Chapter 9: I Could Not Stop For Death
Mortmain had appeared in the ring, his arms around Tessa and Anila. Will understood her reaction to the costume now. Both she and Anila had been dressed up like characters from The Arabian Nights, all sheer material and sparkling beads. And a lot of bare skin. He'd only ever seen that much skin on faerie women, who tended to clothe themselves in vines and flowers. He supposed that they were meant to look erotic, like the concubines of a sheik, and Anila played her part well. She had herself draped over Mortmain's arm, lascivious and alluring in shades of red and gold.
Tessa was entirely her opposite in demeanor and dress. Though she too wore the same skin bearing outfit, hers was all dark blue and silver. He couldn't see her eyes from the distance, but he imagined that the colors would set their dark grey off beautifully. She stood straight and as far away from Mortmain's body as she physically could while his arm was around her waist. Her chin was held high, her face impassive, despite the red cut that ran across one cheek, destroying the hours of work the stupid maid had put into painting her face.
The cut was the reason for Jem's tightened fists, Will was sure of it. When he saw her blood standing out brilliant and red against her pale skin, his hands had curled into fists too. While they weren't always of the same mind, neither of them had imagined a scenario where Tessa would show up to her match already bleeding. The fact that she already appeared at a disadvantage made him feel a little sick.
His angry pulse pounded in his ears, drowning out the cries of the audience as the Magister paraded them around the ring. Spotlights danced across them, making the silver chains braided into Tessa's hair and the paint on her skin glitter. She maintained her composure as the jeers and catcalls started, something he couldn't accomplish himself. His right foot was already on the railing when Jem's hand closed on his arm, keeping him from launching himself into the lecherous audience. Jem jerked him back into his seat and glanced meaningfully over at the Dark Sister who was now watching them intently.
"What were you going to do?" Jem hissed as he threw himself into the seat next to him. "Fight the entire theater?"
"I actually figured you'd beat at least a few of them senseless too," Will muttered, glaring at the ring. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jem glance down at his rapidly bruising knuckles, but his parabatai remained quiet.
Mortmain had finished parading the girls around the ring and led them back to center stage. There, he made an elaborate show of kissing each of their hands before bowing deeply and disappearing in red smoke. He appeared in their box a moment later, still bent at the waist. He straightened himself up, whipped a handkerchief out of his breast pocket and began to clean one of the rings on his right hand. When the handkerchief came away stained red, Will realized how Tessa had gotten cut before her match.
Several things happened at once. The bell initiating the fight rang at the same time as Jem jumped to his feet. Will jumped up in front of him a moment later and caught the warning shot of magic Mrs. Dark loosed when Jem stood in the chest. It wasn't particularly painful, but it was strong enough to knock Will back into Jem. Mortmain didn't look up from polishing his ring throughout the entire exchange, but as Will righted himself, he did glance at them.
"Now, now, gentlemen," he said in his slimily genial way, "let's try to behave ourselves, shall we? Do take your seats and try to take some notes about how to give your audience a proper show."
Behind him, Jem muttered some rather creative curses in Mandarin. In another time and another place, Will would have complimented him on his ingenuity, but his attention was only half on Jem. The rest of it was on the ring, where Tessa had just landed a well-placed blow between Anila's shoulder blades, a blow that ought to have sent the djinn sprawling to the other side of the ring in a tumble of gold and red silk.
But Anila was better trained than Will had assumed and she turned her sprawl into a graceful somersault that landed in a low crouch. Her lascivious attitude dropped in the middle of her somersault and when she rose to her feet again, she blazed with fury. He thought for a brief moment that he saw fire light the tips of her fingers, but then it was gone. Will raised his eyebrows and exchanged a look with Jem. Tessa hadn't mentioned anything about the djinn halfing having magic, but he supposed it was possible. He hoped he was wrong.
Anila didn't launch herself at Tessa this time. Instead she circled her, sizing her up from the edges of the ring. Tessa stood in the middle, spinning slowly in the middle, her hands raised in the most elegant defensive stance Will had ever seen. In a different setting, they could have been dancers in some exotic ballet.
It was Tessa who surprised him by striking out first. A kick to the knee that made Anila slip and allowed Tessa to follow up with a jab to the ribs. And then a blur of blue and red as Anila reacted, driving her shoulder into Tessa's stomach and knocking her to the mat. The audience wasn't able to delight her fall for long. Tessa rolled to her knees, but stayed low. When Anila tried to kick her head, Tessa's leg shot out in an attempt to sweep Anila to the ground. And while her leg made contact, Anila had better balance than Tessa had anticipated. She faltered but did not fall and her foot still managed to glance off Tessa's shoulder. Tessa didn't flinch, but the blow was too close to Tessa's ribs to make Will comfortable.
She rose from her crouch slowly, still elegant and impassive. If she was afraid or angry, it didn't show on her face. Anila snarled something at her, and held her hands up. Her fist were engulfed in twin balls of flame. Apparently Will wasn't wrong about the halfling having magic after all. Goddamnit.
When Anila swung her flaming fist towards Tessa's face, she blocked it easily with one arm while the other drove her fist into Anila's stomach. The halfling doubled over and when she did, Tessa kicked her squarely in the jaw. Will caught sight of Tessa's arm, where the skin Anila had touched was already red and white with burns. Anila spat blood and launched herself at Tessa again.
Will saw it before Anila did, tried to cry out it warning, but the crowd was too loud. Tessa's right arm was up, blocking her face from the djinn's uppercut, when the halfling feinted and used her other arm to strike Tessa's exposed right side.
Tessa crumbled and Anila set on her like a wild animal. She kicked Tessa's stomach and then jumped on her, raining a volley of firey blows down on Tessa's head and neck. Tessa tried to block her, but Anila had one of her knees on Tessa's upper right arm and her left wasn't nearly as strong. She kicked out her legs, but they found no purchase as Anila continued to beat her. Eventually, even her left arm dropped.
Will felt his breath leave him. The idea of a red match had only been a vague one until now. He hadn't put all the pieces together in his head before. He hadn't envisioned that the match would continue after one of them drew first blood or was knocked unconscious. He had always assumed Tessa would be the one to win, that there was no chance of her dying.
And yet there she was, lying on the mat impossibly still, her body bent at a strange angle. The entire room had gone still, as if they too were straining to hear her breath. He hadn't realized that Jem had grabbed him earlier, but now his parabatai's hand gripped his arm too tightly. Even Mortmain was tense, literally sitting on the edge of his seat as he watched the match unfold. Will was suddenly lightheaded. The only thing he could feel was Jem's fingers digging into his arm. The rest of his body felt numb. This was not how it was supposed to happen.
And then she Changed. All at once Tessa's hair turned blonde and gold ink sparkled beneath the silver paint on her skin. Anila's body didn't hurt from broken ribs, wasn't weakened from being beat and burnt. And Anila was just a bit bigger than Tessa was, a bit stronger. In Anila's body, Tessa had another chance.
Tessa took advantage of Anila's shock. She drew her arm back and struck Anila across the face with her elbow. The blow was hard enough to knock the woman off of her. Now Tessa moved quickly, jumping to her feet and driving her knee into Anila's face. Every time Anila made a move, Tessa was there to block it, her fists just as firey and fast as Anila's were.
Anila adjusted to fighting herself quickly, but she must not have known about Tessa's additional ability, for Tessa was able to continue landing flaming punches. Soon the scent of burning hair and skin wafted up to Mortmain's box, making Will nauseous.
Anila fell to her knees and Tessa took her opportunity. In the same motion, she Changed back into herself and snapped Anila's neck. It was so quick that Will almost didn't see it happen. Anila slumped to the ground, lifeless. The crowd screamed, both in delight and horror. Mortmain raised his eyebrows, exchanged a look with the warlock woman and disappeared.
When he appeared on-stage to raise Tessa's fist in victory, Will realized that she was hurt more badly than he'd thought. She now that she was herself again, he could see that she was incredibly bloody and burnt, the silver paint on her skin nearly completely obscured by dark crimson. She managed to stay on her feet while Mortmain paraded her around the ring, but Will was sure she was struggling to stay upright.
"Time to go, gentlemen." It was Mrs. Dark, rubbing her hands together. "Pity the shapeshifter didn't die, isn't it?"
Will had to bite his tongue to keep himself quiet. Next to him, Jem went completely stiff with anger, but managed to speak: "What will happen to her now?"
She grabbed both of their arms and a dizzying instant later, they were back at the door to their room in the caves. "None of your concern, my little angelboy."
"We are rewarded for winning our fights, are we not?" Jem asked, appearing completely unphased by their sudden appearance in the cavern. "I do believe that we are owed our prize then."
She paused, already halfway down the hall. "Indeed."
"We require more than one bed in this room. We tire of arguing over who had to sleep on the chaise."
She didn't show any sign that she'd heard and soon vanished into the labyrinth. Jem watched her for a long moment, shrugged, and turned to enter their room, already tugging on the hem of his shirt to pull it off.
"What the hell?" Will asked, following his parabatai into their room. "In fact, what the hell on several different accounts…"
Jem had already peeled himself out of the costume gear and had set his slim fingers to work on the buckles of his actual gear. "She wasn't going to tell us anything about Tessa, so I didn't bother to pursue it." He flung the rest of his gear aside, so he only wore a light linen shirt that stuck his body with sweat. "And we could use an extra bed, especially if we want to keep an eye on Tessa."
There wasn't anything that Jem had said that didn't make perfect sense. Nothing in his tone that convey anything other than simple logic. And yet he was evading the question that Will hadn't really asked, but had been implied and Jem knew what was implied and that evasion made Will angry.
"What the hell happened to you before our match?" Will spoke slowly and enunciated each word, leaving no room for interpretation.
"Mrs. Dark presented me with more yin fen. She would have put you in a red match if I hadn't taken it," Jem replied simply. "I had no choice."
All of the fear, anger, horror and shock that Will had been suppressing bubbled to the surface and burst out of him. Without knowing what else to do, he turned around and punched the stone wall behind him, hard enough to crack the small bones in his hand. "You always have a choice, damn you!"
Jem didn't reply right away, but moved to retrieve his stele from where they'd hidden it earlier beneath the chaise cushions. He watched Will with too-bright eyes for a moment, before taking his broken hand.
"Would you have sent me to a red match then, if our situations were reversed?"
Will let his parabatai draw iratzes on his arm. He knew that Jem didn't need an answer. Of course he would have done whatever was necessary to keep Jem out of harm's way. Of course Jem would feel the same way.
"Just so you know, I would have come out of a red match just fine," he said instead. "In fact, they would have had to change the color scheme around entirely after watching me in a red match. Made it something more fitting. Perhaps emerald."
Jem smiled, handing Will the stele so he could give him an iratze for his bruised knuckles. "Naturally."
Several hours passed before they brought Tessa back. By then Jem had began the initial withdrawal from the yin fen and Will had forced him into bed as soon as he'd noticed. Jem had insisted that all he needed was rest and waved off the iratzes Will tried to apply to his arms and neck, leaving his parabatai to pace worriedly in front of the fire.
"Read a book," Jem finally said after almost an hour, his eyes still closed.
"You're supposed to be sleeping," Will retorted.
"How could anyone sleep with you making a ruckus like that?" Jem asked, opening his eyes slowly. In all honesty, it was his body aching and crying for more of the drug that kept him awake, but if Will knew that he would lose his mind.
Will had been about to reply when the door opened and the lackey brought Tessa in. For a horrifying instant, Jem thought she was dead. She lay limp in the menservant's arms, her limbs swinging and her head lolling to one side. Her eyes were open and staring blankly and she didn't make a sound as the man dumped her unceremoniously on the chaise. She still wore the tattered remains of her costume, though it was no longer blue and silver where it hadnt been burnt away completely. In the firelight, Jem could see that there was still blood on her face, but that the gash on her cheek was gone.
"Has she been given medical attention? What's wrong with her?" Will shouted as he rushed to her side. But the man, having done his duty, turned on his heel and left. Without thinking, Jem jumped out of bed and tried to chase him into the hall, only to find that he'd disappeared into the labyrinth.
When he returned, winded and his legs were shaking so hard that he let himself lean against the doorframe and observe them while he regained his strength. Will had wrapped a blanket around Tessa and was kneeling next to her, his hand on her cheek, murmuring softly to her. She shifted her gaze to focus on him and blinked before turning her face away into the arm of the chaise. Will didn't let that phase him. He kept talking to her in a voice gentler than Jem had ever heard him use:
"Tess, I just need to know if you're still hurt. That's all." She turned her head back in Will's direction. The emptiness in her eyes made Jem ache for completely different reasons than he had only a minute before. Will took her movement as acknowledgement and continued in the same low voice, "You don't have to talk, just let me make sure you're alright. Can you do that?"
She nodded almost imperceptibly and sat up, slowly as if it was a great effort. Jem watched in fascination as Will wrapped the blanket more securely around her and then gently ran his fingers over her face, neck, arms, and legs, subtly checking for injuries. He was actually crooning something softly in Welsh, a lullaby perhaps? Jem couldn't quite make out all the words. She remained entirely inexpressive under his touch, staring off into the air beyond his shoulder at some sight unseen. With one final pass over her arms, Will sat back on his heels and quieted. They sat like that for a long minute, the fire crackling in the grate the only sound in the room.
"Would you like me to wash away the blood?"
She nodded again, but still wouldn't look him in the eye. Jem wondered how many she'd killed before tonight. He tried to imagine the kind of shock she must have experienced the first time, especially from a girl who'd been raised as a mundane and taught that ladies were not supposed to feel more than the most mild of emotions, much less blood lust or the battle rage. Now that he gave it more thought, it was amazing that she had as much self-possession as she did. A weaker person would have shattered under the pressure ages ago.
Tessa held perfectly still as Will wiped the blood from her face, and then the silver paint beneath the blood. When the rag was filthy with blood and makeup and her face was clean again, he set the cloth aside and began to work her hair out of the elaborate hairstyle it had been knotted into, even though he hadn't asked. But it seemed like she came back to herself a little more with every pin that dropped to the floor and every lock of her hair that fell to her shoulders. By the time her hair was loose again, the light had come back into her eyes, faint but finally there.
"Thank you," she whispered. And then she collapsed in tears.
Author's Note: I truly am sorry about last week's cliff that wasn't really a cliff. It was either that or make this chapter and that one the same chapter and I didn't have the stamina to write all of that at once. This story has had a few more cliffhangers than I actually like in my fanfiction, but what can you do? My apologies to my annonymous reviewer, Eemmah, for the cliffhanger. I hope this very subdued chapter ending makes up for it.