Matt Forbeck - Marked for Death

Kandler turned on the changeling. “If I had a sword, I’d cut you down here and now,” he said.

“No,” Te’oma said. “I mean, I’ll save her.”

Kandler frowned. “You’ll kill her.” Despite his fury at the changeling, she held out the only hope he had, and he hated her for it.

“No.” The changeling shook her head. “I won’t.”

“How can I trust-?”

“Let her go,” Sallah said quietly. “She won’t kill her.”

Kandler turned. “How do you know? Huh? After all she’s done, how can you say that? How?”

“Because,” Sallah said. She looked deep into Kandler’s eyes. “She wants Esprл alive, remember? She has the mark.”

Kandler looked up at the airship as she coasted away into the darkening sky. If he let the changeling go, she would rescue Esprл, but what then? He knew Te’oma wouldn’t turn around and bring the girl back. She’d point the ship toward Karrnath and be gone.

“Boss,” Burch said. Kandler turned to him. “If Esprл was all right, she’d’ve turned around by now. She flies that thing better than anyone. Something’s wrong.”

Kandler knew Burch was right, but he froze. If he let the ship sail off on her own, Esprл might die, but then the Mark of Death would be gone forever. If Te’oma got her hands on Esprл, there was no telling what could happen to the girl. In the end, he didn’t really have a choice.

Kandler reached out and took Xalt’s hands from the changeling. “Go,” he said to her.

Te’oma unfurled her wings, stretching them out to their full span. Their batlike shape made Kandler think of the changeling as if she were some kind of demon, the sort that takes children from their parents in the dead of night.

“She’s right,” the changeling said to Kandler. “I won’t hurt her.”

“Just go,” Kandler said. “Hurry! And you’d better hope she’s in one piece when I finally hunt you down.”

“Happy hunting.” Te’oma smiled and flapped off into the deepening night.

When Te’oma caught with the airship, she saw Esprл hanging limp in the leather strap that held her to the wheel. Te’oma landed, folded the wings, and rushed to the girl. From the look of her, Esprл had smashed her head into the ship’s wheel when the ship put an end to Bastard. Blood trickled from her forehead and down her face.

The changeling undid the strap from around Esprл’s waist and laid the girl out gingerly on the bridge. She looked dead.

Te’oma knelt down and put her ear to the girl’s chest. The heartbeat brought a smile to Te’oma’s lips. As she leaned back, Esprл’s eyes fluttered open, and the girl looked up at the changeling.

“It’s all right,” Te’oma said. She held the injured girl close and stroked her long, blonde hair. “It’s going to be all right.”

The airship kept sailing toward far-off Karrnath, beyond the Mournland’s misty walls, and the changeling did nothing to impede her course.