Finally, after a long search, she found a little clearing surrounded by pine trees, the pokey stumps, and dead bushes she didn’t recognize. Her only concern was that Erin wouldn’t be able to find her in this thicket, but there was nothing she could do about that now. She’d just have to set up camp and hope he wouldn’t be too long.
Bethany used the fading light to tend to the new horse and tie the beasts off between two trees. She left Dinner to fend for himself, knowing he would stay near Éimhin. Once the horses were taken care of, she used a sturdy stick to break up the packed earth and dig a little hole. Inside the hole she used dead, leafless sticks to build a tiny fire, hoping this would be enough to keep it hidden from those on the road.
She tried to sit beside the fire and be patient, but it wasn’t long before she began pacing from one side of the little clearing to the other.
By the time the night sky was turning gray again, she had made a path across the clearing and had nearly driven the horses into a frenzy with her panic. They were picking up on her fear, despite her efforts to calm them.
“It’s okay, Éimhin,” she said to Erin’s horse, trying to calm the agitated animal. “He’ll be back. He’s strong. I’ve never seen…”
Bethany trailed off, suddenly realizing she was talking more to soothe herself than the horse. Besides, the noise her voice made was dangerous, and so she went back to pacing.
What is taking him so long? she wondered. Should I go back for him?
She had nearly decided on returning to the city when she heard the crunch of rock against rock. Bethany froze in her pacing and stared out at the darkness. Was that Erin? Or was it an animal? Was someone sneaking up on her?
A new fear began to grow in her gut as she fumbled for her sword. She got it out just as the forest went silent again.
It’s an animal, she told herself. Erin wouldn’t make any noise unless he meant to.
Bethany began to make slow circles, eyeing any patch of dark forest that didn’t look right to her, her sword held up at the ready. She had just started another turn when more gravel crackled a few feet behind her. Bethany spun around to find the silhouette of man standing against the outline of the forest. The man stepped into the light of her little fire.
“Erin!” she gasped, dropping her sword and flinging herself into his arms.
He wrapped his good arm around her waist, nearly picking her up off the ground. Bethany felt tears spring to her eyes as she buried her face in his neck. His chest was heaving against her as though he were out of breath, and she felt hot sweat running down her face to mix with her hair. She knew she needed to let him go, that she was making a fool of herself, but she didn’t. For the first time since before the attack that led her to Tolad, she felt truly safe.
“What happened?” she asked, her face still lost in the fabric of his tunic.
She was beginning to notice a foul stench coming from him, but it wasn’t enough to make her release him. At least not until the sun had risen and chased away the shadows of the terrible night.
“I forgot about my arm,” he said, still holding her tightly to his firm chest. “I couldn’t climb over the wall like I’d planned.”
Bethany felt him begin to sway a little as they held onto each other, but she didn’t think it was due to fatigue or injury. She felt the scruff of his cheek rub against hers and instinctively turned her head a little toward his.
“What did you do?”
“Had to go through the sewer,” he said, his voice soft in her ear.
Without thinking about it, Bethany pulled back to look at him.
“So, that’s what I’m smelling?”
A sheepish grin spread across his lips, scrunching up his scar. “I’m afraid so.”
He let her go, realizing just how offensive he must have smelled.
“We should pack up and put some more distance between us and the city,” he said.
“Don’t you need to rest?”
“I’ll survive.”
Bethany ran her eyes over his filthy, battered body. He was holding his arm against his side and she noticed signs of swelling through the shoulder. She needed to take control now, she realized.
“Let me get your arm bound up first.”
He nodded, his exhaustion peeking through for a second.
“Go sit by the fire,” she ordered, forcing her face into a look of consternation.
Erin smiled at her briefly before collapsing against a tree.
“And I’ll saddle the horses. You just sit for a minute.”
Bethany got to work saddling the two horses and packing up their meager supplies. Before stuffing the long cloak she had used to exit the city into the burlap sack, she cut off a long strip. Bethany gave her new horse one final pat before turning back to Erin. A smile spread across her face as she realized he was sound asleep.
He must really be tired, she thought as she knelt down beside him. Maybe I can do this while he sleeps.
Bethany reached for his arm and began to bend it at the elbow when he jerked awake, his good hand reflexively reaching for her throat. She froze, trapped in the grasp of his strong hand, and waited for him to finish waking up. A moment later his eyes focused on her, and he noticed his hand gripping her throat. She was beginning to have trouble breathing, but forced herself to stay still.
Erin quickly loosened his grip, allowing the tips of his fingers to caress her jaw.
“Sorry,” he said with a sigh. “Didn’t mean to fall asleep.”
Bethany swallowed the pain from her throat. “It’s okay. I need to bind your arm now.”
He nodded and relaxed enough for her to do her work. She bent his arm at the elbow and used the wide strip of cloth to support it from his neck in a sling.
“How long do I have to wear this?” he asked as he shrugged his good shoulder, trying to settle the sling on his neck.
“Let’s just take it one day at a time, eh?”
“That long?”
Bethany chewed on her lip until she saw his eyes flicker to the movement. She sighed.
“I’m worried you did permanent damage. You should have had it in a sling right after I put it back into place. Having it tied behind your back for so long was… well, not good.”
He nodded, accepting her words. It wouldn’t do either of them any good if he clung to false hope. Even if the arm was useless, he could still fight with the other arm; he’d trained himself to fight with both since he was a squire.
“Let’s get going.”
Bethany obeyed. She waited until he had mounted, half worrying that he might need help, before climbing onto her own horse. The beast was mostly black, except for white socks, a white tail, and two uneven strips of white in its mane. Though it was a hand or two smaller than Éimhin, it was still a vast difference from the frumpy little donkey. Bethany glanced back at Dinner, who now carried their packs and appeared happy with its lighter load.
They rode out of the forest and used the Cascina Bridge to cross the Bumi Inlet. On the other side of the inlet, they turned east and followed the inlet toward the sea, hoping to get away from any land they had previously traveled. Erin didn’t want someone recognizing them as the captives of a military officer and report them.
It was a long day for both of them after a night without sleep, but they pushed through and managed to keep riding until the sunset, with only one short break to eat some local plant life Erin recognized. They had no food, and though the dried beans from a strange tree were disgusting, it was better than starving.
“Stopping so soon?” she asked once she had shaken the sleep from her head.
She had been dozing in the saddle again. Bethany assumed they would have ridden until the path couldn’t be seen. Instead, they were stopping in the early evening having doubled back on the opposite side of the wide inlet. Now they were nearly directly across the inlet from the city of Topaq.
They were stopping in a thicker grove of bizarre plants, just tall enough to hide the horses. Be
thany didn’t like the local plant life, mostly because she didn’t recognize any of it. She didn’t like not knowing what was edible and what was poisonous. She would just have to rely on Erin a little bit more.
“I can’t go on,” he said with a long sigh as he dragged himself out of the saddle.
Bethany hurriedly flung her leg over her horse’s rump and slid to the ground. It was a long drop and her feet ached from the hard landing. She ignored the pain and rushed to surreptitiously support Erin to a clear spot to lay down. He tried to bat her away, but the effort was unimpressive, and Bethany managed to slip herself up under his good arm. To her surprise, he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and let her walk with him.
She took him to a small clearing between two dead bushes. Bethany did her best not to help him down to the ground; she knew Erin’s pride and tried not to ruffle it. Once he was on the ground, Bethany trotted to Dinner’s side and pulled out their single blanket and the shredded cloak. She returned to Erin’s side and tucked the cloak under his head. It was a little warm still for the blanket, but she draped it along his side for easy access.
“We need to set up a watch,” he said, his eyes already drooping.
“I’ll take the first watch. Just sleep.”
“The hmms,” he mumbled, his eyes drooping the rest of the way.
“I’ll deal with the horses,” she said, her hand going to the scarred side of his face of its own accord. She stroked it for a second before realizing what she was doing.
With a blush on her cheeks, Bethany went back to the horses and got to work. Her body ached and her eyes burned with fatigue, but she forced herself to keep moving. She unsaddled the two horses, finding strong enough branches to rest the saddles on instead of laying them in the dust.
Once the rest of the tack was removed, she used strips of whatever she still had in the burlaps sacks to hobble the horses. She planned to stay awake through the night, so they wouldn’t be able to get very far, and this way their natural instincts could lead them to food. Bethany had searched the surrounding area for food for them, but being unfamiliar with this region, she had no idea what they could eat.
This could be a huge mistake, she thought as she watched Éimhin waddle over to a plant she didn’t recognize and begin to nibble on winter growth. Does it really count as winter growth when it never gets cold here?
Bethany mopped her forehead as she made her way back to Erin’s side. She sat down, pulling her knees up to her chin and wrapping her arms around them.
Now the trick will be to stay awake, she thought, her eyes drifting to where Erin slept.
He looked very peaceful in his sleep.
And not think about Erin, her mind amended.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Bethany blinked for the thousandth time, trying desperately to stay awake and watch over Erin as he slept. Three times she had climbed to her feet and paced around their small campsite, trying to wake herself up. Four times she checked on the horses under the full moon to see what they had found to eat. She even got desperate enough to try one of the leaves. It was gross and she spat it out. She tried smelling the plants around their campsite, their pungent odors perking her senses up for a few minutes. At one point, she became desperate enough to try to recall the history of her country in order, as taught to her by her tutors. When it became clear that she remembered nearly nothing from her lessons, she resorted to the multiplication table.
Despite all this, she dozed off five times throughout the night, each time jerking awake. Based on the position of the moon, she doubted she slept more than two hours in total. The sun was turning the sky a rosy shade of pink when Erin finally began to twitch in his sleep. Until then, he had looked as though he were dead. Bethany had even contemplated checking his pulse, but thought better of it, considering his last reaction to being touched while sleeping. In the end, she watched his chest rise and fall ever-so-slightly to confirm his continued health.
About twenty minutes after the twitching began, he jerked awake, rising straight into a sitting position and looking around at their little clearing. Finally his red eyes trained on her, taking in her snuggled-up posture. His eyes drifted to the blanket draped over his body, then up to the brightening sky.
The look her turned back on her could have melted her bones.
“Good morning,” she said hesitantly.
“It’s morning? You let me sleep all night?”
“You needed it. You had a worse time of it than I did. It’s no big deal.”
“You should have woken me,” he snapped, climbing to his feet and jerking the blanket off the ground.
Bethany climbed to her feet, snagging the cloak as she rose. “What’s the big deal?”
“You can’t effectively keep watch through two nights by yourself. You need to sleep.”
“It’s not like we died,” she snapped back. “You need to rest to heal.”
“You don’t make that sort of call.”
“Well I did! After all, I’m the healer of this little group.”
“I make the calls. I told you to wake me.”
“Technically you didn’t,” she said as she followed him to where the horses stood.
Erin spun around to look at her, not realizing Bethany was right behind him. She collided into his chest, nearly falling back on her rump. Erin caught her by the shoulder with his good arm and kept her upright.
“You knew I wanted you to wake me halfway through the night,” he growled.
“You needed to rest,” she repeated.
“Half a night would have been more than enough,” snapped Erin, letting go of her shoulder and stomping a few feet away before turning back to look at her.
“You just can’t stand having someone take care of you.”
Her statement silenced him, though he continue to glare at her.
“Let’s get the horses saddled,” he finally grumbled, half to himself.
“Would his majesty mind scavenging for food while I deal with the horses? I don’t know what to look for in these environments.”
There was a long pause before Erin spoke. “What did you just call me?”
“Well you’ve been acting so high-and-mighty, I assumed you’d become royalty without telling me!”
“’High-and-mighty’? You’re one to talk, little princess!” he added with a sneer.
“Right, cause I’ve been living the life of a princess for so long now,” Bethany grumbled as she turned to begin her work on the horses.
If the fight continued much longer, she was going to break down and cry. She was just too tired for this.
Staring at Éimhin’s shoulder, she spoke softly. “Everything I’ve done has been in a feeble attempt to thank you for all the help you’ve rendered me. So ple-ease,” her voice broke. She cleared her throat. “Please find us some food and stop complaining.”
A second later, she heard the crackle of branches and rocks as Erin stomped away.
By the time he returned, she had both horses saddled and the packs reloaded onto Dinner’s back. Bethany turned to look at him only when she was sure her eyes were dry.
“I got some stuff,” he announced as he entered their campsite.
Bethany eyed him cautiously. He had removed his sling to use the fabric as a pouch. He knelt down and open the fabric up to reveal some of the green, pokey plants she had seen the night before. These pieces were shaped like paddles, with spines all over them. Lying with the plants were three medium size lizards.
“That’s edible?” she asked.
“Yep. We’ll save the lizards ‘til we stop midday. We should get moving. We can eat the cacti on the road.”
“Cac-tie?” she asked, pronouncing the unusual word cautiously.
“Yeah. Pick the spines off, and with your knife trim the edges. It’ll also get some liquid in us. I don’t think we’ve been drinking enough. Now climb aboard,” he added, nodding toward her new horse.
“Not until I get the sling back on you. You shoul
dn’t have taken it off.”
Erin rolled his eyes, but obediently stowed the lizards in Dinner’s packs and set the cacti on their saddles for safe keeping. Meanwhile Bethany shook out the fabric and checked for cacti pins. She could just imagine cranky Erin’s response to getting stabbed. She carefully wrapped it around his neck, while trying to ignore the warmth of his skin.
What is wrong with me? she wondered as she stepped away, putting space between them.
Bethany grabbed her cacti paddle, carefully avoiding its pokers and mounted her horse.
They rode through the forest, a couple miles away from the inlet. Bethany forced her mind to quiet down, and finally fell asleep in the saddle. She didn’t wake until she was halfway to the ground. Her head bounced on the packed earth and she groaned, still half asleep despite the pain radiating down her left side.
The next thing she knew, Erin was kneeling beside her. He helped her sit up before running his fingers over her head. She grimaced as he found a tender spot.
“That hurt?” he asked unnecessarily.
“Yes. Is there a bump?”
He nodded.
“That’s good. Bump is good. I’m fine.”
Erin took her hand and pulled onto her feet, steadying her with a hand on her waist.
“You’re riding with me,” he said in his own authoritative voice.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re stubborn. Now c’mon.”
Erin dragged her to Éimhin’s side. She felt too tired to argue any further. He prepared to lift her into the saddle, ignoring his sling entirely, when her healer’s pride came to life. She quickly swiveled around to look at him, her finger poised in a position her mother had often used on her.
“No,” she said, trying to ignore the dizziness buzzing through her head. “You are not to use that arm any more until I say so. I can mount myself if you’re so insistent on me riding with you.”
The Dothan Chronicles: The Complete Trilogy Page 51
