Night Lords

Part II Chapter 5

Part II Chapter 5

Tasha stood abruptly, then moved towards the exit of the little hut, then turned and came back and sat beside me. 'Do you know why I have trust issues?' I squinted at her, then closed my eyes. She'll either tell me or not. Frankly, I couldn't care either way. It wouldn't help my pain. 'When I was six, both my parents died. It was just me and my younger brother. He was three years younger than me. I had no idea how to run the house, and soon it became dilapidated. My parents' friends took us in; that is to say, they adopted my brother and kept me on as their servant. My new family had no son, and they had a daughter. Because of our culture, their daughter's dowry was limited, but with my brother, they could marry him off to a wealthy family. And that's what happened. But when he was betrothed to a young girl in the next village over, whose parents owned three farms and had several tenants on their land, I was becoming a Night Lord. I was sixteen. My brother moved into his new family's home, and though he tried to ask to bring me with him as his sister, they didn't want a left-over slave, that's what they said.' Tasha stopped and, pulling her knees to her chest, frowned, deep, angry etches on her face. 'A left-over slave. I felt dirty, cast out, and I also felt tired, and I was in pain. The sun was hurting me. My stomach was aching, my bones hardened... I didn't understand what was happening. The very last day I could bare the sun, I went to my brother's new home, demanding to see him. He answered the door, and I asked him, as my brother, for help, at least to send for a medicine man to help me as my adopted family didn't have the money. To my face, he replied, "I have no use for a sister or another slave. Go back to your masters." And the door was closed in my face. Ha!' She barked. 'The villages saw the incident and reported it to my adopted family. I became a fully-fledged Night Lord that night, though I didn't know it. But the following morning, I refused to get out of bed and leave the room for the sun to be up, and I knew how much pain I would be in. But no one cared for my pains. They hauled me out into the morning light and ordered me to continue my jobs, but I began to burn and screamed. They shouted out that I was a monster, and I took that as a chance to leave, and I fled. That's when Greatorex found me. Half-dead in the forest, nearly burnt to a cinder. It took two whole months to heal fully.' She sighed. 'If your own flesh and blood can betray you, can cast you out, how can you trust others who aren't your family not to do the same?'

Tasha sighed as she wasn't getting any emotion from me. Granted, my entire body screamed in agony, but I kept my mouth shut. I did understand where she was coming from, and now, I understood a little bit more about why she trusted no one, which made me question why she was with Brett and what he had said to her to keep them together.

When Tasha left me, I tried to find a comfortable position and took deep breaths waiting for hours to tick by for the pain to start to diminish. And it only started to ebb when it was at least noon. The pain went from agonising to barely tolerable. Max noticed my breathing, saw I changed positions on the floor, and approached me. 'Is it starting to ease?' I nodded, still remaining quiet. He smiled. 'You seem a little more comfortable or perhaps a little less in pain.' He paused and then said. 'You are returning to the Deemons tonight, aren't you?' I nodded slowly. 'Must you? I mean, you have proved to them that you are trustworthy,' his eyes turned down in sadness. 'I don't want to see you in so much pain just to prove a point.'

I wanted to speak to him privately, but it was impossible with a group of Night Lords around and as Greatorex heard of Max's "complaining," he decided to answer for me.

Moving a couple of inches, everyone turned to him. 'Petra will do as she must, Max. We all have a role to play in this group.'

'What is my role?' Max asked him. 'I'm sorry if it is impertinent, but I don't think I have a role to play other than to watch over Petra.'