4
When Katniss came to, her head hurt, her shoulders ached and her wrists felt raw.
She took stock before opening her eyes because once she did that, there would probably be demons to contend with.
First… What had happened? Her confused thoughts took a while to organize and, when they did, it was to remember the Reaping, the dead kids, Snow, and, above all, that Peeta and Effie had fallen into hell and that she and Haymitch had followed. Everything else came back much quicker. The grey plains, the grey demons trying to capture them only to be killed by the female demon one…
She was in a sitting position, her head dangling over her chest in a way that strained her neck. Her arms were pulled behind her back, which explained the ache in her shoulders, her wrists were tied together and she, herself, was tied to… What was it? A broad pole? A stump? Did they have trees in this place?
Something shifted next to her, pressing into her side. Too deliberately to be an accident.
She opened her eyes, relieved to find Haymitch tied up next to her.
Nothing else that greeted her sight relieved her though. They had been brought back to where the portal hovered in mid-air and the demons had set camp. It was a crude camp. A large fire pit with… something roasting on a stick, about six grey-skinned demons wearing fur and leather sitting around the fire, spears and bows strapped to their backs. They never said a word but they still seemed to be communicating somehow. The female demon, easily recognizable thanks to her brown skin, was further away, standing in front of the portal and staring at it… There were at least five more demons that Katniss couldn't really see but sense patrolling the perimeter…
The sky wasn't orange either anymore. It was pitch dark. No stars. Just a huge moon looming over them like a swollen rotten fruit. It looked bluish and yellow. Disturbing.
"What happened?" she asked, in a low voice. It was still far too loud in the surrounding silence but none of the demons turned their heads toward them.
"We got captured." Haymitch answered flatly. "Don't think those are the same guys who attacked us though. Weapons and clothes are different."
Her Watcher had seen better days. She couldn't see him properly since they were tied up side by side but she could glimpse the clotted blood at the back of his head that hinted at a wound. And his face… It was hard to say in the weird halo of the moon and the firelight but his skin looked slightly yellow. He was sweating too, which was odd because she was on the cold side now that the sun had set.
She frowned. "Are you okay?"
Haymitch didn't answer at once. He licked his lips and eventually let out a small snort. "Guess I didn't pick the best time to get sober."
Shit.
That was the last thing they needed.
"How bad is it?" She needed to know. Because if he was going to go into withdrawals and become absolutely useless… Well, she might as well find a way to send him home.
"Manageable." he dismissed. "We've got bigger fish to fry."
She studied him as best as she could but he wouldn't turn his head to look at her, he was watching the she-demon. Back to business, then. "How long were we out?"
"A few hours, I think." Haymitch shook his head and then winced, doing his best to swallow back a groan. "Shit, I think that demon took a piece of my skull."
She strained her neck while he bowed a little but she couldn't see anything terribly alarming. Just a wound that had clotted over. It wasn't pretty, that was for sure, and it would probably warrant a trip to the ER when they got back but, then again, her knee felt sort of busted too.
"You'll live." she professed and he snorted.
"Will I?" He closed his eyes and tilted his head back a little, looking more tired than she had ever seen him. "This is starting to feel a lot like karma, sweetheart. Shitty karma."
She understood the feeling.
The last few hours… Hell, the last few days… It all felt like it had lasted years instead of twenty-four hours.
"I don't even get how it happened." she sighed. "The Village was supposed to be safe from evil. If Effie's mom was the bad guy all along, how did she get in?"
"Ain't sure she was the bad guy all along…" he hesitated. "From what Effie told me about her, she sounds like the opportunistic kind… Either way…" He shrugged. "The Village is warded against evil intentions. That's safer than just barring entries to demons. Some demons ain't evil. Some humans are. Evil intentions screen a larger specter…"
"Sure." she mocked. "If it works."
"Effie told her what it was warded against so she must have found a loophole." Haymitch scoffed. "Maybe when she came to the house, she didn't have any evil intentions toward us. Maybe all she wanted was to convince Effie to stay far away from the shitshow. To protect her."
"Right." she deadpanned. "That's why she tossed her into the Hellmouth."
He didn't have a good retort to that.
And Katniss supposed it wasn't the priority anyway.
The priority, right now, was to escape so they could track down Peeta. And Effie, she remembered a heartbeat too late.
"Any idea why they captured us instead of killing us?" she asked, studying the demons again.
"You're complaining?" he taunted but soon became serious again. "I don't know but don't be fooled by the cavemen look, they're much smarter than they appear."
She frowned. "Do you know what species they are?"
That was the advantage of having an experienced demon-hunter on hand, he knew almost every species of demons on sight.
"No." he admitted.
Or not, she thought, trying not to let her frustration get the better of her. While they were sitting there useless, Peeta might get attacked by one of those other baton-armed demon groups.
"That one has magic, though." he added, jutting his chin in the direction of the female who was still staring at the portal with her back to them.
She watched the female more attentively but, aside for that brief weird moment of kinship earlier and the obvious difference in pigmentation, she didn't look any different from the other demons. "How do you know?"
"Cause she spoke to me in English." he told her. "Directly in my head."
Katniss's gaze snapped back to his profile but he was still putting up the relaxed act, looking absolutely unbothered by the situation. Almost bored, really.
She sort of wanted to kill him. "You're saying they're telepaths?"
"I'm saying they're telepaths." he confirmed. "I'm also thinking this is a matriarchy cause she's the one giving the orders and they're protecting her like she's their greatest treasure, which tells me… She's their leader. And she's been staring at the portal for as long as I've been awake."
That was a lot of information. "What did she tell you? She spoke to you… What did she say?"
"That if we tried to escape, they'd kill us." he said quietly. "And that she'd speak to my leader when she'd wake up. I'm guessing that's you."
Katniss' eyebrows shot up. "She thinks I'm in charge?"
'Aren't you?'
The words echoed directly in her head and made her startle really badly.
She had watched both Haymitch and Peeta being subjected to Effie's telepathic spell and it had looked uncomfortable as hell but this was ten times worse. This wasn't like hearing someone's familiar voice in your head at all, this was like… like foreign thoughts pushed directly into your mind.
It wasn't even words, it was… Her brain was interpreting what the demon was saying, turning it into words she could understand… The she-demon wasn't speaking English at all. It was just a matter of perception.
"That goes with the matriarchy thing, I guess." he muttered.
"Did you hear her? Just now?" Katniss panicked.
The she-demon had finally turned away from the portal and was coming toward them. All the demons in the small camp suddenly looked a lot more alert, ready to attack if, somehow, they managed to free themselves from their bonds to try and… What? Hurt her?
Did Katniss want to hurt her? She wasn't sure. So far, aside from tying them up, the she-demon hadn't done anything that warranted it. She had saved them from the first group.
'Should I include your soldier, then?'
"Oh, this is weird." Katniss mumbled, just as the she-demon stopped in front of them. Far enough, she noticed, that they wouldn't be able to get her at first lunge if they got free. "Yeah, please. Include him."
The she-demon didn't move or give any indication that her request had been granted but Haymitch groaned so… She met her dark eyes and she felt it again, that weird connection.
"Can a demon be a Slayer?" the question slipped past her lips before she could think it through.
"No." Haymitch countered immediately. "Though, the First Slayer… Now's not the right time for a history lesson. Short answer's no." She wondered what the long answer was. Haymitch's elbow nudged her on purpose. "Also, I don't think they know what a Slayer is in these lands and I'm not sure now's really a good time to explain. Yeah?"
Because telling demons she had been Called to kill them might not be the best move. She wasn't that stupid.
'Is that your name? Slayer?'
She would never ever get used to that weird demonic telepathic shit. The words in her head barely made sense as if they were losing a lot in translation. "That's my title. My name's Katniss. You?"
The she-demon considered her for a moment, as if she was also having troubles making sense of what she was saying.
'They call me Paylor.' she said finally. 'I am this clan's shaman.'
"You're the only woman around." her Watcher observed.
Paylor studied him calmly.
'I am this clan's shaman.' she repeated, then turned to Katniss. 'Do your clans have more than one woman?'
She frowned. "I… guess?"
'Interesting.' the she-demon commented.
"Not all women have magic in our… clans." Haymitch pointed out.
The demon frowned as if that didn't make any sense.
Haymitch was staring at her in a way that was probably very rude, completely fascinated. Katniss had zero interest in demon lore or uncategorized species so she elbowed him. Hard.
"So… We're sorry if we've trespassed or whatever." she said. "We're looking for our friends."
'The shaman who looks like you.' Paylor guessed.
Haymitch sat up straighter, straining the ropes. "A witch, yeah. Have you seen her? Do you know where she is? Is she safe?"
'Ah. So the shaman is the leader. You are her apprentice. That makes more sense.' the she-demon said directly into Katniss' head and she could feel her satisfaction at having found a logical explanation to their puzzling hierarchy.
"Sure." she accepted because it would expedite the process. "Did you see her? Was there a boy with her?"
'Your shaman was lost.' Paylor said. 'Looking for someone from her clan.'
"Peeta." Katniss breathed out. "Peeta wasn't with her?"
"Peeta fell before her." Haymitch remarked. "Not long. A few seconds. Might translate to a couple of hours or days here…" He shook his head and immediately winced when he remembered his wound. "How long ago was it?"
'Four moon cycles ago.' the she-demon said.
"Four months?" Katniss felt her throat close. Four months in this place? Had they managed to survive that long? What did they drink? Eat? It sounded…
"How long's a moon cycle?" Haymitch asked, ignoring her.
'Twenty-five moon rises.'
"And how long's a day?" he insisted. "How long from sunrise to sunset?"
'From moon rise to moon set?' Paylor corrected.
Whatever she answered, Katniss couldn't make sense of it. Her brain didn't have the math equivalent.
Haymitch hesitated. "I'm guessing a little over three months for us. Roughly a day for every minute in our world."
He sounded defeated.
She understood. It was bad.
It also meant they had less than three days at best before the portal would close.
"Do you know if she ever found the boy she was looking for?" Katniss asked.
Paylor stared at her. 'I saw myself in her. I see myself in you.'
Slayer, an instinct insisted at the back of her mind. Somehow, somewhere, Paylor was connected to the Slayer line.
"I know. I do too." she offered truthfully. "But the boy?"
"Where is she now?" Haymitch added, struggling against his bonds. The demons looked really alert now, ready to stab him with one of their spears.
Paylor lifted a hand and they all settled down but they were clearly not pleased about it.
'The Peacekeeper took her.'
Haymitch abruptly stopped struggling to go very still. "The Peacekeeper? What's that?"
And how do we kill it?, Katniss mused.
'The Peacekeeper is a blight on this world.' Paylor explained and her rage and hatred for whatever the Peacekeeper was came through, clear as day.
"And that blight has my witch?" Haymitch scoffed. "Well, then… Get these ropes off us. We're gonna take out that Peacekeeper for you."
Katniss side-eyed him.
Of course, they were going to get that Peacekeeper out if he had Effie. However, he sounded… Well, he sounded weird and she was a bit wary it was the withdrawals talking.
Paylor seemed to waver for a long moment. She stared straight at Katniss with such an intensity that the girl wondered if she could read her mind without her knowing. They were telepaths, it didn't seem far out of the ranges of possibilities.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, one of the grey demons sitting around the campfire stood up and came toward them, slipping a knife from beneath his furs. Haymitch tensed when he came closer but he just cut his ropes. When Haymitch didn't make a move to attack him or Paylor, he moved to Katniss and set her free.
'Come.' the she-demon said. 'Share our fire and our meat in friendship. I offered the same to your shaman. We were friendly, she and I.'
"That's my girl." Haymitch snorted. "Making friends wherever she goes."
Katniss shot him a look, a little amused despite everything. "That's a lot of my you're tossing around while speaking about Effie."
"Yeah, right?" He made a face. "Might be the lack of booze. Don't mention it to her when we get her back." He sounded a lot more cheerful all of a sudden, maybe because they had a lead and they knew the witch was still alive. He rubbed his wrists, his grey eyes fixated on Paylor. "Say, that Peacekeeper… He wouldn't be called Snow, by any chance?"
Paylor looked a bit puzzled by his question but led the way to the fire. Katniss followed, a little wary of the intense attention of all the other demons. She didn't dare ask for their weapons back yet.
After a few seconds Haymitch seemed to figure out what the problem was.
"Snow's…" He glanced at Katniss. "I don't think they've got a name for snow. Translation isn't going through…"
"Vampire." she said more plainly. "A demon but not like you."
'The night-creature." Paylor nodded.
Katniss shot Haymitch a smug look. Clearly, she was speaking better telepath-demon speech than he was.
Not that it really mattered right at that moment.
"Is the night-creature the Peacekeeper?" Haymitch insisted.
"Doesn't make sense." Katniss denied. "Snow's free. You said you saw him. He can't be here to take Effie captive."
"I'm hoping I saw wrong." he sighed.
'The night-creature escaped the Peacekeeper. That's why he needed your shaman.' Paylor explained and then gestured at the fire. 'Sit. Eat. I will tell you our story and then you will tell me yours and how you can help us. Slayer.'
Katniss sat, close enough to the fire that she wouldn't be feeling the chill of the night anymore, stretching her bad leg to the side because her knee really was bothering her. She also kept a discreet eye on Haymitch because she was pretty sure he wasn't in his right frame of mind.
One of the demons took the whatever it was – hopefully not human – off the roasting pike and started slicing it in equal parts. Katniss accepted her share a little warily, looking at Haymitch for direction.
'Fire lizard' the grey demon that had handed her her share told her directly in her head. The voice was rougher than Paylor's. So they could speak too. They just chose not to. Or to let their leader do the talking for them.
"When in Rome…" Haymitch poked at the meat before trying out a small bite. "Ain't bad. Tastes like chicken." But he was clearly impatient. "So, this Peacekeeper guy…"
A hush fell on the demons.
It wasn't audible because none of them spoke out loud but Katniss felt it happen, they all stopped what they were doing to gather and listen as Paylor tossed a handful of… something in the fire. The flames turned green. Magical fire.
When Paylor started her story, smoke rose up in shapes to illustrate it…
And, despite her agonizing terror that Peeta was in danger, despite her exhaustion, despite everything, Katniss watched, utterly fascinated…
So let's eat our fire lizard and listen to the nice story :p Three months in hell, one of them lost, one of them prisoner of a demon... What can go wrong? Me thinks Haymitch has a case of feelings for HIS witch. XD Do we like Paylor? Because I looooved writing Paylor :p I want your thoughts! Let me know what you think!