~ Unforgiven ~

Reaping Pain

This is a weird town, Felony thought, as she ran through the backstreets and alleys of Seven Rise. The streets were all straight, for a start, criss-crossing each other in a grid so perfect it made Felony's palms itch. The houses, too, were perfectly square and flat-roofed, arranged in precise rows and columns, like dozens of dice arranged by someone who enjoyed lists a little too much. Strangest of all were the seven towering buildings in the middle of the town, none of them less than a dozen storeys high, all of them made from the same odd, smooth blue stone. It's like someone grabbed a bunch of buildings from a big city, Felony thought, glancing back at them as she made her way outwards, and just plonked 'em down here in the middle of nowhere, on the edge of a desert.

Still, she considered, as she neared the burnt-out husk of the building that was currently serving as their hideout, be a bit of a challenge using those rooftops. Nice and flat, and that stone looks good and grippy, but that gap between each of 'em, you'd have to be real careful with your timing, be real easy to lose momentum.

"You're late."

"Good to see you too, Tal," said Felony, as she closed the trapdoor behind herself. The basement of the ruined house was large and well-appointed, with several good beds, a table and chairs, and a pair of bright lamps. "I'm guessing the others ain't here yet?"

"Your lack of enthusiasm is noted," said Talise, curtly. "I know you don't like Ren, but he's better with Jek around."

"Yeah, I bet," said Felony, as she slumped into a chair. "Only met him for a second, but I couldn't see him putting up with Ren's nonsense."

"No," Talise said. "He once put Ren through a wall."

"Yeah?"

"It was very thin, just wood and paper. Still."

"Would've loved to see that."

Talise continued tapping away at her little message-watch, not looking up. Then she smiled.

"It WAS funny," she said, with a little laugh. Felony gaped at her in mock-shock.

"Did you just LAUGH?" she said. "Man, I wish I could rewind time and see that again, I feel like I was at some great historical moment!"

Talise's face was already back in its usual serious configuration.

"Mr Garnett is NOT happy with Edward," she said. "He hasn't been in contact since the night he let those adepts get away."

"Good," Felony muttered.

"Apparently it's Ren who's been sending messages, goodness only knows how he's able to work the device," Talise continued, either not hearing or ignoring Felony. "Edward's probably gone off on some kind of personal vengeance thing. He loves revenge, can't stand to leave a slight unsettled." She grimaced at the device, then snapped it shut. "He's so petty."

"Yeah, well, you know him better than I do," said Felony.

"Do I?" Talise muttered, low—but not so low that Felony didn't hear. She sighed, then looked up at Felony. "I don't think I've told you this; I'm glad you came on this assignment."

Felony shrugged. "Yeah, well, I'm pretty great to have around, I know. Doing all your running for you and that."

"Yes," Talise said. "Well. You haven't actually reported in yet, I assume you found them?"

"Didn't get too close, but it was definitely them. That carriage of his is real old-fashioned, could spot it from half a dozen streets away."

Talise frowned. "I asked you to confirm that it was them," she said. "Not to go carriage-spotting."

"Hey, excuse me for not sticking my head in the window to make sure, not with that scary bow girl of theirs around. Maybe you don't realise it, sitting here fiddling with your 'devices', but I'm risking my neck out there. And, hey, you said it yourself, that hat guy knows we're coming even before he can see us—"

"He knows when Ren or Kyle or I are coming," said Talise. "You're not an adept, he wouldn't notice you."

"He said I was interesting, though. Maybe I got some real nice-looking energy."

"I doubt that," Talise muttered. "Really, though, I'm a little disappointed at your performance. I thought you were supposed to be the best—"

"I am the best," Felony said, her voice suddenly hard. "And that's without any little tricks. Not that I've seen you do anything, you're supposed to be ice girl or whatever, right? Apart from ruining my bath that time—"

"I don't waste my energy," said Talise. "I use my abilities only when necessary."

"So making the water in my bath cold as a witch's tit was necessary?"

Talise smiled. "Well," she said, "your behaviour certainly improved after that."

"Heh, guess it did." Felony sat back, her narrow eyes on Talise. "You know something, Tal? This assignment is real different to anything I've done before, and it definitely ain't going how I thought it would, but I'm real glad I signed up for it. And it ain't even about the coin I'm building up every day, I was looking for something like this ... dunno, I just like feeling useful, I guess."

"Don't try to change the subject. Next time I give you a job to do, I want you to do it properly. Understand?"

"Yes sir, boss lady," said Felony, saluting sloppily.

"I hope you at least saw where the carriage stopped?"

"Yeah, this big tavern in the middle of town, the Lucky Coins. The carriage went inside this real big stable area. I watched for at least quarter of an hour but it didn't come out again, and, yeah, I checked for other exits. So I reckon they've gotta be there."

"If it's actually them."

"It's them, I told you, that carriage—"

"I'm not getting into that again." Talise looked at Felony, then sighed. "I suppose I can understand the reasoning behind your lack of thoroughness. Very well, I'll trust your judgement."

Felony grinned. "Can't blame a girl for being cautious, yeah?"

"No," said Talise. "I suppose you can't."

Lina almost wept when she saw the potato fields.

"Look," she said, turning to smile at the others. "We must be near a village."

Ada and Naz didn't respond. They just kept walking, their eyes blank, their movements stiff and mechanical.

"Come on," Lina said. "It won't be far now, and we'll be able to get some real food, and sleep in a proper bed. That's if you don't mind paying, Ada, you're the only one of us with money—"

"I don't mind." Ada's voice was small, almost inaudible. "Let's just keep going."

"Good idea!" said Lina, brightly. She hoisted Sophia up a little, getting a better grip on her. "Um, I hope you both like potatoes!"

No response to that. Lina suppressed a sigh and trudged on through the dismal landscape. Even the potato leaves were grey.

It had been four days now, since that horrific night. Lina had done her best to mother the others along, forcing herself to sound jolly and confident when really she was frightened and utterly unsure of herself. She had at least been able to do something practical, in the scavenging of food—many of the edible plants growing in the forest had been the same as those found near her home, mostly wild greens and roots. Water was a bigger problem. They'd stumbled upon a small stream midway through the second day, but since then none of them had drunk so much as a single drop of water.

The only real positive that Lina could find was that they'd seen absolutely no sign of pursuit. She allowed herself to believe that Edward and the others had given up the chase, that all she had to worry about was getting Ada and Naz and Sophia to safety. No one is chasing us, she told herself. We're not running 'from'. We're running 'to'.

Well, walking to, actually, she corrected herself. Staggering to. Shambling to.

Lina glanced at Naz as they walked along. He hadn't said much of anything since that night, little more than an occasional 'thank you' or 'yes'. There were times when Lina felt that she should resent the boy; after all, it was rescuing him that had put them all in this position to begin with, but whenever she tried she felt the resentment slip away. It's me, she always thought, it's not his fault, it's mine, because I was the one who let myself be captured, and I was the one who decided we should head south, instead of going back to the city to maybe get some food and clothes, and Fin and the others might even have been waiting there. Or if we're putting blame on people then Sophia is the one who decided to save him, or Sophia and Ada both, I wasn't paying much attention at the time but both of them seemed very set on the idea. They just needed me to heal him.

Perhaps this was the reason Lina could feel no resentment towards Naz; his injuries had healed completely, with no sign of anything bad. What was it Ada had said? Poison blood? The sight of the X-shaped scar on Naz's stomach, more than anything else, gave Lina an odd kind of strength. He would be dead without me, she would think, whenever she glimpsed it through the coat he wore. At least I did something.

"Life."

For a moment Lina thought she'd imagined the word. Then Naz spoke again, his voice soft:

"That village. It's called Life."

Lina stared at him, then she looked straight ahead. It was early in the evening and the light was already going, but now that she looked she could see it; a low little village, flat against the distant ground.

"Life," Lina murmured. Then she smiled, long-needed hope rising within her. "We found it, we found a village!"

"We still have to get to the desert," said Ada, her tone weary and irritated. "This isn't some great goal."

"But it is!" Lina said. "We made it, by ourselves, from here it'll be easier..."

She trailed off. It was clear that Ada wasn't listening. Not through any kind of conscious rudeness, she just didn't have the energy to spare.

"We just have to keep going for a little further," Lina said. "Just a little further and we'll be okay."

The last hour was the hardest.

Naz kept stumbling; at first Ada helped him, but soon she became frustrated and angry, convinced that he was doing it on purpose, or if not on purpose then through some kind of laziness, that he just wasn't trying hard enough. Lina tried to calm her but Ada was working herself almost into hysteria now, exhaustion and hunger and thirst all piling up within her, and Lina's words were useless, they didn't even register with the girl as she collapsed to her knees, her face buried in her hands, sobbing with all the strength left in her small body.

Lina knelt beside Ada as she cried, Naz sitting awkwardly nearby, Sophia lying against the dirt of the road (Lina hadn't wanted to lay her down like this, but she couldn't see any other option). In truth Lina would have liked nothing more than to join Ada, to open her mouth and let out some of the suffering she'd endured, but she knew that this was the one thing that she simply could not do, that if she broke then it would be over, it didn't matter that the village was just there, Naz and Ada needed strength, and Lina was the only person who could provide it.

And so Lina held Ada close, and spoke to her soothingly, and stroked her hair and babbled about how much she liked it, how nicely that bob style suited her, and she told her how pretty her unusual amber eyes were, and how brave she was, and how strong, and how it was just a little longer now so don't cry, sweet child, don't cry.

Eventually something worked, and Ada's choking sobs became quieter and calmer and more controlled, settling into a shuddery breath every few seconds, and then not even that.

"I'm really thirsty now," Ada eventually managed to say, her voice still tearful and more than a little hoarse, but Lina smiled and then so did Ada, and then Lina helped her to her feet, and Naz stood too, and Ada smiled at him and said how sorry she was, and Naz said 'sorry', just that, and then 'thank you', and Ada smiled again, and then Lina picked up Sophia and for a moment it felt like everything might be all right after all.

Then Sophia stiffened, Lina felt it immediately and she stopped and lowered her hurriedly to the ground, the girl's face was so pale that for a moment Lina feared the worst, but then she realised that, no, she's breathing, it's shallow and too fast but she's breathing, what do I do?

She tried putting her hands on Sophia, willing her healing powers to come and magically do whatever was needed to make her better, but nothing happened, there was no shrinking of the world, no sudden clear knowledge of what to do, just a horrible emptiness inside; emptiness, and an awareness of pain that could not be touched.

Unable to think of anything else, Lina picked up Sophia again, carrying her in her arms now, like a baby, and she looked at the others and the others looked at her, and she started walking towards the village again, and as she walked she thought that this must be the longest sunset in all of history, we've been walking for hours now and the sun still hasn't set, and this road must be the longest road in the world, we've been walking along it for so long and the village hasn't gotten a bit closer.

By the time they finally reached the village Lina was carrying all three of her companions; Sophia in her arms, Ada clinging to her right arm as she dragged herself along the dusty road, Naz supporting himself against Lina's left arm as he stumbled along.

"Here," Lina whispered, thinking, stupid girl, what's that, 'here', like we're playing some children's game, 'safe', 'base', 'here', where did that come from?

"Lina ... that's ... inn..."

Ada could barely speak, and when she raised her arm to point her hand was shaking, but Lina understood; there was an inn. It was small and the walls were dirty but she didn't care, she didn't care in the least, and somehow she got herself and the others inside, and by a great effort of will she organised lodging for the night, and through some miracle she got them up the stairs, because all of the guest rooms were on the second floor, and she placed Sophia carefully on one of the beds, noticing how cold her skin was, and how limp she was, and she hoped against hope that this was somehow normal, that this was part of the mysterious 'energy exhaustion' that Ada was convinced Sophia had, and Ada and Naz were both lying on their beds, not yet asleep, too exhausted for that, but alive and safe.

"Safe," Lina murmured, and she sank into a chair by the window and she closed her eyes, and for a while, that was enough.