Onion stumbled backwards and landed uncomfortably on her back and dropped the rock. Dazed, she looked up to the skies, to the roof of the mountain and thought for a moment about how fine a night it was for star gazing. Yet when she tried to inhale her lungs remained defiantly deflated, having had the breath knocked from them.
But there was no time to recover.
Cedric rushed upon her once again and was sure to hit his prone target if she continued searching the stars and gasping for breath. Lungs burning with atrophied disuse, she nonetheless willed her lethargic muscles to roll down the slope as Cedric's bladed fist swooped down. On her knees again, she tried to regain her composure, but the quick acting Cedric would give Onion no respite. A swift kick to her cheekbone nearly found its destination when Onion summoned the last of her strength, ducking the blow and forcing her aching body forward, head and shoulders down. She tackled her assailant, crashing into his abdomen. The two of them fell to the ground in a muted thud.
Nearby, the tents of the other leper travelers rustled as their occupants scurried in to be away from the commotion. Onion was too focused on her own battle to pay them much heed, but Cedric's eye darted towards his reluctant audience for a moment.
In the half second Cedric's surprise took him off guard, Onion made a grab for his blade. The pale man was too fast however, and he tightened his grip on the weapon before burying it into the thieving arm. Onion howled as she felt the steel part flesh and muscle. Again she cried when the dagger was pulled out again and her leper's bandages bloomed into a deep crimson.
He means to kill me she acknowledged to herself for the first time, but I will not give him that honor. Before the blade could be inserted into her throat as easily as it had been in her arm, Onion scrambled and pushed the man hard in the sternum. He was just out of reach now, but it gave Onion a chance to collect herself.
Again, he lunged at her, stabbing the hostage blade forcefully, but Onion would not flee his advancement this time. She stepped swiftly to the side, placing her hand around the attacking wrist. Using his own momentum, she pulled him off balance, then twisted his hand backwards, causing the dagger to fall to the ground with a clink, which she recovered quickly. But what will a blade do but kill? I cannot incapacitate him. she thought, I must kill him. I will try to make this quick for him.
Without remorse, she prepared to stab Cedric's unguarded back when the sound of someone running to her gave her pause and a black form in the night rushed to knock her over. Onion avoided the figure but her opportunity to end the conflict had passed. Cedric was up on his feet again and prepared to defend himself. His eyes, however, were focused entirely on the small woman dressed in bluish black who had just come from a small cluster of nearby trees.
The figure breathed heavily, exhausted from her sprint from the arbor-borne darkness and she cast a long shadow against the firelight. But Onion recognized her for who she was, nonetheless.
Of course it was a foolish thought to ever consider that Gregor, as a bei'thal, would have trusted the two of them to follow his instructions under duress. That two death-row escapees, denied the homes they so longed to return to, could be trusted to travel alone to a strange and foreign city would be a leap of faith that even she would have a hard time justifying.
"What is all of this?!" Onion demanded, exasperated and in Nüish. Her question went unanswered, and likely not understood. Instead, Anita, still blindfolded and brazen, began to exchange words with Cedric in a language Onion had only heard Gregor use with the bei and Vaughn. While she was ignorant to the meaning of the conversation, the exchange gave her a queer feeling deep in her throat and belly. Within moments Davin had also arrived at the scene. He turned to the Nü and through his own blindfold, Vren could feel herself being carefully observed.
Their short conversation was angry, but Onion could see the violence drain from the pale chef's face. He still stood defiantly, but uncomfortably, as if he were trying to cover up a secret. In an instant, Davin grabbed his hand,and pulled Cedric's ear to his face. In the firelight, Onion could see the bei move his lips, but she could not hear a word. But she felt them. For you the time has come to sleep, to dream, to die. Beyond all promises, in the shadow of our souls, we dwell and wait.
Cedric seemed to shrink, but thin pink lips reluctantly responded and again, Onion felt their meaning fall somewhere upon her web. To die, a breathless response, dwell and wait.
When he finished, Cedric's eyes rolled in the back of his head and crumpled to the ground.
"Is he dead?" she muttered in Nüish, a question to herself rather than to her unfeeling rescuers.
Anita ignored the young Nü. Whatever communication the two could manage in the realm of Onion's web could be accomplished no more and Onion had no desire to see that woman, that bei, in her most sacred of places, even if she could determine how to invite her back.
Davin returned his sightless gaze to her, though. With great effort, he produced a few words of thickly accented Eirdren. "Roor (Linguistic notes to be deleted later: never / not for eternity - Eirdren is a no double negative language. Typically verb would be conjugated Mayl (mail); do not announce ). kal'Meihl (to everyone' announce/ command tense). Saegfrük (on the pain of death, lit: beyond: frük, death: Saeg). Ahcha (male object, person over there) Bei'd (~d = about). Mayl. Saegfrük."
The two of them put the unconscious man to bed for the night and disappeared back into the glade. She knew they were not far. Onion kept repeating the words Davin had told her, as to not forget them before getting a chance to look them up in her dictionary.
"Do not tell anyone about this." He had said in pigeon Eirdren. "Do not tell anyone about the bei Cedric."
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