Search Results for: maggie

Maggie pushed Kai into the mud causing the petite Yahata’ai girl to fall hard onto her side. “You cheated!” Maggie yelled. “You started before I was ready!”

Kai looked up at her friend, her moist eyes reflecting her hurt feelings. “I didn’t cheat! You just always have to be the winner. Why are you like that Mag?” she said, her lip trembling. “Just can’t stand to be beat by one of us?” Kai stood stiffly and turned to hide her tears.

Maggie saw her friend’s shoulders shaking and all of her 9-year-old self-righteous anger melted away. “Kai please… I’m sorry.” She laid her hand hesitantly on her friend’s shoulder. “I’m really really sorry. I don’t know why I did that” and then her own hot tears fell.

She felt Kai’s arms around her and they cried together, eyes running until they looked up. When Maggie saw Kai’s mud-covered face, she couldn’t help herself. She snickered and then she laughed. “You’rrr suchhh a meesss…” Kai frowned for a second and then she was laughing too. Big, girly, snorting, silly laughs that left them holding their sides and gasping for air.

“You are such a princess!” giggled Kai. “Twelfth in line from the throne? You should be next in line!” and she snorted again, which made them laugh even harder.

Maggie sighed and smiled at her friend as her giggles subsided. It was hard to deal with Kai sometimes. Not because she was difficult in any particular way, but because like most of her people she was incredibly honest. Blunt even. Maggie’s family was considered plain-spoken by the standards of the Illian elite, but she had grown up in circles where people played word games and what they said was not always what they meant. Maggie loved that she didn’t have to be on guard with Kai or couch her remarks in clever dialogue. The problem for Maggie was that when she removed the social wrapping from her interactions, she came to realize how petty, mean-spirited and spoiled she had been. But she could change.

Maggie took her friends small hand, marveling again at the hard ridges and calluses she found there. “You’ve got mud in your hair. We’d better get that washed out before it dries.”

Kai bowed mockingly “Whatever you say your ladyship.” She looked up with a twinkle in her eyes as she ran her fingers through her long hair. “Besides, we’ll also have to wash your Ladyship’s gown.”

Maggie looked down and gasped. Her play clothes bore the muddy imprint of Kai’s body. “Ahh! Nana is going to be mad!” She squinted her eyes and wagged her index finger at her friend. “You did that on purpose!”

Kai laughed and curtsied again. “Yes, your highness.”

“And knock that off” Maggie grumbled. “I’m perfectly happy having eleven others ahead of me. Believe me, the last thing I want is to live in that hornet’s nest and feed the royal dog, or whatever it is they do all day.”

Maggie walked towards the well, arm in arm with her friend. They were the same age but that was where most of their similarities ended. Kai’s Yahata’ai heritage was apparent in her dusk-colored skin, long dark hair and green flecked eyes. Maggie’s light skin and freckled face was common enough in Illia, but her wavy auburn hair with its blonde highlighting was unusual and striking. They had met a year earlier where her house bordered the woods. Maggie had been racing her cousin and looked up to see Kai grimly matching her speed through the trees. They’d raced often after that until Kai had walked up to Maggie’s well for some water. They spoke and a friendship blossomed.

Maggie pulled the lever on the well, and the mechanos built device turned hidden gears and cogs drawing water up the large, enclosed screw-pump that angled deep into the earth. Clean cold water flowed into a basin, and she helped Kai rinse the mud from her hair.  She looked at her critically for a moment and then declared “That’ll have to do.” Maggie looked down at her clothes and sighed “I’m not sure there is any way for Nana to avoid seeing this.”

“I have an idea” said Kai “Hand me that sponge.” Maggie turned to look for the sponge and heard a sudden plop and splash. Spinning quickly, she found Kai with a mischievous grin and a full bucket. “This ought to help!”

“Don’t you do i…!” her cry ended in sputtering outrage as the ice-cold water hit her chest. Within moments the two were hooting, hollering, and splashing water with all the energy and joy of youth.

A long dark shadow stretched on the ground between the girls causing them to pause and look at each other with trepidation. They turned and saw a shape limned by the setting sun. Nana stared with an expression of disbelief and exasperation at the two girls.  She slapped a broad hand on each hip and reared back on her heels before thrusting her head forward. “What in the name of the Holy Builder’s Beard are you two pixies doing!” Kai and Maggie stood stunned for a moment, at the roar that came out of the diminutive woman’s mouth. They looked at each other, and back at Nana before bursting out in laughter again.

“Ok, ok you two. It’ll be getting dark soon. Off to the house with you and we’ll get you cleaned up before Master Moran gets back.”

Maggie felt the debris crunch beneath her feet as she inched forward.  A fire-blackened beam blocked her path. One rested high above her, at the top of the two-story building. The other had crashed through walls and floor and rested on the ground before her. Cold air and snow blew in through a gaping hole to her left that extended to the roof line. Getting past the opening, without being seen, would be a challenge.

Maggie remembered the thudding strikes, as the cley’s massive mud-colored claws pounded a hole in the wall. Heavily armed Seawatch raced behind the many-legged creature as the Kral ordered it into the breach. Above it all, she remembered the sounds. The clang of weapons, the crashing of falling stones, and the cley’s enraged chittering.

Focus!

Maggie shuddered and looked at the metal clad beam. She considered climbing it to the roof but the way up was treacherous. The angle was steep and the snow would make it slippery. Debris from the collapsed upper sections rested on it in places, forming a series of obstacles that she would have to get around. Maggie looked at the long vertical wedge of space to the right of the beam. She wasn’t fond of tight spaces, but there was no way around it. She bit her lip and slid her arm into the narrow opening, moving with crab-like steps while her leading hand felt for obstructions. Ragged metal tugged at her clothing and scratched her legs. Her coat dragging along the wall, released a steady stream of grit that fell on her hair, and down the nape of her neck, making her itch.

Then she was stuck.

Maggie fought down her panic and tried, to no avail, to free herself from whatever had snagged her coat. She could hear her heart pounding in her ear and took several slow breaths to calm herself. Her arm stretched forward until she found a metal strap. She pulled as hard as she could, bending her knees, and pushing with her legs until something ripped, and she stumbled forward.

Maggie looked down at the new tear in her heavily patched coat. Great. A few more holes and I can use it to catch fish. She arched her back until her vertebrae made small popping sounds and examined the space.  A section of the upper floor and roof rested on the overhanging beam, creating a tent like clearing. The rest of the interior was devastated.

The ground beneath her hiding place rumbled and groaned as the screaming stopped. Soldiers stumbled out of the building, moments before a colossal explosion tore the heavy doors from their hinges and sent them windmilling into the street. Projectile shards of brick and wood rattled against the stone wall beside her head. She was dazed. Faint. Much of what happened next didn’t seem to make sense. Towering green flames. Thick yellow smoke. And water. A wave of water rushing from a huge hole, filled by the body of a now bright-red and steaming cley – a cley that had once been a man, boiled alive in its carapace. It’s human eyes bulging in the insect face. She felt nauseous and looked away.

Well, the water was real enough, she was soaked. Maggie shook her head and tapped the beam. Metal sheathed roofs were common enough on Highmount, but no one living in low town should have been able to afford it, which confirmed that it belonged to one of the gangs making glim. The metal was probably the only reason it didn’t burn to the ground.

The smell confirmed it. Despite all of the holes in the building the smell of burnt glim irritated her nose and eyes. It left a bitter taste in her mouth and made her itch. She touched the tip of her tongue experimentally to see if there was anything coating it and promptly spat. She stared at the offending fingertip. It was impossibly dirty. So dirty in fact, that she had a mental image of Scritch.

Nana would have a fit.

Maggie smiled sadly at the thought of Nana and continued to look for an alternate way to exit the building. The winter sun, filtering through holes in the walls and roof, created a patchwork of shadows. Beams of snow filled light laced throughout, added a strange and unexpected beauty to the scene. Maggie shook her head and felt a moment of dizziness. Have to keep moving. The cold and lack of food was affecting her concentration and she had no idea what long term exposure to the glim could do to her. She might have to run before this was over.

Maggie pulled a piece of dried fish out of her pocket and chewed it slowly to scrub the taste from her mouth while she considered her options. When she was finished, she tugged the shabid to cover her nose and mouth. The once bright and beautifully embroidered scarf was now soiled, its colors muted. She thought she could still detect the scent of the Hetani’s sacred hanais flower. It was a reminder of the past and all that she had survived and she found strength in the remembering.

I’ll survive this too.

Maggie pressed her face against a small opening and examined the street. Twin rows of charred buildings extended outward from her location. No torches, nor movement signaled life – yet she knew someone was out there.

She’d run when she spotted the men following her, easily outdistancing them. Children on the street were frequent victims of those who preyed on the unlucky and the foolish. If you survived it was because you were strong. Or careful. Some joined the gangs willingly. Some by force and then tried to survive the brutal price demanded of them. So far Maggie’s speed had kept her safe, and free. No one could run like she could. She’d turned into this street without slowing her pace. Her feet had inadvertently brought her back to the building she had seen destroyed weeks earlier. She’d known, as soon as she turned the corner, that something was wrong. All she could do now was hope that she hadn’t been seen entering and that the snow would hide any footprints she’d left outside.

Maggie started involuntarily when the tall dark silhouette appeared at the head of the street. Clouds of vapor puffed in ragged streams from his head, evidence that he’d been running. He panned his head slowly, and Maggie felt a sense of foreboding. There was something familiar about his movements.

A single high-pitched screech echoed down the street.

Maggie sucked in a slow hissing breath as she recognized her pursuer. She didn’t need to see his teeth or ears to know. The sound and strange contours of his body identified him. Bash. She shook her head at her carelessness, a chill crawling up her spine. He set a trap for me.

Backlit shapes began to peel away from the darker shadows at the opposite end of the street, drawn by Bash’s call. Maggie’s heart thudded loudly as she counted ..five, six, seven…

Too many to get past.