PELAIR. The Gems of the Golden Serpent.

25. Agneer

"Who are you? Agneer asked Aela rudely and threateningly.

"My name is Ael," replied the girl without feeling any fear. She felt puzzled and surprised by her haughty response to this strange woman.

"Do you think I am stupid?" snapped the witch enraged. Her eyes shone with a supernatural whitish glare. "Do you think I don't realize you are a fool and insolent bitch dressed as a man?"

"Well, if you think you're stupid, I'm not going to contradict you," responded the girl in a challenging way.

Agneer was taken aback, not only by the failure to impose her powers on this young woman but as the open manner and free of fear this girl confronted her. She had relied on that fear as her best weapon to assert her will on others. Without fear, her power faded. Of course, no one had dared to find out this fact so far. She could order the death of this reckless woman and destroy her threat. However, she felt much too curious and intrigued as to dispose so soon of the girl. Eventually, she would.

The flock of eagles had transported Aela and brought her to the presence of the twin. The witch had rightly thought that the whereabouts of the strange white hawk would also give away the young arrogant that had challenged her and her sister, not to say the least about the result of his appearance before the Duke Guildor that fateful day.

She had sent all the eagles at her disposal to search the territories within walking distance from Ardel. She knew that however much walked, the fugitives could not be that far. The Eagles had every advantage because they could scrutinize from above a vast expanse of territory.

"Why do you dress like a man?" asked the witch again.

"Wouldn't you do that if you were traveling alone in this world?" answered the girl watching Agneer's face intently.

"Weren't you the same troubadour that traveled with that troupe of dancers or whatever you called yourself that were in Ardel?" asked the witch. "I have to send out for that gang," thought Agneer.

"Incidental comrades," replied the girl. "We met on the ship that brought us to Ardel from Canabal, and there we decided to put our skills on a show. One of the sailors told us that it was a good way to make some money in the city. We had to earn our living from something, don't you think?"

It was an attempt by the girl to divert the witch's attention from her friends.

Aela remembered this woman well from her previous encounter in the Castle of Angmar and much earlier, during that fateful assault, which had killed her friend Aenor. She knew now that they were two different women. She recalled the spell the witch had thrown on Balin, which had suffocated him during their hasty getaway from Angmar. It had not affected her, and neither had she feared the witch the first time their eyes met in the torched village, the day the hordes of that woman had killed her mother and her childhood friend. She assumed those twins had some sort of power, and for some mysterious reason, she was immune to it.

The fury had made Aela behave arrogantly when the twin questioned her. Now much calmer; she thought she should not be so reckless. She would have to wait for the right moment to avenge her mother and her adoptive sister. The witch could swear to that. However, the dilemma was now, how to rip off the black stone she saw hanging from the neck of the witch. That's the motive that brought her to Ardel in the first place.

"And where is your sister?" Aela asked Agneer. She wanted to know if the other twin was close around.

"I do the questioning here!" replied the woman with a high-pitched voice, an indication she was already losing her patience. "Take her away and lock her. Isolate her, and nobody speaks to her," ordered Agneer. The twin wanted to make sure the girl would not comment to anyone that her powers did not affect her whatsoever.