Thunder and Lightning

Part 3

“Volunteers for Our Lady’s Guards!” roared Ike, the Captain of the Guards who swore he’d been named for a war god. Lord of Lies, more like, is what I’d heard.

Fighting the desire to wipe the leer off his face, I stepped away from my sisters to stand alone. “Sir!” I shouted, even as the word stuck in my throat.

Ike gave a nod, avoiding my eyes, as he pointed toward the palace steps. The other hopeful volunteers were already lining up facing the steps. They looked like a line of targets for a firing squad. My dread growing, I trudged across the cracked concrete to join them.

Gunter and Barak avoided my eyes, but I felt the fierce joy at knowing our plan was proceeding. We faced forward, waiting for the Bitch to emerge from the palace. A flurry of movement at the palace entrance caught my eyes.

“Our Lady Cantrella!” Ike shouted and the crowd fell silent.

The Bitch looked younger up close, but her eyes were as mad as they said. Her lips were parted in a perpetual snarl as she looked through us as if we did not exist.

Behind her there was a rustle of movement. A girl walked awkwardly from the shadows to the sun, as if her feet were numb. She was followed by two more, no less clumsy than the first. The fourth placed her feet carefully, clad in heels I remembered from my childhood but hadn’t seen since. Her steps held grace the others lacked, though she was smaller than the rest. Two girls stumbled out behind her, almost falling at the first step. One bumped into the little one. I waited eagerly for them to bowl her over like a skittle, but she caught the other girl and righted her without losing her balance one bit.

The girls lined up behind the Bitch, giggling behind their hands just like my sisters. But these girls were not human.

The little one caught me looking, her eyes holding mine with a fierce intensity no human child could have. I bowed my head so she wouldn’t read my thoughts. I wanted to lock her in a room with Ike and see how arrogant she was then, if I could have stood Ike’s cockiness after. As it was, I tried to put the thought out of my head. I needed to look like a loyal soldier and guard, so I’d have the opportunity to be a distinctly disloyal soldier and end the Bitch’s reign.

The little one touched the Bitch’s arm and whispered something. The Bitch waved her away and she stepped back again, smiling slightly. I wondered and worried.

Ike approached the Bitch and they shared some words, too quiet for the rest of us to hear. The exchange ended with his deep nod, his helmet almost tumbling from his head to her feet. He caught it before it hit, his face red as her frown deepened. He hurried away from her. I smiled inwardly at his fear.

Ike started pointing. “You, you, you…and you!” He picked the twins and two others I didn’t know. He stood in front of me, a nasty smile on his face, before he picked the man beside me. Bastard, I thought furiously. His chosen five trooped up the steps to bow to the Bitch, before Ike led them to one side. He handed out tabards, each bearing the Bitch’s standard of a seven-headed dragon.

The rest of us hunched and started to shuffle off.

“HALT!” he hollered and halt we did.

Ike’s smile grew nastier still. “Our Lady’s sisters require companions. They will choose from among the volunteers who are not fitted for fighting for Our Lady.”

Companions? FUCK!

We’d all heard the stories. When the sirens came to the shore for companions, they were never seen again. Legends said the sirens devoured them, but when Ike was drunk he told us differently. He said the sirens fucked them and had them executed in the morning. The only way to survive was to please a siren so she wanted you again – something no one ever had.

Don’t pick me. If I die, my sisters will be his within days.

I squeezed my eyes shut and prayed to any deity who would listen. Some said the gods had all deserted us in the floods, but some said they would return if we were good. I didn’t care who or what they were, as long as they saved my sisters from Ike and his like.