Hidden Gem (The Travelers Book 1)

by Gaia Octavia

  She kissed my head then, wetting her lips with her own tears. “I want you to wait here while I go get someone. He’s another lost soul who knows this land better than he knows himself. He will help you find Jade.”

  I had questions, but I stayed quiet as she held me one more time before standing, rubbing her pants flat against her thigh in a gesture that reminded me of Jade.

  “Wait here,” she said softly.

  As if I had anywhere else to go.

  ⸙

  I looked up to see a man step carefully inside the tent, making no move to leave the opening to come any closer. I was immediately struck by his size. It’d been a little over half an hour since Ma had left and his appearance could only mean that he was the person she’d sent along to me.

  The man had jet-black hair that looked almost purple in the strip of late-afternoon sunshine that fell across it through the opening in the tent. His eyes were almost as dark, much darker than brown. I could still make out a bit of difference in color where his pupils and irises met though. He had dark, tanned skin that stretched over roped muscles. Wearing a black sleeveless shirt with pants that had a ridiculous number of pockets running down both the side of his legs and the front of his thighs, he looked every bit the part of a mysterious loner.

  By the look of it, his pockets were all filled with different sized objects, as if he’d be able to pull out anything he might ever need in any given situation. I couldn’t help but notice that he was jacked; the man was a walking wet dream. But he wasn’t my type of man, if I had a type.

  He wasn’t Jade.

  “Hello, Emit,” the man said, his voice as rich as velvet, “your mother has told me a lot about you.”

  “How long have you known my family?” I asked, still unsure of his place amongst those I loved and whose lives I had missed out on during the past two years.

  “For almost a year,” he said simply, “I brought a child back to a family that lives on the other side of the settlement. Your Ma heard about my being here, so she came over and just about forced me to come to your family’s tent for evening meal. I don’t know if you know this,” he said, his eyes twinkling, “but your Ma doesn’t take no for an answer.”

  I smiled softly at that.

  “No. She never has. Just ask my dad.”

  The man returned my smile, but it didn’t seem to reach his eyes.

  “Your Ma told me all about you that night and asked me to look for you in our travels and whenever we were working in raider camps.”

  I stiffened at that.

  “You work with those fuckers?”

  Standing, I clenched my fists.

  “I don’t need your fucking help.”

  I was about to force him to leave–giant, muscled man or not–when he raised one hand.

  “We don’t work with the raiders, Emit.”

  But that wasn’t what he’d just said. I opened my mouth to say so and heard myself ask instead, “Who’s we?”

  The man gestured for me to sit. I didn’t. I watched as he crossed to the center of the tent–stooping a bit as he walked in order to avoid brushing his head against the top–and forced myself to remain calm. For some reason, Ma trusted him. And if he could help me find Jade, then I would deal with him for as long as I needed to. The man sat down, crossing his long, thick legs in front of him as he leaned against the center post.

  “The Travelers,” he finally said, as if I had a clue what he meant. “We’re a small group that travels the woods to the north and south, picking up anyone we find that needs our help and getting them somewhere safe. Sometimes that means going into raider camps to free as many children as we can find and getting the hell out before anyone notices.”

  I stood there, looking like a stupid fish; my mouth opening and closing while no sound came out. Then suddenly, I was furious, and I had to stop myself from stalking up to where he sat.

  “But Jade,” I accused, “Jade was in that camp for eight years. Eight years and no one saved him!”

  I was crying again, but I didn’t care. Let him see. Let him think what he wanted. Closing his eyes in what almost looked like pain, the man didn’t respond.

  “Why didn’t you save him?” I moaned, sinking to the ground.

  The man remained silent, waiting for me to finish.

  “Eight years,” I whispered, hanging my head to avoid having to look at him.

  “I’m sorry, Emit. We’ve only been a group for a few years. We must not have found his camp in time. Or at all,” he added.

  He was quiet then, but I heard him mutter hoarsely, almost as if to himself, “There are so many.”

  I felt drained. All I wanted to do was lay down and sleep and not wake up until Jade was back by my side. But without Jade in my arms, without knowing he was safe, how was I ever going to sleep again?

  Instead of apologizing, I asked him, “What’s your name?”

  It took a while before he answered. I was beginning to wonder if he’d even heard me when he finally said, “Eaton.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  ⸙

  JADE

  The sound of crying woke me. For one blessed moment, my mind was blank. Then the memory of the previous day came back, along with the fresh heartache it brought. I’d managed to lie still through the night, which was technically lucky. Not only was the ledge too narrow to have held me if I’d shifted my weight in the wrong direction, but a trail of smoke drifting over the edge meant that someone had lit a fire directly under where I was hidden.

  The crying was quiet, but it sounded as hopeless as I felt. The voice was hoarse and by the desperate gulps accompanying it, it was obvious that the crying had been going on for quite some time. If there was one thing I was well-versed in, it was misery. I had heard–and done–enough sobbing in my lifetime to know the intricacies of its cycles.

  Another voice barked out a string of curses and a yelp followed the sound of a body being kicked. The words that had been spoken sent a chill coursing through my body. I almost cried out, only just managing to slap my hands over my mouth in time to block it.

  I knew that language.

  Though it had been years since I’d heard anyone speak it, I still heard it in my nightmares. It was the rough, grating language of the raiders. By the sound of it, I knew that there were at least three people below me: the crier, the raider who had cursed at him, and another raider, who the first one had been barking orders at as they got their camp packed up and ready to move. I’d never seen the raiders from the camp I lived in go out in pairs. Usually they went in groups of at least four to six. So, if there really were just two raiders, either they came from a smaller camp, or they were on their own.

  A bit of luck, I thought wryly.

  My plan was to wait them out. Once they were out of sight, I could finish my climb, scout my route, and get going. Watching as they walked into view, I saw the back of a large raider first, still grumbling as he led the way. He was followed by a boy, with the smaller of the two raiders bringing up the rear. I cursed at the sight of the boy. He was young. Much younger than I thought he’d be. Younger than I had been when I was taken.

  Even from where I was perched above them, when the boy turned his head, I could see the puff of his face, which had swollen to garish proportion. From injuries caused by the raiders that sandwiched the boy between them, no doubt.

  I found myself starting to climb down the moment they walked out of sight. They hadn’t been covering their tracks, so I knew they’d be easy to follow. I took my time, arguing with myself the entire way down. What was I even doing? The boy was young, yes. And it was horrible what the raiders had done to him, what they were still going to do to him. I knew that better than anyone. But even if I did somehow get him away from them, then what? I couldn’t save every boy. Gods knew there was an endless amount of them that needed saving. But if I saved this one, where would I draw the line? How would I ever stop?

  What I had told Emit hadn’t been a lie. I was a coward. I w
asn’t made of whatever heroes were made of. Saving Em had been just as much for me as it had been for him. I’d watched countless boys suffer during my eight years at that camp, and I hadn't done anything to help them. Not one tiny, damn thing. Not until I’d been inexplicably drawn to that beautiful boy. And even then, I had only saved him. It’s not as if I’d set fire to the camp on my way out or helped any other boy as we made our escape. I’d just taken what I’d wanted.

  Like a raider.

  But I wasn’t the same broken, terrorized boy anymore, was I? I had a choice now that was truly mine to make. I was free. Besides, one look at that boy had answered any question as to what I was going to do. So, the moment my feet touched the ground, I set off in the direction the boy had been led without any hesitation, vowing to save him from that awful fate. Hero or not.

  The raiders’ trail might as well have been painted through the forest. These were not raiders from a large, disciplined camp. Not like the camp I’d been forced to live in. These were fools. I still stayed well enough back, knowing it would only take them doubling back to catch sight of me if I wasn’t careful.

  By dusk, I could smell their fire and knew I was close. Climbing up into a thick tree, I settled onto a wide branch where I had a view of their camp, as well as the immediate surrounding area. While I still wouldn’t exactly be safe from many of the dangers that lived here, being up in a tree was a decidedly better option than being on the forest floor all night with no fire. Not to mention needing to stay out of sight of those raiders.

  Having eaten nothing for the past two days except for a few handfuls of berries I managed to find along the way, my stomach was churning at the smell of the raiders’ cooking meat. Luckily, it’d been hours since my stomach passed its noisy, growly stage. I had drunk my fill of water about an hour further up the stream they’d camped by, which helped, but I knew it was going to be a long night for me without any more.

  I watched as a cornupe landed on the branch of a neighboring tree. Its round, yellow eyes watched me distrustfully as it sat fanning its black and gold plumage. They could be nasty little creatures, I knew, but they were smart, and they were warriors. I respected them. The bird’s thirst for survival rivaled my own, and it wasn’t lost on me how similar my reaction to other people was to its own. When it took flight a moment later, I tracked it until I lost it in the curtained leaves of the trees.

  I reached for my waterskin that wasn’t there and cursed myself for the tenth time for allowing my emotions to cloud my brain so much, that I’d run from Emit without even grabbing my pack. Of all the stupid things I’ve done in my life, this was in the top three. Once I freed this boy and got him to the safety of a settlement, I’d have to find some work to do in exchange for materials to make a few traps. Then it’d just be a matter of trading meat for supplies until I had enough to head out again. I could always work my way onto a ship. Honestly, I didn’t care where I ended up, so long as it was far away from here.

  As I sat watching, the smaller of the two guards sat by the fire, apparently having pulled first watch. Yawning, he glanced around the woods surrounding the camp. The boy was crying again but the smaller raider didn’t curse at him or kick him. He simply ignored him and stretched his legs out in front of him, hooking one ankle over the other.

  I tried not to let my thoughts turn to Emit, but it was a wasted effort. How could I not think of him? This was only the second night in over two years that we’d been apart. I was as aware of his absence as I would be of the absence of my own shadow. I kept catching myself turning to remind him of some joke, seeking out his wide grin. I missed all the tiny things Emit did every day to make my life beautiful, instead of the empty horror it’d been for so long. He’d made me a better person just by being himself and had helped me grow in ways I had never thought possible.

  Gods. I missed him more than I ever imagined I could. I missed him like my lungs missed the air when I was underwater. I missed him like my skin missed the sun when the clouds, thick with rain, hovered for days and days. I missed him like I missed my sister’s giggle, my father’s tight smile, and my mother’s warm embrace. Em was family. He was mine.

  I knew that wasn’t true. Not really. Emit was a gift, but he belonged to the world, and it’d be an unforgivable sin for me to keep him all to myself, knowing damn well I didn’t deserve him. He would understand that one day. When he was happy and loved and free of all the pain I dragged around with me. I was thankful for every moment I’d had with Emit. No amount of time with him would have been enough anyway.

  I sighed and checked the camp again. The boy seemed to have fallen asleep, but the young raider was still sitting where he’d been, legs crossed by the fire. I settled in, busying my mind with thoughts and plans of what to do if I managed to free the boy. Time and again, I found my thoughts drifting to Emit. Wondering what he was doing, what he was thinking, if he was sleeping better without me there to wake him up. I muttered to myself each time I caught myself being distracted. The night crawled by until, at last, the faint glow of morning started to creep through the trees from above.

  I was surprised the larger raider hadn’t come out of the tent to take over watch at any point during the night. The smaller of the two raiders was still sitting by the now-dead fire, ankles crossed and arms in his lap. How could he be expected to hike today after being up all night? By the dim light that was now visible, I noticed that the raider’s mouth hung open and that his chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm.

  I cursed myself for being so distracted throughout the night, I hadn’t taken note of the raider’s uninterrupted stillness. How had I missed the fact that I hadn’t seen the younger raider walk the perimeter of the camp even once throughout the night? Of course, I already knew the answer to that.

  Between thoughts of Emit and my stupid assumption that the smaller raider was outside to keep watch of the prisoner, I let the entire night go by when it’d been the perfect opportunity to get the boy out of there. It seemed the smaller raider had just gone to sleep last night, and that the larger of the two was the only one who slept in the tent. If I hadn’t been so preoccupied with thoughts of Emit, I would have noticed it a lot sooner. Even in the darkness of the night. I would have been miles away with the boy by now.

  As it was, I had a decision to make, and very little time to make it in. Did I try to get the boy now while the raiders still slept? It was risky as hell, but it beat another day of shadowing them on an empty stomach. Besides, I had no idea how far they were going. If they reached a camp today, there was no way I was going to be able to save that boy before something horrible happened to him. The thought occurred to me that maybe something already had, but I pushed it away. Raiders liked their boys young and moldable, but they usually preferred them less…beaten.

  The man had been quite the exception.

  Dropping to the ground and squatting as I landed to absorb the impact, I didn’t make any more noise than a small, falling branch might. I skirted around the camp. This was going to be the second biggest gamble of my life, but still less risky than waiting another day. I could still get a good enough head start and was confident I could hide our tracks from these idiots. Besides, they might take turns and the bigger raider could be on watch tomorrow night. By the look of it, I didn’t think that was the case. But I didn’t want to be around to find out.

  Easily creeping up without making any noticeable sounds–not ones that didn’t sound natural, anyway, I carefully placed my hand over the boy’s mouth and put my finger to my lips. His eyes flew open, but he didn’t try to scramble away. Which was good. I immediately stressed my finger on my lips, and he nodded his head. I let go of his mouth.

  “Don’t talk,” I whispered, “I’m getting you out of here.”

  I’d originally planned to heft him up onto my shoulder and worry about his restraints later, but as my eyes trailed down his legs, I swallowed a curse. They’d tethered his ankle restraints to a tree three feet to the right of where he lay. I re
ached for my small folding knife. Luckily, I always kept it in my boot, so it’d been impossible to forget when I’d left Emit.

  Gods. I’d left Emit.

  How strange, how alien that fact sounded.

  I shook my head once to clear it, shuffling to the right and slipping my knife under the rope that bound the boy to the tree. As I cut, I felt the boy startle. I moved to place a hand on his leg to comfort him, so he wouldn’t make a noise. Before my hand even reached his leg, I heard a loud crack and the sky went bright white before everything plunged into darkness.

  ⸙

  When I woke up, my head felt like it was underwater, and it was hard to make sense of the noises around me. The light made me nauseous, stabbing my brain like a blade of fire. I kept my eyes closed, struggling to focus on the noises that seemed garbled and tinny. I could hear the boy crying again and remembered that I had been in the process of freeing him when everything had gone dark. The smaller raider must have woken up and struck me while I’d been too busy to notice him. I had gotten the poor boy’s hopes up, but I had failed him.

  Rough hands grabbed me, forcing me up to my knees. I willed my eyes open, ignoring the immediate headache that threatened to set me vomiting, and tried to focus on the man before me. It was the larger of the two raiders. The smaller one was sitting off to the left by the boy, looking a bit stricken. My muddled brain started to wonder why, but the larger raider shook me violently.

  “Think you steal my boy?” The man snarled in the thick accent of his language.

  I remained silent. It was better if he thought that I didn’t understand him. Maybe he would slip up while talking to his partner and I’d be able to figure out another plan of escape before long.

  “You pretty, boy. Prettier than that one,” he gestured, though whether it was toward the boy or the younger raider, I didn’t know.