When Olga picked up the sword from the ground, Alissa’s magic released the grip of the older soldier to hold the one who had been trapping Olga’s arm to the ground. Before the man could realize no mysterious power held him in place any longer, his sword—wielded by his enemy—reached his intestines, and he fell to his knees. When he died, Olga reached for her axe,forgotten on the dirty ground, and aimed at the torso of the man agonizing in pain in front of her, but Alissa’s arrow reached his chest before she could attack. Olga glanced back to where Alissa stood hidden and smiled.
Unfortunately, Alissa could not hit all men at once; the four weeks of practice had not been enough to command her skills at that level, but she watched from a distance, aiming at those who came stronger after Olga.
Amid the chaos, other soldiers had split around the square, looking for Alissa. She cursed, running and attacking at the same time. Her wisps of magic formed a knot around the ankles of the man running towards her and squeezed it. He fell to his stomach, and as she ran past him, her dagger pierced his back with a killing blow. She yanked the blade free and joined Olga in the center of the battlefield. Suddenly, the hilt of a sword hit the back of her neck. Alissa fell to the ground, dizziness taking over her. She slid her fingers there and found warm blood dripping down her injury. When she looked up, the Iron Claw’s blade was heading toward her chest.
Olga screamed, pushing the soldier to the ground with all of her strength. The man fell, and she knelt on top of him. Olga did not give him time to react; she punched his face time and again until what was left of him was a deformed face and a heart that no longer beat.
Only five men left.
Even as Olga wiped blood off her face, she looked ecstatic. “I thought we had agreed you would attack from the hiding spot,” she said, offering Alissa her hand.
Alissa took her hand, standing. “They were scattering around the square. It’ll be easier to hit them if they are all in the same place.”
The plan worked as expected. Only seconds later, the remaining Iron Claws who had diverged ran toward them,swords in hand. Their contorted faces were a reflection of pure rage.
The women worked in perfect harmony. Alissa, in silence, as she hit the first of the remaining five men before he even reached them. She broke and twisted every bone and muscle within her magic’s reach, her arrow always coming second to finish off what she had started with her power. Olga had a completely opposite strategy. She made the whole scene worthy of a history book, her growls coming before each swing of her axe as it met a new target, like in a dance where the first melody was the sound of her voice and the second the sound of the axe cracking skull. The stone ground was stained crimson with the blood of those whose lives she ended, and she stood proud beside their corpses, knowing these were the men who had dared invade her home and murder her husband.
In a few minutes, they had killed twelve men on their own. Alissa looked around, taking in the slaughter they left in the middle of Heldraine’s capital. When she looked back and her gaze settled on the man secured by chains, there was no guilt consuming her heart, only relief.
Eldric watched it all happen, aghast. When they approached him with rushed steps, Olga moved her axe to cut off the chains that held him suspended in the air, and he recoiled, scared. When he was free, it was only Alissa’s arms around him that kept him standing. When he stared at her, there was nothing in his eyes that reminded her of him.
“I’m here now. You’re safe,” she whispered, holding his face between her hands, her eyes shimmering with tears.
Eldric had watched these figures moving through the night and slaying men with a strength he had not seen in the most talented warriors of Heldraine. He had been so weak and disoriented, not for a moment had he suspected the woman he loved was one of them. The second he recognized her was likebeing struck by lightning. Like his whole body had come alive only because he was in her presence. He crumbled into her arms and broke down in tears for the first time in years. Not because he was being set free, but because she was alive.
Alissa wished to hold him and kiss his pain away, but they couldn’t afford to collapse, to seek solace in each other for all the pain that was brought upon them. Not when all these corpses wouldn’t go unnoticed for so long. They needed to move.
Two horses awaited them a couple of streets down. Olga had made the arrangements a few nights earlier, having stolen the stallions from a stable. Alissa named the horses Zig and Zag because they refused to ride in parallel with each other, always veering off course.
Alissa shared a horse with Eldric. With every stride, she had to hold his arm tight to her waist to prevent his fall. He was so weak that he could barely hold himself still. His head rested over her shoulder as he took in her scent, listening to the sound of her breathing and absorbing the sensation of not being held to chains anymore.
They made a stop in a hidden part of a nearby forest to tend to his injuries while Olga stood guard. When Alissa lay him down on the ground, her heart broke. He was a shadow of the strong man he used to be; his bones were prominent, and his muscles were almost all gone as a result of the malnutrition. One of his arms was severed, and after a month in chains, the skin of his wrist and ankles had been worn away, leaving the injury raw and exposed, with only flesh remaining. Eldric’s hair was longer and greasy, and so was the beard that had grown too long. His green eyes were swollen. He seemed to have aged ten years in a month. She never thought it would hurt this much seeing his joy and youth being subdued by trauma.
Eldric grunted in pain as he tried stretching his hand to hold her, but his limbs appeared to be made of lead. He cravedto feel her under the touch of his fingers, only to prove this wasn’t another hallucination of his. He scanned every inch of her with his intense gaze, concerned for her well-being, knowing he would kill anyone who had laid a finger on her in his absence. Even in his state, she was the only focus of his concern. Losing her again was his greatest fear.
“Are you okay? Did they hurt you?” His voice was raspy.
“Shh.” Alissa sealed his lips with the brush of her finger on them. “Don’t speak just yet. Let me heal you first.”
Eldric furrowed his brow; he didn’t know she had the power to mend all of his injuries—the physical ones, at least. Without another word, Alissa summoned her power for the second time that night. After all the energy spent on the battlefield, her power took longer to manifest this time. When it finally appeared, the tingles became specks of light healing each and every part of him that was broken. She didn’t really need to touch him to heal him, but she did it anyway as an excuse to feel the warmth of his presence again.
Alissa slowly slid her finger over his wrist and ankles, where they had been hurt. She caressed his back, where the scarring from the whips had made layers of dead skin, so many times had he been tortured. She touched his face, all covered in bruises, and kissed his tear-dampened cheek.
She left his missing arm for last, growing the bone, flesh, and skin back as if it had never been cut off in the first place. She focused on his muscles then, building them back to the same strength he had before he was captured. When Alissa was done, her power had made him a new man, free of any physical suffering, free of the new scars that had been a map of his trauma.
Eldric watched her, his lips agape. He was mesmerized by both seeing her use magic for the first time and by how it felt to be whole again. All he had felt for the past four weeks wasexcruciating pain. Now that he was healed, he wondered if this was his reality or a mere illusion.
“You really are aZeity.” He cleared his throat, adjusting his vocal cords to the tone of speaking. They had only been used for howls of pain lately.
“Yes,” she spoke shyly.
“You have what it takes to save your daughter,” Eldric said, bringing back the memory of what Mrs. Ilden had explained would be necessary to break the curse.
“I do.” They surveyed each other in silence.
His gaze drifted back to the arm that hadn’t been there before, turning it up and down, flexing his fingers, and testing his movements. “You are amazing,” he breathed. His voice filled with reverence and awe.
She blushed, and her lips turned up in a sad smile.