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‘Whatever poor cunt was still on the bridge between worlds,’ comes a gruff reply. ‘Breach rupture. Seen it once before. Turns the tunnel into a meat grinder.’
I see the fear in Kallum’s eyes as he raises them to search for the others and the sudden relief that floods them when he sees they’re safe.
‘The orcs behind us,’ I say quietly.
He nods. ‘Better them than us.’
He shifts off me, pulling my sack down over my thighs as he does in an odd gesture to preserve my modesty. He offers his hand, but I ignore it. He might have saved me from being covered in pieces of orc, but we aren’t friends.
He looks amused, though, and I scowl as I stand up and take stock of our surroundings.
The town is small and clustered around the Gate as they often are because it’s easier to keep track of comings and goings that way. A ramshackle guard house overlooks the clearing where the Breach opens, and I see a red-haired pixie with a black coat on that his gossamer wings stick through. He’s scribbling in a book inside his guard house, probably writing our descriptions and the time we came through.
When I first began traveling the Gates, I hadn’t realized you had to pay them not to note you down.
I see Dane pay the pixie, and I can’t help my scowl. Of course, they’d know to do that.
I’m pulled gently forward, and I find Kallum on the other end of the rope. At least he doesn’t wrench it hard like Dane keeps doing. I’m sure I have rope burns on my neck to add to the ever-growing amount of injuries my body is taking this week.
I follow meekly. Let them think I’m too tired and upset by everything to contemplate escape. I wonder if maybe I should encourage Kallum’s attention regardless of where it may lead. He may turn out to be the weak link that I can use to help me. I could find a world where humans aren’t kept as slaves. Maybe find a way back to the Light Realm to the town my parents came from and find some kin. I could settle down and raise a family of my own.
I smile a little when I think about that dream. Even though I know that a dream is all it will ever be because I’m not worthy of it.
‘Lucky we went through when we did,’ Dane remarks, flicking a piece of flesh off his arm. ‘I suggest we find the bathhouse and then the nearest inn before we move on.’
‘When does the next Breach open?’ Grey asks the pixie.
He doesn’t look up from his ledger as he adjusts his glasses. ‘Late morning sometime.’
* * *
I let Dane and Kallum bathe first because I’m not leaving Kal alone with her, but when another bathing room becomes free, I jump at the chance to get the foul stench of orc guts off me. I pay my coins and take the human in with me, ignoring the looks of disdain I get from the balding pixie behind the desk at the front.
There are quite a few pixies in this village, I notice, but it’s a fleeting thought as I disrobe hastily and sink into the hot bath with a groan, keeping hold of the rope attached to the Harbinger. I scrub myself with a rough cloth until I’m pink, divesting myself of the pieces of orc flesh that I can feel coating my skin and drying in my hair. I’m almost afraid I’ll smell like this forever, but I soon calm down when the tang in the air begins to dissipate, and the scented water begins to pervade my nose instead.
When was the last time I relaxed like this? Not since before we were sent to find the Harbinger, I don’t think. With the search and then getting stuck in Alcana teaching lessons on Dark Realm creatures, this is the first time I’ve felt free in more than seven years.
‘I’m watching you,’ I say, dropping the end of the rope without looking at her, but when I open my eyes, she’s exactly where I left her, standing by the bath, except her face is looking everywhere but at me.
I chuckle.
‘Never seen a naked fae before?’ I prod.
She ignores me, and I snort as I reach for the soap again, washing myself for a second time just for good measure.
I still can’t quite believe that we got out of Alcana and through the Gate in time; that luck was on our side. Even a split second later, and we’d be the ones being scrubbed off in the bath.
I regard her while she refuses to look at me.
‘Don’t encourage Kallum’s attention,’ I say, watching for a reaction.
She doesn’t give me one.
‘I won’t,’ she says coldly, her expression not changing.
Feeling a lot more protective of Kallum, especially now that we’re out in the wilds again, I feel an intense need to warn her away from him. I don’t want to see him hurt.
‘Good,’ I say, deciding to scare her a little to make my warning stick. ‘Because if you do, and he takes things further than you want, it’ll be your own fucking fault. And, as our slave, any one of us can do whatever we like to you. The law is on our side. You know that, don’t you? You have no recourse at all, not in any realm.’
