Sleepless (Curse of the Blood Fox Trilogy, Book #1) (22 page)

“Santo,” I
heard Traken shout. His voice was loud, and surprisingly desperate. Of course,
I looked up… and came face-to-face with the horrible, disfigured beast that had
once been the little girl.

“Oh,” I said,
and cleared my throat, trying not to breathe in too much. “Huh.”

There was a
clang of metal again, and the beast swayed, then twisted backwards and flung
out one gigantic hand. I heard Traken groan, though I couldn't see anything
past the child-monster's bulk, and soon its full attention was on me again. I
struggled against the vines, having trouble deciding which way to pull.

“Traken, are
you alive?” I called, trying to strain my eyes for any sign of him.

“Naturally,”
came the dull reply, weakened from exertion and pain. I shivered as the monster
crunched closer, rearing back to expose gross, twisted teeth and a sharp,
flickering tongue. Its putrid breath hit my face.

“There's no
winning this fight,” I informed him. “We have to get out the fast way.”

“I can’t use
magic, kitten.” Traken's voice was hollow. “I've told you.”

“Well, I
can't move, so it seems we are at an impasse.” The unicorn insisted she played
fair, but this situation seemed impossible with her rules. What did she expect
a sorcerer to be able to do without his magic? Inspiration hit me as I ducked
to dodge a lunge of teeth that barely missed me by a hair. “She didn't
say
magic,
did she? She said
sorcery.
You're a cross-blood, aren't you? Use
witchcraft.”

“It could all
be the same to her,” he said. A vine suddenly curled up around my neck and
yanked me back hard, burying half my face in its leaves. I felt the
not-so-pleasant tickle of something sharp start to itch at my back. It was
almost time to panic.

“How could it
be the same,” I choked, fighting for air, “when it's from a completely
different source? She said she plays fair, and that it isn't impossible to get
out. You have to trust her, Traken.” There was silence, a terrible silence in
which the monster reared back again. “Traken, what else could it
be?
”

The child-monster
lunged, and at that same instant I felt a pleasant hum rip through the air, and
the vines suddenly fell loose around me. I craned my neck to see the bushes
pulling themselves away behind me, bent back as if by invisible hands, to
reveal another parallel hallway in the maze. I fruitfully stumbled backwards as
soon as what had been holding me vanished, and the jagged teeth of the monster
scraped my flailing arm nicely, but nothing more. I struck Phernado across its
face in the process, hitting but not breaking through the mass of bones and
tendons I had touched.

The thing let
out a frustrated shriek loud enough to curdle blood. I quickly regained my
footing and sprinted the rest of the way through the hole. Traken was suddenly
hurtling through beside me, and he grabbed my shoulder as he passed.

“C'mon,
princess, no naps yet.”

“Aw, and I
was about to get such a nice long one,” I said cheerfully, twisting with his
momentum and following left down the maze. When we came to the first bend,
Traken held out a hand instead of turning and a green aura surrounded it. The
bushes, which had already started to wiggle ugly vines at us, split and bent to
the sides. Their vines drooped and disappeared back into the green fortress of
their bodies. We raced through.

“Your reflexes
aren't exactly first-rate this morning, I see,” Traken commented, raising his
hand as we came to yet another bush wall.

“You were the
one that got rest. Don't make me hurt you. I can now, you know.”

Traken didn’t
say anything else, but he was grinning.

Ten or so
walls later we finally came to the edge of the maze, stepping through the
opened path in the bushes into a refreshing scene of trees and dappled
wilderness under the yellow morning sun. Not surprisingly, the unicorn and her
frozen children were already there waiting for us.

“Welcome
back,” the unicorn sang, shaking out her sea-green mane. The children sitting
around her were grinning broadly, clutching bundles of bright, beautiful
flowers. They threw them in the air as we came to a stop, and little feet
danced among the falling petals as if holding a mock celebration. “I suppose I
will accept your win, though I am a little disappointed in you, Sorcerer. You
did not complete your side of it on your own, but I suppose you may have
learned what you needed to regardless.”

“Needed to?”
Traken remarked, still jovial. “Is that what this was all about, Unicorn?
Teaching us little humans what you deign we should know in the most deadly way
possible?”

“Quite,” the
unicorn said, unconcerned with his tone. She pointed her muzzle towards me as I
was sheathing both my blades. “Did you find what you needed, little fox?” she
asked.

I nodded my
head once, lips set in a grim line. Now the only question that remained was if
there was still more to learn, or if this was all I had come for. I
had
nearly died, so it wasn't hard to believe that this could have been what the
Angelblood had foreseen.

There are
more answers,
the
unicorn whispered, her voice tickling the inside of my mind,
but they are
not pleasant, perhaps. I will give you another gift, child; a choice. Do you
want to continue with this unstable sorcerer whose mind has not yet been made?
If not, you may lose your chance to find out any more... but you may also keep
your life.

How do you
know what will be?
I
asked her silently, skeptical.

It does
not take future-sight when all minds are open books. I grant you no
certainties; I can merely see what you cannot that already is.

We must have
been silent too long; Traken's eyes narrowed suspiciously. “What are you doing
to her, Unicorn?”

“Nothing at
all,” she replied with the heavy patience of an adult answering a
much-too-curious child. “I am merely awaiting an answer. Well?”

Having tasted
what I had of my past now, I could not bear the thought of turning back and
possibly never finding out more. I did not want to live forever like this... I
had not survived so long with the idea that this curse would always be. I
needed to know what it was, and who did it. I had a face now. I couldn't stop.

“I will
stay,” I said, though I knew I needn't have said it aloud. The unicorn nodded
once, neither disappointed nor impressed with my answer. Traken, though, was
looking at me like I might be growing a second head.

“I will not
offer again, then,” she said, lowering her horn. Behind us, hulking footsteps
sounded, and from within the cursed maze came the lumbering form of the
child-monster. My hands twitched for my sheathed blades, and Traken's hand
jerked towards his sword, but the monster was not focused on us. As it came, it
began to shrink and change shape. I forced myself still, and the thing shot
past us, now only shoulder height, and flung its arms around the neck of the
unicorn.

The little
girl was now whole again, blonde hair and watery eyes, and in the same exact condition
as before she had been changed, flowers in her hair and all. She was giggling,
eyes bright as if she had just pulled off the biggest scheme.

“Next time
I
want to play the monster,” a little boy laughed, and that erupted into a storm
of white gowns flailing as the kids stood on their toes and twirled around,
growling in their throats and curving their fingers like claws.

“It was an
illusion?” I asked, my voice escaping before I really meant to ask it. Fear had
suddenly gripped me—not only had the unicorn full access to my mind, but to my
senses as well. That tinkling laugh grated at my nerves.

“I told you
that she was still herself, child. You may have seen what I wanted you to see,
but there was no illusion. An illusion would be a falsehood, and I don't lie.
Everything had its consequences, and you both played your parts well enough. I
hear you are on quite the schedule, so I will now keep my end of the bargain;
you are both allowed passage to the other end of my forest. I hope we can play
together again soon.”

“Oh yes,”
said a quiet girl with long black hair and a strange accent. “They were much
more interesting than the last participants.”

“They didn't
know how to play games properly,” a boy pretending to be a monster cut in. A
couple other children bobbed their heads.

“They died so
easily. They didn't even try.”

“We were only
trying to teach them.”

The blonde
girl who was once the child-monster looked straight at me, and for a chilling
moment I saw stony years in her youthful face, the cold indifference of
something not quite human in her eyes.

“If you
cannot learn,” she said, “than what is the point of existing at all?”

My eyes
matched hers in hardness. “So you decide if someone is worthy of life based on
if they survive your game or not?” I asked, voice empty. The unicorn stared
after me a long moment, light gathering on the tip of her horn.

“It is not my
concern whether they are worthy or not,” she said. “Thieves, runaways,
adventurers, soldiers... they have all found their way to my domain, and they
have all been treated equally. This is not your world, but mine; human morality
matters little to me, just as I am sure my morality matters very little to you.
Someday, humans will stand at my level of knowledge and wisdom. Until then,
they should be working towards it. Those who do not try do not deserve my
interest or sympathy. They are just as mindless to me as you consider the
creatures you catch and eat.”

The children
fell into laughter again, swinging their arms freely through the air, miming
the forms of beasts to each other. I did not know how to feel about her
conclusion. In fact, I couldn't feel much at all, just a strange lightness of
being that made me sway.

“So the point
of all of this was to judge if we were amusing enough to let live?” I heard
Traken ask, stepping into my peripheral vision. He sounded annoyingly
appreciative, as if it were something he thought might have some merit. The
unicorn tsked, swishing her lion-like tail.

“It was a
lesson, Sorcerer, and one that I suspect you will learn properly in due time.
For now, you both must leave. I suggest you deal with your charge... she is
near death.”

Death? That
was ridiculous... I had just been running and fighting. How could I be near
death? Now that the action was over, I
was
starting to see doubles, but
that could have been from mere exhaustion. I glanced down at my numb right leg
and wondered at the amount of blood that covered the material of my pants, a
mixture of crackly muddy brown and moist maroon.

My stomach
revolted.
Not yet,
I thought.
I need to keep going.

A hand gripped
my arm suddenly. My legs were giving way without my permission, and I pitched
forward... but not before the unicorn's horn flashed one last time, and the blackness
of the nothing took me.

I fell
face-first towards a patch of grass that looked dull and normal compared to the
kind we had been standing on. The only thing that softened my fall was the hand
still on my arm, which nonetheless did not prevent me from hitting the ground.
I groaned, and immediately Traken let go and roughly rolled me onto my back. I
saw a vast blue morning sky stretched out above my head, free of tangled tree
limbs or the tops of labyrinth walls, and felt a little of the panic ease in my
chest. The spicy, heavy aroma of the unicorn's forest was also gone, replaced
with the muted, less satisfying plant-life that I was comfortable with.

A shocking
gentleness took over the pain in my leg, and I twisted my neck dumbly to see
Traken bending over it, his hand covered in that golden aura. His lips were
pulled back in a grimace while he worked, teeth gritted, so when he spoke his
voice was rough.

“That unicorn
wasn't joking... you lost a lot of blood and your body is near exhaustion.
Technically, you shouldn't have been conscious.”

“Well, aren't
you useful,” I said, voice perhaps a little too giddy. It felt great lying
where I was, that aura covering me. I wanted to sing. Instead, I started
laughing.

“You're
slipping,” Traken said, his tone severe as if warning me against something. “I
can heal you, but I can’t bring back the blood you lost. You need to stay with
me and awake. Try to concentrate, Santo.”

“You're so
serious,” I admonished him, shaking a heavy finger at his face. “That's the
problem with you... you're serious even when you're not being serious. It's
annoying.”

He caught my
finger with his free hand and pushed it firmly back on the ground. He was
smirking, but underneath the smirk I saw tight skin and tension. I wondered if
he was always so tense when he smiled, and if I just hadn't noticed it before.
I wanted to poke the hard muscles around his eyes and see if they would run
away.

“Just give me
another minute,” he said, tone low. He wasn't looking at me any more after
that, so I looked away as well. The sun felt so warm against my skin, and the
grass so comfortable. I wanted to stay there forever, that feeling washing
through me, that peace swelling within. I closed my eyes, too worn out to sleep
but not at all afraid to. It felt like any sleep I had now would have to be
gloriously dreamless.

“No more
Wake-Me-Not's,” I tried to say, but ended up mumbling it, stumbling
lethargically over my words.

“I'll shove
one down your throat if you don't stay awake,” Traken told me, his voice wispy
and sweet like the soft cream that came on
Haruvian
tarts. “I've had to
patch you up a lot since this started, princess. If you keep letting yourself
get torn up, you're never going to stand a chance.”

“Against
what?” I asked slowly, eyes sealed closed as if they had a mind of their own.
“You?”

“Maybe,” he
said, voice thick. “You never know. What did that unicorn do to you? I can't
find any other injuries, but it looked like she was hurting you. More mind
games?”

“She showed
me home,” I said, voice muffled as I flung one arm over my face to block out
the sun... or maybe the memories. “She showed me that night again, the parts I
couldn't remember.”

“And?” he
asked, the aura of his magic tickling the skin of my forearm briefly, where a
scab had formed over the cut I had made to call
Semine
. I was surprised
he felt the need to heal it, but didn't complain.

“I saw the
man that cursed me.” The thought was sobering me without any gentle forewarning
at all. I stared steadily into the blackness of the crook of my arm. “I still
don't know why I didn't die along with the others.”

“Did you
learn anything interesting?”

My lips
twitched. Ever curious. “I learned that I didn't used to be the only one in the
world with these eyes. The entire village had them. And I got to see the face
of my father again.” A solitary warmth spread through my chest. “I can't
believe I'd forgotten his face.”

Traken made a
noise in his throat. “I wish I were so lucky.”

This perked
my interest. “It's hard to imagine someone like you with parents,” I said,
laughing. “What were they like?”

“That is not
a topic I'd like to go into.”

“That bad,
huh?”

“Think what
you will,” he said. I peeked out from under my arm and saw he was no longer
healing me, but gazing solemnly at the wall of tangled trees we had been exiled
from. I waited for him to say something more, or even crack a joke, but he
didn't.

As the
exhilarating effects of the healing faded, I started to notice the painful way
certain rocks were digging into me where I lay. I also felt the welcome buzzing
of my swords, which were trapped uncomfortably underneath. Just feeling their
awareness, something I had started taking for granted long ago, was such a
relief I spoke without thinking.

“Glad you two
are back... I was getting a little lonely.”

Traken
snorted, but he didn't say anything obnoxious at least. I sat up slowly to join
him in staring at the thick tangled woods we had somehow escaped from.

“Feeling
better now?” he asked, eyes still averted. I sent him a lop-sided smile.

“Maybe. Still
a little bit like jelly. Are you?”

“She kept her
word,” he said, without answering. “We’re on the other side of her forest. I
recognize the plants that grow here.”

I looked
around as well. “How much longer will it take to get to your lord now?”

“I’d say
another day, if nothing
else
goes wrong. He will not be pleased, but we
can still make it within his time limit.”

“I'm
surprised there wasn't someone waiting out here for us, ready to chastise you
for keeping him waiting.”

A grin
wavered onto Traken's face. “That bunch will not be able to find me until I am
ready to be found.”

I laughed.
“Oh? What does that mean, that you're keeping us hidden? Won't that displease
your lord again?”

“He will be
displeased either way; I prefer to accept the punishment later rather than now.
I will just tell him that I was attempting to hide our presence from the Le
Fam.”

“Who never
cross the forest lines,” I pointed out.

“Who never
do,” he agreed. “But do you know why?”

I shook my
head, unhooking my pack from my shoulder and settling it on my lap. He went
silent as I searched through it, and I paused and glanced up hesitantly to meet
his eyes. “Yes?”

“What are you
doing?”

“Eating,” I
told him, holding up some apple bread wrapped in a thick cloth. I put it down
and went back to searching. “It will only take a little while.”

“You could
eat on the go.” He motioned to the side, and suddenly the horses were there, as
if they had always been. I scowled.

“I don't know
if you've tried that yourself before, Traken, but when
you're
in control,
it's not possible. Here, have some of this.” His eyes lit as I held out a
wrapped package of smoked and spiced sausage.

Traken slid
just a bit closer and took the package from me; the muscles in his face
smoothed and a silly sort of contentment passed over his expression as he
unwrapped one end and took the first bite.

“I can almost
see that dog tail wagging behind you,” I said, producing cheeses and kebobs
from within my pack that still carried remarkable and mouth-watering smells. My
canteen had barely anything left in it from the night before, so I took a
couple shallow sips and saved the rest. “Finish what you were saying; why won't
the Le Fam go past the forest? Regardless of the unicorn, couldn't they just go
around it like everyone else?”

“How much do
you know about East Kurdak?” Traken said around his full mouth.

I pulled out
a dagger, wiped it on the cleanest part of my bloody and tattered pants, and
began slicing some aged white cheese onto a chunk of apple bread. “I don't know
much. I never traveled very far into this part of Kurdak. Mostly because of how
far it is from the trade road, and I heard it was only a place of small nomadic
tribes anyway.”

“Hardly,”
Dogboy said, dropping the cloth that had held the devoured sausage and eying
the kebobs near my knee. “That may have been true a century ago, but now there
are many towns and villages. Truthfully, they are secluded people who stick to
themselves and trade mostly within those circles, which is why they are hardly
known.” He sent me a wry look. “With a large unicorn-infested forest blocking a
good chunk of the way, you can't really blame them.”

“I have heard
they are dangerous, though. Even in the last twenty years, I've heard East
Kurdakians described as savage and war-like.”

“War-like?
No. A bit under-educated, perhaps, and sometimes hostile to strangers. They
especially don't like magic-users around here, which is
why
the Le Fam
won't come near and why we won't be stopping off in any more villages for the
rest of the way. Some of the best headhunters come from this region.”

The mention
of “headhunters” made me shift uneasily. Those folks weren't regular
mercenaries or bounty hunters. They weren't after money, but were rather on
crusades for their personal religions, which in remote areas of the country had
grown pagan. They worshiped the gods so severely that magic-use was considered
sacrilege, trying to be a god one’s self, and they punished such things with
torture and death. They killed good and bad alike, and were so hard to track
down that they were rarely punished for their crimes.

“I had no
idea those types came from around here.”

“It isn't
much known except by those who live here,” Traken said with a shrug. I stared
at him.

“Why do
you
live here, then? Even if your lord controls a province of this area, his people
cannot possibly be happy with a ruler who employs those who are sacrilegious to
them.”

“They do not
know,” he said, throwing a mocking finger to his lips. “My master pleases those
under him with beliefs and promises that aren't always truth. Only his soldiers
and his circle know, and they treat him as a god, so magic around him would not
be so strange. His grip is iron, Blood Fox.”

“His grip is
only as strong as the people who follow him,” I said with a shrug, my mouth
nonetheless dry. I blamed it on the bread.

“And many
powerful people follow him,” Traken asserted, picking up a kebob and smelling
it slowly. I glared at him sidelong.

“That is the
only
Syong
beef one I have left.”

He smiled
smoothly and jerked the stick into his mouth before I could react, pulling it
out empty from between his lips. I glowered, stuffing the rest of my kebobs
back in my pack and away from him.   

“You are a
vile, cruel person, Traken.”

“So they
say,” he said, throwing down the stick and eying what was left of my cheese. I
quickly put it away too, and swallowed my last piece of bread.

“We can go
now,” I informed him, bouncing up to my feet. My insides swayed a little, but I
did not let it show. Traken pulled himself leisurely to his feet as well,
sweeping glimmering fingers past my nose and towards the silent waiting beasts.

“After you,
kitten.”

I turned, and
a moment later I felt something quick as rainwater shift against the pack on my
back. The hairs on my neck bristled, and I fell flat on one foot and twisted
quickly, striking the other leg out. I hit flesh, but although Traken stumbled,
he was still chuckling. There was a new kebob stick hanging from his mouth.

My hands had
moved instinctively, and were lingering on the buzzing hilts of Phernado and
Valentina. They were surging, pulsating in response to my sudden nervousness.

“Count
yourself lucky that I do not kill over stolen food,” I said, taking a deep
breath and feeling my prickly muscles ease only slightly. Traken's eyebrows
were up, amused.

“Just testing
how soft you've become,” he said, tossing away the next stick. “Turning your
back on me without a second thought is juvenile.”

“Don't speak
of 'juvenile' to me. An attack would have been one thing, but you stole my
food. Twice. Don't expect to keep your fingers if you attempt a third.” I did
not speak entirely in jest as I stared down my nose at him.

“All pride
and vindication,” he mocked, ambling towards his horse even as his sharp eyes
stayed steady. “What have you got, my crazy fox? Show me. I'd really like to
see how you could deal with a sorcerer one on one. Could you really beat me?”

“Yes,” I
said, knowing better than to turn my back now. He was a predator, suddenly
turned from contented to hungry. “That is not a question for now, though.
Everything in its due time.”

“When, then?”
he asked, and the rumble in his deceivingly easygoing voice heightened my
guard. Something had broken loose in his eyes, and they burned at me now. “You
continually underestimate the situations around you. There is no later here...
time does not kill issues, it evolves them. What will you decide when the
moment comes?”