Hey, folks! \u00a0As promised, here’s chapter 2. \u00a0Comments welcome!<\/p>\n
\nThe spray of arterial blood showered me in steaming droplets.\u00a0 <\/span>Like a broken bowl, the head wobbled across the floor until it came to rest at my feet.\u00a0 <\/span>My knife wobbled.\u00a0 <\/span>The Dawn-Son soldier who had first leapt into the ruined building thud<\/i>ded on top of me, decapitated.\u00a0 <\/span>I didn\u2019t have time for surprise as the lifeless impact drove the breath from my lungs.<\/p>\n
Lifeblood pumped fountain-like onto me, steaming and then freezing amidst my hair, my beard, under my snot-rimmed nose.\u00a0 <\/span>I choked on it, spitting and fumbling with the dead weight atop me.\u00a0 <\/span>The rank stench of ordure permeated the small room.\u00a0 <\/span>Urine wetness on my leg as the dead man\u2019s bowels discharged one last time.\u00a0 <\/span>Scarcely breathing, I fought to escape from beneath the corpse when the sudden clangor of combat rang from outside.\u00a0 <\/span>I got completely still.<\/p>\n
Twin shadows advanced, coalescing into tall, rangy men as they passed beneath the smashed lintel.\u00a0 <\/span>Gritting my teeth, I held my breath, supine, drenched in gore and shit.\u00a0 <\/span>The newcomers searched through the building dark, muttering words I could not understand.\u00a0 <\/span>They prowled toward us.\u00a0 <\/span>I tensed, waited discovered and quickly executed.\u00a0 <\/span>But the blow never came.\u00a0 <\/span>Squinting, I watched as one of them scooped an object off the floor.\u00a0 <\/span>When the man stood, I could see the uneven shape of the severed head swinging by its stringy hair from his clenched fist.\u00a0 <\/span>As quickly as they had arrived, the phantoms vanished with their grisly prize.<\/p>\n
With a sharp gasp, I remembered how to breathe.\u00a0 <\/span>My first words were whispered thanks to whatever patron of luck had smiled on us this night.\u00a0 <\/span>Somehow, ensconced in the darkness, the warriors had overlooked us.\u00a0 <\/span>The sounds of battle had already died, though I still dared not move.<\/p>\n
Billowing wind ushered fleets of snowflakes into the dark room accompanied by snatches of conversation, none of which was remotely decipherable.\u00a0 <\/span>After the last strains of subdued chatter faded, I began counting my heartbeats.\u00a0 <\/span>At two hundred, I listened again.\u00a0 <\/span>Nothing.\u00a0 <\/span>I pulled the Fae woman closer, taking advantage of the Dawn-Son\u2019s residual body heat as the corpse cooled.\u00a0 <\/span>She was a block of ice beside me.\u00a0 <\/span>Little strands of her hair froze, a thousand red icicles.<\/p>\n
I felt her skin.\u00a0 <\/span>Terribly cold.\u00a0 <\/span>It made me want to move, and I had to remind myself that whoever had slaughtered the Sons could still be out there, bedecked in human souvenirs.\u00a0 <\/span>Eager to take another trophy, or two.<\/p>\n
I waited till the tips of my fingers started to ice, and then waited some more for good measure.\u00a0 <\/span>The cold demanded action\u2014I had to move.\u00a0 <\/span>Squirming out from beneath the now-frozen corpse, I picked myself up and relieved the Dawn-Son of his fur-lined cloak.\u00a0 <\/span>He certainly didn\u2019t need it as much as the Fae woman did.<\/p>\n
Cold wind beckoned, and I trudged into the storm after hoisting the woman over my shoulder once more.\u00a0 <\/span>Of the battle, there was no trace.\u00a0 <\/span>The bodies had already been swallowed by the storm.\u00a0 <\/span>Immediately, I was blind in the pale wash of white, and I damned the snow to some suitably hot hell as I limped forward.<\/p>\n
Icy air seared my throat, jabbed my lungs when I took a breath.\u00a0 <\/span>Methodically, I checked the Fae woman\u2019s heartbeat.\u00a0 <\/span>It beat arhythmicly as the growing storm tried its best to entomb us in a wintery mausoleum.\u00a0 <\/span>My fingers froze into shovel-heads and I glanced around, trying vainly to get my bearings.\u00a0 <\/span>Not a soul in sight.\u00a0 <\/span>Only a cadger\u2019s frozen corpse.\u00a0 <\/span>His blackened hands were paralyzed in supplication.\u00a0 <\/span>I have stolen through cities on the blackest of nights, fleeting as a shadow and silent as sin, but never with a dying woman in my arms and a near-crippled leg.\u00a0 <\/span>It tested me to my foundation.<\/p>\n
My inn loomed from the whiteout, a galleon breaking sea-fog; I gasped in relief, honestly not expecting to make it this far.\u00a0 <\/span>I paused, gathered my thoughts.\u00a0 <\/span>Run through the common room with a frozen, bloody woman over my shoulder?\u00a0 <\/span>A well-executed plan followed by a well-executed man!<\/i><\/p>\n
Instead, I moved to the Golden Keyboard<\/i>\u2019s side door, which, pocketed by darkness and obscured with heaping trash, was jammed shut.\u00a0 <\/span>All nine of my fingers fumbled against the icy padlock, and the missing digit itched, as usual.\u00a0 <\/span>Damn not-finger.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>My rusty steel key click<\/i>ed into place. \u00a0 <\/span>The door grated open after I put my shoulder into it.\u00a0 <\/span>Inside at last, the inn\u2019s thick walls harbored us from the killing wind and the worst of the cold.<\/p>\n
I stomped the ice off my boots.\u00a0 <\/span>The long hallway echoed with noise from the common room, flickered with light thrown off the distant fire.\u00a0 <\/span>If anyone saw the Fae woman, we were both as good as dead.\u00a0 <\/span>Propping her body against the wall, I rearranged my jacket on her frozen body, stuffing her hair and her ears beneath the pocked wool.\u00a0 <\/span>Ice tinkle<\/i>d onto the floorboards.\u00a0 <\/span>Her pointy ears, ice-bound dirks, refused to hide so I cursed them under my breath.<\/p>\n
In the dark hall I tripped more than once on upraised floorboards.\u00a0 <\/span>Laughter ringing from the common room sped me on my way up the stairs, which creaked and groaned like a poorly-made chair.\u00a0 <\/span>My door was at the top of the flight.\u00a0 <\/span>A jagged keyhole marred the blood-red boards, painted such to drive away the devils of the night.\u00a0 <\/span>Or so the locals tell me.<\/i>\u00a0 <\/span>When darkness falls deep as snow and the disparate worlds of the living and of legend draw into close embrace, I can almost imagine the fetid breath of ancient Erovian demons icy against my neck; only then am I thankful for my red door.<\/p>\n
I thought I felt the woman stir, and nearly dropped her as I lowered her to the floor.\u00a0 <\/span>She was stiff, covered with borrowed blood.\u00a0 <\/span>There would be time to ask questions later, if she survived the night.\u00a0 <\/span>I unlocked my room, pushed open the door.<\/p>\n
Strength sapped, I tried to lift the Fae woman and failed.\u00a0 <\/span>Breathing hard and shivering for all I was worth, I grabbed her under her arms and pulled her across the floor as gently as possible.\u00a0 <\/span>Say what you like about Taveol, but first say I\u2019ve a strong heart, if not a strong back.<\/p>\n
Bumbling in the dark, I grasped for a light, managing to coax a small flame to life on the meager taper I kept on my bedside table.\u00a0 <\/span>Its warmth was welcome, and I unwrapped the linens that served as my gloves from my hands, slowly working the frost from my knuckles over the candle-flame.\u00a0 <\/span>Like a snake, I molted from my now-wet clothes, setting the amulet that hung around my neck down carefully.\u00a0 <\/span>I pulled on the only other tunic and trousers I owned and wrapped my feet in threadbare cloth.<\/p>\n
Divorced from the immediate danger of the cold, I turned my attention to the woman. My taper\u2019s flickering light illuminated her face, the rise and fall of her chest.\u00a0 <\/span>She possessed an icy beauty, that which cannot be touched by mere men like me.\u00a0 <\/span>I worked my jacket off her body, scattering snow across the wooden floor.\u00a0 <\/span>Crystals of ice and gore splotched her perfect skin, but she had no wounds to account for the blood.<\/p>\n
I lifted her onto my cot.\u00a0 <\/span>If she were a human woman, I might have admired her nakedness, but she was Fae.\u00a0 <\/span>Such things were not permissible.\u00a0 <\/span>Instead, I fixed my eyes on her blue fingertips as I cleaned her, dried her off, wrung out her hair.\u00a0 <\/span>Splotches of red remained, but they were not blood.\u00a0 <\/span>Something deeper in her skin, fading like a dying sun.<\/p>\n
She was still cold, despite my attention.\u00a0 <\/span>It clove to her like a child to his mother\u2019s knee.\u00a0 <\/span>But I had seen men revived even though their limbs were frozen through.\u00a0 <\/span>They had awoken, walked around, and then died suddenly, every one of them, hearts bursting from the sudden expansion of their blood vessels.\u00a0 <\/span>The rewarming process was incredibly delicate.<\/p>\n
I grabbed my fur blankets and piled them on until she looked small beneath them.\u00a0 <\/span>A fire, next.\u00a0 <\/span>The task was a steady, calming one and soon, flames danced in my cracked hearth.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
I pulled back the bedcovers and clambered in, trapping my own heat in the cocoon of warmth.\u00a0 <\/span>As gently as I could, I hugged her close without rubbing skin.\u00a0 <\/span>Her body seemed to leech my warmth away, left me shivering.\u00a0 <\/span>Not unlike sleeping beside a block of ice.\u00a0 <\/span>I remained there as long as I could.<\/p>\n
I hauled myself to the fireside, rubbed my hands.\u00a0 <\/span>When I returned to the cot, I brought a warmed bowl of water, not boiling, but steaming in the flickering light.\u00a0 <\/span>I poured it down her throat as slowly as my shaking hands would allow.\u00a0 <\/span>A little color returned to the Fae woman\u2019s cheeks, though she was far from healthy.<\/p>\n
A slam<\/i> from downstairs brought me upright in a flash.\u00a0 <\/span>Front doors make a distinctive sound when smashed open, and that was it.\u00a0 <\/span>I threw the blankets over the Fae woman as footsteps crashed up the stairs.\u00a0 <\/span>Wild pounding against my door seemed to shake the floor, and I was only halfway across the room when my door burst open on its ancient hinges.\u00a0 <\/span>Leah, my only barmaid plowed into my room, eyes wide.\u00a0 <\/span>For once, her face was not caged in that eternal frown.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaster R\u00e4v!\u201d she lurched to a halt as she saw me limping toward her.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cI-I couldn\u2019t stop them, they just charged right in\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Boot-steps pounded in the common room.\u00a0 <\/span>I felt sick.<\/p>\n
\u201cSlow down, girl,\u201d I said, hearing the calmness of my voice as if from a half-league\u2019s distance.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cTell me quickly, are they wearing all white?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes!\u201d she said, voice shaking.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cYes, white everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
My heart lurched.<\/p>\n
\u201cGo to your room, and stay there,\u201d I commanded, limping toward my desk.\u00a0 <\/span>Leah did not move.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cI said GO!\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>She flinched at the iron in my voice and found the courage to dash back down the stairs.\u00a0 <\/span>A banded iron chest squatted on my desk, and I pulled it open soundlessly.\u00a0 <\/span>Three knives glistened, points up, like soldiers at attention.\u00a0 <\/span>Heart pounding in time with the advancing clamor from the below, I pulled all three knives out by their delicately balanced hafts, careful not to touch the glistening blades.\u00a0 <\/span>Demonshood, distilled, clung to the metal in black droplets.<\/p>\n
I spared one glance to my cot and the blanketed Fae woman before limping toward the stairs.<\/p>\n
Shouting below sped me downward as I stretched my arm back and forth, loosening it, before palming one of the throwing daggers.\u00a0 <\/span>I stopped at the corner with one arm behind my back, tensed like a coiled spring.\u00a0 <\/span>The Sons of Dawn were waiting in the common room.\u00a0 <\/span>I could hear them, could imagine them spread out within the throng of patrons.\u00a0 <\/span>Difficult targets.\u00a0 <\/span>I evened my breaths, prepared to throw, and stepped around the corner.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n