AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER SIX
I’m rigid, my body locked in fear as I sit in the bottom of the boat. I didn’t think I could be more scared than I was when Dane brought me to the water’s edge, and I saw the skiff bobbing in the brackish water.
My pain, dulled a bit thanks to the two sachets of pain powder, is forgotten in the wake of this terror.
I never go near the river. Not ever. The water looks the same. It even smells the same as …
Stop!
My breathing is fast, and I tear my eyes away from the boat itself, tipping my head back and finding Kallum watching me.
If they know how scared I am of the river, they’ll use it against me. It’s not a question of if but when.
And the when will be when it’s most advantageous to them.
I try to calm down, but the boat rolls to the side as Dane casts off and begins to move with a life of its own. I realize dimly that he’s conjured it to go through the water without oars, and I have to stifle my cry, curling into a ball at Kallum’s feet.
It’s pathetic. I can almost hear his jeers when he realizes.
But when I look up at him, the expression on his face confuses me more than whatever it was that he was doing before when he looked so concerned as he tied my wrists and earlier than that when he had me by the throat.
I’m taken back to that moment. It didn’t feel like when Yeith’s hand was around my neck or the jailors, and I didn’t know what to think. I still don’t, but at least thoughts of it are diverting my attention from the water.
The boat rocks, and I shut my eyes. A sob is ripped out of me, and I feel the cloth of Kallum’s cloak drape over my bare arm. A second later, under it, so the others can’t see, he reaches down and his hand brushes against mine. My eyes fly to his, but he gives no indication that he even knows he’s touching me.
His fingers graze me, though, and then his hand folds into mine.
I can’t trust him. I know I can’t, especially after today. But the boat rocks again, and I grip it tightly before I even know I am.
He stares out into the darkness ahead of us, and it looks like he’s ignoring me completely, but his hand stays where it is, and I don’t let it go. It comforts me even though I know he’d throw me from the boat without a second thought and probably laugh as I drowned.
I feel his boot against the outside of my bare leg, urging me a little closer to him, and I don’t even pretend to hesitate. If that’s the price of his solace, then so be it.
He doesn’t look down at me, but I see a small smile on his lips as I shuffle toward him.
My body’s tremors quiet a bit, and I focus on what’s ahead as well, though it’s too dark to see much because it looks like most of the lamps that line the streets aren’t lit tonight.
Grey seems to notice this at the same time as I do because he reaches a hand up to the bow of the small boat and unhooks the lamp that’s burning brightly there. He drops it into the dark water, plunging us into complete darkness.
‘What are you doing?’ Dane hisses. ‘We can’t see a fucking thing!’
‘Can’t you?’ Grey points in front of the boat. ‘That way. It’s easier to see without the glinting of the light.’
‘Fine,’ Dane mutters.
I don’t know if it’s better or worse not to see the water, so I tuck myself further down into the boat and try not to hear the sounds of it lapping against the shore. As we near the heart of Alcana, the clang of steel on steel gets louder, and the smoke hanging in the air gets thicker.
‘We were right to stay off the streets,’ Dane says low. ‘The fighting is widespread.’
A loud scream echoes through the stone buildings, and we begin to hear the weak groans of the injured as we round a bend that takes us under a small bridge.
‘We’ll be seen,’ Grey murmurs.
In the glow from the fires, I see Dane cast another spell. ‘Keep quiet,’ he breathes as we near a group in the middle of a skirmish. ‘So long as no one looks directly at us, we won’t be noticed.’
We float silently past the battle, watching as those who have lived side by side here turn on each other. I shake my head at myself. The violence and the blood barely even register, but a river frightens me. I’m so broken.
We get through the center, where most of the fighting is happening, without issue, and then we reach a sharp bend. Dane waves a hand, and the boat slows.
