Page 39 of A Tale of Mirth & Magic

Maerryl looked dubious, conflicted. I could tell she wanted to be done with this business and cut ties.

She seemed to regret aligning herself with him out of anger toward me.

Or perhaps it had been simple desperation.

I knew what it was like to be penniless and out of options.

“I suppose… I suppose that’s an acceptable solution. If not entirely legal.”

“Of course…” Felsith continued, eyes locked with mine. I didn’t look away. He said softly, a hint of a wicked smile beginning to spread across his face, “Of course, we’ll have to break her wrists first.”

My throat plummeted into my stomach, a cold cement weight.

“You’re insane,” Maerryl breathed.

I burst to the left suddenly, running as fast as I could while trying to stay balanced with both arms tied tightly behind my back and my vision still tilting slightly.

Which, as it turned out, is not so fast. Even with my natural speed, I was too slow and Felsith caught up and grabbed me by the hair, unbalancing me further so I had to scrabble to keep my legs under me.

Laughing manically, he let go and shoved me hard into the road.

Rocks dug into my side, ribs and hip on fire from colliding with the hard, packed dirt. I fought to catch my breath.

“Good try, elf. But not quite quick enough!”

“I am going to kill you, you filthy, disgusting toad,” I said, injecting my voice with icy venom as I struggled to rise. “Untie me now or I will slice you up with a thousand shards of rusty metal.”

Felsith just laughed again, pinning my bound wrists to the ground with his boot. He loomed over me, satisfaction gleaming in his beady eyes. I thrashed violently like an animal, kicking for him, trying to knock his legs or knees out. Straining my neck to bite him, to get at him in any way I could.

He leaned more weight on my wrists, making me cry out in agony. I stilled.

“Maerryl, STOP HIM! This is madness!” I yelled. She stood frozen, face a stony blank.

“Not madness. This is fitting, no?” Felsith said, delighted with how perfectly his plans had fallen into place. I could hear his smarmy smile, feel his need to crush me like I’d crushed him.

“An eye for an eye. So to speak. Too bad for you, however, there are no healers for miles. Tsk-tsk. A few good stomps should do it…”

No, no, no no no no NO. This wasn’t happening. Without my hands…

“Stop.”

I squinted my eyes open. Maerryl had stepped closer. She held a long dagger in each hand and said, “Get away from her. Now.”

“Or what? You’ll attack me?” Felsith laughed incredulously. “You have no money. You need me. And the huge amount of coin I’ll be giving you when this is done.”

“This isn’t right,” Maerryl said, her mouth in a tight, firm line. “Last warning. Back away. Let her go.”

“Shut UP, you useless DWARF!” Felsith shrieked, patience lost. The unrelenting heel of his boot ground harder into my wrists, making me cry out.

Maerryl flung one of her daggers, hard and fast. It whistled past me, and Felsith screamed, so loud the birds in the trees above flew from their perches.

The heavy weight on top of my wrists lightened.

I tore free, throwing my body weight forward and rolling away from him.

Frantically scrambling to my feet, I hurled myself near Maerryl.

She caught and steadied me, sturdy arms gripping tight.

Her glance held none of the flippant irritation I’d seen since we met.

Now she was all business, with poorly disguised guilt pinching her forehead as she checked me over quickly.

“You bitch ! How DARE YOU?!” He would have stormed toward us, certainly, if it wasn’t for the dagger firmly embedded in his left foot.

Maerryl’s eyes met mine, holding an apology that I knew she wouldn’t say.

She swiftly cut the bindings off my wrists and faced Felsith again, pointing her second dagger toward his chest. Tears sprang to my eyes at the relief in my shoulders, my arms. I shook the numbness out of my fingers and massaged them gently.

The bones of my wrists, thank the goddesses, didn’t seem to be broken, but they ached terribly.

“Get your pack,” she told me. To him, she said, “You and I are done. You’re clearly unhinged.

No amount of money is worth being an accomplice to torture and maiming of another person.

No matter how annoying that person might be.

” She cut her wry gaze to me, and I rolled my eyes.

Surprised as I was that Maerryl was helping me, I was more surprised to find this wiseass bounty hunter apparently had such moral fiber.

Clambering into the carriage, I willed my arms back into movement and grabbed my rucksack, tucking in the items Felsith had strewn across his seat when he was rooting through it. Last, I picked up the thin blade where it still lay on my seat, the edge coated with my drying blood.

I jumped down from the carriage. Filled with cold rage, I stalked toward Felsith. My blood pounded in my ears.

No—that was real pounding. Horse hooves riding toward us along the road. Witnesses. I’d better make this quick.

Felsith saw my murderous eyes and turned to flee. I lifted my empty hand—weak, but power flowed through my veins again—and clenched. Felsith screamed as the knife in his foot dug deeper.

“Okay. Okay, that’s enough,” Maerryl said at my side. “Let’s get him up on the carriage and leave.”

“We can’t just let him go! After what he did to me?” I stared at her in disbelief. Sweat dripped through my brow, into my eye. I was wrecked, but I would have my revenge.

“Elikki, think. He’s a noble. The lord’s brother. His cousin is a constable of the queendom. A dozen people saw what you did to him, but only you and I can attest to what happened here. And now he’s injured.” Maerryl sighed. “Who do you think will be believed, us or him?”

“Us! Obviously us! Look at him, he’s gone off the deep end!” I pointed to where Felsith was trying to crawl-hop behind a tree, practically foaming at the mouth in fury.

The hoofbeats grew closer. Around the bend in the road, two horses flew toward us. One, a brown mare carrying a serious-looking woman, and the other, a familiar, truly massive gray horse. My heart leaped.

Barra galloped up on Pebble and had barely slowed her to a stop before he dismounted, unsheathing his sword.

“El,” he said, breath ragged. Scanning the scene, he took in Maerryl, dagger still drawn, Felsith muttering to himself on the side of the road, and me, covered in dirt and clutching my thin blade in one fist for dear life.

I saw him notice the bruises and blood on my hands, my clothes and hair in disarray, the rage—and maybe some lingering fear—in my eyes.

He stepped toward me, but I could see his internal battle as he held himself back from reaching out.

“What happened here?” His deep voice was so full of worry and anger, I was seized with the sudden intense need to touch him. I clenched my blade tighter and broke our gaze, turning again to Felsith. The mystery woman dismounted but kept her distance.

“Him,” I spat. “That little shit attacked me. Poisoned me with something”—I skipped over the part where Maerryl had done the poisoning—“drove me out here, and then tried to… he tried to…” My mouth dried.

Maerryl cleared her throat. “He was going to break her wrists, steal her belongings, and leave her here.”

In two steps, Barra was in front of me, looking over my body frantically for other signs of injury. “Are you all right? Please tell me you’re all right,” he said hoarsely.

I lifted my arms up for him to inspect, rolling my wrists. “I’m fine,” I said, only wincing slightly. “Nothing a few days rest and some salve won’t fix. Full arm function still intact. Speaking of—”

I turned and flung my knife straight toward Felsith’s face. At the last millisecond, I stopped it with a twitch of my finger.

Felsith’s face slackened, his mouth a gaping hole. The tip of the knife just barely touched the skin between his eyes, drawing the thinnest cut.

“I wouldn’t move if I were you,” I said to him. My blood blazed. Magic coursed through my veins, desperate to be used.

“El…” Barra cautioned.

My steely gaze bore into Felsith’s shocked eyes. Just minutes ago, he’d been laughing at the prospect of hurting me—now he looked like he was about to shit his pants.

I raised both arms, shaking but determined.

My power called to the metal around me—my full rucksack on the ground; all the hooks, chains, and nails of the carriage and horses’ gear; the nose ring and dagger on Maerryl, two meager coppers in her coin purse; Barra’s large sword and the necklace I’d given him; the still-sheathed broadsword and boot knife on the mystery woman; Felsith’s glittering belt buckle, heavy coin purse, and my jewelry, stolen off my unconscious body and stuffed into his pockets.

To the trembling man before me, I snarled in a voice I barely recognized, “I’m going to crush you like the bug that you are.”

His panicked eyes widened, darting around for any possible escape, before coming back to me. I could see white all around his irises. He knew what was coming. Pinned by my razor-sharp blade, he shook pathetically.

Before I could move to attack, a small voice piped up in my head. Is this really what you want?

Yes. He deserves it. I tried to squash the part of me that was trying to rethink this.

To become a cold-blooded killer? Play into the stereotype that people like him think? You really want to let your anger take hold of your magic again, after finally, finally gaining control over it?

No. No, I didn’t. But the temptation to relinquish that control again felt so, so good.

I wouldn’t have to worry or fight anymore—my anger-fueled power would make these hard decisions for me.

And oh, how it desired that. I sensed it just below the surface, ready to take over.

My magic wanted to slice, to punish, to explode.

To melt away how it felt —the pain of leaving Barra, the helplessness of being kidnapped and hurt, the anger at Felsith and everyone like him.

Melt it until I felt clean and powerful again.

The possibility was tantalizing. But I wasn’t that person anymore. I didn’t need to be. I could choose for myself, my future. Closing my eyes, I tried to clear the blind rage from my mind and focus. I breathed hard until the fog cleared a little.

I looked up at Barra. His strong jaw clenched in worry. Smoky eyes watched me—unafraid, just filled with concern and love. Love for me .

If I did this, if I let my power consume me again like I used to, there was no telling what would happen.

I wanted to destroy Felsith with every fiber of my being—but not at the risk of Barra or anyone else being caught in the crosshairs.

He would probably do something noble and stupid, and I might accidentally hurt the only person I truly loved.

At that thought, I blinked. My arms fell. The buzzing tension of my power faded to a dull hum. The thin knife dropped into the dirt.

A wave of tiredness washed over me, but also a rush of exhilaration. It was as clear to me as my own name, as right as the perfect clang of hammer to metal. I met Barra’s eyes in bewilderment.

“Holy shit, I love you,” I said.

Barra stared at me for a moment. Then a tentative smile touched his lips.

“You do?” he asked, hope glimmering. He reached for my hand, and I gripped back as hard as I could.

“Very much. I think… I’ve loved you for a while now.”

In my side vision, I distantly noticed Maerryl ducking around to a now crawling Felsith who was attempting to make a turtle’s pace getaway. She stepped firmly on his back. He fell onto the ground with an “oof!” and she efficiently began to tie his hands with rope.

“But I didn’t—or I couldn’t—let myself see it. Or fully feel it.” I shook my head slowly, looked away. “I didn’t want to lose you.”

“You won’t.”

“And I thought you’d be happy alone. In the long term.”

“I wouldn’t be.”

“I don’t know what I’m doing—I have no idea how to be in this kind of relationship. How to deal with families, live in one place, build a life with someone, any of it. I have no fucking clue!”

“You don’t have to. We’ll do it together.”

I laughed, exasperated. “So simple, huh?”

“Simple,” he said, drawing my hand up to his mouth. He pressed a kiss into my palm, sweaty and dirt lined. “Chaotic.” He kissed my sore wrist. “Ridiculous.” His lips moved up my arm. “And lovely.” I reached for him, coming close and pressing against his stomach.

“A life together,” he said.

I went on my tiptoes and met his kiss as he leaned toward me. Our lips enveloped each other, soft and sweet.

Shiny bubbles of golden light fizzed through me, setting my senses ablaze.

I pressed closer, grabbing his muscled arms tightly.

Bending, Barra lifted me up, laughing softly against my lips, and spun me around.

My laughter erupted out of me, joining his, and then we were just two utter fools gasping for breath through their mirth, spinning in the middle of the godsdamn road.

When we finally slowed to a stop and caught our breath, Barra regained a touch of seriousness. “El, I want to travel with you.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t think we should go back to Nepu. It’s not right for us, not now. Maybe not ever.”

“But your whole life is there—and you can’t just leave . What about your job, what about—”

“I know it seems like a big change. But honestly, I think I’ve been needing some major change for a long time now.

I’ll still work for our business on the road.

Extending our customer base, sending orders back home, and doing some much-needed exploration to learn about new techniques, styles, and materials.

I’ve thought it all through,” Barra explained steadily. He seemed so sure. But…

“And your family? How do you know they’d be all right with all of this? I don’t want them to resent me.”

“We won’t,” a smooth voice piped up from behind me. I whirled. It was that woman who’d arrived with Barra. I’d nearly forgotten about her in all the turmoil. She’d been so quiet, practically blending into the background as everything unfolded.

Now I took in her thoughtful face, searching for dislike or distrust and finding none. For all her seriousness, she had laugh lines around her eyes and mouth.

“This is my older sister, Telen,” Barra said. “My family was a bit, uh, concerned. So she rode out to find me.”