Nights of Villjamur - Mark Charan Newton [160]
Tuya pressed herself up, pain shooting along her arms, muscles spasming unnaturally. Why did everything suddenly ache so much? She brushed her hair from her eyes, squinted into the light that fell upon her face through the partly open window. Through blurred vision she could make out a blue shape hovering up by the ceiling. A freezing breeze exploded into the room, spiraling leaves and snow over her in arcane patterns.
“Who’s there?” she asked, her voice alarmingly weak. She was a strong woman and wasn’t used to feeling so helpless.
There was no reply. Street noises drifted up to her window from outside, chants of traders busy in the irens. It was obviously well into the day, but she felt so disconnected from time.
As a blur of blue shot down toward her bed, she instantly recognized one of the images she had painted several weeks ago. The batlike creature stared at her, the size of a child, and as far as could be judged from its furry features, she saw pity in its glossy, dark eyes. She had no idea it had survived this long, seldom giving much thought to what became of her many creations. She was touched it had returned to her side.
At that moment, as a sudden revelation, her current predicament rushed to the front of her awareness.
Tryst had not only beaten but also drugged her too, the bastard.
Escape was the priority. Tuya stood up, then immediately collapsed. The muscles in her legs would barely function, and it was as if she needed to relearn basic movement. The creature waddled down from the bed, holding its arms and wings out wide. After it helped her up, she sat down weakly on the bed.
“Why have you come to help me? How did you know I needed help?”
It seemed unable to speak. Could it even understand her?
After she composed herself, she limped around her room to pack some belongings. She got changed with a frail caution. When she had taken what she needed, she tried the door to discover it was locked. She couldn’t find her keys anywhere, and struggling with the door proved futile.
Again her strange blue creation came to her side and she backed away as it contemplated the solid wooden door. It extended its wings, and with a down-thrust it rose into the air, hovered then circled, flooring ornaments and antiques, before hurling itself at the door.
Wood and metal shattered simultaneously into minute blue sparks.
The door and the creature were no longer there. Tuya gaped in disbelief at this strange self-sacrifice by one of her creations. Sadness overwhelmed her. This was, ironically, the most love any creature had ever shown her.
But this was not the time for pathos. A bag of her belongings in one hand, she stepped out to commence her escape.
She needed to clean herself up, to get her head into some sort of order.
Who could she turn to?
CHAPTER 38
LONGSHIPS BANKED TOWARD THE EAST, CAUTIOUSLY NAVIGATING THE complex and treacherous sheets of ice northwest of Villiren. Brynd looked out across the water, checking to see where the wind blew strongest past the jagged outline of the coast, the ice, the limestone cliffs. As soon as they were through the darker waters, the ship’s sails snagged tight as skin, and the vessel suddenly lurched under gathering momentum. But the crew of the ship had also anticipated this, adjusting her sail accordingly. There had obviously been ice breakers out earlier along the length of this coast.
Then it presented itself, Villiren, one of the largest cities in the Boreal Archipelago, one of the most lawless places in the Empire. The city’s harbor was perched between two wide cliff faces crawling with birds and pterodettes. A few renegade garudas were about, shadow communities of them living deep in the cave systems.
Villiren was the commercial hub of the Empire, strategically located between several mining islands like Tineag’l, where ore was auctioned and taxed and distributed. Traders of Villiren had made a fortune providing for the Imperial armies. The people of Villiren had been “rewarded” with democracy, even though they voted for someone who served the Council