The Resistance didn’t need me. They needed Aria. Nik would know what to do. He’d see her gift now that she herself was aware of it.
My purpose was to save those children. I see that now.
Aria may be the last great piece to an incredibly beautiful puzzle.
We just have to get her there.
* * *
I wasn’t sure if any of us slept that night. I don’t remember sleeping, only opening my eyes at the proper time. Calish and Marsh had already readied the horse and carriage, and Graken, who’d been riding all night, prepared the single horses for Calish and himself.
Strange how the Authority left their horses here to graze while letting their people starve. Bastards.
One by one, we loaded the sleepy children into the wagon. The little ones we carried, but the older kids were able to see to themselves.
I woke up Aria and told her we were going somewhere new, warning her not to touch anyone else while we traveled. She would sit next to Marsh while he drove the wagon. As a safety measure, we put plenty of blankets in a basket between them to make sure the two of them stayed well separated.
Trisk decided to stay behind with Qarla and her son and Sterle and her friends. If the property was abandoned, suspicion of our whereabouts may arise. We still had visitors coming, and word would travel fast that we’d left.
“We’ll give you two days head start.” Trisk smiled. “Then I’ll bring the others there myself.”
I didn’t like the plan at all. “You’re only six extra people.”
“And only five I have to get there safely.” She hugged me. “Get those babies to safety. I’ll meet you at the Valley of the Three Rivers.” She winked.
Marsh’s and her goodbyes lasted a bit longer, but love requires such luxuries. He’d need her arms after his took my life. The touch they shared in their goodbyes would be shrouded in pain when they met again. The delicate caress to the curve of her ear parted her quivering lips. She studied his face as he showered her with words of love and encouragement. His poetry fell around her, letting her body relax in the comfort only he knew how to provide.
The breeze picked up strands of her hair, and it danced with the spirally ends of his beard. They laughed as they tried to part them until Marsh gathered them up in his bear-sized hand. He gently pulled her head back, and a wanting smile swept across her mouth and eyes before he kissed her farewell.
We were on the main road before the sun’s rays lit the darkened sky. I rode with the children in the back of the wagon, and Tenor rode as passenger behind Graken.
“I’d rather a known felon share a horse with me than anyone else I’m charged to protect,” he said.
Tenor didn’t object, although the weight of his history hung heavy on his shoulders. I didn’t care about Graken’s opinions of the boy; I cared about Nik’s. If he turned Tenor away, then so be it, but for the time being, he had my protection as did the children I birthed by branding.
Tenor fought harder than anyone to earn a place with us. I refused to throw him into the Woodsmen’s arms, nor would I let the Authority draft him for their purpose. I would do my best to deliver him to the Resistance. It’s the only choice he hadn’t been offered—the only chance he had to survive. I had to keep him safe, just as I did the rest of the children I’d taken from Kash.
Leaving this early, I hoped we’d make it to the camp sometime after nightfall, but the road was far bumpier than I remembered it, and it slowed us down.
And the list of worries gets longer.
Calish rode his horse at the rear of the wagon which helped me relax slightly. The clip-clop of his horse’s footfalls provided a rhythm to the sway of his hips in the saddle. He held the reins in one hand and rested the other on the hilt of his blade on his belt. The sunrise at his back dulled his features, and the man who was my husband turned into the law that protected us against the world.
I hadn’t noticed the strength of his shoulders or the way his issued uniform hugged them until I saw him as man, not my best friend. The upper half of his body compensated for the horse’s gait until his waist tapered into his legs spread to either side of the beast he rode.
Under the wide-brimmed hat, the chiseled features of his chin swept to the left then to the right as he kept his focus on whatever may be lying along the side of the road.
Never had I seen a man so…majestic.
I squinted in the light as the sun burned bright in the horizon. Shielding my eyes against its intensity, Calish sped up to come closer to the bed of the wagon. My heart nearly burst as his face came into view.
“Everything all right?”
I felt my cheeks flush.
My gods, if love were currency, I’d make him a wealthy man.
“Yeah,” I said, swallowing my urge to tell him all the things any normal person would want to say before they die.
“Don’t worry,” he said confidently. “We’ll be home soon.” He eased up and took his position behind the wagon.
Fighting back my emotion, I watched the edge of the road for movement, but fear and doubt distracted me. Exhausted and utterly useless, I thought of all the plans we had made over the last four seasons and how none of them worked.
What was the point of making them at all?
If one thing didn’t prevent them, something else did.
We never planned to run. We never planned to hide.
Yet, here we are.
Chapter 43
I wasn’t sure how I managed to do it, but I fell asleep in the back of that bumpy wagon full of children. It wasn’t them who woke me up, nor was it the condition of the poor road. What woke me was my overly stretched bladder. I turned and tapped Marsh’s shoulder. “Can we stop for a moment? I need to pee,” I apologized.
“Sure,” he said, pulling on the reins to stop the horse.
Calish rode up alongside. “Why are we stopping?”
“Nature calls,” Marsh announced, thumbing me as the culprit.
The sky stretched above us differently than it had in the days previous. Rather than bright and hot, the gray air thickened with humidity. Clouds had rolled in during my nap, warning us Toridia was almost over.
“Well, as long as we’re stopped, everyone should go,” Calish said, dismounting his horse.
Marsh jumped down from the driver’s seat and helped the children spill out of the wagon’s end. Aria understood why she wouldn’t have any assistance, so she scurried down all by herself. For such a tiny thing, she sure could move fast.
As the children found places to relieve themselves, I grabbed Marsh’s bow and quiver of arrows I wedged behind me before we left the property.
Marsh drew in a lungful of anger and clenched his fists at his sides. “Why are those here?”
I held them out for him. “We need protection, and if I remember correctly, these go farther than spears.”
His voice deepened. “Una—”
“Look, I know things don’t make sense, but you know my visions keep us from harm. Everything I’ve seen is intended for our survival.”
“Shooting you seems to conflict with your theory.” He snatched the arrows from my hand.
“Do you trust me?”
He worked his jaw.
“If there were another way, I would have seen it.”
He squeezed the quiver and sniffed the drip back into his nose.
“If I ask you to do it, then it means I—”
“Can we change the subject, please?” He helped me off the wagon.
“Fine.” I whispered, “How close are we?”
He lowered himself to speak into my ear. “We just passed the innkeeper’s house. It’s just around the bend back there.”
“We’re close?” I smiled, and he nodded. “How long have I been sleeping? What part of the day is it?” I wandered into the woods to find some privacy.
Marsh followed. “It’s hard to say because of the cloud cover, but I’d say somewhere past midday.”
“We’ve cov
ered some ground then,” I complimented him.
“It’s one of the benefits of leaving when one day gives way to the other.”
“You must be exhausted.”
“I’m motivated,” he snickered, “and until now, we’ve not taken any breaks.” He looked into the forest as a breeze passed us from the south. “You smell anything out here?”
“Nothing ahead of us,” I confirmed. “This looks like a good place. Do you mind giving me a moment?”
“Yeah,” he said, pulling an arrow from his stash. “I’ll be over here.” He pushed his way through the bushes so all I saw was the back of his head.
I used a fallen tree to brace myself to squat down. My bladder was so full, I no sooner had my trousers down before my urine released without permission. A breeze hit my face. It felt good in this sticky heat. The funny thing about the end of Toridia was that, in order to get the rain we needed, we were forced to endure the humidity for a moon cycle or so as the sun fought the moisture for control of the air.
This is what Mother warned me about when she said the final days of my pregnancy would be difficult.
As always, she knew best. Waddling around in this heat with another person pushing against all my innards was brutal.
I was cleaning up when Marsh called out, “You good?”
“I’m almost done,” I called back, pulling up my pants.
Wow, that did feel better.
If Calish tried to get me to drink any more, I would have to refuse. I didn’t want to soil myself, and we were so close to the Resistance Camp, I wasn’t about to stop our travels a second time. I had a small cramp in my belly but quickly dismissed it.
Probably a culmination of not drinking today, the ride, and the fact my bladder changed size so dramatically.
I stretched my back and stepped forward, but my foot didn’t touch the soil.
Someone behind me grabbed my hair, jerking my head skyward. “Don’t make a sound,” the voice warned as a long blade slid to the front of my neck.
The cold edge of the steel kissed my skin. He dragged me back toward the road but not outside of the wood.
“What do you want?”
The man behind me did not answer; he shoved me in the direction he wished to go.
His smell is familiar.
It was not Kash or one of his candy-laced men. I’d met so many people recently; was it one of our visitors?
He forced me into a discreet area to watch the last few children climb onto the wagon. Graken, Tenor, and Calish stood with them, waiting for Marsh and I to return.
“You can take me,” I offered quietly. “I will go willingly if you let them pass freely.”
A laugh that would have been a cackle if it were full volume halted. “I don’t care about you, Mother Una. You’re not the only one I’m after.”
Calish grew impatient. “They should be back by now,” his lips read.
“I’ll find them,” Graken offered, tracking cautiously back into the wood.
The man behind me began to speak again. “We are going to be amazing, you and me and them. The gods will provide just as I knew they would.”
“Noran?” I whispered, and he clicked his tongue.
Ahead, Graken searched for Marsh.
“I knew Calish would flee. Reinick vowed to give those children special privilege in the army, but I knew your insidious lover would never submit. I’ve always been a better judge of character than our dear Governor. I’ve been following you, waiting for you to stop.” He tightened the knife to my throat and stepped behind a tree when he saw Marsh draw his bow and arrow.
“You have a gift I need, Una; people love you. However, the gods I serve need love more, and you’re going to help me give it to them.”
We watched the men move through the woods, and Noran pulled me around the trunk to avoid detection.
“Your Grower will feed the people of Ashlund and restore their faith to those whom it belongs.”
Marsh, Calish, and Graken confirmed my absence and took a defensive posture. Noran lifted his hand and blew the dust toward them.
“Wait for her by the wagon,” he whispered.
As if the idea was their own, they retreated to the road.
“I will not go with you,” I warned.
Noran pressed himself behind me, rubbing a bulge against the seat of my pants. “That’s fine, I don’t have to have your help. You’ve proven to cause so much trouble, really.” He let my hair go and put his arm around me just beneath my breasts. His thumb wandered between them.
Peeling his fingers backward, I flung his hand away from its place, but he jerked me back, holding me tighter than before. The blade bit into my neck as he slid his hand down into my top. He cupped my breast as my husband, my brother, and the guard stood patiently at the road. I did not ask him to stop. It wouldn’t have mattered if I had. As his hand devoured my flesh, I came to my senses.
I don’t need to hold his hand to read him. Not when he’s touching me.
Closing my eyes, I prayed, “Please, Great One. Let me see.”
I need to see his future.
“That’s right.” He moaned, pinching my nipple. “I am the great one.”
I tried to relax, but ignoring the threat of the beast behind me taking the children for himself was difficult.
Breathe, Una.
I was scared beyond anything I’d experienced so far. Pushing the thoughts of my children, my family, and my unborn child out of my mind, I centered my concentration on the man behind me.
Breathe.
The world fell away, and when I woke, my eyes were clouded and unfocused as if used for the first time.
In a fog, I saw him holding me in the wood. A single image provided by who? Me? The Great One? My ability?
No matter.
Noran’s outstretched arm extended outward from my side, taunting Marsh, who stood in the trees ahead. My breathing labored, I lowered my eyes to the farla-hawk feathers of his fletching moving with my every breath. I didn’t fall; Noran wouldn’t allow it. His knees had yet to buckle from the flint sliced through his beating heart. Bound together in this life, his ran out, soaking the hair’s breadth between us. The High Priest’s face lost all arrogance in exchange for eyes prepared to see the reaper.
“What went wrong?” he thought because—
My eyes shot open.
—arrows never pierced him before.
He was so sure of himself, the way he fondled my body. First my breasts, then his fumbling hands took liberties with various parts of me. And I let him. With a grin and a plan, I let him wander over my curves and between my crevasses.
He came here alone because he thought himself too clever for assassination. If he thought anything different, he wouldn’t have taken the chance. Noran’s greatest weakness was he’d forgotten how to be afraid—how to protect himself.
In his power, he’d become lazy.
Suddenly the edge of his blade didn’t scare me. “I know what you are.”
“Really?” He breathed heavily, enjoying his reign over my body held hostage.
“I remember the day in your basement.”
His hand hesitated.
“I know you. I know what you are,” I tempted him. “I know the games you like to play.”
“Games? Only children play games,” he growled, digging his fingertips into the arc of my hip.
Go ahead. Get angry. Be confused.
“Oh, but you are.”
His blade scraped up my neck as he pulled my chin higher.
I continued, “You like making people do what you want. It’s not your fault. Because you are a child. A child with a gift too powerful for its owner,” I said innocently. “You kill, or so you think. But you’re so weak you can’t do it yourself. You make others do it for you.” I shrugged within his hold.
“You shut your mouth, or I will.”
“I have an idea.” I watched Marsh standing at the wagon with the children keeping quiet behind them. “Why don�
��t you see if you’re mature enough to use the gift you’ve been given. Let’s see if your ability is refined enough to conquer love.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I know Calish won’t kill me, but what about Marsh? He’s my brother. Do you think he’ll kill me with his kin growing in my belly? Is your power to charm strong enough to conquer his love for me? Or maybe I should ask, are you strong enough? After all, you couldn’t make me kill Kali, could you?” I sighed. “And I didn’t even like her.”
Noran was not amused. The hand on my hip had not wandered since I insulted him and called him inept. There was not a man alive who would not try to disprove such a defamation of character or talent. I knew he wouldn’t be able to dismiss my dare. In the same way he used me to kill Kali, he would use Marsh to kill me just to prove he could.
“And what if he doesn’t?” Noran asked.
“Then I go with you willingly. I know which of the children is the Grower. Either way, you win.”
“What’s in it for you?”
“A solution of curiosity. I want to see if you’re the man you claim to be or just an accidental recipient of the Great One’s award.”
“The Great—” he seethed “—I’m going to enjoy watching you die.”
“Just make sure this knife stays close to my neck, or I may rip yours out myself.”
“Stupid girl. Charmers cannot be killed,” he scoffed. “Call for them.”
My delay made Noran more excited to begin. For me, it was real. The Priest would revel in my death, but it would be a privilege for us both as I intended to drag him with me to the land of nightmares. Scavengers didn’t get an afterlife. Trading my life for his meant he didn’t get one either.
“Marsh!” Saying his name brought tears to my eyes and woe to my heart.
Noran tightened his grip on his blade as Marsh sprinted from the wagon and into the woods. “Call all of them. Your lustful husband and the guard assigned him should witness my power. Too bad they won’t remember it.”
Scavenger Girl: Season of Toridia Page 49
