AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Rebel Princess?”
“You are a princess, and now, a rebel, thus— “
“I get the gist of it.”
He sighs. With a silent whoosh of sand, he starts toward the destination only known to him. Numair tapping on the wheel with his gloved finger is the only sound besides the growl of the engine and the click of the crawler belts. I roll the window down when the air grows stiff. Light brown mesh filters the sand until it’s merely the wind murmuring over my skin.
Numair glances toward me, and I shift in my seat. If this is Valdus’s idea of punishing me, he couldn’t have picked a better person.
“Why do I get the impression that you don’t like me?” Numair asks but stares at the desert ahead, checking a compass from time to time and readjusting his course. Yet he’s still waiting for an answer.
“Let me think if I have a reason. Oh, wait. I have many. You had me kidnapped. The second time we met, you beat me up,” I say, pulling down a finger. “The third time, we barely exchanged a greeting. And the last time, I thought you were torturing Rev.”
“So, it’s a matter of perception.”
I gawk at him, and he chuckles.
“I wasn’t torturing Rev, was I?” he asks. He isn’t expecting an answer and keeps on going. “And I didn’t beat you up. I was trying to bring you back to Valdus and Inara before any guard saw you.”
“I ended up with a twisted ankle and split skin on my face.”
“You fell.”
“Because you pulled me down.”
“After you pushed me.”
“I wasn’t going to let you hurt me. You came across as very threatening.”
“A matter of perception,” Numair says, echoing his earlier statement.
I don’t answer, crossing my arms over my chest. Only when The Broken Sands is a small dot on the horizon, do I glance at him again, and Numair rubs his face and grips the wheel a little tighter. “Can’t we just forgive and forget?”
“If you ever said sorry, I might think about it.”
“It wasn’t my fault you went wandering…You know what? It doesn’t matter,” he says, lifting his gloved hand, the other one holding the wheel tightly as we hit a buried stone. “I’m sorry. It wasn’t a good day for me, and it must have influenced my judgment. I could have handled the situation differently.”
I sigh, looking down at my hands. “I was just shot at, dragged across the desert, and disoriented for a good week. I guess I was at fault too.”
“See, that wasn’t that hard.”
“You are insufferable,” I say, but an unguarded chuckle breaks through.
Numair grins. “You ain’t the first one to mention that.”
“Surprising.”
Silence hangs between us for a moment but when Numair clears his throat and asks if I want to hear a tale of a hollowcreep imprisoning a whole city in the depth of an abyss with stone for roof, I smile and nod.
I’ve been taught to fear the rebels, but they are the reason I feel safe for the first time in my life.
I push to the edge of my seat, leaning forward to see what lies ahead, but nothing could have prepared me for the vastness of the pit the rebels have dug up in ten days.
Numair must be an exceptionally powerful binder to be able to mold this much stone to form walls that hold the desert at bay, and a structure of cement sits nestled in what once was its tomb. Even if it wasn’t the only building where only sand reigns, it would still stand out. The angles of each surface are too sharp, as if it was a place of power on its own. No one would live in it. Even less now. Not when the glass that once formed its outside walls has shattered, leaving behind quivering metal poles and gaping windows.
The engine rumbles one last time and quietens when the structure is looming over us, enveloping us in its shadow. I jump down, my boots sinking deep into the sand, and have to catch myself on the other caravan parked next to us.
“Wait,” Numair says when I reach for a rusted door. “I have something of yours.”
