Prompt # 60: knife

(Sequels start with "cold")

   “And no more secrecy shall happen!”

   A knife was unsheathed. The villager made a step forward, his face grim. Strider caught his wrist before the blade hit Larina's throat. “This is not the answer!” he shouted and wrestled with the man, forcing him backwards, putting strength against strength while the other men and women only gaped.

   “Alandos, stop that fight!” Frein ordered, but the broad-shouldered man was gone too far to listen. There was hatred in his eyes but also fear.

   Larina's voice filled the air again and as suddenly as it had begun the fight ended. Alandos dropped the knife and fell on his knees, pulling Strider with him. Pulling everyone into the same trance they had felt before.

   “Put an end to this!” Strider clenched his teeth, and the struggle against the woman's magic was harder than the one before.

   Larina glared at him and Alandos, who knelt as if worshipping a goddess. “I will not allow him to threaten me or my husband!”

   “He was not threatening me.”

   “That I know, but I have to protect us both now.”

   “You do not.” Strider made it to his feet. His breath came in short gasps. He waded through the spell as if opposing the fen. “I do not need your powers to protect me.” He stood before her and straigthened when the magic ebbed away. Frein waited to his right, distrusting the sudden calm. Strider turned to him. “You said that secrecy maimed your village. Tell me about it.”

   “Oh, yes,” Larina prompted, “tell him about what you did to me!”

   Frein avoided his daughter's angry glare. “Mendaris knew of her… powers.” He spoke the last word as if it held poison. “He did not know if they were good or evil and forbid us to send her away. We knew she could charm and control everyone so we thought…”

   “You thought that I could also charm the beast!” Larina spat before her father's feet. “You and your fellows expected me to lure it into trance so you could kill it! But the plan was ill-fated.”

   Frein lifted his hands, his face contorted with regret. “We thought you dead. Like the others.”

   Larina stepped closer, and Frein stepped back. Her lips twitched. She knew he feared her. “You and the likes of you have never cared about me. But now you will. You must. For I have returned, and with the right of the wife I will stay here.”

   “What happened to the beast?” Strider demanded to know. “Does it still come here?” Frein, Alandos and the others exchanged glances, but they remained silent. Even Larina seemed tongue-tied. The sudden tension was palpable, and Strider frowned. “The beast still comes to your village, does it not?”

   Still, no one spoke. From afar a howling broke the silence.

Word count: 472