She didn’t dare respond, didn’t dare think. She curled into a painful ball and waited for the beating to end.
“CLEAN IT UP!” he shouted, his voice shaking the floor and the walls. Adil cried silently, frozen in place, barely breathing, willing herself to just DIE, trying to kill herself by thought alone. She had no mop or towels, and he wouldn’t let her leave. She blubbered silently, keeping as still as possible, waiting for the beating to end.
Another fist fell, knocking her into a blessed hole of unconsciousness.
When she woke, the demon had left.
The last of the cow was gone, but the blood was still there, congealing in puddles, smelling thick and metallic. Adil retched, then climbed to her feet, her shoulders throbbing and her back aching. She stood, wobbly, then worked her way down the hallway to get the cleaning equipment. She could clean the blood with power and magic, but she dared not. The demon watched her constantly. If he knew what magic she’d learned, or how she constantly stole and used his power, she would end up shackled in the dungeons.
Adil got her mop, cleaned up the blood, then went to finish her chores. She walked down the hallway slowly, her body aching. She could shift into a fox, but she would not—had not, since she’d been marked. A shift would heal her aches and injuries, but instinct told her a shift would meld the mark on her chest to be part of her, and then the demon could use it to control her.
The burning of the mark on her chest flared and she cried out. She covered her chest with her arms, while her body was pulled around to face the other way, then yanked down the hallway to the demon’s bedroom.
Bedtime.
Her horrible father was still monstrous looking, although he didn’t spend all his time that way. He liked to look like a human now and then, and he had other forms as well. At that moment, he was large and gross with flesh hanging from his ribs, a bare skull and black, pulsing eyeballs, staring at her. The room smelled like blood and smoke, with a slight tinge of decay. Khain reclined on his bed, which was the size of a concert stage, and looked exotic and plush, but on closer inspection, the mattress was clay, the blankets were moss, and the pillows, fire.
Adil looked away, not wanting to see his gaunt grossness, her feet shuffling her that way as the Tether pulled her right into his bony claw. It snapped shut, trapping her like a bird in a cage. She curled up and cried silently for what felt like hours, while the demon rested.
After some time, she lay down. And eventually, she fell asleep, dreaming vividly. In the dream, Adil, running as a fox, entered a meadow, and something told her it was ‘theMeadow’, the home of Rhen, and she paid close attention, her eyes flitting everywhere, her body alert and ready for anything. A trail beckoned to her, but it led to a precipice, and she was scared. The bofox appeared before her, a red fox the size of a wolf, with kind eyes. He beckoned to her with his stance and his tail, leading her closer to the precipice. She reached it … closed her eyes … took the leap …
… and landed right back in the Meadow as a human on bare feet, wearing a beautiful fairy dress, with flowers in her hair. Next to her, landing at the same time, was a beautiful and agile fox, with a stunning tail and expressive eyes. She looked at her fox and her fox looked at her, and it turned over in a somersault, showing its belly, then ran off. Adil followedit, delighted. They romped and played. Adil climbed a newly-fallen tree trunk then jumped to the ground—
—Adil woke suddenly, her eyes popping open, the meaning of the dream crystal clear to her just-awakened mind. She was to escape, and then separate herself and her animal, and the demon would not recognize her. She could not get to the Meadow, but she could get to the Ula. The Ula was beautiful, vital, and alive, but it was scary also because that’s where the wolves lived. She’d escaped several times already, living in the Ula for a few days at a time… or as long as she could stay awake and elude the demon. Anywolvenshe methated her on sight, wanting to kill her just for being afoxen, so she hid from them. The humans liked her, wanting to paw at her body and put their tiny sausages inside her.
Adil stayed perfectly still in the darkness, letting the realness of the dream infuse her with quiet strength. She was done crying. She was done taking the beatings. She would escape, and this time, she would not be caught.
She opened her hands wide and mentally calledvvystto her. Some of it came straight out of the demon’s body in a black stream from his heart. She pulled it and directed it and when she had enough, she spun it around her body like a bolt of cloth, growing thicker and thicker, until it was large enough to creak open the demon’s claw. After several tense minutes, there was a gap big enough for her. She held perfectly still for a breath, euphoric, then she crawled out.Vvyststill flowed to her from the demon, and she formed it into a magical carpet that reached the ground. She slid down it, popping to her feet at the bottom, then tiptoed out to the hallway, where she took a torch from the wall and made her way down corridors and spiral staircases until she was deep under the castle. She went to her secret place, a tiny cave behind a crack in the wall of one of the rooms. There, she took a precious moment to draw a pictureof a mind-gate on the floor, a message to Boe, then she pulled some rocks away from a crevice in the wall near the floor. Behind the rocks was a stash of clothing she’d secretly collected over the years from humans andfoxenKhain had killed. She laid all the clothing out, and the only thing that looked like it would fit her was a gray petticoat with a red apron. She pulled it on, then tried on all the shoes. Nothing fit, so in feet bare, she hid everything in the crevice and hurriedly re-stacked the rocks.
She stood and turned to the center of the small area, callingvvystto obey her, speaking words of dimensional travel. In front of her, a small mind-gate opened to the Ula. Adil threw her torch through it, then yanked the edges wider. She stepped through it into a small, empty cave in the vibrant, alive Ula. Trembling with excitement and fear, she took a moment to pull reams ofvvystout with her. When she had enough, she let the mind-gate snap shut.
She took a deep breath, smiling at the scent of water in the air, smelling like life and freedom. She stepped out of the cave into the green forest, so happy to be out of the dead Pravus and in the living, breathing Ula.
The sky was dark and clear. Trees grew everywhere. Wildflowers brushed at her bare feet and rocks poked her skin. She extinguished her torch, smiling widely, then tore off a bit of fabric from the petticoat and wrapped the end of it, and stuck it in the apron pocket. She followed the first twinkling star she saw, running on strong, bare feet, over rock and dirt. Her mark burned hotly on her chest, reminding her she was not truly free. When Khain woke, he would know she was far from him, because of The Tether tying her to him by an invisible thread. She hated the Tether and would dissolve it someday, she knew that with every fiber of her being—she would break it,she would rip it out by its roots—she wouldNOTlive tied to the demon forever.
Mercifully, the Tether was weaker in the Ula, and it could not pull her to Khain, but still it allowed him to find her no matter where she went.
Adil heard running, gurgling water, altering her course toward it. The night was quiet, but something roared continuously in the distance, louder as she got closer—a waterfall. She reached the river and followed it to the waterfall. Standing at the edge, she looked over, searching for a way behind it. She saw what she wanted and carefully climbed down the embankment into the gorge, then picked her way behind the falling water. The enclosed space was small, little more than the size of a bathroom, and it felt cool and safe. The loud noise of rushing and crashing water soothed her. She relaxed, shaking her body like an animal. Vvystwas hard to find in the Ula, but it collected behind waterfalls, and inside caves, canyons, ravines, and volcanic calderas. Directly behind the falling water, she found a bubble of it tumbling end over end and she walked right into it, her thoughts alive and frantic.
The coolness of thevvystsoothed her, and mindlessly she chanted, “I’ve got to become what I’m not, or he’ll never leave me alone.”
Instinct grabbed Adil and forced her hand over her shoulder to herrenquascar. When she pulled her hand away, something came with it, something fluid and sparkly, like liquid diamonds. The fluid elongated and filled out into the shape of a fox, dropping to the ground on all fours with sparkly beauty and grace.
…
…
…
The woman stared at a crystal fox in front of her, without a memory or idea in her head. The thing stared back for a long time, until it seemed to fade into nothing.
12—Abigail
The woman stood up. She looked around. She didn’t know who she was, or where she was, or why she was in that damp and noisy place. She only knew she had a deep pit of disquiet in the pit of her belly, like she’d done something she shouldn’t have, and punishment was around the next corner.
She stared at the backside of the waterfall for a long time, contemplating the feeling and what it could mean. When it did not change, she tried to dismiss it and looked around at her surroundings. She found the way out and followed a path near the rock face, until she walked near a bubbling river. It was daytime, and she was… here.
Her mind worked fluidly, feeding her words and information about everything her eyes landed on, but none of it felt personal to her. She had nowhere to go and nothing to do and no reason to do it. The ground shook and she stopped for a moment, holding her hands out for balance. It didn’t happen again, so she continued on her meaningless way… following the river. It would lead somewhere.
