Early autumn, 4705

Kali tasted blood and sand.

She wanted to open her eyes but her face was clenched so tightly from the pain that it was squeezing them shut. From her chin to her ear, sharp jolts radiated outward, each demanding her full attention. The pain intensified to the point where she wanted to scream but then it suddenly went numb.

She was aware of the the ground pressing against her right temple, and tears flowing over the bridge of her nose. She had not cried like this in years, but she had never hurt anything like this before, either.

Her mind was spinning, unable to focus on any one thought long enough to piece together what was happening or even where she was. All she had was now. Feeling the sand and blood congealing on her tongue, she instinctively tried to spit it out but the pain returned in a burst so severe that it made her nauseous. Kali froze, letting the qualm pass and the pangs recede back to numbness. Don’t throw up don’t throw up don’t throw up.

Finally, a singular, clear thought formed. He broke my jaw.

She opened her eyes, but could barely see through the tears that were pooling in them.

She wanted her mom.

Someone was standing over her; someone she knew. A man? Yes. He was asking her something but she couldn’t understand the words. She knew it sounded like a question, but that’s as much sense as she could make of it. When she didn’t reply, he bent down to look at her more closely. She couldn’t make out his features at first other than that he was big, but then she recognized him as one of the Scarnetti boys. The older one. What is his name? He turned his head and she heard him call out to someone. To the Theern twin?

The thought asserted itself a second time: He broke my jaw.

My rescuer is a Scarnetti. It was madness, but she didn’t care. Whatever fucked up moral code that family lived by at least included “not beating up young girls”. That was good enough for her.

“Don’t try to stand up,” he said.

Are you kidding me? Why would I want to do that?

Then she noticed she was on her hands and knees, with one foot brought forward readying to push herself up. What am I doing?

She shifted her weight back and settled onto her rump, arms still stretched forward. She just lay there, completely unaware of how much time was passing. He called out again, but she wasn’t listening. She saw that she was sitting up now—I don’t remember doing that—and that the two of them were not alone. Some of her friends and a few other girls that she knew were standing around them at a polite distance. She knew their faces but couldn’t form any names.

She lowered her head to let the blood, saliva, and sand drip from her mouth. She didn’t dare try spitting again. When she looked up afterwards she saw the small crowd had parted and through it she could see the Theern boy face down on the beach. He wasn’t moving. Is he dead? A small, muscular figure was standing over him and she recognized it as Qatana. Gods, she looks like a wild animal. What is happening?

“Don’t try to talk.”

I already figured that one out, thanks.

“She got to him first. Pounded him good.”

Kali tilted her head to the side, which he interpreted as a question.

“He’ll live, don’t worry. You, too. Help’s coming.”

She was not, in fact, worried about Theern but she was worried about herself. She knew this was bad. Really, really bad. There would be no hiding this from her parents, even if she wanted to. Except she still didn’t know what was going on.

The pain was coming back, a heavy throbbing that was impossible to ignore. She held back tears through sheer force of will.

She wanted her mom.

Someone else arrived. Her vision was blurring again and she couldn’t make out who it was. The newcomer was pulling something out of a pack or a bag.

You don’t seriously think I can drink a potion like—?

And the pain was gone, so abruptly that she reflexively swallowed and nearly choked on the sand still in her mouth. Kali coughed, spit, and gagged, and nearly passed out.

Someone gave her water. When the spasms ended she swirled some of it around in her mouth and spit it out, then took a long drink. When she looked up again she saw Qatana was gone, and sitting across from her was—

“Shalelu?”

The elven woman was looking right at her with an intensity that was unnerving. Kali had trouble reading her even at the best of times and at this moment Shalelu was completely inscrutable. It gave Kali chills.

In Elvish, she asked, “What did he do to you?”

She had actually been invited. Not told she could come along, not encouraged to come by one of her friends, but actually invited. And by Sefa! An afternoon on the beach, just being out with a couple of friends and a few others around her age. This had never happened before. So, yes! Hell, yes!

She had been searching for something. Agates? Pink agates. They were extremely rare, but they always seemed to turn up at this spot on the beach after really high tides and last night was a new moon. It would be something she could give to Sefa as a small gesture. She had just found one and was headed back down the beach to where the others were when she tripped on something and fell. She looked up and saw Jefy Theern standing over her (she was finally able to tell the asshole twins apart) and…nothing after that.

Until the pain, sand, and blood.

That wasn’t the answer Shelalu was looking for, though, because what had been done to her was obvious. Kali’s Elvish was good, but she was still in shock. She realized she must have misunderstood the question so she went over it again in her head. It may have been, “What was he going to do to you?”

A horrible chill ran through her as more memories flooded in, and she started shaking violently and uncontrollably. The blood drained from her face and from her head, and the ground disappeared beneath her. She was aware of a frenzy of voices from somewhere far away.

In the distance, so faint she could barely hear it, Shalelu’s silenced them all. “No. I will deal with him.”

 

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