HAYES

Zemra

Maius

Watching people get dragged away under Perian command was not an unfamiliar sight to Hayes, but it put a taste like metal into his mouth and a feeling like an anchor buried in the pit of his soul. This time was no different.

The legionnaires hefted the now-unconscious girl between them, carrying her away. General Rexha followed, as if daring anyone to do so as well. Hayes narrowed his eyes in anger at the man; Rexha was a friend of his father's. Hayes and Adrian had both practically grown up around the general and his ox of a son, Hector. However, the memories of playdates in the heart of the royal palace were wasted on him now, turning to dust in his mind.

Hayes glanced at Adrian, whose blue eyes were locked on the girl's retreating figure in the distance. After a moment, they averted to meet Hayes', much darker than they had been a moment before.

"This is bad," Adrian said.

"What gave it away?" Hayes retorted, only partially regretting it. He rolled his eyes, wiping a hand over his face. "We need to do something, but I don't know how with Rexha watching their backs like a hawk."

Hayes felt the stalemate coming in waves, no matter how hard he tried to resist. Neither he nor Adrian knew what do in this situation; they'd never been in it before. Somehow, all the strategy and combat Hayes had learned and trained over the course of his whole life seemed like it couldn't be accessed. There was no time in the heat of the moment to reflect on every lesson you ever learned, and that drove Hayes up a wall.

Initiative came not in the form of a mutual ideas borne of both boys, but rather, Hayes found, in the form of surprise.

"Well?" the matron of the Goat's Crown brought Hayes back down from the clouds of his frustration. He glanced over his shoulder, to her small frame, the tears in her green eyes. "Aren't you going after her?"

Hayes gaped, his mouth opening and closing like a fish's. "Of course, we are."

The woman narrowed her eyes at Hayes, glancing between him and Adrian. "Neither of you are very inconspicuous." She nodded to them, eyeing their clothing. "You stick out like a sore thumb, what with your legion weapons and noble clothes."

Adrian coughed. "We do?"

The woman nodded. Hayes watched her for a moment, unsure. She didn't seem to know who Adrian was, only that they weren't from around here.

"Are we going to continue exchanging pleasantries or are you going to go save Myria?" the woman asked.

Myria. So that was her name, Hayes thought. It was pretty, like her, and exuded a sense of hidden strength, also like her.

Hayes took a deep breath, calling upon all his military training to keep him credible, and bowed deeply to the woman. "Thank you for your kindness, ma'am. Do you know where we'll be able to find them?"

The woman shrugged, wiping away some of the stray tears slipping down her face. "The General is a corrupted man. He executes punishment for all to see. Try the village center, if he hasn't already shipped her away to the capital."

Hayes nodded. He and Adrian both fumbled for his money to pay the matron back for her kindness and her info, when she held up a hand to stop him.

"No need for that," she said, her voice soft. "The only payment I ask of you is that you find Myria and save her from that wretched excuse of a man."

"We will, ma'am." Adrian bowed to her, a hand over his heart as a sign of respect.

Hayes followed suit, and then he and Adrian were flying out the door, their cloaks snapping in the rising wind behind them.

"Think we'll be too late?" Adrian asked as they ran.

Hayes shook his head. "Let's hope not."

They sprinted through Zemra, kicking up mud in their wakes. Hayes thanked the gods for always being so fleet-footed, hoping that his agility wouldn't fail him now when it counted the most. With Adrian at his side, he darted around shacks and farms and trees, swerving around he children that had stopped dead in their tracks, eyes wide in the direction the General had gone. Mothers watched from doorways, hands to their mouths in shock. The sunlight and warmth of this spring day had been forgotten; a chill had settled over the small town of Zemra like rain soaking it to the bone.

Hayes ran as fast as he could, following the horrified faces of the villagers he passed. They were a map of where Myria had been taken, and by the Gods, they were going to save her in time. At least, he hoped.

Eventually, Hayes and Adrian skidded to a stop in a clearing in the center of town, nearly stumbling to the mud below. A fat raindrop plopped down onto Hayes's nose, and he looked up in confusion to find thunderclouds moving in over the azure sky—the gods were awake, and there would be hell to pay.

The sound of a whip snapping tore Hayes from his confusion. He turned, cloak flying about him, to see a group of soldiers in a semicircle standing nearby. General Rexha stalked between them, a whip trailing behind him through the mud. Collapsed to the muddy ground below was Myria. She'd come to now, watching the soldiers before her with a fiery eye.

Hayes tilted his head, examining Myria from afar. Despite having been unconscious and covered in mud with no real way to fight back, Myria appeared ready to attack. Her expression was that of a wolf, a bear, a lion. She bared her teeth at General Rexha, who emerged from the parted sea of his soldiers with a cocky look on his face.

"My, my, how the fox has been captured." The General's booming voice echoed like the thunder parting the clouds above them. He clasped his hands over the whip's handle, and Hayes watched as Myria's dark eyes followed the movement, and a flicker of fear filled her irises.

"Funny how you have so much to say in your little paper, yet nothing to say when faced with authority," the General taunted. He crouched down before Myria, whose head was turned away. He grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at him. "You will look at your superior when you're being addressed, girl."

Myria quirked a brow, as if she was almost astonished at what the man before her had told her. "I don't see a superior. I see a coward hiding behind a few rusty war medals."

General Rexha tightened his grip, his hand sliding to her throat. Myria's eyes filled with alarm, but she held her gaze. Her nostrils flared as she took in a deep breath, but the General jerked his hand away.

"You've a pretty face. Maybe, after your punishment, I'll see if you can evade the death sentence to...serve a more intriguing cause." The General grinned the way the scoundrels of the Skiffs back home would. "You could put that tongue of yours to good use."

And as Rexha's soldiers laughed and their eyes clouded over, Hayes felt a pang of rage well up in his heart. As fiery as Myria was, it was if that was a mask that had crumbled away in the growing gales. Fox no more, Myria was now just a frightened girl. A beautiful, frightened girl surrounded by lewd men.

A soldier took a step towards her, a hand already reaching towards the whip at his belt. That's when Hayes—no plan, no ideas—charged.

Suddenly, the young soldier's hand, outstretched towards Myria, was stopped in midair. Hayes stared the soldier down, tightening his grip around his arm. "If I were you, I'd step away. Foxes tend to bite."

When the soldier blinked at him, Hayes did the first thing that he could think of: he swung his free hand into the soldier's face. His nose cracked and with a spurt of blood, the soldier crumpled to the ground.

"Seize him!" General Rexha bellowed.

Hayes muttered a quick prayer: this was not going to plan. He stood his ground and unsheathed the sword at his side, the impinging soldiers doing the same. Something told him this fight wasn't going to be like those he'd had in his military training. No, these soldiers were experienced killers, and if Hayes wasn't careful, his blood would be on their hands.

A soldier struck at Hayes, and he jumped out of the way. He swung his sword, slashing across the soldier's arm and turning in time to miss being pierced by another saber. Hayes brought his elbow up to a nearby soldier's face, and as he stumbled away, Hayes turned to see Adrian leaping into the pulpit, sword drawn. His cloak obscured his face, but it was only a matter of time before it was thrown back and the General and his men realized who these new renegades were.

That's when time slowed down around Hayes, around the fight itself.

Parrying away another enemy, Hayes spun around to find Myria behind hefted up between two soldiers. She kicked and screamed, but with each shout and cry and shriek, the world around her seemed to listen. The raging wind increased to tempest-like gales, lightning arced through the sky, and trees trembled nearby. Finally, Myria brought her fist down with as much force as she could muster from her position, hitting the back of one of the soldiers carrying her. Where Myria's fist met the soldier's back, his armor turned slate gray. Like ink through water, the gray took over the soldier's body, rippling with cracks in some places. And then just like that, the soldier became stone.

Gods almighty, Hayes thought to himself, his eyes wide. Ice seemed to form within his veins, stopping his heart. The beautiful girl standing a few meters away was no longer an innocent peasant, but a thing of legends.

Hayes frowned, eyes narrowed. A thing of danger.

Myria's eyes bugged out of her head, but she used her shock to her advantage. She swung her fist down at the soldier carrying her, but instead of turning into stone like his friend, a shockwave of energy emanated from the point of contact. It knocked him over, allowing Myria to flee, but Hayes watched the shockwave echoed through the mountainside, flattening the trees as if the winds of a hurricane had knocked them over.

"After her! Wound her and the Commander will have your heads!" General Rexha roared, and Hayes whirled around, coming face to face with the blade of an enemy sword. Hayes collapsed to the ground, but as the soldier approached, his sword was challenged by that of Adrian's.

Adrian parried, his teeth grit. "Go get Myria!"

Hayes nodded, catching his breath. He pushed himself to his feet and darted over to Myria, who was looking at her hands in fear. Hayes reached for her, but she leapt away.

"Don't touch me!" Myria exclaimed, eyes like fire as she regarded Hayes.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Hayes said, holding a hand out towards her the way one would a spooked horse. "You need to come with me."

"Why, in Lucida's name, would I ever do that?" Myria demanded, her dark eyes flaming. But through her glamour of her wrath, Hayes could see the terribly frightened girl beneath.

Before Hayes could speak, the sound of a battle cry filled his ears. He held up a finger to Myria, who looked taken aback at the gesture, then spun around in time to parry a soldier's saber. Hayes pushed, and the soldier's blade fell to the ground. Before his opponent could recover his weapon, Hayes brought the pommel of his sword to the side of the soldier's head, and he crumpled to the ground.

Hayes whirled back around to face Myria, who was watching with wide eyes. "Because you have no choice."

Myria didn't move, her eyes locked on a point beyond Hayes' shoulder. Hayes spun around and felt his heart sink to his stomach. There, about five yards away, was Adrian, the hood of his cloak lowered. Standing before him with a sinister look on his face was General Rexha.

"Prince Adrian..." The general spoke, his voice a rumble of the thunder above. "What a surprise."

Adrian held his ground, slipping into the very part he hated to play. "Rexha, what the hell is the meaning of this? My father will have you killed for your behavior."

General Rexha smiled daemonically, sinking into a low bow. "I only live to serve, your highness."

"I order you to stop this at once!" Adrian commanded.

Rexha righted himself, the smile melting off his face as if acid had been thrown at it. "And I," he said, "do not take orders from children."

General Rexha issued a command in a dialect that Hayes couldn't recognize, then turned on his heel and stalked away. His men, however, remained and despite facing the Crown Prince of Peria, drew their weapons and began to stalk forward.

Adrian backed away, eventually joining up with Myria and Hayes. The three of them eyed the soldiers approaching them.

"What now?" Myria whispered.

Hayes shook his head. "I'm not sure, I wasn't expecting to get this far."

Myria muttered a curse in a familiar dialect—Illyrian?—and Hayes turned his head in time to see the dark-haired girl swing her fist into a nearby tree. As the soldier had earlier, the tree morphed into stone, and began to fall towards them.

"Run!" Myria yelped, grabbing Hayes' arm and dragging him out of the way. Adrian, thankfully, had enough sense to follow. The petrified tree collapsed where they'd once stood, blocking the path of the soldiers on their tails.

Hayes only had seconds to gawk before Myria tightened her grip on his forearm and continued leading him away. And as the storm finally broke above them and a torrent of rain fell upon them, Hayes, Adrian, and Myria sprinted away from Zemra's town square, towards the mountains in the distance.