COF 2: The Soul Spells

19 | Siege (II)

Xanthy opened her eyes to a blurred environment. Her neck hurt. Where was she? What happened?

Slowly, her surroundings came to focus as her eyes adjusted to the bright light shining through some kind of a thick film. She blinked a few times until the familiar shape of a triangular, cloth tent registered in her mind. The tent flap that would lead to the outside world billowed here and there as the wind blew against it.

Xanthy craned her neck at the ceiling and noticed a pole keeping the entire tent up. She was also tied up against it, the splinters digging into her back and arms. There was nothing in the tent with her except a few stray leaves that fell from their branches before being ushered inside by the wind.

Xanthy gritted her teeth as she squirmed. The cord used to tie her up cut through her skin. Already, her arms sported red and raw marks. She tried standing up but with her legs folded underneath her, it was damn near impossible.

Where was her bow and quiver? Where was Cyrdel and Ravalee? The last thing she remembered was trudging through Joperos Lin and then...darkness. Xanthy squinted at the light pouring from outside. It's still morning. Good. She wasn't gone for long.

She bit her lip as she looked around. Where was the thief?

The cords sent stinging pain up her arms when she as much as squirmed the wrong way. Xanthy ground her teeth and shut her eyes, feeling inside herself for her magic. It would be easy to burn through these cords with a simple maxia spell.

Then again, using magic would alert her captors that she's trying to escape. She's got no options, then.

"Don't look so sullen," a voice rang from the tent's flap. Xanthy narrowed her eyes and recoiled as light flooded the tent when a silhouette raised the flap.

A woman with hair a strange shade between blue and gray strode inside, wearing what Xanthy guessed to be light armor consisting of a breastplate, arm guards, knee pads, and shoulder pads lined with what looked like to be graspel fur.

Knee-high, leather boots crept into Xanthy's vision as the woman stopped near where Xanthy was tied up. Metal clinked together as the woman crouched next to Xanthy.

"Seems like Mother has no shame to account for," the woman's lamp-like, yellow eyes sifted through Xanthy's entire being. The dark slits of a pupil drove dread up Xanthy's spine. Her smile showed off yellowing, crooked teeth, reminding Xanthy of a cleret. The woman tilted her head to one side in wonder. "Sending you to sabotage our camp. Why? Did she know they've already lost?"

Xanthy narrowed her eyes. Mother? Then this was no other than...

"Kymalin Iaro, at your service," the woman grinned wider, her teeth seemingly elongating into fangs in Xanthy's vision. Her stomach turned. Kymalin. Why was she here? Shouldn't the banshee be attacking the Temple now?

Kymalin clicked her tongue. "You and your pathetic brownie friends didn't even take that much effort."

Xanthy knitted her eyebrows. "How did you know? My friends have vanished. It's impossible to track them, even their trails."