The dreams were better tonight. Not perfect, but better. Akna was having a very pleasant dream with Chica, Meleng, and the cute stable girl from Lord Padara’s stables when Felitïa woke her up talking to the rats. Felitïa talking to her rats was not an unusual thing—she did it a lot—so Akna was more than happy to go right back to sleep and hopefully rejoin the dream.
It worked—sort of. Of course, shortly after, the stable girl turned out to be Ses-Tlacotl in disguise and killed Chica and Meleng. Akna awoke with a gasp. So much for a night without nightmares.
There was a more pressing matter now though. Felitïa was gone.
They had both hoped, with the Staff at Agernon’s and well out of its telepathic range, Felitïa would sleep better. That apparently wasn’t the case. When she couldn’t sleep, Felitïa responded in only a few ways. She’d talk to her rats, try to study the Secrets, or go for a walk. On the ship upriver and even before that, there hadn’t been far she could go. Here in Quorge, though…
Akna groaned and cursed herself for not noticing Felitïa leave. She should have at least inquired more when she’d woken briefly. But besides that, she should have heard Felitïa moving about. She was trained to have alert senses, even asleep. She hadn’t been at her best recently, but even so, she should have noticed something. Felitïa couldn’t have just stood up and walked out. She would have needed to dress first. There was no way she could have done all that without Akna hearing.
Except there was a way.
The answer was obvious: Felitïa had used magic. She had used some sort of spell to keep Akna asleep, or to hide the sounds she made, or something similar. Typical Felitïa.
It had probably been to avoid disturbing Akna, not because Felitïa was deliberately hiding something from her. Even so, it meant Felitïa had made assumptions about her again—had made decisions for her. If nothing else, just a word that she was going out for a while would have been nice.
She should just go back to sleep. If Felitïa got into trouble, it was her own fault. Besides, it wasn’t as if Felitïa couldn’t take care of herself.
Akna let her eyes drift closed. She was greeted, as usual, by Chica’s face looking at her. Except it didn’t explode. Instead, Chica smiled, her cheeks dimpling in that adorable way they always did.
Akna smiled back. Perhaps the nightmares really were being a little better tonight. At the very least, they were taking more time. She could go back to sleep. Felitïa could take care of herself.
I miss you, Akna said.
Then find me.
But you’re dead, Chica.
Please, Akna, hurry. I need your help now!
Chica’s face exploded again.
Akna opened her eyes and sat up. Fuck it, she was going after Felitïa. While Felitïa might be able to take care of herself, she could still be surprised, and if she was doing what Akna suspected she was doing, sneaking up on her would be easy. She might need the help, and Akna could provide that help.
She dressed and gathered her things as fast as she could. She reached for a spear, but put it right back. Carrying a spear openly would probably draw attention from the Watch, and she didn’t want that. Daggers would have to be enough. She took three.
The shawl Felitïa had lent her was another matter. It would restrict her movements in a fight, but like Felitïa had said, she could always toss it aside if she needed to. It would only slow her down a little, and it was blasted cold outside.
She wrapped the shawl around her shoulders, and headed out.
It was a dark night. Clouds obscured the moon, and it was even colder than it had been earlier. It had stopped snowing though, and one good thing about snow that didn’t melt was it kept the tracks of whatever passed over it, provided more snow didn’t fall. A lot of people had passed over it, which wasn’t surprising given Quorge’s size. However, Felitïa’s would be amongst the fresher tracks. Following her shouldn’t be too difficult, especially as Akna had a good idea where Felitïa had gone.
It was harder than she expected.
Akna was trained in tracking, but it had been in forest and other wilderness areas, not Arnorin cities. Apart from the snow, there was little to give any indication of passage. Plus, while the streets appeared mostly empty, there were more people out at night than Akna would have expected, making it difficult to determine which tracks were Felitïa’s. She also didn’t remember the city’s layout as well as she’d thought. Finding her way back to the square with the well took much longer than she’d expected.
And when she got there, there was no sign of Felitïa.
Had Felitïa been there and left already, or just not come here?
The bench Felitïa had sat on to meditate during the day had undisturbed snow on it, so if Felitïa had been here, she hadn’t used the bench. Akna couldn’t find any indication that anyone had been sitting on the ground here recently, either.
She turned in a slow circle, looking down each of the several streets and alleys running off from the square. Despite the cloud cover, it was surprisingly bright out for the middle of the night. It had taken her awhile earlier to realise what caused it: the snow. Although the moon was behind the clouds, some of its light made it through and the snow was reflecting that light back. It was something she never would have expected of snow, but in retrospect it made sense. It was actually rather beautiful.
It wasn’t helping her find Felitïa, though. None of the streets heading away from the square looked any more likely to be the right direction than any of the others. All she could do was pick one at random. But searching randomly in a place as big as Quorge wasn’t likely to achieve anything.
She should go back. For all she knew, Felitïa was already back anyway.
Akna.
It would be the ultimate irony if Felitïa had to start looking for...wait.
Akna.
Chica? It sounded like Chica. But Akna was awake right now. She wasn’t dreaming. How could she be hearing Chica’s voice?
Akna.
Akna looked around. “Is someone there?”
There was no one in sight.
“Hello?” Akna called.
There was still no answer.
Akna shook her head. Overtired. That was the answer. She was overtired. Time to go back to bed. She would have to trust that Felitïa would be fine. She started to retrace her steps.
Two Watchmen came round a corner up ahead. Their gaze turned immediately to her and they watched as she got closer. They were tall and lean, and had the pale skin of Foliths.
“What are you up to?” one of them asked.
She tried to give them a disarming smile. It was not something she was good at, but she gave it her best. “Looking for someone. A friend.”
“In the middle of the night?” the other asked. They both stopped in front of her, separating a little so that they were almost flanking her.
“She wandered off. You haven’t seen her, have you? A Folith woman, brown hair, lighter than mine, but darker than yours. Kind of pinched up nose.”
The second shook his head, but the first said, “Your friend’s a Folith, is she?”
“Yeah, got a problem with Foliths?”
“Don’t get smart with me, savage.” His hand went to the hilt of his sword. “What are you really doing out here this time of night?”
Her tattoos again, no doubt. And her skin colour.
“I told you. Looking for my friend.”
Down the street, a figure was coming in their direction, stumbling every few steps.
“That could be her now,” Akna said, pointing. The two guards turned to look.
But the person approaching had hair much too long for Felitïa. It reached her lower back. Like Chica’s. And it was too dark for Felitïa’s hair. And the person was too short. And…
No. It couldn’t be. The voice had just been a hallucination. Chica was dead.
The figure looked up and called out, “Akna!”
“Chica?”
In her head, Chica’s face exploded again.
The figure stumbled closer.
It was impossible, but it was her!
“Chica!” Akna ran past the startled guards, and threw her arms around Chica, held her tight.
“You’re alive. I can’t believe you’re alive. I saw you die. Oh gods, you’re alive. Don’t ever leave me again!” She buried her head on Chica’s shoulder and sobbed.
Except something wasn’t right.
Akna was a good three inches taller than Chica. She couldn’t bury her head on Chica’s shoulder without bending over. This person was as much taller than Akna as Akna was taller than Chica.
“Nin-Akna? Are you all right?”
She let go and looked up. It was Felitïa.
“You...you looked like…” Akna turned away, stared at the ground. What had she just done?
“What’s going on here?” the first of the Watchmen said. They had come up beside her and Felitïa.
“My friend is just happy to see me,” Felitïa said. “We got separated.”
Akna looked at the first one—the one she had nearly ended up in combat with. He still had his hand on his sword, but he had relaxed his grip.
“What did she call you?” the second asked. “Chica? That your name?”
Felitïa nodded. “It’s a pet name. Long story.”
“What are you doing out this late?”
“Getting jumped by an unknown assailant,” Felitïa said. “If you two were doing your jobs, you would have noticed I’m injured and limping.”
“My apologies, ma’am,” the second said. “Are you all right? Did you see your assailant?”
“I’m fine. Or will be. And no, I didn’t see who it was. It was back this way, though.” She pointed.
“Show us,” the first Watchman said. He drew his sword, as did the second.
Felitïa looked at Akna. “Will you be okay, Nin-Akna?”
Akna blinked. “Yeah.”
Felitïa led the guards back down the street. Akna followed slowly, but soon fell behind.
She had seen Chica! She had been so sure!
Was she going mad? How else could she mistake Felitïa for Chica?
Magic.
Magic could do it.
Magic Felitïa was capable of.
But why would Felitïa try to make her believe she’d seen Chica? She’d used magic earlier. Yet there was a big difference between sneaking out of an inn and making it look like Akna’s closest friend in the world was still alive. It didn’t make any sense; it served no purpose. No, Felitïa wouldn’t do that.
Akna had been experiencing these nightmares for so long now. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Chica. Perhaps it was inevitable she would start seeing Chica when her eyes were open, too.
But of all the people to mistake for Chica, why did it have to be Felitïa? She was never going to live down that embarrassment.
She took a few deep breaths, tried to settle her racing heart. Then she followed after Felitïa.
She found Felitïa and the guards a couple blocks away.
“Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s much we can do,” the abrasive one said. “At least you’re not badly hurt and they don’t seem to have managed to steal anything.”
“Yes, thank you,” Felitïa said.
“We’ll keep our eyes open, of course. You and your friend should get inside.”
“Of course. Right away.” Felitïa headed over to Akna.
The Watchmen watched Felitïa’s progress and when the abrasive one’s eyes fell on Akna, they narrowed and he scowled.
“Let’s go quickly,” Felitïa whispered.
They hurried along the streets, back towards the inn.
“Did you really expect them to do anything?” Akna asked as they walked.
Felitïa shook her head. “Not really. I hadn’t intended to say anything to the Watch, but it seemed the best way to distract them from you.”
“Thank you.”
“What happened?” Felitïa asked. “Not with the Watch. I mean when I arrived.”
Akna licked her lips and looked everywhere except at Felitïa. “I...I thought I saw Chica—Nin-Chicahua. The one you knew as Nin-Xoco. I...I don’t know why.”
Akna still wasn’t looking at Felitïa, but she got the impression Felitïa was giving her one of those condescending smiles people thought were comforting.
“It’s just the nightmares, I guess,” Akna said. “I...I’m just...over-stressed.”
“Maybe, but I’m not so sure,” Felitïa said, and Akna finally looked at her. “Something strange happened to me, too. A figure I kept seeing, but couldn’t reach.”
“You think somebody’s…?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s just that we’re both stressed, and seeing and hearing things.” Felitïa was staring straight ahead, her eyes distant, her face flat.
“When you called me,” Akna said and paused. She wasn’t sure she should bring this up, especially since it could have been her imagination. “When you first arrived, did you call out to me?”
Felitïa glanced at her. “Yes.”
“Did you use my honorific?”
Felitïa nodded. “I think so.”
“I heard it without, but I also heard Chica’s voice, so maybe it was all part of my hallucination.”
“It’s possible in the heat of the moment, I forgot it,” Felitïa said. “If I did, I apologise.”
“It’s okay. Everything’s weird tonight anyway. Can I ask one favour though?”
“Of course.”
“In future, if you want to go out in the middle of the night, just tell me. Don’t sneak out, and most especially, don’t use your spells on me to do it.”
Felitïa lowered her head and closed her eyes for a moment. “Sorry. I promise not to do it again.”
“Thanks.” The problem was, Akna wasn’t sure she could trust Felitïa to keep that promise. Felitïa had done it once; she was reckless enough to do it again. All she needed was what she felt, in the heat of the moment, was a good reason.
Oh well, a problem for another time.
They reached the inn and changed for bed. When Akna closed her eyes this time, she didn’t see Chica’s face exploding in blood, bone, and viscera. Instead, she saw Chica standing on a snow-swept street, long hair blowing in the wind.
Akna! Come to me, please! I need you!
Akna opened her eyes.
Find me.
Akna looked over at Felitïa, who was lying in bed, eyes open and starting at the ceiling. She thought of saying something, then decided against it.
Please, Akna!
It wasn’t possible. Chica was dead. She couldn’t be calling now.
Could she?
Find me.
