“That’s actually a really good idea,” I said.
“All we need is for you to keep the Roho dude busy for fifteen minutes or so.” Avril wiggled her eyebrows with a smirk.
“Sure, I can dance with him, entertain a conversation or two. Worst case scenario, I’ll flirt around a little.” I chuckled as we reached the Broken Bow Inn. A few late patrons were still out, while the Imen servants collected the empty cups.
“Just don’t get too touchy with him,” Avril advised me, “as he is, technically, a potential enemy.”
“That’s a bit of a stretch.” I scoffed, finding it hard to believe Vincent would try to harm me in any way. Not that he wasn’t capable—he was still a Mara, after all. But nothing about him screamed “hostile” in any way.
“Not until we find out why all his Imen are mind-bent to such an extent,” Heron replied, then noticed the quiet inside the inn. He walked over to one of the servants. “Excuse me, where is everyone? It’s nighttime. The Maras should be out and buzzing.”
“Not since the curfew was enacted, milord,” the Iman said. “The night has become dangerous and deadly, and our Lords and Ladies can no longer go out and hunt. Since the disappearances started happening in the city as well, they’ve resorted to keeping to their rooms or entertaining small social gatherings in their homes.”
That sounded sad. Imagine being a creature of the night and not being able to enjoy it. I could tell from Heron’s expression that he felt sorry for them. We went inside, and agreed to catch up first thing, before Vincent’s tailors would come to assist us with our outfits for the Spring Ball.
I had a feeling that spending the evening among all the Exiled Maras would give us even better insight into their way of life and their treatment of the Imen. If the latter were here willingly, then we didn’t need to worry about them and could focus exclusively on the disappearances.
But if we got a whiff of oppression, we’d have to raise the issue with Jax and Hansa, and then contemplate solutions for both problems. Cultural differences aside, it was never okay to enslave or torment the vulnerable.
Caia
(Daughter of Grace & Lawrence)
We’d interviewed one family of Exiled Maras, without much luck. They didn’t know anything, and the last time they’d seen their daughter, she’d gone out for a hunt, despite her parents’ warnings. They were quietly commemorating the second month since her disappearance. I took copious notes, however, of words and behaviors of all those involved, including the Imen servicing the Exiled Maras’ household.
The second family was slightly different, of a more modest background. Rewa helped intermediate the interview, whenever the Maras were weary of answering our questions. Clearly, they were still adjusting to us, complete strangers from another world, in their homes.
The mother and father were beautiful creatures, with long black hair and vibrant jade eyes. Their clothes were simple but of good quality and skillfully tailored to fit their figures. The mother was doing most of the talking while she sat in a rocking chair by the fireplace, knitting. The father, on the other hand, gave me the strangest of looks—a mixture of curiosity and hostility that made me very uncomfortable. Rewa often had her eyes on Blaze, who, in turn, did his best to stay close to me. He’d noticed my defensive stance, despite my attempt to cover it up with bland politeness. His midnight-blue eyes scanned me as I kept my focus on the Mara mother.
“Where was your son last seen?” I asked.
A muscle twitched in the father’s jaw, and the mother sighed.
“Adon loved to hunt,” she said, a pained look in her eyes. “Even when he was told it was too dangerous. The night he went missing we had our first argument about it. We begged him not to go, and Adon said that if we cowered in front of the menace, it would win.”
“So you saw him here?”
“No.” She shook her head. “I mean, yes, I last saw him here, but Gussy, the neighbor’s son, said he saw him go into the Valley of Screams. He had his sword and shield with him, and a cloak on, but Gussy knows Adon as well as we do. He’d recognize him anywhere.”
I glanced at the father and noticed his persistent stare. It hit me then: I was worried over nothing. We had a badass fire dragon in the room.
“Is there something you wish to say?” I asked the father, straightening my back.
As if caught red-handed doing something he wasn’t supposed to, the Mara shook his head and looked away for a second.
“My apologies,” he said. “It’s just that I’ve never seen a fire fae before… I’ve only heard about you and your powers, but… We were born here, and we’ve never had contact with the outside world. Forgive me if I’m gawking.”
“That’s okay.” I gave him a half-smile, relaxing my shoulders. “Did your son have any enemies?”
“No, not that we know of.” The father shook his head, then glanced at his wife, who did the same.
“Adon was a good son, and a good friend. He wouldn’t hurt a fly,” the mother added.
“He hated the city.” The voice of a little girl shot through the room, making us all turn our heads. A young Mara, no older than seven, stood in the doorway hugging a plush toy and wearing a floor-length cotton nightgown. Her long hair was braided into a single tail, and her eyes were wide and pale green.
“Mira, what are you doing out of bed?” the mother asked, putting her knitting tools aside.
“Adon hated the city,” the little girl insisted. “He didn’t like anyone here! He didn’t like the way we live, the way we fe—”
“That’s enough, young lady!” the father’s voice boomed, as the mother got up, took the girl in her arms, and vanished upstairs.
We watched in silence, listening to the girl objecting upstairs, as the door closed behind her and her mother. The father cleared his throat, then gave us a weak smile. I noticed Rewa’s stillness, her eyes fixed on the Mara.
“Forgive my daughter,” he said. “She’s been having trouble sleeping since her brother disappeared. She loved Adon very much.”
“Is it true, what she said?” I asked.
“A little.” He chuckled nervously. “Adon was a good boy, he just didn’t always fit in. He was a bit rebellious by nature, but it was always harmless. He wanted to go out and explore the world. He’s always had a mind of his own. To be honest, I’m still holding out hope that he simply left on a whim, but I’ve agreed to cooperate with your investigation nonetheless… My wife thinks something happened to him, but I’d rather think he deliberately hurt our feelings and ran off to see new places, than think him… gone.”
His voice trailed off, tears glazing his eyes. I could only imagine what this family was going through.
“Thank you for your candor,” I said slowly.
“Maybe we should leave these people be for tonight,” Rewa intervened, “and visit the next family on our list?”
Blaze and I both agreed and got up. The father walked us out, and I gave the living room one last glance. Everything was so neat, so pretty and picture perfect, with soft cushions and framed paintings. Who would do this to them? What dangers lurked in the Valley of Screams that could strip a city of its people at such an alarming rate?
As the door closed and we were left standing in the middle of the alley on a lower, residential level of Azure Heights, I let out a heavy breath.
“We’ll get to the bottom of this, one way or another,” Blaze tried to reassure me, his eyes fixed on mine. “Come on, let’s go to the next family.”
“They’re on the level above,” Rewa said, then put her arm around his. I couldn’t help but frown, unsure of what it was supposed to mean, as a gesture. She noticed, and smiled. “I’m a single, young Mara Lady of noble descent. It’s most appropriate for me to walk with male company at this time of night. I mustn’t be on my own.”
“So, what, I’m not in need of a male companion, then?” I asked, my tone flat and eyebrow raised. I was having trouble digesting her flirtatious looks and moves towa
rd Blaze. On the other hand, he didn’t seem to mind much, which was probably what irritated me the most. Then again, Blaze didn’t seem like the kind of guy who paid attention to such social cues.
“You don’t need to worry,” Rewa replied politely. “As you’re not from Azure Heights, our social standards do not apply to you.”
“Oh, now I feel relieved,” I muttered sarcastically as I followed them up the stairs.
I was in for a long evening, and there wasn’t much I could do about it, other than bite my fist and keep my uneasiness to myself. We had a mission to go through with. Innocent people to find before it was too late.
Harper
(Daughter of Hazel & Tejus)
We reached Azure Heights and followed Darius on his horse all the way up to the second level, where a large white building sprawled, with square, shuttered windows. Six Mara females in pale blue dresses and white head covers came out.
“This is our infirmary,” Darius said as he got off his horse.
The Mara nurses rushed over to us, and helped get our wounded off first, carrying them inside. We followed them, except for Hansa, who stopped in the doorway and frowned.
“I’ll go get the others,” she said, then ran back to her horse and rode up to the Broken Bow Inn.
We reached the first room, which held several beds and medicine cabinets. Clean bowls and stacks of white bandage rolls cluttered a table in the corner. The nurses went to work fast, and Scarlett and I took out all the healing pellets and additional herbs we’d stuffed into the pouches on our leather belts.
“These are healing packs we brought with us,” I said, handing mine over to one nurse, while the other took Scarlett’s.
“Thank you,” the nurse said, and put them all inside a bowl. The other mirrored her movements with interesting precision.
The Iman girl was breathing heavily, lying on one of the beds and white as a sheet of paper where she wasn’t covered in blood. One nurse cut her ragged clothes off, motioning to Jax and Darius to take a few steps back. Another nurse helped Patrik out of his shirt before she helped him climb onto another bed. She used a knife to cut open his pants, revealing a deep cut on his thigh, about eight inches long and two inches wide.
The nurses with the bowls cut into their palms and squeezed them over the mixture of herbs and pellets, crushing and mixing with their bare hands, while two other nurses used wet cloths to clean out Patrik and the Iman girl’s deep wounds.
“The girl is in terrible condition. We need more,” one nurse told the other.
Jax took out more pellets and herbs from his belt pouches, and handed them over. The nurses nodded and added them to one of the bowls. One of them started applying the resulting paste to Patrik’s chest and thigh wounds, filling the gashes and spreading some around the wounds as well.
Scarlett and I watched quietly, holding our breaths, while Jax and Darius kept to the side. It took the nurses a couple of minutes more to prep the Iman girl for the same treatment.
“More blood,” one nurse said as she continued mixing the healing paste in front of the Iman girl. Her colleague nodded and cut deeper into her palm, pouring more blood into the mixture.
“Will she live?” Jax asked.
“It’s too early to tell,” one of the nurses replied, “but we’ll do our best.”
Scarlett
(Daughter of Jeramiah & Pippa)
My heart thudded in my chest. I was unable to take my eyes off Patrik, as one of the nurses treated his wounds with that paste made from our healing herbs and their Mara blood, which had similar properties.
My stomach twisted itself up in painful knots. I moved closer to his bedside, until I stood right next to him. He looked up through half-mast eyes, and I held my breath again.
“He’ll be okay,” the nurse said, noticing the concern on my face.
“You heard that… I’ll be okay,” Patrik mumbled, then brushed his knuckles against my forearm before he passed out.
“Patrik!” I called out, my skin still tingling from his touch.
“Shush,” the nurse whispered as she bandaged his treated wounds. “Let him rest, milady…”
“But he’s passed out,” I replied.
“He’ll be okay, trust me,” she said gently, giving me a reassuring smile. “His pulse is steady, his breathing is even. He’s just lost some blood and he needs to rest, that’s all.”
I didn’t budge. I didn’t want to leave his side. I’d seen him get hurt, but I hadn’t been able to immediately go to him because I’d been busy keeping those shadows away from the Iman girl.
“Your blood heals.” Harper stated something we’d already learned from Jax, but had never seen in action.
“Our blood, our saliva, yes,” Patrik’s nurse said. “It can’t save lives, I’m afraid, but it helps with physical wounds. It isn’t enough to cure these cuts fast enough on its own, however, which is why we’re grateful you packed your own healing supplies. I realized this the moment I saw the Iman girl, the poor soul… It’s a miracle she’s still breathing…”
“How long before you can tell us if the girl will live or not?” Jax asked, his expression firm and his eyes cold. I couldn’t exactly fault him for it. We’d nearly gotten ourselves killed to save her. And chances were she had answers to our many questions about the Valley of Screams.
One of the nurses glanced at Darius, who stood behind Jax, by the doorway. Caspian had joined him. I hadn’t even seen him coming, and, judging by the surprised look on Harper’s face, neither had she.
“Probably at some point tomorrow, provided she wakes up,” the nurse by the girl’s bedside said.
Hansa came in, accompanied by Heron, Blaze, Fiona, Avril, and Caia. They were all quiet, taking the whole scene in, one individual at a time.
“You’re hurt,” another nurse said, noticing Harper holding her side, blood dripping through her fingers.
“I’m fine.” Harper shook her head, glaring at Caspian and Darius.
Of the two Lords present, Caspian was the furious one. Darius, on the other hand, looked worried, his gaze fixed on the Iman girl.
“Shut up and let the nurse look after you,” Hansa barked.
Harper nodded, unzipping the top of her combat gear as the nurse came to her with a bowl of water and cloths. She set both aside on a stool, then helped Harper free her arms, revealing her black sports bra and the rest of her bare torso, including the cut across her right ribs. It looked painful and deep.
The nurse frowned, then proceeded to clean her wound.
“One of the creatures did that?” Darius sighed.
“Yeah, so where were you when this was happening? I wasn’t quite happy with your earlier response,” Harper shot back, visibly annoyed.
Caspian scoffed, his darkened jade glare settled on her ribs. “He was being smart and keeping his distance, unlike you all,” he muttered. “You needed to be heroes for an Iman girl. Look what it got you.”
Harper opened her mouth, but Hansa beat her to it.
“It’s what we do!” the succubus growled. “We help people! We don’t cower in our safe spaces up a mountain, while hundreds die because of… of whatever those things were! That’s our job—that’s our mission! We know what we’re getting ourselves into!”
“Do you?” Caspian shot back, raising a mocking eyebrow.
“We know more now than we did four hours ago,” Harper replied, her voice low.
“We most certainly do,” Jax added. “We now know the caliber of the threat present in the Valley of Screams, and we also know that there’s at least one Exiled Mara on this mountain who knows more about them than you all pretend.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Caspian frowned.
“There was someone there with us,” Harper replied. “I couldn’t see his face, but he moved fast. A little too rude for my taste, but he helped us. He knew where to hit the beasts effectively. The eyes. That little morsel of information saved our lives, because we were outnumbered in
there. Hell, even with five of us against one, the odds would’ve still been in the invisible entity’s favor.”
“How do you know he was from here, then?” Caspian’s eyes narrowed to two jade slits.
“We saw him ride out toward the mountain. He has an indigo horse, which might help us narrow down his identity, since Darius said there aren’t many of those here,” Harper said, then hissed as the nurse applied healing paste on her cut.
A moment passed in awkward silence as we all looked at each other.
“But Harper asked a good question earlier,” Jax said, staring at Darius. “Why did you run ahead? We didn’t even see you once we found ourselves surrounded by deadly entities.”
“I must apologize,” Darius replied, staring at his feet. “I was overwhelmed. My instinct was to run, given the danger we were in and the speed with which I’d lost sixteen of my people. I wanted to go back, but I lacked the courage. We have never faced something like this before. Never…”
“I am sorry for your losses,” Hansa said slowly. “What matters now is that we’ve seen the enemy, sort of, and we understand that the threat is real.”
“We can reconvene in the morning and discuss the next steps.” Darius nodded, unable to make eye contact with any of us anymore. “We should let the wounded sleep and recover.”
He didn’t wait for a reply. He left the room, and I caught a glimpse of him through one of the windows as he got on his horse and trotted up the mountain alley. Caspian, however, didn’t budge or say anything for another minute, his eyes fixed on Harper’s.
Harper
(Daughter of Hazel & Tejus)
Caspian made no effort to hide his displeasure, but there was something else burning in those jade eyes of his, something that made me too self-conscious and vulnerable. The nurse finished applying the bandages, and I pulled my sleeves back on, wincing from the pain in my shoulder.