Band of Sisters

Chapter 4

We decided to head out immediately with the idea that if we were to return to the High Lord of the Spring Court, he would find a way to keep us there with magic or perhaps even the strength of his beast form that even Aelin might not be able to best.

So we trekked.

Lysandra had noticed which direction the Suriel had looked when he'd told us of our day of travel, so we thought that was our best lead. Aelin somehow had found her knives while Alis was dressing her and currently had them strapped to her trousers. I silently thanked the Cauldron my sisters were no longer in dresses.

When we'd stopped for a quick bite after I'd found some familiar berries Lysandra said, "I don't think I want a mate."

"Me either," I said immediately.

Aelin started to laugh and we joined right in. I had to keep raising a hand to wave them quieter. We'd been walking wordlessly for hours now. The grounds had slowly become less of a garden and more of a forest, so we felt secure that we were putting plenty of distance between ourselves and Tamlin.

"What if the High Lord of the Spring Court was Aelin's mate?" Lys asked. She'd tried to make it through the whole sentence without laughing, but had failed, grabbing her stomach in a fit of giggles.

"Well, at least then she wouldn't have to look for his bed for very long," I said.

Aelin lunged for me and I screamed when she tackled me to the grass.

But I'd been too loud. We all stopped, letting the silence encompass us once more before gathering what food we had left in our pockets and continuing our walk.

Though we would run for a few miles, to put some distance between us and the place we might have been heard.

Nightfall was coming when we finally dared to speak again, choosing to discuss our plan of attack on Amarantha instead of talk about mates.

The air around us grew cold and heavy as darkness fell. We all knew well enough not to be out in unfamiliar woods at night, but we'd all chosen irrationally, ready to escape, ready for the adrenaline the unknown brought with it. Stepping through a small pass between two hills, we finally saw the sliver of a cave ahead. It was hardly a mountain.

We all looked to one another's eyes before we entered the cave.

The only sounds in the darkness were our shallow breaths and the sound of our boots on the stone beneath us. We kept to a frigid wall, one hand on its icy surface and another on the shoulder of the sister ahead. Aelin led us, her empty hand held a dagger. We hadn't discussed whether we were attempting to make camp here or if it might actually lead us to Amarantha, but the sweet smell of cold that surrounded us felt unnatural. If we weren't on our way to meet this woman, then we were in for some other magical challenge in this world of fae. I idly wondered if the High Lord of the Spring Court would be able to track us to here.

"Camp?" Aelin whispered.

I nodded without remembering she couldn't see me.

"Sure," Lys said.

We shuffled around in the dark, feeling for where the others were, before I heard the familiar shuffling of sticks. After a handful of tries at forcing their friction with no luck of a flame I could hear Aelin's frustrated grunts growing impatient at the most likely soggy twigs. I gave her a soft hush, trying to remind her that we didn't know if we were alone, but she ignored me. Her grunts grew into growls until her gutteral noises filled the cavern around us. Lysandra and I were reaching for her, trying to tell her to quiet down, when she let out what I could only call a roar.

Then there was fire.

Fire spilled from her hands. Her twigs held a flame ten times taller than it should have been able to. But before we could even register what Aelin had just done, a leathery beast had grabbed Lysandra by the arm. She froze, turning slowly to look into the eyes of the gray beast with pointed spindly fingers. It smiled at her, showing off gleaming, silver fangs.

"Hello," it said, its voice like gravel. And it tried to speak again, but it was cut off by the same surprise that webbed through me. Lysandra's face had been frozen in panic and disgust as she stared at the bat-like creature, but where her face once was, a new face was slowly melding onto her flesh. Her body bowed and broke beneath the beast's touch.

Until Lysandra was a mirror image of the hideous, terrifying creature.

It took a step back, moving away from my sisters. "Oh I've got to take you all to Amarantha," it said, the scratch of its voice seeping into my bones.

"Where is she?" Aelin asked, and then I noticed that she'd never let go of the fire in her palm. She hid it behind her back like she'd done with candy when we were children, Lysandra and I always begging for her last piece.

"Deeper in the mountain," it replied. "Don't worry, I'll get you all there in no time." It dropped that oozing smile on us once more.

"Who are you to her?" Aelin asked. Lysandra was still frozen, staring at the creature. I didn't know if she knew what she'd done - what she looked like - but she seemed just as freaked out about it as I was.

"I am the Attor," the creature offered. "I am a servant of Amarantha. I am her torturer, and I can't wait to get my claws on each of you..."

It didn't have the time to reach out a claw in my direction before Aelin threw the fire from her hands onto the beast. She let out a guttural war cry and the fire grew, engulfing every inch of its leathery hide. An animal screech poured from its monster lips as Aelin didn't wait for the fire to finish the job. She retrieved her hidden blades, sinking them into the gray, muted flesh entirely unafraid of her own skin touching the flames.

We stood there together, watching by the light of the twig fire until the Attor stopped screaming. We watched as Aelin fed the fire until all that was left were his bones, covered in the ash of his own corpse.

I looked to my sisters. One wielding fire as if it were the most natural thing in the world for her to do. And the other... in the skin of the Attor.

Lysandra stared at us and I was sure my face was pure horror.

"I have a plan," she said, and her voice was like crushing glass, so much like the Attor's.