The Pale Lady gave a demure laugh, her hand coming to cover her mouth. “My little pet, so loves to play. The two before only whet the appetite.” The voice was high, girly, and held madness the depths of which Nalah had never plumbed. “Elf royalty, a princess? Am I remembering right, or perhaps an ancestor of yours? Time, so little meaning.”
One second the Pale Lady was alone, the next a child – pre-pubescent, twelve, thirteen? Boy, girl? – was kneeling next to her, shapeless clothing, black hair long and straight, covering its face except for the strip down the center, wide enough it showed the black eyes. Eyes that were lifeless, but not in a way that suggested zombie. No, there was no soul in those almond spheres. It was an empty container that existed only to please its master.
The child’s face was blank, pure mask, and it was still as the Pale Lady ran her hand over the hair, its arms hanging at its sides, and on the end of each finger were sharp, thin blades, at least a foot long and too far away to tell if they were placed on the child, or part of the child.
“Where did – it – come from? Did magic bring it here?” Nalah asked Aislynn, who’d dropped the pieces of the bow and now held a short sword.
“No, it moved to her side, so fast I did not see until it stopped.”
That was very bad news, considering how extraordinary elven senses were purported to be.
“Another demonstration, little Magic Breaker? So cute, how you kept fighting me and how you were so overwhelmed by all the bad, scary magic.” The Pale Lady pushed her lips out and scrunched her face in an exaggerated pout.
To Nalah’s eyes, the child never moved from the silver-haired woman’s side, but Aislynn cried out, a sharp sound she clamped down on. On Aislynn’s chest, four long cuts were gouged into her skin, visible through tattered leather, and a slow seep of blood welled forth and darkened the brown vestment.
The mad woman gave a quick triple clap, like a little girl trying to capture her parents’ attention. “Would you like to know a secret? I despise the color red. I wear it to announce what I am to those inferior, but I dream of the day it goes away, when it no longer splashes around me. Alas, my little pet loves it so, and loyalty deserves reward, don’t you think?”
Aislynn stood, weapon at the ready, her face not betraying any emotion or pain from the ever-seeping wound. And though Aislynn tried to step in front of her, Nalah maneuvered to stand at the elf’s side, though her heart thumped hard inside her chest and unlike the elf, her shakiness was easy for anyone to see. But she would stand, and meet her death without cowering.
Arms encircled Nalah, but there were no blades connected, and the arms were too thick, the chest against her back too broad, to belong to the child.
Within and without, wings of fire, strong in their magic, surrounded her and warmed parts she didn’t know had gone cold in the presence of that mad woman. Nalah shifted, looked to her protector. “Esh?”
His eyes were a brilliant blaze, as if she was staring into the heart of an inferno. He let her go, turned to face their enemies, standing in front of her, magnificent and powerful. His back displayed four deep cuts in his back, cuts that were meant for her and were stitching together even as she watched.
“How?” she whispered, her hand moving to stroke the fast healing skin before she stopped herself. Power pulsated from him, and that piece of innate in him she’d sensed now twisted tight around him, mixed with him so completely it was no longer a separate entity but part of him. And it was beautiful, every shade of red and orange represented and a songbird’s melody floating around him. “What is this?”
“Yes, what?” The Pale Lady asked, fake simpering in that voice. “I want to know.”
The child next to the white-haired woman lifted its blade covered hands, and the woman’s tongue came out to swipe along the edge. Her eyes widened in a sickening parody of awe. “Phoenix fire and phoenix blood,” she breathed out, a smile without humanity on her face. Her gaze focused on Esh. “How exciting. I don’t have that in my collection. This means we must play.”
From beyond the Pale Lady the albino emerged. Before, he’d been terrifying, but now, with the vicious power flooding through him, Nalah quailed against the horrific onslaught of magic. She huddled closer to Esh. “He’s been magically enhanced.”
He looked down at her, the expression easy and sure. “I know. I can see. Don’t worry.”
He’d said that to her before so many fights, but he always meant it, and he always won. With that, belief in him calmed her, and with a smile to show her faith in him, she let him fight.