Chapter 2: Gwen's First Revenge

It was a general rule of the Roblis household that you did not buy anything from Ascalon City that you could get in Ashford. While it was true that the Roblis’ were one of the families, much like the de Magi, who had grown wealthy under Adelbern’s reign, but nevertheless Sir Roblis insisted that they hadn’t gotten that way by frittering money away and refused to spend more than was absolutely necessary. Lilith did not especially mind. Trips to Ashford gave her time to herself, and besides, if Verata was going to find her again, surely it would be out here, on the same road he’d found her the first time.

Verata never had come for her, but there was something else Lilith looked forward to. Sarah de Luma tended the shrine, where wounded and weary nobles would be healed by the will of the king. Sarah herself was just another noble whose attention Lilith hoped to avoid, but her daughter Gwen had a flute that she loved to play. Lilith herself had played the flute before. It was one of the hobbies her parents had approved of, and for that she had come to resent it a bit. She had since come to see this as more than a bit silly. Why should she care what some money-grubbing businessmen should think of her hobbies? She didn’t care when they disapproved of her dabbling in the dark arts, why should she care when they did approve of her playing the flute? It was all a bit late for this sort of self-awareness now, but she’d remember when she was a noble again.

There was no flute music today, though. Lilith “accidentally” spilled the contents of the coin pouch, bending over to pick them up while looking towards the shrine. There was Sarah, manning her post as she did every day. Gwen was often out of sight, up a tree somewhere, and she’d sit in a branch and play her music. But not today. Maybe she was sick, or had some other business to attend? Sometimes Gwen wasn’t there with her mother. Lilith certainly wasn’t about to ask Sarah where she was. She had enough troubles without going looking for more.

But there was Gwen now, not playing but moping. Lilith glanced back down towards the ground, gathering up the coins. Gwen was most likely worrying over something trivial, as ten year olds do. By this time tomorrow she’d be back to playing her flute. Lilith would hear her the next time she was sent to Ashford. Possibly Gwen would be playing by the time she came back. The sensible thing to do was certainly to just ignore it. Gwen wasn’t her problem.

So why was she walking towards the girl, instead of away?

“What’s wrong?” Lilith asked, crouching down besides the girl.

Gwen looked towards her, inching backwards, her eyes widening slightly. “Who are you?” she asked.

“A friend,” Lilith said, “why don’t you tell me what’s wrong? Maybe I can help.”

“I don’t need a slave’s help,” Gwen said.

“I-I’m, that’s not,” Lilith begin, and then composed herself. “Can you keep a secret?” she asked. Gwen nodded, her expression still suspicious. “I’m not really a slave. I’m a Royalist witch disguised as a slave, so no one notices me coming or going. I’m on an important mission now, but I can always make time to lend a hand to good little Lunatics. You are a Lunatic, aren’t you?”

“Of course!” Gwen said, “the de Luna family have supported Prince Rurik since the day he was born!” Lilith smiled. She’d known the answer in advance, of course, the political allegiances of most of the noble families being fairly common knowledge amongst the nobility, which she had been a member of hardly more than a year before. And would be again someday soon.

“Then tell me what’s wrong,” Lilith said, “have you been teased by some boy who’d be better off as a frog?”

“No, it’s…It’s my flute,” Gwen said, “I was playing near the river, and some skale came out of the water and ran at me, and I ran away and dropped it, and they’re still there and I can’t get it back.”

“That won’t be hard. Follow me,” Lilith said, and stood. Gwen hesitated. “Don’t be scared,” Lilith said, “we’ll just be going to the river to get your flute. I need you to show me where it was you dropped it, is all.”

Gwen hesitated a bit longer, but then said “okay,” and got up. Lilith said “I’ll need to get my wand first,” and turned and began walking to where she had it hidden in the reeds at the riverbank. She hoped this didn’t take long, now that her sense was beginning to catch up with the rest of her. She was already on thin ice from her delayed return the previous week, when Verata had taught her. But surely, if she took care of this quickly, and rushed the rest of the errand, it would hardly be noticed she was late. If she slipped in five minutes or ten minutes later than usual, she might be punished, but it wouldn’t be considered unusual.

By the time she had arrived at her wand’s hiding place, she was short on breath from having broken into a run about halfway there. Gwen could barely keep up on her short legs. All of Lilith’s doubts seemed easier to quiet once she felt the thorned wood of the wand again. This was power, dark power, the power she was meant for. So long as she wielded this, Lilith thought, surely nothing could go too horribly wrong. “Now where’d you leave your flute?” Lilith asked.

The skale were spread thin when Lilith arrived, but as she waded into the river they began to cluster up, hissing at her and baring their teeth. She could feel the power of death flowing through her and into the wand, the burst of dark energy slamming into a skale with a shriek. There was no sign of any wound, for the magic did not pierce the flesh like an arrow might. Instead, it enervated, draining the very life from the creature. The pack charged, and Lilith called up the swarm inside her. Out from her mouth, ears, and nostrils the plague locusts swarmed, tiny pestilent insects climbing out of her tear ducts and across her eyes before flying towards the enemy. Her ragged clothes writhed as the creatures crawled from her teats and groin, and from beneath her fingernails still more came, flying to the skale and devouring those in lead of the pack. They stripped flesh from bone at an amazing pace, leaving only a few ragged clumps clinging to their bodies as their rancid husks fell into the river.

Most turned to flee, but one pounced upon her, bowling her to the ground and submerging her head. Its jaws found purchase on her shoulders, while its claws scraped at her chest, but her wand arm was unharmed. A single blast from the wand and the creature reared back, Lilith erupting from the river and wrapping her hands around its shoulders. Fangs slid from her lips and she bit down into the creature, her own wounds sealing themselves up as she drank deep from the creature’s jugular. Finally, she dropped the dry corpse into the river. A few rivulets of blood trailed down her legs to be swept away in the current below.

Lilith recalled with a start that she was in a hurry. She had no idea how long she’d zoned out, but the sun seemed to be in the same position so it couldn’t have been too long. Gwen stood and stared from her position near the bank. Lilith pulled her feet from the sucking mud and onto the banks of the river. “Did you find your flute?” Lilith asked. Gwen still just stared, and muttered something. Lilith snapped her fingers in front of Gwen, and said “hey, are you in there?” Gwen blinked and looked up towards her. “Don’t worry, it’s over. Did you find your flute?”

“Oh, it’s…It’s around here somewhere,” Gwen said, climbing down the bank and into the river.
A minute or two later, Gwen shrieked and backed away, her searching feet having stumbled across not the flute, but one of the skale corpses in the river. “Don’t worry,” Lilith said, “it’s dead. It can’t hurt you.” Gwen swallowed and nodded, wading away from the corpse as she continued searching. Lilith’s own feet curled around something thin and round, and she thought she could feel the holes in it, too. Pulling it from foot to hand, the current washing the mud away, she found the flute…Or rather, half of it.

“It’s broken?” Gwen asked.

“Looks like,” Lilith said.

“It was all for nothing?” Gwen asked again, “the flute is broken?”

“It was good practice,” Lilith said, “and more importantly, revenge. Show them to mess with the de Luma, right?”

It was the first time Lilith had seen Gwen smile up close. “Right,” she said. Gwen looked at her a moment, and looked back towards the dead skale. “They’re not so scary once they’ve stopped moving,” she said, and then began wading out of the river.