I dreamt I dwelt in Marble halls...
Her eyes darted from side to side, seeing that everything was black as night. She could make her getaway, she thought and got to her feet. As soon as she stood up, she heard a clanging, and she immediately ducked back down as a stone went winging her way from the shadows.
So, they were keeping watch.
She smiled to herself.
She laid down on her stomach, and began to wiggle away from her corner to her bars, to see who was out there and standing guard. She slithered over to her open barred cage, and then looked swiftly to her right, seeing two women she recognized, and then two men that she marked as having interesting tribal tattoos. She moved backwards to her corner again, and then checked her boot for the knife that had been overlooked when they had captured her.
She sat down on her knees, and then slowly bent backwards, sliding her fingers into her boot knife's sheath. She palmed the black knife, and then began to saw the ropes that bound her hands until they were free. Sweating, she listened for the guards to see if they had caught on to what she was up to and then she closed her eyes for a short nap. No one would see that she was free until morning, and by then, she hoped, she would be able to fight herself free, or she would be gone.
She smiled again to herself.
(+)
She woke when the moon was high in the sky, shining down clear beams to light the cage up that she had been put into. She sat up on her knees and scooted over to where the dying embers of the fire were, and checked the guards. Three were asleep, and one had nodded off while on watch. She grinned, and then began to slowly saw back and forth with her knife on the vines that held her cage door closed. She did the top, middle and then half of the bottom when she saw the guard who was on duty snap their head up and look at her with eyes like an angry chimpanzee. She backed away from the door, making sure not to touch it and give away that she had basically opened it.
The guard lazily tossed a stone at her, and it whizzed over her head, making a whooshing sound. She crouched back in her dark corner and tucked her knife back into her boot. She could shove her foot against the door and it would spring open. She thought for a moment as the guard moved around the fire, with a coffee pot in hand. She wanted her sword back, she needed it back. If she did not take it back, the sword would weaken and so would she.
There weren't enough souls in it to feed her strength.
She sighed.
If only I hadn't made the deal with the witch for my safekeeping. She's probably laughing right now in her warm cave.
The soldier sat back down on the stump that he had been stationed at, leaving the cup of hot fluid at his feet. She knew it would be forgotten, and in time, it was. He dropped back off to sleep, and she went back to the door, running her fingers over the dry vine. It crackled lightly underneath her probing fingertips, and then it crumbled into dust. She couldn't believe her luck. She took a deep breath, and then swung the door open silently.
Freedom!
She slipped out of the cage, and the soft grass underneath her boots softened the light thump she made as she dropped from the doorway of the cage. Her eyes darted back and forth, and then she silently walked silently away.
Her sword, she knew, rested in the captain's tent and she would have to enter it. She dreaded that because she knew it would be fatal to either her or him, and she was not eager to kill until she needed to. The sword was whispering her name in her ear, it's voice calling her to it and she knew without it she would become nonexistant. It was not that she would die, it was that she would disappear into the world of people who were not dead yet, but were no longer alive: One with no soul.
The witch's deal went farther than she had ever imagined.
She was light on her toes, the shadows of the night covering her and protecting her. She moved to the captain's tent and saw that a light still burned in it. She looked at her hands, small and pale in the shining moonlight, and then folded them into fists. She would find Jeremy, no matter if she had to kill whoe cities just to see who knew anything about him at all. After all, what were siblings for? She walked forward, and then opened the flap of the tent so that she could peer inside. She stepped in, and then heard the sword's voice so loud that it nearly blinded her.
The captain sat up in his cot, and held out the sword to her. "How did you get free?"
"They fell asleep," she answered. "Please, you don't know what you have in your hands. I must have it back."
"Take it," he offered it to her, and when she touched the scabbard she let out a moan of relief because she could hear the weapon singing to her. "But you must kill me after you unsheath it to make sure that I have not hurt it."
"I cannot," she denied him. "You gave me back what I sought, and so for that I-"
"Shut up," he said softly. "I am captain, and I am not what I seem. You kill me, and then I will help you with whatever you wish."
"It is my task, if I set you free, you must let me do it alone," she ordered, her tone grimmer.
"I will help you as best I can in the form that I will take," he stood up, and she realized that he was nearly six feet tall. His lips curled up into a slight smile, "Just do me this favor."
"As you wish," she flung the scabbard aside with a flick of her wrist, hearing it hum with glee.
With a stroke that was faster than the captain himself could see, even though he was a class a swordsman, she cut him from his breastbone at an angle, and he dropped to her feet with a stunned look on his face in two pieces. She put a foot on his body and yanked out her blade, and saw the sphere of his soul enter and slide down the blade, the moonstone at the hilt pulsing with power. She backed away from the body, and as she did, a black fog rose and covered it smelling as if it were fetid animal skin. She coughed, holding her sword in a catious grip.
"Don't be afraid of me, little maiden," it rumbled, and a face appeared amid the magical fog.
"Who are you?" she whispered, and then sheathed her sword, as she knew it was not needed.
"I am your imp in a bottle," he gathered her up in arms of black smoke, and carried her out into the forest, away from her empty cage, away from the lit tent, away from the soldiers that were out to kill her. She held on tightly, not sure where she was going, but feeling safe anyways.
I felt a bit creative tonight, and then the words kind of just spilled out. Funny, I don't want to stop, I want her to live, to breathe, to be here now. I'm happy for Katie, and hopefully sooner or later something good will be flung my way as well.
If you could only see how blue her eyes can be
when she says
when she says she loves me.