Kidnapped

Alyssa had bound the healer’s hands and feet. The unconscious man was naked when she had pulled him out of the water. She had found his breeches and made him wear it, wincing every second as her blood heated by his nakedness. Right now he was thrown across the saddle, his foot and hand tied beneath the belly of the horse to secure him from falling. 

She was racing her horse through the forest in order to reach her makeshift log cabin. It was the wee hours of the morning. The first rays of sun weren’t out. She was sure that the men in his camp must have been still sleeping. And her cabin was pretty far. It would take her an hour to reach. “Ugh!” she hated the fact that her witchery rarely ever worked. She would have created a portal otherwise. 

As the horse raced, she looked at the healer’s assistant who was hauled across the horse. A very fine man. She envied him. She would have been in his place had she been selected as Tova’s apprentice. 

The sun was up in the sky and she knew that if she didn’t hurry, Tova would send his men to find Fenris. She reached the makeshift log cabin and dismounted the horse to collect every belonging. She didn’t want to leave a trace. Knowing that the Lykae had a very strong sense of smell, as soon as she was out of the cabin, she set it on fire so that her smell would burn with it. 

Alyssa reached her horse to mount it again when she heard the man groaning. 

“Shit!” she said aloud. Picking up a thick log from the ground, she hit him again on the head and the man’s head lolled rendering him unconscious all over again. Scared as hell that she had killed him, Alyssa checked for his pulse on the neck. The lykae was alive. “Phew!” she breathed out, wiping her brow. She mounted her horse and rode to her home where she knew that Benny was already waiting. 

As Alyssa rode down the forest, she remembered how she had kidnapped him and frustration raged inside her. She had waited for a long time in her place to bring her plan to fruition. 

--- 

A few hours back before dawn. 

“Where the hell is he?” Alyssa muttered under her breath. She was scanning the surroundings consisting of thick foliage. Her gaze swept over the thick and gentle waterfall of the loch and she gritted her teeth for not being able to spot the healer’s assistant.

She had seen his horse, a black stallion with a white paw, which was tied to a tree only a few meters away and which was now watching her with his black eyes. “Don’t look at me like that!” she chided the horse in a low voice. He stomped his front feet and the brown saddlebag that hung from the side swayed violently as if he was trying to warn his master. She wondered what all herbs it must be filled with. Why couldn’t the Lore have cars and other amenities like the human realm? She hated the rules of the Lore—no pollution. Ugh! 

Alyssa, a half-human, half-witch—basically more human because she sucked at her witchery, had followed Fenris, assistant of the best healer of the Lore—Tova to the loch. She had come alone not because she wanted to, but because there was no one to help her out. Benny

So, while following the group from a distance for two days as Tova’s troupe travelled through Vonhurst forests, he had kept an eye on Fenris’s activities as Alyssa waited in a small makeshift log cabin. Benny observed that the man was a stickler for taking a bath and he would take it everyday in the morning before members of the group woke up because he had to collect the much needed herbs from the forest and then wash off his dirt. After giving her this much information, the boy had run for his life, back to her small shop, leaving her alone to carry out the plan in the forest. 

She muttered a curse under her breath. “Arse!”

Suddenly Alyssa saw a movement behind the waterfall, towards the edge of it, and she lowered herself behind the boulder she was hiding at out of fear. A moment later when she braced herself with confidence, she scrambled up to look again and spotted the healer behind the waterfall. Her eyes flew open. From the thin veil of water, she could make out his broad, muscular shoulders. He was wiping his hair behind making all those muscles ripple on his back, water spraying in droplets. His back was V-shaped, narrowing down just over his hips. He was knee deep in water. 

Her breath caught in her throat. How would she knock him hard enough to make him unconscious? The waterfall was about fifteen feet high and if she managed to climb it, she was sure he wouldn’t be able to hear the noise because of the gushing noise of the waterfall. 

A leg jutted out of the water. Was he coming out? “Oh no!” she mumbled. She had to be quick in carrying out her plans. If the man came out, she would never be able to catch him. Quickly, she moved out from her place and ran to the top of the loch, cowering and trying to make as less noise as possible by jumping over the fallen logs and crunching the dried leaves. “I need tae take him with me!” she breathed. 

She wanted to force Fenris into telling her everything about healing or make him quit his job and become Tova’s assistant. Ah! The dream…

She was a witch, but had special interest in being a healer. Being born out of wedlock to the Witch Queen, she was never accepted in the royal house even though her mind was razor sharp as compared to her three younger siblings. 

“I have to take him down for my success!” Alyssa whispered justifying her action and picked up a heavy log from the side—one that she was planning to drop on his head from the top. But she shoved that idea. Instead, she now held the thick log in her hands and stalked towards her prey. As she slowly waddled through the water from behind the man, who was now bent and washing his leg, she positioned the log in her hand to the side. Alyssa took a deep breath. She had never done this ever, and she hesitated. Looking at her prize, she shook her head slightly. Muttering, “I can do this!” she swung the log at his head. 

To her shock, the man raised his bent arm on the side and the log met his elbow with so much force that it splintered. Her wide green eyes looked in his furious brown ones. Angered as hell, the man took a step forward to grab her. Breath left her lungs. Her first attempt failed. Perhaps Benny was right in his warning. A squeal left her inadvertently. She staggered back in the pool of water. Her feet toppled over a stone and she fell down. Her red hair cascaded over her shoulders. 

“Ouch!” She cried. For a moment with her emerald green eyes she stared at the giant man in front of her, who was so intimidating, so terrifyingly beautiful and built like a warrior. How could he be a healer? Wait, was that a scar on his chest? If his body’s disposition weren’t enough, his angered and amused glare could kill her. Fearing that her plans would drown in water even before she could bring them to fruition, she gulped. 

With drawn brows, the man extended his hand towards her.

Scared, she squealed “No!” and threw a heavy stone that she had retraced from the waterbed at his temple. The stone hit him and Alyssa could have sworn that electricity zapped out for a fraction of a second when it contacted his skin. The man lost his balance. Her witchery worked? Next moment he staggered, groaning in pain and then fell back in the water, unconscious, splashing a large amount around him. 

Alyssa couldn’t believe herself. With a hitched breath, she got up to hold him before his body swept with the current in the river. 

And now Alyssa was galloping his horse with his body hauled across the saddle in the opposite direction of his men. 

“Fenris, you better stay like that till we reach my home!” she murmured. 

--- 

Over the past two days Fenris wasn’t feeling well. Yesterday he had gone to collect the herbs from the meadow they had passed through and when he came back, he had thrown up, his clothes smelling of Tormentil and myrtle. He couldn’t even get down the saddlebag from the horse and he ran to the sides to puke. Tova watched him from a distance as one of his men rubbed the lad’s back. When he helped Fenris to sit on a fallen log that was damp and covered with moss, the boy shivered. Tova got up and touched his head. “You got a fever. What did you have that night?” 

Fenris pursed his lips. He didn’t want to speak about his mis-adventure, but the General’s heavy presence was overwhelming. “I mixed some poppy seeds with my dinner… and then some with my whiskey… and then I just ate them like that… it was all an experiment, I swear!” 

Feeling extremely angry, Tova simply walked away from there or else he would have been tempted to punch the stupid boy. As he walked away, he called the man who helped Fenris, “Garry, come and prepare the tincture for him with me. And tomorrow, you won’t go to collect the herbs!” 

“But I—” he jaw turned into an ‘O’ when his stomach revolted all over again. 

Next day Tova was up before sunrise, and had gone to the meadows to collect the wild herbs that he knew belonged to this part of the Vonhurst forests. Like the Lykae he was, he walked along with his horse through the woods stomping the branches and twigs beneath his feet, as though he owned the place, towards the meadow. Fenris’s fever had increased and he needed more tormentil to make the tincture for him to have. 

His yearlong holiday was getting over in a few days and he had to return to Renada to take up his position. Ludwig had sent him several reminders already. His men had camped in the clearing for the night. At the pace they were going, they would reach Renada at least a week later. They were passing by the Scottish Highlands. At the end of the Vonhurst Forests, Ludwig’s men would be standing with a portal for him to enter Renada. Brishor, his dragon friend, had opened trade with Renada and the two kingdoms were flourishing well. He also helped them with a magical portal if needed. 

Tova had always been a warrior. But he became a Shaman and then a healer. Last year when for the first time in his life, he had fallen in love with a woman, a human, Penny, who Ludwig had rescued from a brothel, he thought that he would now settle down after marrying her. It was a lovely feeling to be with her, around her and smell her. However, his dreams came to an end when he found that Penny was irrevocably in love with Ludwig and so was his arrogant king.

Depression ensued, and he never expressed his love for her. He silently watched them from afar, trying to find his happiness in theirs. He tried to focus on his work, and tried to stay away from them. Nothing worked. 

And then, Haley the witch took Penny away. She conned her. The girl was pregnant and vulnerable. His heart had plummeted to his stomach. He hated the witch to the extent that if given a chance he would have killed her a thousand times over. In fact he hated every witch in the Lore. 

After fighting with Haley, Penny was rendered into a state of coma for so many days and everyday he fought with himself to find a solution for her. He couldn’t remember any. He blamed himself for her misery and was on the verge of losing his sanity. When at last she opened her eyes, she looked at him like the fire in her eyes was smothered by a bucket of ice water. Her blue eyes were paler than usual. He wanted her to bounce back like she always did, not able to bear the way she looked. He would mumble it next to her, “Come back Penny. I will not let you go…”

And then the solution was thrown in his face by an accident. When Ludwig brought Nestavel for her, she was cured. Something inside him during this ordeal snapped. All he wanted at that point of time was to become Lore’s best healer. Because then he would never let Penny or Ludwig slip into incurable diseases or fevers. But for that he had to leave Renada.

Tova’s hatred for witches was deep rooted. When he was just a child, the witch queen, Magda, had tried to kill his mother because according to his mother, she witnessed something about her, which could never be leaked out. 

After Penny had given birth to the twins, he just couldn’t stand it any longer. Tova Lermont, General of the kingdom of Renada, left to study the science of medicine with a vow—never to marry. The heartache after falling in unrequited love was too much to bear. Battle was better. But loving a woman—no way! 

He had worked and roamed around and studied a lot of literature of herbology. He picked up fast and soon became the best healer of the Lore. His skill was highly valued and the Lykae was in demand. People paid a heavy amount to him to heal them. In such a short time, he had earned a lot of money—in fact so much that he could own his own piece of land as large as any average establishment in Renada and build a lavish house there. His fortunes were crazy and he was now confident that he was equipped with enough knowledge that he could heal anyone. 

Since it had rained last night, the meadow was wetter and water gleamed in huge puddles. He mounted his horse. Tormentil was at the end of the meadow, its yellow blossoms gently swaying in the cool breeze. By the time Tova reached there, his boots, his breeches and his shirt were covered with sprays of mud and grass and water. He had plucked the herb in abundance and stuffed it in his saddlebag. Disgusted at his condition, he took his horse to a loch near his camp. 

And that’s where he was abducted.