Page 42 of The Pactbound Angel (The Soul Mirror Duet #1)

Tools of the Trade

Georgina took out her heatless torch as we peered down into the cave, the flickering light causing shadows to flit along the floor and walls in a distracting dance. Again, there was nothing, just stone and rocks and sand. I glanced back, shrugged, and inched forward.

My doubts about this being our destination almost made me miss the sounds of dripping water and scared whimpering.

As we walked closer to the sound, a person came into view. He was tied down with vines, unable to move, and situated under a stalactite that was dripping water on his forehead. Based upon his clothing, he looked to be from one of the Dead Forest villages.

Intending to cut him loose, I moved forward until Ramiren whispered loudly, “Wait!”

There was a sharp click under my foot.

“Everyone, get back. Get back!” I yelled, not caring that it echoed. When I confirmed everyone had complied, though Ramiren was the slowest to obey, I slowly shifted my foot.

In a blur, a multitude of spiked vines shot out from the cave’s walls.

They wrapped around my wrists, making me drop my sword.

Before I could blink, more vines appeared, wrapping around my waist, my ankles, and even my neck.

The sharp spikes dug into my flesh until air was cut off.

Completely immobilized, I couldn’t even scream as pain shot up and down my spine, causing it to bow.

Georgina gasped in surprise. “Oh, shit!”

Raewyn shrieked. “Nat!”

Ramiren yelled with a tinge of panic. “Nathalia!”

Beep. “NOT-T-T-T FUN-N-N-N-N”

Ramiren dropped his rapier to unsheathe a dagger from his belt, then grabbed onto the vine around my neck.

I looked at him, the pressure in my lungs and face increasing.

He began to hurriedly carve through the vine.

Georgina took up a vine on my ankle, and Raewyn started on the binding around my waist.

Ramiren paused for a brief second when he heard it, then tried to cut even faster.

We all heard it.

Cackling.

The villager looked around wildly with his eyes and shrieked. “She comes! She comes!”

“M.A.L., defensive position around Nathalia,” Georgina ordered.

Beep. “A-FIRM-A-T-T-TIVE”

My lungs burned and cried for breath as darkness began to cloud my sight. My limbs felt heavy, numbed from both my lack of oxygen and the vines stretching me almost beyond the limits of my joints. Thick tears streamed down my cheeks and temples when my eyes squeezed shut to clear them.

He'll never make it.

Ramiren sawed more and more frantically, with the tugging and pulling from his attempt choking me even more. He cursed under his breath, strained and frustrated.

Then, he suddenly stopped cutting and yelled incredulously, “Doesn’t M.A.L.C.O.L.M. have scissors?”

Just as the world fell away, I heard the gnome’s deadpanned reply, “Oh, yeah. I forgot.”

I came to with a gasp and clawed at my raw neck, coughing and sucking in air. Raewyn hovered, tears in her eyes as her fingers clutched at me. Next to her, Ramiren looked down at me, his face unintelligible except for the muscle bunched at his jaw.

Raewyn hissed at Georgina, “You just forgot , huh?”

Georgina crossed her arms. “Hey, so did you. I have a lot of things on M.A.L. I can’t remember them all. Besides, some aren’t even working .”

I snatched my sword up off the ground and made sure my shield was still strapped to my left arm.

As I stood on unsteady legs, my head swimming, Raewyn reached out to help. I fingered my sore neck and winced. There’d definitely be bruises there tomorrow. My throat was hoarse, strained, when I said, “I’m alright. Nothing too bad. Perhaps look at me when we’re done here.”

The cackles are getting closer.

“After all, we’d best not keep her waiting.”

As we passed by the villager, heading further in, his eyes went wide when I lifted my sword to hack at his vines. The villager flinched away, or tried to, but couldn’t move until my third slice. He threw the cut vines off and wobbled weakly. Gods know how long he has been stuck here.

“Can you walk?” I asked with a voice like gravel.

“Yes, I think so,” he said, as though out of breath. He rubbed at his wet forehead with the heel of his hand roughly.

“Wait for us at the cave’s entrance, and we’ll take you back home after we’re done with her,” I instructed.

“No offense, lady, but I’m not waiting.” And he stumbled back the way we came.

I can’t blame him.

Up ahead, we saw an open cavern with strange blue lights emanating from it .

We marched forward together, my shield held high and my sword ready. Georgina told M.A.L.C.O.L.M. to keep his scissors out.

Ramiren raised his rapier and nodded to me.

Here we go.

M.A.L.C.O.L.M. cut a constricting vine off Ramiren, who dodged a thrown potion bottle that violently hissed when it shattered against the stone wall behind him.

Stumbling back, almost tripping over a snaking vine that had begun to wind its way up my leg, I gritted my teeth and charged the mischief hag again.

As I ran, my shield raised, another bottle flew in my direction.

It broke against the metal and smoke rose up from the splatter.

I reached her and swiped downward with my sword, only for her to disappear in another puff of smoke and then reappear on the other side of the cavern.

She cackled with delight. “I don’t care what Mistress said! You’re dead! ”

Mistress? Who?

I looked over at Raewyn again, who had been knocked unconscious by a black bolt from the mischief hag, to make sure she wasn’t being hurt by the splatters.

I had just enough time to ensure she still breathed before getting back into the fight.

My healing would take too long, and Ramiren couldn’t handle her on his own.

Georgina sat by Raewyn, looking through my sister’s pouch and muttering, “I know you have potions, Rae. You took them from the first hag.” She unstoppered one and gave it a sniff, then immediately recoiled.

“Ew, perfume.” Georgina tossed it over her shoulder where it shattered behind her. She dug for another potion bottle.

M.A.L.C.O.L.M. snipped another vine off Ramiren and both came over to join me.

“We need to be clever. She must have a weakness,” Ramiren said to me.

I agreed, thinking but coming up empty.

Georgina sniffed at another bottle and gagged. “More perfume.” She, too, threw that behind her.

“I’m open to suggestions!” I rasped, moving off to the side to try to flank the hag.

“Hm, no idea what this is,” Georgina shrugged, tossing that one over her shoulder as well.

Raewyn is going to be so mad when she wakes up.

Ramiren huffed, moving to the hag’s opposite side. “What if we threw something at her ? Or a ranged weapon?”

My shield instinctively went up as another bottle came flying at me. It too broke and hissed against the metal. “Good idea. Do you have one?” I croaked out.

Ramiren dodged his own thrown bottle as he looked at me. “No, do you?”

Georgina sniffed at another bottle from Raewyn’s pouch and laughed. “Oh, boy. No.” Toss. Shatter.

I coughed and called out to Georgina as loudly as possible while we maneuvered to the hag’s side, “What are you looking for?”

The gnome shrugged, as though not a care in the world while we chased the mischief hag around the vine-covered, acid-covered, glass-covered cavern. “I dunno. I’ll know it when I smell it.” Georgina sniffed at another vial and wrinkled her nose. “No.”

Beep. “DIS-TRACT HER AND I W-ILL GET-T-T HER-R-R.” M.A.L.C.O.L.M. stuttered and teetered on his feet.

I coughed again. “Georgina, do you have any ranged weapons?” I swiped at the hag again while Ramiren feinted. But, unlike the first hag, this one merely disappeared again to reappear elsewhere and start her bottle barrage anew.

“Ranged? Oh, yeah, my crossbow, in my toolkit . Which I can’t use right now , Nathalia.” Georgina shook her head. “ Dummy.”

Ramiren halted midstride and boggled at her. “Then see if she has your vial in her cupboard and get your tools back!”

Georgina blinked at Ramiren and then stood, sauntering off towards the hag’s cupboard. “Well, I guess I’ll go do that, then!”

Ramiren yelled back, “Good!”

I guarded her as she moved to her destination, noticing the hag heard their conversation. She turned from cackling to raging. “No, my vials are precious to me!”

But when the hag got close to Georgina, Ramiren and I worked in tandem. He lunged while I struck, so she could never attack the gnome directly. She tried throwing more bottles, but I was able to block them with my shield, giving Georgina plenty of time to find her vial.

There was a happy gasp behind me. “Got it!”

This time, the shattering of glass wasn’t from the hag’s barrage.

I glanced back to see Georgina digging into her bag.

“Now, where is it? Ah, there it is.” She lifted her hand out of her satchel, a bag that looked far too large for the gnome to carry herself, and pulled out the oddest crossbow I’d ever seen in my life.

Gears, switches, hitches, and levers covered the weapon.

Georgina loaded the bolt, still behind my shield, and then hoisted it, leveling the crossbow at the hag.

The gnome cried out, triumph written on her face, “Today is a good day!” When she pulled the trigger, an icy bolt came out of the crossbow and flew into the mischief hag’s chest. She screamed as she flew back into the far wall, landing hard, and then crumpled to the ground.

Raewyn opened her eyes and groaned. I smiled down at her, grateful my middling healing could at least wake her up.

“How do you feel?” I whispered, helping her sit up .

Raewyn rubbed her raw chest, where the blackness had struck her. “Ugh, like the shit on your shoe. I guess throwing and healing are not your strong suits, Nat.”

Ramiren stood at the cupboard, looking through the various vials. He stopped and lifted a vial, turning to us, “Found the princess’s vial.” He smashed it at his feet without another word.

“Is Leraska’s in there, Ramiren?”

As I tended to Raewyn, my gaze flickered worriedly at Ramiren occasionally while he looked through the vials. When the last vial was shattered, he looked at me with a head shake. “No. It wasn’t here.”

“Hm. It must be in the last mischief hag’s cupboard, then.”

Ramiren didn’t respond.

We spent the rest of the afternoon looking around the mischief hag’s cavern.

At the back of the cave, we found piles upon piles of bones.

Raewyn looked in her potion pouch for holy water to bless those long dead and furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, peering within. “Wait. Why is my pouch so empty?”

I answered her, or tried to, “Because G-”

Georgina loudly interrupted “Well, one hag left, eh? About that…”

Beep. “WE WI-LL HE-LP-P-P YOU KILL THE LAST HAG-G-G-G AND R-R-REPLACE THE B-B-B-BOTTLES THAT G-G-GEOR-GINA B-B-brOKE.”

Raewyn stared down into her pouch with a shocked expression, as M.A.L.C.O.L.M. looked down at Georgina when she exclaimed his name.

Beep. “OH, I AM SOR-RY G-G-GEORG-INA. WER-R-RE YOU GO-ING TO SAY S-SOME-THING?”

Georgina crossed her arms, staring at M.A.L.C.O.L.M. “Well, not now. I guess we’ll help, or I’ll look like a dick. Thanks, M.A.L.C.O.L.M.”

Beep. “Y-Y-Y-YOU ARE WEL-COME, GEOR-G-G-INA. WHY ARE YOU THAN-KING ME?”

Georgina shook her head, her pink pigtails swaying, “It’s sarcasm.”

Beep. “OH. D-D-DOES SAR-CASM N-N-NOT MAKE YOU LOOK LIKE A D-D-DICK?”

Georgina glared at M.A.L.C.O.L.M.

Raewyn muttered, “I really liked that perfume, though.”