AllFreeNovel
Share Us
We only had to walk a bit longer to realize he was right. When we saw the stream, I let out a breath of relief. It wasn’t too deep. We could use it to hide our tracks.
“Looks cold,” Brigid said, but she did not pause as we all stepped into the stream.
Once we were all in, we turned west and kept walking with our feet buried in the cold water, ankles deep. The water and the slippery rocks that we had to step on slowed us down as we had to be careful to avoid falling, but the soldiers couldn’t come too close to us as long as I could reach into their minds.
Whenever someone lost their balance, the closest one helped and caught them before falling. It happened to me once, and it was Kieran who managed to grab me by the waist right before I fell. Our gazes met briefly as I felt his warm embrace, and when he released me, Cari chuckled inside my mind.
Maybe you should step on another slippery stone on purpose, she said. Or fall deliberately, and he’ll have to give you his dry clothes to keep you warm. Perhaps you could use the warmth of your bodies to...
Shut it, I barked at her, but my cheeks heated up at once. Luckily, the water was cold, and I could ignore the embarrassment as we kept walking.
“Isn’t it enough?” Brigid broke the silence after a while. “We might get sick if we walk in the stream any longer.”
Dearen turned to me.
I was sleepy and exhausted. If it weren’t for Cari’s help, I would not have been able to reach with my power to check up on what the soldiers were doing. Luckily, she quickly came to my aid.
“They’re going the wrong way,” I said. “There are five of them. They separated into two groups a while back, but neither discovered the spot where we went into the stream. I can send them away further.”
“You do that,” Dearen said. “And then, we might be able to rest.”
Who made him the leader?Cari asked angrily. Giving out orders...
He knows what he’s doing, I told her. And since he is risking his life to help us, we shouldn’t talk behind his back.
I’m not talking behind his back, Cari said, but she stopped complaining. We finally stepped on dry ground.
My feet were wet and that was painful in the cold, but the soldiers kept walking away and I knew it was worth it.
We walked for a long time before finally reaching the village. Dearen had directed us toward it because we needed food, and none of us was in a condition to hunt. As we settled in the woods near the village, Dearen took off, saying he would find us food.
“He’s going to steal it,” Fiona said, mostly to herself.
I looked at her. “So?”
“So?” She seemed offended. “Do you know what everyone would think if they knew?”
“We have more important concerns right now,” I told her. “Who cares what anyone thinks? We need food. We’re in hiding. What do you suggest? Should we go and buy some food from an inn? And then, what? They come to the village and resume tracking us because we were too honorable to let Dearen steal a little bit of food?”
Angry, Cari said, but I could feel her approval.
Fiona seemed shaken and hurt that I’d snapped at her so. I felt guilty about it.
“I just...” She started, but surprising me quite a bit, Kieran put his hand on her shoulder to make her stop.
“We don’t have a choice,” he said. “And Dearen told me once that he never took anything from anyone who needed it.”
“What does that even mean?” Fiona asked, unable to contain herself.
She is a bit judgmental, isn’t she? Cari asked. Aren’t you afraid of what she might think if she knew all the things you did before coming to the trials?
No, I replied to her. I am not ashamed of anything I’ve done to survive. Except...
I did not put it into words. Instead, I showed Cari the monster I’d killed, a day before I’d been taken away by the soldiers to join the trials. I had killed her to protect some humans, and I had done that only because I did not know what monsters were back then. Still, that was the only thing I’d regretted. Cari understood and keep quiet as Kieran went on within the next second.
“It means Dearen only steals from the rich,” Kieran said. “He does not take more than he needs unless he is going to give it to someone else.”
“How do you know that?” Fiona asked.
