Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Raminen Vocabulary:

Jenao: Master (Jenaa: Mistress)

Bevré: Damn

Cities, Philosophies, and Earth-likenesses:

Mazine: Think Athens except with a monarchy with two houses. Government like Great Britain.

Awin: Similar to Sparta. Citizens weren’t taught much that was not useful on the battlefield. An oligarchy. Weaponry and system like Japan. Katanas, etc.

This was hell, complete and utter hell, I decided as I followed the dark-brown haired boy. It was the only way to describe it with words. When the four boys had notified us that we were to be their slaves, Farrah and Gisèle probably took it the best. Even though Winona had been upset, there really was no reason for her to panic. None at all. Winona just hated being restricted in any way, shape, or form. Farrah and Winona were much luckier than me and Gisèle. They had, respectively, the healer and the grave, black-cloaked lad who looked as innocent as a summer day. Well, with a sword.

Gisèle and I, in complete one hundred and eighty degree contrast, were stuck with two guys that absolutely hated our guts. She would be okay. She knew how to take care of her self and would most likely drive the red-obsessed guy up a wall. Despite what her cool-headed demeanor let on, she never let anyone walk over her like a rug even if it was even the tiniest of insults. Hubris was one of her basic, most obvious personality flaws, I guess. But mayhap ‘Dark and Dangerous’, as my brunette friend called him, was still upset that Makine was able to beat him, so I guessed he suffered from the same personality dysfunction.

Taking deep breaths, I tried to stabilize my mind like my old nurse had taught me after the spasm attacks started coming on. Another attack would be a very bad thing right now. That guy probably wouldn’t know how to stop it. Instead, he would probably wish for any excuse to kill me. Unbeknownst to him, killing me was in all likelihood to be something he would regret in the end.

A smile was threatening to come out. At least he didn’t know the truth about Makine. Then any action out of anger that he might be threatening to pull now would pale in comparison to what he’d do if he knew.

We were walking down a shadowy hallway, the flickering torch lights seeming to follow our every movement. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought we were in a mausoleum. This guy was and absolute no talker. Well, I couldn’t live with that.

“So who are you?” The question naturally rose to my lips. And I completely wished it hadn’t. For one thing, he looked the stony, stoic type that could go days without conversation. For another, he looked like the type that would slam my face into a wall for simply breathing.

He stopped walking and I nearly bumped into him. Slowly, he turned to face me. Shadows were thrown over his face like a relief painting, making it impossible for me to tell his facial expressions. Definitely a very scary image. “My name is Jayden. You are going to be serving me. That is all you need to know.” Turning around, he continued walking until I could see a distant light.

Well, I wasn’t called tenacious by the rest of my friends for nothing. “Don’t you have hopes or dreams?” I persisted. “No one can live without something to strive for.” That was one of the things Mazinites were known for- for being very goal-oriented and fond of knowledge.

He stopped again. “So, you want to know what I want to do in life.” I nodded my head eagerly. “First of all, I want to stick a sword or two through everyone who tries to pry into my business. And second of all, I would like get some peace and quiet.”

Continuing, we walked down the narrow hallway a little longer, the brown clay crunching beneath his boots and my worn-out sandals. A bit of air whistled through the tunnel, making me conclude we were near an opening to the outside. Eventually, the silence seemed to even get to quiet-loving Jayden. Suddenly, he asked me, “What about you? I’ve told you about me. It’s only fair.”

Smirking inwardly, I shrugged and said, “I’m Psella. My dreams are to get out of here and earn as much money as possible so I can buy some pretty blue dresses to go with my eyes. My hopes are to find out if I am truly as beautiful as an elf or a vampire as the people I’ve met have said.” Of course, my real hopes involved him strapped in some torturing chamber in Mazine and me in control, but I’d have to settle with eventual revenge without telling him before hand.

He grumbled, “Basically all I learned was your name and you’re one of those materialistic females.” It was at this point that we came to the end of the tunnel. A flash of light blinded me. My hand instinctively covering my eyes, I waited a few seconds to hopefully adjust quicker. I had been out of the sun for days, thus the sun killed my vision. After I was sure I could see again, I looked out from behind the fingers of my hands and gasped as I glimpsed the city of Awin.

Out of the eight cities in Leo’veyln, only six were still in working order. My home city Mazine and Awin were mainly human cities. All of the six cities were governed by humans now although Mazine allowed other races to reside within its white stone walls. Psar and Klimone were once elvish cities. Hard to reach, they were hidden by the boughs and trunks of living trees. Then there was Vamis and Xenar, the two Vampire havens of legend. Though humans lived there now, they used to have to take care not to be bitten by a vampire lest they were forced into the moonlight forever, to never venture into the sunlight. Reflective black granite reflected the light from the outer world. Night lived there forever. Some people did choose to go that way. However, after Psar and Klimone declared war on Xenar and Vamis, none of either race was left, leaving the haunting beautiful vampire and elf haunts to the whims of the humans.

Awin, a human city, was one of earth. Clay and sand made up everything. All of the buildings were made of the red mushy material. But, in the evening sun, it dried to become hard, albeit a little fragile. Based on what I’ve learned about them, they add a special powder into the clay they use to make their buildings that made it more stable and protective. Rectangular dwellings had roughly made square holes as windows, allowing the air to blow through the desert-like area. Because the natural sand was covered by the clay, the refreshing breeze didn’t blow any of the grainy material into any of the houses. In the middle of the city was a tall obelisk-like pinnacle, needle-like in shape but thick enough people could walk by way of stairs through it. Unlike the surrounding architectural objects, it was made of a smooth black stone that shone in the sun.

I turned to look at Jayden, my eyes were somewhat agog. He looked quite amused at my disbelief. Well, for him at any rate. Anything other than stoicism seemed to be an emotion.

Turning away from the passage, he took a slight movement to the right, continuing down the path. At this, I followed him obediently. I had some things to accomplish. If I didn’t move with the flow, I would get lost and goodness knows what would happen. I watched as his green cloak occasionally shifted dirt, some of it dirtying my jade shirt. “Some basic rules you must follow,” Jayden started, turning to me. Standing to attention as this seemed important, I listened carefully.

“First, you are to stay out of all closed, private areas. If something is left out or open, you may touch it. Second, my clothes are to be sent to the wash weekly. Thirdly, collect messages and other items delivered to my apartments. Of course, you are also to clean my rooms. Lastly, you will accompany me when I go fight or visit other places. I think that’s all.” I rolled my eyes. Duh, I thought. Those were the servant’s basic job. It was quite obvious in my perspective that this guy had never had a servant before.

“Yes, sir,” I said cutely, as if I was just another one of those dumb blonde women. Essential to the mission was that all four of us girls be as underestimated as possible by those we were sent to collect information on. “Clean, don’t touch, delivery, and laundry are my jobs!” I started chanting as to sound as boring and silly as any other girl he’d probably ever met as we continued down the hall of clay.

Apparently I succeeded as he sighed irritably as we walked on until we reached a green door that matched his cloak. A tiny little plaque rested on a piece of wood, inscribed with Jayden Rideal. Fishing around in his shroud of fabric, Jayden revealed a small black pouch stitched into the hem of his cloak. “Where is it?” he mumbled. I gazed at the variety of items he pulled out of it: a glow stone lit by old-fashioned magic; a basic healing stick; heating stones; and he gave an ‘aha!’ as he found a key of sorts.

“You rely on magic too much,” I commented before covering my mouth. Damn, how would I get out of this one? Commoners know nearly know nothing about magic, even in Mazine, where the people had more rights and a better education. They were only taught enough to know the lighting and heating runes and how to approach a magic-user. People in the Iwnamar as well as the royal family were educated on that as well as recognizing the most useful and basic spells, besides what magic-users are. Hopefully, he didn’t know the intricate differences between Awin and Mazine…

“Hn, what?” he asked me, looking up. He hadn’t paying attention to me. Letting go of a breath I hadn’t realized I had been holding I smiled back innocently. Normally I would take that as an insult, but for once, I was just thankful.

“I was just wondering what those things did- ooh, look! That tower is shiiiiny!” I cried, putting on the façade of a blonde who couldn’t keep her thoughts straight if she had a straight edge. Scampering over to the window across from the door, I giggled at it, acting as if air was the only thing in my head. If I was lucky, maybe he had forgotten how smart and un-materialistic I had acted earlier. Unlike here in Awin, the women of Mazine were given a good education. Behaving otherwise was a disgrace to my family, who had expected me to behave like a woman of good education, which I was. But desperate times called for desperate measures, as some liked to say.

Simply rolling his eyes, Jayden stuck the key into the middle of the door, where there was a nearly circular imprint with weird scribbles indented. The edges were in vague lines. Waiting for a few seconds for the door’s guardian to recognize it, he leaned against the door, closing his eyes I supposed he took a small cat nap. Rolling my eyes as I remembered the three or four minutes this type of unreliable lock took to unlock the door, I took a few minutes of my time to examine the young enemy in front of me.

He was around my age; being around sixteen years of age, give a year or two. I guess he was handsome enough, if you liked sadistic guys that could make you melt inside as well as make you stiffen warily when he turned his eyes on you. Dark hair simply fell down along side his face as if the tips held some invisible weight. The eyes that normally seemed to gaze as if whatever they settled on was below his notice were closed and he… looked oddly peaceful. When they were open, he acted like he had something stuck up his ass. Maybe it was a giant stick. Though Jayden, so far, had given me the impression of a giant icicle. How people dealt with him I did not understand, but I suspected the two swords by each side had something to do with it.

A sly grin crept up on my face. Although I was supposed to simply observe, not one of the council had said I couldn’t sabotage. Being a ‘maid’ would help me find ways to set back these war-like people. It was at this point in my planning that the rune on the ‘key’ glowed green and his onyx eyes shot open. Quickly spotting the color change before he could see me, I changed my features into what looked like a cheery empty-headed person would. Simultaneous, I hastily turned around to look as if I had been gazing out of the window. A creaking from behind alerted me to the fact that the door had been opened. As I walked by it, I took a peak at the seal where Jayden had placed the key. The scribbles I discovered to be writing, though it was backwards. Raminen, I reasoned; these people didn’t expect the servants to understand it, so they couldn’t copy it and get in.

Standing there, as it happens, was a very bad idea. A weird bubbling, like a boiling pot of water, occurred under the surface of the green wood until a mini-grumpy face appeared. “What are you examining the lock for?” A nasally voice came from the door, making me jump. “Maybe I should sound the alarm? Or should I just squirt her?” It pondered for a while. Surprising me, Jayden interrupted the face’s thought process.

“She’s my new servant,” he informed it, cockily. “So, ‘Quinn’, she’s okay to let in. Hope no one tried to get in while I was away.” As he closed the door, ‘Quinn’ popped out of the other side.

“Nah, it was a really boring time.” As they chatted, I was yelling foul obscenities in my head. Now, everything would be so much more difficult. ‘Quinn’ would catch whatever I did in the room. I wondered if he could peek out of the hallway-side of the door and the room-side at the same time, but shrugged internally. If I put up my stupid-girl façade a lot, he’d trust me and wouldn’t check on me all of the time. My mission could still be completed.

“Guard,” I heard Jayden order, but I forced myself to not react. Dumb girl, I reminded myself. I am playing a dumb girl. Space out as much as you want. Underestimating led to the fall of many a city. And, hopefully, it would in this case too.

“Psella,” his voice snapped at me. I brought myself back to attention and surveyed the room. It was nice. Surprisingly, the room wasn’t green. As a matter of fact, the only green things in the room were the door, Jayden’s cloak, and my shirt. The floor, ceiling, and walls were clay but they were all covered in a shiny substance. Daring to take my beat-up moccasin-like shoes off, I poked the floor- smooth and slightly slippery. A map of the continent was on the wall, but I didn’t examine it.

Continuing out of this entrance hall, I came to a similar room, but it was obvious this served as the living room. Around a low table were little black cushions that looked plump and comfy. A fireplace was filled with ash and burnt logs that had been like that for a while, if you could tell from the dust settled on the cinders and firewood. A thin layer also coated the table and cushions. “Why would you need a fire in such a hot city?” I asked.

“Wait till the nights. Then you’ll know why,” was his response. I rolled my eyes. He never gave a straight answer. A maze was easier to solve than him him. That blue-robed guy, on the other hand, sure looked like he gave the nice, simple, direct answers. Of course, that would make it harder for Farrah to complete her job. What did I hear the ‘Red Eyesore’ call him? Oh yeah, Vallience. My stomach gave a guilty clench. For the first time in ten minutes, I wasn’t thinking about myself or my situation; I was thinking about the people who basically amounted to my best friends. Correction: only friends. Though my father and sister had thought much of the people, he did not approve of me socializing with anyone. Despite the fact him and Mamma died from that early plague, Makine always kept my life that way.

That brought me to the conundrum of what might have happened to Selemas, my dear younger brother. That rascally thirteen year old might be in Other Place- the place almost everyone is afraid to talk about and even more fearful to go to. Though I must say, dear Sele was always showing off and trying to prove he was all grown up by protecting me. It was quite irksome. In spite of the fact he tried to defend me and it bothered me as I was capable of taking care of myself, I still cared for him. Bonds are important, but family bonds are one of the most important ones, my sister liked to quote, telling me it was one of Father’s favorite sayings as I knew very little of him since he died when I was only four years old.

She was twelve years older than me. The beauty of the family, as people used to say. I used to be very envious of her, my dear elder sister Makine. She had suitors and everything, people from every single corner of Leo’veyln, but she denied them all, despite several very generous offers. To every single one, she said, “Mazine is the one I have to take care of and I am more than capable of doing such on my own.” People began calling her the Wild Mare of Mazine, seeing as she refused to be reined in. Mazinites have been known to be some of the more independent thinkers of Leo’veyln.

Actually, ever since that day two or three years ago, I’ve been wondering about something. Both Makine and Selemas had the family’s customary dark hair and pale purple eyes while I looked completely different. Not exactly pointy, but my face was more… defined; I guess that is how I would describe it. Sea-blue eyes and blonde hair. I basically was the opposite of the rest of my family. So is it possible…

I shook my head. Analyze the current situation, I ordered myself. Don’t ponder such improbable things in this situation. From the living room, I poked my head into the bathroom. A simple toilet, bath, water pitcher, and basin were in the room. The pitcher hung from a pole over a fireplace devoid of anything other than sooty wood logs. I guessed that the purpose was to heat it up.

The last two rooms were connected. Although one was smaller (the servant’s room, I suspected), they were similar in design. Like the other rooms, they were made of clay. Both consisted of a pile of rugs with pillows and blankets throw on top. Yet more fireplaces were there; one per room. Both had a window, something I decided to exploit, settling on the inside ledge and twisting my head around to gaze at the strangely hypnotizing city. Jayden, being the nice person he was, decided to show me how you could open the two vertical pieces of wood at either end of the ledge I was sitting on like cupboards. Ending result? The piece I was sitting on shot down, landing me with a yelp in the space. He laughed. I just scowled, grumbling my favorite Raminen obscenities, which amused him more. You know, you can learn a lot of vocabulary from builders. “What’s so amusing?” I asked in an airy, yet slightly grumpy tone. “You don’t seem like the type to laugh, Master Stoic.”

He managed to smother his laughter. “I’m human. Laughing at others is in the job description.” Straightening up, Jayden ordered, “Get some food from the kitchen. Bread, water, meat, and other food.” In complete seriousness, he added, “No dropping it, poisoning it or anything.”

The total lack of faith didn’t blow away. I mean, if you were him and you had a servant, wouldn’t you suspect the servant to try to kick your bucket over so you could be free of him? “Yes sir,” I muttered. Under my breath, I added, “I would put my eyeliner in it. Or dump my hand lotion. Possibly, put dancing powder so you’d compulsively dance until you die of exhaustion.”

“I heard that!” he yelled after me.

Sighing heavily, I walked out of the smaller bedroom and the entire apartment. I decided to go left, continuing down the hallway, before realizing I had no idea where the kitchen was. My guess was that Jayden, being the helpful jenea master he was, was still chuckling in the room, having grasped what I had initially missed.

Not wanting to have to deal with ‘Quinn’, I made a split second decision to continue down the hall. Growling now, I stalked down the passage, muttering more vivid things I’d do to Jayden if I could get my hands on him.

A black door was to my left, the passage continuing straight ahead and behind me, and a window to my right. My mind whipped through the room assignment and people facts. Each guy had a different color cloak (I suspected weapon specialty) from the others. Jayden’s cloak matched his door color. Therefore, I concluded, this was where Winona was residing. I smiled victoriously. And Jayden thought I was dim. Ha!

Knocking on the door, I rocked from my toes to my heels. “Winona!” I called. I heard no noises behind it. “Bevré,” I muttered under my breath.

“Looking for someone?” a voice behind me asked. I turned around really fast to find myself face to face with another girl. “I’m Emoné.” She held out a pale hand. Her very short nails as well as her rough palms scratched my palm as we shook hands. This girl needs moisturizer, I noted. Even with the whole feminism thing my family is stuffed in, I still believed you need to look good and presentable. “My master is Lorith.” The leader of the Awin army was the information my brain gave me automatically.

“My name is Psella.” I smiled. “My ‘master’,” I put it in quotes with my fingers, “is Jayden, the dumbass.” The look of horror she gave me made me realize, well, I can’t just insult my ‘master’. How silly of me- or them. “He knows I call him that. I don’t exactly want to be here. I was press ganged into this job. No pay or pension. Huh! How long have you worked here?”

Emoné shifted uncomfortably, her dark blue hair swinging around in its loose pigtails behind her head that only cleared her shoulders by an inch or two. I was pretty sure it was dyed. Something I had learned from Iwnamar was the ownership standard here in Awin. The masters tattooed their servants with the personal sign of their jenao. “My parents abandoned me about six years ago when I was ten, so I volunteered for the job,” she whispered. “I earn a five klaris a day plus food and shelter. The money is to be spent in the fair.” Five klaris a day wasn’t that great. It was about enough to buy a cracker a day.

“Lucky,” I muttered. “Five klaris may not be much, but it sure beats working for nothing.” I glared in the direction from where I had come from. “Hey, do you know where the kitchens are? Could you tell me? Jayden ordered me to grab him some food.”

“I’ll do better than that,” she said casually, starting to walk toward the clay channel I had been heading away from. “Follow.” Trotting toward her, I caught up and slowed down till my strides matched hers. “I hope we can be friends,” she chirped. “There aren’t that many servants here that survive the week.” Seeing my horrified expression, Emoné giggled. “I was joking. The rest of the girls that serve and I don’t get along. And the guys here,” she shrugged, “are interested in a different kind of friendship than what I have in mind.”

“That stinks incredibly,” I said sympathetically. It sucks to be here with whom basically amounted to my best friends, but to top it off with no friends? In my personal opinion, I would prefer to commit suicide. “Well, three of my friends are here too. I’m sure we can be a happy quintet.”

We chatted until we turned into a room that had many metal pots dangling from racks nailed into the ceiling. Colorful tiles filled the room, thankfully different from the monotonous reddish-brown clay. To my surprise, Gisèle, Winona, and Farrah were all there, hunched over a table full of various ingredients. “Hey! What are you doing?” I called over, skipping to where they were, followed closely by Emoné.

“Sh,” hissed Farrah. She jerked her head toward Karzle, who was poking around in the knives section, testing out a few on a piece of steak. “We’re plotting our revenge. This is simply to begin it though- too nice for them to be the whole thing.” Peeking over her shoulder, I saw a handful of common herbs such as tarragon, oregano, basil, and a few not so common, aconitum among them.

“So what’s the plan?” I whispered.

“We’re gonna put these in their food. And if it tastes weird, then we can say we must have mixed up the herbs or something.” My hand shot up after Winona finished. She sighed. “You don’t need to raise your hand, Psella. This isn’t school.”

“What if my jenao asked for bread?” A reasonable question in my opinion. Emoné simply gave me a quizzical look. I guessed what she was confused about. “Master in the Raminen,” I explained. She looked even more confused. “The Raminen is am intercity language. Most cities have their own, so when they meet every other decade or so, the Raminen is spoken so everyone in the little council can understand each other.” She nodded, understanding slightly what I was saying

Gisèle sighed and massaged her forehead as if the questions and unnecessary explanations were giving her a headache. “Hello, I’m Gisèle. That’s Farrah and Winona.” She pointed out who was who. “So what’s your name?”

Emoné coughed and blushed shyly. “Oh, I’m Emoné. My master is Lorith. I just met Psella a few minutes ago. She was looking for you for some reason. By the way…” She took a darting glance at Karzle who had started chucking tomatoes out the window. “What’s he wasting those tomatoes for?”

Giggling slightly, Gisèle explained, “Apparently, he isn’t ‘wasting’ them because he thinks tomatoes are bad for the body and stuff. Anyway,” she turned to the pile of herbs, “this pile’s for Psella, this one’s for Winona, for Farrah, and lastly, for me!” We each took the pile randomly assigned to us.

For a second, I thought. “What if they are allergic to any of the stuff in here?” I pondered aloud.

Winona shook her head, pitying my simplicity. “My dear, dear Psella, your worry is uncalled for. The only thing in these piles that a person could possibly be allergic to is aconitum, but even that is quite rare. I mean, it’s not like any of them are werewolves.” We giggled.

In my old library, I used to read about the different… species that roamed our world. Werewolves, apparently, are quite human-like when not transformed. The affliction forces them into their forms once a month, at the start of the full moon. Otherwise, they can transform at will, with strength, speed, and wiles greater than that of the average man. But, after the full moon’s transformation, if they transform during that period of a week, they are stuck in that form until the next full moon. Also, that is when they go truly mad, attacking everything in their path, like a normal wolf. Fortunately enough, they were not like the vampires, elves, humans, and elementals- they never reached a high enough population as to build their own city. Lycanthropes are rather rare, seeing as they are hunted to the ends of Leo’veyln.

Just thinking that one of the young ‘masters’ could quite possibly be a werewolf made me worry for a second before remembering that they were basically extinct. Quietly, so as to not alert Karzle to us leaving, we all left the kitchen together, promising to see each other the next day. Waving goodbye to Farrah and Gisèle, whose apartments were south of my own, Winona, Emoné and I headed off toward our room. “I’ll visit you tomorrow,” I promised Winona and Emoné as we came to my door.

Emoné laughed a light, bird-like laugh. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll come here because you’ll most likely lose your way looking for anyone else.” Winona joined her.

I scowled jokingly. “Thanks for believing in my skills of direction.” They laughed again. Smiling slightly, I knocked on the door. After Jayden opened it for me, I entered and yelled, “Good luck!” after them as they continued toward Winona’s room.

“What do they need good luck for?” asked Jayden nosily. “Why’d you take so long?”

“Oh nothing,” I said airily. “And considering I had no idea where the kitchen was, that took a remarkably short amount of time.” Setting down the pitcher of water and the sandwiches I had made in the kitchen on the table in what I took to be the dining room, I kneeled on one of the pillows and brought my hands together. “Dear Mazin, I thank you for the food I’m about to eat. I give to you my prayers. May we all get what we deserve,” I pray.

Having done the proper rites, I began to eat. The bread was delicious; I hadn’t had wheat bread for two years, since wheat had become scarce. Fortunately, I had chosen the regular sandwich without any weird herbs.

Puzzled as to why my ‘master’ hadn’t joined me in eating, I looked up to see him staring at me queerly. “What? It’s good. Dig in.” I gestured at it. “It isn’t going anywhere if you just stand there and stare at it.” He shook his head and sat down, eating right away. Guess this city isn’t particularly religious, I shrugged and continued with what I considered a feast. Dry white bread and a little dish of water had been our rations for a while, so I was happy to catch up on my nutrition.

A pleasant silence occurred. For once, I didn’t talk nor feel obliged to. One of the things I didn’t miss about being in Mazine was the speaking requirement. After all, whoever was in such a class as was my family was expected to host fancy-schmancy dinner parties during the different festivals.

“Why are you eating so much?” asked Jayden. Startled, I looked up and realized I had eaten four of the six sandwiches I had brought up.

“Sorry,” I mumbled, ashamedly. “Normally, I would eat much less, but we weren’t fed much in the cells and I am rather hungry.”

I was about to take another bite of my sandwich when a shrill scream erupted from one of the rooms down the hall. Winona, I thought horror-struck. Rushing out of the room, I headed toward her apartment. Not noticing if I was being followed, I charged through the open door and gasped at the sight in front of me.

The spiky-haired, somber red head was convulsing on the ground like I did during one of my epileptic attacks. Immediately, I mechanically knelt by his side and started positioning him in the emergency position that I was put in when spasming. His head, which I set in Winona’s lap, was laid to the side to prevent him from choking on his tongue. Her face was horrified. Not that I could blame her.

His body was generating russet hair at a very fast rate all over the place and then shedding it just as quickly at a continuous rate. It was like he was going through an overload of his system. Earlier, I had noticed his eyes to be a deep hazel. Now, though, they were sometimes hazel and at others, a red with spinning black dots. His face kept changing as well, going from a human shaped jaw to one similar to that of a predator, complete with sharp teeth and bad meat breath. This was quite freaky enough without the convulsing.

“Goyine!” gasped Jayden, for the first time showing some concern for someone other than himself. Rounding on Winona, he roared, “What happened to him?”

Reduced to only being able to shake her head in bewilderment, Winona started shuddering.

My face contorted in fury, I took a step toward him, my fist waved in his face. He flinched instinctively. “Don’t blame any of this on her,” I snarled through gritted teeth. “She’s never done this before. How would she know-?!” I stopped. This wasn’t the time to berate him. “Get Farrah and Gisèle,” I ordered. When he opened his mouth to ask a question, I guessed what he was going to ask and snapped, “Farrah’s with the guy with the blue cloak and Gisèle’s with red toga boy.”

Not bothering to ask why to get them, he ran out of the room so fast I would have guessed he were a figment of my imagination. He really cared for this guy. What a surprise. Winona sang a soft tune, hoping to calm her ‘master’ down, but it didn’t do anything. “I hope the herbs didn’t have anything to do with this,” she murmured softly after singing the Star song, which normally helped my attacks. “I would feel so guilty.”

A slow numb feeling passed over me. “What herbs were in that pile?” I asked, hoping that he couldn’t hear me while in the attack. The possibilities were endless. Maybe we had accidentally put in a poisonous plant. Dear Vamis, we hadn’t meant to kill them. We just wanted a little revenge.

My red-headed friend shrugged. “The herbs were randomly assigned to each of us. But not like a blended mix. Each of us got a few leaves of different plants.” She turned her head toward me. “Why?”

I started, “Well, what if aco-?” My question was never finished as the blue-cloaked young man, Jayden, the black-haired fellow, and most importantly, Farrah and Gisèle rushed into the room. I shut my mouth, not wanting to incriminate any of us.

They both knelt by his side and started taking general information, like his temperature and the symptoms. After having done so, Farrah started asking Winona questions. “When did this start?”

Winona answered immediately. “We were eating our food. A beef stew. Suddenly, he started shaking and making weird noises.”

“Noises like…?” Farrah prompted.

“Whining, growling, and howling. I freaked out and screamed. By the time Psella and her jenao came here, he was in this present condition.”

Vallience stepped forward. “Probably I should do something,” he suggested. When Farrah threw him a wary look, he added, “I’m a healer and have been Goyine’s friend for a long time. I probably could understand his problems better.” The undercurrent of his words gave me the intended message: All girls leave the premises.

Obviously, I wasn’t the only one. “Nuh uh,” said Farrah, shaking her head. “I can guarantee my medical expertise is greater than yours. Also, Psella assists me occasionally, so she’ll be able to help.” The look on her face was tense, but she also looked as if she had an idea as to what caused the problem.

He relented after a moment’s consultation with Jayden and Karzle. Then, Vallience turned to Winona and was about to speak when she interrupted him.

“No, I am not leaving. I’m his servant, so I’m expected to stay here. Now, let’s all shut up and try to give him room.” Sighing, he knelt by Goyine and started concentrating on making his head slightly more comfortable. Suddenly, the man coughed and something green flew by Gisèle’s head. Catching it, she examined it before handing it off to Vallience.

For a few seconds, the room was quiet as he gazed at it and then glared with suppressed fury at us girls. That was when we all realized that since Goyine had coughed, the fur was slowly falling out and none was replacing them. His eyes were now closed rather peacefully. The shuddering had stopped.

“Who,” started Vallience through gritted teeth, “the hell put this in his food?” As he held up his hand and the object in it, the other three girls gasped.

“What is it?” I asked, squinting at it. It looked innocent enough, green leaves and violet flowers like a mutated, upside down foxglove. Maybe a six winged butterfly would be closer to the truth. “It looks like…like…” My voice faded away as I recognized the plant. My gaze switched between the herb and the young man whose head still rest in Winona’s lap. Unconsciously, she was stroking his hair while staring horrified at the plant as if it were a signed death warrant. Technically, though, it was a death warrant by another name.

“Aconitum,” announced Gisèle. “Now this is interesting.” The guys gazed at her as if she was insane or on meds that were seriously affecting her judgment skills. “What? After all, how could it have gotten in there?”

“I think you four have some explaining to do,” decided Karzle, clenching his fists. The other two nodded their heads in agreement. Vallience no longer looked like the easy-going guy we had took him for in the tunnels. As a matter of fact, he looked quite deadly right about then.

We exchanged looks. What now? Maybe it was just me, but this felt like a code red situation. But judging what the other girls’ expressions were, I don’t think so.