Author's Note: For my American friends, if I don't update again before Thanksgiving next week, I hope you and your family have a lovely day of football and stuffing your face. Because, turkey! :D Just curious...do any of you not do turkey on Turkey Day? In my family, my brother has a nasty allergy to poultry, so we always have to have turkey and ham. That's a lot of meat I don't particularly like. It's so funny, everyone always complains about how much weight they gain over the holidays, but I actually lose weight because I don't really like most Thanksgiving foods. But, what can you do? Anyway, again, Happy Thanksgiving, and go Broncos! 3
Anyway, my 200th review was given to me by DarkAssassin15, so in the words of jacksepticeye, one of my favorite YouTubers, high fives all around! So this chapter is dedicated to her, especially since she was worried about how I'd handle it. I hope you find it tastefully done, my friend :)
Rowena led Olivia to a tent not far from Reiko's that had been erected during her conversation with the General. Olivia didn't offer to resist or run as Rowena led her inside. It was cool and dim beneath the heavy fabric, with a small hole cut from the roof around the central pole to let in some light. Miscellaneous herb cuttings hung upside down from the tent frame, drying, perfuming the tent with the smells of sage and lavender. Leather sacks, packed with jars and bottles, lined the tent along the bottom, and a cot had been erected between the door and a small wood stove near the middle.
As she let the door flap close behind her, the Cryomancer saw a line of dusty red light reach out to touch a bathtub on the other side of the tent, reminding her of her plans. She had to get clean for her impending dalliance with Reiko. The very thought nearly brought her to tears, but she had to be strong. This was her decision, she reminded herself, as if it could make her feel better. She had to do this. She had to get her powers back in order to free Takeda and escape, and in order to do that, she had to get the key off of Reiko's clothes. The task, she argued with herself, would be infinitely easier if his clothes weren't actually on his body when she stole them.
Rowena, paying no mind to Olivia's internal struggle, first built a fire in a depression on the floor, laying the logs neatly across it before they burned with small flames. Then she dragged the big copper tub from the far side of the tent, set it on the dwindling fire, and filled it with water that she conjured with her powers. When the bath was steaming, she helped Olivia, who was self-conscious about getting naked in front of a complete stranger, climb into it. Then she too stripped down to her own nakedness and climbed in after her.
Olivia frowned at that, but said nothing. Hydromancers, she knew from discussions with her family as well as her own observations, were not shy about their bodies, and seemed oblivious to the possibility that others might be. As a result, they had no inhibitions. Olivia wondered if Skarlet would have wanted to climb in with her to bathe her had Rowena not intervened when she did, but she quickly dismissed the notion. Skarlet merely would have held her head underwater, she suspected.
"I know what you are planning, Lady," Rowena began as she began scrubbing the Cryomancer's back with a rough sponge and rose-scented soap, breaking through her thoughts. "You are very brave to seduce Lord Reiko to save yourself and your friend, but it will not work."
"Why not?" she demanded to know, taking care to keep her voice low. She didn't want anyone to overhear this conversation.
"I know from experience that Reiko sleeps lightly," she answered. "He will catch you. And then all hope of escape will be lost." She lathered the soap in Olivia's hair and continued. "You will need help. I will help you."
"What do you suggest?" she suspiciously asked as the woman massaged her scalp clean. She closed her eyes. She was exhausted, and a nap sounded wonderful at the moment.
"Before I take you to him, I will blend some herbs and put them in a wine bottle to drink," she said. "He enjoys wine when he enjoys the company of women. My herbs will put him into a deep sleep."
"Then why don't I do that before I sleep with him?" she asked. "Then I don't need to sleep with him at all!"
"They will not affect him that fast," Rowena explained as she used a cup to rinse out Olivia's hair. "They will take nearly an hour to work. And I cannot give the wine bottle to him now because his guards will see me entering his tent without you and they will ask questions. Then he will inspect the wine, discover my treachery, and know that I have been disloyal."
"Well, I can stall him," she said as wet walnut hair tumbled across her eyes. She looked over her shoulder at the Hydromancer, now hopeful.
"No," she shot her down. "When he makes up his mind to lay with you, he will not be delayed for long." She got to her feet and maneuvered in front of Olivia, then sat down before her. Now, she looked her in the eyes as she started scrubbing the dirt from her hands and arms. "You must not drink these herbs yourself, but you cannot turn down the wine when he pours you a cup. If you do, you will draw his suspicion, and he is very smart. Any hesitation on your part will call into question your intentions. So you must put the cup to your lips and pretend to drink."
Olivia nodded. "You've…been with him before?" she cautiously asked, not certain if she should ask her that. She wasn't even certain she wanted to know, but she knew she had to prepare for what to expect. Know thine enemy, she reminded herself, quoting Reiko and an Earthrealm proverb. And if, God forbid, she chickened out at the moment of truth, she wanted to know if he'd force her anyway.
"Of course," she answered. "I am his slave. I am here to do for him whatever he desires."
"Has Skarlet been with him before?" she wondered.
"Perhaps," she shrugged. "But I do not know," she confessed, and Olivia accepted that.
"And what is he like?"
"He is better than any of my former masters," she told her as she cleaned underneath Olivia's fingernails with a brush. She peered very closely at them, almost as if she wanted to seem engrossed in her activity. "But my former masters were very old men, so I am not certain how helpful my opinion is. They frequently had trouble…I had never known satisfaction until Lord Reiko purchased me; that is all I can tell you. The Cryomancers do not believe a woman should. They believe it is for the enjoyment of men only. I grew up believing that too. Now I know better." She looked up. "But you have already known a man," she said. "Why are you worried?"
Olivia swallowed hard. "I just want to know what he'll be like," she said.
The Hydromancer frowned. "He is as he is in every facet of his life: passionate. Beyond that, I do not know what you hope I can tell you."
"Okay," she breathed, still nervous.
"You are scared," Rowena deduced merely by touching her hands and rubbing the soap across them.
"Yes," she confessed, knowing there was no point in lying.
"Tell me," she urged.
Olivia gulped and then looked at her with shame. "I'm afraid I'll mess up and get hurt, or worse, get Takeda hurt, and since he's the key to all of this, that could be very bad for everyone," she said. Rowena said nothing, so she continued. "I don't exactly know what Reiko wants with him, but I know it can't be good. So I have to protect him. And I'm afraid I'll fail. And worse, what will people think if they find out what I did?"
She thought of Alex waiting for her back home, perhaps going out of his mind with worry. He was so trusting of her, so faithful. And just in the last two months, she had broken that trust far too many times, starting with the night at the club when she danced with complete strangers, and culminating now in this. This. God, what kind of a girlfriend was she? Deep down, she knew she didn't deserve him.
And her dad? She didn't even want to think about that. If he couldn't handle knowing about her and Alex's legitimate relationship, he definitely wouldn't be able to handle this. He'd want to kill Reiko, but that was the only thing about him that Olivia could get behind. No, the part she feared was the way he'd look at her. He'd pretend she'd never done such a horrible thing, and act like she was a little girl, and exactly the same person she was when she left. But they'd both know the truth. And he'd treat her differently. For her part, she'd never be able to look him in the eye again.
Rowena looked at her sympathetically, but didn't offer to console her. "You have already set these events into motion, and it will be difficult to back down," she reminded her. "He will not force you, but he will not be happy. And he is the most dangerous when he is unhappy."
"I'm not backing down," she said defensively. "But why are you so eager to help me? You don't even know me. You just know my grandmother."
"I will not force you to do anything you do not wish," she continued. "But consider this. Many years ago, the Sorcerer, Shang Tsung, rained fire on Tlachtga in order to kill your infant mother," she said. "It was a completely unfounded attack on our people." She looked at Olivia with incredible urgency. "We lived in peace and we never challenged the Emperor's rule. We were no threat at all to him. But it didn't stop Shao Kahn from sending the Sorcerer to kill us when the Great Betrayer, Rain, turned on our people."
"I know this story," Olivia impatiently snapped. "My Aunt Kailyn caused a landslide in order to help my grandparents cross over into Earthrealm to save my mother's life."
Now Rowena sadly looked down. "That is one story of heroism that day," she said, immediately silencing the Cryomancer. The Hydromancer now leaned back, gripped Olivia's foot, and pulled it out of the water before she started scrubbing it with soap. "But that is not the story I meant. Your grandfather saved a little girl he owed no allegiance to. You see, she had gotten separated from her mother, and was standing in the middle of a glade, crying. She was not his own. And yet, Lord Halsey leapt from his caballus to ward off three Zaterrans that were closing in on her. He singlehandedly killed them, and when he was finished, he lifted her onto his caballus and returned her to her frightened mother. The child was me."
"My grandfather saved you?" she repeated, amazed.
"Indeed," she said. "But in the bedlam of that massacre, my mother was killed and I was taken prisoner by Shang Tsung, who in turn gave me to the Shokan as a reward."
"But I thought Halsey saved you," she said, confused. She wiggled her toes as the Hydromancer unintentionally tickled in between them with the sponge.
"He did," Rowena agreed. "But after he and Catja left Outworld, many of our people were taken prisoner. I was one of them. They sold us into slavery. That is how Shŭdí Tsai Bing, your ancestor, came to own me. I grew into adulthood amongst the Shokan, and they eventually traded me to the Cryomancers in Mòhé, Olivia. I know your father's people better than you. So I know all about making unpalatable choices to survive. I manipulated Tsai Bing. I tempted him with my body in order to curry his favor, and to convince him to sell me to the slave traders that sometimes visited the city with the Cryomancers' blessings."
"And that's how Reiko bought you?"
"Yes," she sadly agreed.
"But I don't understand," Olivia protested. "Why go through all that trouble just to stay a slave?"
"Because nobody leaves Mòhé without the Shŭdí's blessings," she said. "Escape was not possible. Venturing into the frozen wastelands of the Bīnglěng Di Dìyù would mean certain death. But if I was sold to a master who had permission to leave the city, then perhaps I could find a way to escape once I was safely away." She paused to lift Olivia's other foot from the water.
"So why didn't you? You obviously have the means."
Rowena sighed. "Because I needed help. Someone had to drug Reiko while I took care of everyone else. If I tried to escape any other way, I knew I would die. Long have I prayed to the Water Mother to save me from captivity and to guide me home and now, you're here. So I will help you to repay your grandfather for his kindness that day, and then I will escape so that I can return to Tlachtga and whatever of my family is left."
Olivia gulped. Now she really had to go through with her plan to seduce Reiko. After years of suffering in slavery, enduring unspeakable horrors at the hands of her distant kinsfolk, this Hydromancer found a spark of hope to cling to in Olivia, and she was counting on her. She couldn't let this woman down. Her conscience simply wouldn't allow it.
"I'm not going to chicken out," she promised. "I'll set you free. If everything goes well, that is."
"I know," she replied.
Olivia's skin was pink and raw when she finally climbed out of the tub, but it was good to feel clean again. Rowena promptly laid her down to rub delicately perfumed oil into her skin while the exhausted teenager dozed on the cot, far too relaxed from the message, and when she was done she woke her and dressed her in a gauzy, cotton robe that she could almost see through. Then Rowena brushed her hair until it shone like a glossy, brown waterfall, and she pulled half of it into a twisted mess of braids and bun that she fastened to her crown with pins and a comb carved from a large shell. She took care to weave beads and shells into more tiny braids, including a wooden one painted purple. The Cryomancer knew, from conversations with her Aunt Kailyn, that it symbolized uncommon valor in the face of danger. The Tetrach had one, and now her niece did too.
"I haven't done anything brave yet," she protested.
"But you will," Rowena reassured her with a smile.
And then she began to break herbs into a mortar bowl, carefully grinding them with the pestle before adding more. Olivia watched, intrigued. She was certain that the Elder God, Himavat, had shown her mother much of these things whenever she visited Tlachtga. But Rowena's medicines were far different than the ones that Anya used in Earthrealm. Hopefully, they were just as effective. If this Outworld roofie didn't work on Reiko, she will have slept with him for nothing. She shuddered at the thought.
"It will work," Rowena reassured her as she measured some of the potion into a wine bottle that she'd retrieved.
Not long after the Outworld moon had risen, Rowena finally led Olivia, who clutched the corked wine bottle in her hands, to Reiko's tent. He was not inside when she arrived, even though the Hydromancer assured her that he would return soon. She left the bottle of wine on his table between two cups, replacing the half-drank one already there. The Cryomancer then sat alone on his large bed after Rowena left, closing the tent flaps behind her. That, she decided, was going to be the only up-side to this. She'd missed sleeping on an actual mattress. She yawned and stretched out on it, deciding that she wanted to sleep more than anything; she was more tired than she realized. But when her head hit the pillows, she passed out, and faded into a dreamless slumber.
Olivia wasn't quite sure how long she'd slept before a hand stroking her face woke her up, but she still felt exhausted when she woke and saw Reiko kneeling on the edge of the bed beside her. When he was certain he'd woken her, he stood fully upright and began to undress. She said nothing as she watched, and she fought not to look at the key ring that lightly jangled to the floor in a puddle of his clothes.
Only a few hours had passed since Reiko had first woken Olivia from her nap to take her three times in succession, and he drained the last of her energy from her reserves. She'd been a brilliant actress, though, as she'd convincingly faked her adoration for the man who'd ripped her straight from Earthrealm and dragged her to this red hell. If there was an Oscar for faking Stockholm Syndrome, she would've won it by a landslide. He'd showed her how he wanted her to please him, and then she did, several times, as if she had been doing these things for years. Thank God she was a quick study; her commitment to doing it right further proved to him her sincerity.
At least he was more patient with her than Alex, who was always so anxious to get it over with for fear of being caught. Rowena had been right; Reiko was a passionate love-maker. Alex, in his inexperience and fear, lacked the General's intensity. Reiko preferred to take his time pleasing and being pleased, Olivia had observed. As far as he knew, he had all the time in the world to keep her occupied with him. And when he'd finally allowed her to wriggle free of him, she collapsed onto the bed beside him, fighting off sleep as he continued to kiss the graceful curve where her neck met her shoulder. In spite of herself, she had dozed off while waiting for the General to fall asleep beside her. She didn't even realize she'd closed her eyes.
A while later, a dream of her father jarred her awake, and convulsively she jerked up in the dimness, her hands tightening around cloth. A blanket. Pale moonlight shone through the hole in the roof ceiling. The shadowed shape of Reiko's form. A snore like canvas gently ripping. A few embers burned among the ashes in the wood stove. A lingering silence in the camp outside.
It hadn't been a dream then, or even a nightmare, sleeping with Reiko. She had actually done it. She wasn't quite sure how to feel about that, save for the overwhelming self-loathing she knew she'd never get rid of for the rest of her life. But it had been necessary, she reminded herself. A necessary evil done to help both her and Takeda escape. The thought alleviated the pain from the self-inflicted wound. Now everything that she had heard and done and felt was all jumbled in together with old tales of her family's heroism and the memory of Alex. She pulled the blanket around her bare shoulders, but it was not cold that made her shake. Her head hurt, too, and her skin crawled. But at least Rowena's plan to drug him had worked; the General was deeply sleeping now, drunk on the wine and herbs he'd unwittingly guzzled only a short time before.
With a disgusted snort, Olivia climbed naked out of his bed, careful to make no sudden movements that might accidentally wake him. Rowena swore to her that he'd be far too out of it once her herbs took effect, but the Cryomancer wanted to take no chances. Her diligence paid off and he continued to snore as she rested her bare feet on the fading carpet and crept around the bed to find his clothes and armor in a messy pile on the floor.
It wasn't hard to find the keys after that, and in the dim ray of moonlight shining upon her, Olivia fumbled for the lock on her collar. Wasting no time, she jammed the shiny cobalt key into the hole, and she refused to breathe, fearing that she'd been mistaken. Her heart pounded in her chest, wondering what she'd do if she was wrong. But as she'd predicted, they were a match, and she nearly screeched in glee when she felt the tumblers inside the lock turn. The latch immediately sprang open.
With a guttural growl, Olivia sneered and ripped it from her throat. She felt her powers well to the surface once more, the swell of them carried by the wave of rage inside of her, and as she glared at the tool of her enslavement, electric blue magic and thick, roiling fog crept up her arms. The cobalt collar froze in her palms because she willed it so, and when it was sufficiently brittle, she crushed it to splinters in her bare hands. Cobalt is tough when it's refined, huh? she jeered as she remembered Takeda explaining it to her. Well, ice beats cobalt, she bitterly hissed at the memory of his words.
Victoriously, Olivia stood up while the moonbeam enveloped her, and she tilted her head back slowly as she closed her eyes and her powers surged through her veins. It was raw, cold energy, as primal and cruel as Antarctica. It pulsated through her blood, infecting every part of her, screaming for revenge as the fog roiled from every pore in her body. The air around her cooled as the molecules rapidly slowed to a standstill. She drank in the cold, her old friend, and there, in the darkness of Reiko's tent, she was born again. And when she came to that realization, she extended her palm and watched the fog roil and condense only inches above the blue-stained skin. Instinctively, she flexed her fingers, and as she did they wrapped around the hilt of the kori sword that had just sprang fully grown from her thoughts.
Furiously, the Cryomancer looked at Reiko, still unconscious, dangerously unaware of his peril. Her sapphire eyes narrowed until they seemed black in the dim light. Darkness flitted behind her eyelids; for a moment, she became one with it. She subconsciously bared her teeth. Lips chapped by sun and saliva curled and stretched away from them in much the same manner as a hungry wolf's ready to pounce on a helpless deer. She crept towards him slowly, still careful not to make noise and wake him. As she stepped, she silently turned her kori sword over in her hand with blade pointed downward. It was almost a pity Reiko was so soundly asleep right now. Olivia longed to put him down face to face.
She thought a moment such as this would be more of a struggle. Her father had taught her never to kill anyone who couldn't return the favor; it wasn't fair or just, it was murder, plain and simple. Growing up in the Lin Kuei, she'd learned well that the threat of imminent death was the only justifiable reason for killing someone in cold blood like this. Her father would be ashamed of her right now could he see her, she was certain. He'd be ashamed of a lot, she bitterly reminded herself as she now stood over Reiko and watched him breathe in and out. But it was easy to push the elder Cryomancer out of her thoughts – and that thought alone nearly frightened her – because this was absolutely justified. The General had kidnapped her and threatened to kill her if her parents didn't play ball with his demands. If her father couldn't understand this preemptive strike, then that was his problem, not hers.
Besides, it didn't matter much what he thought. When and if she and Takeda returned home, Olivia was leaving the Lin Kuei and never looking back.
She quietly raised the sword over his stomach. And then, something unexpected happened. Instead of Reiko lying helplessly beneath her, the Tolucan she'd killed in battle sprawled naked beneath the blankets. A little cry escaped her, but she managed to choke it down before it became a full-fledged shriek. Her hand instantly clamped itself over her mouth for added protection.
"Oh, no, no, no…" she muttered, sobbing through her fingers. Her grip on her sword loosened and she staggered backwards. Hot tears exploded from her eyes, warming the coldness inside. The man tossed his head to the side, grunting as he brushed his nose and snorted. But still he slept on, never waking up. Her hands trembled hard as she fought not to shudder.
Olivia, you have to do it, she heard her dad's voice in her head say. This man's not real.
"Yes, he is! Yes, he is!" she chattered in a barely audible whisper. She doubled over and collapsed to her knees, dropping her sword on the ground.
Be brave, Olivia, his ghostly voice urged her. He might as well have been there beside her for as loud as he was inside her head. Be brave.
How could she be brave? she wondered. She'd murdered the man on that battlefield. She'd picked up the tree branch and bashed his brains in. It didn't matter that he was trying to kill her and Takeda. It didn't matter that it was war and she had no other choice. She wasn't brave. Murder wasn't brave.
But how many people had died in Reiko's grab for power? her dad reminded her, and he was right. How many had died since the Emperor, Shao Kahn, made him a general and sent him to massacre his enemies? How many would die if he succeeded in his endeavors now? You can put an end to this, Livy, the Grandmaster's voice echoed through her brain.
Shaking, Olivia retrieved her sword and got to her feet. She forced herself to see Reiko, and not the ghost of the man she'd killed several days prior, blinking out the hallucination. Even though it worked, it didn't alleviate that gnawing sliver of doubt and guilt that was currently trying to convince her to run. It didn't matter. She always said that if she could've killed Hitler, she would have. So now it was time to put up or shut up. She gripped her sword with both hands now to steady it. Gulping, she crept forward to the side of his bed once again.
God, forgive me, she inwardly cried as she plunged her sword directly into Reiko's middle, using every shred of strength she possessed. She didn't stop until the blade pierced the mattress beneath him.
His eyes instantly bulged open in surprise and pain while blood gushed from his mouth, choking his cries into dull grunts. He wildly batted at her weapon, and thrashed at her, clawing open her arm in five dark scratches. Frightened, Olivia stumbled away, and she watched him gradually lose his strength from blood loss. He weakly grasped at an old, stone dagger he'd stashed beneath his pillow for just a situation such as this, and to her surprise, he tightly clamped his hand around it until it ripped into his flesh, wounding him further. More blood dribbled from his fist, pooling on the blanket.
Tears spilled down her cheeks as she watched the spectacle. She thought she'd feel satisfied at this moment of triumph, but she merely felt empty.
Finally, he stopped moving. Olivia couldn't watch him any longer. Quickly, she retrieved her robe and Erron Black's hat from a nearby table, threw the clothes on, and scurried outside into the darkness. Had she waited only moments longer, she would've seen the Cleric of Chaos emerge from the shadows to attend to the General, whose wound around her kori sword now sparkled with evil red light as it began to knit shut and drive out the foreign body in the middle of his chest.
The camp was eerily quiet as if it was deserted when Olivia ducked out of Reiko's tent and into the open desert. Her hackles instantly stood on end. She didn't like this. Something was wrong. She had to get Takeda and Rowena and get the hell out of here now. Thankfully, it wasn't hard to find her classmate. About five feet in front of the tent door, he was propped against a tall pole and chained tightly in place, his arms cuffed tightly around it behind him. On either side of him was Tarkatans, but they were sprawled on the ground as if they were…sleeping?
"Are you okay?" she whispered as she looked at them and then cautiously rushed to her classmate and began to fiddle with his shackles behind his back.
"You know, I don't think your new friend, Reiko, is going to like you setting me loose very much," he shot at her, clearly pissed off.
"He's not my friend," she snapped as she carefully froze the cuffs. In the moonlight, she watched the ice permeate the metal, discoloring it, turning it brittle. As soon as she heard the faint, familiar crackling stop, she snapped the cuffs in half like a twig and then scurried around to do the same to his leg irons.
"Are you sure?" he hissed at her. "It sure sounded like you and Reiko were becoming fast friends a few times. Loudly, too. Sounded like a deeply religious experience for you. You sure yelled for God a lot."
"I don't know what you're talking about," she growled as her cheeks flushed red with fiery embarrassment. It was bad enough she had to sleep with Reiko. It was somehow worse knowing that everyone within close proximity to his tent had heard them too, and especially Takeda. That just increased the likelihood of her parents and Alex finding out.
"Oh, yes, you do," he shot back as he broke off the remaining metal around his wrists.
"What, are you jealous?" she snarled. She thought if anything would make him drop it, that would be it. But she was wrong.
"No, I feel bad for your boyfriend," he responded. "Does he know the kind of stuff that you do behind his back when he's not around?"
Olivia lost it. Before she realized what she was doing, she had shoved him against the pole by his throat, her fingertips clawing into the flesh just like a wild tiger. And then for added emphasis, she commanded her skin to cool – not enough to freeze him but definitely enough to send a message. And then she shoved her face to within an inch of his. He looked at her with wide, terrified eyes. She immediately saw that he recognized he'd crossed the line with her, and that he'd pushed her too far.
"I got my collar off and now I'm helping you escape," she snarled at him, squeezing just a little bit harder. "So this night never happened and I don't ever want to speak of it again. Do you understand me?"
"But-"
"If you breathe one more word to me about this, you won't have to worry about what the Tarkatans will do to you because I will kill you myself," she cut him off. "So you just say to yourself over and over again that you don't know how I got loose, and you don't stop telling yourself that until you start to believe it's the truth."
She squeezed his throat so tightly now that he coughed, but he nodded his assent. "Okay," he croaked.
With that, she shoved his head back against the pole, and resumed her delicate work on his shackles. Her hands shook with anger, but inwardly, she struggled not to cry. He'd been right about Alex. If he knew half of what she'd done since she'd been in Outworld, he would immediately cease to love her. She swallowed the hard knot that was forming in her throat.
Takeda must have sensed it because as she broke his leg irons off his ankles, he said, "I'm sorry, Olivia. I shouldn't have said that."
"Drop it," she barked.
"Please-"
"I said drop it!"
"Okay, okay," he replied as he climbed to his feet. He looked her up and down. "Nice hair," he teased her, fingering a braid that jangled with seashells. "You planning on going to Jamaica?"
"You really want to start with me?" she shot back as she slapped his hand away.
Behind them, Olivia heard footsteps crunch in the dirt, and she whirled around, her hands pulsating blue. But it was only Rowena, who held up a hand as she approached. In her other hand, the Cryomancer saw, she held a stack of neatly folded clothes.
"Where is everyone?" Olivia demanded to know.
"I put the same herbs I gave to you in the community water supply," the Healer said. "They're all sleeping. By the time they wake up, you will both be far from here."
Olivia breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you," she said.
"And I've brought you some fresh clothes for traveling through the desert," she continued. "That robe is not terribly practical."
"No," she said. "It's not." She looked at Takeda. "Turn around," she ordered him. She'd been exposed in front of men enough for one night. He shrugged and obeyed, and didn't turn around again until she was fully clothed and pulling on her tabi boots once more.
"Now, you must hurry," Rowena said. "After the Tarkatans and Edenians fell asleep, I packed food, water, and other supplies for your journey, and I also reclaimed your weapons. They are in saddlebags on the iwanas. Come, I will show you." The Hydromancer led the two teenagers to the edge of the camp where several golden lizards the size of pickup trucks were tied up. "I hope you know how to ride one," she said.
"Not especially, no," Takeda told her.
"How different can it be from riding a horse?" Olivia asked him.
He looked at her in annoyance. "I don't know how to ride a horse either," he hissed at her.
"Oh, well, that's just fantastic…Wild Bill doesn't know how to saddle up," she muttered before she scaled onto the larger of the two beasts. It squealed but held steady as the older woman untied it and handed the reins to the Cryomancer.
Rowena looked from her to Takeda. "They are docile creatures and they can survive in the desert for weeks without water," she said. "By then, I pray to the Water Mother that you will have safely arrived in Z'Unkarah."
"Thanks," he said.
"Get on," she urged him, and then she impatiently showed him how. Olivia, meanwhile, rolled her eyes.
"Are you coming with us?" he asked when he was safely on his iwana.
Rowena opened her mouth to answer, but a shrill whistling cut through the air, and something speeding plunged through her chest, silencing her forever. Blood sprayed the beasts as they reared back, shrieking in sudden panic while the Hydromancer fell to the ground, dead from the arrow in her heart. Olivia fought for control over her lizard and looked back. Her heart dropped into the pit of her stomach as soon as she saw who was coming for them.
It was Reiko.
DarkAssassin15, and he's not nearly as bad as Rain! LOL
PinkRedRose2, haha that'll be funny. Skarlet should find someplace to hide, methinks.
John Lord, on a scale of 1 to 10 maybes, I give it a 6. ;)
MKDemigodZ-Warrior, nah, I needed her to get that collar off, so I couldn't waste any time. Blood magic may or may not be involved. ;)
ROCuevas, what who will ask for?
Hell-on-Training-Wheels, yes, he certainly is. He played right into Olivia's plan. Sorry you felt awkward, though. I mean, that's what I was going for because it was a cringeworthy moment, but I'm still sorry. LOL Well, I didn't consider Rowena from Supernatural, but I could see why you'd think that. She's actually more like Melisandre from Game of Thrones - at least, in terms of her physical features. I hate that character but I just love her long, dark red hair. It's so pretty. Haha Yeah, they couldn't sit around talking for long, but I had to let them take a little break given that it's unrealistic for anyone to just run for hours on end without taking a breather every once in a while. And, Olivia had to have a bit of a meltdown because I want her to be more human, and right now, she's feeling quite a lot of despair. But I hope that having her get up and fight through that despair shows you all that she's still very courageous and strong. Thank you for the nice review!
Esha Napoleon, thanks!