Avenay quickly paid the bartender and left the bar puzzled and slightly frightened by the actions of both Selinan and the other man. It had been mostly how the man had looked around the room, like a predator frustrated from running down prey they knew they would eventually catch.
She couldn't see why Selinan would be the prey; he didn't exactly seem the type who would make many enemies. But his actions spoke clearly, why else the invisibility spell when the man came in? Avenay shook her head. It was all beyond her. All she knew was that she had lost the little bit of companionship she was going to have that night.
Palli had the door closed and had left a note to her saying she had brought a friend up to their room. Avenay knew she was perfectly welcome to go in, no doubt Palli had found a way to make a private little nook, but she doubted she'd get any sleep. Palli's idea of "privacy" was a curtain.
Avenay wandered down into the garden in back of the inn. It was lit with candles alight with the spell-fire Avenay had been earlier that night. A fountain burbled cheerfully and frogs and crickets were singing. Candle light danced in the pool created by the fountain, making the tiny orange fish that swam in it seem like little peices of fire themselves as they darted around in the water.
The edge of fountain was big enough to sit comfortably on, and Avenay sat cross-legged on it, resting her elbows on her knees and her chin on her hands. A few fish came to the surface to investigate but weren't interested for long and went on with their business. The garden was so peaceful, so simply good, she felt safe and let her guard down, closing her eyes to enjoy the sounds of the night.
She sensed the man before he reached her, but he clapped a big hand over her mouth before she could scream and pressed a knife to her throat with the other. "Kind of dangerous, a pretty lady like you out here all alone," he growled, foul breath blowing in her face.
Avenay decided the best choice for the moment was to play dumb. She gave a soft squeak of terror and looked up at him with frightened eyes, neither of which were hard to fake. "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you as long as you behave and don't give me any trouble."
Avenay only squeaked again as he pulled her to her feet and marched her into the cover of a willow tree. Once there, he made a deadly mistake and took the knife away from Avenay's throat, sure she was to scared to fight. He was wrong.
Though Fire Dancers have no evident muscles, they are some of the strongest women alive. Because so many men had the same idea as the one Avenay was held by at the moment, Kirol trained them in self defense as well as dance. Holding a Fire Dancer who did not want to be held was rumored to be like trying to hold onto a lion. Evidently, this man didn't know she was a Fire Dancer, or didn't know that part of their reputation.
Avenay did what felt like a vertical bridge, pressing all for limbs against the man's body and her stomach against his arm to break his grasp and send him flying backwards. Avenay landed gracefully some ways away and picked up the man's knife. He was climbing to his feet now and produced a wicked looking blade from under his pants. "I told you not to give me any trouble," he snarled.
But the knife was not her only weapon. As it always did when she needed it, her little silver ball appeared in her hand, except that it was glowing a dangerous blue color in response to its owners fear and anger. She threw it and it melted through him. It screamed as it turned, seeming to have a mind of its own, and passed through him again with the same effect and then whizzed back to Avenay.
He smiled dangerously. "Nice try, but those don't work on me. That one tickled a bit though. Now just give me back my knife and I won't hurt you."
"Here," she snarled and threw the knife at his chest. He side stepped and it landed with a thock in the tree next to him.
"Good speed, but your aim's a little off," he told her, advancing on her with the new blade. She took a step back, considering an invisibility spell.
He lunged for her and then collapsed to his knees, face a mixture of pain, anger, and suprise. Avenay couldn't help a shiver as she looked at him. A knife was buried to its hilt in his back.
"Dirty pig," Selinan spat at the man as he walked past the body to Avenay. "Are you alright?"
"Cold," she replied. "Very cold."
He pulled her to him, holding her to his warm chest with one hand and producing a knife from under his shirt sleeve with the other. "Did he have any friends with him?" Selinan asked.
"Not that I saw," Avenay replied, looking up from where she had happily snuggled into his embrace. She hoped he didn't notice how she still shook from fear.
Selinan began to say something, but he never said it. He sagged against her silently, a very slim knife in to the hilt in the back of his head where his neck ended and his skull began.
Avenay just held him in disbeleif and made a firm promise to herself never to even think about getting close to any man. He had died instantly and painlessly. Avenay knelt on the ground, his head in her lap, crying for a man she didn't even know but who had saved her life.
Avenay heard a rustle in the willows and looked up to see the man from the bar. He didn't say anything, she knew. She not only glared daggers at him, she threw one. The slim knife whistled over the man's head as he ducked. Avenay threw the silver ball again and this time it worked as it was supposed to.
She had aimed for his chest, prefrably his heart. Kirol had told her, when she was give the ball, that it had some conciousness though it wasn't alive and would respond to her moods. Just then, she was wanted to kill the man. And, had it struck him in the heart, it would have. But it hit him much lower.
The ball dissapeared into his pants and then whizzed out the other side, but where it had hit there was a faint silvery blue glow from under the man's pants. He moaned and doubled over in pain. The ball rolled back to Avenay, who calmly picked it up and put it back in its pocket. Laying Selinan gently down on the grass, she got up and stalked over to him.
"Why did you kill him?" she demanded in a voice that would make anyone cower.
The man was either to in pain to recognize the tone or was being macho, as men had an annoying tendancy to do. "Re...ven...ge," he told her between clenched teeth.
"For what?" she demanded in the same tone. She noticed she was shaking again, though with rage and not fear this time.
"Can't... say..." the man moaned.
Avenay held the ball to his head threateningly. It buzzed with anticipation and glowed even more blue than before. "Oh, I think you can."
Do not hurt him any more, a voice that was clearly not to be argued with commanded her. He won't tell you, no matter what you do to him.
Avenay looked around for the source of the voice, never moving the ball from the man's head. "Who said that?" she demanded.
You can't see me, I am above you. Do not harm my rider, the voice told her. He was only settling a score.
"Whose?" she demanded to the night air.
His own, but also Tiyanni and Litayath's. He could not disobey. I could not, the voice told her. Bring him into the open.
Neither name was familiar to her, but Avenay figured it couldn't do any harm. The voice was commanding but not dangerous. Hauling the man to his feet, she dragged him out. There was the sound of great wings and then a sort of big, bronze colored lizard with bat's wings landed. The man smiled when he saw the lizard-bat. "Zerroith," he said weakly. The lizard-bat made an unmistakeably sad sound low in its throat. The sound changed to a growl as Zerroith moved towards them.
As the lizard-bat came closer, Avenay gasped at its size. It was huge! Certainly not something she wanted mad at her. She clutched the ball tightly. It was glowing a sinister purple color which was quickly changing to red as the lizard-bat neared.
What have you done to J'kosh? the voice demanded, and Avenay realized it was Zerroith the lizard-bat who had been talking to her.
"Settled my score," she replied, her voice an unconcious challenge as she threw Zerroith's words back at him.
It was not your score to settle, Zerroith told her. Selinan was not who he appeared to be.
"He saved my life," Avenay snapped. "I don't care who he was, he couldn't have been a horrible person and he damn well didn't deserve to die! And by a coward's hand too, in the back of the head. Not even given a chance to fight." And win, she added silently.
He did not deserve a chance! Zerroith roared mentally and gave a vocal one to match.
"Says who?" Avenay asked.
Tiyanni is the one who decided this needed to be done. If you have a score to settle with anyone over his death, take it up with her, Zerroith snarled.
Avenay fingered the ball, which had returned to a silvery blue glow, thoughtfully and smiled. "I think I will. Where can I find this Tiyanni?"
I can take you there, Zerroith told her.
By now, J'kosh was able to stand, though painfully, and he walked over to the lizard-bat and leaned against his side. He nodded as though he were having a conversation she couldn't hear and then climbed up. "Come on," he told her gruffly, but did not, understandably, offer her any help.
Avenay needed no help anyway. She lept gracefully to sit in front of him and settled herself on Zerroith. "Isn't he too heavy to fly?" she asked J'kosh.
"His wings are very strong," J'kosh told her as Zerroith lept from the ground and winged his way upwards. The next moment, she was plunged into darkness. Before she could scream, they were out again, but the place Zerroith spiraled down towards was like nowhere she'd ever seen.
