"Don't be so melodramatic, bard. If anyone kills you, it will be me."
Kirin wasn't sure if the demon was joking. Had he just imagined the tenderness in the voice and words that had brought him back from the panic attack?
It didn't matter. All he could think about now was getting out. There was nothing he hated more than being trapped.
Valerien, however, didn't seem in much of a hurry. He retrieved silver cuffs and a torque from his cloak and put them on.
"Do you want to braid flowers into your hair, too, while you are at it?" the bard asked caustically.
The demon raised an eyebrow and tore off the neckband from Kirin's tunic in one swift move. He used it to bind his hair back and said,
"There are at least two archers out there. Can you find out where they are?"
"I told you already – there is no source of magic for miles around. No Fae, no witches. Whoever shot at us is just a regular human and probably just above us, stealing our horses," Kirin replied impatiently.
"You are surprisingly smart sometimes."
"And you are still an arrogant, patronising prick!"
Valerien ignored that and touched the silver jewellery on his neck and wrists. Shiny matter flowed out of it, covered his upper body and solidified into armour. It covered the lean, athletic body like fish scales.
Kirin remembered seeing that liquid metal on the demon's hands when he had examined the dead miners, but this was still more impressive.
Before he could ask anything, golden threads of Valerien's energies went up. The packed earth above them opened to daylight, and Kirin cursed when the soil started to rise under his feet and pushed them up to the surface.
The horses were neighing in panic, but still bound to the tree. Two burly, bearded men stood next to them, their mouths open. One was holding Valerien's sword, the other Kirin's new cloak.
The man with the cloak tossed it aside and reached for his bow in the grass, only to find it aflame as soon as he touched it. Fire leapt to his sleeves, and he threw himself to the ground, screaming as he tried to extinguish it.
The other one lifted the sword with shaking hands, then froze in terror as the rowan roots erupted from the ground, coiling around his body until the weapon fell from his hands.
Valerien stepped forward without hurry and picked up the sword. Kirin turned away as he swung it. There was a thud of a falling body, and a moment later, the burning man's screams ceased as well.
When the earth trembled to swallow the dead, something moved in the bushes a few feet away. Kirin saw a flash of fair hair and lunged forward, grabbing the fleeing man by the arm.
The stranger tried to break free and swung at him, but the punch only struck his shoulder. They crashed together. The man was a head shorter and quite slender, so Kirin threw himself against him with all his weight. They fell hard onto the grass. The man was still struggling, but a knee to the chest and a grip on his arm held him down.
He whimpered, and Kirin saw that he was barely more than a boy. Tears sprang to the large brown eyes.
"I yield. Please. It hurts. I can't breathe," the youth pleaded pitifully.
The bard felt quite embarrassed and let him go. He stood up and asked,
"Who are you?"
Instead of an answer, the boy drew a knife from his boot and drove it at Kirin's stomach. He jumped back in time, but the blade grazed his underarm.
A metal-covered hand grabbed the youth's collar and lifted him from the ground.
"I despair of you, bard. You fell for the oldest trick in the book," Valerien commented.
The young man shrieked and tried to stab him, but the demon just tossed him towards the bushes. The knife fell at Kirin's feet, and he quickly picked it up, feeling too mortified to say anything.
Valerien drove his bloodied sword into the soil next to the young man's head.
"Who sent you?"
The prisoner started to cry again and covered his face with his hands. Valerien squinted at him as if he were some new and interesting kind of insect.
"Stop crying. I'll let you go if you answer my questions."
The youth looked at him suspiciously, then sat up, wiping away his tears.
"What is your name?"
"Finn."
"Why did you attack us?"
"My kinsmen saw you at the market yesterday, throwing around gold coins like they were copper."
"Told you so," Kirin grumbled.
Valerien raised an eyebrow at the interruption.
"Can the nagging wait for a moment, wife?"
Kirin flushed with irritation, but the demon just motioned for Finn to continue. The boy looked from one to the other speculatively, but proceeded.
"When we heard singing, we came to have a look. Cormac recognised you by your hair from afar. He said a spoiled young lord and his catamite would be easy prey."
Kirin flinched at the word, and Valerien frowned at the boy.
"My what?"
"Your boytoy."
"He is no man's toy. Insult him again, and I'll rip your tongue out," Valerien said coldly.
The youth's eyes turned shrewd, and his voice became almost like a purr.
"I can serve you as well as he can, lord. I would treat you with the respect you deserve and never refuse you."
For the first time since Kirin had known him, Valerien looked taken aback.
"You just said those men were your kin. You would lie with someone who killed them?" the demon asked with disgust.
The young man shrugged. "They had to take me in when my parents died, but that doesn't mean they were kind. I have nothing to sell to keep myself but my body. You are at least good-looking and rich."
Valerien glanced at Kirin. "Is it normal for humans to debase themselves like beasts?"
The bard didn't quite know what to say to that. It seemed this daft demon understood neither poverty nor desperation.
"It is the only way he knows how to survive," he finally said.
The youth's eyes darted warily from Kirin to Valerien.
"That is what the girl said, too," he whispered.
"What girl?"
"In the woods outside Caernarfon. She said humans debase themselves like beasts, as if she were not human herself."
"What did she look like?"
"Small and pretty, she was, even though she was mad. Dressed like a boy in trousers and a grey cape. She spoke in riddles. Something about a meeting of three rivers and a mountain."
Valerien narrowed his eyes. "Where is she now?"
Finn glanced at the disturbed soil that covered his kinsmen.
"Cormac caught her and … and once he was done with her, he cut her throat. He sold her cape and boots on the market."
Valerien's face went blank, but Kirin could feel the heat of fury rising in him. He grabbed the metal-covered arm with both hands.
"Did she say anything else?" he asked Finn.
The young man took a step back, obviously regretting his confession, and shook his head.
"Fine. Then run now before he changes his mind and buries you alive," Kirin said.
Finn disappeared between the trees.
"Let go of my arm, bard. I gave him my word I would let him go if he answered. I won't break it, even if he is useless," Valerien said.
Kirin removed his hands and said thoughtfully, "Maybe he isn't. I know where three rivers meet the mountain."