ONIUM | Open Novella Contest 2020

Chapter 6: Hell Hath No Fury

"I didn't find my purse among my belongings." Quinnley said once they were out of  the sheriff's earshot. "They must have hidden or spent it already."

Vivian eyed the young woman, walking calmly on the other side of Lunam. A host of questions crowded the princess's brain. What was her involvement with the mercenaries? Did she know Gleason? What caused the building to explode?

Quinnley's gnarled walking stick, her weary limp, and ash covering her short locks made her look like an old woman. Her complexion could hardly be made out underneath the soot and dirt streaked over her cheeks.

Her dress was in tatters, the outer skirt having been burned away leaving nothing but singed pieces of Marson cloth to sway in the breeze. The frilly hat was long gone, as was any care Quinnley had about her appearance.

Vivian held her tongue, knowing that to ask would give away her intentions. Instead she pulled out a handful of coin, enough to keep the girl in town a few days but not enough to buy her passage with a caravan.

The princess wanted to keep her close if she could find no other leads. She wordlessly passed the coins beneath Lunam's snout. "For your help with the bounties."

Quinnley frowned at the amount. "This is only enough to last me a day or two while you keep the rest of that fat purse to yourself. I won't even be able to afford a decent set of new clothes. I did a share of the work."

Vivian raised an eyebrow. Quinnley was indeed a strange one. "You already forget the debt you owe me, not to mention that I saved your life. Not lifting a finger except to bat your eyes at incapacitated prisoners does not count as work."

"Can't I stay with you until I pay you back? I will keep my promise."

Vivian was getting annoyed. She wanted Quinnley close, but not close enough to observe her coming and goings. "Pay me with what money? The world doesn't work in promises and I can't keep wasting my time on your nonsense. Just take the coin so I can wash my hands of you."

The exhaustion of her overnight activities was beginning to set in. The princess just wanted to fall into a blissful sleep on a mattress.

Quinnley stopped walking. "If I'm such a burden then why offer at all? You didn't have to save me."

Vivian didn't reply. There was no way to justify why she felt inexplicably drawn to the young woman. Beyond her suspicions, the princess just couldn't walk away.

Perhaps she had spent too much time alone in the woods, because she ignored all of her rules the moment she picked up Quinnley on the side of the road.

The other girl reminded the princess of a younger, more desperate version of herself. The way she trusted complete strangers was downright stupid, but it spoke of an innocence that Vivian felt she never had, even as a child. It made her want to protect Quinnley from the hard reality of life in Pandem, or at least ease her into it.

But Vivian wasn't so out of her depth to think that she could afford a distraction like Quinnley. Both Nelson and Gleason were nowhere to be found after the inn's bonfire and the uncertainty was eating at Vivian's bones. She couldn't afford to drag such a naive person into her world of secrets, betrayals, and deception.

No, it was much better that Quinnley fend for herself. Vivian dropped the money at the girl's feet. "It was pity, just like now." She said before tugging a reluctant Lunam away from the other woman.

"You are such an arse," the lady said before bending down and picking up the coins. Her bright green eyed burned with indignation and humiliation as she gathered up her scorched dress and stalked off.