Written by Keladry Rose
"So, are you in or are you out, Tom?"
"Ah," Tom Sarrasri glanced down at the cards in his big, beefy hands and winced. Then he looked at the growing pile of cash and settlement deeds in the center of the table. He could use that money to pay off the many debts that he owed to numerous people around town. With a sigh, he said, "I’m in."
Everyone looked at him, shocked that he would still want to go on.
The man on Tom’s left, his good friend Randy Booke, leaned over and asked, "Hey, you sure you wanna do that Tom? You got nothin’ left to bet."
Tom picked up his beer. It was the sixth one he’d had that night. "I’m positive," he replied. Everyone knew that after even one drink, Tom was a goner, so they were hesitant to accept anything he wagered now. So of course they were stunned when he made his offer. "And I sure as heck got sumthin’ to bet. I bet Daine." The men laughed.
"You can’t bet a child in a poker game, and your own daughter at that! And Daine, she ain’t worth nothin’!" Randy told him, his tone amused.
"Of course I can! She’s mine, ain’t she? And she’s useless to me in any case, what with her actin’ like a boy and all. So take her from me, she ain’t never gonna bring me no money, the worthless brat." Tom grabbed a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket and scribbled the name "Daine Sarrasri" on it, and threw it on top of the pile. "And she ain’t no child, seein’ as she’s seventeen…or eighteen…or fourteen…I think. So there’s my bet!"
No one wanted to be responsible for any kid of Tom’s. Grumbles went around the table as every man laid down his cards. Everyone except Numair Salmalin, a young horse trainer passing through Scanra, and the village of Mindelan. He kept his cards, and a blank, cool look on his face.
Tom smirked at his good luck and threw his cards down on the table. "Straight flush!" he declared proudly.
The room was almost silent as a few men cleared their throats and shifted in their seats.
Finally, Randy said, "Uh, Tom, that’s not a straight flush. It’s not even a straight anything." He picked up the cards, which consisted of the Queen of Diamonds, Ace of Spades, Five of Hearts, Ten of Clubs, and Two of Diamonds. "See? Nothin’ the same."
Tom squinted at the cards. "Oh, yeah." He shrugged. "No matter. What you got there, Horseman?" He looked at Numair Salmalin through blurry eyes.
Numair sniffed and scratched the back of his head. "Nothin’ much. Just a couple of cards." Everyone stared at him, waiting for him to lay down his cards. The seconds ticked by, and Numair just sat there, staring at his cards, a faint look of pleasure on his features.
Tom leaned forward. "Well boy? Ain’t you gonna show us?"
Numair blinked as if coming out of a trance. "Right." He hesitated a moment before spreading his cards out before him. "Royal Flush," he said quietly.
Nobody moved. Around the table, mouths hung open and eyes were wide. Tom sucked in his breath, then let it out in a huff. "Well, don’t that just beat all. Oh well, just one last mouth to feed." He pushed back his chair and stood on wobbly legs. With a great effort he reached for his jacket hung on the back of the chair he had just vacated and swung it around his shoulders. "Come by the house in the mornin’, early. Daine’ll be up…doin’ whatever she does then." As he carefully maneuvered his drunken way to the pub door, he called out, "Come mornin’, I’ll be free of that goodfernuthin’ lass! Thank you Lord Almighty!" With that last praise, he pulled the heavy oak door open to reveal the darkness of night and glimmering stars.
Chairs scraped back when the door slammed shut behind Tom, and the men gave each other troubled looks. Randy stepped over to where Numair still sat staring at the pile on the table that he had just won and shook his shoulder.
Numair looked up at Randy with a dazed expression and asked, "Did I just win that man’s child?" Randy nodded. "In a poker game?" Randy nodded again and Numair groaned. "So now I have to take her with me?" Another nod. "Great. That’s just wonderful. Well, I could always use another stableboy."
Randy laughed. "Stableboy? My friend, you do know that Daine’s a gal, don’tcha?"
Numair stood up and glanced around for his jacket. "Well, yeah, but Tom said that she acted like a boy, so if she already behaves like one, all I gotta do is give her the job and the clothes, right?"
Randy ugly face split into something that some people would call a grin and grabbed Numair’s hand and shook it. "You’re alright, man, you’re alright. Good luck with that lass, though. You’ll need it."
*~*~*~*~*~*
Early the next morning…
Veralidaine Sarrasri woke with the first rays of the not-yet-risen sun on her face. With a smile she opened her eyes and stretched. The air was warm and it fine day for tending to the orphaned wolf cubs she’d found in a cave yesterday. She guessed their mother had been caught in a bear trap set by one of the new settlers, and there was nothing she could do about that. What she could do was tend for them and make sure they grew up healthy. But there was something bigger and more important than the well-being of the wolf cubs on her mind. It was the thirteenth of June. And since it was the thirteenth of July, that meant it was her birthday. Today she would turn fifteen, an age she had been waiting to reach since she was nine. An age that meant she could whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. When a girl was fifteen, she was either expected to get married and act like a grown up, or to stay a kid for another year.
Daine had decided long ago that she would forever stay a kid.
With a laugh caught in her throat, she leapt from the bed and threw on some clothes. No one else in the house would be awake at this time. The chickens hadn’t even woke yet. Daine loved this time of the morning, the time she claimed as her own. She knew it was silly, but she felt as if she owned the world, with no one to stop her from doing anything. She could run in the woods and climb trees and yell as loud as she wanted, and no one would tell her not to. She was free in the morning.
Daine tiptoed down the stairs, careful not to wake her family, though she knew that they could sleep through a tornado. The thought of a tornado whipping through the house and her parents not even shifting in their sleep had her stifling a giggle. As soon as she reached the bottom of the stairs, she grabbed a muffin from the kitchen table and raced out of the door into the light of a brand new day.
The air was a bit brisk, but Daine was used to it and knew that it would heat up by about seven. She was about to walk down the well-worn path she had been working on for the last ten years, when she heard a strange noise. Well, not really a strange noise, but one that was odd for that time of day. It was the noise made by a wagon and horses.
Being the curious creature she was, Daine turned from her original plan and headed over the small hill blocking her view of the road. She knelt behind it so whoever it was couldn’t see her, and peered over the brow of the hill.
The wagon was like none other she’d seen before. It was much larger than the one her family owned, with no cover. The back of it was filled with barrels of hay and bags of oats instead of the normal blankets and crates. The horses weren’t like anything she’d seen before, either, and she’d seen plenty horses. The two pulling the wagon were dark brown with white manes and what looked like shoes over their hoofs, although it was just white hair. The one tagging behind was pure white, and the most beautiful creature she’d ever seen in her entire life. The horse was so white, it very nearly radiated light from it’s gleaming coat. Daine sighed, then jerked back in surprise as the white horse looked up to where she was hiding. Daine could have sworn the horse winked at her.
Daine expected the wagon to go right by her house, but instead of passing it by, it stopped right outside the front door. Even more puzzled than she was before, Daine decided that as she was the only one alive to the world at the moment, she should take charge of the situation. She ran down the hill and to where the wagon was parked before the driver had even gotten his feet on the ground. She stopped behind the wagon, then went to pet the beautiful white horse tied to it when the yearning took over.
|Now aren’t you the most perfect creature I’ve ever seen,| Daine cooed to the horse in her mind. The horse looked straight at her, his brown eyes kind and somehow smiling. Daine smiled to him and ran her hand down the side of his face. |You know how gorgeous you are, too, don’tcha? I’ll bet you’ve just got all the ladies falling at your feet.|
The horse snorted and pawed at the dirt, almost like he was laughing. Daine jumped and then got a giddy feeling inside. |Did he hear what I said? Oh, this is so exciting! Can you hear me?|
{You don’t have to yell, I can hear you perfectly fine.} The deep voice echoed in her head, causing Daine to giggle.
|This is so weird. I’ve never talked to an animal inside my head before. Are you magic?|
The horse laughed in his strange way again. {You’re a silly girl, Veralidaine Sarrasri.}
Daine frowned and her hand paused on the horse’s coat. |How do you know my name?|
{The Tall Man kept muttering it under his breath. Horses have quite sharp ears, you know.}
|The Tall Man? Who’s that?|
The horse shook his head in the direction behind Daine. {The Two-Legger driving the wagon.}
Daine didn’t turn around. She didn’t care for strangers, and didn’t want to have to strike up conversation with one. Especially with one whom she’d have to crane her neck to look at. She’d just pretend he wasn’t there.
Numair got down from the wagon and examined the small girl currently crooning to his stallion. When she had come running down the little hill to his left, he had thought her to be a boy. She was a full foot shorter than his 6’1", and very small boned, so she fitted the description of a young boy. if he hadn’t seen her running, he would have assumed her to be delicate, and her fragility made him change his mind about her being a boy. He was pretty sure this girl was not even close to being delicate, and would probably be offended if you even mentioned it.
The only thing that gave away her sex was her hair. It was a rich, deep brown and hung in ringlets down her back. It was the only thing that indicated she was a girl, though. The brown pants and flannel shirt sagged on her, and Numair assumed they actually belonged to an older, or even younger, brother.
That takes care of the clothing, he thought.
Her face was shaped like that of a pixie, with a small turned up nose and determined chin.
He cleared his throat. "Ahm, I’m looking for Veralidaine Sarrasri."
He waited for a response and got none. Numair was about to repeat it when she turned to look at him and he was struck with the strangeness of her eyes. At a first glance, they looked almost blue, but then when you looked again, deeper, they changed to a surprising mix of that azure color and an unnatural grey. He felt a tingling up his spine and frowned at it.
Well, a voice in his head sneered. That was strange, now, wasn’t it? What do you suppose it means?
Nothing, he told himself. It means absolutely nothing.
Daine stared at this very tall strange man before her. She had never seen him before, and would have remember if she had because he was very, very tall. She had to crane her neck to look at his face. And oh my, what a nice face it was, too, she thought. He didn’t look much older than her. His eyes were a brilliant bottle-green against the tanned color of his skin and his hair was coal black, the color of midnight. At least, that’s what she guessed from the tail of hair she could see under the wide brimmed hat he wore. He looked like an Irish warrior or a poet or…
What the heck am I talking about? Daine furiously asked herself. I’m starting to sound like…like ….like a girl! And how do I know what an Irish warrior or poet looks like?
She narrowed her eyes and said to the man, "Yeah, I’m Veralidaine. What do you want?"
Well, we’ve now established that she has absolutely no manners, Numair thought. "Ah, um…well, I don’t know how to exactly say this…" Numair frantically searched his mind for some way to tell the girl that she had been sold to a stranger.
"Just say it then. Don’t fancy it up." Daine’s attention had been drawn back to the horses. They were so pretty and so gentle.
Numair sighed. "Okay. Um…well, you see, I played a game of poker with your father last night, and…ah…he sorta bet something he shouldn’t have."
"So? Why should I care? He’s always betting things he shouldn’t."
"Well, he kinda bet…uh…he bet you." Numair mumbled.
"What? I didn’t catch that."
"The boy said I bet you, ya daft girl!" Tom’s voice bellowed from the front door. Daine whipped around with shock and hurt in her eyes. "That’s right! Ya no longer belong to me! You’re Salmalin’s property now!" He grinned like a maniac and leaned against the door frame.
"What? You sold me?" Daine could feel tears in the back of her throat and felt incredibly embarrassed for some reason. "How could you do this?
"How could I do this? How could I do this? You did this to yerself! Maybe if you’d tried to be more like a lady, you could’ve got married and this would’ve never happened! But no, you had to go and be all boyish and all." Tom huffed and turned his head to look at the horizon. "Sun’s comin’ up."
Daine blinked back the tears. Crying would do nothing to sway her father from this ridiculous…predicament he’d gotten them into.
"You just sold me to some stranger, and all you’ve got to say for yourself is the sun is coming up?!? I cannot believe the nerve of you, Thomas Sarrasri! The nerve!" Daine was about to rush up the porch steps to give her father a piece of her mind, when he turned his eyes to hers, and she saw the sheer determination in them.
"You’d best be on your way if you wanna get to Pirate’s Swoop by noon. I hear they got some real nasty Stormwings guarding the boarder." Before either Daine or Numair could say anything, Tom escaped into the house and locked it shut.
Daine stood staring at the house in stunned silence. Sure, it was no palace, and her father was not the nicest man in the world, but it was hers. The forest was hers, and the animals were hers. She didn’t want to leave.
A whimper almost escaped through her raw throat, but she forced it back. With all the courage she could muster, she turned to the strange man her father had called ‘Salmalin.’
"So," Daine took a deep breath. "Are we just gonna stand around all day, or are we gonna actually move our asses?"
Numair was taken aback by her choice of words. This girl definitely did not need any training to become a stableboy. She already had all the qualities of one: dirty clothes, mussed hair, and crude language.
Well, he thought. This ought to be interesting.
"Um. Yeah. You can either take one of the horses or sit in the back." Numair gestured toward one of the horses standing patiently in front of the wagon.
"What about him?" She pointed at the white stallion currently chewing at one of the bags hanging off the back of the wagon.
Numair pushed back his hat and scratched his head. "Well now, I’m not so sure you want to be riding Cloud. He’s a bit wild and such." He saw Daine glare at him and set her chin determinedly. "Or you could try to tame him enough."
Daine walked over to Cloud, and after regarding the horse with cool eyes and vice versa, she said, "I think I just might."
Numair was about to go find an extra saddle in his mess of a wagon, but stopped short when Daine grabbed Cloud’s mane and swung herself up on the horse’s bare back.
She looked down at Numair who had yet to move a muscle. "Well? Aren’t we going?"
"Uh, yeah." Numair looked up at the small girl who he had just come to have in his possession and shook his head. With the first rays of sunlight shining on her curls, making her look more like a nymph or fairy than a stableboy, he was positive that the first day of their journey together was going to prove to be quite entertaining. Quite entertaining indeed.
He untied Cloud from the wagon and climbed into the seat, taking the reins in his hand and snapping them. The horses began to trot, and Numair felt a strange feeling in his chest, like a mixture of apprehension and fear. He shoved the sensation to the back of his mind and concentrated on the horses.
Daine was so scared, she could have peed her pants. She was scared that this tall man would find her to be annoying or something and would cast her away at the first town they reached. She was also scared that her father would come and find her later and say that he made a terrible mistake and she was to come home. She never wanted to see that house again for the rest of her life. There were forests and animals everywhere. She would never be alone.
She could be independent. She could be smart.
Daine smiled to herself. She would survive this, even if it killed her.
****************
*NEW*
Chapter Two
The noon sun beat down on the back of Daine’s neck. Her hair was tied back, she’d forgotten to wear a hat, and pride kept her from asking the Tall Man for a loaner. Plus, she didn’t see any extra hats anywhere, anyway. And why should she need one? She was tough. She could take the heat. She could take the pain.
So she kept her mouth shut and her eyes on the road. Dust billowed from beneath the wagon wheels, leaving her surrounded in a cloud of dirt. There was dirt in her hair, in her nose, even in her ears. But still she refused to say a word.
{You’re a stubborn one, Daine.} Cloud’s voice echoed through her head.
|Stay out of my head,| she muttered, and immediately felt appalled at herself. Cloud had done nothing but be kind to her since the voyage had started. So why was she being so rude?
The answer came in the form of a pounding headache. Daine could feel it building up behind her eyes, brought on by the anger, fear and hurt she had bottled inside since that morning. |It’s all his fault,| she mumbled, glaring at the Tall Man’s back.
Cloud snorted. {Come on now, Two-Legger. Don’t be so mad at the Tall Man. He’s done nothing but take you on as another part of our traveling family.}
|Where are we going anyway?| Daine mentally asked. |He didn’t say. Are we going to go get the rest of your "traveling family"? Or what?|
The light sound that Daine had decided was Cloud’s laughter sprinkled through her thoughts. {No, no, no. The traveling family is just me, Petal and Duke Alman…they’re those two up there…} Cloud shook her head indicating the large horses pulling the wagon, {the Tall Man, and now you.}
Daine frowned. |Where’s everyone else, then?|
{At home,} was Cloud’s simple answer.
Home, Daine thought. Her new home. Away from everything she’d ever known and loved. Those things are gone now, she told herself furiously. There’s no point dwelling on what used to be. My life will never be like that, never again. I’ll make a new life and a new image for myself.
|Where’s home?| she asked Cloud.
Cloud was about to answer when Petal stopped in her tracks up ahead. Her abrupt movement caused Duke Alman to stop as well, making the wagon bump into their rear ends and making them start again.
As Cloud and Daine watched this little scene with amusement, Numair was almost exploding with impatience. They had only been traveling two hours, and already his team had stopped four times. Petal and Alman weren’t known for their calm natures, but if they stopped one more time, Numair was going to think of some really horrible thing to do to them…something so horrible that they would never forget it…and something so horrible that he would think of it when the time came.
"All right!" he hollered, startling the two horses currently nipping at each other, and Daine and Cloud who were still snickering. They all looked at him in stunned amazement. It was the first time he had spoken since the journey had begun, and the tone of voice he’d used hadn’t been too happy.
Cloud slowly back away from the wagon, and Daine was secretly glad for the horse’s intelligence in this matter. Numair looked ready to hurt something…or someone, and Daine didn’t want to be in his way when he snapped.
He threw the reins to the ground and jumped off the wagon. He stormed over to where Petal and Alman were still trying to take a bite out of each other, and stood in front of them. They didn’t even look at him.
Numair could feel the annoyance and anger welling up inside of him like the lava of a volcano. And when Petal grabbed Alman’s ear between her teeth, that volcano erupted and broke the last string of Numair’s patience and sanity.
He could almost feel the steam pouring out of his ears as he raised his arms and shouted something in a language Daine had never heard before.
Daine stared in wonder and shock as the two fighting horses froze and let out a strange noise she’d never heard before, something close to a muffled scream, only higher and more duck-like. Their jaws snapped shut and a strange black glow surrounded their bodies.
As he lowered his arms, Numair realized that he had an audience. He’d completely forgotten Daine was there. His intention had been to hide his magic from her for the duration of the journey, and if she found out at the homestead, then they would be surrounded by people and animals so she would have no reason to fear him. But now that she knew…well, there was nothing he could do about it.
Her eyes were wide with what he assumed to be fear, and her back rigid. With a sigh, he walked toward her and winced when he saw her nudge Cloud back a full step. He stopped.
"Look, Daine… "
His explanation was cut short when a loud shrieking sounded from the east. Both he and Daine looked to see what had made the noise, and saw something that neither of them had expected.
About nine miles away, a Warp Storm was gathering on the horizon, the bruise-colored clouds crackling with green, crimson, gold and blue lightning, the high wailing song of the storm piercing through the thick air like a knife slicing through butter.
Daine gasped and grabbed onto Cloud’s mane like a lifeline as the horse fell back another step. "A Warp Storm? But the Gods never send them this late in the season!"
"Yeah," Numair murmured, his eyes narrowing with suspicion. There was something different about this Storm, something wrong that he couldn’t place. "It wasn’t sent by the Gods. Not by the Higher Gods, nor by the Lesser Gods."
"What do you mean?" Daine looked at Numair, her brow furrowed in confusion. "What other Gods are there?"
Numair ran his hand over his face in thought. The Warp Storms sent by the Gods of the Higher Realms were never as dark, never as sharp in sound. The ones sent by the Gods of the Lesser Realms were always small and low in magic. Numair could feel the magic of this storm, even from this far away, and no Storm sent by either group of Gods had ever been this strong.
That only left one group of Gods, the group that had been banned from any Realm hundreds of years ago. The Gods with evil embedded so deep inside of them, it ran like a thick black river of hatred. Anyone and anything that crossed these Gods paths suffered a horrible and painful death.
Which meant, if Daine and Numair stayed where they were, they were unintentionally cutting their lives short.
Numair glanced around in panic, searching for somewhere, anywhere to hide. But all he could see was flat plain and sky.
He looked at Daine shivering on Cloud’s back, her eyes wide and glazed with terror, and decided to resort to what he had promised himself he would not do.
Numair raised his arms toward the darkening sky, and called out another word in that strange language of his.
The thick air came to life, swirling around Numair and Daine, and the frightened horses. Daine’s hair came loose from the binding and fluttered wildly in the new wind, and she nearly screamed as her and her companions slowly rose from the earth. They rose higher and higher, like a giant invisible hand had scooped them up and was taking them to the heavens.
Numair could feel his power failing. His arms were becoming weak, and the faint black cloud of his magic that had surrounded them was fading with every inch they rose.
Then the magic disappeared, and they began to fall. Daine closed her eyes as the ground came rushing up to meet them, and prayed that the fall wouldn’t kill them. She had never been so frightened in her live. Not when her village had been attacked four years ago and her mother killed by Stormwings, and not earlier that morning when she left the only home she’d ever known with a stranger she knew nothing about.
The air was whistling past her, and she squeezed her eyes shut even more. The Warp Storm was almost on them.
She opened her eyes just as the Storm sucked them in and witnessed the most amazing thing she’d ever seen. They were in the center of the Warp Storm, the eye of the lightning and clouds.
All around her pulsed with life, with magic, and it swirled with hundreds of colors. She reached out a hand to touch a tendril of smoke that had shyly curled around her arm, and felt…an emptiness. Where there should have been something, there was nothing.
The clouds whirled with darker and darker colors, until Daine and her companions were surrounded by black.
Daine saw a final, small bolt of lightning explode only a few feet from her face until she fell unconscious.