Chapter 7 The Huntress Is Never Alone

• The ride home was tense. Nicholette was fuming. Lord Veritas was obviously disappointed in his daughters but he chose not to say anything. In silence they rode and in silence they arrived home, where he helped them out of their carriage and in silence, went inside, straight to his office, not looking back. Nicholette, followed by Raquel, stomped the steps to their common room and in the same clenched jaw silence, punched a hole through the wardrobe door.
• Amaranta jumped from her seat. And both sisters ran to try and disentangle Nicholette's hand from the splinters and shards of the perforated panel. Nicholette didn't feel much of the pain, furious as she was, but when her hand came loose, with cuts and scrapes here and there. Amaranta and Raquel held her close and then she burst crying.
• “When am I going to be taken seriously in this house?!” She shrieked amid the tears, holding her wounded hand.
• Raquel had dashed to a cabinet and brought bandages. The three girls were kneeling on the floor –Raquel was patching up Nicholette's hand, Amaranta was cleaning drops of blood from her dress and Nicholette was trying to make sense of Beatrice's attitude.
• “This… this is ridiculous! It's pathetic, it's what it is. A Huntress being taken home by her father! What am I? A child?!?”
• Amaranta and Raquel looked at each other, unsure. This was not their father's usual behavior. But then again, none of them ever planned to attack a werewolf.
• “It's not so bad, Nyx… These are… Different times. We had never been attacked in our home before. Everybody is being extra cautious, that's all.” Raquel tried to appease the bursting emotions.
• Nicholette didn't respond. She just cried, looking forward.
• “I think you could totally destroy that werewolf, Nyx. He was lucky to escape your grasp!” Amaranta said.
• “No, I don't think I could. But I have to be there, I have to try.”
• “You don't think you're ready? Because I think you are. Very ready. You are deadly!”
• “No, it’s not that. Training was very efficient. I can handle weapons and technique, and I'm in perfect shape.” Nicholette explained.
• “There she goes, bragging about her toned abs we don't have…” Amaranta said to Raquel. That made Nicholette giggle amongst the soulful tears.
• “It’s not that, dummy! No one single Huntress can face a werewolf. They are bigger than any woman and they are fast. They can take a lot of damage too. And their main fighting technique is to hold your arms on your side and bite you.” Nicholette explained using her own hands, mimicking their attack. “That way one single Huntress can be immobilized very easily. That's why we hunt in groups. At least two. Three for comfort. Werewolves can only be defeated when they are surrounded. If we hunt in two and one of us falls, both are dead. Our strength is not in our training. It's in our numbers.”
• “And Beatrice didn’t want to form a hunt party with you. That's disappointing.” Raquel observed.
• “The bitch. Traitorous bitch.” Amaranta spat.
• “She's not a bitch. I still like her.” Nicholette said.
• “We too, she's awesome.”
• “She's an incredible soldier.” Nicholette remembered. “Focused on our orders always.”
• “So, if she's a soldier and under orders… That means she was ordered not to chase the dog prince.” Raquel stipulated. “Perhaps ordered by Father himself.”
• “Which is what you should be doing, since now you're a soldier too.” Amaranta.
• “And I should behave as a soldier… Yeah, I guess you girls are right… I thought I was being trained to be a leader. I have to lead soldiers and enchanters. I have to uphold our oath of never being alone, never abandoning my sisters. I… thought I was special… Beatrice said I wasn't the best!!” And she covered her tear soaked eyes again, head bowed in shame.
• “You're not? That woman is crazy!” Amaranta was offended.
• “We like Beatrice, Amy!” Raquel remembered her.
• “Oh, yeah. But she's just wrong.”
• “She's not!” Nicholette said between her fingers.
• “Of course she is. I saw you train! You are amazing!” Amaranta tried to cheer her up.
• “But what do you need to be the best for? You have to be part of the team. You have to be the best at protecting your sisters in arms. The best at sticking to the strategy.” Raquel, always practical, noted. “And that I bet you are.”
• Nicholette calmed down a little and wiped away her tears.
• “I know. I should be more soldier-like.”
• “What do you mean? You are! You are a heroine!”
• “I mean disciplined. Obedient. Soldiers follow orders, in every rank. I just don't understand the mission. The monster came into our house! Aren't we going to do anything?”
• That left Raquel and Amaranta at a loss for words. Why weren't they doing anything? Why weren't they scorching the land after every possible werewolf nest?
• “Well, that's a decision that Father has to make with the council. There must be a strategy being drawn. We just don't know it.”
• “Maybe.” Nicholette was thoughtful, trying to anticipate her father's decisions but she snapped out of it. “Thank you, guys. You are great. I don't know what would happen to me without you.”
• After a long hug, the three sisters looked at each other, smiling.
• “Well, don't thank me just yet. I have something here that I think you'll like.” Raquel surprised her sisters when she started to pull up her pink skirt.
• “We don't like your skinny legs!” Amaranta made a disgusted face, but changed it quickly when Raquel held clutches of the fabric.
• In the middle of the many layers of cloth a pale parchment broke the color palette.
• “The map! You stole the map! You devious brat, you!” Nicholette was beside herself.
• “What map?” Amaranta didn't know what was going on.
• “A map to the location of Nyx's boyfriend's clan, of course. Here, help me lose without tearing it. While you argued with Father and Beatrice looked for a hole to shove her head in, I covered it with the back of the skirt of my dress. Then I pulled it all together and it hung inside, stuck in the underskirt. The hardest part was to not sit on it, so I had to move it to the front very discreetly.” Raquel explained.
• “But how did you move the map without me seeing? You were right there beside me!”
• “I didn't. I moved the whole skirt around. I'm wearing it front to back.”
• “By the goddesses, you are! I hadn't noticed!”
• “Of course you wouldn't, you were a little busy trashing our wardrobe.”
• “I was… I'm sorry for that…”
• “Nevermind the wardrobe. Let’s see this.”
• The map slid from Raquel's legs to the floor and the young women knelt down together. It was all there plain to see, carefully drawn and annotated, with directions and strategic options. Nicholette was right, it was a mission for a small party and only two days' march away from their city. They were almost neighbors.
• “But you are not planning on attacking them, are you? I mean, you're alone.”
• “No, I can't. I don't have the troops or resources. But I have to gather more information. I need to know what that devil wants”
• “It seems that their area is well protected. But he must leave every now and then. I don't know, to hunt? Feed? Trade? What do werewolves do?” Amaranta studied routes.
• “All of those things. And they have their rituals. I just have to figure out where and when the so-called Prince leaves their lair. Then I'll intercept him. With any luck, maybe I'll even capture him.”
• “But not alone.”
• “No, Rach, not alone. Huntresses are never alone. I'll have to talk to my sisters and find some of them to come with me.”
• “Now that you've been caught disobeying orders, I think Father's watch will be that much tight on you.” Amaranta alerted her.
• “I'll just have to be a better soldier, then.”
• “From here? In the house?”
• “Especially in the house. I'll be the House's soldier.”
• “What, are you going to volunteer with Theobald's guard and keep watch over us?”
• “I am a soldier, Amy. That's what soldiers do.”