Clockwork Goddess (The Lesbia Chronicles) (16 page)

Chapter Twenty Three

Kira, Trebuchet, Moon, Aeron and Liz woke up at about the same time and came to the realization that Ayla was missing a moment later.

"The witch is gone," Liz said, grasping the significance of what had occurred immediately. "She must have put something in that stew."

Kira set her lips in a thin line and shook her head. "I forgot. Never trust a witch's cooking."

"You think she drugged us?" Trebuchet rubbed her head. "That seems... very naughty."

Moon grinned at her lover. "Is it naughty if you're a thousand years old and you do something wrong?"

"Yes," Trebuchet replied. "And when I catch that witch, you can be sure I'll take it out on her hide."

Moon giggled at the notion. Trebuchet was formidable, but Ayla was nigh untouchable. The notion of anyone doing anything to Ayla that Ayla didn't want seemed entirely out of the realm of possibility.

"Where's Vix?" She added the question almost as an afterthought. It did not receive any reply or indeed, any attention whatsoever.

"We need to find Ayla immediately," Kira said. "Aeron, you scout to the south and see if you can pick up a trail. Trebuchet, you take the north. I'll take the east. Moon and Liz, take the west. Meet back here in one hour."

"That's not going to work," Trebuchet disagreed. "Moon and Liz can't go together. I'll take Moon with me. Liz should go with you."

Both Liz and Kira looked thoroughly horrified at the idea.

"I don't need my Moon getting any ideas," Trebuchet said, putting her hand on Moon's shoulder in a protective gesture.

"Fine," Kira agreed. "Liz, you come with me."

The parties spread out to search. Aeron headed out at high speed on her own, eager to be the one to catch Ayla. Trebuchet and Moon set off at a much more relaxed pace in the opposite direction. Kira sighed to herself, then began walking down a small path between saplings which grew to the left of the cave. Liz followed after her at something of a distance.

"You probably won't find the witch," Liz said, not at all helpfully. "Witches are never found when they don't want to be. That's how they lasted this long."

Kira rounded on Liz, hands on her hips as she glowered down at the unfortunate scamp who was wearing the sort of smirking expression calculated to inspire annoyance in others. "You're going to keep your mouth shut," she said. "Or you're going to be sore."

"I don't care if I'm sore," Liz replied. "I don't care about any..OW!"

She squealed because Kira had grabbed a whippy branch from a nearby tree and cut it down across the outside of her thigh. "Dammit!" She cried out. "Why do you have to be such a bitch!?"

There was a moment of absolute silence, followed by a flurry of action. Kira hauled Liz around and pressed her face first up against a tree, then proceeded to whip her hide with the switch. At first it was not so bad because the fabric of her clothing bore the brunt of the whipping but Liz's britches were not especially well fitting and they soon began to sag, leaving her bare bottom vulnerable to the sting of the wood.

Her cries echoed through the forest, plaintive wails interspersed with higher shrieks of frustration. There was no way for her to avoid the strokes, for Kira had bunched her warrior hand most securely in the back of Liz's shirt. Swat after swat landed, red stripes rising across her cheeks as the switch took its toll.

Kira said not a word as she thrashed the unfortunate wretch who began to admit that she had made a grave error in using such foul language with Kira at the top of her lungs. All her apologies made not a lick of difference though. It had been some time since Kira had unleashed her disciplinary ire on a deserving bottom and Liz was about as deserving a bottom as had ever existed.

"You're killing me!" Liz shrieked.

A loud snort of what might have been amusement followed the panicked statement. "This won't kill you," Kira reassured her captive. "But it will make you think twice before you mouth off again, won't it?"

"I don't know!" Liz squirmed back and forth uncontrollably, her hands reaching back to rub her bottom only to be swatted away with the sting of the switch.

"You can't control your own mouth?"

"Control is an illusion," Liz whimpered. "I don't believe in free will."

"Well you'd better start," Kira replied, cutting the switch across the sensitive tops of Liz's bare thighs as her pants sagged all the way to her ankles. "Because I don't believe in mercy for troublemakers."

She proved the point by lashing the switch back and forth over the skin just below Liz's bottom several times, causing Liz to make a high pitch squealing sound which frightened a herd of wild pigs several miles off.

"You're cruel!"

"You have about as much grasp of cruelty as you do of death," Kira replied, holding Liz firmly in place. "You are a soft, spoiled little wretch."

"And you are a hard, mean, big... meanie!" Liz bit the words back over her shoulder, abandoning any notion of contrition.

Liz could not have seen it, but Kira smirked slightly as she swatted Liz's backside with the switch yet again, adding another line to the myriad of stripes criss-crossing the miscreant's behind.

As the punishment continued, the unfortunate recipient became increasingly uncomfortable thanks to the switch and Kira's strong right arm. Liz's bottom was cherry red, twin cheeks bouncing back and forth as she bounced on her tip toes in a fruitless attempt at escape. The tip of the wood kissed the underside of her bottom as Kira angled her wrist so the implement rose from underneath to leave little welts where Liz would usually sit.

"Stop!" Liz squealed the word. "For the love of everything! Stop!"

Kira did not stop. She was clearly determined to teach a very overdue lesson and to be thorough about it. Unfortunately, Liz had no intention of learning any lessons. When whining, squirming and pleading failed, she reached the end of her tether and truly lost her temper.

In spite of the biting of the switch, she suddenly stilled and spoke in cold tones. "Do not strike me again," she said, looking over her shoulder. "Or you will regret it."

Kira paused for a moment, a handsome smirk appearing on her face. "What will you do? Scream some uncouth words? Make some daisies grow?"

"I will grind your bones," Liz growled. "And I will bake them into cake."

"An inventive threat," Kira admitted. "But hardly credible. If you want to make a threat it has to be one you're capable of coming through on."

"I'm not done," Liz said, narrowing her eyes so they were two icy slits behind her messy braids. "I'll suck the life out of you. I'll make you old."

The warrior shook her head, her lips twisted in dark amusement. "That's one thing I will never be."

"As long as Ariadne continues to bless you," Liz replied. "What if she stops? What if she withdraws her power from you? Then you'll wither, won't you? Will you die, do you think? Or will you just get older and older and older? Will you age a hundred years in a hundred seconds? Do you even know?"

There was a silence after she spoke as the words sank in.

"You really are a nasty little wretch," Kira said mildly. "I think Ariadne would like you a lot."

"She already does." Liz reached out and put her hand on Kira's, wrapping her fingers around the warrior's hand in a quick, tight squeeze. Her lips moved rapidly and soundlessly.

Kira shouted in sudden pain and drew her hand away, releasing Liz in the process. Where her skin had been tanned and strong, it was now translucent and thin and withered. It was as if her hand had aged instantly, bones and veins visible through parched skin.

"What have you done?"

Liz smirked and dipped down to pull her britches up. "It's a taste of what I can do."

Kira flexed her hand, finding it slow to move and weak besides. Thank goodness Liz had touched her left hand and not her right.

"You're not invulnerable," Liz said in sibilant tones as she settled her pants in place. "You're not immortal. You're just charmed. And charms can be broken. You can be broken."

Kira looked at her withered hand for a long moment, then up at Liz. There was not a hint of a speck of fear in her eyes as she stared Liz down.

"I've been broken more times than you've drawn breath," she said. "This is nothing." She flexed her hand again and slowly the strength began to flow back into her palm and fingers. In a matter of moments her hand was restored to its healthy state.

"Hmph," Liz scowled at the change. "I thought it would be permanent."

Without speaking another word, Kira took hold of Liz again, catching the wicket little brat in both hands. This time she did not strike Liz, but instead bound her wrists together with a cord which had been coiled at her waist. Liz flinched and wiggled, more worried about being punished again than tied up. But Kira seemed to have no intention of punishing her. She didn't even seem angry at being so viscerally attacked. There was a smile on her face as she secured her prisoner and tugged Liz back toward the cave.

"What are you doing?!" Liz sounded panicked. "Let me go! You have seen my power!"

It should have been a strong statement, but it sounded more like a plaintive whine. The warrior marched her captive through the forest, her smile growing broader with every step. By the time they returned to the cave, Kira was beaming broadly and chuckling to herself, much to Liz's consternation. Once again, she resorted to threats.

"I could stop your heart! I could turn your flesh to fillet! I could..."

"You could be very useful," Kira said dryly, kicking Liz's feet out from under her and dumping her unceremoniously on the ground.

*****

In the aftermath of a very fruitless search for Ayla, Liz kneeled bound and gagged between Kira and Trebuchet, the boots of both warriors marking the limits of her movement. Aeron and Moon sat somewhat distant, watching as decisions were made.

"She did what to you?" Trebuchet cocked her head to the side, her eyes squinting as she tried to understand what Kira was telling her.

"She did something to break Ariadne's charm. She could have killed me, I suspect, but that's neither here nor there at this juncture," Kira said, her eyes lit with excitement. "You know what this means."

Trebuchet nodded slowly. "It means she's a witch. Only a witch could affect Ariadne's charm."

"And it means that there are others. If this is one." Kira nudged Liz gently with her toe. "There may be more."

"Have you asked her if there are more?"

"She would only lie."

"True." Trebuchet looked down at their prisoner. "I have an overwhelming urge to whip her bottom until she is sorry for keeping that a secret. All this time we have been protecting what we thought was the last witch..."

Kira smirked. "It's going to take more than a whipping to make her sorry."

"I could make her sorry," Aeron interjected, running her tongue over her teeth in an expression of near feral ferocity. It had been far too long since the soldier had been unleashed on anything resembling an enemy and she was growing frustrated.

"Of that I have no doubt," Kira said with a fond glance in Aeron's direction. "But you will contain yourself," she added. "Or it will not be Liz who receives the punishment."

"But I could make her talk," Aeron insisted. "I could make her talk real quick."

Moon had been smoking herbs up to that point, but at Aeron's statement she turned her head and looked at the soldier mildly. "You can't go around beating on witches," she said. "Witches have to be respected."