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I wasn’t myself when I said that.
I swallowed hard at the memory of his words.
If that wasn’t you, then who the hell was it?
Who was the man who’d bared himself – his heart, his twisting soul – to me? Who was the man who’d let me see his fear and begged me not to run? Who was the man who made me feel like I’d maybe even begun to care, no,morethan care, to –
“Oh!”
I fell hard on my ass. A strong set of hands hauled me upright.
Human hands. It was Valeria.
“You alright? I was just coming to check on you,” she said.
“Thanks. Yeah. I’m OK. Sorry for nearly knocking you over,” I said, rubbing at my sore tailbone and wincing.
“It’s all good. This guy kept me upright and broke my fall. Though I’m pretty sure he’s harder than the ground.”
Only then did I notice Grim behind her. And realize I’d made it all the way out into the tunnel.
“How’s our least favourite Deep Sky Gahn?” Valeria asked. “Although, Gahn Thaleo’s kind of on my shit list now, too. So, I guess they’re even.”
“He’s fine. Annoyingly fine, if you ask me,” I answered, crossing my arms as we began to walk back to the new guest caves we’d been assigned.
“That’s good to hear. I want to leave tomorrow, but I don’t want to leave him here alone if he’s not well enough to travel back to his territory.”
“We’re leaving? Tomorrow?” I stopped walking, staring at her. She stopped, too, as did Grim.
“Yeah. We had a long talk with Gahn Thaleo while you were gone. Made our expectations clearer for him. It was a tense conversation, to say the least, but he’s agreed to everything. Namely, he’s agreed not to cause situations that could get someone killed without at least informing us first. Anyway, I think we’d all do well with a break from each other.”
“Gahn Errok’s gonna love that,” I said rolling my eyes. “He just told me he wants to take me back to his territory tomorrow.” I almost wanted to stay here in Gahn Thaleo’s mountain just to spite him. But I agreed with Valeria. It would be good to have some space from Gahn Thaleo right now.
“Shit, probably should have expected that,” Valeria said with a sigh. “I’m sure if we refuse to go to his mountains now after visiting his enemy’s, it’s going to be an insult so deep even his ancestors will feel it. At least, that’s probably what he’ll tell us.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle. She was dead on. That was exactly the sort of thing Gahn Errok would say.
“I leave it totally up to you,” Valeria said. “If you say no, then we don’t go with him. Ultimately, we will have to go there sometime to set up some equipment and get the lay of the land and everything. Plus, I know we’d all like to see Priya. But it doesn’t have to be tomorrow. And, no matter what Gahn Errok says, you don’t have to come if you don’t want to when we eventually do go.”
“Can you ask me again tomorrow?” I said weakly, closing my eyes and rubbing my temples. I was starting to get a wicked headache.
“Of course,” she said, laying a hand on my shoulder and squeezing gently. “For now, let’s just get some rest.”
