AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She was only sure she hadn’t fallen off Pearl at any point, but that didn’t mean she’d been lucid. But she hoped she had been since she’d periodically had to reach out to Sky to guide him in their direction. She did so again now. He wasn’t far.
Yellow splotches flashed in front of her eyes, and she swayed.
“Hey now.” His hand came to her thigh.
She let the connection drop. “Sorry. Too tired.”
“We’ll do our best to rest now.” He reached up to help her down, teeth gritted all the way.
Every part of her immediately started to ache, but as she hit the ground, her feet screamed their agony. During the ride, they’d gotten a much-needed rest, but the various cuts had begun to sting and ache, and sliding down onto her now swollen feet made her gasp.
He caught her shoulder, fingers tightening as she groaned. “Are you all right?”
She took an uneasy step and faltered, stifling a whimper. The wide root bed of the fallen tree was caked with earth and reached up taller than she was. “Yes, of course,” she lied. But she didn’t object as he slid his arm around her waist, helping her toward the shelter of the fallen tree.
“Here. Sit. Let me see if I can make some shelter from our cloaks. Or… Hmm.”
She happily removed her cloak and sank to the ground with far less grace than usual. “Do you think they’ll catch up with us?”
He sighed. “I’m not sure. But I don’t think we can keep going.”
She nodded, staring at her feet as he moved away. They and her aching muscles were evidence enough. Her head was starting to ache too. “Chances are good your horse will reach us while we wait here.”
He smiled slightly. “That’d be a boon. Let’s hope he’s alone.”
“Indeed.” She scanned the hillside. They were hardly hidden here, but it’d been like this for miles. Hills, hills, and more hills, but few caves or rock formations to provide more complete shelter—or a place to hide.
“I’m just going to lie down for a minute,” she called, as quietly as she could, easing back onto the bed of soft red grass and evergreen needles behind her. Quite comfortable, actually.
If only she weren’t so hot. Given the season, she should be frost-bitten, not sweaty. But she didn’t even miss her cloak.
She stared at the tree trunk. Waves of yellow fungus grew in one crevice in the bark, brown circles in another. Could they eat them? What would they eat? She had a little food, but she hadn’t planned for two.
Repeatedly stealing food to hide in her pack at the palace hadn’t been sustainable. Most of the food they ate from day to day didn’t last indefinitely, and she hadn’t known exactly when she would run.
Her thigh muscles protested as she stretched out, joining her feet in a chorus of objections. The pain felt a little duller now, the burning heat greater. Still, she drew her feet under her skirt and rolled herself into a ball. Jav had removed his cloak as well and was messing with something in the horse’s saddlebags, but cloaks wouldn’t be enough to really hide them here or ward off the elements. They’d just have to do their best.
They couldn’t light a fire beside the tree without burning their shelter, she supposed. And any smoke would reveal them if their pursuers were looking. Most likely they were. And with all this grass— She knew little about fires, but it seemed a dangerous proposition amid the waves of red grass surrounding them.
She huddled closer to the tree’s cool root wall and closed her eyes. Something felt wrong. Maybe before Alekur caught her, whatever disease was seeping into her wounds would kill her before he had the chance.
And really, as much as she hated the idea of death, she was glad it might happen here, under the open sky and not as Alekur had planned. She hadn’t had such an option yesterday.
And she had Javarin, her knight, her friend, to thank for it. Who knew what tomorrow might bring? If she lived to see it, of course.
It was an impossible hope, but in her fevered state, her brain took a flight of fancy to a world where Jav was healed, the horses were fresh and strong, and the two of them could ride off into the sunset.
No, not the sunset. Sail away on a golden ship, and not into the setting sun. She didn’t need to go west. She needed to go north. To Akaria. To true freedom.
In spite of the pain and the ache and the burn, a strangely soothing warmth swept through her at that thought, her mind’s utter exhaustion overwhelming her.
She collapsed into sleep.
Chapter 15
Sky
Jav spent what seemed like forever making camp—or trying to. In his exhaustion, he kept making mistakes. Either that, or it was the strange haze that’d come over him. He’d ridden long hours before, and he’d once fallen from his horse, landing on his shoulder, and had to ride slow as honey the whole way back in excruciating pain. But neither time had he felt quite like this.
