Aeryn rode hard until the fury and trapped aggression was spent, replaced by the grim clarity of her mind, of her thoughts and of her path. She returned to the camp near noon. The girls were subdued, awaiting the Queen's final command.
She pulled back the tent flap and stepped inside, then froze.
Sakina was still kneeling on the ground where Aeryn had left her. Her spine was rigid and unnaturally straight, her head bowed, and her eyes were squeezed shut in silent, agonizing submission. The posture had been held for hours. Her knees, even through the heavy cloth of her trousers, must have been numb, and her ankles swollen. The silence in the tent was a heavy accusation.
In her storm of fury, the final, binding word to Sakina had been lost beneath her anger, she had totally forgotten what she had said to Sakina before leaving. She felt a sickening lurch in her gut.
"Sakina."
Sakina didn't move, her silence indicating she was awaiting the lifting of the order.
Aeryn took a quick step forward, kneeling before her. "Rise up."
Sakina groaned, a low, involuntary sound of pain. Her hands, when they moved to push against the ground, were cramped and stiff. She tried to stand, but her legs, frozen for hours, refused the burden. She stumbled, and Aeryn caught her.
"You should not have obeyed such a foolish command, I didn't even remember!" Aeryn muttered, the guilt sharp in her voice.
"My loyalty is to the Queen, Your Highness, even when she speaks from her anger," Sakina responded, her dismay visible in the tight, formal tone of her voice.
Aeryn chuckled, the sound thin and brittle, devoid of true humor. "You are not young now, Sakina, to indulge my whims! That rigid, unmoving obedience is for the new recruits seeking their place, not for the one who has always been my rock. Now stand up quickly."
Sakina, grimacing, finally managed to push up, leaning heavily on Aeryn's shoulder for balance. The brief, tense moment of intimacy was shattered by a furious commotion erupting outside the tent, the sound of sharp shouts and the hiss of magic.
Both women looked at each other with alarm. Aeryn, already wearing her dark, traveling armor and with her sword still belted, moved outside instantly. Sakina staggered after her, holding a dagger, favoring one numb leg.
Outside, the fight was viciously elemental. Two girls were wrestling, one summoning a wild, uncontrolled burst of fire that barely missed the canvas tent, the other trying to douse it with a clumsy surge of water magic. The elements, canceling each other out in steamy explosions, only fueled the frenzy.
Aeryn, dejected and furious at this immediate proof of her failure to instill discipline, raised her hand.
The girls fighting were held fast, frozen by a terrifying, unseen force. They felt as if the air they were struggling to breathe was gathering at their throats but refusing to pass. Their lungs seized, and a suffocating, metallic nausea washed over them. The girls not involved, standing nearby, struck with horror, held their breaths as well, mirroring the pain of their peers.
Aeryn's red-shot eyes bored into the frozen chaos. "SILENCE!" she roared, the sound shattering the illusion of quiet.
They were already silent, but the shout terrified them to the core. Aeryn tightly flexed her hand, the movement causing the bones in her wrist to visibly protrude beneath her skin, tightening her grip on everyone involved in the brawl. The girls fidgeted in their frozen bodies, tears running down their cheeks with horror. Their bodies ran cold, their sweat drying instantly under the overwhelming internal pressure.
Sakina immediately rushed forward and put her hand on Aeryn's arm. She didn't speak a word, but her gaze was a silent, desperate plea; to let them go.
Aeryn looked from the struggling, terrified girls to Sakina, and back. Her bloodshot, tired eyes seemed as if they would break into tears any moment. With a painful, guttural sigh, she slowly loosened her grip and dropped her hand. All the girls involved collapsed instantly to the ground, holding their necks, gasping and panting heavily.
"What was going on here?!" Sakina roared, turning her anger on the culprits to mask her terror.
"They were fighting, General," stammered one of the onlookers, a girl barely ten years old who was not involved.
Sakina's eyes narrowed. "Come forward, and then speak! You insolent wretch, have you forgotten your manners already?"
The girl trembled, came forward slowly, and stood before Sakina.
"I know there was a fight," Sakina said angrily, stepping closer. "I am asking why they are fighting?! What was so important, that you choose to show poor decorum, breaking rules, even ignoring the presence of Her Royal Highness? Don't you care for your lives?!" she passed her gaze at everyone.
"My lady," the girl whispered, shivering violently. "They were fighting… over Her Royal Highness."
"What were they saying?" Aeryn spoke this time, her voice dangerously quiet.
The girl hesitated, her eyes darting between the Queen and the wreckage of the fight.
Aeryn barked: "SPEAK!"
The girl, shivering and unable to hold back her tears, burst out, "The girls of the Azure Tribe were saying you are losing your mind and that it's no use ruining our lives following you! So the Cinder Fire Hegamony girl was teaching them a lesson!" And here, overcome by the sheer terror of the Queen's proximity, she wet her skirt.
Sakina looked horrified at Aeryn. Aeryn, however, looked only at the young girl, her expression perfectly unchanged.
"Move out of my way," she commanded the shivering girl, and then motioned to one of her guards, who quickly led the sobbing child inside one of the tents to get her changed.
Aeryn turned her attention to the culprits. "You! You! And you at the back; the three of you. Pack your bags. Sakina, handle their passage. And give them what was promised to them. I don't want to see them again!"
Two of the girls, Rissa and Fira, immediately cut into her, protesting and panicking. "Your Highness! What have I done?" cried the girl at the back, terrified.
The girl from the Cinder Cinder Fire Hegamony , Rissa, added, "Your Highness! I was only…"
"Protecting me. right?" Aeryn completed the sentence, then came close to Rissa. The girl looked up at her, and Aeryn held her chin, forcing Rissa's eyes to meet hers. "Do I need your protection?" she asked, her voice a low, burning coal.
Rissa, embarrassed and cowed, tried to look down. Aeryn's grip tightened, pulling the girl's face back up.
"DON'T LOOK DOWN!" she roared, making the girl flinch.
"Look at me… Never look down" she lowered her voice, and said softy in a loud whisper, the tears now visible and overflowing in Rissa's eyes. "You cannot break rules for anyone. Not for the elements, not for loyalty, not for anger. Until and unless it's for you!"
"Not even for you?" Rissa asked with a trembling voice. She was a sweet-looking girl, and Aeryn's heart faltered, seeing the confusion and fear in her face.
"Yes, not even for me!" Aeryn insisted. "If you cannot follow my rules; the fundamental rules of self-control and decorum; how can you carry out my commands as my soldiers? As my army? You traded discipline for vengeance, all unrelated to you."
She let her go and moved to the girl at the back, who was panicking but trying to look inconspicuous. "It was funny to see others at their worst, right?"
"No, Your Highness," the girl muttered, looking down and realizing her mistake.
"I can accept the ones who break rules for misplaced loyalty," Aeryn stated, the judgment heavy in her voice, "but not the ones who have no sympathy or empathy for their fellows. Get out of my sight."
"Please, Your Highness!" the girl pleaded, holding Aeryn's sleeve as she turned away.
Aeryn looked over her shoulder at her. "You want me to get your skirt wet? So you can experience the same behavior of everyone laughing at you?"
The girl immediately let go of Aeryn's sleeve, embarrassed and retreating.
Aeryn then turned to the girl from the Azure dominion, the one who had voiced the doubt about her sanity. The girl was sure she was about to face the worst punishment, so she closed her eyes tightly, holding her head up high, bracing for the blow.
"And you…" Aeryn started.
The girl, still with her eyes shut, began, "Your highness…I won't say that I didn't say it. I said it. I am willing to accept whatever punishment you give me."
Aeryn actually smiled here; a flash of her old, dangerous charm; and put her hand on the girl's shoulder. "Ask Sakina if you need anything for your journey, and you have time. If there is anyone who would like to go with you, let Sakina know."
The girl, stunned to even speak, looked at her retreating figure. Aeryn had banished them and the logic was terrifyingly consistent: the disciplined mind was paramount.
Sakina looked at all of them angrily, then hurried after Aeryn toward the tent, muttering, "Insolent fools, you have no idea what you have just escaped!"
She entered the tent only to find Aeryn leaning heavily against a cot pole. Before Sakina could reach her, Aeryn's control broke. A thick, dark stream of blood erupted from her mouth and splashed onto the cot. Her eyes rolled back, and she lost consciousness, collapsing with a heavy thud onto the ground.
Sakina rushed to her side, her desperate grief and fear returning with a crushing intensity.
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