He only gripped me tighter as he rose from the ground, taking careful, measured strides away from the home that would have become my grave. I tried to open my eyes to see where he was taking me, but I found I didn’t have the strength.
The General walked for a much shorter time than I would have thought possible, though time was an abstract concept to me at the moment. Minutes felt like hours.
I heard theclickof a door opening, and the General climbed two short steps before laying my body on something plush and comfortable.
“With haste,” the General barked before there was an audiblesnick,and the sounds from the street outside were muffled almost completely. Wherever I currently existed was the warmest I’d been in months. Maybe even ever.
In moments, whatever I was lying on began to sway and bump.
A carriage?
I’d seen carriages before, but they were usually the public ones anyone could hire if they had coin. They, like everything else in this part of Vespera, were rickety and old. Nothing like this.
“We’ll be at the Academy soon. Just hold on. Please.” The General’s words were a whispered balm as the carriage swayed and bumped.
Soon, I felt my eyelids grow heavy, even with my eyes closed. A bone-deep weariness settled in my body that I couldn’t shake even if I wanted to.
The warmth surrounding me was all-encompassing as I faded into oblivion.
Chapter 3
Lex
The first thing I noticed when I woke was the complete absence of sound. The contrast to the near-constant noise of, first, the brothel and then the streets, was completely jarring, and I breathed in sharply through my nose, my eyes flying open in tandem.
I hate the quiet.
At first, I thought I was dead. Or, at the very least, in the in-between, waiting for Fate to cut my Thread, because there was no way that any physical place could be this dark. The black was all-encompassing, and I flung my hands out in front of me, trying to make sense of where my body was in space.
Thankfully, as my eyes adjusted, I could see the faint outline of my hands in front of my face. I let them flop back down where they bounced against a plush mattress.
Wait, a mattress?
Eyes still adjusting to the darkness of my surroundings, I ran my hands and fingers against the bed beneath me. It was soft, undeniably so, with a thick blanket draped over my body, pulled halfway up my bare chest. My head rested on a thin pillow.
Apillow!
I’d never even had one of those when I lived with my mother and sisters.
This had to be death.
For in no way could I afford any of these luxuries in life.
At the thought of having to pay for the things around me, my gut sank like a stone.
Leave. I have to leave.
I hastily kicked the covers off with my legs, only to realize my entire body was bare.
Leave. I have to leave.
My breaths came in quick and shallow as I fought the rising panic that was threatening to consume my mind.
If whoever brought me wherever here was found I couldn’t pay, I’d be impressed into some sort of service. Or worse.
I’d heard nightmare stories from the drunks in the tavern about men and women who couldn’t afford payment for medicines or healing treatment and were forced to pay in flesh—sometimes a literal chunk of flesh.
I shuddered at the thought as I groped blindly about the space, frantically searching for something to cover my nakedness. I could leave without clothing, I wasn’t embarrassed of my body even in its emaciated state, but it would undoubtedly help me blend in.
