The carts

*POV* Clay Sparks

I turned as Destiny came up to me where I sat on a rock on the side of the road. I had messed up big time on this attack of course it had to be a slave train. I groaned.

"What are we looking at?"

Destiny looked grim. "Children… they're all children, ages eighteen on down." She paused. "They all wear lit silver cuffs on their wrists."

"Any plans?" I asked, and she shrugged. "I talked to one. It seems they are all from a village in the west. It houses water mages, it's dang shame. But I think all we can do is send them back and hope they know the king will try again."

I was sure he would. We were lucky that they hadn't had a mage with this train. they must have thought the cuffs would be enough. Well, this would get us on the king's radar.

"Sounds good, do you think it's a good idea to send them back alone?" She sighed. "I thought about sending Pip and Dixie with them." I nodded, she always had a way of thinking ahead.

"They should be back before the runners get the message to the king." I stood as she patted my shoulder before walking off.

We had the horses gathered up, and some of the boys following those that ran. I walked off to the carts that sat on the road.

I lightly set the tip of my fingers on each as I passed. I kept walking when I reached the end, twenty carts later I turned around to look back.

I watched as the carts burned bars and all, as they burned red and orange, the flames growing, in my mind I slowly counted them again. It came to nineteen.

'Did I count wrong?'

Slowly I walked down the road counting again. Nope, only nineteen. I shook my head, I had to be overthinking again I told myself as I turned to walk towards the group of young water mages.

Lightly rubbing my arm, before folding them across my chest as I stopped beside My sisters.

"Why do I have to go?" Pip asked, huffing. "Because I know you will return faster, you know if I just sent Dixie then she would take longer to return."

"Hey, I am not that unreliable." Dixie glared at Destiny.

I would agree with Destiny, Dixie had a way of getting distracted. "We all know you can do anything, in time." I laughed trying to play it off as a joke and patted her arm.

I had to calm her before it turned into a scene in front of the others. Dixie didn't stop her sour look as she turned to bark orders to the young mages. I watched as she had horse after horse brought forward to be mounted.

"I decided that if they take the horses it would be better and Dixie could sell them on their way back, you know how good she is at that." Destiny said as she came to stand beside me and noticed what I was looking at. I grunted in agreement with her plan, a little distracted.

It took some time to get the young mages on their way and the ashes from the wagons cleared off the road, the sun was setting when I, Destiny and the group were ready to head back to camp, hungry and tired.

Our small but well-furnished camp was deep in the forest, out of sight out of mind and a good place to hide from the king because he wouldn't send his guards into a forest where magic beasts lived, they only attacked when you were in their territory.

We had killed the one that owned our small grove of trees and cave. The cave in which we packed all the goodies we stole from the king. There were many kings in the land but we only stole from King Divan of Hilldren, my uncle.

He had married into the Hilldren royalty, I found his lust for power sickening. I crawled into my tent flopping onto my bed roll, not bothering to stop by the fire to grab some food.

'You know that feeling when you are sleeping, but not sleeping, because your mind is awake? thinking overtime about the things you are worried or stressed about. Or because you thought about something too much.'

That's what woke me up because I could not stop thinking about the carts.

My dreams were plagued with those carts. I stared at my tent, there was enough moonlight to see the two long rips in the top that had been mended by Dixie.

Dragging a hand over my face, I forced myself to crawl out of the tent. The cool night air felt amazing, I glanced over and saw a light in Destiny's tent. Strolling over and opening the flap I walked into the big tent.

I usually knock but the only reason she would be up so late is if she was doing paperwork.' Yes, our operation had paperwork.' It takes a bit to decide which villages needed money for taxes for the king.

She sat on the floor up to a small chest-high table, she looked up greeting me with a tired smile.

"Couldn't sleep either?" She questioned, putting her hand to her forehead, lightly shuffling some stiff papers.

"I might be overthinking but, how many carts were in the train when the boys scouted it." "Twenty… Why?" She looked up, confused.

"Well, I only burned nineteen…"

she sighed.

"You sure?" I nodded. She sighed again.

"I could send a small party if you are sure." I shook my head.

"No need to wake anyone, I need some air anyways. I will go look around."

She smiled. "OK, be careful." I left her tent and headed for the road. The walk was pleasant, but my mind was unsettled, and I worked overtime to come up with all the wild scenarios that could affect me and my sisters.

If the king were to get water mages even if they were children, it would complete his four elementary teams of mage assassins.

I couldn't let him take any of the water mages, because they were said to be the most powerful, even over a well-trained air mage. And if he were to get all four it would be catastrophic, plus water could…

I stopped short sure I was hearing things for a split second. "HELP!!" It was faint when I heard it again.

I took off running down the forested hill, why hadn't I thought about it? The road was placed on the side of a steep hill going down into a valley with tall trees that hid the ground below.

The cry for help did not come again, but as I moved down the hill I almost tripped on a deep gash in the forest floor. I could see vaguely in the dark but not clearly enough.

I lit an orange flame in my hand to light my way, it illuminated the trees around me, a squirrel scurried up a tree I stopped hesitantly at the movement before continuing onward.

The scene I came upon was not what I was expecting, the air ran with iron like electricity, it made the air around me feel hot and the feel of it on my skin sent a weird sensation through me. My hair stood on end.

The cart had shattered, pieces lying all around. Two little girls knelt beside one of the side pieces of the cart, atop it lay another girl with her cuffs glowing white. They looked up with fear and relief mixed on their faces as they saw me.

I stood staring, unsure of what to do when the girl's body jolted. One of the little girls screamed and they scrambled backwards.

I rushed forward, the fire in my hand going out. 'I had to get her off the bars, who knows how long she's been there.'

I moved closer, carefully picking her up from where she lay. The energy around us was thick, almost unbearable, but as soon as I had her off the bars and in my arms the electric energy in the air vanished.

I took a deep breath and looked down at the tear-streaked face of the young woman I now realized was much older than I had originally thought. Her eyes were closed and her face still looked pained.

Her ebony black hair framed her rounded face; she had full brows and an upturned nose. I looked away from her face to look at the girls, they were smaller than I was used to.

'They are children' I reminded myself 'Though I wasn't much older' I also reminded myself.

"Is she alright?" As they spoke worry in their small voices, I wasn't sure myself so I gently laid her down on the softest place I could see.

And laid two fingers on her sweaty neck, there were a couple of heart-stopping seconds before I felt it.

"She is breathing."

I told them, they had been crowding me looking over my shoulders but by the time I spoke they had moved back.

There was a very soft groaning noise, I looked down and her lips were parted, she breathed softly.

I turned around to the two girls behind me, lightly a fire in my hand to see their faces. I almost jumped as the light revealed their tired faces, the two were identical from their black curly mops to their different colored eyes.

I had to say something as they stared at me warily, eyes darting from my face to the fire in my hand.

"Are you guys okay?" I asked, my eyes catching the magic markings on their necks.

A few seconds passed but it wasn't one of them speaking that broke the awkward tension.

"Is that fire?.." I turned in surprise looking sharply at the little boy who couldn't have been much younger than the girls.

He brought his hand close, my eyes landing on the silver cuffs on his small wrists. "Benson.."

He turned. "Isn't it cool!" He exclaimed as he looked at the twins. They both were looking at him with a 'Are you dumb' expression on their petite faces.

I guess they had some silent argument because he begrudgingly moved to stand behind them but still watched the fire in my hand.

"We're okay…" One of the twins finally said she must be the more outgoing one because the other seemed content to let her answer.

"But I have some questions." She continued. "Where are we, and who are you?"

I gave them a small smile, 'it would be harmless telling them who I was, right.' I studied their magic marks. It was the first time I had seen them on someone's neck.

"I am Clay. And we are in the middle of the el-den forest between the kingdoms of Hilldren and Elesor." She nodded, even with the cuffs and her small size she was intimidating, like she still had a way to escape if anything happened.

Her twin turned to whisper something into her ear, eyes never leaving me.

It was unnerving, the little one, I now noticed after studying them for some time, spoke up. "We were taken from our home… four or so days from here." I nodded.

"I know, it was my men and I who stopped the carts."

I glanced at the broken cart. "This one must have gotten run off the road." I would talk to the guys about missing this later.

They nodded, I hadn't had this awkward of a conversation in a long time. "We can figure out a way to send you back later. First, we should get her to someone who can assess the damage." I said, pointing to where the girl lay still.

"My camp is not far." They nodded. I moved to pick up the girl again.