Matt Forbeck - Marked for Death

“What do you want?” she said.

“Thank the Flame you’re there!” said Te’oma. “I just ran into your father, and he sent me back here. They’re off to rescue the others.”

“Why aren’t you?”

The changeling patted her leg. “They cut me pretty good. I can’t move well enough for a fight. I barely made it here.”

“Why are you dressed like that? What happened to your armor?”

“Warforged took it,” said Te’oma. “They’d already killed the changeling, so I took her clothes.”

The girl chewed on her lip for a moment, thinking all this over.

“What do you want?” Esprл asked. Te’oma could hear the suspicion in the girl’s voice.

The changeling gazed up at the girl as innocently as she could. “Could you throw down a ladder? I think I could make it up. Once I get on the ship, I should be all right.”

Esprл narrowed her eyes at the knight standing below. “What’s the password?” she said.

Te’oma had heard Kandler’s parting words to the girl. The psion thought she remembered the name of Esprл’s mother from when she’d scanned the girl’s mind before, but she did it once more to be safe.

“Esprina,” the changeling said.

Esprл frowned, thought a moment more, then finally picked up the rope ladder and unfurled it over the railing. It landed right before the changeling’s feet.

Te’oma climbed up the ladder and bounded aboard the airship. She gazed all around and took it in. “What an amazing craft!” she said. “I’ve never been on anything like it.”

“What’s your name?” Esprл asked.

“Mardak,” the changeling said as she pulled up the ladder behind her.

The girl’s jaw dropped.

“Wait,” Te’oma said. “That’s not right, is it?” She looked at Esprл. “It’s, um, Levritt.”

Esprл screamed.

Te’oma snatched up the girl in her arms and clamped a hand over her mouth. Esprл kicked and thrashed about like a beast in a net. Te’oma reached out with her mind and tapped the girl’s brain hard. She fell limp in the changeling’s hands.

Te’oma lay the girl down on the deck and said to her. “Don’t make this harder than it has to be. I can keep doing that all day if you like.”

Esprл blinked and sat up. She looked at the changeling, still in the form of a blond knight, and said, “It’s you again, isn’t it?”

The changeling smiled at the girl. “You just can’t get rid of me, can you?”

Esprл stuck out her bottom lip. “Am I your hostage again?”

Te’oma shifted back to her normal form as she reached out and tousled Esprл’s hair. “Let’s just say we’re going for a ride together.”

“What about Kandler and Burch and the knights?”

“They’re not invited. This trip is just you and me.” The changeling glanced around at the airship, at the ring of fire that encircled it. “At least we’ll be traveling in style.”

Esprл drew in a breath to scream, and Te’oma put a single finger over the girl’s mouth. “Ah-ah-ah,” the changeling said. “None of that. Play nice now, or I’ll tap your brain again. We have many miles ahead of us, and screaming for help every chance you get will grow tiresome very fast.” The changeling stared into Esprл’s sky-blue eyes. “If I take my hand from your mouth, do you promise not to scream?”

The girl hesitated for a moment before she nodded. Te’oma removed her hand.

“Now,” the changeling said. “How do you operate this thing?”

Esprл shrugged. “They didn’t tell me. Kandler barely lets me drive a wagon around Mardakine.”

Te’oma curled her lip at the girl. “Yet they left you here all alone?”

“They knew there could be fighting where they went.”

The changeling shook her head in disbelief. “I suppose,” she said. “I wouldn’t have left you here.”

Esprл cocked her head at Te’oma. “What would you have done?”

“Left those other knights to rot. They’re doomed as it is. No reason to put your heads on the block next to them.”

“You’d leave your friends to die?”

“I don’t have any friends.” As the words left her lips, Te’oma realized they were true. She felt a pang of regret at this, but she shoved it aside.

“What about the vampires?” Esprл pressed.

“What about them?”

“Weren’t they your friends?”

Te’oma laughed. The girl’s ability to surprise her was delightful. “Vampires don’t have friends. Not among the living.”

“Are you alive?”

Te’oma goggled at the girl. “I’m a changeling not a zombie. I breathe. I bleed the same as you.”

Esprл thought about that for a moment. “I’ve never met a changeling before.”

“Maybe you have and didn’t know it.”

“I doubt it.”

“What about Gum?”

Esprл’s eyes grew as large as a pair of moons. “The baker? That couldn’t be!”

Te’oma smirked. “Think whatever you like. You’ll never know now, will you?”

The girl considered this for a moment before she spoke. “He never kidnapped me,” she said.

“We’re not all so talented.”

“Esprл!” a voice called out from below.

Te’oma dropped to one knee and swung the girl around in front of her, a hand clamped over her mouth. “Vol’s black blood!” she said. “It’s that shifter.”

Te’oma knew she could take no chances, so she stunned the girl with her mind again. When she let her go, Esprл stood there quietly, her mouth slack and her eyes blank.

“Esprл\ toss down the ladder!” Burch said. “We got big trouble and no time!”

Te’oma whispered into the girl’s ear as she reached into her mind and mentally wiped the last several minutes from her brain. “As far as you’re concerned, I was never here,” she said softly, “but I’ll be seeing you soon.”

With that, the changeling padded off to a hatchway and slipped down into the hold below the main deck. She didn’t like letting the shifter back onboard, but she knew she couldn’t fly the airship by herself. Better to stowaway and get a free ride out of the Mournland than to have to walk out alone.

Kandler stood on his knees and waited to die. He figured it was only a matter of moments before the new Superior gave the order. He wondered if Burch was still alive, and if so, what was keeping him.

“Don’t do it!” Xalt said to the warforged guards standing behind the kneeling prisoners. “I’m warning you.”

Superior stared at Xalt for a moment then threw his head back and let loose a tinny laugh. “I’m impressed, greaser,” he said. “I didn’t think you had that much metal in you.”

“I’d hoped you were better than the last Superior. It seems I was wrong. Your soul is twisted.”

Superior shook his head. “You spent too much time among the breathers,” he said. “They built us, put a sword in our hands, and pushed us out the door to kill. It’s what we were made for. It’s what we’re good at. We have no souls. Soldiers don’t need souls. They just get in the way of what we need to do. Maybe that explains it. You weren’t created to kill. You were built to fix. You’re a patch instead of a blade.”

While Superior ranted on, Kandler looked around for a way out. As he turned his head, the guard behind him slapped him across the face. It felt like getting smacked with the flat of a sword.

Superior didn’t miss a beat. “Maybe your makers gave you a soul,” he said to Xalt. “They wanted you to care about the rest of us. Otherwise, you’d just cower behind a rock while we died, calling for you to help us. I hope that soul rests easy inside of you. The rest of us, we don’t want them. We don’t need them. We just need these trespassers dead.”