“The deeper the wound or illness, the longer it will take and the more power it requires to save someone. He would have had a better chance with a serious illness, but it would take all of his power, and it would take a long time. Tear a person into too many pieces too quickly, and no man has the power required to heal all the wounds in time to save them.”
I felt sick at the thought of Ailill weeping before his fallen mother. What did she mean, too many pieces? Had he removed her hands and feet? Her arms and legs? Did her small, innocent child—a boy who still had a heart—stand there, watching the blood pooling around the last recognizable pieces of her body until she vanished, free of her pain at last?
I’ll never forgive him. Never. I don’t care what role he played in my village. I had the sudden urge to fight.
“That’s useful to know.” I pulled Elgar from its sheath and held it before me, allowing the moonlight to heighten its violet glow. “We’ll have to make sure we don’t leave behind too few pieces.”
Avery grinned.
***
We strode through the woods down the dirt path, my mob of women and I. Avery stood beside me, her ax raised high in the air, a battle cry escaping her lips every few moments. Every time we encountered a man between the commune and the castle, I ordered him to go inside a building and stay there until a woman came for him. I told him he was never to hurt a woman again. And I ordered him to pass along my message to any man or boy he came across in the future.
No, we would save our bloodlust for the castle. At least at first.
As we passed the area where I always broke off for the cavern, I sent my best wishes in that direction, hoping Ailill had done as Avery had said and that he was out of harm’s way.
We left the last of the trees behind us, and Avery and I stepped forward. Avery lifted her gouge in the air to signal the mob to stop behind us.
Goncalo and his usual group of men snapped out of their lazy conversations and looked at us. They seemed surprised to meet with so many pairs of defiant eyes.
Goncalo fumbled with the back of his belt and pulled out his whip. As if a whip had a chance against a blade and an ax.
“What are you women doing?” he barked.
I smiled. “We’re changing how things work around here.”
Goncalo scoffed. “I’d like to see you try.” He cracked his whip on the ground.
“Whip yourself,” I said, devouring both words with my tongue.
Goncalo did as bidden, whipping the weapon across his legs. He yowled in pain. The men behind him murmured, pulling out their blades shakily and pointing them toward us.
“Settle down,” Goncalo said to his men. “My fault. A rare mistake.”
“Whip the man next to you,” I said.
Goncalo did as bidden. The man jumped back and screamed. Blood dripped from an open wound on his arm. He lifted his other hand and pressed it over the wound, letting a violet glow pour forth. He looked at Goncalo with the confusion of an obedient dog kicked by its master. The crowd of women behind me burst into laughter.
Goncalo picked up his whip and strode toward me. The veins on his forehead throbbed to life, distorting his otherwise flawless features. “You insolent woman.”
“Let us pass,” I commanded. “All of you.”
They could wait. It was time to say goodbye once and for all to the lord in black.
The men shuffled sideways, clearing the path before us to the castle door. More than one seemed lost in thought; others, like Goncalo, shook and trembled, doing their best to fight the orders given. But they couldn’t move until my entire mob had passed through the door.
As the last woman stepped inside, Goncalo and the other men forced their way through the crowd, shoving women as they went.
I parted my lips to speak a command, but Avery thrust out her hand to cover my mouth.
“They’ll get what’s coming to them,” she said coldly. “For now, let them think they have the upper hand.”
I wondered how they would explain the whip and the way they let us pass. Perhaps they wouldn’t be willing to admit that they had been dumbfounded and obedient at a woman’s words.
“What is going on here?”
The lord entered the grand entryway from the inner garden door. I wondered briefly if he had been looking for me there. Had my orders muddled his memory, caused him to remember leaving me last at the end of our chess game? The door shut behind him, but that large crack I had noticed the first time I ventured inside the castle was present even then, and a trickle of moonlight fled into the foyer. The fire still burned brightly in the open dining room hall, but there was no longer any music, no longer any laughter.
“Lord Elric,” spattered Goncalo. “There are women walking freely out of the commune, disrespecting men, waving around those playthings—”
The lord lifted a tired hand. “Enough, Goncalo. I can see.”
Goncalo’s face burned darker, and he took his place standing behind the lord. His hand still gripped the whip’s handle and not the blade at his hips. He would regret the choice later.
The other men were not so sure of themselves. Many of them drew their swords as they gathered around the lord and Goncalo, and the rest tensed their hands on their hilts uncomfortably.