Rogues

The sun was beginning to rise as Blake finally woke. At first he was just a lump of materials wriggling around, but then he emerged from his bed, his hair ruffed up all over the place.

If I was true to myself I could admit that this look was completely adorable, but right now I was angry. Not particularly with just Blake, but the entire set up that I had been dropped into. I had been trailing after Blake for days now heading to some place I had no knowledge of, to fulfil some plan that I knew nothing about. I was infuriated; therefore my silent treatment towards Blake was no surprise to him.

I had begun my silence after that first night. He hadn’t really noticed it at the time as he had taken off with Blaze as soon as we had saddled up, leaving me behind again. When we stopped though, my frustrated silence became more obvious.

I had hoped to annoy him, but it only seemed to amuse him, which made my anger bubble and roil. When he said something nasty it hit my heart but when I tried to be spiteful it only made him laugh.

“Morning, Miss Grumpy Pants,” he said abnormally cheerfully. “Still attempting the silent treatment? You know that’s very childish.”

I glared at him angrily but he just smiled. He was definitely a morning person.

I rolled over in my bed away from him and snuggled further down into the blankets. After days of constant riding, the early mornings and the same food, I was getting grumpier. I hated this strict schedule and moving constantly. It wasn’t like I didn’t know how it felt to be constantly on the move. That had been my life for as long as I could remember, but having to deal with his constant changing behaviour, seemed to make it so much worse.

And to top it all off, it felt like we were getting nowhere. After days of seeing just rolling grass seas and a few speckled trees here and there, it felt like we were riding in circles. I shot him another glare. I knew we weren’t going in circles, but I had no idea where we were going, and I wouldn’t have put it past Blake to have us go in circles, just to annoy me. It was constantly burning in the back of my mind.

“Look, Kida, the reason we can’t tell you is so you don’t get hurt,” Blake had tried to explain, talking to my back as if he knew my thoughts. “The more you know, the more things people can coerce out of you.”

I turned to look at him with my grumpy face in place. He looked utterly serious but I had no idea what he was talking about. “Coerce?”

“Oh right… well it means they will use any tactic to get information from you,” Blake said, his amusement fading to the hard mask that normally inhabited his face. “Torture you, or your family, anyone close to you in fact.”

“Well, that doesn’t affect me then does it?” I snapped at him. His words had struck a chord, far deeper than I was willing to admit to him or myself. “Because I don’t have any family or friends, do I?”

An emotion flitted over his face that I did not recognise but he came and sat next to me on my bed. He looked down at me seriously, his eyes meeting mine.

“Just because you think you don’t have anyone else to rely on, doesn’t mean you don’t.”

I was utterly speechless, as he seemed to realise the awkwardness, his body tensing and then he got up and walked over to Blaze, and began to rub her down with her favourite brush. Midnight stood a little way away watching them intently, a curious look in his eye. I smiled at my horse as he took a few cautious steps over to them and he stood silently behind Blake who continued to brush Blaze down, unaware of the horse behind him.

A giggle slipped through my tight locked lips and Blake turned to look at me with his eyebrows raised. I rolled onto the ground laughing when I saw the shocked look on Blake’s face as he came face to face with Midnight standing right behind him, his big eyes looking down at him.

“Control your horse,” Blake growled, fury lighting his eyes. 

“He just wants some attention that’s all,” I laughed brightly.

“Well you brush him down then.”

He threw the brush at me, which I only just caught with an outstretched arm.

I picked myself up off the ground gingerly and stretched my arms and legs momentarily before walking over to my horse.

Midnight tossed his head around quickly before settling down, enjoying the feeling of being brushed.

“We will be leaving soon,” Blake added roughly, his eyes darkening to a burnt ochre colour.

I rolled my eyes and began gently brushing down Midnight’s hind legs. Blake frustrated me. I thought that I could deal with anyone, but his constant movement and anger seemed to make any moment full of tension. It didn’t help that every now and then, he would seem to let his guard down and he would actually be so sensitive and so… I didn’t even have the words to explain what it was. It was as if he actually cared. Ha, Blake actually caring? I had a feeling that I would get more emotion from a rock.

I watched him look up at the sky and the dark clouds that were rolling in from the way we had come. They were approaching fast and if we didn’t leave soon they would catch up to us.

In my lack of concentration, I had stopped brushing Midnight and he caught my attention by head-butting my shoulder.

“Sorry,” I mumbled to him. “And that hurt,” I added with a whine, tapping him with the back of the brush.     

I felt him become happier again as I brushed down his mane and body, making sure I got all the dirt off of him.

“All nice and clean.” I gave his nose a quick kiss.

I rushed to pack up my minimal gear and saddle Midnight up, fearing the storm that was heading our direction, and fast.

Blake was already waiting for me, seated high up on Blaze’s back.

“Hurry up,” he growled, his brooding eyes focussed on the increasingly darkening sky. “Dig your heels in when your ride and you will be able to go faster.”

Midnight stood as still as possible while I mounted him, trying as hard as I could to not fall off.

Blake set off at a gallop as soon as I had sat in the saddle, and I had to turn Midnight quickly to follow him at an awkward canter.

The jolting movements hurt my already bruised and sore body even more, and I struggled not to make a noise as we rode.

“I guess we should try and catch up,” I said, leaning down to talk into Midnight’s ear.

Instantly I felt the horse pick up speed and surprisingly his rocking momentum settled to become an easier ride. I did as Blake said, pushing my heels down towards the ground.

We caught up to Blake easily, Midnight’s powerful legs pushing us forward at an increasing pace. I laughed as we rode past, enjoying the feel of the wind whipping my hair around my face. I felt like I was flying. The pain that had coursed through my body, seemed to melt away in my joy.

We stopped at the outskirts of a small, deserted town. The windows on some of the small houses were boarded up and there was no one in sight. The buildings were covered in webs from spiders and many of them looked on the verge of falling down in places.

Blake slid off Blaze quickly, leading her in the gates. I followed his actions, pulling Midnight in the same direction. I could feel Midnight almost shiver in the eerie silence that seemed to surround us, almost having a blanketing feeling.

“Blake where ar-,” I began but he silenced me with a raised hand in warning.

I froze and in the corner of my eye I saw Midnight’s ears flatten against his head. I knew nothing about horses but I could tell from the thrill of fear that filled my chest that it was not good. I touched his huge head and felt the uneasiness he was feeling. Something was not right here.

A bird flew out of an opening in a roof to my right and I screamed.

Blake jumped and turned to me with fierce eyes, but stopped his angry words. He tipped his head to the side and looked back in the direction of a large building that stood in the centre of a square in front of us.

It may have once stood tall and proud with shiny brass embellishments, but now it looked as shabby and decrepit as the other houses that surrounded it.

A deep reverberating growl began to vibrate in the air and Midnight and Blaze whinnied in fear, pulling hard against the reigns that Blake and I held. The ground seemed to rumble and I felt my feet slip slightly as the dirt beneath my feet shook with a sudden force. Glints of light flashed through the dark holes in the building and several men appeared with swords in hand. One stood in front of the others; his mouth masked but I could see his bright, electric blue eyes were looking straight at me. 

There was something odd about them, something I recognised briefly, but couldn’t quite grasp onto what it was.

Their tall, muscled builds and gleeful expressions sent warnings to my muscles. Run!

“Let’s get out of here. Now,” Blake warned his tone dark. His eyes darted to me, wide and with an expression I had never seen in them before.

He launched himself onto Blaze and paused only momentarily to make sure I did the same, before taking off in a cloud of dust.

I followed him, urging Midnight on faster and faster. I ignored the pain that bit at my legs and back, pushing through it until we had reached a small grouping of trees, a half an hour ride away from the town.

I was glad to leave the town behind and its decrepit buildings. Those people were not the kind of people that seemed to want to sit and chat. There was an awful stench that had clung onto my clothes and hair leaving me to gag every time a strand flew into my face. If I had not felt Midnight unease and terror I would have felt a curiosity burning to investigate the deserted town. Where had all the people gone? When had they left and most importantly, why? And those people. Who were they? What did they want? I had felt scared as soon as I set my eyes upon them. Especially the blue-eyed man but at the same time there was almost a pull towards them.

A small part of my mind cringed at this thought. I should know better than that. My upbringing should have taught me something. Mostly it had taught me to run away, and I had become very good at it. Running away was just simply what I did – it solved all my problems.

My heart beat faster at the thought.

When I reached the place where Blake had stopped, I slid off Midnight gingerly and tied him next to Blaze. She glanced at him momentarily but then went back to munching on the grass at her feet.

Blake rounded on me the moment he saw me. “What took you so long?”

“What? I rode as fast as I could!”

“It’s not fast enough.”

“Well, I’m sorry, it’s kind of hard to ride fast when you have no idea what you are really doing. And who was that? Why did they look as if they wanted to attack us?”

I could hear my voice getting louder and louder, the pitch of it getting higher in my panic. Blake glared at me, a deadly glint of fury in his fiery eyes.

“How dare you speak to me that way,” he seethed, his voice low and dangerous. I noted how he ignored my questions, instead choosing to respond to my anger.

I stepped back only slightly, my emotions rolling.

“I will speak to you how I want,” I yelled, my heart hammering away in my chest. I was caught up in his anger, feeling my biting response wanting to be freed. “Did you not see those… those people?” Adrenaline flowed through my veins like poison, setting my emotions on edge. “And anyway, you can’t control me. I’m not one of your stupid magicians that will follow your every order like a puppy.”

Blake’s hand twitched slightly, his glare murderous. I thought he was going to do something, anything – retort with anger, but he simply turned on his heel and stormed off.

As he walked away, I felt the world cool suddenly. The knot of worry in the pit of my stomach tensed. He had been using magic.

I grabbed my bed and unfurled it on the ground next to the crackling fire Blake had already set up. Its warmth was extraordinary and I snuggled ever closer just in the hope it might soothe my aches and settle my nerves.

Blake returned some time later, his face a cold, smooth mask. He hid all emotion as he flopped down on the ground and ran his hand through his dark hair and down his face in frustration. His eyes still burned furiously.

“Who was that?”

Blake refused to look at me, instead rummaging through his pack. “I don’t know.”

“What? How can you not know?”

“I don’t know,” he said again emphasising each word, this time looking at me his face grim, and his tone dark. “What I do know is that they were werewolves, as least most of them were. Rogues I would assume by the state of their living arrangements. But it seems they are hunting us.”

I glanced around, fear pressing against my skin. “Hunting us? Why?” I squeaked out; my voice pinched in my panic. My ears pricked, trying to hear the slightest sound. If they were hunting us, surely they would be close. “Then why are we resting?”

“They won’t attack tonight.”

“Why not?” I blurted out, my voice hitching.

Blake gave me a hard look, his eyes cold. “Because, they need to catch up first.”

“But…”

“They had no horses,” he said in a growl. His fists clenched in front of him, his knuckles whitening. “They won’t catch up tonight.”

“But…”

“No more, Kida,” he growled, giving the conversation a definite end.

I opened my mouth in anger, ready to protest, but held it in. Maybe he was right. Why would he tell me any different if they were coming? I analysed his posture, noting how he was calm, almost slouched. Surely he wouldn’t have been so calm if he knew they would be close. Still, fear prickled along my skin, my hairs standing up. Werewolves, seriously? And rogues at that. Why were they hunting us? Who sent them? So many questions circled around in my head, making it difficult to settle.

I knew very little about werewolves, other than there were only a few packs scattered around, so finding so many rogues together was hard to believe. I had met a few wolves who had come visiting in Verdana, but they never stayed too long in town, and they tended not to socialise with others outside of their pack. Their conversations were always short and to the point.

But I knew they were strong, powerful even. They would easily kill a non-magical human if they chose to, and the idea that rogues were after us, it was terrifying.

Rogues had no boundaries, no morals. Once they are kicked out of their packs, or choose to leave on their own, they normally lose their human side.

I tried to lie down in an effort to stop my brain from thinking a mile a minute, but my body screamed out in pain when I moved. I ended up having to groan and huff and puff several times to push through the pain until I was comfortable. I tried not to make the noises audible but some of them escaped my lips.

I could feel Blake’s piercing gaze on me again. I tilted my head to look at him out of the corner of my eye.

“What?”

“You are in pain but yet you say nothing and keep riding on.”

The sun was just starting to slip below the horizon so when I looked at his face, it glowed orange with the light from the fire and the colour of the sunset.

“Yeah, so what? What else do you expect me to do? You don’t exactly give me a lot of choice now, do you?”

I let my head relax against my pillow to stop my neck from aching.

I heard Blake ‘hmmm’ in the background and then a soft shuffling and soon he entered my sight, his face inches from mine.

“What are you doing?” I screamed in shock, pushing at him.

“I was going to help you feel better, but I won’t if you’re going to be ridiculous.” His eyes glinted furiously.

I looked up at him, analysing his face as much as I could. I took in the sharp line of his jaw and the brightness of the red hue of his eyes. His nose had a slight curve with a bump at the ridge as if it had been broken. His dark hair fell across his forehead in a way that made me want to ruffle it and fix it as it still stood up on odd angles.

He touched my arm softly and a line of fire ran up it and into my chest. I gasped and saw him rock back onto his heels. His hand withdrew quickly and he frowned deeply in a concerned manner that made my heart beat faster in an unnatural way.

“That should help.”

I took a few deep breaths as I tried to become accustomed to the strange burning sensation that was winding its way through my body, realising that it was slowly starting to release. The muscles in my back and legs were growing warm as if they had been submerged in a hot bath. They felt relaxed and when I went to move them, they reacted easily with no resistance.

I sat up slowly, testing the renewed movement. I smiled at him shrewdly. This was the first time he had ever done something for me that really showed his compassionate side. Maybe he actually wasn’t as cold hearted as I thought.

“Thanks, that’s so much better.”

My hope that this was a turning point in our relationship soon died when his next words left his lips. “Good, now tomorrow we can ride faster so we will actually reach the safety Callad and then can meet with Kenai this century.”

I pursed my lips and frowned in his direction. I knew there was more to what he was saying. The rogues. He wanted to get as far away as possible from them. 

“What is Callad like?” I asked softly, trying to reign in my emotions.

Busy making us the usual soup, Blake didn’t answer at first until he had placed a steaming bowl in my frozen hands, warming them instantly.

“Callad… well, it is much different to Verdana. It is bigger, busier and definitely more crowded,” Blake answered with a scowl. “But it is also very beautiful, and is home to the Magician school where we will be staying.”

As if to end the conversation Blake began to sip slowly at his soup. I didn’t realise how hungry I was until I could smell the delicious aromas that were coming from the bowl in my hands. 

Without as much as a thank you, I began digging in to the food, slurping and shoving as much in as I could. When Blake offered me some bread I snatched it gratefully and shoved it fully into my mouth.

The look of disgust he gave me, made me stop and think for a moment. I was not being very lady like, or for that matter, very human.

I took a moment to regain some composure, and dignity and then began eating in a more civilised way. I found that I began to further enjoy the flavour of the soup and its warmth was soon spreading to my whole body.

“Just as good as last time,” I said with a warm smile in an attempt to rid him of his grumpy attitude.

He sat down on his bed, the warm crackling fire between us. The thought of fire brought many questions to the front of my mind.

“When did you figure out you could use magic?” I blurted, the words coming out before my thoughts caught up. I needed something to distract me from the haunting memory of the blue-eyed man and the rogues that were tracking us.

He looked up at me thoughtfully, his eyes matching the colour of the flames between us. He ran his hand through his dark hair, which tousled it at odd angles.

“I was about thirteen,” he said with a slight annoyance. His eyes were slightly unfocussed as he remembered the time.

“What happened?”

Blake focussed his intense gaze at me and the fire simmered down until it went out and a trail of smoke spiralled away into the night.

“I set fire to my father’s work bench.”

I didn’t know whether to be shocked or amused. The limited light of the moon cast an eerie glow across our encampment. I could only just make out his features in the darkness.

“My father had been yelling at me for leaving one of his tools out in the rain,” he continued. “He was a blacksmith,” he added when I looked confused.

With a nod and a smile he continued.

“It made me so… angry, I just lost control and fire came shooting out of my hands and soon his bench was ablaze.”

With a small, dark smile he looked into the darkness behind me, his eyes distracted.

“Did you stop it?”

“I couldn’t,” he answered with a short, dry laugh. “I had no idea how I started it. But I was lucky. Darius had been in town and had felt me draw the power. He said I was one of the most powerful young magicians he had ever felt, and especially at such a young age. It was a sign from the Magicians that I was one of the five.”

I must have looked confused again because he sighed and rolled his eyes, annoyed at me again.

“Most magicians gain their power as they grow and are able to access it and master it. But I was able to use a lot of power, right at the beginning of maturity. Darius took me immediately to teach me to master my power. Generally, magic that powerful doesn’t begin to present itself until a child is at least fifteen or sixteen. It was considered… odd.”

If he wasn’t so cold most of the time, I would have felt a deep seeded empathy for him. He had been taken away from his parents at such a young age. 

Blake looked away as if thinking, before he focussed his attention back on me. The way he looked at me I felt as if I was back in the orphanage. Questions raced through my mind but I bit my tongue unsure of what to ask.

I thought of the one question that might get me closer to finding out what was going on with me.

“How do you get magic?” I asked softly. I attempted to be flippant about it, as if it didn’t really matter to me where or not he answered. “Does it run in families or…?”

“Magic is a random occurrence, but it has been known to run in families. Generally if a magician is strong and powerful, their children will contain traces of magic, but not necessarily as strong.” His eyes focussed intently on mine for a moment, answering questions I had not even verbalised. “I don’t think I have ever heard of a powerful magician having a child even stronger. It just doesn’t work that way.”

Blake then leant back on his bed and closed his eyes. He looked so peaceful apart from the furrow of his brow, which showed his constant annoyance or anger.

“But what about you?” I whispered timidly.

“Me?”

“Yeah, did your parents…”

“No,” he said icily. “They had no abilities, but thanks to mine...”

He stopped midsentence as if thinking better of where the conversation was going, and then all of a sudden rolled over away from me. I knew that that was the end of the conversation. I could feel an awful tightness in my chest, but it ached in a dull way. I could feel his pain, but I knew he was trying to hold it in, trying to control it.

It only made me more curious about him and his history. We had spent so much time together, yet I knew nothing about him. My burning curiosity would have to wait though it seemed.

My freshly healed muscles ached softly in the background of my mind as I stretched out on the bed and snuggled into the pillow.

Sleep came swiftly, considered the fears that played in my mind about the mercs, followed by dreams of a younger Blake setting fire to a house in his anger.

I smiled in my sleep and rolled over to get more comfortable, happy Blake had finally shared some of his life with me. In that moment it felt like maybe he was beginning to see that I was more than worth the pain in the neck that he believed me to first be.