“We’re all looking for something, that’s what brings us together.” Logan reassured her.
Bekka touched him lightly on the arm but said nothing. Logan knew how she felt and it warmed him. Bailynn, once a magically controlled assassin used by the elves, let a partial smile show on her face. Logan saw it and felt his own mood darken. She’d been taken from her parents too young and twisted into a weapon. She was free now, but she deserved to know more than the hard work and violence that she’d endured.
“Hurry, the sun will be down soon,” Logan urged. “We’ve enough wood for the night. If it’s as bad as I fear, I don’t expect any of us will sleep much.”
Bekka reached into Logan’s pack and pulled out a long coil of rope. Logan nodded when she looked at him. “It’s special, crafted by the Elders.”
“You had your choice of anything and you had them make you a rope to bind yourself with?” Bailynn blurted out.
He smirked at her question. She was right, it did seem ridiculous. “They offered me a magical one that would confine me on command. I was afraid I might let myself out.”
Bekka nodded. “You’re a strange and wonderful man.”
Logan felt his cheeks warm. “Thanks,” he mumbled before turning to a rigid tree he’d specially picked when he’d chosen the campsite. He stood facing it and then sat down, wrapping both arms and legs around it. “Hurry please.”
“I’m better with knots,” Bailynn offered. Bailynn had been a deckhand on the Voidhawk while Bekka was the helmsman.
Logan waited, feeling sweat break out on his brow as the shadows lengthened. Bailynn wrapped the rope around him time and again, adjusting tightness and placement at his suggestion. When he found even taking a deep breath was difficult, Logan was certain she’d bound him well. Now all that remained was for the final rays of the sun to dip below the mountains to the east and the smaller moon to rise.
He’d felt alive and full of energy since arriving on Kelios, but it was an energy he knew and feared. Now it was growing inside of him, making it hard to stay still. He focused his breathing and shut his eyes, resting his forehead against the smooth bark of the tree in front of him. Behind closed eyes he imagined a speck of light surrounded by a field of darkness. All he had to do was focus on making his way to that promising light and he’d be safe from the monsters in the darkness that sought to make him one of their own.
Voidhawk: The Elder Race Page 35
