Shadowdance 01 - A Dance of Cloaks

Veliana to her knees on the ground and then turned toward Gileas. The Worm had stood and put his back to the wall. He still had his dagger. Clutching her sides gently, Veliana knelt and watched.
    “Uncalled for,” she heard the Worm say as the faceless woman approached. “She was given to me. Given…”
    He spun, his dagger lunging for Zusa’s chest. It never came close. Zusa slapped it away with an open palm, kicked him in the groin, and then slammed an elbow into his forehead. Gileas collapsed, grunting in pain. When Zusa grabbed his hair to yank his head back, he laughed.
    “Can’t stab a worm,” he said. “We just keep wiggling.”
    She stabbed anyway. Her blade punctured only air. Gileas’s clothes were an empty pile on the grass. Zusa kicked them away but saw nothing. She looked as startled as Veliana felt.
    “A worm,” Veliana said. “He can’t possibly be…”
    But there was nothing there. He was gone.
    “Come,” Zusa said, taking Veliana’s hand. “Follow me to my camp. You must meet my sisters.”
    The fire in the center of the camp had dwindled down to nothing. Zusa tossed on some branches while Veliana huddled against a tree, cold and naked. Winter was approaching, and the night air bit her skin. Zusa drew out two small red bricks and clapped them together above the fire. Sparks rained down upon the wood, instantly restarting the fire.
    Veliana knelt beside it, eager for its warmth. She kept her right eye closed, wishing she could slow the bloody tears she was constantly wiping from her face. She was stronger than this, knew she was, knew she had to be. But staring into the fire, she kept seeing Gileas’s dagger, heard the sound of her flesh tearing as the blade descended, kept remembering the pain as it stole away the vision in her eye.
    “Where are your sisters?” she asked as shivers ran through her body. Her revulsion at Gileas’s touch remained strong, though it felt like the fire was slowly purifying her body of it.
    “They will return in the morning,” Zusa said. “I remained here to keep an eye on another charge of ours. I expected his idiocy to get him and his woman killed, but instead I found you tied to the wall.”
    “I was as surprised as you were,” Veliana said. She turned her back to the fire, her arms crossed over her breasts.
    “I’m not sure I have clothes appropriate for you,” the faceless woman said. “Perhaps I could go and retrieve the strange man’s…”
    “No,” Veliana said, suppressing another shudder. “I’d rather be naked.”
    Zusa tilted her head to the side. Veliana swore she could see green eyes studying her through the white mask across her face. Suddenly Zusa lifted the cloth and untwisted the wrappings about her head.
    Veliana startled at the woman revealed beneath the wrappings. She was gorgeous by anyone’s standards. Full lips, smooth cheeks, and vibrant eyes. Their deep color reminded her of pine needles. The woman ran a hand through her short dark hair, pulling out tangles, no easy task given how tightly it had been restricted and how covered with sweat it was.
    “You’re…” Veliana started to say, then realized how ridiculous it sounded.
    “I know,” Zusa said. “Trust me … I know.”
    She handed the wrappings to Veliana.
    “They’re not much, but you should be able to hide your nakedness.”
    Veliana started wrapping the black and purple cloth across her chest, pulling it tight to get as much coverage as she could. As she did, Zusa removed more and more of her wrappings from her chest and waist. Beneath she wore a dark shift, the color so thick she needed little of the extra cloth to keep her modesty. Veliana accepted the extra wrappings and continued looping them about her body. If she walked through the streets in broad daylight she’d earn herself many scandalous looks, but at least she was no longer naked.
    “Thank you,” she said, sitting down once more by the fire.
    Zusa did not respond. She moved about the camp, preparing a tent that had been left behind unassembled. From a pack nearby she pulled out some tough meat and handed it to Veliana. She wasn’t hungry but ate anyway, preferring the salty taste to the lingering offense of bile and Gileas on her tongue.
    “Why did you save me?” Veliana asked.
    Zusa glanced up as if the question were stupid.
    “Because I wanted to.”
    Veliana smirked. It felt like an answer she might have given.
    “Be that as it may, I’ve sworn my life. I’d like to