Discoveries

27

"Did you have to do it that way? Couldn't you at least have told me that I was to be drugged?"

"We could have, but, it might have influenced what you Saw, and that is not what we wish," replied the Rose, shrugging her shoulders. "Do not forget it, and keep your Sights to yourself. Seek wisdom in them, you might find their use in the most unexpected corners."

Not totally convinced, I nodded and walked over to Bæ. He lay on a rock, baking in the sun, and opened one intelligent eye.

Hello Bæ, I said.

Hello, Apprentice. You must go soon. Do you wish for a ride? His voice was deep but soft, like a grandfather's.

That would be nice, thank you.

I clambered onto his back and held on as good as I could. He stood, stretched, and flapped his mighty wings. We were up in no time, high above the mountains.

Where do you wish to go? Bæ asked.

Wherever you wish to take me.

Very well.

He veered left, increasing speed. The mountains got higher, the peaks snow-topped. One mountain was highest of them all. It had a balcony on it, a ring of stone around the top, with the entrance to a cave. I had been there once before.

But we weren't going there.

Bæ slowed down, and landed in a little valley. I slid off his back with a slight thud.

Something wasn't right.

I smelled blood.

Following my nose, I walked around a rock.

Behind it lay a girl. Ragged breaths escaped her shaky body. Her arms and legs were twisted in unnatural ways, and her ribs were bare. She was bleeding heavily from that wound.

Taking a pouch from my belt, I crouched down by her side. I tore fabric from my shirt and tried to stop the blood.

Behind me someone chuckled.

I spun around, unsheathing a dagger.

"You can't save her, it's too late now. I would focus on saving yourself, if I were you," said a tall, slender woman, with grey hair and brown eyes, wearing a torn, black dress. In her hand she held a short, curved sword, with blood still dripping from the blade. She batted a pair of wings much like a bat's, but shredded to vile pieces.

She sliced the air with her sword.

"Come on, try and kill me for what I did," she challenged me.

"Nope, I'm not stupid. Now, please leave," I said. "I need to attend to this girl."

"No you don't."

Suddenly she was right in front of me, but I was fast now, after moons of training, and I easily dodged the deadly blade. With a Shan I gave her a slice, which she blocked, only my dagger was a thing she didn't see coming. It sank into her flesh easily. The woman cried out in disbelief.

A burst of warmth flew past me and all of a sudden she was aflame.

I looked behind me and saw Bæ, his jaw wide open with fire shooting out of it. The heat was immense, but of no bother to me. She screamed and danced, changing from form to form, and eventually fell to the ground, moving no more. My dagger had melted into nothingness.

Bæ bowed his head, and I bowed back.

The girl!

I ran over to her. She was unearthly white, and close to death. Out of my pouch I took a little vial with a poison that would give her the boost she needed. The cloth I tied around her chest as tight as I could. It would have to do.