One thing Oppzis was very good at was comforting. Without words to get in the way, Oppzis was the best company a terrified or grief-stricken person could ask for. There was no room for insensitivity in the literal projection of the feeling, "it will be all right." He was thousands and thousands of miles away in the sky, and that was just when she could see him, yet he did a better job at calming Euffie down than anyone she had ever met.

  "Euffie?"

  The voice was muffled, but Euffie heard it through the straw pillow without issue. She sat up. Marthera was standing in the doorway to her bedroom, the only other room in the small farmhouse. Euffie gasped at the sight of her.

  "Wha- oh," Marthera said, quickly wiping her lips. "Sorry. Thought I cleaned up better than that."

  "Your … eyes," Euffie breathed. Marthera's lips were clean, but Euffie definitely wasn't over the eyes.

  "Don't point!" Marthera scolded. "What did I teach you about pointing at people? It's rude. And yes, you're right. My eyes are all red now. It's damn inconvenient, I tell you. Wish there was a rune or somethin' to hide it, but that's just how it is."

  Marthera did not step any closer into the room, which Euffie appreciated. The rune on Euffie's cheek buzzed, and she pressed a hand to it like a scab.

  "Well, just so we're clear," Marthera sighed, leaning against the doorframe, "I am, in fact, a vampire. No, I can't fly. No, the suns don't burn my skin. Yes, I drink people's blood. No, it doesn't hurt them. Unless I want it to."

  She sighed, clearly note eager to continue.

  "Yes, I was a vampire back when I was an orphanage keeper. No, nobody knew about it except one or two of the older kiddies. Yes, I drank your blood once or twice and you never knew about it. That's how I was able to smell you out tonight. A vampire can track anyone whose blood they've sipped before from quite a distance. You're lucky I hadn't gone to bed yet, and I stepped outside my house in time to sniff you before those thugs turned you in. That's how I never lost a child in that bustling city."

  Euffie realized she had a hand to her own neck, and put it down quickly.

  "I'm not drinkin' your blood again, by the way," Marthera added. "I already got what I need for the next three months, just now. I think we got until mornin' before people miss those thugs. They had a habit of sleepin' in people's homes without an invitation."

  Marthera allowed a minute or so for Euffie to process this. It struck Euffie just how quiet the house and the world outside was, compared to the chaos in her head.

  "Can I sit beside you?" Marthera asked. Hesitantly, Euffie nodded. The two sat in silence for a minute. Euffie wished the world could just pause. Slow down, instead of speeding up.

  "Euffie, sweetie," Marthera said. "I love you like a daughter. I loved all of you like daughters. When my orphanage fell apart, and you were all carted away like you were nothing but a failing company's assets, it was like they were cuttin' me apart and handing out the slices. You wanna know somethin' else about vampires?"

  Euffie looked up at Marthera's eyes.

  "Vampires," Marthera went on, "cannot have children. I became one just before that part of my life came, just as I was gettin' married. I won't go into details, but I started my life over. Here, in Aleb, where a childless mother could find motherless children. Far enough away that no one knew who I was. I started fresh, and then, I found y-"

  The rune started sparking again. Euffie's cringe cut Marthera off. The woman discarded her next words. She left the door and held the girl gently against her chest. They rocked gently back and forth.

  "Well," she said after the rune relaxed, "I think it's time we get you out of here. You and I both need another fresh start. We need to find you a scriptomancer who can get that thing off."

  "D-Derek," Euffie wheezed, still pressing against the rune. "He's after me. I saw him, two days ago, behind me in the – the desert, I – "

  Marthera frowned. "That your master?"

  Euffie nodded.

  "Well then," Marthera said, standing up and offering her hand. "We gotta get goin' even faster than I thought. No sleep tonight, after all. How did you outrun him, if he had a horse? You could've mentioned you had someone right behind you."

  Euffie wasn't sure how much to tell Marthera. Then, looking up into those red and yellow eyes, she remembered how much Marthera just revealed.

  I can hardly hold out on her after that. She's already seen the silver magic, anyway.

  Euffie took the hand and rose to her feet. The two made their way to the front room as they spoke. Euffie didn't see the three bodies on the ground anymore. She didn't see any blood either, just dark stains like a dish that'd been licked clean.

  Marthera left her side to rummage in the pantry and a little box beside it.

  "Well, uh, Mother Marthera," Euffie swallowed. "I think – well, I am a lunomancer."

  This did not get the reaction Euffie anticipated. Marthera didn't even look over her shoulder as she hastily packed.

  "Oh really?" she said. "That explains the fizzly rune you got there. And the light show earlier."

  "Have you met lunomancers before?"

  "Yeah, I've met a moon-witch or two." Euffie noticed how she said the term like a title of honor. "That I know about anyway. They're sneaky. Does Derek know?"

  "Yes. He found out when I escaped."

  "How long have you known?"

  "I – " the rune sizzled warningly, "I found out when I ran away."

  "Hm. So, it lets you run faster than horses? Silvery-lookin'? I – "

  The next words were blurred and obscured by the rune, as if Marthera had submerged her head before and after speaking them.

  "Ow," Euffie said.

  "Sorry. Tell your moon to be careful with that rune. You'll want it in at least recognizable shape when you find a runewright to take it off ya."

  Marthera approached Euffie with a pair of tied sacks.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  "Here, I got everything we'll need to get to Kumlaut."

  Marthera passed a sack to Euffie and headed for the door. Euffie followed her out.

  "Kumlaut?" Euffie frowned. Marthera surveyed the nighttime country road. She sniffed the air.

  "Yeah," she said, moving on. "Kumlaut. Oh, my bad, you probably don't remember."

  Geographic memory was one of the most important to strip away from a slave. A slave that didn't know where they were from, didn't know how to travel anywhere, and most importantly, didn't know a better life, was orders of magnitude easier to control. Euffie had recovered fragmentary memories of the lay of the land around Aleb, and a few Adalaantian place names rang a bell, but that was it.

  They were on the road, then they were back off the road, heading through a gap in a few other farmhouses. Euffie's moon was in the sky behind her, glowing its silvery color.

  "Kumlaut's west," Marthera explained, ducking under a clothesline. Euffie ducked as well, but she stood up just in time to get caught on the next one.

  "Careful," Marthera said, lifting her up. "We need to move. I can smell a party of unwashed Barridians comin' from the south. One of them tinks of nadderfruit."

  "Derek," Euffie breathed. She hated nadderfruit. Mostly because it was Derek's favorite food, and he made her prepare it with according frequency. He joked that it might be her pregnancy craving someday, and that was enough to turn anyone off of anything.

  " … and then, it's past this scrubby forest on the western border of Akas- are you listening, girl?"

  "Nope," Euffie confessed, trudging through the dark. "Sorry, Mother Marthera."

  They were in the fields, now, surrounded by caskerwol crops. Barley and wheat figured prominently between the irrigation ditches. The plants served to hide the pair, but it also meant Euffie was entirely dependant on Marthera's sense of direction. If they were separated, Euffie would be lost in the farm fields with Derek hot on her heels.

  "Stay close to me," Marthera ordered, pulling her along. "I'll get you as far as Akastamsis, and then we'll see. Too many people know what I am over there. Are you listenin' now?"

  Euffie nodded. "Yes, Mother Marthera."

  Marthera gave her a smile over her broad shoulder. "Good girl. I'm gonna take care of you. I always have."

  "Mother Marthera?"

  "Yes?"

  "Couldn't you just … you know, fight Derek and the others? Like you did to Telda?"

  Marthera sighed as they turned a corner in the towering crops. Her long hair caught plants in it from time to time, and Euffie experienced a rare moment of gratitude for her shaven head. She was starting to feel the faintest layer of fuzz, however.

  "I sure wish I could," Marthera explained, "but a vampire can only use strength and healing like that in short bursts. After that, I need to wait a week or two before I can do it again, and all that time, my eyes turn into dead giveaways. Right when my strength is missing, my body gives me away. 's why I don't like usin' it much. I didn't know you had people after you other than the thugs you was attractin' like moths to a light, but I shoulda guessed."

  "Sorry," Euffie said, squeezing the woman's hand apologetically. "Sucks to be you, I guess."

  "Ha. Don't matter. I needed to leave Aleb for good anyway. They finally shipped away the last girl I knew from the orphanage. Off to the Crown Mountains, I fear."

  Euffie shuddered. The Crown Mountains were a threat for slaves an owner was thinking about selling. For male slaves, there was a brutal mining job that none of them survived for long. For female slaves, the male slaves would get them before the work or the exposure had a chance.

  "Anyway," Marthera said, "we're almost out of the field. I been through here once or twice. We're gonna skirt around the edge of the Fade, where the guards don't like patrollin' and the slaves don't like sneakin'."

  There's a reason for that, Euffie didn't say. She'd never been burned by the offshoots of purple mist, but she felt phantom pains along her arms at the thought.

  "Let me tell ya what's in your sack," Marthera said. "And pick up your pace, girl. Derek sounds like a mean piece of work, followin' you all the way up here."

  ***

  Derek shook his head. "I told you, I can't read."

  Larry continued writing in the sand between the two, as if Derek hadn't spoken. Hadley stood to one side, his eye in a spyglass scanning the city of Aleb for anyone coming and going. The rest of the company sat about, waiting for orders. Some leaned on weapons, others lay with their hats on their faces, catching a wink.

  Derek squinted at the characters. "Is that even Barridian?"

  Larry had drawn three shapes in the ground. Derek twisted his head so he could see them at a different angle.

  "Aha," he said. "Those aren't words. They're runes."

  "For the last time," Hadley called over his shoulder, "please stop harassing my witchbinder. He's gearin' up to catch your runaway if we spy her tonight. I'll bet the peridots in my pocket we'll catch sight of her near town soon."

  Derek rolled his eyes. Hadley's pockets only ever had amethysts in them. Hadley talked too much like Kebbik did, with mazes and traps everywhere.

  "What if she just bolts for it again?" Derek asked.

  "She can't. Not so soon, anyway. Larry's caught mages much more frightening than she is; he knows how to tell when a witch is limpin'."

  Derek turned back to Larry. The man was staring right at him. This had stopped startling Derek weeks ago, but it never stopped unnerving him. Derek was glad Phoebe didn't have green eyes, or he'd never be able to look as deeply into them without a reminder of Larry's penetrating gaze.

  "Got one for ya," Hadley called. "Is that her? She's got someone with her, but best to check. They're a few miles out from town, heading to the Fade. Just emerged from all the crops."

  Derek hurried over and took the spyglass from Hadley's hand. "She came to Aleb specifically because she thinks she's got friends here somewhere," he said. "Of course that could be her."

  Derek looked into the spyglass, following Hadley's pointing finger.

  The bald head. The same tattered, baggy clothing. The stunning beauty of every inch of skin. The fragmented tattoo on her cheek.

  "It's her, isn't it?" Hadley's voice sounded at the edge of Derek's hearing. Derek realized the spyglass was trembling in his hand, and composed himself.

  "Yeah," he said, pushing it back into the captain's hands. "It's her. She has someone with her, but we can just push her aside.

  "Or kill her, if need be," Hadley said. Derek pursed his lips.

  "Let's not," he said. "She'll be a lot harder for me to deal with if you do."

  "I don't like leavin' enemies alive," Hadley said, optic to his eye again. "But she seems like an older woman, so we'll do our best. We might charge you a little extra if she gives us too much trouble, though."

  "If an older woman gives you trouble, I want a discount."

  Hadley laughed and slapped Derek on the back. The fogcrawler turned toward his horse.

  "Let's go," he said, shrugging it off.

  "Hey, don't rush off!"

  Derek heard Hadley calling behind him, but the words went in one ear and out the other. Clopper raised his head from the sparse desert grass, waiting for Derek to hop up. Derek would catch her first. He didn't need to wa –

  Derek felt something like an invisible hand close around him. He stopped a few feet from clopper, his hands outstretched for the reins. He felt the bones in his ankles creak under the pressure, but they didn't snap. He couldn't turn his head, could barely move his mouth enough to grunt.

  "I said," Hadley repeated from behind him, "hold your horse. You're payin' a professional team to catch her. Quit tryna fuck it up."

  Hadley laid a hand on Derek's shoulder. It felt like what Derek imagined a boulder did when someone laid a hand on it.

  "We've almost got her, mate," Hadley said, more calmly. "The boys are awake. They're mountin' their horses. Good breed, too, as I've bragged before. Now, you'll finally get to see a Jel-Hangan mare at full sprint. Follow Larry's horse. You'll cut them off on the east side with him, and me and the muscle will trap them from behind. Larry works his magic, we take care of the other woman, and then you get out of here. And don't grab her unless we've got her bound. She might dash away again, and this time, you won't be so lucky. She could take some of you with her. Got it? Good."

  Hadley waited a moment. Derek heard people and equipment moving around. It was a familiar set of noises after traveling with this company for weeks, but this time it seemed agonizingly slow. Derek's muscles were frozen in tension, and it was starting to hurt like a drawn-out plank exercise. Derek seethed. As if the surface he was touching had grown hot, Hadley withdrew his hand. Derek heard the man's footsteps away from him.

  "All right, Larry, everyone else is mounted. Let him go."

  Derek felt the pressure keeping him in place release like cold steam. He nearly collapsed on his face in the sudden return of control. He swiveled angrily to find that everyone else had already started down the hill toward Phoebe. With a snarl, he hoisted himself up onto Clopper.

  "Yah!"

  The horse took off. Clopper was no Jel-Hangan mare, but he knew when Derek meant business.