Green Eyes

“She what!?” Jared exploded when Selene woke him and Mara up a few minutes later. It wasn’t anger that led to his outburst but astonishment. Nearby Mara was rereading Jael’s note for the sixth time.

“I can’t believe it,” she muttered quietly to herself. “I just can’t believe it.”

“Believe it,” Selene was trying to keep a handle on her own emotions. That was something else she had learned as a Navi: losing control over her emotions could have disastrous effects. “What are we going to do?”

“Do?” Jared looked at her with surprise. “We take advantage of her distraction and get out of here.”

“Just like that?” Selene felt that was a little calloused.

“I know how it sounds,” Jared replied. “But we can’t let Jael die in vain.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” Selene admitted.

“I’ll go wake up Deborah,” Mara continued scanning the note. “I guess I’m her new mommy.”

“Jael left Deborah to you?” Selene seemed stunned.

“My reaction too, but yeah,” Mara confirmed. “We can deal with that later. For now we need to focus on getting out of here.”

“Agreed,” Jared nodded. “Let’s go.”

*******

Finding Brutus was easy enough. He was reclining underneath the obelisk in the center of the town square as if he was simply enjoying an early morning stroll. Around him were gathered a dozen richly dressed men and women who were staring blankly into space. The evil was palpable.

“Viceroy Lord Brutus,” Jael greeted trying to get her nerves under control as she approached the king’s right hand man.

Looking up, the Viceroy beckoned her forward with a wave of the hand. “Are you here to tell me where the fugitives are hiding?” he inquired.

“I am, my lord,” Jael bowed low. “They have been staying in my inn this last week.”

At first he didn’t answer, instead leaning to one of the other sorcerers and whispered something. Then standing up, the Viceroy locked his beady black eyes on Jael and she felt like they were boring into her skull.

“Why didn’t you come forward earlier?” he demanded harshly.

“Forgive me my lord,” Jael bowed again though she wasn’t entirely sure why. It seemed like the right thing to do. “I wasn’t aware of your arrival until this morning. As soon as I found out you were here, I came over as quickly as I could.”

“I see,” Brutus looked skeptical. Jael was dimly aware of soldiers and other sorcerers filing into the square, along with curious civilians. It was working. “And why didn’t you report them immediately?” questioned the Viceroy.

“I couldn’t, my lord,” Jael answered. “They’ve been holding me and my daughter hostage all week and I didn’t trust the local commander. But when I heard you were here, I knew you would help me.”

“A wise choice,” Brutus acknowledged.

“If my lord would follow me, I will take him and his men to my inn,” Jael offered. “They were sleeping when I left and my lord should be able to catch them unawares.”

Jael turned a few steps back towards her inn only to realize that Brutus was not following her. Instead the Viceroy was standing pensively at his post underneath the obelisk.

“My lord, is there something wrong?” Jael questioned as a pit began to develop in her stomach.

“While you may have been forced to harbor these traitors, you did help them and for that you are guilty of treason,” Brutus took a step toward her. “And since you are a traitor, I cannot trust your story. But there is one way I can be assured of getting the truth.” He raised his right hand, fingertips extended.

Fear began to grip Jael. If he did that, then…

I’m sorry, she mentally apologized to her friends as she knew that she had failed.

The Viceroy’s fingers pressed into her forehead. Suddenly indescribable pain exploded in Jael’s head as Brutus began to rip thoughts and emotions and memories from her mind. Jael could literally feel her mind being torn away from her as the Viceroy began to absorb her consciousness. Her last thought was remembering the first time she held her daughter.

And then her mind went blank.

*******

The trio was crossing the empty main street when a piercing scream arrested their attention.

“Uh oh,” Mara immediately grasped the significance of it.

“What?” Selene asked.

“Run!” Jared commanded without explaining.

Selene didn’t argue and instead began sprinting through the streets with the twins and Deborah, who was in Mara’s arms. If Brutus read Jael’s mind, Selene put together as she dashed, then that meant their secrecy was gone. He knew their plan. Digging harder, Selene was determined not to let Jael’s heroic sacrifice go to waste. Her vision tunneling to the northeastern wall, she ran.

Rounding a corner and pushing for the home stretch, Selene suddenly found herself slamming full force into a wall. She bounced backwards on her rear and skidded across the slushy cobblestone a couple of feet. Scrambling back to her feet, Selene looked for the invisible barrier that barred her way.

It was Brutus. The Viceroy was standing fifteen paces down the street from her, hand extended and a sadistic smile on his face.

“I must compliment you on nearly escaping,” he greeted inhumanly. “Few have ever escaped my grasp once; you came closer than anyone to escaping twice.”

“The day is still young,” Selene retorted, surprised by her own boldness. Inside she was a wreck. The sorcerer warning feeling was going crazy and it was all she could do to keep from shaking in her boots. She still had nightmares about being burned alive.

“You’ve gained some confidence since we last met,” Brutus observed. “Good: I like a challenge.”

“Then you’ll love this,” Selene snapped tapping into her building rage.

Extending both fists, she unleashed two gouts of white hot flame that raced towards the Viceroy. But to her horror, instead of incinerating her opponent, the flames simply bent around him. After a moment, he waved his hand with casual dismissiveness and dissipated the inferno.

“A good attempt,” he complimented. “But your attacks are too simple and too unfocused. Instead you should try something like this.”

Brutus extended his own hand and Selene felt like a giant hand had suddenly swooped out of the sky and grabbed her. She was picked up several feet in the air and tossed around like a rag doll. First Brutus twirled her around before slamming her into the side of a building. Then he drove her into the pavement, cracking her head violently on the cobblestone. Immediately she felt her healing powers kick in, repairing the damage instantly.

Through her groggy, concussed haze Selene fought violently to free herself. She tried fire and then ice and then attempted her own telekinesis. Belatedly Selene realized that Brutus as just too strong; she couldn’t get free on her own.

She tried calling for help, but realized to her horror that somehow she had gotten separated from the twins in their race to the city wall. Not that they would be able to do much good against this kind of power anyway, Selene figured. Selene was all alone and completely overmatched. For all the ridiculous situations she had found herself in, never before had Selene felt this utterly helpless.

“Such a waste,” Brutus chided as he took a couple of steps closer. “It is a pity that your friend died for someone as weak as you.”

Suddenly Brutus let out a growl of frustration and Selene was dropped to the street. She had scarcely touched the pavement before a strong hand grabbed her by her dress and hoisted her onto a horse. Selene looked to see Brutus telekinetically holding an arrow about a foot from him and Mara retreating back down the road as fast as her horse could move.

“Blast him!” ordered Jared from behind her.

“But—”

“Just do it!” he thundered.

Selene knew better than argue and unleashed as much fire at the Viceroy as she could. Predictably he brushed it off unharmed. But that little move had blinded him long enough for Jared to direct Barack down a side street and out of Brutus’s range.

“Where were you?” Selene asked, her head clearing a little.

“Mara and I made it outside to the horses but when you didn’t show up, we came back for you,” the mercenary informed as they took a sharp right and continued pounding towards the wall. “Good thing, too,” he added.

A moment later Mara came up beside them, stowing her bow behind her with Deborah perched in front.

“Any ideas on how we get out now?” she asked.

“I’m fresh out,” Jared grimly confessed.

Selene looked ahead. The wall was coming up awfully fast and she could see a squad of soldiers gathering in the street to bar their way, as if they could somehow jump the wall.

Rage like she had never felt began building up inside Selene as they thundered towards the wall and soldiers. Rage that Jael, a woman Selene admired and was a friend, had been mercilessly, brutally murdered so that she and her friends could escape. Rage that she had been so thoroughly outclassed by Brutus. Rage that her friends had had to risk their own necks (again) to rescue her. After going through all of that, Selene would be damned before she let a thin wooden wall and a few soldiers make all that count for nothing.

Selene channeled every ounce of willpower, anger, frustration, and determination to her hands, forming it into a literal ball of energy. Then with a cry of fury, she released it towards the wall.

A blue sphere of energy arced out of her hands and raced towards the soldiers and the wall, crackling as it did so. It went over the soldiers’ heads and struck the wall about two feet up from the base and exploded.

First there was a blinding flash of pure white light followed a half second later by a deafening roar. Everything within a hundred feet of the explosion was vaporized instantly while everything within five hundred feet was flattened. Only Selene and her friends were spared thanks to an unconscious telekinetic shield the Navi had raised.

Jared and Mara, whose ears were ringing, didn’t bother questioning what had just happened. There was now a massive hole in the wall that led to freedom. Spurring their animals on, they charged through it.

*******

Brutus coughed as he expelled dust from his lungs. He had been on the very edge of the blast radius and had managed to put a shield just in time to protect him from most of the damage. But the air was filled with so much debris that breathing was difficult.

Looking out the gaping hole that the Navi had just punched, he saw the retreating figures of Mara and Jared, now just small dots on the horizon. Angrily he realized that they were too far away to pursue. Within a few hours they would be in the Harosheth Hagoyim and then it would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

“My lord,” a man covered in dust approached the Viceroy.

For no reason other than to release some of his anger, Brutus vaporized him without even looking. How was he going to explain this to Manasseh? For the second time he had had the Navi in his grasp only for that cursed mercenary to rescue her. He was becoming a significant pain in Brutus’s backside.

“Pardon me, my lord,” another person called to him.

This time Brutus restrained himself from killing the messenger. “What?” he demanded, turning to see one of his subordinate sorcerers.

“Shall we pursue them?” she questioned.

“No, not today,” Brutus shook his head. “They’re too far out of reach. I must contact the king for instructions.”

“What shall we do until then?” asked the witch.

Brutus looked around the city or what was left of it. They needed something to amuse themselves, so why not?

“Burn the city,” he commanded coldly.

*******

“I think we’re safe now,” Mara said as she slowed her horse.

“Yeah, probably,” Jared concurred.

They had been riding flat out for six hours, which was not good for their animals. Both creatures were breathing hard and sides flecked with foam. But neither twin had been willing to slow down until they reached the eves of the mighty Harosheth Hagoyim.

As they started to enter the trees, both twins held up to look back in the direction of Beth Haven. It was too far away to see, but there was a distant plume of smoke in that general direction. Neither of them had any illusions as to what that was.

“She died for nothing,” Mara commented in disbelief.

“Not exactly. We did get out and we wouldn’t have gotten out with her,” Jared pointed out. “She gave herself up so that we could live.”

“I guess,” Mara stared at the rising column of smoke in the dwindling daylight. “I still can’t believe what she did though. She sacrificed herself for a town that had given her almost nothing and for people she barely knew all the while knowing she had a very slim chance of success. It was so…so…”

“Selfless?” Jared offered.

“Yeah,” Mara nodded feeling something she hadn’t felt in a very long time: tears.

Looking over, she saw that Jared was crying too. For the first time since either could remember, someone had sacrificed herself for them. It went against their central paradigm: people are inherently selfish and will throw you under the cart as soon as convenient.

“Maybe we were wrong about people,” Jared wiped his eyes. “Maybe there’s more to them than we’ve given credit.”

“Maybe,” Mara allowed. “Maybe they’re worth it after all.”

“Where’s mommy?” Deborah stirred from her place in the front of Mara’s saddle.

Mara got a pained look on her face. How was she going to tell a six year-old girl her mom was dead?

“I’m sorry,” Mara choked on the words as she wrapped up the girl in her arms. “Your mother’s gone.”

To her credit, Deborah seemed to understand. She didn’t cry or scream; instead she buried herself into Mara and hugged her tight. Maybe she was too shocked to react.

“What will happen to me now?” she asked the former slave.

“I will take care of you,” Mara promised the child. “I promised your mom I would always be there for you and I always will. You are not alone.”

“Okay,” Deborah sniffled in reply. Apparently the shock was wearing off and reality was starting to set in. She then buried her face into Mara’s tunic and began to sob while Mara held her close.

“We need to go further in, just in case,” Jared pointed out, bringing them back to reality.

“I know,” Mara nodded, still clutching Deborah. “Come on, honey,” she extracted the girl from her clothes. “We need to ride a little further.”

“I’m sorry about your friend,” Zebulun’s voice surprised them. “Especially after all the work you went through to save her.”

Jared and Mara paused, coldly regarding him. “What do you want?” Jared finally icily demanded.

“To thank you,” Zebulun replied. “Without your or Jael’s sacrifice, I would probably be dead.”

Jared found it cruelly ironic that Zebulun was alive and well thanks to Jael considering that 48 hours earlier he had threatened to slit her throat.

“You’re welcome,” Jared told him. “Now get out of here.”

“Hold on, I have some—,” the Bats leader paused, looking at Selene’s passed out form slumped in Jared’s lap. “What’s wrong with her?”

“She expended too much power,” Jared answered. “What were you saying?”

“Before everything went down, I did some digging through my predecessor’s files,” Zebulun said. “I found something interesting.”

“Which was,” Mara prompted.

“As you know, we dealt primarily in information,” Zebulun explained. “Our most faithful costumer was someone in Jermelek, someone simply called ‘The Lady.’ Apparently she was very interested in you three.”

“The Lady?” Jared repeated the name.

“That’s what the letters and ledgers said,” replied Zebulun.

Jared and Mara exchanged an uncomfortable look. “You don’t think?” she said.

“At this point, I’m not sure what to think,” Jared sighed. “It could be.”

“Shouldn’t she have been banished or something?” Mara pointed out.

“A lot of things should’ve happened that didn’t and shouldn’t have that did,” Jared replied.

“Well, I can see that means something to you,” Zebulun turned his stolen horse back towards the road. “I wish you luck on your journeys. Given your history, you’re going to need it.”

“Where are you going?” Jared wondered.

“Far from here,” the gangster cryptically replied. “And I suggest you do the same.”

Jared turned his head towards the forest towering before them. “Yeah,” he agreed, “I think we will.”