II
The girl is restless. Reyna brushes the girl's long blonde hair carefully, banishing each salt-choked knot with a careful pull of the brush. The girl shifts slightly beneath her as one of the other girls brushes coral polish on her nails. Circe tells her of magic, of supremacy, of power -
The girl nods blindly, but Reyna can tell she's not really paying attention. Her gaze keeps straying to the glass cage at the corner of the room where Circe keeps her enchanted men.
Reyna says nothing, not even when she spies a small knife strapped to the girl's waist and the calculating glint in her cool gray eyes. She watches quietly, always quietly. She will not rush head first into an unknown situation without a strategy. Besides, though Hylla may think differently, she does not owe anything to the woman with glittering eyes and pouting lips. Nothing.
Her instincts have not labelled the girl as a threat. Yet.
After the rest of the attendants follow Circe out of the tent, leaving the girl alone, Reyna lingers, hiding behind a tall stone pillar to observe. The blonde girl leaps from her chair immediately, casting a furtive glance around the empty room, and then approaches the guinea pigs tentatively.
The girl tips something into the cage, and the guinea pigs swarm, chittering excitedly as they fight over the brightly colored pills.
Then the glass shatters as the guinea pigs swell, revealing the hands and teeth that had been hidden before. And suddenly they are not guinea pigs at all but grown men - angry men - who rage and beat a promise of destruction with their fists. Reyna hisses between her teeth, searching her person desperately for a weapon - anything - that she can use to defend herself.
There is nothing but silk.
But it is too late, now, for one of the men spies her, and his mouth splits into a smile that is jagged and thirsts for destruction. Destruction. Her young mind wonders at the prospect, wonders at the sense of home that accompanies the word. But she doesn't have time to ponder the subject, for the man is clawing at her with grubby hands and she is running, running, stumbling over mossy rocks and screaming for Hylla.
Author Note: Thanks so much for reading! As always, all reviewers will get a teaser of the next chapter! C:
