AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I don’t know what’s happening.” My thoughts. But that voice is so distant, so detached.
Chekiss turns around and kneels to my side, careful not to look at my body.
“You’ll stay here with me while they save DaiSzek, okay? You’ll rest and I’ll watch over you.” His calm, fatherly words make me want to cry. “We can talk about it when you feel a little better.”
“She’s coming with us.” A dark, masculine voice rolls over the washroom with unquestionable dominance.
I look over Chekiss’s shoulder to see Dessin has opened the door and is standing face-to-face with Niles.
Niles looks over his shoulder at us with a raised eyebrow. “I was too scared to tell him to leave.”
Chekiss works his jaw. “She’s not in the right mind to do this.”
“She can handle anything I can handle,” Dessin tells him. He sounds so tired, so overcome. “How quickly can you have her dressed?” he asks Ruth.
But Ruth looks like she’d rather not answer. Her big brown eyes flick to me, a question of what to do.
I nod.“I’m okay,” I mouth.
She sighs, looking back to Dessin. “Ten minutes.”
The only sounds are the faucet dripping. A long, stressful moment of silence.
“Let’s give them privacy, please.”
Please?Dessin doesn’t say please. What is going on with him? What’s going on withme?
Chekiss squeezes my hand once, and Niles steps into my line of sight. “We’ll be just outside if you need us.”
Ruth helps me out when everyone files out of the room. She wraps me in a towel, pats me down until I’m mostly dry, and rushes to the dresser to find me similar hiking clothes.
“We’ll be with you the whole time you’re out there, okay?” Ruth fastens my brassiere, pulling a tight cotton tunic over my head. “You’re not alone. Anytime you need me out there, just hold my hand.”
I nod absently. “Okay.”
My boots go on next, and once I’m dressed, she gets me a glass of water.
“We’ll take it slow, do as we’re told, and be back with DaiSzek before sunset.” She braids my wet hair down my back, giving me a soft pat on the shoulder.
“Ready?”
I sigh. Not really. My stomach is twisting in tight knots, my brain is foggy, and I’m pretty sure I need to vomit. But I say yes anyway.
I mentally check out while Dessin gives a presentation of the forest and all of the traps that are laid out to the unit that’s accompanying us.
He memorized every single bomb, trench of spikes, swinging blades, and snares they have planned for us. We’re supposed to follow his lead. Every footstep exactly.
And he makes everyone wear a satchel covered in dried welven piss, one of the top predators of Hangman’s Valley. It’ll keep most of the beasts away from us, letting us walk through undetected.
He’s thought of everything.
But I hardly paid attention. My mind is buzzing with flashbacks and gory images, and I don’t know how to deal with it. My whole life, I’ve let people walk all over me because I’d rather be hurt than hurt back. It’s just my nature. I’m a nurturer. Not a fighter.
As we follow the Emerald Lake River and descend into the forest line of Hangman’s Valley, Dessin makes Niles, Ruth, and I stay in the middle of the unit, protected, walking carefully in his footsteps as he and Aurick lead us down a specific path.
I take shallow, uneven breaths. I can’t shake the feeling that we’re cattle being led to slaughter. We just have to make it to the shoreline, and Dessin will know what to do. If we can just uncage DaiSzek, he’ll be able to slaughter the soldiers.
But the doom hangs like a sword over my head.
