Hopeless Liberation Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Dante
A day after meeting the farm boy on the road, Peter and I could catch glimpses of Owl's Overwatch through the treetops that swayed every time a cool breeze streamed through the woods. The white peaks of the mountains seemed to be made of marble and glowed whiter than any cloud. I estimated that it would have been a few days until we reached them. Then, it would probably have taken us two weeks to cross over into the Southern Kingdoms. At least then we would be safe among the allies of Peter's father, who wouldn't harm him if their knights somehow discovered us. That somewhat gave me comfort, even though there would still be Talth to avoid.
"Why do they call the mountains 'Owl's Overwatch'?" Peter asked as he walked at my side.
"They're taller than the Fanged Peaks," I explained, recalling the information from a book that I must have read years ago. "And they're home to a lot of snowy owls,"
"And why doesn't anybody live on them?" Peter further questioned. "Queen Santel lives on top of the Fanged Peaks,"
"Owl's Overwatch is colder than the Peaks," I said. "And there's less flat land,"
"Does that mean we'll have to buy thicker parkas?"
"No. The ones we have should be fine,"
Suddenly, Peter and I stepped out onto the main road, which grated beneath us as our boots shifted several pieces of gravel.
"What the hell?" I said, glancing to my left and down the road. "How did we get on the r-?"
"Dante!" Peter screamed from my right.
Instinctively, I reached for my rapier with my right hand and turned to face the otter, only to have my chest feel as though it were set on fire as I suddenly fell backwards, the world turning completely black as pain blasted through my skull.
My eyes crept open after I found myself lost in darkness for some time. The sunlight stung my pupils like a burning dagger and I could barely make out the shapes of two arrows that had been deeply lodged inside of my chest.
I blinked and, suddenly, I noticed that I was moving, or at least the ground beneath me was.
Fatigue soon crawled upon me and I shut my eyes once more.
When I opened my eyelids again, I saw daylight in the distance, slowly moving further and further away from me every time my faint heartbeat cried out. Was I dying? Where these the last things I would see before my life was extinguished like the lit wick of a candle?
Again, exhaustion took hold of me and my eyes meekly closed.
After the third time I opened my eyes, I realized that I was motionless and in complete darkness. No sounds were audible and no light could be seen in the sheet of black that currently consumed me. Is this what it's like to be dead? Just nihility?
Suddenly, my eyes focused on a figure above me, a form that I was barely able to make out. It was a female bat, who, incidentally, was naked. Her fur was pure black, like the air that circled around us, and I was hardly able to see her brown eyes as they looked down at me like a pair of sentient judges.
"Who...?" I whispered, realizing just how frail I was when the word left me, and became aware of the grogginess inside my head as the world began to slowly tilt.
"Shhh," the mysterious bat whispered. "Rest,"
Having very little energy inside me and feeling as though the world was fading away into the void of darkness that I was enshrouded in, I closed my eyes and fell into a sleep that seemed to last a year.
When my eyes flickered open again, I noticed that I was underneath a roof of stone. I blinked a few times, making sure that what I was seeing was real, and my pupils became slightly more adjusted to the dark. I then smelled the air, discovering nothing but the scents of rock, dirt and bat.
I glanced down at my chest and saw two tattered holes in my tunic, which were hardened dry blood. Slowly, I lifted my right hand and prodded one of the holes with a cautious finger, feeling the loose strings of the torn fabric tickle me like tiny hairs and send a tingling sensation through my back. Upon inserting my finger through the hole, I discovered that, for some strange reason, there were no wounds on my stomach from where the arrows had pierced me, or even a hardened scab. It was almost as if I hadn't been shot at all, except for the two bloody openings in the front of my tunic. Yet, I still was unable to understand how I had no lacerations. Even if I had somehow slept for a decade, there should at least still be some kind of scar.
_ _ "Good," said a voice said from the shadows to my right. "You're awake,"
I pulled my finger from the torn portion of my tunic and tried to sit up.
"Don't," the voice commanded. "I was able to heal your wounds and the small amount of damage your organs suffered, but I couldn't replace the blood you lost. Keep laying down,"
After concluding that the voice spoke with reason and remembering the pain in my skull after being shot, I lowered myself back down against the cold floor. I then raised my hand and felt the back of my head, discovering a large knob just above my neck that was tender to my touch. "How much blood did I lose?"
"Some," the stranger said, "but you should be fine by tomorrow,"
"Good," I said, happy that I wouldn't be helpless for very long.
Abruptly, the memory of Peter calling my name before I fell unconscious burst through my mind like a gunshot.
"Peter," I whispered and forced myself to sit upright, despite the sensation of what felt like rusty nails being hammered into my skull.
A set of hands clasped my shoulder and pushed me down onto my back. As my back thumped against the freezing stiff surface beneath me, I looked up the arms, which were connected to wings, that the hands were attached to and found myself staring eye-to-eye with the naked bat that I had seen when I had faded out of consciousness. Her brown eyes were now occupied with austerity and her hands continued to firmly clasp onto my shoulder.
"You need to rest," the bat instructed me, her tone suggesting that I had no choice but to obey.
"My friend! I have to help him! Where is he?"
"Your friend was captured, you dumbass," the bat said with little regard and a flick of her ears. "I saw them march off with him after they shot you this morning,"
"Then I'm going to save him," I declared, trying to lift myself up, only to be prohibited from doing so by my agonizing headache and the bat's steady hold on me.
"And do what?" the bat retorted. "Get shot with more fucking arrows?"
"It's better than just laying here,"
"No, it's not, you idiot!" the bat hissed.
"Why?"
"Because your friend was taken by Julian Vercer, the captain of Queen Talis' fort!"
What? Already, I could feel my fur burn with failure as I realized Peter would be in the hands of a Northern Queen, who would either execute the otter or give him to Capres as a present. "He's the captain of a fort?"
"Yes," the bat said. "He's known for being very brutal to prisoners and always getting them to tell the truth,"
Beneath me, my tail curled in fear. "He... He tortures them?"
The bat nodded.
Horrendous thoughts of Peter being dismembered filled me with repulsion, making me cringe at the thought of how he would scream. I could clearly see in my mind the tears that would run down his face alongside streaks of blood. I also squirmed at the thought of him crying out my name, hoping that I would come to save him.
With determination, I turned my head and gave the bat a calm stare. "I'm going to save him whether you like it or not,"
"Then you'll die and leave your friend in the hands of a madman," the bat said, coldly.
The thought of Peter alone in the world and having no way of returning to Lowpive alive made me fall silent, causing me to reconsider my plan of going to rescue him at that very moment.
"What should I do?" I asked my mysterious savior.
"Rest," the bat said, her hands finally releasing me.
"And let him still be a prisoner?"
"No," the bat said, drawing her arms away. "I have a few ideas,"
A growing sense of apprehension grew inside my chest. "Why are you helping me? I'm just a stranger to you,"
The bat sighed and leaned against a stone wall, which I was now able to see behind her. "My sister, like your friend, was captured two days ago by a patrol of Queen Talis' knights,"
"Is she in the fort, too?" I asked, deeming it a likely scenario.
"No," the bat answered. "She was taken into Sleeping Sun. I don't know if she's still alive or not, but I need you to find out. And, if she is alive, I need you to save her,"
"How am I supposed to do that?" I wondered, somewhat baffled by how the woman expected me to complete such a feat.
"Do you know how to fight?" the bat asked, a hint of condescension burning in her voice.
"Yes," I said, reaching down for my sword, only to find it missing from its scabbard.
"Your things are safe," the bat assured me, as her eyes locked onto my right hand, which had now discovered that my gun was missing from its holster as well. "I have them in a chest,"
"Where are we?" I asked, lowering my hand.
"In my cave. My sister and I have lived here for sixty years,"
"Sixty years?" I said, my tail twitching. "But you only look twenty!"
The bat's ears twitched and she rolled her eyes. "Don't you know that witches age slower?"
My hackles raised and I felt a sudden jolt in the center of my stomach, as though I had been shot with arrows again. "You're a witch?"
"Yes. My sister and I are both witches,"
"That's how you healed my wounds," I realized aloud.
The bat nodded. "Magic is the manipulation of the world around us. I can change things, modify their temperature and even alter their physical state. I can't make things pop out of nowhere, though. So I healed all of your wounds by stretching them closed. The fur on your chest and lining of your organs are thinner now, but you won't bleed to death,"
I blinked and thought over what the bat had just told me. "So, you can basically change anything?"
"Here. Let me demonstrate,"
The bat reached up and pulled a hair off of her muzzle, holding it out for me to see. She then raised her other hand and did this bizarre curling motion with her fingers, which looked almost as if she were twisting a very large doorknob. Suddenly, the tip of the hair was on fire and flickered in the cave like a candlewick, the light bouncing off the murky-grey walls around us.
She blew the flame out and tossed the scorched hair off to the side, sending it into the darkness as the stench of burnt fur began to fill the cave. "See? I raised the temperature of the hair and set it on fire,"
My mind suddenly flashed back to Esme, recalling how she asked me to end her pain as she bled to death. A sea of woe suddenly overwhelmed me. "Can you bring back the dead?"
"No, you idiot," the witch groaned in annoyance. "Haven't you been listening? I can only change things that are around me. I can't create something out of nothing!"
It was worth a shot. "Tell me more about your sister. What exactly happened the day she was captured?"
The bat blinked and began her story after a moment of silent thought. "It was two days ago. My sister, Gwen, and I were hunting for food. We usually hunt separately so we can find more.
"She didn't come back to the cave after a while and I went looking for her. I found her tracks and followed them. They led me to a group of boot prints that were scattered in the dirt and trailed off down the road.
"I followed the tracks for an hour, staying hidden among the trees, until I came to Sleeping Sun, which is just three miles south from here.
"Since then, I have no idea what's happened to Gwen,"
"You can't go into the City because of the salt in walls?" I asked.
"Salt doesn't hurt witches," the bat clarified. "It just saps our ability to use magic. And it keeps me from just tearing down the walls of City, too. I'm basically useless, since I don't even know how to use a goddamn sword,"
"And how am I supposed to be helpful? I'm good with a sword, but there's only one of me. I can't fight the all of the knights in Sleeping Sun just to find your sister,"
"That's why you're not going to fight the knights," the witch said. "You're going to enlist as one of them,"
"How the hell am I supposed to do that?" I said, my lips slightly curling back to display my fangs. "Just walk up to the captain of the City and ask to join?"
The bat shrugged. "Sometimes being direct is the best choice,"
"Christ," I muttered and allowed my head to loosely fall back so that I could stare up into the darkness that floated over me like a fog. "And you promise to help me rescue my friend?"
"I promise. I'll help you if you help me,"
Seeing no other options available, I reluctantly agreed. "Deal,"
"Good," the bat sighed, her shoulders sinking ever so slightly.
"And how are we going to save my friend?" I asked, turning my head to stare at the bat. "If the fort has salt in its walls like Sleeping Sun does, how are you going to be helpful?"
"Because I know something you don't, jackass," the witch said and lightly kicked my shoulder with her left paw. "The fort that your friend is in was built many years before the Scouring. It's so old that the Talis Family hasn't even bothered repairing it, which means there's no salt in its walls. There aren't many men guarding it, either,"
"Why doesn't Queen Talis repair the fort?"
"Queen Talis pays a great deal of gold for the Southern taxes," the bat continued, stretching her legs out along the ground. "She uses what little gold she has left to help the poor and the starving, after the knights have been paid, of course,"
"You seem to know a lot about Queen Talis for someone who lives in a cave," I said, somewhat curious as to how the bat knew all of this information.
"Gwen and I run into Talth sometimes," the witch explained. "We usually hear them run their mouths about what's going on in the City. Most of the time, the Talth don't know we're there. But, if they do, they usually stare at our boobs long enough for us to break their necks,"
I narrowed my eyes.
"What?" the witch said, her tone growing defensive. "You don't think I've killed Talth before?"
"No, I do. But the Talth raise a lot of questions when they find their own men dead on the road. I've experienced that firsthand,"
"So?"
"So," I continued, "since you're still here, that means they must have never found the Talth that you and your sister killed,"
The witch grew mute.
"What do you do with the bodies?"
"We usually turn them into dirt,"
"You can do that, too?" I asked, not caring to conceal my surprise.
"Yes. My sister usual does it, though. Gwen's much better at magic than me,"
"How is she better?" I wondered. "Has she been using it longer than you?"
"No. Our abilities came at the same time. She's just naturally better than me. It's similar to how some people are better at memorizing things, or singing. They just have the talent,"
"Interesting," I said. "Oh. I'm sorry. I still don't know your name,"
"Tess," the witch answered. "And you? What's your name?"
"Dante,"
Tess crossed her legs and sat upright, her gaze never leaving my own. "Well, Dante, looks like we'll have to get along for a while if we want to save your friend and my sister,"
"It certainly appears that way," I said.
Silence passed between us.
Finally, I spoke again. "May I ask why you're naked?"
Tess' eyes narrowed. "You really don't know?"
"No," I said, shaking my head. "None of the history books I've read have ever mentioned witches or warlocks being naked,"
"History books," Tess spat. "They're all full of damn lies. What exactly have they told you?"
I thought for a moment, trying to remember all of the history lessons that I had been given by my tutor. "Well, I was taught that you can keep magic users away with salt, iron and the heads of wild wolves,"
"You don't actually believe that shit, do you?" Tess sneered.
"I've never met a witch or warlock before. So I don't known any better,"
"Well, now you do,"
"Oh! I also heard that people who use magic are infertile,"
"Yes. That's true. We can't have children. My sister and I haven't even bled once a month since we started using magic,"
"Curious," I said, wondering what age Tess and Gwen were when they first began practicing magic.
"Anything else?" the bat wondered.
"No,"
"Good," Tess hissed, as though I were to blame for all of the slander that was written about her kind. "The salt part is somewhat true. It takes away our powers whenever we're close. But it doesn't hurt us. That other stuff about iron and wolf heads is complete crap, though,"
"So why don't you wear any clothes?" I asked again, hoping not to further infuriate the witch.
Tess sighed and spoke with less tension in her voice. "Magic is like the energy you need to make your muscles move and stretch. And, like running, you can only do it so long before you need to rest. It uses up your stamina. For some reason, the way magic works can take a serious toll on your body. Use magic too much at once and your body is severely affected. At first, you can become tired and your clothes deteriorate. Then, if you continue to push your limits, your fur will shed. Next, the walls of your insides start to thin. After that, your veins can eventually open and blood can't get to your heart anymore. At that point, even if you can still manage to stand, you're basically dead. It's not just veins that fall apart, either. Sometimes, your liver or stomach will open up inside you,"
"And I'm assuming your sister has a higher endurance for using magic," I asked, recalling how Tess said Gwen's magical abilities were superior to her own. "Right? Is that what you meant by her being better at magic?"
Tess nodded. "I don't even think I've ever seen her out of breath,"
"And, since they would deteriorate, that's why you don't wear clothes?"
"What?" Tess asked me, condescendingly. "You think I like walking around with my tits hanging out?"
"No. I just wanted to make sure that was the reason,"
"It is," she asserted. "And there's no point in trying to take the clothes off any Talth we kill. Me and Gwen use magic to hunt everyday, so the clothes wouldn't last long,"
"How did you two even find out you could use magic?"
"You ask way too many goddamn questions,"
"I need answers if I'm supposed to help you!"
"What you need is sleep," Tess snapped. "Tomorrow, after breakfast, I'll answer any more questions you have before you leave for Sleeping Sun. But, in the meantime, you need all the sleep you can get,"
"I'm going to Sleeping Sun tomorrow?"
"Your wounds are healed, so you're in the perfect condition to fight," Tess reminded me. "And, we need to save my sister and your friend as soon as possible,"
Realizing that Tess was right, I sighed. "Fine. Good night,"
Tess grunted.
I closed my eyes and soon fell into a comfortless sleep that was filled with nightmares of Peter bleeding to death in my own arms.