Page 91 of Desire

Reminded of what they’d done to Edmund, my fear rose sharply.

No, never again.

I stood, feeling the anger churning in my well.

“Obey me,” I whispered to the vines. “Protect what is mine.”

The vines slithered over the ground, moving faster than Edmund could run, and wound around the trackers’ feet, snaking their way up their legs and torsos. Unable to flee, the trackers hacked at the plants. The vines grew thicker and stronger without needing to be coaxed.

“Your parlor tricks are useless,” one of the trackers snarled. “Give us the girl.”

My intent changed, and the vines snared their hands. Immobile, they could do nothing as offshoots plucked their blades from their grips and brandished them before their faces.

Edmund stopped short at the sight.

His surprise wasn’t shared by the tracker I’d unmanned. That one laughed.

“Are blade-wielding plants meant to strike fear in us? We cannot be harmed by anything made of magic. Release us and take your beatings like men.”

“Take their coins,” I called.

Garron began searching the tracker nearest him, patting his clothes.

“Eh! Remove your bloody hands or lose them.”

Garron dug into the man’s coat and removed a coin. Angry curses rang out in the glade as the rest also lost theirs. The vines held strong against their struggles.

Edmund left the group and jogged back to where I waited. He silently helped me down and walked beside me as we joined the rest.

“Your mother awaits your return,” one of the trackers said when he saw me.

“She is not my mother.”

“And your sister? Is she no kin of yours either?”

With a touch of my will, the vines covered all of their mouths.

“You have no reason to speak of my kin. We will keep your coins and set you free. You fought fiercely, wounding several of the glade’s inhabitants, but your coins were lost in the process. You can choose to leave the forest or allow the oath that binds you to keep you here until the beasts eventually take you all.”

Connected to them through the vines, I removed their memories and replaced them with the new one without touching them.

“Now sleep.”

I faced Brandle. “They are men filled will ill-intent and no remorse. If the opportunity presents itself, they will kill all of you and return me to Drisdall. Yet, knowing this does not change our need to spare them. We cannot become the monsters we are fighting to free ourselves from.”

“We agree,” he said.

I glanced at Edmund and watched him nod.

“We’ll return them to their place and leave them with enough wood to see them through to dawn. After that, their fates are their own,” he said.

Nodding, I withdrew my energy from the vines and watched the men crumple to the ground.

Edmund grabbed a pair by their collars and started dragging them toward the trees. Eadric took two more and winked at me. Liam followed with the final tracker.

I trailed behind them, stopping at the edge of the glade.

“Father?” I called once they’d disappeared.

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