could already feel thick cords of the noose about her neck.

“Collis…sit with me for a moment.” Maeda stepped inside and sat gingerly on the bed, beckoning her progeny do the same. Collis followed like a puppet. She sat at the edge of the bed, her body poised, taut, as if she were a string pulled too tight.

Maeda grabbed the girl’s hands then, folding them beneath her own. The small bit of warmth that Collis felt from those hands comforted her.

“Collis…No one here believes you should be hanged for your crimes. Your response was…inappropriately severe, but I don’t feel that it was your intention to kill that man. That’s the difficult part about being a Druid. We’re blessed with a gift that many don’t understand. We can manipulate and shape the elements around us to our whim, but the ability to wield that much power…it frightens others. And when one of us uses it irresponsibly, we all bear the brunt of the consequences. Only a Druid can understand how easy it is for control over our power to slip through your fingers. And only a Druid would show mercy in the face of something like this. So, while no one here believes you deserve to be hanged, the Secta feels quite differently.”

Collis felt her body grow cold. Thoughts ran rampant through her mind, but she couldn’t seem to concentrate, couldn’t seem to formulate a single coherent thought. She could hear Maeda speaking, but it was as though she were walking through water. Everything around her was muffled, hollow, and time plodded sluggishly along.

“You must understand the situation the elders are in,” Maeda was saying, slowly pulling her back to reality. “The Secta wants blood. He doesn’t care whose it is. His people will vilify him if he doesn’t act quickly, and justice demands a life for a life. Whether it was yours, or any other Druid’s…it wouldn’t matter to him. He would be just as happy to see all of us burn. And to the elders, protecting the life of one only to sacrifice the lives of many…that’s a sacrifice they aren’t willing to make.”

“So, I’m to die,” Collis whispered, unwilling to believe it.

“No.”

Collis’s brow furrowed. “But…you just said a life for a life…that the Secta wants me hanged.”

“He does. I don’t. And I don’t accept the elders’ ruling. I can’t accept that. I know why they made that choice, but I refuse to allow it.”

Collis swallowed down the small bit of hope burgeoning in her chest. “What do you mean?”

Maeda sighed. “I’m getting you out of here. Tonight.”

“But…Maeda you can’t,” Collis protested. “If the Secta doesn’t get what he wants, he’ll take it out on all of you.”

“Don’t worry about that now,” her mentor whispered. “My only concern is getting you out of here.”

“Maeda…” Collis trailed off, unsure of any words she could say to express her gratitude.

“I know,” the elder said with a smile. “Don’t say anything. We don’t have time.”

Maeda stood and went to the small chest of drawers at the end of the bed. She began to rummage through them, pulling out a few pieces.

“Do you have a rucksack?” she asked, still searching through the drawers.

Collis dropped to her knees and fumbled around beneath her bed, before pulling out a soft leather satchel. She tossed it to Maeda, who began to stuff the bits of clothing she held in her hands inside the bag without preamble.

“Is that warm?” Maeda asked, nodding to the dress Collis wore.

“Yes…” the young girl replied, the fingers of terror clawing their way around her heart. What exactly did Maeda think was going to happen?

“Good,” Maeda nodded to herself. “It’s cold tonight. And it’s going to rain.”

Collis peered out the window. High above them the stars twinkled in the black sky, bits of white light winking out from behind the leaves of the trees that surrounded The Spire.

“There aren’t any clouds,” Collis commented.

“I know.”

Her mentor tossed the sack back to her, pulling a black cloak from within the chest. She draped the cloak about Collis’s shoulders, pulling it close around her body.

“I’m sorry that I can’t be more help to you,” Maeda whispered. “I wish that I could come with you, but I have to stay here. I have to be sure they don’t find you. I need to be sure they stop looking for you, so that you don’t have to look over your shoulder.”

“What’s going to happen?” Collis choked out, feeling small and alone.

“There’s a dinghy tied to a rock at the Southernmost edge of The Spire. We keep it there to transport goods from the other Sects up and down the river. Take it. Follow the river downstream. There’s a port, hardly more than twenty minutes downriver. There are ships in and out of port all the time. Find one. Board it. Stay hidden until the ship reaches its destination, wherever that is. Right now, anywhere will be safer for you than here.”

“I’m scared,” Collis whispered. “I don’t know how to do this…”

Maeda placed a palm on the young girl’s cheek. “You came from Beggar’s Row,” she said softly. “You’ve experienced pain and heartache before. You’ll find a way to make it through this. I know you will.”

Collis tried to blink away the tears that blinded her. “Can I write to you?” she asked. “When I’ve settled, I mean.”

Maeda was silent for a moment, her eyes thoughtful. “Once you’re settled, and you’re safe,” she relented at last. “Then, and only then, can you write to me. Do not, under any circumstances, use your real name. If Secta Rawlings finds out you’re alive, everything we do here tonight will be for naught. Do you understand?”

Collis nodded, swallowing hard. Maeda smoothed the auburn waves that spilled out of the young Druid’s hood, tucking them back behind the black folds.

“Are you ready?” Maeda asked.

“I hope so,” Collis murmured, sending a silent prayer to the Gods above that she would make it through the night.

© 2021 Samantha Huson

Read the first chapter in OF ASHES AND BLOOD here: https://medium.com/@SamanthaHuson/of-ashes-and-blood-f79d37ff6c9b