16 Head to Head

A soft and weakly voice evoked her. Bedona wished to see someone young, maybe even a handsome man, and not at all the giant she had just lost to and was at the mercy of. In fact she didn't expect him to talk normally given his impression. She expected him to grunt like an animal if she ever tried talking to him. Seeing him trot up to her with her bag in a moonless night was a sight to never forget.

Just to be sure again she looked down at herself; her clothes were at their right places and it seemed everything below her neck was immobile. She tried to move a finger, wiggle her toes, hold her breath but in vain. She asked what had happened to her, demanded to let her go, threatened with her guild even but her mouth just moved, soundless. As the last ditch effort she tried to flare her guild mark, showing she belonged to a higher race.

Bedona felt a slight sizzle inside the skin of to the top of her right hand.

"Stop struggling! I have paralyzed you for now." The man spoke as he got closer and dropped her bag near her hands. "Answer me and I might let you go."

His voice was irritatingly balanced and Bedona couldn't get over it, despite the dreadful situation she was in. And also his voice didn't make her feel like she was in any danger even though she was numbed from neck to toe. He sat in front of her, inches away from her feet, cross legged with his hands on his knees. They stared at each other, she waiting for his questions and he… she didn't know what he was waiting for. His dark beady eyes kept at her as she waited but no question came. She wasn't going to play another waiting game with him, she had learned. Bedona opened her mouth and moved her lips and tongue as if to form words. The man's brows rose at that, like he had just realized that she couldn't speak. 'At least he had the decency to look a little embarrassed.' He leaned forward and reached out, his hands long and burly, his fingers very much the same, Bedona did notice his particularly clean nails. The tip of his finger touched her forehead and comforting warmth filled her throat.

"Aaa...." she opened her mouth and the sound came. She coughed a couple of times to clear her arid throat and looked at him.

"Yes, I will answer."

Bedona replied, not quite meaning it. The man nodded and fished his hand behind his back. When they came back, her heart skipped a few beats. He held a medallion; a disc of copper with circles of runes inscribed on it in rings, one inside the other. She knew the disc, she had it, and she had taken it from the boy Tristan before erasing his memories of the event.

"Do you know what this is?"

His voice had a normal tone as he asked the question, but the seriousness in it had vastly intensified.

She nodded, "It's a very powerful charm, to keep the evil away. The runes there are ancient and quite potent-"

He lifted his hand to stop her. He frowned and looked at the disc in his hand, face full of unbelieving curiosity. Then he turned to her face, still merged in that frown. He shifted his gaze a few more times between the disc and her face before asking his next question.

"Are you sure?"

The frown didn't let up, but it looked comical on him and she was sure the giant was just marveling at what he had just heard.

"Yes. It is a family heirloom, my mother gave it to me before she passed and she had gotten it from her mother. Please, this is the only sign I have of my family."

She should have stopped when his frown came down and his face settled on that plain expressionless look. Even her instinct told her to run, to shut up or to tell the truth but she wanted that medallion. It was the only thing of value she got in that damned village.

She put as much as she could into that and even managed to crack her voice. But it didn't impress the man; he clicked his tongue and spat to his side. A sudden jolt ran through her so sharp and fast that she felt her veins burn to the tip of her fingers. She heard a scream in the back of her mind only to realize it was her. She stopped huffing and shaking, the pain only an afterthought but the effect remained.

"I don't like lies, Miss." His voice came out as a warning; same dull tone as before but it already delivered more pain than she had ever felt. There was no need to add more menace into it for her sake. She looked up into his eyes hiding under his thick eyebrows and found him staring back at her with an intensity that made her feel like she was wearing a winter jacket in a hot summer noon.

"Just tell me the truth. That is all I ask." She guessed he meant it as a reassurance but the calmer tone only made her tremble.

"The Medallion is not mine." She mumbled. "I found it…in the forest near Roqsar."

"And what were you doing there?"

"I…" She paused not sure what to say here.

"Only the truth girl." the reminder she did not need.

"I lived in Roqsar."

"Lies." He growled from between his teeth.

"No, wait!" Bedona shrieked, not wanting another jolt through her. "I did live there, I was in disguise."

She looked down and clenched her teeth. She prayed silently for a way that could get her out of the situation. Wished for sudden appearance of Ava or even Olean. No one came.

"Go on."

His voice was tad bit softer now. Consoling her again, it really brought her back to her senses.

With a deep breath she started again.

"I am Bedona Parsi of Sharak. I came here with an assignment under Aristeros with Rosso Dailar in search of a fugitive."

The man lifted his hand again telling her to stop and pursed his lips in thought.

"This…fugitive, did you find him?" He asked without looking at her.

"No."

"Hmmm…" He eyed the horizon as she waited for his reaction. Then without looking at her he asked again, "What happened then?"

"A monster, a Beast of Endahar attacked. Rosso died fighting it and I had been there ever since."

He nodded in approval, "A Beast of Endahar is not a thing to fight. How did you escape?"

"Our guild sent help. Two liaisons of Pearl. They defeated the Beast."

"Just two of them defeated it?" He seemed genuinely interested now. She supposed defeat of a beast of Endahar is always interesting.

"No, I hear it was only one of them that did it."

"Hoh! Really?"

She nodded but didn't say anything. He seemed to be in deep thought again.

"And… the villagers?" the question sent a chill down her spine. She hadn't thought about it lately because it made her very uncomfortable.

"Ah, I don't know... but last I heard they were all cursed."

"Yet you are not. And you say you stayed there?" There was warning in his voice that came out as a low growl. Bedona swallowed the sour bile rising to her throat.

"Us liaisons are protected from curses." She paused gauging his reaction. The man hadn't looked satisfied. "But it only works once."

The man looked away from her and onto the medallion. Bedona hoped he would give it back to her. He held it forward, near her eyes so that she could see it clearer. Without thinking she leaned forward and reached for it. It took a while for her to register she could move now, albeit her joints felt clunky and heavy. He pulled it away from her reach but didn't take it completely away.

"This here, is mine." He said slowly. There was pity in his eyes and sorrow, for whom she wasn't sure. "I cannot give it to you and it is not a charm." He looked at it with grimace forming in his mouth. "Having it would be more trouble than it's worth."

But then suddenly as if nothing had happened he smiled. In his wide mouth it looked …dumb.

"But you found it so I am willing to give you something else in return. I have no coin or gold with me at the moment but anything I can do, I shall."

Bedona was wondering what she could use this man for if not that medallion. Maybe a slave she joked. She looked up to see him staring at the river with a surprised frown on his face.

"Tristan?" He mumbled under his breath.