The sun began to set and the sky turned inky black above. Scores of bright stars started to become visible and activity within the village slowed to a near standstill. Above them, on an overlooking hill, a blue-haired warrior knelt in a crouched position and watched the people begin to turn in.

Taria kept the information in her mind. Artema had said there were bandits spotted in the area and they had become more and more aggressive with the people of the northern village. What made them of even more interest was the fact that they were Fa’rah’s bandits but Fa’rah herself had not been spotted among them. Artema sent Taria to sneak in and scout the place out before reporting back. As a result, Taria opted not to wear her usual green outfit but instead went for black.

Her sleeveless shirt and form-fitting shorts kept her mobile and the light, black shoes on her feet made nary a sound when she stepped closer to the village. The black colouring would certainly make her harder to spot in the darkness.

The heat of the day was starting to dissipate and a comfortable breeze swept into the northern Matesi Valley where the village lay.

Artema had warned Taria to be careful since the villagers were not exactly known to be welcoming of outsiders. But it was only a scouting mission and Taria wouldn’t have to do much beyond scoping the place out and reporting back.

She had spotted a few bandits milling about around the village but they hadn’t caused any trouble yet. Taria refused to leave until she saw just what they had been up to. Minutes after the sun set, Taria froze in place and found her hand reaching for her sword on instinct alone.

In the distance of the village, the tall council building obscured what was behind there but Taria had noticed a woman with her hands bound behind her being led back there. She assumed that must be where prisoners and lawbreakers were kept. A few of Fa’rah’s bandits drifted back and forth from there but Taria had spotted someone there that she hadn’t been expecting. A tall woman, dressed in short, purple robes, walked into the village with a confident stride. She had emerged from behind the council building. Taria’s eyes narrowed and she drew the sword at her side.

“Jhana,” she whispered to herself.

The people turning in either didn’t seem to notice her or averted their eyes and went about their business. Taria knew she had to take the chance. In spite of Artema’s orders, Taria decided that leaving now would give Jhana the chance to escape. She wasn’t going to let the former spymaster get that chance.

Taria made her way down the hill and into the village. She kept low and hid between the buildings, peering out around corners to try and find Jhana again. After a few minutes of searching, Taria stopped in an alley between the council building and a small blacksmith’s hut. She listened to the air and heard only the sound of the forge’s dying fire at first. But something moved behind her and she whirled around. Jhana stood only a few feet away from her with a wry grin on her face.

“Well look who it is,” Jhana said. “Which one were you again? The mercenary, right?”

Taria said nothing and tried to rush Jhana but the spymaster disappeared and reappeared behind her.

“Oh, you’re a quick one.” Taria spun around to face her again, gripping her sword tight. “Let me get a look at you.”

Taria ran for her again but Jhana didn’t move this time. When Taria swung her sword at Jhana’s head, it stopped in mid-air and clanged against something solid but when she looked there was nothing there. Jhana stood there with her right hand raised toward Taria’s sword but she held nothing in it.

“Well then,” Jhana said. “That’s a better look. Such fierce eyes on you. And that beautiful hair. I think I like you.”

Taria tried to swing at Jhana again but the spymaster turned to smoke and reappeared a few feet to her right.

“By all means, keep trying. But I suppose this has gone on long enough.” Jhana closed her eyes and raised both of her hands to her chest. She let Taria come at her again and spoke a single word.

“Eskaja.”

The lithe warrior took another swing at Jhana but the spymaster disappeared again and did not reappear this time. Within seconds she was replaced with ten village guards with long spears pointed at her.

“What?”

“Bind her,” said Jhana’s voice, though Taria couldn’t see her. “And stash her beside that idiot, Fa’rah. I will decide what to with her later.”

Taria crouched low to defend herself but someone grabbed her from behind and forced the sword from her grasp.

“Surprise,” Jhana whispered in her ear. “Rest now, dear. You’ve had a long day.”

Taria struggled against Jhana but the spymaster had surprising strength and held firm. As she fought, a blinding, white light filled her vision and forced her to shut her eyes. Within seconds, Taria felt her body go limp and the white light was replaced with darkness.

...

Lanala cursed softly when she saw Taria being taken captive. She had followed the warrior in secret and no one knew that she was here in the village. The spellcaster found herself worrying about Taria’s mission all day and just couldn’t let her go alone. Now she saw that she had a good reason to be worried about the mission. None of them had expected Jhana to appear in this tiny, northern village but now that she was here and had captured Taria, then Lanala had to save her and bring in Jhana. That was her only choice, as far as Lanala was concerned.

Still clad in her usual black outfit of a short, sleeveless shirt, short skirt and knee-high sandals, Lanala blended into the shadows and gripped her short staff tight in both her hands. She found a word deep in her mind and whispered it softly.

“Yenas.”

Her entire body became shrouded like a shadow and Lanala stalked silently toward the village. She had seen where Taria was being taken and couldn’t afford to lose any time so the spell would keep her in darkness and made her hard to spot, though not impossible.

Lanala crept up to the alley where Taria had been captured and made her way toward the northernmost point of the village. She spotted four thick, metal cages lined up together and stopped in her tracks. The farthest right one was empty but the remaining three each had a bound and gagged woman inside them.

The far left cage contained a large, muscular woman laying on her side. She thrashed and struggled against tight ropes that held her arms, legs, and wrists. She growled beneath a thick cloth that covered her mouth and glared at the guards that watched her from outside the cage. Lanala recognized her.

“Fa’rah?” she whispered to herself.

It seemed the bandit leader had been captured by Jhana herself, meaning that their alliance from before must have come to an end.

Fa’rah was still wearing her leather armour and sandals but she had obviously been disarmed. Her blonde hair clung to her sweat-drenched face and her shapely muscles glistened in the moonlight from the sweat that covered them. Fa’rah had obviously been struggling in her bonds for a while and breathed hard from the exertion. But it seemed that the ropes held firm and she couldn’t escape.

Lanala looked then to the next cage and spotted another bound and gagged woman who sat on the floor of the cage, resting her back against it. She seemed to be in an almost meditative state but Lanala discerned from her sweat covered body that she was as exhausted as Fa’rah. She was dressed like Fa’rah as well so she must have been one of her bandits.

A third woman was lying on her stomach in a hogtied position and struggled wildly against her bindings. Thick ropes wound around her ankles, above and below her knees, and at her thighs just below her tight, black shorts. Her wrists were crossed behind her back and lashed together with more rope. A thick coil of rope wound around her arms from her elbows to just below her shoulders. This was cinched together with a final length of rope that attached to her wrists and pulled her ankles tight against her wrists. Lanala couldn’t see if she was gagged, however, since a tight, leather hood had been pulled over her head but from the sounds of things she was definitely gagged.

“MMRRRGHHH!”

“Taria,” Lanala whispered.

“That is is,” a voice answered from behind her. “Would you like to join her?”

Lanala recognized the voice.

“Jha—mmmph!”

A hand clamped tightly over her mouth and pulled her closer. Jhana chuckled softly and wrenched the staff from Lanala’s hands.

“I was hoping to run into you again, cutie,” Jhana said. “Not many people can say they escaped me. But that only makes me want to capture you again even more. I can’t let a beauty like you get away from me again.”

Despite her strength, Lanala found she couldn’t fight back against the grasp of the spymaster.

“Come now. Let’s put you right in there beside your pretty little friend, hmm?”

Lanala attempted to fight back against Jhana but she found her strength draining from some unknown spell. Lanala knew that it was magic but had never felt its effects before. It didn’t take long for Lanala to pass out completely and for the world to go black.

...

“It’s this way,” Artema said. “Come on. We need to find out what’s happened to them.”

“We should have brought more,” Meryn said.

“No. Someone has to stay behind and protect headquarters. We can’t risk leaving it undefended.”

Meryn shook her head.

“I still can’t believe those two.”

“There must be a reason,” Artema said. “Even if it was stupid. There must be a reason why Lanala would go after Taria like that. And this has never happened with Taria before and this was a simple mission.”

“Clearly not,” Meryn said.

“Well it’s up to us to find out why. Matesi is just over this hill,” Artema said.

The two of them crested the hill and stopped at its peak overlooking the village below. Scattered wooden houses with thatched roofs, with no discernible pattern, lay about the valley in sparse quantity. A tall building with a sort of tower obscured their view of the rest of the village. Down below almost nobody moved around and everything seemed silent.

Despite the paling sky and the presence of morning on fast approach, not a soul seemed to have risen to start the new day. Artema glared hard down at the silent village. She felt herself tense up and a nagging doubt entered her mind.

“This isn’t right,” Artema said. She turned to Meryn. “Stay close to me. And stay out of sight. There’s more trouble here than I expected.”

“What kind of trouble?” Meryn asked.

“Don’t know yet,” Artema replied. “This place isn’t exactly a hive of activity but this quiet is just... spooky. You know what I mean?”

“Yeah,” Meryn said. “Like a ghost town. But it isn’t empty. I can tell you that.”

The pair of them said nothing more and descended the hill into the soundless town below.

...

When Lanala awoke she found that everything was still pitch black. It took her a moment to discern that the darkness that surrounded her was not that of night. Something pulled tight against her face and the smell of leather greeted every breath through her nose. Lanala chewed on something in her mouth and realized that a sturdy rope had been wound around her head in a sort of cleave gag. The smell of leather and the impenetrable darkness told her that she had been hooded like Taria. It was then that she strained her body and tried to figure out how she was tied up.

It wasn’t rope that held her. Heavy shackles bound her wrists behind her back and cold, steel chains wrapped their way around her arms from the elbows to the just below the shoulders. More chains bound her legs at the thighs, knees, and ankles and another short chain stuck her wrists and ankles together in a tight hogtie. Lanala tried to swallow and felt pressure against her throat. A thick, steel collar had been locked in place and when Lanala tried to move, she heard a chain just below her drag along the bottom of the cage. Another short chain attached her collar to one of the bars of the cage and prevented her from moving more than a foot away from the corner.

Lanala tested the chains by struggling hard and straining with every one of her toned muscles but there was no give in the thick steel. She let out a long breath and let her head rest on the floor of the cage. Escape sure would be difficult this time.

Lanala heard a muffled growl from her right. The person she heard shuffled around and kept snarling and growling into what could only be a thick gag.

“Tmmrimmph?” Lanala realized that the leather hood muffled her even further than the rope that gagged her when she said Taria’s name. The response she got was another furious snarl.

“MMMMRRRGHHH!”

Taria felt her shapely muscles scream and groan but still she thrashed and struggled in her bonds. She could barely be heard behind the tough gag around her mouth and the leather hood in front of that. Two cloths had been stuffed in her mouth and a thick, leather panel had been buckled around her head, sealing them in.

The unrelenting hogtie just fuelled her rage and made her struggle more and more with every passing minute. Pure exhaustion would make her rest but even scattered sleep did nothing to quell the fiery anger that burned within her. Taria’s throat felt raw from the screaming and growling she did into her gag but she carried on anyway. Her fury would not allow her to stop.

“MMMMPH! MMMPH! MMM MMMMMMMMPPPPH!”

Taria rolled this way and that, kicking her bound legs and pulling her bound wrists but the ropes only dug in when she did and gave her no room to move in the hogtie. She worked her arms against the layers of rope that bound them but they refused to budge. Eventually Taria just wriggled her whole body furiously back and forth, laying on her stomach, in some vain attempt to loosen the ropes. But nothing came loose and all of the knots held firm.

“MMMMMPPPHH!!”

“Tmmrimmph,” Taria heard a muffled voice say. She ignored it.

“MMMRRGH!”

“Tmmrimmph!” She again ignored the voice.

“MMMMPH!”

“TMMRIMMMPH!”

Taria ceased her struggling for a moment when she realized who was trying to speak to her.

“Hmmph?”

Lanala sighed when she heard Taria’s voice calm down and understood the questioning tone with which she tried to speak.

“Mmph mm. Lmmllmmmph,” Lanala said.

Taria let out a long sigh.

“Umm gmmpt. Ymmm fllmmd mm?”

Lanala couldn’t figure out what Taria had said but the tone of admonishment was loud and clear. She would have explained it all to her if she wasn’t gagged but they both knew that carrying out a conversation like this would be pointless. They were both bound and gagged in cages and couldn’t see a thing. There was no way they’d be able to help each other like Lanala had done with Luna back in that cave.

Taria resumed her frustrated struggles and her anger returned in full force. The tight ropes restraining her only served as a reminder that she had been captured for the first time. She had always been too quick and too skilled for her opponents before. But she had never faced someone like Jhana before. The Queen’s former spymaster had always been rumoured to be a powerful sorceress but no one had ever seen her powers demonstrated before. It alarmed Taria how quickly Jhana had been able to subdue and capture her. The very thought made her even angrier and she thrashed against her tight bonds again.

“MMMMPPHH!”

In the cage to the right, Lanala attempted some half-hearted struggles against the heavy chains that bound her but there was nothing she could do. She had nothing to pick the locks and no way to reach them. Any attempt to slide the chains off her body proved pointless as they just pulled taught and refused to move. So Lanala decided to lay still and try to get comfortable. Her only hope at this point was if Taria managed to escape but, by the sounds of things, the lithe warrior wasn’t having any luck with her bonds either. It seemed then that the only way she’d be saved is if Artema had realized something was wrong and would come after her again.

Both Lanala and Taria dropped everything they were doing and thinking when a cool, confident voice spoke to them from somewhere nearby.

“Good morning, my beauties,” the voice said. “I hope this day finds you well. And I see that it does.”

Lanala rattled her chains when she tried to look around to see where Jhana was but the hood prevented that. She felt silly for even trying.

“MMMRRRGGHH!” Taria growled.

“Oh, I do love the feisty ones,” Jhana said, kneeling down closer to Taria’s cage. “I might just make you my centrepiece.”

“HRRMMMGH!?”

“Don’t worry your pretty little head, Taria my dear. It won’t hurt. It won’t even kill you. But, of course, your days as a warrior would be over.”

“MMMMPPHH!”

“Listen to that adorable scream,” Jhana said. “What a lovely sound. I might just keep you like this. A sculpture or statue just wouldn’t be as much fun.”

Jhana stood up and left Taria to her furious struggling. She turned her attention to the tall, muscular spellcaster in the cage to the right.

“So how do you like those chains, Lanala? Are they comfortable?”

“Mmmmph,” Lanala grunted.

“Well they should keep you right where I want you, at least. And once your lovely wife arrives then we can have ourselves some real fun.”

“Hmmmmph!?”

“Oh, didn’t I tell you? Artema’s on her way. I had myself a good night’s rest from all the tiresome spellcasting last night and I knew that giant beauty would be on her way here to rescue you. Your order is so predictable, Lanala. But there is one thing I don’t think your leader has counted on.”

“Mmmph?” Lanala asked.

“I picked up something from that little wench, Elyn. A bit of scrying. You see, I know where your little headquarters are, Lanala. It’s such a quiet spot out in the Dasi Forest. Surrounded by all those trees where you spar and do all that escape training. How’s that working out for you, by the way?”

“MMMPHH!” Lanala started struggling against her unyielding chains but it was pointless.

“Oh yes, my dear. And when I’ve dealt with your wife and that gorgeous Gold-Eyed Maiden, I’m going after the rest of your little group and you’ll all be my little ornaments. What a fine throne room it shall be with all seven of you decorating it. Don’t you think so?”

“MMMPH! MMMMMPH!”

Lanala continued struggling but the chains held firm and kept her completely helpless. She didn’t care if there was no escape. She had to try for the sake of the order.

She ceased all of her struggling when a familiar strong voice shouted out from somewhere.

“Jhana!”

The spymaster stood back to her full height and turned toward the sound of the voice. The hulking leader of the Order of Ikaatan stood with swords drawn just ten feet away from the four struggling prisoners in their cages. Jhana grinned at the sight.

“Artema. Where’s your pretty friend?”

“What friend? I came alone,” Artema said. “And you’d best let my wife go if you value your life.”

Jhana laughed. “Forgive me, my dear Artema. But I find such talk highly amusing. You are surrounded. Legendary warrior or no, the odds are not in your favour. Now tell me where the Gold-Eyed Maiden is and I won’t have to hurt her.”

Artema took a quick glance around at the oddly blank-eyed women that surrounded her with spears. Her suspicions were confirmed.

“You’ve enthralled this entire village?”

“At great effort,” Jhana said. “But I have more than enough strength to deal with you.” Jhana strode toward Artema confidently, a cocky smirk on her face, and stopped a few feet in front of her. She held her arms out wide and the smirk widened into a malicious smile. “I’ll even give you the first shot. Go on.”

Artema chuckled and straightened her back. She rolled her shoulders and planted herself. But she refused to move first. “I think I’ll let you have the honours,” she said. “Since we’re having such lovely weather today.” She spoke this last sentence louder but Jhana didn’t seem to notice.

“As you wish,” Jhana said. But as soon as she moved, something whipped past her head and stuck in the ground beside her. It caused her to whirl around and glare at the top of the tower that rose above the council building. “I knew i-”

Before she could finish her sentence, Artema struck. With one swift move, the warrior grabbed Jhana’s torso and pulled her close. With the other hand, Artema struck the spymaster in the back of the head with the pommel of one of her swords and rendered her unconscious.

Artema knelt down over Jhana as the warrior women encroached on her and kept their deadly spears pointed toward her. Concentrating as her wife had taught her, Artema had to search hard for a word in the very back of her mind. The little magic knowledge she had came to the forefront and a golden glow engulfed her right hand. She closed her eyes and spoke aloud a single word. “Braviba.”

The golden glow engulfed Jhana then and the armed women that surrounded her stopped and seemed to be in a daze. Then they dropped their spears on the ground, looking confused. They soon realized what had happened when they saw Artema standing over the unconscious spymaster.

Artema straightened her back and looked to the tower where Meryn stood with her crossbow in hand. The two exchanged a smile and a nod and Artema turned to the guards.

“All right. Does anyone have the key to these cages?”

A short, stocky woman stepped forward and held them out in her hand.

“Thank you,” Artema said. She took the keys and unlocked the cages that contained Taria and Lanala. She freed her wife from her chains first and helped her to her feet.

“Artema, how...”

“Hush now, dear,” Artema said, softly. “It’s all right now.”

Lanala hung her head. “I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you but I had a bad feeling about this place. I just had to try and protect Taria.”

“Don’t worry about that now,” Artema said. “We’ve got Jhana. It’s over. We did it.”

The two of them exchanged loving smiles and Artema planted a soft kiss on her wife’s lips. She stroked her hair and held her face in one of her strong hands. “All is well, my love.”

“I... I suppose it is, isn’t it?” Lanala said.

Artema left her wife alone for a moment and went about untying a very grateful Taria, who then set about binding the spymaster in the same ropes and in the exact same way as she herself had been bound. When Jhana was firmly hogtied, gagged, and hooded, Taria stood over her triumphantly and stretched her sore muscles.

“So where are we taking this witch?” Taria asked.

“To the capital. The Queen will want to sentence her personally, I expect.”

“And we still have to find all those people she kidnapped and what she did to them,” said an emotionless voice from behind them. When they turned around, they noticed that Meryn had joined them.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Artema said. “For now we make sure that Jhana is imprisoned and has no chance of escape.”

Artema looked to the ground and was about to try and pick the spymaster up when she noticed with alarm that she was no longer there.

“What?”

Taria noticed too and punched the cage that held Fa’rah. The bound and gagged bandit leader jumped in surprise when she did.

“Damn it all! How did she escape?”

“None of her bindings are left behind,” Artema said. “Wherever she is, she’s still tied up. At least it will take her a while to get out of those bindings.”

“Artema, she knows where we are,” Lanala said. “She’s going to come after us.”

“I know,” Artema said. “We’ll have to be ready. I guess I spoke too soon, love. But at least we’ve shown that we can take her. We’ll get her one day, Lanala. Mark my words.”

“I know. I trust you, my love,” Lanala said.

Taria nodded toward Fa’rah, still bound and gagged in her cage. “What about her?”

Artema stared at the muscled bandit leader and the other woman, who was of her bandit clan, and nodded back to Taria.

“We take them instead,” Artema said. “At least we can take one menace down today.”

With that, Artema unlocked the remaining two cages and they dragged their new prisoners out to be carted off to the capital for trial and sentencing. Despite Jhana’s escape, it had been quite a good day.

...

At the top of a dark, stone tower, a woman writhed and struggled on a gorgeous, cherry wood canopy bed with royal purple sheets and curtains. Still hogtied, panel gagged, and hooded, Jhana squirmed against her tight ropes in a vain attempt to free herself. Her power had its limits, it seemed. While she was able to transport herself back to the safety of her hidden tower and avoid prison, she hadn’t succeeded in freeing herself from the bonds Taria had tied her up with.

Still, Jhana enjoyed the sensation to some degree. With no threat to her, the tight hogtie was something to have fun with until one of her servants found her. She mewled and groaned into the tight gag and pulled hard against the ropes that restrained her.

“Hmmmmph,” Jhana said. She really was silent with that gag over her mouth and the wet rags that had once been in Taria’s mouth now occupying her own. The tight leather hood blinded her to the world and made most of her spells useless now that she was so well muffled. It had been fortunate that she had left a point of return on her bed should she be captured but the uses of such a powerful spell were limited since it was just a scroll that she had created herself. Jhana would need to be careful in the future.

“Mmmmph,” she groaned to herself.

The spymaster struggled a little bit more but it was clear that Taria had tied her up well. She wouldn’t be getting free on her own. It didn’t matter anyway. She smiled beneath her gag when she remembered where the Order of Ikaatan’s headquarters were. Those women would be in for a surprise, whenever her servants would come and free her, anyway. For now, she would just struggle uselessly in her hogtie and wait to be untied in a little while when her chamber maids would come to check on her. Then she would formulate a plan to strike out right at the order’s front door.