Grasping at Straws

Adrian’s crew hurried to pack up their belongings as the new day dawned. They had to be out of Kravisburgh as quickly as possible. Every minute they stayed was an extra minute for something to go wrong.

“Are we ready?” Adrian asked.

“Just a second,” said Rhys, dumping clothes into his suitcase. His eye was beginning to swell where Tommy had hit him. Adrian knew he was scared. He'd barely said a word on their way back and had been constantly looking over his shoulder, but Adrian couldn't afford to manage Rhys' emotions. They needed to be out of there.

Adrian checked his watch. “The taxi should be here soon.”

“Our flight's not until tomorrow morning,” Christine called out from the bathroom, where she was collecting her last few possessions. She'd hurt her shoulder somewhere in the scrap, but she was handling it well. The pressure didn't seem to be getting to her; she was as sharp as ever. “Where are we staying until then?”

“We’re not,” Adrian told her. “I booked new tickets. We’re going straight to the airport, then we’re gone.” He looked around the room one final time to check for anything he’d missed. It didn’t matter too much if there was, he hadn’t brought anything he couldn’t afford to leave behind. It was more important that they get out as soon as possible.

When Christine and Rhys were done, he led them down the narrow staircase to the quiet lobby. He placed their room key on the rocking chair and stepped outside into the brisk morning air.

A man was waiting for them, standing in the middle of the road. He wasn’t their driver. He stared at them, arms hanging down limp at his sides, eyes sunken deep into his sockets. A green stud earring flashed beneath his lank black hair, out of place with his dirty clothes.

“So you’re the new knight,” he croaked, raspy voice escaping from wire-thin lips. His eyes darted rapidly between Adrian and a dozen other seemingly empty spaces.

Adrian stopped. Whatever this was, it couldn’t be good. “Who’s asking?”

The man’s eyes became unfocused for a second before he seemed to regain his lucidity. “My name’s… Daniel. I've been watching you.”

Adrian's heart beat fast.

"What do we do?" Rhys asked fearfully.

Adrian ignored him. "What do you want?" he demanded.

"My master, Adimus, wants the cloak," he replied, dead eyes staring at nowhere in particular.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Adrian tried to lie, but the man wasn't having it.

"They say you do," Daniel rasped. He fixed his attention on Christine's luggage, where she'd packed the cloak away.

“Who is he?” Christine whispered.

“I think he’s another knight,” Adrian told her. Which meant he probably had his powers already. Adrian took a step forward and called out, “Araqiel claimed this one already. Go find your own.”

The man frowned, an ugly thing given his gaunt features. “You won’t hand it over?”

“Fuck off,” Adrian spat.

Without another word, the man raised his hand and Adrian was yanked forward off his feet; his face smashed into the ground and his head rang. He heard Christine shouting at his back, then she grunted, and he watched as her luggage sailed over his head. Daniel deftly snatched it out of the air.

Adrian picked himself up and charged after the luggage. He didn't care how outmatched he was; there was no way in hell he was leaving without that cloak. When he was only a few feet away, Daniel let go of the luggage and stepped to the side. He formed a claw grip, and Adrian was shoved into the empty space where the man had just been standing. Lifted into the air by the strange ****, Adrian flew several feet further and skidded across the dirt road.

Thankfully, Christine had been quick to act. Following hot on Adrian's heels, she snatched the luggage off the ground where the man had dropped it and started to sprint back to the inn. She didn't make it far. The rival knight lifted his arm and made a yanking gesture; Christine pivoted mid-step, torqued backwards to crash onto the ground.

Adrian grabbed a rock as he stood back up. Daniel had turned his back to focus on Christine, so Adrian took the time he needed to line up his throw. He was moving as soon as the rock left his hand, sprinting with everything he had for the luggage. The rock connected firmly with the back of Daniel's neck, sending the man stumbling and driving the breath from him. In that narrow window of opportunity, Adrian sprinted past Christine, grabbing the luggage and making for the nest of thick pine trees to the left of the inn.

Adrian looked over his shoulder in time to see Daniel recover. The other knight lifted his arm, and without hesitation, Adrian leaped to the side. It wasn't a clean move; the **** of Daniel's powers hit Adrian in the legs and sent him spinning. Adrian landed hard on his left shoulder and felt something pop. Unable to control his fall, he rolled as he hit the ground. A sharp pain shot through his chest where a stone jammed him between the ribs. Ignoring his injuries, Adrian desperately scrambled for cover, coming to rest with his back against a pine tree and the luggage in his lap. He breathed hard and his whole body hurt, but he'd managed to buy himself a brief respite.

Still standing in the middle of the road, Daniel babbled incoherently. “I know!” he wheezed. “I can do it!”

Adrian peered around the tree. Rhys had retreated back into the inn, and Adrian could just see where he peered out the door, face white as a sheet. Christine had used Adrian's distraction to find cover behind a large rock on the other side of the road. She stared at Daniel's back in wary confusion.

The situation was bad, Adrian thought. They were separated, and worse, while they were behind cover for the moment, there was no way out. Crossing open ground wasn’t going to be possible; they’d just be yanked back. It was a game of cat and mouse, and they were trapped.

Adrian watched as the man’s head whipped around erratically. He took a few stumbling steps before he fixed his sights on Adrian and raised his hand. Adrian snapped back behind the pine tree before he could be pulled away.

The tree gave a groaning, creaking sound under the weight of Daniel's powers, but it didn't give. So there was a limit to how strongly the other knight could pull, Adrian noted. That was good news; it meant that Daniel couldn't just splatter them into a wall.

Daniel began to approach with a slow, shuffling gait, his feet dragging in the dirt. Adrian wasn’t going to be able to win in a straight-up fight; Daniel had powers, he didn’t. The tree shook again, but didn’t give. Daniel was getting closer, and Adrian was running out of time.

The only advantage they had was numbers. Wherever Daniel's squires were, they weren't here. They would need to make that count. An idea began to form. Adrian didn't like it, but it was the only one he had.

He summoned the whispers, letting them into his mind so that he could talk to them. He felt them crawling around in his head. Adrian's skin crawled, but he had no other choice. “Tell Rhys and Christine to wait. When I hit him, they need to rush after me. Tell them to go after his earring at all costs.”

One of the many downsides to Adrian's plan was that Rhys and Christine were both smart. There would be questions about how he'd gotten the spirits to communicate on his behalf. That was a problem for later, though.

"It is done," they reported back.

"Will they listen?" Adrian asked.

"The young one is scared."

Rhys. He'd been frozen the entire fight so far. Adrian thought back to the fight in the church, when Christine had needed to scream to get Rhys off his feet. He couldn't afford that happening again. Adrian needed to take charge.

"I need him to focus up," Adrian thought. "I know he's scared, but this is do or die. If he wants his changes reversed, we need that cloak."

"The woman is also a problem," one of the whispers informed him. "She does not trust us."

Adrian rubbed his nose with his fingers. "Make sure she knows it's me giving the orders, and not you."

After a brief delay, the spirits replied, "She wants to know how you are doing this."

"We don't have time," Adrian insisted. "Questions later."

Adrian had done everything he could to shore up his squires. He needed to trust that they would act. Daniel wasn't very far away; he couldn't wait any longer.

Bracing himself, Adrian stood up and stepped around the tree. As soon as he did, Daniel raised his arm and began to pull Adrian towards himself. Adrian dug his feet into the ground and resisted, but the strength of Daniel's power was immense. Slowly, Adrian was dragged towards the other knight. Daniel flexed his fingers, and the **** became stronger. The sudden yank threatened Adrian's footing.

Instead of falling, Adrian stopped resisting and jumped up into the air.

Without Adrian counterbalancing the ****, he flew straight at Daniel in a sudden burst of speed. Adrian clutched the luggage to his chest and hit the man like a wrecking ball. They fell to the ground in a jumbled pile.

Adrian wasn’t a wrestler. He didn’t know how to pin someone. He’d only managed it with the priest because Father Lambert was old and frail. The fight devolved into a mess of scrabbling hands and thrown joints. A knee caught Adrian in the stomach. His fingers gouged at the man’s chest. A blow landed on the meat of Adrian’s upper arm. Adrian pounded a fist into the man's side. It was chaos, and every interminable second, a new pain bloomed somewhere on Adrian's body.

The sound of pounding footsteps drew near, and then there were two pairs of hands grasping at the knight’s greasy hair. He began to thrash, whipping his head around, and Adrian responded by dropping his entire weight onto the man. Rhys’ fingers found the earring and yanked. The man screamed.

Adrian rolled away and watched as Daniel slammed a hand down onto his bloody ear. He held his other hand up threateningly, but nothing happened.

Adrian found his footing and stepped between Daniel and the others. “Give it to me,” Adrian demanded, holding his hand back to Rhys, who dropped the earring into Adrian’s palm.

Adrian had guessed correctly. It was Daniel’s knightly artifact. It had certainly seemed unusual given Daniel’s otherwise unkempt appearance.

Without it, his powers were gone. That hadn't been a guarantee; Adrian was still learning how all of this worked, but thankfully, his intuition had proved right.

Daniel screamed at them, still on the ground. His eyes were frantic with desperation. “Give it to me! Give it back! Give it back!”

“That’s for Araqiel to decide,” Adrian said coldly.

Tears began to stream down Daniel’s face. He thrashed around with his eye screwed shut and his hands pressed over his ears. “I’m sorry,” he repeated in a raw voice. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry!”

Adrian stepped back to gather Christine and Rhys. “Let’s go.” He looked around. No sign of any of the villagers, but they had made a lot of noise.

The three raced down the road away from the knight, who continued his hysterics.

“What the hell was that?” Rhys asked.

“I’ll explain later,” Adrian said between breaths.

Eventually, they found their taxi, coming the opposite way, and flagged it down. The taxi driver gave their appearance a look, they were covered in dirt and bore more than a few signs of the fights they’d been in, but he didn’t ask any questions.

They’d left Adrian's and Rhys’ luggage behind in their flight, but they could buy new clothes. The important thing was the cloak, and Adrian held Christine’s luggage firmly on his lap.

Adrian was exhausted. He hadn’t slept, and his body hurt in more ways than he could count. He hadn’t been this beat up since he’d been a boy getting into schoolyard scraps. He needed to rest, but he wasn’t willing to fall asleep until they were on their plane. They couldn’t be out of the country soon enough.