Are they really any different from Dark Realm masters?
The hypocrisy disgusts me.
I’m going to keep Bryn safe, I vow. I don’t care what I have to do to ensure it.
‘Of course,’ I chuckle, as if I’m not thinking these dark thoughts. ‘Why not? Come, if you wish.’
But I don’t wait for them to decide. I lead Bryn outside of the Library’s walls and into the streets where there are already colorful banners and garlands of dried flowers decorating the main squares of the city. Her eyes hold a wonder that makes me giddy with excitement despite seeing many of these festivals while I travelled the Light and the Dark, and I don’t regret the prospect of living tonight as if the next day isn’t going to come.
She stops to look at everything, touching and smelling. I buy her whatever takes her fancy, from a roasted leg of turkey and a spiced bun, followed by a flavored ice to eat as we walk. If she lingers over ribbons, I get them. If she looks too long at a necklace, I have it wrapped for her.
When we come upon a large square where music is playing and people dance in the street, she turns to me in excitement and joins them, finally seeming to understand that she’s truly free.
I love it.
I loveher.
CHAPTER 11
BRYN
It's late, and I think this has been one of the longest days of my life, but I'm not tired despite what Gwen said about resting after my brush with death. The however many potions she poured down my throat have invigorated me. I don't want to sleep. I want to explore this wondrous place.
And it is wondrous.
It's a bit like Merediea, but everyone here is free. There are no humans in shackles, no females being whipped in the street or in the block to be used by the males. Some do appear poorer than others, but Jak told me that, like in the village, everyone here is given enough food.
With the festival starting tomorrow, there's an air of excitement, a frivolity that I've never experienced before. Everyone is excited and anticipating the morrow.
I try to share in it, of course, but my stomach twists when I think about the next day, when Fiana's agents will come, and I have to ensure that I'm captured by them.
Now that we’re here, I’m regretting the deal I made, though I know it was necessary. I don't want to go back to the Dark Realms, terrified that I won’t make it back to the Light.
But I’m trying not to dwell on the future. Here and now, there are chairs and tables out in the streets. The pubs and taverns swell with so many free folk that I don't know what to think of this place, but I'm in awe.
Jak is at my side, carrying bags of trinkets that he's bought for me. Everything I've even looked at for more than a moment, he's had packaged for me to take away, and all of the people here are so friendly to us. Though, I suppose if Jak didn't look like a human, perhaps they wouldn't be quite so pleasant.
We sit down at a table in a smaller street off the main thoroughfare, and Jak orders us some plates of meat and fire-cooked vegetables. There are fruits and nuts, delicious sauces to dip the morsels into using little pincer-like tools.
As I sit, basking in what might well be my last night in the Light Realm, a looming figure casts a familiar shadow over us from the many lamps that line the streets keeping everything bright despite the late hour.
Morgan pulls up a chair, sits next to me without a word, and begins to pick at the meat in the middle of the table.
'Where's Locke?' Jak asks, his tone growing cold.
Morgan merely grunts.
'We're sorry, Bryn,' Morgan says quietly. 'We had no idea that he would take advantage of you when the need was upon you. We should have been there, not him.'
It takes me a moment to understand what he’s speaking of.
Oh, Gwen’s house...
‘That isn’t how it was.’ I purse my lips.
They share a look.
‘Then tell us how it was, little human.’
