***Possible Spoilers. This takes place during Legends Are Made 7, The Tome of Enlightenment, during Chapter 16***

Chapter 1

Late Morning, 7th Jinn, 15 BE, Estate in the Duchy of Deaserian

Thirteen-year-old wildven Aaliya Jade was startled awake by a loud noise as the manor house shook around her.  Bleary eyed, she sat up from the wooden cot she was sleeping on and glanced out the window, noticing the sun high in the sky, unsure if everything had been a dream or not.

Still, anything would beat what Master’s friends had me doing last night.

Surprisingly they all let me sleep in though.

She rubbed her eyes, wiping the grit and dried—I don’t want to think about that—away from them before turning toward her bunk mate, who was still out cold, gently snoring.  Shaking the slightly older girl, Aaliya was met with a groan and flash of dark eyes as it was her friend’s turn to be startled awake.

“Get up, Denai.  Something’s happening.”

Her only friend and fellow slave, sat up and slid to the wall, leaning her head against it.  “What, Lia?”

“Something…happened.  The house shook.”

“You’re imagining—” Denai began, only to be interrupted by what was very clearly an explosion outside, the room’s only tiny, high set window rattling in its frame.

“Told you so,” Aaliya smirked.  “What should we do?”

“Escape,” Denai declared, a fierce look coming over her face.

“Run away?  We’re slaves!  Where’ll we go?”

“I told you about my vision, Aaliya.  This is it…  The beginning.”

Aaliya frowned at her friend, “Denai…  I know you’re a Viatore, and some of them have visions, but…”

Denai had slid out of bed and began tugging on her clothes, sparing only a moment to turn her head and stick her tongue out.  “Yeah, yeah.  I don’t have a lot of them and can’t control the few I do have.  What else do you want me to say?  My Genetrixa, our clan’s matriarch, told me about this before they were all…”  The girl’s large, dark eyes momentarily looked haunted before she visibly shook herself, raven hair tossing around her face.  “Doesn’t matter.  This is it.  Our chance.”  There was a pleading look in her eyes, desperation in her voice.  “Come on, Lia…  Are you with me?”

Aaliya closed her jade green eyes and ran a hand through her long, blonde hair which was still crusted with last night’s exploits.

And she felt her anger rising, along with something else she couldn’t identify.

Those parts of herself she always kept hidden because, as a barely skilled slave, letting it show meant nothing but a beating to ‘correct her behavior’ and ‘teach her her place.’

She opened her eyes as she slid her slight form off the bed and focused on her best friend.  “Yeah.  I’m in.”

Denai flashed her teeth in a feral grin.  “Knew you would be, Sprite.  Get dressed.”  She tossed Aaliya’s clothes, mere rags, at her.

Aaliya caught them and returned the look.  “Of course you did, Charlatan, of course you did.”

Chapter 2

The two of them wasted precious little time getting dressed and scampering out the door, owning nothing else to pack and take with them.

Aaliya took a deep breath and she stepped through the doorway as another explosion—the sixth one since she had woken Denai—rattled the stone building.  “Where are we going, Denai?”

The Viatore girl grinned at her.  “Kitchen first.  We need to grab food, unless you know a bunch about hunting.  I sure don’t.”

“I don’t know anything about hunting or woodcraft, even though I’d love to.”  Aaliya frowned.  “Thought you said we were rescued in your vision?”

“I did.  Don’t have any idea how long that’ll take though.”

“Aren’t those our rescuers outside?”

Denai chuckled.  “I haven’t the faintest idea who’s outside.  We may have to escape past them too.”

“You unbelievable, pain in the—”

“You love me.  Kitchen.  Let’s go.”

Before Aaliya could reply, Denai dashed down the hallway, causing the young elf to stutter step before running after her.

Aaliya could have walked, run, or even skipped blindfolded through the luxurious, dark red, wood paneled hallways that led from the girls’, or rather slaves’, sleeping quarters to the kitchen.  After all, she had gone through them often enough.  But never like this.

Running for her life.

For freedom.

Aaliya had started off slower and more cautiously than Denai, like normal, so she reached the kitchen door a good two minutes behind her friend, right in time to hear a startled oath from the Viatore girl.  One that was quickly followed by the sounds of pots and pans hitting the floor.

Time seemed to slow as the wildven girl pulled up, her bare feet slipping over the waxed floor, causing her to slide into the kitchen where she had scrubbed dishes for years.  The normally immaculate kitchen was in complete disarray.  A meal sat half prepared next to massive ovens with their huge chimney.  There were different, partially cut vegetables strewn about next to a few butchered chickens.  Water bubbled over the rim of a pot onto the expensive magical stovetop, waiting for the nearby acorns to be submerged in order to be leached before chopping them up.

Worse than the food mess though, were the pots, pans, silverware and dinnerware which lay scattered all over the floor and counters, many of the expensive, breakable items shattered, their shards seemingly sprinkled across every horizontal surface.

For some reason, Aaliya’s eyes were drawn to a single, lonely acorn that had fallen to the floor and rolled in front of the ovens.  A single acorn, heedless of the chaos and destruction surrounding it.  One that had escaped the boiling water, then the mallet, only to settle right next to the fire.

Her eyes lifting back to the mess, the young girl’s first thought was, I hope I don’t have to clean all this up.

It was quickly followed by a smile.  I won’t if we get away.

We…

The moment of tachypsychia passed, time speeding back up as she focused on Denai struggling with one of their master’s friends who had stayed the night.  The man held the young girl in the air by simply wrapping his arms around her.  She would not be so easily corralled, however.  Her feet kicked off every available surface as she squirmed and struggled in his grasp, the two of them careening around the kitchen, slamming into the cabinets, counters, continually adding to the chaos.

Aaliya took a hesitant step towards them before her muscles locked, freezing her in place as she was suddenly unsure what she could do to help when another of their master’s friends entered the kitchen, obviously drawn by the sounds of struggle.

She watched, stunned, as the first man slipped on a shard of plate, his right arm releasing its grip on Denai so he could snatch at the counter for balance.

She watched, amazed, as Denai’s right hand shot out and grabbed the butcher’s knife on the counter as she twisted out of his grasp like an eel.

She watched, horrified, as the Viatore girl pivoted and lashed out, driving the huge knife into the man’s chest.

She watched, overwhelmed, as red blossomed on the man’s white tunic, the front turning crimson in an ever-widening stain as he weakly reached up, hands barely grazing the handle as he gurgled something unintelligible before slumping to his knees then falling face first to the floor.  Dead.

She watched, terrified, as the other man sprang into action, jumping forward and wrapping his hands around Denai’s throat as the girl turned towards the new threat.  He picked her up and slammed her off a cabinet, the back of her head rebounding with a terrifying crack as he choked the life from her.

Aaliya stood, every part of her screaming to flee.  The man was at least a foot taller and well over a hundred pounds heavier than her.

What can I do?

She took a hesitant step backward, readying to flee back the way she had come and hide under their flimsy blanket.  Pretending it was all a nightmare.

Their blanket.

Her eyes flicked up and found Denai staring back at her as the girl weakly grasped her assailant’s arms, her face slowly morphing into a purple shade instead of her normal, dusky complexion.  There was no accusation in them.  No despair.  No fear. 

No loathing at Aaliya’s weakness.

Only trust and faith.

Before she consciously knew it, Aaliya had rushed forward, only delaying to grab a cast iron skillet from where it had fallen to the floor.  She leapt into the air and brought the heavy instrument down on the back of the man’s skull with a sickening crunch, backing out of the way as he stumbled a half step forward, head smacking into his victim’s chest, before he fell backwards, crumpling into a heap.

Denai fell with him, landing on her knees on top of him.  After his grip slackened and fell away, the Viatore rubbed at her chest and the back of her own head, gasping for air.  When she caught her breath, she looked up at Aaliya.  “Thanks, Sprite.  Wish I coulda gotten my chest out of the way of his head though.”

“Is he…” Aaliya’s porcelain complexion was turning a shade of green.

Denai struggled to stand and looked down at him.  “He’ll be fine.  Only knocked out.”

“Denai…  I…  I think that’s part of his brain…” Aaliya pointed at a pinkish-white glob that could be seen in an expanding pool of crimson.

The Viatore girl sighed.  “It is.  He’s dead.  I didn’t want you to be upset—”

Aaliya made a horrible retching sound before turning and emptying her stomach into a sink.

“Or sick,” Denai finished lamely, stepping forward and pulling Aaliya into a hug.  “It’s all right.  We’ll be all right.  But we still have to get food and get out of here.  Okay?”

Aaliya slowly nodded.  “I…  Yeah.  Yes.  Let’s get some food.”

“I’ll grab some jerky and meat.  You grab bread and veggies.”  When Aaliya didn’t move, Denai gently shook her.  “Come on, we have to get moving.  It was him or me.  You saved my life.  We’ll talk about it later.”

It took a supreme amount of willpower for the wildven to tear her gaze away from the corpse.  “Yeah.  Alright.  I can do that.”

Aaliya grabbed a sack and moved toward the vegetables, scooping them into it, her foot narrowly avoiding the lonely acorn on the floor.

Chapter 3

It took less than five minutes to stuff their purloined sacks full of food, all while listening to the background noise of continuing explosions interspersed with the sounds of fighting echoing through the large kitchen windows from the courtyards outside.

She tried to put together, and make sense of, the snippets of shouted orders her keen elven ears allowed her to hear over the combat.  “How many are there?”

“A half dozen at most.”

“They’ve killed at least a score, probably more.”

“Are you stupid?  It’s way more than that!”

“Where are they?”

“Everywhere!”

She may not know anything about combat, but it was clear from the panicked and terrified voices of the defenders that whoever was attacking was winning.

Decisively.

“How’re we going to get out of here, Denai?” Aaliya’s own voice was squeaky with her rising panic.

“Straight out the front door, Lia.”

“Are you insane?” the wildven gasped.

“Well, a little, yes.”  Denai hefted her sack over her shoulder as she turned to Aaliya.  “Think about it.  One group of people defending the manor, another trying to get in.  They’re probably all going to be fighting at that door.”

“And you think that makes it a good place to try to escape?”

“No one’s going to be worrying about two young slaves trying to run outside, away from the fighting.  Not while they have spells and swords to contend with.”

Aaliya frowned at her, wishing she could argue against the idea, against her friend’s twisted logic, but unable to find fault.  “What if they do?”

Denai shifted her tattered skirt, showing another butcher knife strapped to her thigh.  “Then I dissuade them.”

“Denai—”

“I don’t have all the answers, Lia.  This is the best I can do.”

“What about one of the back doors?  Or the delivery door!”  The wildven spun toward the hall they had come from, intent on heading to where they brought all the manor’s food in.

“Don’t bother.  The doors lock from the inside with a key.  Which we don’t have.”

“What if the kitchen staff fled through them?  They’d be unlocked.”

“And if they didn’t, we’ll be stuck.  It’s almost the same distance to there as it is to the front door.  Time matters.”

Aaliya opened her mouth.

“First floor windows are barred.”

Aaliya’s mouth slammed closed and she ground her teeth in frustration.  “All right, we’ll do it your way.”

“I always knew we would.  Come on.”

The two girls fled down the twisting corridors, stopping and ducking into rooms whenever they thought they heard footsteps.  Twice they bumped into other slaves, although they were too terrified to do anything but cower and hide, attempting to simply survive.

I’m done with surviving.  I want to live!

As they neared the great hall, knowing that once there it’d be a straight shot to the front door, they heard the jangling of metal and slid to a stop.  Denai’s left hand darted to a doorknob and clutched it in a white knuckled grip.

Three fully armed guards came jogging around the corner, their chainmail jingling with each step.

Denai shoved the door open, her right hand flashing out to grab Aaliya’s smock before flinging her into the room and hastily stepping inside herself.  The Viatore girl quickly but gently shut the door, her dusky complexion white as a ghost.

“What’s wrong, Denai?” Aaliya whispered as the jingling neared.

“I…  I’m sorry, Lia.  This…”  The girl shook her head as she leaned her back against the door.  “Seems like this isn’t going the way of my good vision.”

Aaliya’s jade colored eyes widened.  Not at the words, but at her friend’s forlorn voice.  “What do you mean?”

Before Denai could respond the jingling stopped.

Directly outside the door.

“In here,” a man’s voice commanded from the hallway before the door was shoved open, Denai’s slippered feet sliding over the floor.

The older girl spun around, placing herself between Aaliya and the three men who quickly stepped inside, drawing her butcher’s knife and holding it in front of her.

Aaliya took in the wounds on the three men with a sort of clinical detachment.  She may not be a trained healer, but it was clear all three had survived a fight with something.  Their uniforms were spotted with blood, although whether it was theirs or someone else’s she didn’t know.  But each of them had facial wounds, as well as cuts and slashes on their arms.  One even limped into the room with a blood-soaked rag tied around his thigh.

“Well, well…  What do we have here?” thigh rag demanded as he stepped between his friends, then shut, and locked, the door.

“Get away from us,” Denai ordered, waving her knife back and forth in front of her chest.

“We don’t have time for this,” the one on the right complained.

The left one snorted.  “Why not?  Considering the insignia of who’s here, we’re dead anyway.  By the time they find us, at least we’ll have had a little fun.”

“What do you mean you’re dead,” Aaliya asked, unable to stop herself.

The man in the middle let out a dark chuckle and took a step forward.  “Simple, girly.  Mage outside is freezing anyone fleeing out the back.  Another one’s burning our people to death.  The rest are slaughtering our soldiers with impunity.  Worse, none of us has even so much as landed a glancing hit on the black cloaked devil.”

“What’re you talking about?”

He shook his head, then, in a flash, knocked the knife out of Denai’s hand before backhanding her across the face, sending her flying back into Aaliya.  She landed on top of the wildven girl as they both fell into a tangled heap on the floor.  “I don’t know who your master pissed off, but someone’s come for him.  As for what I’m sayin’…  There isn’t a damn thing we can do to stop them.  There’s no way out for us, and they aren’t granting quarter.  Means, like my friend said, we’re dead.”  He took another wobbly step forward, looking down at them hungrily.  “Might as well go out after havin’ a little fun with two pretty ladies like yourselves.”

Aaliya looked around the room, panicking as she realized their intentions, desperately seeking something, anything, to defend herself with.

Her heart dropped when she realized they were in one of the coat rooms where guests stored their winter belongings during visits.

Too bad the only guests had been their master’s closest friends, and they hadn’t brought anything other than their ardor for his various slaves.

Aaliya wrapped her arms around Denai and scooted backwards, pulling the dazed girl along with her.

Then she whimpered when her back struck the wooden wall.

All three men chuckled darkly and spread out while moving forward.  Cornering their prey.

As if the terrified girls had anyway to escape, or anywhere to go if they managed to do so.

Once thigh rag stood about a foot away, he started to bend over, bloody hand reaching out for them.

Only to freeze in place as there was a loud thump on the door, causing it to vibrate in its frame.

Then another.

And another.

The frozen man straightened and spun around as quickly as his wounded leg allowed.  He motioned to the man on the right.  “Check it,” he mumbled.

That man nodded curtly, drew his sword, and stepped to the wall beside the door.  He laid his ear against the wood, straining to hear as his friends readied themselves.

The man never had a moment to scream, let alone realize the mistake he made.

A howl boomed through the room, quickly followed by a thunderous sound as a massive, black form lunged through the wall, sending wooden splinters careening throughout the room.

The monster’s jaws locked around the man’s throat as it shattered the wall, the creature’s momentum, along with its fearsome fangs, ripping out his jugular as the creature bore him to the ground.  With one final shake of its head, it finished tearing the flesh away before spitting it out and standing up, focusing its baleful, silvery blue-eyed gaze on the other two stunned guards.

Aaliya sat, gaping at it as the noise finally roused Denai, the groggy girl shrinking back into her.

It—no, she’s—magnificent, the wildven thought in awe.

The wolf-like creature stood about three feet high at the shoulders, and was maybe twice that long, not counting the lashing, fluffy tail, and looked like she weighed at least as much, although probably more than, the guards.  She was covered with midnight black fur, except for glossy, shimmering black patches around her neck, on her paws up to above her elbows and knees, around her shoulders and hips, on top of her muzzle, where it ran past, then wrapped around, her eyes, and her underbelly.

As the creature took a crouching step forward, Aaliya realized the patches were scales!

Dragon-like scales!

A feminine voice in her head caused Aaliya to start.  You and your friend may wish to turn away, young druidess.  This is going to be…messy, it warned.

Aaliya turned her head to the side, wrapping an arm around Denai’s eyes as she did so.

The creature let out a single, terrifying howl.  Then there were screams, the sound of tearing flesh, breaking bones, and finally, blissfully…

Nothing.

I apologize for the mess, but these fools tried to escape.  My companion demanded that none were to survive.

Aaliya removed her arm from Denai’s face and heard a sharp intake of breath as she turned her own head back around.

Only to practically come nose to nose with the amazing, beautiful, terrifying…beast.

I am no beast!  The creature’s mental voice almost sounded affronted.

“I’m sorry?” Aaliya hesitantly muttered.

Apology accepted.

“You said we weren’t allowed to survive.  Does that mean you’re going to kill us too?  Will you at least make it quick?”

The creature snorted out a sound that seemed suspiciously like a wolfish snicker, before the voice sounded in Aaliya’s mind again.  The soldiers and people in charge, young druidess.  Not the staff…nor slaves.  You are safe.

Aaliya breathed out a sigh of relief, the hammering heartbeat in her ears finally starting to slow.  “Oh.  Thank you.”

Denai slowly turned her head, not wanting to take her eyes off the wolfish creature.  “Lia?  Are you talking to…it?”

The wildven nodded, “Yeah.  I don’t know how, but I am.”

“Are we safe?  Is it going to hurt us?”

Aaliya started nodding after the first question.  “She says we are.  I trust her, Denai.”

Antoryso is my name.

The wildven smiled.  “Her name’s Antoryso.”

The Viatore girl turned back to the animal.  “Umm…  Nice to meet you Antoryso.  Will you help us get out of here?”

The corners of the creature’s muzzle lifted in a grin as her silver blue eyes flashed.  Not only will I help you get out of here, I was sent to find you.  The animal turned around and started toward the hole in the wall.  Come along now, we do not have all day.

Aaliya shook her head.  “Come on.  Antoryso wants us to follow her.  She says she was sent for us.”

Denai stiffened before starting to laugh.  She turned toward Aaliya and kissed her on the forehead.  “It’s him!  He’s come for us!”  She hopped to her feet and offered Aaliya a hand up.  “Life’s about to change for us, Lia.  Big time.”

Aaliya sighed, although the corners of her lips quivered, almost lifting in a smile.  “If you say so.  We should hurry up, I don’t think it’s smart to keep Antoryso waiting.”

Chapter 4

It didn’t take them long to reach the rear door to the great hall.

Especially with Antoryso leading the way.

With the wolf—Dracowulf, Aaliya silently corrected herself—escorting them, there was no need to duck into rooms to avoid others.  In fact, twice they ran directly into pairs of guards.

Guards who took one look at the enormous, deadly creature with its blood covered muzzle, and immediately fled back the way they had come, suddenly remembering pressing business elsewhere.

As they approached the door, Aaliya could hear raised voices from inside causing her steps to falter.

Are you well?  Is there an issue?  Antoryso’s voice echoed through her mind as the dracowulf glanced back.

“I’m fine.  I just, well, I don’t want to go in there.”

Because of the yelling?

Aaliya nodded.  “Nothing good ever comes from yelling.”

The wildven swore Antoryso shot her a wolfish grin.  Not true.  Especially in this case.  This is the good guys, the people who brought me, confronting your master.

“Come on, Sprite.  Our future’s in that room.  Our freedom,” Denai promised with a smile.

Aaliya took a deep breath and slowly inclined her head.  “All right.  Let’s go.”

Antoryso nodded and started moving forward again, picking up her pace until she was running.

She never slowed as she slammed into the door, causing the wooden frame to crack where it had been securely bolted and the door to swing inward, before the hinges also gave way and it fell inside with a resounding thud.  The two girls hesitantly stepped inside, the tenseness in the room palpable.

The room itself was bathed in bright light from multiple light stones in expensive sconces interspersed between even more expensive tapestries.  Numerous flowers and plants ringed the walls of the room, their scents intermixing in a pleasant aroma that triggered distant, almost forgotten memories of running down forest paths in Aaliya’s mind.

The largest was a tree sitting in a solid platinum planter directly toward their left, on the top of a three-tiered dais and directly behind where their master, an overweight human, was standing.  He spun toward them when they entered with a surprised expression on his face.  On each side of him stood one of the friends he had invited for the ‘celebration’ the previous evening.  Aaliya counted six guards on the tier below, twice that on the lowest one, and probably another one and a half times that on the floor surrounding the dais.

Opposite them, standing right inside the main entry door were…five people.

Thirty-nine against five.

We’re dead.

Admittedly, the five looked impressive.

A hulking tigron felidine stood on the far left, a man easily almost seven feet tall, the tiger stripes on his face highlighting a wicked smile as he casually held a sword larger than Aaliya loosely in one hand and a massive shield in the other.

On the far right stood a young blonde girl not much older than them, a masquerade mask made of twisted, black metal wires on her face doing little to hide her beauty.  Clutched in her arms was a porcelain doll with reddish blonde hair, red lines like scars running from each side of her forehead, through her eyebrows, over her eyes, around her cheeks and connecting to her blood red lips.

Lips that I swear lifted in a smirk.

Next to the tigron, and a step closer, stood a tall elven woman with red glowing eyes below her raven hair, a white streak in it almost shining an incandescent white.  Aaliya started slightly when she realized the elven woman had fangs, a fact which startled her more than the lightning playing around her hands and flowing up and down her arms in random sparks.

Beside and in front of the blonde girl was another, shorter, elven woman dressed in green and gold.  One who directed the most compassionate and caring look that Aaliya had ever seen their way.

In the lead was a man dressed in black leather armor with leather cloak that had its hood up, casting his face in shadow; all Aaliya could make out was a dark goatee.  He clutched swords in each leather gauntleted hand, the tips of his fingers revealed through openings in the leather.  “Come here,” he practically growled.

“Smoke!” the elven woman in green chided.  “They’re scared and that voice certainly isn’t helping.”  She turned her head toward them, “Come here, ladies.  You’re safe now.”

As soon as Aaliya and Denai took a step forward their master shouted, “Stop!  Stay where you are.”  He seemed to think on it for a moment.  “Actually, get back to your rooms.  No one gave you permission to leave them.”

“Ignore him,” the leather cloaked man advised, shaking his head.  “He is latching onto his last feeble amount of power. He has yet to grasp that not only does he no longer control you anymore, he has no control over anyone anymore.” The cloak hood tilted to the side slightly as the man turned toward their master.  “In fact, if he wants any chance to survive this at all, however miniscule, he will remain silent.”

Denai and Aaliya started forward again before their master bellowed, “I ordered you back to your room!”  When they froze, he turned toward the group of five.  “In case you didn’t notice, you are vastly outnumbered.”

The tigron chuckled, “In case you didn’t notice, we were outnumbered outside too.  Didn’t seem to mean much.”  He shrugged, “Then again, maybe I’m wrong.  Counting and math were never my strong points.”

“Hah!” the raven-haired elf rolled her eyes.  “Unless you’re counting cards and gambling, you mean.”

“Completely different.”

“Shut up!” the girl’s master ordered.

“Wow.  Rude much?”

The lord’s eyes narrowed as he returned his gaze to the group’s leader.  “I believe you wanted Denai Denai?”

“Yes,” the hooded man replied.

“We could make a deal. She’ll serve you—”

“Shut up. As I basically told you, I am not here to purchase her, fool. I am here to free her.”

“Then, I suppose without her, you have no reason to stay.”  One of their master’s friend’s eyes widened and he reached out.

Too late as their master lifted a crossbow and fired it directly at Denai.

Time once again slowed for Aaliya, the streaking bolt suddenly slowing to a crawl as it headed toward her best, and only, friend.

No…

Her sister.

The slightly older girl had always looked out for her.  Deflected attention from her as best she could.  Taken responsibility for broken dishes or forgotten chores.

Not that Denai hadn’t forgotten her own share of those!

Five feet.  Four feet.

Three feet away from Denai’s head.

Aaliya thrust her arm out toward her friend, releasing a bloodcurdling scream of, “No!”

Her shriek was drowned out by a rumble that quickly turned into a roar as the young wildven’s eyes momentarily flashed emerald green.

Stonework exploded upward from numerous areas of the floor as giant roots erupted from the dirt underneath.  They twisted and writhed over the floor, as the streaking fragments they flung away elicited startled yelps of pain from both the groups.

Aaliya, however, ignored the chaos, her eyes focused solely on her friend.

And on the vines that had lashed out from multiple of the potted plants lining the walls and directly into the path of the bolt, intercepting it before it struck.

Only then did Denai’s brain register the original attack, her hand coming up too late to have stopped anything as she staggered backward.  “Aaliya?”

Aaliya stared at her hand for a moment before meeting the other girl’s dark eyes.  “I don’t…  Don’t know…”  She looked over her friend’s shoulder to see the solid platinum planter on the dais had shattered into a million pieces as the tree had grown, breaking through into the second floor, the limbs wrapping around her mas—former master—and his friends, even hoisting a few of the guards off their feet.

Her gaze flickered over to the newcomers, seeing looks of surprise etched on their faces, except for the hooded man, the right corner of his lips lifted in a lopsided grin.  “Nyneeve, Rasse, Ryso. Get the girls out of here. They need not witness this.”

The next few moments were a blur as Antoryso nudged them forward, into the waiting arms of the green and gold clad elven woman, who must be Nyneeve.  The hulking felidine, probably Rasse, lifted each of them up and over some of the more massive roots as Aaliya distantly heard her master cursing them.

Chapter 5

Soon enough they stood in the front courtyard, the signs of battle surrounding them, as a few people followed the gesticulations of a white-haired elven woman on where to move the bodies.

Aaliya stood there, numb and unresponsive, as Rasse and Nyneeve spoke, Denai stepping up and fielding the questions while glancing back at her, dark eyes glittering with concern.

Aaliya had no idea how long passed like that, but eventually she heard the hooded man’s voice chuckling.  “Well, looks like we found not only Denai, but a young druidess, too. And a powerful one at that. Bonus.”

Aaliya came back to the present as Denai laughed, “You remember me, Your Highness?”

“Not a title I claim anymore, but of course. How could I forget the two-year-old who criticized my dancing so harshly?”

“I was three, almost four, thank you.”

“I stand corrected.”  Suddenly, piercing blue, troubled eyes were staring down, into Aaliya’s eyes.  “And you are?”

“Aaliya, sir.”  She hesitated for a moment before blurting, “What’s going to happen to us?”

He glanced at Nyneeve, studying the small elven woman, before he laughed.  She felt her face heat up.  I can’t believe he actually laughed!  “Well, we came to rescue Denai. But, if you want, you are more than welcome to come with us.”

“As a slave?”

His eyes glowed, truly glowed, a brilliant sapphire blue for a moment.  “Never. As our friend. And maybe someday, if you decide you want to be, family.”

Her eyes teared up and she turned away, looking back toward the manor.

Or what was left of it.

Vines had magically grown all over the front of the stone manor, almost encasing the front door in their green grasp.  Some grew so high that they wrapped around the chimney, and she swore one actually grew out of it.

Her eyes strayed to the huge, cylindrical chimney that vented the heat from the kitchen’s massive ovens.  Part of a newly born, although still incredibly large, oak tree burst through the side, curling around the cylinder like a serpent, while another part sprang directly through the top, its jade green leaves reaching, yearning, toward the sunlight.

Toward life.

Like she yearned for freedom…

And family.

“I think I’d like that.”