Weaver's Curse

The group left Indeara to protect Uvear and dispersed in different directions. Sedine went first, Isaan following her, hidden, to protect her.

“Alright, you bastards!” Sedine shouted. “Let’s talk!”

“Finally.” Ryle said, stepping into view, a twisted smile on his face.

He and Salazar supported Fayen between them. It looked like they’d splinted his leg. But Fayen’s face was white with pain.

Good job, Pinkie, Sedine thought.

“Be honest with me,” Sedine said. “You have no intentions of taking me out of these mountains alive, do you?”

“No, not really,” Salazar admitted.

“That’s not what we agreed on!” Fayen protested.

“Oh, shut the hell up Fayen, it’s not like this is the first murder plot you’ve been accessory to,” Sedine said. “Well go ahead. Give me your best shot.”

“Where’d your friend with the hog go?” Ryle asked, looking around warily.

“Right here you piece of shit.” Vassa shouted, whacking him across the back of the head with a sturdy stick.

“And there’s more of us you ugly fuck.” Kaedwyn said, right beside her, sword in hand.

Ryle dropped Fayen’s arm, drawing his sword. Fayen sagged into Salazar, nearly knocking the other man off his feet. Salazar dragged Fayen over and sat him down on a rock, and tried to hurry back to Ryle.

He was stopped by Toby and Allie, Toby armed with a sword, and Allie with a sturdy stick of her own.

“Want to see who’s actually better at swordsmanship, Lord Malachite?” Toby asked, grinning.

Salazar’s eyes widened in recognition. “Prince Theobald?”

Toby slashed at his shoulder in response.

Salazar managed to avoid the strike, hurriedly drawing his sword.

The two men dueled back and forth. It was clear that Salazar was the better swordsman quickly. He managed to slash his blade across the side of Toby’s face, and the prince reeled backwards. Strangely, he was grinning. Allie chose that moment to throw her stick as hard as she could, hitting Salazar square in the forehead.

Isaan appeared behind Salazar right as he began lumbering towards Allie, and clapped his hand against the back of his head. Salazar collapsed to the ground unconscious.

“He should sleep for at least ten minutes.” Isaan told them.

“Help me drag him over to the looms.” Sedine said to Allie, grabbing one of his arms.

Allie took the other, and they dragged him over to the looms. Indeara helped them press his arm to Uvear’s shackle, which sprang free for the first time in centuries. Uvear grinned and left the loom, massaging her wrist. Sedine happily clapped the shackle around Salazar’s wrist.

Toby had taken a handkerchief from his pocket and was pressing it to his bloodied cheek.

“I got hit on purpose,” he explained, grinning. “You mentioned that your other cousin was still going to be a pain in the ass, so I figured I could get injured and make this into a diplomatic issue and at least get his property taken away. There's a witch that works for my brother that can tell whether I'm lying.”

“Toby you genius.” Sedine said, grinning back.

Allie laughed, slinging her shoulder over Toby’s shoulder.

“I’ll leave your name out of it, if you want.” Toby offered.

“Please do.” Sedine said. “I don’t ever intend to rejoin the Malachite family.”

“Alright then.” Toby said. “I’ll give ’em hell.”

Isaan and Vassa dragged Ryle’s sleeping body into the hollow, and released one of the skeletons from the shackles, fastening Ryle’s body to the loom in her place.

“One more.” Sedine said.

Kaedwyn was slowly following Fayen, who was trying to crawl away when they arrived.

Sedine planted a foot on his back. “Too bad you aren’t as good at escaping as me.” She said.

“Sedine, please-” he started.

“We aren’t going to kill you. Don’t worry about that.” Sedine said.

Isaan grabbed him by one arm, Toby by the other, and the two men hauled him to his feet.

Fayen struggled in their grips.

“Please! I didn’t ever harm you!” he said, wide brown eyes on her.

Sedine curled her lip. “You didn’t,” she agreed. “But you knew everything. You sat in on their planning session, you lured me into the woods for them, and you stood by while they grabbed me, and tried to slit my throat.”

“I-” he gasped.

“Then you helped them hunt me across Zircon, when you should have reported what they’d done to the king.”

I lived in terror every day, that you would see through my disguise, and drag me back to Malachite. If Basil and Justin hadn’t helped me maintain my disguise, and did everything they could to distract you from my presence... If Regis hadn’t smuggled me to Cadence...

“I hope you rot here, Fayen Collis.” Sedine said as Kaedwyn and Vassa helped the two men wrestle him into one of the shackles.

“Don’t leave me here, please!” Fayen begged.

“At least you’re among friends,” Vassa said, shooting a contemptuous glance at him from over her shoulder.

Their group left the hollow, one person larger, to lie in wait for the source of Kaedwyn’s problems, as they’d discussed earlier. The hours wore on as they crouched in the grass outside the basin, but the sky didn’t darken anymore.

Finally, a figure appeared, striding across the rocks. Their group watched as the figure set up a stand, placing a basin atop it, and lighting a fire within it.

The fire offered enough illumination that Sedine could see that the figure was a man, slender, with long, straight, reddish hair. He produced a dagger from his sleeve, hacking off a piece of his hair, and tossing it into the flaming basin. His lips moved silently.

Smoke tendrilled up from the basin. The witch watched lazily as it drifted straight towards them. His eyes widened, and he began to walk towards their hiding place.

Kaedwyn sprang to her feet, knife in hand. Sedine and the others followed.

They look similar, Sedine realized.

“Who are you, and why have you been chasing me?” Kaedwyn asked. Sedine saw her grip tighten around her dagger.

“Hey now, no need for that, Kaedwyn.” the witch said.

“Of course he knows my name,” Kaedwyn spat.

Rookie mistake, always come up with an alias.

“Tell me who the hell you are, and why you want me.” Kaedwyn demanded. ”Now.”

“My name is Sarnaan. And I am your father.”

“Oh fucking excellent!” Kaedwyn said bitterly. “One parent can’t be bothered to do her job, and the other’s been making my life hell.”

“Uh... sorry?” Sarnaan offered.

“That’s not going to cut it, you sick bastard!”

“Look, Kaedwyn, I’m sorry. By the time I’d learned of your existence, you’d left Telare, and Kalaan wouldn’t tell me where you were...”

“So you decided to kidnap me?”

“It’s not kidnapping if I’m supposed to be your legal guardian!”

“Still kidnapping.” Sedine butted in.

“You could have just sent a letter, or something!” Kaedwyn cried.

“I tried. But you were constantly on the move!”

“And whose fault was that?!”

“I understand the frustrations,” Uvear said creakily, “But why not let him tell us the real reason he’s been trying so hard?”

“Fine.” Sarnaan sighed. “I want you for my coven.”

Kaedwyn snorted. “I hate to break it to you, but I didn’t inherit my mother’s powers. So however you intend to use me in whatever dispute you have with her, it won’t work.”

“You... didn’t inherit a gift?” Sarnaan asked.

“No.” Kaedwyn said. “And I don’t need one.”

“No, that’s not it,” Sarnaan muttered to himself. “If she weren’t my child, then the spell wouldn’t have worked...”

He drew himself up. “Even without a gift, you will still have your uses.”

Uvear cursed. Whatever meaning that was supposed to have, evidently Indeara and Isaan picked up on it, because they shoved their way in front of Kaedwyn.

“You’ll get through us first.” Isaan said.

“I’ll give you places in my coven,” Sarnaan said. “Your other two witch friends, as well.”

“Fuck your coven!” Sedine shouted. “As if I’d want to join some shithole that kidnaps teenage girls!”

“Your presence isn’t going to keep me from casting the spell,” Sarnaan said dryly. “But it was a valiant effort, all the same.”

Suddenly, Indeara threw something at him. Sarnaan screamed, and grabbed at his face.

Indeara held a waterskin in her hand. The same one they’d carefully filled at Grendaal’s shrine.

Sarnaan kept screaming, the sound reminding Sedine of a dying rabbit.

The sound was horrifying, but not as horrifying as his gradually melting face.

So it truly does become poisonous, Sedine thought.

Gradually, the screaming stopped, and Sarnaan lay still in the grass. The whole group stood frozen for a moment.

Kaedwyn broke the spell by spitting on her father’s body.

“Fuck you.” she said.

“What a night.” Isaan sighed. “Let’s get some rest.”

They moved down the mountain, and set up a camp. Pinky watched over them as they slept. The following morning, they walked down the mountain under the bright sunlight, leaving the terrors they’d suffered in the previous years in the night before.