The Witch And The Other One
Part 6
Naomi
knelt before Renil the Valorian suffering agonies galore.
"You'll
have to forgive me that last explosion, Naomi," he said, smiling down at
her with his pale green eyes. "I realize that cost you a great deal of
energy, but we certainly couldn't have your little friend following you here,
now could we?"
"I
suppose not," Naomi strained.
"We
had a deal, you and I, did we not?" Renil said. "Two of them, in
fact. I told you to bring me a fairy to drain and you chose to let her go.
Why?"
"You
wouldn't understand," Naomi said, gasping heavily as the pain from the magic
Renil had taken from her to destroy Christine's door began to subside.
"Try
me," he said. She looked up defiantly at him and he narrowed his eyes at
her. "I've already made you kneel, bold one, I can certainly make you
grovel."
Naomi
sighed shakily. "She was my sister, and I should've never brought her to
you. But forget using her, okay, because you'll never find her. Happy?"
"Mind
your tongue," he said, zapping Naomi with a bolt of her own magic. She
wavered, but did not fall from her knees. "But now I see. This sister of
yours, she must have caused you an attack of conscience. How tragically sad.
Your career as a ruthless fairy hunter has been brought to such an abrupt end
because of it. I suppose it was for the best, however. You certainly couldn't have
maintained your objectivity anymore."
"Oh,
I dunno, I could've given it a shot," Naomi replied, trying to keep her
voice steady..
"Nonsense,"
said Renil. "You know that once an assassin or hunter develops a feeling
for the prey, he or she is useless." Naomi did not answer, so he
continued. "As I said, we did have two deals and the second was my
enslavement of you in the stead of your sister. Of course, your running away
has only aggravated the situation, but nevertheless, I can sympathize. I had
meant to make your death a long and painful one, but I see now your heroics
deserve a swift death." He paused for a moment, then continued suddenly,
as if enlightened. "In fact, I've just the method of destroying you. I
shall expend all your magic into build a memorial shrine in which to keep your
crystalline remains when you are gone."
"Beautiful."
Naomi muttered.
"I
knew you'd like it," he smirked, then turned and immediately began
sculpting his masterpiece.
"Wait!"
Naomi asked him, feeling the strain of the magic loss already. He paused with a
patient but, slightly irritated look and she said, "I know you've been
trying to save up all this magic so you can kill this future fairy empress
chick, but don't you think I'd be a lot more help to you if you kept me around
until that moment you have to destroy her, rather than wasting all of my magic
on some monument to me?"
Renil
gave her a condescending look. "Naomi, I'm surprised at you. Begging for
mercy? Really, it's quite beneath you. Hush, now, I want this to look
perfect..."
He
was well into detailing a small ionic column when Naomi found herself crumpling
to the ground...
Target's
first shot whizzed past the guy's ear, like I'd told him, just as he, Robin,
Marcus, Christine and I watched Naomi fall sideways off her knees. The man
looked at us with mild interest.
"Yes?"
he said, as if summoned.
"That
warning shot was only at the specific request of the Lady Daina
'ere," said Target congenially, holding his energy gun. "So perhaps
ye'd better take a listen to what she's gonna tell ya."
"My
God, he is a Valorian," Robin said softly.
"Tell
him to undo whatever he's done to Naomi," Christine said, tugging on me
from behind. Why she was hiding now when this had all been her idea, I didn't
know, but I was still her slave after having watched her become hysterical, so
who was I to argue?
"We've
come to take Naomi back with us," I said. "So undo your enslavement
spell on her."
"Who
are you?" he asked me.
"Daina
Threa...well, just Daina," I said, remembering the wide lack of last names
in the realms. "And who are you?"
"Renil,
the Valorian, my lady," said he, bowing politely. "Now, as to your
request to release Naomi, I'm afraid I can't do that. Naomi belongs to
me."
"No,
she doesn't," I replied. "You can't own a person."
"I'm
not owning a person, although if they gave themselves over to me as she did, I
would. I'm owning a fairy and that is not at all the same," the man
replied.
"What
do you mean, it's not the same?" Robin demanded, bristling. We all knew
perfectly well what he meant, which was why Target and I both held Robin back
with an arm while I said,
"How
could she give herself to you?"
"She
forfeited herself to me when she helped her sister escape me. She could have
let her be drained in her stead, but she chose to be gallant," the man
shrugged. "I look upon it as a debt she must pay me."
"Then
allow me to pay that debt for her," said Robin.
"Robin!"
I exclaimed in protest.
"'Ere,
now, luv..." Target said, in his own protest.
"Another
gallant move, my lady, but this a specific wrong that's been done me and I'm
not interested in substitutes...(here he paused to eye Robin appraisingly)...no
matter how qualified they may be." He began to turn back to his work and I
began to feel some of Christine's insistence to help Naomi live (partially
spurred on by her tugging frantically at my shirt. Desperately, I said,
"Okay...so
Naomi acted nobly. For this you punish her?" I asked.
"On
the contrary; I am helping her." said the man, turning to me again.
"If Naomi were awake now, she'd tell you she has no future as a bounty
hunter anymore. She's developed a feeling for her prey. She's simply too
objective."
"Objectivity
is one of those traits that separates man from beast," Robin said
steadily.
"A
bounty hunter must become the beast to have an edge on those more human than
themselves," the man smiled.
"Then
maybe Naomi is more human than you're trying to make her out to be!"
Christine exclaimed, stepping out from behind me at last.
The
man's face paled. "You!" he whispered. Then he looked down at Naomi
and said, "Well, Naomi, it looks as though you'll be around to help me
destroy the empress after all." Suddenly, he shot a bright blue ball of
magic at Christine. She jumped and it narrowly missed her, but the truce was
broken. All present, including Marcus and Target, had mentally agreed that
after this unwarranted attack on our favorite junior empress-to-be, this man
could be allowed to live no longer.
Everyone
but Christine began to hurl every bit of magic they had at this man, who was
slowly beginning to weaken. I was feeling confident about quick and easy win on
this one when Christine, who'd gone to kneel next to Naomi, began to shriek at
us to stop.
I
looked at her in protest. "Chris...!"
"You're
killing Naomi!" she said, pointing to her. The four of us stopped to look
and, sure enough, Naomi was becoming pale and stiff, as if turning to crystal.
Renil's use of her magic to fight us, combined with the strain of our fight,
was sapping Naomi of the very life we were trying to save.
"Well,
this is just great!" I swore, while Robin and Marcus quickly knelt by
Naomi to help her. "How are we s’posed to break this enslavement
thing?" I asked Target quietly, while the man recovered.
"We
don't," Target replied. "It's only removable by the caster."
"That's
not us, is it?" I said wryly.
"Nope,"
he said, "we're the outta luck rescue team."
"Take
out the "rescue" part and that's us," I said.
"I
see you've discovered how futile your efforts are," the man said, smiling
slightly. "I'm not asking much, however. I'll even make a deal with you.
Let me kill that little demon you have there with you and I'll give you Naomi
back."
I
snorted in derision. "Please."
"Too
bad. You could have, at least, spared one life," the man said, shaking his
head. Another ball of magic flew at the little group huddled around Naomi's
lifeless body and Target and I moved simultaneously. Target fired his gun and I
held up my hands, both of us concentrating not on another attack, but a shield
for us all.
"Think
o' something, luv," Target said to me, his face as strained as mine as the
man continued to batter our defenses. "This only holds for a while."
"Same
here," I gasped. "Robin, quick...ideas!"
Robin
shook her head. "We're losing Naomi. There's not much we can do except
save Christine."
"Christine,
don't!" Marcus said. I looked at him to find Chris gone.
"Mark...!"
I began. He couldn't let go of Naomi's hand, but he pointed toward the man. I
looked up in dread and saw Christine running toward him.
"Chris,
no!!!" I yelled, letting my guard down for a moment too long. The
last ball of magic that we would have successfully avoided together hit what
was left of Target's shield and blew through it and the two of us like several
tons of bricks and knocked us both off our feet, leaving Robin and Marcus
exposed. Apparently, however, his attention was wholly diverted by Christine's
presence.
"So
you're Renil," she said.
"And
you're the fairy empress," Renil replied.
"Not
yet, but pretty soon," Christine said coolly.
"Such
confidence!" Renil laughed.
"Let
Naomi go," Christine said seriously. "And you can have me." I
stared in disbelief, positive what I'd just heard her say was coming from my
imagination
"Surely
you jest."
"If
you can take me," Chris added, arching an eyebrow in challenge.
Renil
laughed again, staring at her in disbelief. "Without help from you
friends?" he asked.
"Without
help," she said.
"Chris...!"
I gasped...and suddenly, I was in a bright field filled with flowers.
Christine, Renil and everyone else were nowhere to be seen. Oh, God, don't
let her leave me like this!, I thought wildly, more concerned about losing
her than my inability to help her. I had known from the moment King Daniel of
Pyrope had told me Christine would be the most powerful empress that the
kingdom of Faerie had ever known; at that moment I had known that hers and my existence
would be fraught with people trying to challenge this fact. Never in my
thoughts, however, had I ever foreseen her not receiving protection from me.
But
here she was up against one of the most difficult enemies she and I had ever
faced (because of our limited ability to fight him without detriment to our
goal) and wherever I was, it wasn't with her. Another thought hit me as I
remembered her saying "without help". What if none of us were
there to help her? What if that witch had cast us all in separate directions so
that we'd never get to her until it was too late?
I had to find my way back to her.
Immediately, I tried to create a door, but one wouldn't come.
I
was trapped here with no way out.
"CHRISTINE!!!"
I yelled in anguish.
I
got no answer except for a warm breeze fraught with the fragrance of spring
flowers...