The Scions

Chapter 6

"Merlyn. Merlyn, listen to me. That woman may biologically be your parent, but she will never be your mother. You hear me? She is not your mother."

Aleyn was talking to me, but I wasn't really listening. I glared at him. "Why is it such a big deal that she is biologically my mother? She didn't raise me, and I don't feel any connection to her. You think that just because she gave birth to me, that means she has some sort of pull over me, that I'll join her or something?"

Aleyn groaned. "There's so much you don't understand. That woman has so much more pull over you than you could possibly I,aging. She's the reason that you're so powerful, and not just like the rest of your relatives. But that's a problem for another time."

Zander laughed. "Thanks for that."

Just as he said it, one of the soldiers walked in. He lifted me up and tried to set me on my feet, but my injured leg collapsed beneath me. The man grunted. I scooted away from him.

"Where are you taking me?"

The man signed. "You want that thing out of your leg or not?"

"Not until you fix them," I said, pointing at Aleyn and Zander.

The guard looked at them. "I'm not to touch them." He said. "She would rather they die."

"Is that so?" I asked the guard. "Because if so, she can have me die right along with them. Now fix them before you touch me."

The guard chuckled. "She said you would do this. She also said that if you don't don't come with me, I'm to put a hole through each of your friends." The man drew a long knife from a sheathe on his waist.

"But you won't," I said. 

"And what makes you so sure of that?" The guard asked, holding the knife to Zander's throat.

"Because Belle said it herself. They are leverage, and if you kill them then you have none."

"Don't be so sure of that. We'll still have you."

"You won't have me. Not if you kill them, because you would have no hold over me, and I would let you kill me before I joined you."

The guard sighed. He took his knife and slashed through Zander's bond with one big stroke.

"Come on," he said. "The girl wants you healed first, then that's how it's going to be."

Zander groaned as he guard carried him out of the tent by his bad arm.

Aleyn glanced at me. "You better hope they don't kill him anyway. Belle seemed pretty upset about him. We never should have let him come along."

...............................

The guard returned about an hour later with no Zander. "Where is he?" I asked him, ready to pounce if anything had happened to my brother. 

"Relax. He's in the med tent. Jeez."

The guard then sliced through Aleyn's bonds and carried him out of the tent. Which left me alone with nothing but my thoughts, and speculations about what my best friend and half-brother were going through. 

The guard returned another hour later, and moved to take me. This time, I let him, and couldn't help but notice how much gentler he had been with me than he had been with the others.

He carried me gently into another tent and set me down on a bed. There was another man standing over the bed, what I could only assume was the doctor. 

"That was a stupid thing you did, kid," he said. "Stupid brave, but still stupid."

They had no anesthesia in this world, not like where I had come from, so the doctor simply grabbed the arrow, snapped both ends off, and said, "this may hurt."