Empress of the Gods

Atarah

While Robbie and Atarah helped organize some of the things in the caravans due to their upcoming departure, Robbie complained about the terrible headache he had, since he drank Hannele’s people famous liquor the previous night. He even swore he wouldn’t do it again. When she didn’t hear him say another word, she turned to look at him and saw him with his hands raised and wide eyes. Someone was holding him from behind with a blade at his neck. She couldn’t see the attacker’s face, only the black clothes and the hood she was wearing. Then the edge of an ax peeked out behind the attacker’s hood.

William didn’t make noise when he approached them.

Whoever was behind Robbie dropped the blades to the ground, releasing him right away. William pointed to the neck of the assassin with his sword as he moved towards Robbie and her without taking his eyes from the attacker, slightly lowering his ax to his side but still holding it in case he needed it.

Atarah couldn’t see well the attacker’s face because she had a cloth of the same color as her cloak that covered her nose and mouth. She could only see her striking chestnut eyes and her shiny thin raven hair tied in a ponytail that reached up to her elbow. The assassin raised her hands in surrender, but she doubted that was what she was doing.

“Why are you following us?” Will demanded to know, firmly holding his sword. Which led Atarah to think that she must be the other one that had been following them. She was the one who had been in the tavern when they arrived at the village in Egorah. Her attire looked like a light, flexible armor that allowed her to move easily. Her black cloak almost reached the ground, and she had a couple of daggers on each side of her leather pants.

Somehow, Atarah recognized the look on the assassin’s face because it was the same one Rhiannon had when she was about to win a fight without her opponent even having any chance to face her. It seemed to be the same attitude she had known well and that sometimes she had done without realizing it when she was training with Aeron. After all those years of training with him, she also adopted some of his old habits, such as always having a hand on the handle of a blade. You never knew when someone would strike.

The assassin seemed to be speaking in a lower tone, which led William to wonder what she was muttering. When Atarah heard a word she knew well, because she had pronounced it herself, she realized the assassin was trying to control the campfire.

“Get down now!” Atarah yelled when she saw the fire form a big snake in the air aiming to strike Will. She tried to control it as if it were part of her, only that instead of sending it far from them, it returned to her like a boomerang.

“For all the eighty-eight gods of the Asteria Castle!” Robbie shouted with his chest on the ground while he covered his head with his hands.

The assassin managed to bend down, but she had her eyes on her. The cloth that covered her nose and mouth fell off to the ground, letting her see the half-smile she had on her beautiful light skin with marked features, as if she had been waiting for a worthy opponent. Then she ran towards her, pulling out with agility her long, curved blade that was similar to the sword Aeron had.

Atarah knew what she had to do thanks to the training she had received. Aeron taught her how to dodge those kinds of attacks.

Witches had a unique fighting style, so the assassin witch who was attacking her might have thought she was a witch too. She turned to the opposite side where the attack came, trying to dodge the blade, but she wasn’t fast enough to evade it. She felt the edge of the blade that quickly brushed her skin and immediately remembered Aeron’s warning about the possible attack that would come next. So, she fell to her knees, moving backward, trying to dodge the dagger that was directed at her face.

Will tried to hit her with his ax, but the assassin dodged every single strike that went her way. Only the assassin underestimated Will. In that moment, when she felt her power tingle at her fingertips, she created a barrier of fire between Will and the assassin. She could still feel the power at her fingertips, but she wasn’t going to use it against her. The only thing she was looking for were ways to push her away from her weapons so she could end it with a hand-to-hand combat. That was when, with a single movement of her hand, the wind obeyed her and threw the assassin back as if it had been Galad’s growl.

The assassin got up, furious with her, and ran with one of her daggers that she threw towards her, and Atarah dodged it with her air power which led her to turn to both sides, trying to find something to help her when she found Will’s sword near the barrier of fire. If she had not acted quickly, she wouldn’t have managed to block the attack.

“What in the gods name?” Robbie asked.

“I’m going to find a way in,” Will replied.

“No,” Atarah growled, causing the fire to increase from whichever side Will tried to enter. “This is my fight,” she tried to say, as she blocked every single strike.

“Damn it, Atarah,” Will yelled.

She continued to force herself away from the blade, and from one moment to the next, she managed to throw her away from her with the wind. The assassin used the language of spells and Atarah replied, throwing fire in her direction to distract her and to prevent her from finishing the spell. The assassin covered herself from the fire with her cloak and shouted at her, “You dishonor them by not fighting like them!”

“That’s because I’m not a witch,” she replied tightly.

“For someone who claims not to be one knows a lot about them.” The assassin took one of her daggers from the ground, moving unpredictably fast like a snake. Just as Rhiannon did in her training with the coven.

Atarah knew she had to be smarter than her and be one step ahead.

When the assassin threw the dagger into the air with a sole movement of her hand, she deviated from it without realizing where she had thrown it. Then both began to run to where the other one was, throwing some punches in the air while they tried to dodge them. Only trying wasn’t enough for her.

That witch was not like those she had trained with. Punches landed on her arm and stomach, but she managed to return some. She kicked one of her legs and managed to make her stagger.

“For someone who is a witch, you fight different from them,” Atarah said in the same tone the assassin used with her.

“You have no idea.” She smirked.

Atarah could see the years of training and the agility with which she moved. Anyone could have more years of training than her, but that assassin was something else because she had barely managed to give her a few punches while she had been dodging hers the entire time.

She tried to punch her in the stomach, but the assassin dodged the attack and tried to grab her blade, which gave Atarah time to command the fire and stop her.

“That’s cheating!” the assassin yelled as she kicked her with her foot and threw her to the ground. “Now that you have learned your lesson,” she added, panting for air while Atarah had her hands on the ground. She felt the roots on the ground that quickly came out and entangled the assassin’s feet before she could say another word or even act.

The assassin tried to get away from them, repeating some words in the language of spells that instantly helped her release herself. Then, with a few other words, the wall of fire became a circle that caught them inside. They walked around the circle, seizing each other until the assassin continued pronouncing other words to command the wind, but with just a sole movement of her hand, Atarah managed to get the wind to throw them both out of the circle. Moving everything in its path, and both landing on their backs.

Atarah ended up with tremendous pain coursing through her body, thinking that maybe she could have a couple of broken ribs, but she turned around and tried to stand up with the last drop of energy she had. She even felt so sore that at any moment she thought she would faint, but still she tried to get up. The assassin witch rose at the same time. Then Atarah ran to her, sweeping on the ground before she got where she was, feeling the earth power on her fingers to catch the assassin again with the roots that curled up in her legs.

The assassin tried to take advantage while she was busy with it, so Atarah pronounced some words that Rhiannon had taught her over the years before she could cast another spell to break herself free.

The language of spells felt strange in her mouth, but she knew that one day it would be useful to her. It was such a basic spell she pronounced whenever a witch wanted to insult her, silencing them instantly. The witch was not only trapped, she also couldn’t utter any words.

She hadn’t realized that Robbie had been stuck with the lapel of his shirt in a tree with the dagger that she dodged with the wind. “It’s a shame. It was a new shirt,” he said when he pulled out the dagger before rushing over to where they were. “What did you do?” Robbie asked her. She didn’t know if he was referring to that moment or when she was fighting. His eyes were wide open and his hands behind his head. He opened and closed his mouth like a fish, trying to say something else, but he couldn’t seem to find the right words.

“I silenced her so she can’t conjure another spell,” she replied when she looked at a face that was no more than twenty-six winters old.

“Forever?” Robbie asked, covering his mouth, slightly disturbed, as though she had done it to him.

“No, the effect will pass any moment now,” she replied, looking for Will. Robbie looked at the assassin with one hand over his mouth. “Rhiannon used to silence me every time she scolded me. She wanted me to pay attention to every word she said. And it seems that after so many times that trick was useful to me,” she recalled as she tried to calm her heartbeats.

“Adorable woman.”

Will walked to where they were with a rope to tie the assassin’s wrists, but Atarah was actually afraid of what he was going to do with her after he tied her up.

She didn’t know who she was protecting when she created that fire barrier.

When William finished tying her wrists, he nodded with his head, as if he was telling her that she could let her go.

As soon as she did, she didn’t know if she had exceeded using her gifts or if the floor was spinning too fast. She instantly held Robbie’s arm, who held her before she fell to the ground.

“Are you okay?” Will’s eyes were instantly on her with a worried expression.

“Yes, just a little dizzy,” she replied as if it didn’t matter, observing the exact moment the witch planned to use as a distraction. “Don’t even think about it,” she warned her.

She hated losing. She’d always hated it.