Page 130 of Gate of Chaos


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We’dleft him behind.

The tethers stretched and pulled.

We’d abandoned him.

We’d left him.

I started screaming.

Thirty-Eight

Idon’t remember how long I screamed. Then I don’t remember how long I sobbed. That time didn’t matter.

What mattered was Akoni was on the other side of the Gate, in the grip of those trash-beasts, and my entire soulachedthat he was so far away.

Auryn left me in Keon’s care so he could go clean up the cavern and preserve samples of the trash-beast. Keon snapped at him while I huddled against Keon, sobbing, thatIneeded him, but it was okay, because I wanted those trash-beasts, and I wanted Auryn to analyze the shit out of them.

Keon and I huddled together in human form in the hot, barren fields of North beyond the cavern.

The soldiers formed orderly, if shaken, groups, and eventually whispered amongst themselves.

Sorren stood off to the side, back to all of us.

The not-hole in my head danced like a blind spot in my mental vision. I ignored it. It didn’t exist, so I didn’t care. What had that thing done to me? And my magic ached, and I wasnotokay. Those trash-beasts had walloped me in a way that, if I had been a little more sane, would have scared me.

“Keon.” I stroked his cheek. He looked terrible. He’d been weeping too, and his eyes were red and glossy. It looked like pieces of his soul had been sucked out.

“I’m sorry, Helena. I’m sorry I didn’t… stop them. Do anything.” He stopped talking. The self-hatred I’d seen far too long stained his blue gaze.

“No, no,no.” The memory of him in human form just outside the Gate hit me. “No, no, it’s not your fault!”

“I’m sorry.” He coughed a few times and when he breezed in, there was a terrible rattle in his lungs, and he descended into a coughing spasm for a few minutes.

“It’s no one’s fault,” I whispered. “And we have to go back. We can’t leave him there.”

He shook his head in agreement.

Ifanyother Wyrm had been with us, they’d have saidback to West, forget this.

But we had Sorren.

I stood up, fists clenched. “Sorren.”

The Wyrm twisted at the hip to look at me. “Helena.”

“We have to go after him,” I said.

“We can’t pursue him with this group, and not with you and Keon injured,” Sorren said, eyes fiery, but the tension in his arms and the veins that stood out all over his torso and shoulders said he was ready to go back through the Gate.

I clenched and unclenched my fingers. Keon stood and nodded towards the cavern. Auryn emerged from the tunnel carrying a makeshift shack of canvas containing various lumpy, soggy bits. He coughed and told Sorren, “We left behind all our samples and notes. It’s not far from the complex. We need to go get it.”

“You presume to open the Gateagainto retrieve items?” Sorren said. “It exhausts Helena. I want my son, but… I have a duty.”

“He’sourconsort,” I said. “I can manage the Gate with Auryn’s help. We have to go after him.”

Sorren strode over to us, his fingers curled into fists that emitted faint tendrils of smoke. “Wewillrescue him, Helena. But my soldiers told me what they saw. You are not fit for any fight, and Auryn is battered as well. We need to get other dragons. My son is still alive, is he not?”

“He is.”

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