Airic showed up from the side door. Small, grey figure plodded through the courtyard. Shoulder hunched, head down, fabric of the headwrap shuttering the face, ashen dress encumbered her body like it was made of led. Atti's gaze plunged over the only exposed piece of skin besides the pale face.
Her hands were red… raw. The skin was dry and cracked, with irritation around the knuckles. The nails were short and uneven. The veins and tendons stood out like they were about to burst through the skin… Strained. Her thin fingers were frail like a sparrow's claws. Airic lost so much weight. He doubted anyone ensured she didn't forget to eat. Like he did when they still lived together.
Lump come up in the throat. Since arriving at the castle, never even once he felt the need to check on his wife. What was wrong with him?
When Airic stopped right beside Bruno, Atti had to fight to swallow down his anger. Small bruises dappled his wife's right chick, trailing down her neck, hiding under the high collar of her dress. They looked like… fingerprints.
With his large hand, Bruno forced Airic to go on her knees. Like he owned her, like she was his property. And his wife, his proud, strong wife, buckled. Eyes down, hands limb.
"You, extend your hand," Bruno commanded to Airic. "Atti, please put your sword into your wife's hand."
Atti fell speechless, standing there and observing the scene like a fool.
"Soldier, don't make us wait. Just pass it on and be done with it!"
Lord's order was hard to disobey, and Atti's hand started moving.
Airic's warm fingers touched his as she wrapped it around the handle. Atti couldn't keep his eyes away from her face. He noticed how it stiffened as soon as she gained a firm grip on the handle.
***
It was like I peered out from under the water. Just how it was that night on the winter river near the settlement. As my hand seized the metal, a surge of feelings flooded my mind. Immediately. All at once.
Heat splattered from my right hand through my shoulder to my heart and all the way to the center of my magic core. The world just flipped, and I was me again, not a bodiless piece of metal, not a soulless doll. Me. Airis. And it was… too much.
The jagged pain from the blade in my abdomen was there, like it had happened a moment ago. But the sharp memory of losing my child was much worse. And I was here yet again. At the plaza, surrounded by enemies.
And my memory wasn't the only thing confounding my mind. My thoughts were rallied by all my sisters in misfortune, still locked in their metal cages. More and more personalities surging through my mind in waves of agony, anger, despair.
A slap stung my right cheek, and I folded my hand still on a sword. The only thing keeping me grounded.
"… Hey! You! I am talking to you, stupid cow! Endow the sword to this noble boy! You hear me?!"
This was a bad time to wallow in pain.
My entire body started trembling as I worked on pushing away the new surge of feelings. It felt like I was trying to swallow a giant, toothered icicle. And it took me a while to catch my breath, but when my head cleared, I opened my eyes. To really see the world around me for the first time in months.
Bruno was craning over me. It was his hand that forced me out of my sister's stream of feelings. Atti was holding Bruno's hand, trying to protect me from further abuse.
Too late, the husband of mine. It's way too late to care for a minor abuse.
I looked around. All these people... Names plopping in my head. I worked with some of them… for some of them. The longer I was observing the world around me, the deeper the frown on Bruno's face was becoming. Smart men. Evel man.
They will take my mind away as soon as they realize. Again. I couldn't let them do this. The women on the back of my head agreed. My sisters, in torture, were with me.
My gaze landed on a child beside the Lord. I had a child at home, too. Could I do this for her?
I dug my heals into the ground and sprang up, pushing a sword through Bruno's abdomen. A rush of excitement bobbled inside when I saw a surprised appearing on Bruno's face. I bit my lip to hold down a satisfied laugh. My sisters rejoiced with me.
I yanked the blade around, trying to cause as much damage as possible. I didn't want him to come back at me.
People around me started moving. But I quickly formed a protective sign with my left hand and pushed out my force to serve as a shield. It was easy when I was this full.
Atti threw himself against my shield. I taught him a bit about magic. No good spells used the enemy's blood.
As soon as Bruno's blood trailed down my hands, I ran my left hand over the blade, combining our life force and starting to grow the power ball inside me.
Delayed pain bit through my palm. Nothing compared to what I went through over the past months.
I extracted a sword from the merchant's flesh, got up on my feet, and looked over at people in the courtyard.
How dare they treat us like animals? Worse even - inanimate objects?
I inhaled deeply. I wanted to shout about my pain. And I didn't see a reason to deny myself this, while the power was growing inside.
"You… who gave you the right to treat us like goods with no soul? To take my family, my will, my dignity? Are we unworthy to exist unless we serve you?"
My throat burned. My head was pulsing. It was time.
"We want you hurt. We want your blood. Burn in the underworld!"
My guts vibrated with power. Good thing my last meal was yesterday.
In less than a minute, the spell reached saturation. I have never felt this strong.
I plunged the sword into the stone. Metal went into the granite like a hot needle into a block of ice. Black flames sidewinded in every direction, turning into ash, every animated object on their way.
My husband died first. Screams pierced the charged air. People launched towards the castle. But my anger was faster.
Village men tried to protect themselves with their swords. Fools. My sisters wanted them dead as much as I did. And their magic would fight against their own.
I was angry enough to want them all dead. But I wasn't angry enough to watch them all die.
After my husband's body disappeared in flames, I looked down at my hands. The curse was eating its way though my flesh. Black lines were coiling their way up my forearms. I welcomed the pain. I deserved it.
The smell of burning flesh was suffocating. I lowered my head to the guard of the sword, curving my shoulders, and hid my face in the crook of the arm.
I killed my husband and all these people and even a child. Half of them I didn't even know.
They weren't innocent bystanders. They were all in it. Taking part in this enslaving system. Weren't they?
When the last scream died in the distance, I extracted the metal. The curse wouldn't penetrate the walls. And I didn't want it to.
There was no point in killing absolutely everyone in the castle. Only people in the courtyard. Only those standing between me and my freedom.
It took me a moment to convince my sisters. Some of them wanted to see the entire castle burn to ashes. One or two wouldn't mind ravaging even further. Claim with flames as much of the country as we can. Luckily, some were on my side, and I could push the blood lust at bay.
I looked around. The picture was blurry. I wiped my wet face with a sleeve and blinked a couple of times.
It was all charred beams and blackened rubble. The charcoal serpentines scorched stone walls and towers. Ashes were floating through the air, coloring everything in dusky shades. Smoke rose from the smoldering remains, filling the air with a pungent odor.
In the distance I could see a dozen swords, lying on the ground, gleaming with otherworldly light. My sisters were celebrating.
I made a couple of wary steps towards the gates. I was a stranger to my body. Everything was weak and numb.
But inside I was bursting with power. I have never felt so mightful.
Something cracked under my foot, and I looked down. It was a bone; from the looks of it was a piece of tight. My gaze travelled further and stumbled on the skull.
The further from the heart of the spell, the lower was the heat, and remains were scattered where people once stood.
My head span and the world turned into a crazy kaleidoscope of ashen remains and dull colors. I pressed my body to the wall, fighting to remain in control.
I could not have allowed myself to feel. As soon as I did, they would take over. My own pain was too much to handle, and I would lose myself in the unity of souls of my sisters. Our pain was too much for one person.
They called, pulled, clamoured me to join. Just how mom used to describe being in the coven. And the connection to every single person that was put through the ritual was too much. No one in their sane mind would create a coven with so many members.
My breath hitched. I had to give them something to ease the engulfment.
"I promise: I will find each one of you and rejoin you with your powers or set you free to continue your journey to the other realm if your body is no longer here." I whispered under my breath and put my hand into an oath figure.
The magic accepted the oath, and the tight clamp around my head eased a little.
Screams echoed in the distance. Time to continue my trudge towards the castle gate. The people inside must have already noticed that something is wrong. The acrid smell enswathed me like a tar.
My palm was still bleeding. So I used my blood to drow twelve Eadhadh, Luis and Ehwaz runes on the castle walls and through the gate. I carefully lowered to my battered knees.
It took me a moment to release the grip on the sword guard. When I lowered it to the ground beside me, I could still feel it. Like it was my limb, like my own skin covered the metal. The hard surface of the ground brushing against the metal sent goosebumps along my spine. It would definitely take some time to get used to.
Planting both hands on the ground, I allowed my force to run freely though the stone, wood and soil around.
My mother shared this spell with me when I was a teenager. She created it to protect our settlements. Unfortunately, it didn't help to protect her.
I shook my head and focused on work. To cover grounds of this one would need at least a dozen witches. Luckily, I had a connection to a power much larger than that.
Focusing on our connection was like standing in a room crowded with people. Every one of them was eager to share their force and their pain with me. It felt crowded, suffocating.
I opened my eyes and raised my head to the sky. Shining dome spread outwards over a castle. When it reached the opposite wall, I anchored the magic to the runes on the gates, binding them with my blood. My source seemed endless, but just running this amount of energy, though my core, was painful. I took a brief break resting near the wall, and observe the lights of the dome disappear in the afternoon sun.
No one in these walls would be able to tell a single soul about witches, magic or what was happening in these walls till the day I die. Judging by the black lines on my forearms, that might happen sooner rather than later.
I got up to my feet. It was time to find all my sisters in the castle and return to the place where it all started.
Since I had what seemed to be an unlimited supply of magic, I drew a concealing runic row along the seam of my dress and headed towards the castle.