The wolf crouched, and I closed my eyes. This was it. I steeled myself for the pain.
And nearly pissed myself when a loud crack echoed in the clearing.
My eyes flew open and I smelled the acrid remnants of gunpowder. The wolf was gone, no doubt scared off by the sound. My gaze landed on the princeling, holding the flare gun and looking about as shocked as I felt.
I tore my eyes away from him and stared at the spot where the wolf had been, my heart still beating out of my chest. I was aware of the princeling walking over to me, but I didn't want him to be a party to my reacquaintance with my own mortality.
He didn't seem to get the message, standing too close to me and then bending down to get a better look at me. He stood back up and looked at his flare gun as he reloaded it nonchalantly.
"Only got one left."
"That's it?" I snapped, expecting him to say something else, although I wasn't sure why I expected it or what I needed him to say.
He blinked in confusion. "What's it?"
"You saved my life," I blurted. "Twice..." I looked up at the sky in shock. "Why?"
"I have no idea." He shrugged. "Maybe I'm just a decent human being. And maybe I don't want to be stuck here on this island by myself."
I swallowed.
"C'mon," he approached me and offered his hand. "We need to stay close to camp. I can carry you back."
But I wouldn't move, I just kept staring at him.
"Theo?"
"You've saved my life twice now," I said, looking up at him. "And I hate being in Kylaen debt. So I...we need to make it even. Or at least...more even..."
"Wow," he said with a barking laugh. "Well, then, I guess you'll have to tell me some deep, dark Rave state secret."
He was clearly being sarcastic, but I didn't care. I needed to level things out now. Raven tradition dictated it; soldiers always wanted to be niec, or square.
After a moment, I replied with the only state secret I knew: "Theophilia."
"What?"
"My full name is Theophilia Kallistrate."
"Theophilia Kallistrate, hm?" he rumbled, rubbing his chin. "So I save your life twice and you tell me your real name?" He paused. "Seems fair."
I folded my arms across my chest. "Well, if the opportunity presents itself for me to save your life," I allowed myself to smile at him, "I shall return the favor."
"How about you start with letting me carry you back to camp?"
SIX
Galian
We walked back to camp with the tension eased between us. She no longer seemed to hate every fiber of my being, even going so far as to apologize for the way she'd reacted. I wasn't quite sure why she had become so overly emotional about her plane, but I did know she'd tell me if she wanted to.
We spent the rest of the day in the campsite, and I was starting to get antsy. It had been nearly twenty-four hours since we'd crashed and besides that one plane, no one had come for us. Our water was running low, so Theo'd sent me back to the wreckage of my ship to retrieve some metal pieces that she could use to make a double boiler. I returned with three pieces—two large curved metal facing from my wing, a smaller one that could fit inside.
Theo directed me to place one of the pieces over the fire, then to return to the ocean and fill one of our now-empty water bottles with seawater. When I returned, she'd placed one of the larger pieces over the fire, and settled the smaller piece in the center.
"I need two large sticks," she said, taking the water from me.
I left and picked out two sturdy branches nearby. When I returned, she'd emptied the sea water into the bottom of the larger curved metal piece.
"Cut those in half," she ordered. "Then stick them in the ground here."
I did as she asked and helped her place the larger piece on top of the sticks, suspending the third curved piece on top. We waited for a moment, holding our breath, but the structure held.
"Go back and get more," she said, thrusting the plastic bottle at me again. I held in my comment about asking nicely and retrieved more water. She sent me on this errand five more times before she was satisfied.
"So what is this thing?" I asked.
"The water boils on the bottom piece," she said, pointing to the sizable water that had begun to steam. "The top piece collects the condensation. It drips into the bowl. Clean water."
"Wow," I said, sitting back. "I never would've thought of that. Did they teach you that in flight school?"
She clenched her jaw, either deep in thought or ignoring me, so we sat and watched the sea water bubble and steam for a while. The water was slow to boil, slow to condense on the top layer, and even slower to drip. This process was going to take a long time. I was already thirsty.
"Princeling."
"What?"
"You saw that wolf, right?"
"The one about to eat you? Sure."
She half-cracked a smile. "How did a wolf get on this island?"
I opened my mouth then closed it. "That's a good question. Wolves don't just appear on islands hundreds of miles from the mainland. They can't swim that far."
"Right before it showed up, I thought I saw a rabbit, too," she said.
"A rabbit?" I laughed. "Furry tail?"
"If I didn't imagine that wolf, I didn't imagine the rabbit either." She chewed on her lip. "So the question is how?"
"Does it matter?" I asked.
"It matters if one rabbit happened to appear on this island, or a whole population. Do you want to eat tomorrow?" She nodded to the open box of supplies, and I tried not to think about how low it was. "That'll be a lot easier if there's ample meat roaming around here."
Tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day—Theo's concern was for a much longer term than I'd considered. She seemed to think that we would be there for a while, and for whatever reason, the implications of that finally sank in.
The remains of my ship were visible on the beach, and anyone truly looking for me would have seen it. If they'd noticed it, they would have already sent soldiers to come get me. They had no idea Theo was there, with her knowledge of how to construct a double boiler to capture drinking water or else we'd be dead from dehydration before we could starve. God forbid she suffer from infection from her wound and die. Then I'd really be in trouble. I had no idea how to hunt or to catch food. I didn't know which plants were poisonous and which were safe. I'd gotten lucky with that wolf earlier, what would happen when the entire pack showed up?
All of which served to point out, very clearly, what my father had been trying to tell me for years: I was completely and totally useless.
What use were all the skills learned at the Royal Kylaen Academy on this island? I couldn't even take care of myself. Sure I could wrap a tourniquet and administer antibiotics. I could even assist in surgery should the situation call for it. I could get a plane in the air and get it back on the ground.
But, as His Highness said, that was worthless when it came to battle. I was there to kill people, not save them.
I would never forget him after Digory's death. My mother had been inconsolable for days. Although she hadn't had as close a bond with him as with me, he was still her son. But my father was nearly over the moon with pride that his son had died in his war. Digory wasn't even cold in the ground before he began suggesting I do the same.
Now there I was, marooned on an island in the northern Madion Sea, and he probably figured if I wasn't dead already, I would be soon. That meant he could plaster my face on the screens in every home in Kylae. He could re-galvanize our troops to take revenge against Rave. He'd use my death as reason to continue the bloodshed.
Which meant no one was coming for me.
And I suddenly became scared.
Theo
When I awoke, the princeling was nowhere to be found, but he had left the flare gun at my fingertips. Still, after our encounter with the wolves, it was odd for him to venture far away from camp. He had been quiet last night; there was something different about him I couldn't figure
out.
I tried to get up, but my leg was stiff and painful. I rubbed the sore spot gingerly. The nub of broken bone beneath the skin had formed a knot under the cotton of the princeling's uniform. My injury would certainly put a damper on our survival chances, but with the princeling completely healthy, I could rely on him to do most of the manual labor.
A noise in the brush interrupted my thoughts and I nearly fired the flare gun, until I saw it was simply the princeling returning from the beach. Pale-faced and peaky from the wind, he wore a grim expression. Without a word to me, he walked over to the box of supplies we had been slowly eating through. I knew what he was going to say before he said it.
"We're out of food."
I nodded, rubbing my hands in front of the small fire to warm up.
"We're going to die here, aren't we?" he whispered weakly.
The sudden lack of food seemed to have panicked him. Can't say I blame him; if I'd grown up in a castle with glittering buffets every night, I would be concerned after the first day of without food as well.
"You don't think they're coming for you?" I asked, instead of answering his question. "You're a prince of Kylae."
It was his turn not to answer my question, as his face turned upwards toward the sky. There was obviously something he didn't want me to know, but it was etched all over his face. He thought the plane yesterday was a fluke. For some reason, he felt the Kylaen forces weren't searching for him.
As well as that boded for my survival chances, it wasn't good news for our non-existent supplies.
"Then I suppose we should start setting some traps," I said, cutting the silence between us.
"Traps?"
"For food."
"O...okay." He nodded dumbly but didn't move.
"We need to search for better shelter," I said. "Which means I'll have to stay here and set traps while you—"
"I won't even know what to look for, Theo."
It was clear how far he'd sunk into despair. I needed him to be lucid, as eager to live as I was. With a grimace, I forced myself into Captain Kallistrate. He was just another of my lieutenants, green and scared.
"We have everything we need," I said. "We just need to think rationally—find shelter, trap some food."
"What's the point?"
"Galian." It was the first time I had ever used his name, and it got his attention. "I know it looks bleak, but I've been through bleaker situations, and I'm still here. You and I wouldn't have survived the crash just to die here, all right? I don't think God has such a sick sense of humor."
He swallowed and looked at the ground, regaining some of his color. "I didn't take you for a spiritual person, Theo."
"I..." I looked away. "I have to believe that there's something out there that's in control here. Because why would we survive a crash and," I chuckled, "survive each other just to die here? It doesn't make sense."
"Do you really believe that?"
"I believe that right now we can't focus on what might or might not happen. These are the facts of the situation—we need to eat and we need shelter. Once we get those two things figured out...then we can think about the rest of it."
The smallest of laughs rumbled in his chest. "So which do you want to do first, Captain?"
My stomach growled, answering his question.
Galian
Theo continued to impress me. Her pep talk about God had made it clear she was used to commanding troops. Most impressive was the rudimentary trap that she had concocted. She had me dig a hole in the ground with my hands then cover it with sticks and leaves. I doubted it would work. An hour later, I was even more doubtful, and starting to get cranky from low blood sugar.
"I think we need to consider another option."
"Ssh," she whispered, gaze pinned on the forest.
Then, as if from a dream, a rabbit appeared in the woods, just as Theo had said. We had left a few empty wrappers of my food rations on top of the trap as a lure, and the rabbit seemed curious enough to take the bait. I heard Theo hold her breath beside me, and I kept mine as well, waiting as it inched closer and closer and...
"Get it!" Theo bellowed at me as soon as the white tail disappeared through the hole.
I sprang to my feet in an instant and ran over. It struggled in the trap, hopping and jumping, and I picked it up gingerly. It was so cute and fluffy that I suddenly forgot my hunger.
"Bring it here," Theo said.
"I...No."
She looked at me like I had two heads. "And why not?"
"We can't, Theo, it's so cute—"
"And what do you think pork looks like?" she deadpanned. "Would you like to eat or would you like to starve to death?" She took a long breath. "I promise you, where there's one, there's probably a thousand more that look just like him. If we're lucky."
I swallowed and brought the struggling creature over to her. She took it from my hand and, before I could look away, snapped its poor little neck with a sickening crack.
"God, Theo!" I hissed at the limp body now hanging by its ears. "Give me some warning next time, will you?"
"It didn't feel anything," she said as if she were talking about a stuffed animal. "Let's get back to camp so we can have some breakfast."
I took the still-warm rabbit from her with a grimace, but Theo ignored it as she climbed onto my back so I could carry her to camp. It was the quickest way, we'd figured, to travel around the island. Although it was a little unnerving having her hands, which had so easily snapped the neck of the rabbit hanging so near my own.
Back at camp, Theo slid off my back with the rabbit in hand. She hobbled over to the pile of supplies and produced a knife. And without warning (again), she sliced into the rabbit.
"Ugh, Theo." I winced. "Warning."
"Aren't you a doctor?" she asked me, ignoring the blood that splattered on her face.
She cut the meat as if she knew what she was doing. I couldn't help remembering some of the Raven horror stories Dig used to tell me as a child. He said the Raven military sliced up their prisoners and ate them because they didn't have enough food over there. I knew it was bullshit, but something about the way she expertly moved the knife was disconcerting, especially after she'd killed it so carelessly.
"Where did you learn to do that?" I asked.
"Killing Kylaen soldiers."
"Oh God." I looked away, suddenly sick.
"I'm kidding," she said with the smallest of laughs. "There was a butcher shop down the road from the orphanage, and some of the kids were sent to work there since..." She must have realized she'd said something too revealing about Rave, because she trailed off and worked with more vigor.
"So how long did you work for the butcher?" I asked.
"Until I was conscripted."
I almost didn't want to know the answer, but I asked, "And how old were you then?"
Another hard slice as she hit bone. "Twelve."
I blew out between my lips. Rave and their stupid conscription. I eyed her, trying to place her age. She acted much older than I did, but looked less than twenty.
"I'm nineteen now," she answered my unasked question.
"Seven years in the Raven military," I observed.
"You don't make captain unless you're brought in that way or you've put in your time," she said proudly. "I was promoted last year."
"Why's it so hard?" I asked. In Kylae, our soldiers were promoted from lieutenant to captain without much fuss or difficulty. I was a captain, if memory served, but I'd started as a lieutenant last year.
Her face had turned stony again, as she considered whether or not to answer me. "Because most of us don't survive that long."
The weight of her statement sucked the air from my chest. Theo suddenly made sense to me. She'd never known anything other than a soldier's life. Surviving marooned on a deserted island was nothing compared to what she had gone through before. She hadn't simply been waxing poetic when she spoke about God's purpose—it was the basis for her survival. She had no con
trol over her own life, so she placed it in someone else's hands, and hoped for the best.
She'd stuck the pieces of meat on some sticks and placed them over the fire. Now that the gruesome part was over, I joined her next to the fire to help her cook the incredibly small amount of meat. She finished skewering the pieces. By my estimation, it would be less than half of what I normally ate. But it would have to do for now, since we had no other options.
"How long until it's done, do you think?"
The corners of her mouth twisted, and I knew a princeling-barb was on its way. "Never cooked a meal in your life, have you?"
"Well, you know, I normally have the servants roast my meat over the fire when I'm marooned on an island."
She cracked a smile, and I was pleased to see she no longer took me seriously. "Not that long, since it's not much meat. But it'll last us for the morning, at least. And then we can catch more."
I winced. "Poor bunnies."
"You seem to have a weak stomach for a doctor."
"You killed an animal right in front of me," I said. "I normally try not to kill patients."
"Have you?"
I swallowed. "I didn't get to spend much time in my residency, but...one patient died on my watch when I was interning. But he was a hundred years old and died with his whole family around him, so it wasn't like snapping the neck of an innocent bunny."
"You have to get over that," she replied. "Out here, it's kill or starve."
I nodded in agreement, but I didn't much like the concept.
We fell into an uneasy silence, watching the meat brown on the sticks in hungry anticipation. I was nearly drooling by the time she pulled the sticks off the fire. But it was a bite, gone in a matter of seconds. And I was hungrier than when we'd started.
"We'll find more," she said, tossing the used sticks into the fire. "But don't expect to be full any time soon."
"I need to lose a few pounds." I tried to force a laugh, but it came out half-hearted.
"Still." She sounded contemplative. "How do you suppose a rabbit and a wolf got on this island?"
The Complete Madion War Trilogy Page 6
