Introduction: Devil's Bargain

She stood, wings bristling slightly as she stared into the night. Her hair hung in golden spirals around an angular face and she was biting one of her rosebud lips nervously. Her pale green eyes stared into the darkness as if she were searching for someone and every few minutes her hand strayed nervously to a knife strapped to her hip as if reassuring herself that it was still there. Footsteps approached from behind her, loud and deliberate. “You’re late,” she said without looking back, her eyes still focused on the inconstant moon floating above her.
“I was detained,” a cool voice replied. “One of your colleagues seems to think you spend too much time with me.”
“Because I do,” she replied. “But no matter. I have the picture.” She slipped a glossy photograph, folded neatly in half, out of a hidden pocket in the black velvet dress and held it out over her shoulder. Pale fingers snatched it from her shaking hands and she heard the soft whisper of it being unfolded.
“You call on me to kill a child?” The voice was mocking, masculine tones drawn up in taunt.
“I call on you to perform your duty. The girl is dangerous. She must not live.”
“You would know Iola,” the man said, his voice still carrying that mocking lit.
“I know far more than you,” Iola said sharply. “Good day to you and may your path follow darkness.”
“And may yours follow light,” the male replied with a sardonic twist of the traditional phrase. Then he turned and walked away, footsteps still deliberately thudding on the stones. Iola stood there for many long moments afterward, calming her trembling fingers before calling up her wings and rising up into the sky; her job now done.

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Tag der Veröffentlichung: 02.09.2012

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