Magic Rising by Jennifer Cloud Page B

broken and those that weren’t held strange growths that marred the surface in fuzzy green and black mold.
    The hill called to her and she found her old seat. The bench remained whole and she eased onto it, testing it against her weight. There she looked down, as she’d done the day her mother had died.
    Dragonfly had caused her mother’s death. If she’d known what would’ve happened, Dragonfly would’ve killed that politician and spit on his body. She didn’t know though. She was a young teenager and didn’t want to commit murder. The love of life wasn’t tolerated at Stone House.
    There were no time-outs here. Punishment meant pain and sometimes death. They’d intended horrible things for her. The infraction was so terrible that they ordered a bloodline family member to carry out the sentence. Her own mother was ordered to hurt her.
    Normally Niam or a higher leader would punish Dragonfly. Niam usually volunteered, but those occasions were carried out in private instead of in front of everyone. Punishments were usually performed in the basement. There were devices for reprimands, supposedly because the leaders took no pleasure in the act. She had her doubts. Twice she’d been down there for punishment and both times the leaders had watched. They’d smiled while lashing her back or hanging her from the ceiling by her arms that were bound from behind.
    The last time she defied them, punishment was ordered and it was to be severe. She had to be made an example of and Scorpion had been ordered to do it. Dragonfly remembered them heating the oil and stripping away her clothing. They shackled her, naked, above a metal grate while a pot of boiling oil brewed above her. Scorpion was to pull the lever and release the oil. Dragonfly would’ve been scarred, if she survived. The last to be punished this way died, his hair melted, and he begged for mercy until succumbing to the pain of skin peeling away from the muscle, and the muscle from the bone. Scorpion didn’t have the heart for such a sin and that moment had caused Contrition.
    Deirdre had cost Scorpion so much. She only told her mother that she loved her once in a great while, when no one could hear. The last time, they’d been walking in the garden. The two of them hadn’t been fighters only mother and daughter. Those moments were few and precious.
    A noise to the side of the building broke her thoughts, shattered them like glass as footfalls approached. Instinctively, she rolled backwards, behind the bench and into the thick waist-high weeds.
    She stayed low, knowing that an intruder would do a visual for anything out of place and then cue in their senses. After a survey of the area, their minds and bodies would relax, giving her an opportunity to escape. The trick was keeping completely hidden.
    Deirdre cleared her mind. For a few moments she existed as weeds, trees, wind, and nature. She felt nothing, only existed as one with what belonged here. Her breathing slowed, her thoughts ceased. She felt nothing more than that of a blade of grass. In this way she could remain hidden from his senses as well as his line of sight.
    She heard footsteps somewhere down the hill. She didn’t react to these, only waited. A digital beep cut through the silence. It wasn’t a cell phone in this place, probably a two way radio. She couldn’t hear whoever called out, but she heard the man’s voice who answered. He was down in the exercise field. As he spoke, she knew who had ventured here. The voice haunted her, from childhood to now.
    “I can’t find the girl. She’s still here somewhere. Her car is still at the side of the building. I’d bet anything that we’re dealing with Dragonfly. Be on the lookout. You can injure her but do not kill. I repeat. I want Dragonfly alive.”
    Deirdre knew Niam’s voice. His name had been Midnight. He’d been one of the leaders and trainers in Stone House. She only knew his real name because he had to use it to register for