The Path to Destiny: Tia's Folly (6 page)

Her
Elders and her bonded had treated her like a pawn, lied to her as if she were
an outsider, and basically cast out of her village with this decision. As Tia
raised her eyes to confront Roland - who would be released from their bond the
moment she betrayed him - she saw figures approaching.

She
may be a pawn, but there was no backing down now.

The
Phoenix sentries spotted them and quickly took defensive measures.

           
“We carry no weapons!”Tia called out as she slowly raised
her hands over her head. She hoped she appeared calmer than she felt. Her
stomach rolled and she fought to keep the few bites she had eaten down. Staring
down the wrong end of a crossbow, she could only hope neither of them had an
itchy trigger finger.
 
“We come in peace
and at the insistence of Bylan the Warlord.”

           
Rising to their feet as their dinner fell to the dirt,
they watched as the sentries cautiously approached them. Tia’s heart hammered
in her chest. It was too late to back out now, too late for everything.

           
“Show us your faces!” One of the sentries called from a
safe distance.

           
Slowly, Tia and Roland lowered their hands and pushed
their cloaks away from their faces.

           
“Keep your hands up!” The sentries insisted as they
approached cautiously. As quickly as possible, they securely tied the Druids’
hands and joined them to a lead rope.

           
With one sentry leading the way and one following, they
were led towards the encampment. A small cry escaped Tia as they topped a small
rise and she saw the sea of Phoenix tents and soldiers. Beyond the soldiers was
what was left of Gremlaw. The city appeared to be engulfed in magical flames
that were burning everything in the city without destroying the structures.
Looking back to Roland for encouragement, she saw instead the hopelessness of
their situation.

           
“Don’t think about it!” Roland whispered sanguinely,
rejecting the truth before his eyes.

           
Nodding, she gave him a tight little smile and turned her
face forward again. She tried to take comfort in his presence. She tried to
believe it wasn’t as bad as it looked; after all, she
was
a Druid. She would feel it if Gremlaw died…
wouldn’t she?
 
Tia looked up
to find them quickly approaching the familiar tent of the Warlord. Each step
became harder to take as the Water Sprite’s final warning echoed in her ears.

           
“Inform the Warlord that the Druids have arrived,” the
leading sentry informed the Warlord’s personal guard.

           
Watching the guard enter the tent, Tia audibly gulped –
much to the amusement of the waiting sentries. Realizing her breathing was
erratic; she forced herself to take a few deep breaths and attempted to calm
down.

           
“You are wise to fear our Warlord, Druid,” one of the
sentries warned her seriously just as the guard appeared at the flap.

           
“Bring them in.” He motioned to them even as he stepped
forward and sneered in Tia’s face. “
Enjoy
your evening
.”

           
“Back off!” Tia snapped as she passed haughtily though
the entrance of the tent.

           
Meeting the Warlord’s blue eyes, she saw the unyielding
anger he was feeling. Her mind snapped back to the Peace Council and that first
night with him. With a feeling of horror, she acknowledged one of the reasons
she had run from him in the first place. She loved the green eyed Bylan but she
feared the blue eyed Warlord.

           
“Get the shackles!” the Warlord immediately barked the
order at the blank faced sentries who inclined their heads and left to do his
bidding. Licking his lips in anticipation, he rose from his dinner and
approached Tia with an almost bored look on his face.

“I
have gotten my way for more years then you would ever believe,” he informed Tia
arrogantly as he moved to stand nose to nose with her, his blue eyes boring
into hers. “Did you really believe I would let you,
a Druid,
be the first to defy me?”

Without
warning, he punched her in the face, laughing as she crumpled to the ground
without a sound.

“I
have been anticipating this night.” Bylan calmly stepped over Tia’s unconscious
body to leer evilly in Roland’s face. “I owe you a thank you for Bonding with
the whore. We will call tonight’s lessons payment in full for your assistance.
However, I can pretty much guarantee you won’t appreciate what I am about to
teach you. If I know anything about Druids – tomorrow –
you will
wish you were dead.”

***

           
Dawn the next day found Tia and Roland chained naked to
the poles inside the Warlord’s tent.
 
Unable to meet each other’s eyes, shivering in the cool morning air with
tears falling down their cheeks, they listened to the snores of the Warlord in
horror. Nothing they had ever known or were taught had prepared them for the
depravities visited upon their
bodies
mere hours
before.

           
Each
had held Gremlaw close to their hearts as they tried to block out what was
happening. Both had fought to maintain their silence as every drop of innocence
they had was ruthlessly ripped from their collective souls.
 

           
“For Gremlaw!”
Roland had whispered raggedly near the end of
their ordeal.

           
“Gremlaw
is dead!” Bylan had replied with a bark of laughter. “I killed it before I sent
the messenger to your village.”

           
The
combined sounds of anguish coming from both Tia and Roland at that announcement
sent the Warlord into a vorticy of pleasure, finally exhausting him and ending
their ordeal
.

           
Shaking off the flashback, Tia tried to calmly figure a
way out of this mess. Lashed to the pole and sitting on the ground, she once
again attempted to pry her hands out of the cuffs on her wrists. She soon
discovered that trying to use her fingers to see if it was having any impact at
all was pointless as her hands were numb. Long minutes passed before she gave
up and accepted she couldn’t escape.

Tia
drew her knees up and leaned her chest into them in an attempt to get warm.
Tears rolled down her legs unheeded as she prayed desperately to the Gods for
forgiveness.

           
“I knew if I told you about Gremlaw, you would come here
to save our city,” Roland whispered despondently. “I am sorry I told you. If I
had had
any
idea Gremlaw was already
gone, I wouldn’t have.”

           
“I am sorry I didn’t just stay when he asked,” Tia
replied softly. “I am so sorry I led us to this.”

           
“
We
led us to
this,” Roland admitted. “We both messed up and the Gods are punishing us for
it.”

           
“So, how do we fix this Roland?” She glanced at him
before quickly looking away again. “How do we get away from the Warlord? With
every ounce of magic we use from here on forward, we are
killing
our own people.”

           
They fell silent as they considered the impact of that
statement. With Gremlaw dead, every time any Druid used magic, they were
draining their source of life; literally.

           
Click.

           
Tia froze, looking for the source of the sound.

           
Click.

           
The sound of the Warlord’s snores suddenly sounded like
sweet music to her ears as she was assured the noise wasn’t coming from him.
Just the thought of him waking up and touching her again made her stomach roll.
If her stomach wasn’t empty, she was sure she would have vomited at the
thought.

           
“Well,
are you
really dumb enough to just sit there all day?
” An exasperated voice said
from above. “Yep, apparently you
are.
”

           
Without warning, a Pixie appeared on the ground between
them, anxiously fluttering his wings.

           
“Hello!” the Pixie greeted them. “I, for one, am ready to
leave now. How about you? Are you ready to get out of here?”

           
“Hello,” Roland automatically replied. “We are very ready
to go but - chained as we are without our cloaks - I don’t see how we can go
anywhere.”

           
“Right beside you!”
The Pixie
shook his head in exasperation as he loudly sighed. “And you still sit with
your hands behind your backs
even after
I have released you!”

           
Moving their arms, the pair found that the Pixie was
serious and he
had
released them.
Quickly donning their cloaks, Roland and Tia turned to the Pixie, ready to
follow wherever he led them; as long as it was away from the Warlord.

           
“Hands!”
The Pixie declared in a
sing-song voice as he hovered between them and held out a hand to each of them.

           
Letting them clasp his much smaller hand in their palms -
which basically meant they each had a hold of one of his arms - the Pixie flew
between them as they walked outside, past the sleeping guards.

           
“Don’t worry,” the Pixie informed them casually, “They
won’t notice us.”

           
“Are we invisible?” Tia whispered, she surprised they
were able to just
walk
out of the
tent.

           
“Nah!”
The Pixie replied. “They
are just not interested in anything unusual this morning…or at least for the
next few minutes.”

           
More than happy to accept that answer, they wordlessly
allowed the Pixie to lead them out of the encampment and into the nearby woods.

           
“Sit!” The Pixie ordered the pair in his cheery way as he
promptly disappeared into the surrounding brush.

           
“Well, we might as well listen.” Roland sighed as he
gingerly lowered himself to the ground.

           
“Roland –” Tia dropped to her knees in front of him and
placed a hand on his knee.

           
“Don’t touch me!” He snapped moving away from her. Taking
a deep breath he continued, “Please, just -
don’t
touch me right now. I need to process and - I don’t know, I need to process
… everything.”

           
Tia felt her heart break and she simply didn’t know how
to reply, so she said nothing. The pain was shared equally between them and she
wanted to help him heal; for him to help her heal. She wanted him to help her
bury the feelings she still felt for the green-eyed Bylan.

The
silence grew like a wall between them, and Tia was sure her heart couldn’t
survive this. But she knew there was nothing she could say that could ease the
memories of the night before. She could only hope their bond was strong enough
to carry them through this.

           
“It seems that less than one day was too long to wait to
rescue you.” A Falkerie woman glided silently into the clearing. “I am Faye.”

           
Nodding absently at the woman, Tia remained kneeling as
Roland shakily stood up. She shuddered in revulsion as she felt some of the
Warlord’s seed slip from her body. Tia desperately wished for a boiling pot of
water to wash him from her skin. While Bylan had ignited her passion at the
Peace Council, last night he had horrified her and left her cold. Tia couldn’t
help but wonder if it would have been this bad anyhow had she surrendered on
his terms. Most of all she felt guilty; if she had just stayed in the first
place, Roland would have been spared.

           
Catching sight of Roland’s bare feet and ankles, Tia
softly gasped. Blood was seeping slowly down his legs in little rivulets. She
knew he needed a healer and the guilt she felt immediately doubled.

           
“Come with me,” Faye said softly, seeming to understand
the situation without being told. “We can heal your physical wounds,” pausing
she gave them a sad smile, “the rest are up to you.”

Chapter Three

           
Upon arrival outside of the Falkerie city, Tia and Roland
were led to a guest house. Tia had mutely listened while her bonded had
demanded separate quarters from her in front of the three servants waiting to
attend them. She knew that such a horrible breech of manners could only mean
that he didn’t want to be anywhere
near
her. She
couldn’t blame him after all of the hurt and anguish she had caused him. As he
walked away with Faye and one of the servants, Tia wondered if she would ever
see him again.