I hurried down the stairs with Rosa on my heels. There was a fire burning in me. I could almost feel the fire burning in her too. Or maybe it was the fire raging in the town. I could hear it outside. I could also hear the first yells of the townsfolk, being woken up in the middle of the night just to find their homes ablaze.
We slowed down as we came to the outside door. The man looking for us hadn't yet come into the tower, and I didn't want him to realise we were here, so maybe it would take him longer to come here at all. Not that I would let him. But I liked to be cautious, just in case.
We slipped out of the door and pulled it tight closed behind ourselves. We were very careful not to leave any new prints in the snow as we slowly made our way around the tower. The man was nowhere to be seen. The very nearest buildings to us weren't on fire, but it wasn't far away either. I would have worried about the people living here surviving through the winter with their homes and storages destroyed, but my mind was too busy with other things.
Our horses were still tied down near the bell tower, and were now clearly panicking, trying to run away but not being able to break free. We went to them, looking carefully around and trying to figure out where the man had gone, and Rosa started whispering something to them in a soothing voice, stroking their necks calmly. They quieted after a moment, but were still clearly nervous.
A big man stepped out of a building not yet on fire and looked around, trying to decide what to do next. He didn't pay any attention to us. Not yet. He looked like he was bullying a woman dressed in a night gown, trying to better gather her to children into her arms.
Seeing the image in front of me put everything in a new kind of perspective. The fire went out. It was replaced by a cold kind of reason and clarity that I had never felt before. It made sense. What I had to do next made sense. It was the right thing to do.
"Rosa," I said quietly and she turned her eyes from the horses to me, to the man clearly wanting something from the woman with the children. She took an angry step towards him, hands ready to be raised up into one kind of spell or another. I lifted my arm in front of her and she stopped, surprised.
"You need to go get Meera," I said. The calm in my voice matched how I felt inside, but it still vaguely surprised me. "Go get her, and then we'll leave. Go somewhere safer. I'll take care of him. Get on one horse and ready to go when I am."
"If we run they'll just come for her again," Rosa said after a moment of stunned silence.
"Probably, I know," I said and turned my eyes from the man to Rosa, "Please?"
She considered me in confusion for a moment longer, but then nodded and hurried back to the tower.
"Hey!" I yelled over the roar of the fire at the man talking to the woman. "Who is she?"
I saw him hear my words. He looked around for a moment before his eyes found me. He started towards me.
"And I don't mean the woman with the kids there," I called out. "She is none of my concern, and shouldn't be any of yours either. You know who I'm talking about, though. Who is she?"
"What's it to you?" the man all but growled at me.
"And who am I?" I ignored his question. I saw a hint of recognition on the man's face. I guess he finally got close enough to notice the lines on my face in the dark. A smug-looking smile spread across his face.
"People usually know who they are," he said. He clearly knew I didn't know. He clearly knew something. Something more I did. I wanted to know what it was.
"Well, I guess I'm the exception then," I said. "I was hoping you could enlighten me."
The man was getting close now. He sped the last couple of steps and his fist flew, aiming at my face. I stepped out of the way without so much as a conscious thought. The fist missed my cheek by less than half a handspan. He looked annoyed by it, but another swing was already on its way. I took half a light step to the left and heard the fist barely missing my ear. But in reality it wasn't even a close shot. I knew it. He didn't.
There were fights in the world you fought. Those fights were straightforward. Simple. Anyone could fight a fight. Not anyone could win a fight, but anyone could fight. It was an easy solution. And sometimes it was the right solution.
A lot harder than to fight was to see which fights were the other kind of fights. The fights you didn't fight. To see those fights you needed the eyes, and the heart, and the understanding. It was no easy thing. It was very subtle. It was easy to think a fight was a fight to be fought. To think all fights were fights to be fought. But it wasn't so. And I knew it.
I danced to the side and avoided a kick to the stomach.
"You never answered," I pointed out to the big man throwing punches at me and slid out of the way. My feet were moving fast. Step-step-step. But they were never moving far, and they were always exactly where they were supposed to be. "Who is she?"
"She is someone I have been sent for," the man said, breathing hard. "And so are you, it seems."
"And what is it you want us for?" I asked politely as I skipped out of the way. It seemed to annoy the man incredibly. "I can't see how either of us could be of much use to you."
"You don't know anything," the man panted.
"You are quite right," I admitted. "But you do. You could tell me."
The man laughed then, as well as he could in the middle of a fight. A fist almost caught me unaware in the side, but I got out of the way, of course. It wasn't this man's fist. It belonged to another man, who had gotten embarrassingly close without me noticing. I supposed these were the two bigger men Meera had been talking about. I didn't see the smaller man anywhere yet.
"Ah, hello," I said to the new arrival. "I suppose you wouldn't care to clarify some things your friend here isn't telling. What exactly is it you want from me and my friend?"
I had two sets of fists and feet to stay out of the way of, but it wasn't much more difficult that staying out of the way of one. The newcomer looked confused now, and the first man looked more irritated my the second.
"Don't tell him anything," the annoyed one grumbled to the other.
"Ah, well, that's too bad," I said, masking my face in disappointment. "I was hoping we could have a conversation. But clearly you do not share my interest."
"Shut up, piper!" the new man shouted at me, clearly having picked up on his friend's mood. As I moved out of the way of another punch I saw from the corner of my eye Rosa waiting for me on a horse, just outside the field of light. I supposed the men couldn't see them, too busy with me and not looking for them.
"So, since we're not going to get anything productive out of this," I continued, "I hope you'll excuse me."
With a smooth, sharp, almost invisible movement I flicked hard on both of their temples. I knew it wouldn't to any real damage, but that they would be too disoriented for a moment to see where I was going.
I turned and ran to Rosa, who was on one of the horses with the still invisible Meera, and jumped to the saddle over the flank of the other horse. I looked back at the chaos and confusion of the town. There was nothing we could do about it.
We turned our horses out of town and were on our way as fast as we dared with our already tired horses.
__________________________________________________________
I talked to dad and he said you wanted a fight. But I don't want to write the kind of story that would have a fight here, at this point.
Your topic for tomorrow is Braid.
~matu
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