Inheritance

Part 2. Chapter 60: Untamed

Kori licked her lips; she was dehydrated, sticky, and wet. It had been days since she had bathed, and she could feel sweat and grime sticking to her skin and clothes. Again, she wondered where her twenty soldiers were hiding and hoped they would rescue her soon.

Francis was being chatty and annoying, and Kori was glad of it. The previous day, he had been quiet and was coughing and sneezing up a storm. He was sick, and despite that, he still had energy to be annoying. Kori found herself smiling at that fact.

"You are all surely brutes," Francis said through a particularly violent sneeze. "Picking on a woman not even half your size and an elf not even half your width!"

Kori had been sure to be silent while Francis delivered complaint after complaint and the occasional insult at the elf-humans because she wanted to stay on their good side, but that comment was too much for her. She burst out laughing.

Kori realized, with much amusement, that two Francises could fit into one Hew. Her raucous laughter made birds from a nearby tree take flight.

Maybe it was her sticky clothes or her light-headedness from lack of food or water, but that jape struck her funny bone.

The elf-humans made no reaction to her laughter nor Francis' insolent remarks. They stoically marched onward.

Another light rain shower doused the elf-humans, Kori, and Francis.

Francis was shaking; he looked pale and exhausted. His teeth chattered.

Kori watched him with her forehead wrinkled in concern. She reached out with her magic to check how he was doing.

She felt immense lethargy, heavy muscles, and aching limbs. His tiredness was so palpable that it momentarily transferred to her and weighed her down.

"We have to take a break! Francis is deathly ill!" Kori told her captors.

Just as she said it, Francis' eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fainted.

Hew paused, as did the men who followed him. He sighed. "Perhaps we should leave him... We don't really need him, after all. He's weighing us down. We only need the waif."

"You can't leave him! I need him!" Kori protested.

Hew stroked his chin and ignored her protest. "He is an elf... If there's anyone who treats us worse than humans, it's elves. Killing him might be cathartic. Not only that, but killing him would put a stop to his endless japes. What do you all think? A swift and merciful death for the elf?"

The elf-humans nodded vigorously with a resounding, "Yes!"

Hew unsheathed his blade and stepped over to where Francis had fallen.

Kori was stunned.

"I thought you were a reasonable person!" Kori said desperately. "I thought you were a good man!"

Hew gave her a worn smile. "Poor, little waif... The rest of us do not hold ourselves to the same moral standards that you hold yourself to. Your little victories as a Redeemer—your attempts to tame society--are pointless... I am a slave to this world's morality, the same as everyone else. Being a good man is meaningless in such a world. Fear not, you will be kept alive, but we have no uses for the elf."

He lifted his blade high.

Kori's fingers twitched with green fire.

The blade plunged downwards.

Green fire turned the ropes binding Kori's wrists to ash; with a yell, she launched a fireball from her palm.

It slammed into Hew—his blade slipped from his grasp--he was blown backward.