Part 2

Night Terrors

The screaming started midday. Ava was hard at work trying to get a gravy stain out of Hariana's second favorite party frock. Able, Hadriana's favorite bed companion, was watching and munching a hunk of bread. His day was quiet because his night was often filled with their mistress's disgusting fantasies.

The cry that rent the air startled Ava so much that she dropped the frock into the soapy water and splashed herself. Able choked on the bread. Both hunkered low without thinking. Making themselves smaller in case their voices would shortly join that of whoever was already screaming. But no Master appeared. No magic sought them out, so they straightened, looking at one another with alarmed expressions.

The screaming carried on. Horrible, ragged cries of someone in obvious agony. They cut Ava to her bones. Every instinct told her to gather her people. Like a mother hen might draw her chicks under her wings. One of hers was being tortured, but she didn't knew who. What must they have done to scream so? She tried not to think about it.

As she charged into the kitchen from the small, highly fenced work yard where she did laundry and sundry other outdoor tasks, she tried to clear her thinking. The screamer was male, and adult. None of her women were in danger, nor little Ben. But there were many male slaves in the house. More so than female. In the kitchen the doors and windows were open to allow air flow as the cook worked on dinner. Everyone inside had stopped moving, trapped in that same moment of frozen panic that Ava and Able had just experienced.

"Gather everyone in the compound!" Ava barked. "We need to know who is being punished!"

A particularly loud scream, ragged as a dull knife, snapped everyone back to reality. The kitchen was alive with bustle as everyone rushed to find their friends. House slaves slunk in shortly after. Ava and a few of them went back out to find anyone who had not come.

Everyone was gathered in the dimly lit slave compound, sitting on their little pallets or pacing the room. Ava and Sol struggled to count heads with all the movement. The screaming had not abated. If anything it might have grown worse. Whoever was making those horrible sounds would surely lose their voice soon, Ava thought with an odd sort of desperation. Every time a fresh cry rattled through the house she felt her heart squeeze. As though she were bracing each time for a lash to descend on her back. Several of her fellows felt the same, flinching each time a new scream sounded.

"Ben? There you are, Ben. Don't hide, sweet one, I want to see you," Ava urged the little boy, who kept crawling under his blankets.

"Is that everyone?" she turned to Sol, desperation clear in her voice. She knew they could all be punished for leaving their posts and tasks to regroup like this, but she was ready to take the brunt. She needed to knew her people were safe. Her people. So strange to think of. She was only the head slave because Hadriana had purchased her. Perhaps natural bossiness made her a sure fit into the role, but it still seemed odd at times none the less. "Fenris? Where's Fenris?! Fenris?"

"I last saw him with The Master," Hetta spoke up, her voice timid. Almost drowned out by another horrible scream.

"Oh Creators, no..." Ava muttered. All of the punishment that Fenris had mysteriously avoided, was it all being heaped upon him at once? A horrible back payment? What kind of sick plan did these magisters have for the elf?

"Is Fenris being killed?" Ben asked, throwing the blanket over his head again.

"I...I don't know," Ava swallowed her muscles tight with the desire to flee or fight for her life. Her blood burned through her veins as Fenris's screams sliced the air. Now that she knew it must be him she could hear it, and of course it was his voice. Another yell and she felt ready to vomit. What the hell could the Master be doing?

The screaming went on all day and into the evening.

The slaves struggled to get about their various tasks for the rest of the day. The screaming did not ebb. Anyone else might have passed out by now, Ava thought, feeling hollow as she tried to focus on her washing. The mages must have been doing something to keep Fenris conscious.

Neither Danarius, nor his apprentice called for dinner. Hadriana did not summon Able, or any of her other favorites, at their usual time. The screaming went on, though it was growing hoarse, reduced to something akin to sobbing.

All the slaves retired unwillingly to their barracks and tried to hold conversations, or attempt to sleep. None of them succeeded.

Some hours later the door was flung open, bathing them all in the light from the kitchen. Two of Danarius's guards stood there, black against the yellow illumination behind them. with a figure sagging between them. Ava squinted. At first she had no idea who it was. The limp form hanging from his arms where he was supported by the guards had snow white hair. He was nude, and his body shone with an intricate pattern of pale blue light.

"Shut him up," one of the guards said, an edge to his voice. "I've been listening to this bugger scream all day. I can feel it in my teeth."

The men dropped the naked figure onto the floor where he crumpled, still making sad, mewling noises, punctuated by rasping breaths. The guards departed hastily and all the slave stood frozen, completely uncertain and utterly afraid. What was this creature that had been deposited in their midst? Everyone looked at Ava. Fuck, she thought as she inched closer to the trembling lump of flesh and bone and blue light. She tilted her head, trying to see, to understand what it was she was seeing.

"Fenris?" her breath gave a little hitch as the figure turned its head and she knew the long, handsome face. She dropped to her knees beside him, hands fluttering uncertainly over his shaking frame. "Oh Maker! Oh gods! It's Fenris!" she called to the others.

A few moved now, coming forward. Sol brought a blanket, trying to cover the younger man. As soon as the wool touched his skin Fenris screamed again. A horrible, raw sound that made everyone flinch. He subsided into jerking sobs as soon as the blanket was taken away. "What the hell happened?" Sol asked, eying the markings, which were still glowing fiercely. Like tattoos, but with a life of their own. They pulsed with magic. Ava could feel it like static in the air.

"Some spell," she guessed, trying to see how far the marks went. They cut a swath down his lean torso all the way to his groin and down his legs to the tips of his toes. It was the same with his arms and fingers. Two lines etched up the front of his throat to his chin. At least his face had been spared, for the most part.

"Was he beaten?" Ben asked, inching closer, his eyes huge in the dimness.

"In a way," Ava said, still uncertain. "I think... I think this is lyrium."

Everyone gasped as one. "Lyrium?" Sol exhaled. He knelt beside Ava, looking over Fenris's huddled form.

He was all bones and angles, curled into the fetal position his backbone showed, as did his shoulder blades. He looked like a skeleton dressed in someone else's skin. "What do we do? What can we do?" Ava asked. "We can't leave him like this!"

"No, of course not," Sol agreed, standing. He stepped carefully around Fenris and moved into the kitchen. "Elfroot?" he demanded on the cook.

"I've got some," the man said. There was even concern on his face. He could be stoney in the presence of truly cruel wounds, but this? He hurried to his cabinet and knocked aside any bottles that were not what he sought. He held out a little container, "that's all I 'ave. We don't use it for much."

"Grind it up with water to make a paste," ordered Sol.

Ava was glad he had taken charge. She knew how to treat ordinary beating injuries, and some magical ones, but nothing like what had been inflicted on her poor friend. "Fenris?" she asked tentatively, leaning her head down to try to meet his eyes. They were open, but gazing, glassy. He seemed gone from them, lost in some other world of pain. "Fenris, what did they do?" she tried again.

He made a wretched sound and shuddered, then tilted his head, eyes wide and wild with the pupils reduced to tiny points of black. "Mamae? Mamae?"

"He's calling for his mother?" Marric asked, leaning in.

"You touched lyrium once and you came back burned and rambling about the dancing qunari in the duck pond. He has every right to call for his mother," Ava scolded. Marric fell silent at once.

"Here," Sol offered the Elfroot paste. "Make him take it."

This was an ordeal. Every time they touched his skin Fenris screamed as though they broke bones. He barely choked the concoction down, and most of it ended splattered all over Sol and Ava's clothes. Ava looked desperately at Sol, "wine?" she asked.

"No," the cook said, though his voice lacked authority.

"The cheapest we have. It doesn't have to be good," she urged the plump man. "If the Master even notices it is gone, I will take the blame entirely." They knew she would. She had before. Ava would pile the mistakes of others onto her slim shoulders whenever she could.

The cook gave in, scuttling away and returning with a full bottle. The wine was slightly more successful, though it still got everywhere. Fenris was little quieter, but he did not shake so much. His whimpers were spaced out. His lips moved as he spoke nonsense, calling for people Ava didn't know, asking after his sister. Then his eyes seemed to find hers for the briefest moment, "Ava?" he voice was like a child's. "It burns. They burned me. Why?" and then he was gone again, lost in hallucination.

"Burns?" Ava repeated. "Someone get me a bowl of cold water!" No one moved. "Marric, now!" she snapped.

The bowl was brought and Ava dipped her hands into it. Then, fingers still dripping with cool liquid, she touched Fenris' arm. He didn't cry out. "Soak a blanket!" she ordered.

This time people reacted. Two ran outside into the little yard with a blanket and soaked it in the rain barrel. Fortunately the rainy season was on its way in rather than out. With Sol's help Ava draped the blanket over Fenris. There was an audible sizzling sound. The markings flared white, then seemed to settle slightly. "Fuck this," Sol grumbled. "You, Marric, Able, help me."

The three men managed to pick Fenris up, though he thrashed and even bit Marric on the shoulder. They carried him out to the rain barrel and submerged him in it up to his chin. Ava followed along with Ben and several others. Once the cold water was all around him Fenris quieted. His breathing came more evenly and his eyes fluttered closed. "Don't let him go under," urged Sol as Fenris slipped to the side, unconscious.

They stood, holding a limp Fenris in the rain barrel for what might have been an hour before they all looked at one another. Their charge was shivering again, but this time from cold rather than pain. His nose had begun to run. "Take him out before we give him pneumonia," Ava urged. She had sent many of the slaves to bed, but she had remained in vigil with the men.

They lifted. Fenris's skin shone slickly in the moonlight and he was still completely nude. Ava was beyond looking away in embarrassment. Now she saw only the odd tattoos. They had turned white, like chalk markings, and they no longer glowed. The ambient magic had calmed and stopped prickling in the air.

The men carried Fenris back inside and laid him on his pallet in his little makeshift room beside Ava's. This time they were able to cover him without him screaming.

"Is he going to die?" Little Ben was still awake. He had wandered over and was watching with concern.

"I hope not," was all Ava could think to say. None of her fellows had died as long as she had been there. Not from punishments at any rate. They had lost one of the old to illness, but that was considered to be no one's fault.

"Will The Master do that to us next?" the boy nervously gestured to the markings.

"No," Ava lied. She could be honest with Ben about death, but not about this. In truth she prayed Fenris would wake in the night so he could explain what had happened. What he had done to make the Master so angry. Her mind flashed back to an earlier conversation. Something about him helping with a ritual. Was this the help that was meant? She shuddered, tucking Fenris's blanket in tighter around him. His teeth still chattered. She petted back his hair, which was damp with sweat and rain water.

"Here," Ben handed over his blanket. "It's a warm night."

This was a common lie. Everyone knew these words. When you wanted to give someone your blanket you always claimed it to be a warm night. In the middle of winter any of them would have made that assertion. She smiled at the boy. It was considered insulting indeed not to accept such an offering. She took the blanket and spread it over Fenris. "I'll sit up with him." she said.

"Wake me if you need to be relieved or he worsens," urged Sol.

"Or me," Able squeezed Ava's shoulder before retiring to his own little pallet.

Ava turned back to her charge. It was so strange to see him with white hair. He didn't look like him any more. Especially with his eyes closed. She could easily imagine this was a different man who lay beside her. She leaned back against the wall, looking skyward as though anyone from above would have anything to say to her. She might call on The Maker, or the ancient gods of Tevinter perhaps, but she wasn't certain any of them heard, or cared to. What were the blasphemous mutterings of a slave woman in all this grand scheme of life?

Her eyes drifted shut.

Something brushed her hand. She looked down. Fenris had moved. She arranged herself so she could face him, kneeling at his side with her legs folded under her. Her knees protested on the cold stone floor, but she ignored them. "Fenris?"

He didn't speak for a moment, then his eyes opened fractionally and she was startled by the green of them. So very alive when the rest of his looked utterly defeated. He watched her for a moment, as though puzzling. "Ava?" he said, his voice barely a mumble. His lips hardly moved.

"Yes. It's me, Fenris. You're alright now," she said, harkening back to every time she had soothed any of her people when they had been lashed.

"Was...was I in the water?" he asked, trying to lift his head and failing.

She chuckled, "You were. Don't try to move. We put you in the water because you said you were burned."

"Burned..." he seemed to be foggy, struggling to remember, unclear about where he was.

"You're in the compound," she said, pressing a hand to his forehead to make him settle. It took the barest amount of pressure to lay his head back. "We fixed you up as best we could, which admittedly was rather poorly, but I think you're on the mend now."

"Why does it hurt, Ava?" he asked, closing his eyes again. The lids were dark blue.

"I...I'm not sure. I don't understand what they did to you," she admitted.

He made a little whimper sound and she wondered if she should wake Sol. Did Fenris need another dip in the rain barrel? His face cleared after a moment, his eyes opening again. "The Master...was...he said it was an honor."

"An honor?" Ava cocked her head. "This? It wasn't to punish you?"

"He said I was-" he paused, breathing deeply, fighting back another wave of pain Ava guessed. She didn't dare touch him for fear she would make it worse. He settled once more, licking lips which were stained with wine and elfroot. "He said I was going to be special. That I was going to be unique. An honor," his lip curled. Disdain this time, not pain. Ava hid a smile at this. In this moment she felt nothing but loathing for the Magisters who owned her. "I've never...I've never felt such pain."

Ava made a little sympathetic noise and watched his eyes, uncertain what to do. "Do you need anything?"

He seemed to consider for a moment. "No."

"I'm sorry, Fenris," she said, absently playing with the hem of his blanket.

With what seemed a massive effort on his part he moved his hand until his fingertip brushed hers. "You...didn't do this."

"Danarius did." She wasn't certain if she had decided to use his name alone, without the prefix of 'master', but she knew from now on she would. Not in his company, of course, but to herself and with her people.

Fenris's lip curled, this time in a wince. His muscled tightened as another wave took him. Ava rested her hand back on his brow. She knew her fingers were cold, perhaps it would be pleasant for him. He rode out the wave and stilled, eyes opening again to meet hers. Something silent passed between them in that moment. A vow. A wordless promise. They would no longer stand for the treatment of these magisters. Whatever might happen in the future, each of them would bend their thoughts towards freedom.

"Do you think you could sleep?" Ava asked gently.

"I don't know," Fenris hissed wearily. He looked ready to pass out again whether he wanted to or not.

Ava rested her hand on his forehead and sang an old song she had known all her life, though she was uncertain of its origin. In her dreams she could hear a woman sing it to her. She guessed it must have been her mother, but she had no way of knowing. She often sang it to Ben when the lad couldn't sleep.

"The sun on the hills

shines bright as your eyes.

The moon on the stream

will guard you from fears.

Sleep now my child,

there's no need to weep.

I'll sit beside thee,

I'm always near.

The call of the wind,

carries my song.

The echoes of trees

will watch over me.

Wherever you go,

must never fear.

I'll be at your side,

I always will be.

The dusk and the dawn

will come and will go.

The leaves and branches,

fall into snow.

I will be here,

I can never roam.

I'll be at your side,

forever your home."