Page 64 of Tattered Huntress
But that was often easier said than done – and there were exceptions to every rule. Respect was thrown out of the window when mindless creatures like vampires were involved. You can’t co-exist with something that is impossible to reason with and whose only goal is to find you and kill you. In any case, my experience with magical wards was so limited that I knew next to nothing about them beyond the basics. And the basics told me that any magic I threw at them would be nullified immediately.
At my waist, Gladys started humming again, an insistent buzzing sound that did nothing for the clarity of my thoughts. ‘Stop that!’ I barked. She paid me no attention; apparently obedience wasn’t top of the list of priorities for a sentient sword.
I blocked out the sound, squared my shoulders, clenched my fist and thrust it forward through the salted barrier.
The pain was so excruciating that I almost screamed aloud. I staggered backwards, yanking my hand to my chest as tears sprang to my eyes. When I looked down, I saw the angry red blisters already splitting my skin. Fuck: this was going to be harder than I’d thought. And bloody Gladys, oblivious to my agony, was continuing to buzz.
I drew in a calming breath, my gaze focused on the oak leaf. There was still no sign of movement from underneath it and nausea pooled in the pit of my belly, a mixture of fear for the brownies and reaction to the pain.
I waited until the agony in my hand subsided to a dull throbbing and I’d regained control of my thoughts. I reached for Gladys whose hilt warmed as soon as I touched it. At least I’d had the foresight to shove my left hand through the ward and not my right – I was going to need as much dexterity as I could muster.
‘Alright then,’ I muttered aloud. ‘If you think you can do better, Gladys,youhave a go.’ I raised her blade and swiped at the air, as if slashing a hole through the ward.
Not sensing any change in the barrier, I frowned. This was stupid; Gladys was no more effective against the ward than I was.
Apparently sensing my thoughts, she gave a lower-pitched hum and then another, even lower. Huh. I crouched down next to the salted line itself. ‘I don’t know much about magical barriers,’ I hissed at her, ‘but I know that this line is the source of the power. It’s the strongest part and therefore the hardest to break.’
I couldn’t simply scuff away the salt to fracture the circle – if that was possible, nobody would ever bother making a salt ward. But at that moment I saw Hester’s arm twitch.
I threw caution to the wind. ‘Fine. But on your own blade be it.’
I forced Gladys’s tip forward and scratched through the dirt until she reached the salt. There was a flicker of resistance then a puff of yellow smoke rose up from the shiny metal, followed by another and another. I’d have pulled back but Gladys had a mind of her own. She tugged herself forward and fiery sparks joined the smoke. And then her blade sliced through the ring of salt, cleaving it apart.
I waved away the smoke until I could see the line properly. Damn. Gladys had done it. It was only a millimetre wide, but there was a definite line in the salt. The circle was broken.
I stood up and gingerly stepped across. No more blisters, no more pain. Gladys’s slice had destroyed any power the salt circle possessed. ‘Alright,’ I said aloud. I wasn’t too big to admit it, even to a hunk of metal. ‘You were right and I was wrong.’
I stopped wasting time on chatter and darted towards the fallen brownies. Both of them were underneath the leaf. Although their eyes were closed and their bodies were limp, their chests were rising and falling. They weren’t dead. I breathed out, almost overcome by relief, and carefully scooped them up, one in each hand.
The good thing was that they weren’t covered in blisters and their skin appeared unmarred, so they hadn’t been affected by the salt ward in the same way as I had been. The bad thing was that they were out for the count. I blew gently on their bodies. Hester twitched and Otis’s hair ruffled but they didn’t open their eyes.
‘If you have any more bright ideas, Gladys,’ I grunted, ‘this would be a great time to tell me.’ She didn’t respond so I guessed I was on my own this time. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the faintest idea how to perform triage on brownies.
Drastic times called for drastic measures. Using a burst ofcarefully controlled magic, I doused the pair of them in water. Hester immediately started to cough and splutter before jerking upright. Otis blinked and shot straight up into the air.
‘You fiend!’ Hester shrieked. She shook her wings, sending an arc of droplets flying upwards, then zipped towards my face and pummelled my nose.
I beamed at her in delight. ‘You’re alive!’
A barrage of blows smacked my skin. Some of them hurt – sort of. ‘Of course I’m alive! No thanks to you trying to drown me!’ She changed her punches to slaps, punctuating each one with a shout. ‘What,’ slap, ‘were,’ slap, ‘you,’ slap, ‘thinking?’ Slap. Slap.
I glanced at Otis; things were definitely bad when even he looked miffed. ‘You were unconscious and I didn’t know what to do. I figured that water might slough off any residual magic and revive you.’
‘It was a stupid idea!’
I folded my arms. ‘It worked, didn’t it? Besides,’ I said pointedly, ‘I’m not the one who thought it would be a good idea to fly across a magic ward without a second thought. Why didn’t you come back to get me? I could have helped.’
‘I did say that we should—’ Otis began.
‘Because,’ Hester interrupted furiously, ‘they need us now! We couldn’t delay. We still can’t!’ She pirouetted in the air, abandoning violence to point at the pavilion.
I dropped my voice. ‘Who’s in there?’
‘Can’t you sense them?’ Otis asked.
I shook my head. ‘I can feel that something is wrong, but that’s about it.’
‘Look through the window,’ he said, nodding towards a grubby pane of glass.
