The Living Tower

Chapter Twenty-One: Huntswoman

Val barely had the energy to climb back into the tower. It took a few attempts to make it more than five feet off the ground without falling, and she nearly slipped a few more times on her way to the broken window. A few of the shards scraped her arms on the way in. With a groan, she collapsed on the floor and waited for the pain to fade with the glow.

She'd really hoped Baiya would follow. But when she'd glanced back after walking away from him, he was already gone.

After spending some time digging through her clothes—leaving the pieces she didn't want strewn across the floor—she found a white headscarf that would hopefully help her draw less attention to herself as she traveled. She packed a bag with food and grabbed the money she'd taken from the soldiers' bodies

The next morning, as promised, she left the tower at sunrise. She lingered at the base of it for a few minutes, a few minutes longer than she told herself she would, still hoping Baiya would show up. Nothing.

When she finally started away from the tower, she only made it a few steps before something thudded behind her.

Val whirled around. A stone had fallen out of the tower's outer wall.

"What do you want?" she shouted. "Because if you can't give me answers, I'm leaving."

Nothing. Nothing.

With a hiss, Val stormed forward and kicked at the stone. And instantly regretted it. Pain burst to life, making her foot throb. She let out another angry cry before turning and storming away from the structure.

Using a map that had been crammed into one of the tower's books, she started toward a village only a mile or so from Stellich. It would have been more convenient to find a ride to the sea from someone in Stellich, of course, but she didn't dare show her face there again.

After finding a ride to the sea, she'd get passage on a spacespeaker ship.

She mulled over various ideas of what she would say to Ellias when she found him. All morning, she thought, wondered, wished. Wished Baiya had agreed to the plan, wished Ellias had told her what she was doing wrong instead of waiting for things to get out of hand, wished she could figure out what the hell the deal with the tower was—

Midway to the village, the sun now hanging overhead, Val froze. Some distant rustle had reached her ears, but there was plenty of life crawling through the undergrowth around her. What about this had her on edge?

She instinctively moved away from the path and ducked behind a tree. Her ears strained. Nothing, now.

She could have returned to the path, she supposed, but decided to wait a little longer. A day ago, she wouldn't have expected anything in these woods to be a match for her.. But now her heart pounded wildly in her chest like she was some prey animal.

Val used two daggers of her magic to climb up the tree. She positioned herself in the branches over the path and sat as still as possible. Tried to quiet her breathing.

Nothing, nothing, and then, just as she was considering returning to the ground—cursing herself for wasting so much precious time—a figure appeared below.

The woman moved in surprising silence. She was dressed in a pale gray uniform—down to her gray boots—with a silver eight-pointed star on the breast and silver buttons. She looked Yanjenese. Two long, black braids of hair hung from her head. Her left eye had a nasty scar cutting through it, making Val question whether she could see out of it at all.

A sword was strapped to her back.

Despite being anxious to get to the moon, Val moved to follow the woman from above, carefully pulling herself from branch to branch. Just for a few minutes, she told herself. She suspected that the woman was this Huntswoman Ellias had mentioned, given that she was likely from Yanjen.

The woman glanced up, on occasion, making Val freeze every time. But there were enough leaves to give her cover, and the woman never seemed to see Val.

Audible footsteps eventually joined the sounds of the forest. A lot of them. A large group that clearly didn't care if anyone heard them coming.

Aelrish soldiers.

As they approached Mailin, they slowed. The two opposing parties finally came to a stop ten feet from each other.

"What business are you on?" one of the soldiers in front asked.

"It's certainly none of yours," the woman said sternly.

The soldier folded his arms. "We were stationed here to keep an eye on the villages. Keep any trouble from happening."

"I believe you were stationed here to keep the Stellans in line, should they voice any dissent against your king."

The soldier raised an eyebrow. "He's just as much their king."

"Not as long as the Ankrens still live and breathe."

"No one knows where they are."

"I do."

A murmur rippled through the crowd of soldiers. The leader's eyes narrowed. "What's your name?"

"Fen Mailin." The woman drew her sword. "Huntswoman of the Glass Queen of Yanjen. Allow me to pass through, or I will dispatch all of you without hesitation and consider it self-defense."

The soldiers laughed. "Beat all of us? Some of us are soulspeakers, you know. I'd love to see you try to take on all of us at once."

"Wish granted, then."

Mailin's movements were swift, perfectly timed, and the rest of her moved to dodge the soldiers' weapons. In fact, she was able to send several of them crashing into each other.

The blinding flashes of light some of the soldiers created in front of her face seemed to have no impact on Mailin's fighting. She was likely already used to fighting with limited vision, Val supposed.

Val's fingernails dug into the tree branch. If this Huntswoman were given powerful enough magic in the form of a weapon...perhaps she would manage in a fight against Val.

The woman took a few blows over the course of the fight, but none were enough to keep her from walking away from the unconscious—or dead—bodies she left on the ground.

As much as Val doubted a magicless woman could kill her, she had to admit that Mailin was impressive. Maybe with help from Ellias...

Val found herself glancing up, thinking—hoping, admittedly—that she might see Baiya. He'd been looking for the Huntswoman after all, hadn't he? Where the hell was he looking?"

Stupid bird.

No matter. Val could make the journey alone. She had to. So what if company would be nice? So what if she was scared of finding Ellias by herself?

So what if this whole thing was a terrible idea?

She needed to talk to him. Now. She needed answers.

Val didn't make it much farther before the strange flashes of memory she'd experienced while visiting Stellich resurfaced. Green light. Forest. Something involving the tower... What was she forgetting? Why was it trying to come back now?

Her mind went back to something Baiya had said while they were examining the sigils in the wall. I think these sigils are used to lock away memories.

Was it her memories the sigils were meant to hide?

Val pressed a hand to the side of her head. From what she knew about sigils, they had a range. And since they hadn't been placed on her directly, if she moved far enough away from them, the memories would likely fully resurface. Their effects might linger once she'd passed beyond their range, since she'd spent so long around them, but they had to wear off eventually. At least, as far as she knew.

With a storm of new emotions wrenching her gut, she pressed on.