Free Fiction Tuesday! A Fine Line: Part 6
Posted by alisonsky on April 6, 2010
It’s amazing how many hits you get on your website when you mention someone like JOSS WHEDON in your intro paragraph. I wonder what other keywords I can use to get new readers in. AMERICAN IDOL? P DIDDY DIRTY MONEY? JUSTIN BIEBER?
Okay, so maybe I pulled those from Twitter trending topics. Which, by the way, if you want to know what I’m “tweeting” about, I have a feed on the left hand side of the blog that links to my profile. Feel free to friend me if you’re human, feel free to not if you’re a spam-bot. I feed the spam-bots to my mythological dragon that’s in an upcoming book. It keeps his wings shiny and metallic-like.
Tonight’s chapter is part one of two with the fallout from the incident at the Open Trough. It also has one of the main characters running against a moral wall that will change his life forever. So please, enjoy, and feel free to comment and let me know what you think so far.
Thanks for stopping in and see you next week!
A Fine Line
By Alison Sky
Part 6
“Why did you take her?”
Price stood before Zantos, his eyes burning with anger as he stopped the older elf. He had stayed quiet as they had fled the village, knowing that the safety of the group meant they needed to get into the shadows first. But now that they were out of danger, he couldn’t hold his tongue any longer. “She did nothing except try to defend her father!”
“Why did you not kill the man who tried to attack me?” Zantos looked at the young half-breed’s angry face with his own anger. Now was not the time to relish in the past. It was a time to celebrate the victory of another vengeance returned. “You disobeyed a direct command.”
“He would not have attacked you. He just wanted you to leave the woman alone.”
“How do you know that? How do you know he didn’t have a dagger hidden in his cloak?”
“He wasn’t wearing a cloak.”
Zantos growled at that. Of course the human hadn’t been wearing a cloak. It was the point that mattered. Price should have been obedient to his elders, not letting his morals stray into the care of others. “You’ve grown soft.”
“I was not raised to kill the innocent.”
The other elves of the Order had now stopped and were watching Zantos and Price argue. Zantos felt their stares and knew he could not let Price overpower him in their presence. “When they killed your parents, did they care about who was innocent?”
“There were no innocents in that battle. My parents fought and they died; so goes the life of a soldier. They knew it was an option going into that battle, and they went anyway to protect the ones like me who they didn’t want to grow up in this kind of hatred. I mourn their death just like everyone else, and believe in the vengeance to a point, but others do not need to suffer for the mistakes of the guilty.”
The elves exchanged glances at each other, and then they all turned their attention to Zantos. The elder elf looked away from them, trying to find a way to reprimand Price so that they could continue on their way. “We will discuss this later,” he said finally and made to leave.
“No, we will discuss this now.” Price ran and stood in front of Zantos, stopping him from passing. “You have changes the ways of the Order!”
Zantos gritted his teeth and slapped Price across the face with enough force to knock him to the ground. “You speak of things you do not understand. Now be quiet and let’s return home.”
Price raised a hand to touch his cheek, and as he pulled it back he found blood from the opened scar there. “I’m not a child, and I understand perfectly.”
The other elves had now grown tired of the fighting and went to stand behind Zantos. “He is no longer one of us,” one whispered into Zantos’ ear. “Destroy him and be done with it.”
“We cannot kill the Master’s son.”
“Maybe he is right. We have never taken innocents before.”
“No one in this world is innocent.”
“Price has the right to ask these questions, but now is not the right time.”
“Stop it, all of you!” Zantos waved his hand in the air, making a slashing motion to silence the elves. They did instantly, and Zantos looked down at Price. “Is this what you wanted; bring doubts into the Order, your parents’ order, Master Price?” Zantos twisted the title, making it seem more of a bad word than the honorific it was.
“Doubts only arise when there are problems within the structure.” Price rose to his feet.
“And I know what the problem is.” Zantos approached Price and grabbed his pendant, pulling it from the young man’s neck. “You are now an outcast from the Order.”
A hushed exclamation of shock went through the group, and Price glared at Zantos. “You can’t do that.”
“You said yourself that doubts rise when there are problems within the structure. You are the one who raises the doubts; therefore you must be the problem. As the one who has been given the power by vote, I am in charge of keeping the Order free from danger.”
“Including the destruction of the heir to it?”
“If that is how it must be, it shall be.”
“So will you kill me now too?” Price lifted his chin, exposing his neck to Zantos but continued to glare at him down the bridge of his nose.
Zantos pocketed Price’s pendant. “It is not for me to do, now. My mission is to return all of us home safely. However, the next time I see you, I will not hesitate.”
Zantos turned to face the other elves. “Master Price, the half-breed, is now one of the outcasts. Tonight his life shall be spared out of respect for his lineage, but the next time he is seen, you are all ordered to kill him without hesitation. Now, let us return.”
Without a look back, all the elves moved past Price, including the one still carrying Vesa. None of them dared to look at him in fear of Zantos’ wrath after such a proclamation.
Price watched them disappear, and then smirked as he brought his hand out from behind his back and looked at the blood red pendant that lay there. He carefully put it back around his neck, sent a silent thanks to the stars for his skills and sparing his life, and then walked back into the woods to plan his next course of action.
