7A.N. Okay, I started this story a long time ago and decided to pick it back up... I know it's not much, but it's just a first 'chapter'. I promise the title will make more sense later (I'm so bad at those... titles I mean), even if it is just a working title :)
Wide, dark eyes peered at the barkeep from beneath the heavy hood of a grey-green cloak. "I said I wanted an ale," Rae muttered to the man, eyes flashing. "Are you refusing to serve me?" she asked, pushing back the thick folds of her shroud to reveal a long, narrow strip of covered steel down her hip.
"No Miss," the frightened man said meekly. "Not at all. I'm simply saying that we don't have any ale, we ran out an hour ago. Our shipment didn't come in last week and we're short. It's nothing to do with you."
Rae frowned, staring intently at the man. "Alright," she said finally, "I'll take a bottle of whiskey… at that corner table." She pointed a slender finger towards the darkest corner in the room.
She crossed the room quietly, her boots falling heavily on the dusty tavern floor. Taking a seat at the table she'd indicated, she cast off her heavy cloak, brushing flakes of snow from the thick material, and draped it over the back of an extra chair. She was quite beautiful when not hiding behind the safety of her winter cloak. Her white shirt contrasted with her tanned, olive skin tone, and her dark brown eyes peered out from behind dark lashes. Her hair, once so long and beautiful, was now cut an inch from her scalp, brown curls sticking out every which way, giving her a slightly wild appearance. Beneath her airy, white shirt, a pair of dark, black leather pants covered her long and slender legs. Heavy, black boots enveloped her feet, ending the ensemble. She rested her legs, with her ankles crossed, stretched out into the isle next to her table.
Rae settled in to her small space, ready to drink herself into oblivion. The night was young, and she didn't want to remember any of it. Soon, the barkeep's rough hands placed a heavy bottle onto the table in front of her, and dropped a thick shot glass next to it. "Anything else?" he asked her.
She shook her head and watched him as he disappeared behind the counter once more. Rae pulled the cork from the bottle and poured the golden-brown liquid into the tall shot glass in front of her. Bracing herself, she lifted the cool liquid to her soft lips and drained the small glass. Shaking her head, she could immediately feel the influence of the alcohol. A warm feeling spread throughout her body, taking control of every limb. No matter how many times Rae drank, she always ended up feeling every drop. She knew she was far too sensitive to the effects of alcohol, perhaps the training had something to do with that.
Settling into the rough wooden chair, she threw her head back, resting her head against the wood behind her head, allowing herself to remember what she never wanted to remember. Allowing that day, so many years ago, to come flooding back.
A soft giggle came from Raeli's throat, dying in the foliage surrounding her. Squatting in the dense leaves of a may-bush, she watched her brother as he peered around the clearing, pushing leaves away and looking up into the branches of the trees above. "Come on Rae, this isn't funny," he whined. "Mom said I have to find you for supper. She's gonna get mad if you don't come in."
Raeli giggled again and then jumped from the bushes. "Boo!" she screamed at her older brother, grabbing him around the waist.
Kellin laughed, sighing with relief and wrapping his arms around his tiny sister. "There you are," he said, smiling. "I was beginning to wonder if you'd run off and joined the Landers." He was speaking of a band of mercenaries that had been frequenting the area of late.
Raeli's seven-year-old eyes stared up at her brother between curling wisps of her dark brown hair, the smile leaving her face. "You know I wouldn't do that," she told him, letting go of his legs and shoving him away. "They're bad people."
"I know squirt, I was only kidding," he said, rubbing the top of her head. He too had a pair of brown eyes and thick, dark hair. He was twice Raeli's age, and almost twice as tall. "Come on, let's get going." He reached down and wrapped his hand around her tiny fingers.
They walked quietly through the trees, beams of sun diving between the branches and forming dusty yellow columns across their path. Kellin kept his sister's hand wrapped in his own, squeezing her fingers if she began to lag behind. "Keep up Rae," he told her, tugging on her arm as she stopped, trying to inspect a butterfly that had landed on the branch of a bush to the side of the road.
"Kellin," she whined, but obeyed. A few minutes later they left the trees behind and started down a narrow track between wide, sloping fields. Tall, green crops were growing in the summer heat, reaching for the perfect blue sky over their heads.
After they'd passed several cornfields Kellin steered them into a wide squash patch, owned by their parents. As they walked happily between the rows of vegetables, Kellin finally dropped Raeli's hand, letting her run ahead, toward the house. Her long, curly hair, which had been haphazardly braided by their ten-year-old sister's hands that morning, flew out behind her as she ran, her blue cotton dress catching on her legs and feeling the wind of her movement as well.
"Mama!" she called, climbing the stairs on the front porch and running into the old house. She stopped, waiting for her sun-blinded eyes to grow used to the darkness inside. "Mama!" she yelled again. "Kellin found me!"
Her mother laughed, walking out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a white apron she wore over her green dress. "Hello my darling," she said, picking up the tiny girl. "It's time for supper."
Rae laughed into her fourth shot of whiskey. That was a happy day, really the only day she remembered with her family. 'What a perfect picture,' she thought bitterly. 'Pity it didn't last.' She threw back the fourth shot of whiskey and tipped her head back again, to rest her head against the wood, flattening the back of her short hair. The room was now spinning, forcing her to finish the memory, no matter how much she wanted to forget how that day ended.
Raeli awoke in the warm darkness of her bed. Ever since her seventh birthday, her mother and father had conceded to let her sleep in the narrow loft above the living room. Her two oldest brothers and older sisters were too mature to desire the two-foot space above the living room, and her brother Kellin had his own room, separate from their small chamber. But often he would fall asleep next to his sister, reading her stories, or singing soft songs with her. This night he slept soundly beside her, his arm wrapped around her tiny body and an open book strewn across his chest.
She looked around as the warm air of the July night wafted into the tiny round window near their feet, bringing with it the sweet scent of corn. As she sat up to look around, she caught the smell of smoke through the tiny opening and heard distant shouts.
Frightened, she began to shake her brother's shoulder, tears creeping from her dark eyes. "Kellin," she said softly.
He woke with a start. "What is it Rae?" he asked groggily.
She began to cry even harder. "Somebody's yelling outside."
"What?" He shook the sleep from his eyes. He looked around and an orange glow could now be seen through the round window. "What's going on?" he asked again.
The shouts were growing louder, and gruff, heavy feet could be heard on the road outside. Suddenly a distant scream pierced the air. "The neighbors," Kellin muttered. "What's going on?" he asked once more.
They could hear men yelling outside their house. "Daddy!" Raeli screamed, suddenly. Kellin clapped a hand over her shaking face. "Quiet Rae," he whispered. "We can't call attention to the house."
Below they heard their father's angry voice. "You two stay up there," he said harshly. "Keep hidden, and don't either of you come down from there… no matter what happens."
The sound of rowdy laughter pulled Rae from her memory. She looked over, seeing three half-drunk travelers at the next table. The party consisted of two men and one woman, and they were all laughing heartily, holding up nearly empty glasses of wine. Their wardrobe was for long travel, with thick cloaks dangling from their necks and heavy boots on their sprawled out feet. One man looked much older than the other, in his early forties, with shockingly red hair covering his head and his face, in a short, neatly kept beard. The other man looked as though he was in his early twenties. Pale, thick, straight brown hair, cut at his chin, swung into his eyes as he nodded his head merrily. The woman looked right at home with her two companions, her long, black hair was braided neatly, running down her back. Her pale skin and narrow features made Rae wonder what part of the country she'd come from.
As she watched, the younger of the two men stood up and walked towards the bar. The second man and the woman continued to laugh and talk quietly. Rae looked away. "Some people have no respect," she muttered under her breath and poured herself another shot.
"Come on Rae, it is a bar after all."
Rae lifted her gaze. In front of her was the younger, fair-haired man who'd just left the table in front of her. "Well, if it isn't Beirn," she muttered, looking up into his blue eyes. "Who are your friends?"
"The redhead's name is Kiert," he told her, sitting down in the chair she'd draped her cloak over. "He's a tracker from Colimar. The woman's name is Faena. I don't know much about her, she's from Neln."
Rae let her dark eyes look over the pair at the table. "Neln?" she asked. She'd never met anyone from that far east. "What's she doing here?"
Beirn shrugged. "Like I told you, I don't know much about her. Why don't you join us Rae?"
"No," she shook her head. "I need to be alone with my whiskey."
He laughed. "That's the one thing you don't need," he said, grabbing the bottle from the table and standing up. "Come on." He walked back to the table and sat her bottle on the wood. Kiert and Faena stopped talking and looked at him standing over them.
Rae sighed and stood up, grabbing her cloak. As she headed toward Beirn he grinned smugly and leaned over to say something to Kiert. But when Rae reached the table she just kept walking. As she passed she leaned over and smiled at them. "Enjoy the whiskey," she said, grinning smugly. She then turned her back on them and walked angrily out of the tavern.
The frozen night air bit into her as soon as she stepped outside, and she quickly put on her cloak, binding any body heat she had inside the thick material. It was no longer snowing, but the world around her was covered in white. The street in front of her was dented and pockmarked from footsteps and cart tracks earlier in the day. Now, in the dead of the night, the snow had covered the quiet world. The light from the waxing January moon was all the light she needed to see perfectly in the white city.
She started walking towards the inn she'd been staying at. It was only half a mile away, but she walked slowly, thinking about Beirn. She hadn't seen him for more than a year, when he'd disappeared with some men from Seeimic. He wanted to 'make his fortune' so he joined a band of marauding mercenaries. She hadn't heard from him once in the past sixteen months and she had begun to think he'd been killed. She was glad she was wrong about that, and now he was back, with company from Colimar. Normally that wouldn't really bother her, but now, with the news she'd gotten last week, it made her uneasy. There had been a rash of vandalism there, protesting against the rule of the lords. He might have become a member of the opposition.
She sighed, her hot breath forming a little cloud of white in the dimly lit air before her. Her feet crunched in the snow below, as she quickened he step. The cold was seeping through her cloak, making her shiver in the midnight air. The head in the tip of her nose was long gone and the feeling in the rest of her face was quickly fading away.
Just as she was about to turn up the next street where her inn was located she spotted a group of men across the street. They stood there, huddled together in the cold shadowy light of the moon through the crooked branches of an empty tree behind them. There were about seven men, all tall and all with the dark skin of the native people of the city. One of the men caught Rae's eye as she stared and he smiled and winked his wide, dark eye at her. She shook her head, wondering if the alcohol was affecting her brain.
Returning her gaze to the opposite side of the street she saw that he was still watching her, this time with a sardonic grin on his dark face. She realized too late that he was merely a distraction; hat the real danger came from behind her. She swung around, to no avail. A heavy hilt rammed her skull and she slumped to the ground, the world fading into black as she struck the frozen sidewalk.