Soulbound

"Look!" Anna pointed at the mountains looming ahead. After treking all day through the desert, they were finally gracing us with their wonderous sight. We could make it there by nightfall if we rushed.

Anna seemed to have the same train of thought; with an excited hoot she kicked her horse into a run. I was more excited to finally see green again, rather than relieved to arrive at our destination. The closer we got, the more thick grasses sprouted from the sand, the more palms stood tall, casting welcomed shadows. The air grew cooler, not just because of the sun going down, but because of the moisture in the air. It was so humid, in fact, my skin had adopted a permanent film of sweat. My clothes clung to my flesh unforgivingly and made it difficult to adjust.

We stopped by a waterfall to refill our canteens. A flock of colourful birds flew over us, hurrying to their nests before dark. If this jungle was anything like the forest back home, we should follow in the birds' footsteps and find shelter for the night. Using my senses, I saw the large jungle cats patrolling the area and a phoenix or two guarding their nests. After travelling in the heat all day, I did not feel like wrestling with a jungle cat.

Using the map Sasha had drawn, I led Annalyse to the village. It wasn't like the traditional map Anna had taught me how to use; this one used landmarks, most of them being distinct trees or huge boulders. One landmark was of a creepy doll woven together with vines; its spindly finger pointed to a path that we would have missed if it weren't for its direction.

It wasn't long before a wall came into our sights. As far as walls went, it was primitive; a stack of logs, really, lain horizontally along the village boundary, held in place by poles and rope. The base of the wall was lined with spikes, pinned at a forty-five degree angle. Simple it may be, it looked strong enough to hold back a basilisk.

We approached the main gate. The warriors called out to each other from their posts above the gate, announcing our arrival. A small latch opened on the gate, revealing a man's face. He was maybe in his early thirties, but he had tufts of grey hair mixed with his dirty blonde hair and a scar that ran down the side of his face from his temple to his jaw. He examined us with a heavy furrow on his brow.

"Is it just the two of you?" He was surprisingly well-spoken. Most of the residents I'd come across tended to slur their words and definitely had a limited vocabulary.

"Yes," Anna answered, stepping forward. "We've come a long way. May we enter?"

Sooner was better than later. They didn't have a fifteen foot wall up to keep the bunnies away.

His gaze dashed to our left then to our right, undoubtedly checking to see if we were truly alone. "What business do two heavily armed women have with my village?"

"Sasha Remoar sent us."

All the blood drained from his face; his jaw fell slack in his shock. Knowing Sasha, that seemed like a reasonable reaction.

"Stirward!" A woman shrieked from deep within the village. "Stirward!" She was closer now, her heavy breaths coming the other side of the gate. She struggled against the warriors behind the gate then managed to pop her head in view of the latch hole. "Ye've come fer Petal?" she asked us, a certain desperation in her eyes that made my heart clench.

Anna nodded, taking another step for the gate. "We were told she is sick. Sasha asked us to bring her back to Storm Cove."

Tears sprung in the young woman's eyes. She tossed a quick prayer up to the gods then turned to Stirward, gripping his shoulder with the determination of a mother protecting her child. "Let 'em in. I requested Sasha's help."

There were several audible gasps from behind the gate.

Stirward looked as if she had drawn a sword on him. "Why would you do such a thing, woman? I want nothing to do wth that tyrant."

She cut him with a harsh glare. "She's da only one who cen help Petal. An' she's far from a tyrant. She's been blessed by the gods. Maybe if ye treated her with de respect she is owed, she'd help us more."

"Bah!" he exclaimed, dismissing her with a curt wave. "She's a curse. Brings nothing but trouble."

Anna rapped on the door beside the latch hole. Once she had their full attention, she gave them a wry smile. "Hi. Remember us? Night is falling. Are you going to let us in or not?"

Stirward remained silent, clearly still wary of us. Huffing at his behaviour, the young woman shoved him out of the way and unlocked the gate. Stirward gaped at her flippant disregard for his authority then threw his hands up in his irritation when gate swung open for us.

She smiled warmly at us. "Come, come. Ignore de crotchety brute. You cen stay in me home for de night." She took our arms and led us down the dirt road.

"Abi!" Stirward called, struggling to keep with our pace. "Abigail! You cannot invite strangers into your home!" He finally caught up to us and pulled her to a stop. Wincing, he gripped his thigh and muttered a curse; it was then when I noticed the peg he had instead of the bottom half of his leg. It was a miracle he caught up to us in the first place with his crude prosthetic. "If you insist that they stay here, let them stay in my home."

She scowled furiously at him. "No, no. You've made yer opinion of me guests clear. They'll be stayin' wit' me."

Abigail turned down the street, ignoring the rest of Stiward's protests. We followed her. Her fellow villagers stepped out of their homes to watch us, some with only curiosity in mind, but others looked one shake away from turning their weapons on us. Coming from a small village, I understood their wariness, especially with two armed strangers. Brar wouldn't have welcomed us either.

The buildings here--though, I used that word loosely--were framed by large trunks, the walls made of bundles of sticks woven together. The roofs consisted of broad palm leaves, which I doubted did much against the torrential rain during the spring time, but it did its part to protect them from the mist that seemed to persistently hang in the air.

Abigail took us to a small hut nestled in the corner of the street. "Please, come in. I made enough food knowin' you'd be comin'."

Her home was even smaller inside. It was all one room, a flimsy divider wall off in the far corner, where I saw a hint of a cot and a pair of small feet behind it. One side had a large pit, which hosted a grill and a pot full of stew. Two cushions sat beside the fire, soaking up the warmth.

Patting her rumpled skirts, Abigail peered at the divider nervously then down at the stew. Absentmindedly, she gestured to the cushions by the fire. "Sit, sit. Dinner ought to be ready soon." Her eyes didn't once leave the divider.

My heart went out to the woman, torn between hosting and tending to her daughter. It reminded me of a time when I was little and Jacob had gotten a nasty fever. Mom had stretched herself thin tending to him, watching me, and keeping the house in order. I had been six at the time, but even then, I saw she was reaching her limit. Abigail shared the same weary lines my mother had, but she looked to be ten years younger than Mom had been.

I walked over to the pit and picked up the spoon. "Go check on Petal. I can take care of dinner from here."

She just stared at me, eyes uncertain. "No, miss, it's all right. I'm-"

I touched her hand, stopping her. "We're here to help. Let us help."

Her eyes went from me to Anna, who smiled encouragingly at her. "Go on. Eva's right: we're here to help."

"Thank ye." She squeezed my hand, biting her bottom lip to hold back the emotion welling in her eyes. "People say you're all cursed, but I see ye fer what ye are: blessed." She left to tend to Petal behind the divider.

I knelt by the pit and stirred the stew. After eating dried meat rations for the past few days, the hearty scent was heavenly and had my mouth watering. Anna sat beside me, eyes just as intent on the stew.

"What do you think she means by cursed?" I asked her quietly. I'd thought peoples' fear of Sasha came from her abuse of power, but this village made it sound like she'd brought the plague onto the world.

She pulled the tie out of her hair and ruffled it to loosen up the braid. "I'm not sure. All I've heard about Sasha was that she was a leader of a renegade group. No one mentioned any curses."

I sat on my feet and found myself wishing Leo was here. He seemed to have some kind of history with Sasha; I wondered if he knew about this curse or what he'd think of it if he heard about it now. Knowing him, he'd probably go out of his way to change everyone's minds about her. He wouldn't stand to hear people disgrace her name.

Thinking about him made me smile. He could be too forward sometimes, but he really did have a big heart. He cared about his people, far more than I had originally gave him credit for. Sasha was right to be wary of King Renkon, but Leo would be one king I would follow anywhere.

Anna bumped my shoulder then stole the spoon and took over stirring duty. "You're letting the food burn," she whispered with a knowing look. "That's a cute little smile. Who are you thinking about?"

I flushed all the way down to my toes and looked up at the vaulted ceiling; the smoke from the fire funneled out of a vent at the peak of the A-frame. It was too bad it was too small for me to fit through; I could of used it to escape the embarrassment of being caught thinking about boys at a time like this. "Nobody."

Anna giggled. "Fine. Don't tell me, but know that I will find out sooner or later. I always find out."

Oh, I didn't have a doubt about that, but thankfully, for now, I was saved by Abigail. She returned looking a little better than when she had left. Her smile was weary but hopeful when she aimed it at us. "Thank ye. Petal's finally gettin' a wink of sleep. She hasn' had a good sleep in days with the cough an' all."

Anna grinned at her. "We're glad to help. What's troubling her?"

The woman went over to the corner where there were two storage boxes tucked away; she pulled out three clay bowls and a ladle and brought them over to the pit. "I don' know. She's been sick for weeks. Nothing our healer gives her makes her better. Sasha's me last hope." With a troubled frown, she handed us each a portion.

"What can Sasha do for her?" I asked her curiously. With talks of curses and renegades, Sasha seemed hardly qualified to cure a sickness even a healer couldn't fix.

Abigail's eyebrows shot up into her hair. "Ye mean ye don' know?"

"We're new," Anna confessed. "This mission is our initiation to the group."

She seemed to understand and nodded thoughtfully. "I see. It's rumored that her dragen has de ability to bring people back from de brink of death. If he's that powerful, he can cure Petal."

Anna and I exchanged a worried look. While it was true that a dragon's tear had the ability to heal fatal wounds, it could only be done once. Arkon healed me with his tears and Bonded his soul to mine as a result, which was what had truly saved my life. Since Syran and Sasha were Bound, he wouldn't able to heal Petal with his tears, and he wasn't a water dragon so his magic wouldn't be able to heal her either.

Had Sasha tricked this poor woman into thinking she could save her daughter?

"How much are you paying Sasha for this?" Anna asked her, clearly thinking the same thing I was.

Abigail shook her head at us. "It's not a trick. She's done it for other people. She'll do it for my Petal. After she's healed, her reward will be dis." She got up and pulled a small pouch out from under her cot and handed it to me; it was heavy and bulky.

Curious, I peeked inside. Raw gemstones glittered back at me. I gawked.

"Wha. . . How did you get these?" If she had this many gemstones, what was she doing in this rickety hut? She could have bought all of Brar with these.

She shrugged and was quick to take the pouch back. "There's a cave no' too far from dis village. If ye know yer way around de jungle, ye cen make it there safely and mine for 'em. Money inna an issue for us--tis the wildlife. We trade with other settlements for weapons and supplies we canna get here."

I stared in blatant shock. I had mistook this town as poor, ignorantly comparing it to towns in Aboria, but to the people of the Desert Lands, this village was luxury at its peak.

It took a minute for me to absorb and accept this. When I had thought of exploring the world, I never once thought it would be small moments like this that would effect me the most; it was supposed to be fantastical, impossible sights or glorious stories from fellow travelers that had me floored.

Anna nudged me. "If you leave your mouth open any longer, a fly is going to find its way in there."

Feeling rude for staring, I dug into the stew and almost moaned. After having unseasoned meat for days, this hot, flavorful stew really hit the spot. I couldn't bare to part with this slice of heaven for even two seconds to talk.

We ate in silence, then, once we had set our bowls down, my questions came pouring out. There were some things I wanted to get straight before I went any further with this mission, "So Sasha gets paid after she heals Petal?" If this was some kind of scam, that was a terrible way to get paid. "And you say other people have been healed by her?"

Abigail nodded enthusiastically, eager to set us straight. "Aye. It's known amongst our people that her dragen cen heal."

I scratched my head, wishing I could communicate with Arkon and ask him if it was possible for a storm dragon to heal. I could still sense him, and I was sure he could tell I wanted to speak with him, but the distance was too great for us to use telepathy.

Anna appeared to be less skeptical and reached over to take the determined mother's hand. "We'll make sure Petal gets to Sasha safely for you, Abigail. She'll get the help she needs."

I still had my doubts about all of this. "If Sasha is known to heal people, why do the others think of her as a curse?"

She cast a reproachful glare at the door, as if one of her fellow villagers might be outside and were listening in on us. "Only those who hold grudges see her as a curse. The rest of us know what she really is."

"Please, tell us," Anna beseeched. She unfolded her legs from underneath her and sat cross-legged, hands placed neatly on her knees. Even when she was at her most layback, she still somehow managed to maintain that perfect Dragon Knight form.

Abigail returned her gaze to us then stood up, taking our bowls with her. "Ever since Sasha came to the Desert Lands," she said with her back turned to us, "bad things began to happen. Wherever she went, people died. But it wasna her fault." She set the bowls in a bucket of fresh water then faced us, desperate for us to understand. "Sasha came here to hide from her old life; it's not her fault her old life wasna ready to let her go--or, rather, the people in her old life. Many people, groups and sometimes loners, came in search of her. They killed anyone who stood in their way. She defended who she could and killed more of those crooked people than they killed of us, but de damage was done. Everyone knew if they harboured Sasha Remoar, death would come knocking on their door shortly after. She was exiled, rejected by everyone."

"That's awful." I couldn't imagine what it was like to be cast aside by my own kind. To have no one to turn to when things got difficult.

She nodded in agreement. "Years after de last group dared to come after her, some people started to forget and she formed her own colony, but there are still many in the Desert Lands who tell their children of the horrid Tempest Witch who will cast a curse on anyone who opened their door to her."

"Why did people come after her in the first place? What did she do?"

"She didn't have to do anything," Anna answered, looking regretful of it. "She became Bound to Syran."

Her words sent a frigid shock to my core; it spread through my veins to my fingers and toes.

How long had she run from people who wanted to abuse her power? Were people still after her? That was why she was hiding in the desert, wasn't it? If she went back, the hunt would start all over again. I was proof of that. King Sylus wanted me because he couldn't find Sasha.

Suddenly it all made sense. This mission had nothing to do with skill or magic. This was a test of wills. Sasha needed to see if I had it in me to overcome unbearable conditions or if I would wither away and become just another grain of sand in a sea of degradation. Because it was never going to end. Sylus was only the first of many people who would try to take me and control me for my power, and I needed to be able to defeat every single one of them and remain sane.

I must have been quiet for a while, because Anna shifted to my side and squeezed my hand comfortingly. "It'll be different for you. You're not alone. You're a Dragon Knight and we look after our own."

My head moved on its own accord, bobbing up and down in agreement, while I slowly came out of shock. I managed a smile for her. "I know. I have you and Jacob. No one can come between us."

Abigail, who I hadn't noticed had left her spot across the fire, stood behind us and tapped our shoulders. She gestured to a corner that used to have baskets of supplies; it was empty now, leaving enough space for two bedrolls. "Come, come. Rest up. You have a long day ahead of you."

Poor Abigail looked like she had already had a long day. Feeling bad for keeping her up, we quickly set up our bedrolls and nestled inside the woolen cocoons. Anna dimmed the fire; the amber glow was comly and reminded me of the hearth back home. Memories of my family lulled me to sleep. Their warm smiles gave me strength. Prince Darius might have taken them away, but their spirits would be with me. Always and forever.