The covering over our heads was lifted. The vessel rocked and tilted, and Alderose and I were dumped onto the ground and forced to roll onto our bellies. “Don’t move. I’m cutting the head covering. I’ll try not to remove too much of your hair.”
There was nothing gentle about our captor’s movements. It felt like they were using dull saw blades to cut through the threads, and I winced every time my hair got snagged. Finally, they were done. Toes worked their way underneath the front of my shoulder, and I was rolled faceup.
Jadzia stared at me. Her features were cold. Emotionless. Until she grinned and turned her attention to Alderose. My sister cried out a couple of times. Her curlier hair had likely gotten more tangled in the threads. I almost felt sorry for her.
Anger. Keep feeding it, Clementine. Feed it, bank, use it.
I couldn’t wait to see what these mystery creatures had in store for us next. Jadzia left my sister and me and walked off. She and Gosia spoke to one another in a language I didn’t recognize, and their voices and footfalls faded until I couldn’t hear a thing other than my own breathing.
I turned my head to look at Alderose. Sections of her arms and torso wavered like heat on tarmac. Blades came in and out of view. “Whatever spell your girlfriend made for you is no longer working,” I said. “I can kind of see your weapons. Maybe our friend Jadzia weakened the spell with her exquisite knife work.”
Alderose lifted her head, spit sand and blood out of her mouth, and rested her cheek on the ground, facing me. I couldn’t really see her features underneath the tangle of her hair and the malevolent threads.
“I’m sorry, Clemmie. You have every right to be mad at me.”
“Right now we have to figure out how to get out of here.”
My sister nodded. “Got any great ideas?”
“They’re not going to be pleased if they see there’s an arsenal strapped to your body. I’m going to try something. Don’t move.”
I closed my eyes, relaxed into the pain and discomfort I was feeling on the physical level, and called to the thread coiled over my heart. Whispering, I asked the thread to find its way over to my sister and begin to divest her of her daggers and knives. “First, remove one from this side and then the matching one from her other side. Be careful. Be stealthy.”
The thread drew reinforcements from the waistband of the jumpsuit. I was ticklish and had to press my thighs together. Giggling would have been highly inappropriate.
“I can get the threads in my clothes to do things for me,” I said to Alderose. “You’re going to feel a crawling on the outside of your thighs. I instructed the threads to remove some of your weapons and hide them inside my jumpsuit.”
“Okay.”
While the thread snaked over to Alderose, then back to me, dragging a dagger with it, I kept listening for Gosia and Jadzia’s return. The blade was drawn down the front of my body, between my breasts, and secured to a hastily constructed strap on the inside of one pant leg. The threads left, returned with the dagger’s mate, and secured it to the other leg.
This was the most intimate I’d gotten with anything animate—or inanimate—in months, except for the interlude with Laszlo. I was ready to give the threads names and promise to make them breakfast for their efforts. “First set has been transferred,” I whispered. I paused the thread from continuing and asked my sister which weapon should come next.
“I keep a special set of blades at my lower back,” she said. “Please be careful. They’re ridiculously sharp. I was prepping them in Mom’s workroom.”
“Where should they be positioned on my body?” I didn’t want them to be easily discovered. Nor did I want to stab myself—or be stabbed if our captors insisted on dragging us everywhere.
“Put one in your front pocket on your right side and put the other one in your back pocket on your left side. I’ll try to stay to your left. If they ever let us stand up.” She went silent as the thread wound its way to her neck and down, then added, “Do you have any way to make a slit in the fabric to make it easier to reach inside?”
“I’ll see what the threads can manage.” Footsteps returning in our direction didn’t give me time to make it any clearer. I made myself go still.
A being stopped close to our heads. Their feet shifted on the sandy ground when they turned and crouched. A barely audible growl chilled me to the bones.
“Alderose Brodeur, you sneaky little witch. How did you manage to get all those pretty little blades past my inspection?” Jadzia’s voice was tinged with cruelty. “Ooh, I see a witch with a friend in the Fae.” She dropped something metallic on the ground and tskd as she ripped through my sister’s clothes. “Fae. And witches. Do not. Mix.”
“You’re cutting me,” Alderose said. “Stop and I’ll tell you exactly where all of the knives are.”
Jadzia bent closer and stage-whispered in the space between me and Alderose. “I would much rather look for them myself.”
I turned my head to see what was happening. I couldn’t see much beyond Rosey’s right side and the flash of the blade in Jadzia’s hand. She wasn’t even trying to be gentle.
My sister whimpered. I smelled blood and kept silent, willing the threads Maritza had bestowed on me to hide the four blades in my clothing as best they could.
We needed a diversion. “Where’s Gosia?” I asked. “And where are we?”
“Gosia’s busy.” Jadzia gathered my sister’s blades and grunted as she stood. “And you’re not going to need these.” Splashes announced the blades were going the way of my old boots, the broken button charm, and Laszlo’s blade.
Alderose whispered, “Fuck. I liked those knives.”
“Maybe the beasts who live in the cavern will
