Loki aimed the bow with a slightly unsteady hand. The guard was turned away from him, gazing at something in the distance that Loki could not see. His back made for a broad target, open and waiting.
Loki swallowed the dry lump that had formed in his throat. A trickle of sweat threatened his left eye. He let out a shaky breath.
He couldn’t shoot a man in the back. This was not the way he had been raised. This was not the kind of fight he had ever planned on fighting.
But if he didn’t take the shot, do what he had to do, Raven would be killed.
Loki held his breath again and waited. Maybe the man would turn around. Not that he would see what was coming. Loki remained well hidden in the thickets of the dark forest that abutted the guardhouse. The shadows there were absolute, the underbrush soft and wielding, the canopy of trees above him blocking all light from the double moons in the night sky. Only the sound of his heart beating would give him away.
That, and the arrow he was about to embed in the unsuspecting guard’s chest.
*****
Raven jolted awake for the hundredth time that evening. Her back ached from where she rested, stiffly, against the dank stone wall. She moaned, the sound echoing off of the boundaries of the cell around her. She thought about her father.
What would happen if she called him again right now? Would the devil save her from her mortal fate? Would he unlock the door? Distract the guards?
She shook her head, frightened now of her own thoughts, and attempted to think them away.
Her brother had not come to see her along with her parents. Raven knew her brother better than anyone alive. If he hadn’t come to comfort her, he had had a good reason. Still, she wondered how he would react to the news of the stranger and the Spring of Souls. Loki had always been the ‘good’ sibling. He was quick to obey, first to offer help, and he’d been fond of Haledon since he was a child. In fact, he had sworn her to secrecy when he’d admitted that he was hoping to one day become an acolyte in the sun god’s temple.
Would he judge her?
She was the daughter of a devil. There were nine Lords of Abaddon. And she was the scion of one of them. She wondered which one. She recalled that Haledon’s acolytes despised one Abaddonian lord, in particular, above the others. Lord Malphas, ruler of the eighth circle, known as Caina, was Haledon’s sworn enemy. His eternal plane of ice and cold and desolation was the antithesis of all that Haledon, the god of sun and light and goodness, stood for.
Raven rubbed her eyes and fought back tears. She thought she knew her brother well enough to be certain that he would not abandon her, no matter who her sire happened to be. But one never knew. Human beings were far from perfect, and they were allowed to change their minds.
Once again, the notion of calling upon the devil for help came unbidden to her mind. Just as she was squeezing her eyes shut, fighting to push the thought away, an arrow came whizzing through the bars in the window.
Raven stared at it for a moment and then came to her senses, scrambled to her feet, and rushed toward it after it hit the opposite wall and clattered to the ground. Tied around it was a note. Raven pulled the scroll off of the arrow’s shaft and unrolled it.
I’ve gathered supplies in the forest. You know the place.
I’ll take care of the guards outside.
You’ll have to get the key from the attendant.
- Loki
Raven re-folded the note and placed it in the inside pocket of the traveling tunic that her mother had brought to her. She stilled her breathing and listened carefully for any unusual sounds outside. She knew her brother was out there now. And now she knew he hadn’t abandoned her. In fact, he had been planning her escape.
Her mind reeled from the implications. If they were successful, they would have to run into the forest. She and her brother had entered it before, but only to a certain depth. Beyond that, the woods were said to extend for days and days, twisted and uncertain, devoid of trail or path to guide the way.
They would have to leave their home. They would never again see their parents.
“Hey!”
“Over here! Max, he’s over here!”
Raven’s head jerked up and she ran to the window. On tip toes, she peeked through the bars, straining her neck to get a better view. She could see nothing, no movement, no lights, no sign of Loki or the guards she had just heard.
Another arrow whizzed through the air. This one made an unforgettable thumping sound as it found its mark in human flesh.
“Haledon, I’m hit!” Someone called through clenched teeth. Raven turned her head in the direction of the guard’s voice. In the periphery of her vision, she could make out dancing lights, torches running through the night.
“Where?”
“My leg. Go after him. I think it’s Loki Grey. Take the dogs with you!” The guard issued orders and Raven’s heartbeat sped up. How in the world would they outrun the dogs? She closed her eyes and tried to think. This was most likely an unforeseen event in Loki’s escape plan. What in Abaddon had he been planning, anyway? What was he doing with that bow?
Raven gritted her teeth and grasped the bars between her hands. Again, she tried to make heads or tails of what was transpiring beneath the limit of her sight. She had to get out there and help him. Where was the attendant guard? He should have come in by now to check on her, knowing that her brother was trying to break her out.
So, where was he? And then she realized what had happened. The attendant had gone to unlock the dogs from their cages. He had the only set of keys. Raven cursed under her breath. She was a nimble runner. She was fast, and she seemed to know exactly where to put her feet, even on unsure ground. But Loki was much slower. If he wasn’t extremely clever, the dogs would rip him apart.
She cursed again, rested her head against the window sill, and squeezed the bars tight as she tried, in vain, to think of another way out.
It was the faint crackling sound, the popping and hissing right in front of her nose, that made her open her eyes.
She gasped. The bars beneath her hands had been coated in rime. The crystals spread and deepened as she stared at them. The ice extended from beneath her squeezing palms and raced up and down the bars until both had been completely covered in white frost. She exhaled shakily and her breath steamed in the warm air of the summer’s night. Her skin, too, was steaming, coils of misted air rising from her flesh as the frigid temperature of her body contrasted with the heat and humidity around her.
In that instant, as she stared at the frozen evidence of her dawning powers, she realized which of the Abaddonian lords was her father.
A barking sound filled the night and jarred her from her thoughts. Without further pretense, Raven gave the bars beneath her hands a good yank. They groaned and cracked, crumbling to a dozen frozen metal pieces around her. She didn’t hesitate in placing her hands on the next two bars. In a few moments, those too were frozen as well.
Another yank and pull and the window was free of obstruction. She tried to hoist herself up, but the angle was wrong; the sill was slanted toward her and the ice that had coated it made it slippery. She looked around, spotted the bed, and ran over to it. In a few short seconds, she had scooted it across the room. With its height beneath her, she scrambled up onto the window’s narrow sill.
More barking and shouting filled the darkness. The sound of arrows whizzing through the air gave evidence to the fact that Loki had paused long enough to attempt to deal with the dogs in another manner.
Raven smiled when she heard the telltale yelp of one of the hounds and knew that the beast had been hit. Though she was not fond of the thought of harming innocent animals, she had never cared for those particular dogs. They were far from innocent.
She crouched beneath the building’s shadow and listened once again.
Someone called for her brother to stop. Several dogs howled in unison. They were growing distant.
Above her, she heard the jingling and scraping sound of keys in a lock. The attendant guard had finally made his way back to her cell. She smiled again, imagining the look of shock on his face when he found the window’s bars shattered to pieces and the prisoner nowhere in sight.
And then she was up and running, racing across the guard house’s short lawn to the forest line as if death were on her tail. She plunged headlong into the darkness of the twisted woods, heedless of brambles and vines, as she had never in her life been caught unawares by such things.
Not a thorn touched her, not a root tripped her as she sped through the underbrush, heading at a full sprint toward the sound of a dog yipping and the guards yelling to one another in the darkness. Within a few minutes, her long legs had carried her to an area that was at once familiar. She and her brother had built a fort not far from there when they were children. It was the place he had referred to in his note. He would be nearby. She stopped running and crouched low, listening. The light of two torches drew nearer.
Several yards away, she could make out a dog’s quick panting.
“I think he doubled back to the river.”
“No, Zeir’s picking up another scent. Just let him search here.”
Raven quieted her breathing as the guards and their hound came closer. Her heart sank in her chest when she realized that if he could scent out her brother, the dog would be able to smell her as well.
Unless…
A few feet away, a dog whined low in its throat.
“What is it, Zeir?”
“Something isn’t right. It feels cold here. I think it’s spooking him.”
The dog’s whining grew louder and Raven heard the distinctive clank of a leash’s chain being yanked to its full extent.
“He really doesn’t want to be here.” The guard paused, quiet and listening. The dog’s incessant whining most likely blocked any other, less conspicuous noise, from the guard’s perception. The guard sighed. “Head back to the river. I’m pretty sure that’s where we lost him.”
The sound of their footfalls grew fainter as the trio made their way in the opposite direction. Torch light dimmed and Raven stood from where she’d been kneeling. She took a moment to allow her eyes to adjust to the new darkness and then searched the territory around her.
She recognized the layout of the trees, the fallen logs, even the way the leaves spread themselves across the forest floor. The fort was about a quarter of a mile east. But if the guards were right and Loki had remained by the river, she would need to find him first. Something might have happened to him. If he was well, he’d have gone from the river straight to the fort. If he’d been hurt, though, then she needed to get to him before the dog did.
She glanced up. Unable to use the moons to guide her through the thick canopy of tree branches overhead, she relied upon her memory instead. There was a shortcut from the river to the fort. The river was the best place to start.
At once, she was off and running again. Her long legs carried her swiftly over the ground until she could once again see torch light. The water babbled and splashed as it cascaded down falls of rocks in this familiar bend. The path to the fort was on the other side.
Raven had no idea whether her brother were still here or not. If he was unconscious, she would have no way of finding him until the guards were gone, or until they had found him first.
They would hear her if she called out in any way. She sat there in the shadows and racked her brain for some way to distract the guards long enough to search the river’s perimeter.
And then she heard the crackling sound again. She looked down, almost positive she would see ice spreading across the forest floor beneath her feet. But this time the sound wasn’t coming from her.
She smelled smoke. She looked back up and noticed a new light across the river. A fire had been started. It sparked to life and grew with frightening speed. In a few seconds it had become a bonfire, blazing bright and roaring with immense heat as it gobbled up the logs that had been placed atop it.
The inferno shed enough light to see quite clearly now. Raven watched the guards as they tried to stumble their way across the river while holding on to the dog as he yipped and yapped and struggled against the leash with all of his might. The animal had no desire to investigate the fire; however, the guards seemed determined to do so.
She waited. She knew Loki was smart enough not to draw attention to himself in such a manner. In fact, she was fairly certain that the fire had been meant as a diversion. So, she sat back on her haunches and listened.
A snapping of a twig behind her drew her into a standing position, her hands at her sides, balled into fists.
“It’s me.” Loki came out of the shadows, a bow in one hand, a rag-tipped arrow in the other. Raven could smell kerosene.
“How did you get it lit?” she asked automatically, referring to the other arrow that he had obviously set ablaze and sent hurling into the bonfire across the river.
“The acolytes at Haledon’s temple gave me a fire stone. Said I would need it.”
Raven smiled. “I guess they were right.”
“Come on, we need to get our supplies and get as far away as possible while we can.”
Raven nodded and they quickly headed around the river at a safe distance from the bonfire. In the cast off light from the fire, it was easy to find the remnants of the trail they’d once carved into the forest as children. They followed it, running until the fire behind them was no longer visible.
Within a few moments, they arrived at the run down remains of what had once been their childhood hideaway, a tree house, falling and forgotten. Rotted timbers hung from bent nails on thick, lower branches. A roof of faded linens, eaten through with multiple holes, dangled in rags that flapped in a gentle midnight breeze.
Loki led them to the base of the tree and began to shove leaves away from a small crevice in the trunk. Inside were two bags. He took one, threw the strap over his shoulder, and handed her the other.
“We’ve enough food for four or five days, if we’re careful. We’ll have to find water as we go.”
She nodded and pulled her own strap over her head and shoulder, securing it beneath the opposite arm. Then they were running again, putting distance between themselves and the guards that would now be realizing they’d been led astray. As they moved, Raven thought of the village they were leaving. The village they had been born in, grew up in, the village they would never see again. Raven was thankful that Loki had to concentrate so hard on the ground before him that he was unable to see the tears that stained his sister’s cheeks.