Stone
Stone pulled off his glasses and pressed his fingers into the bridge of his nose. A headache had started earlier that day but now it spread across his face like a boulder plundering down a mountain.
“She still asleep?” Birdie sat in the chair next to him.
He nodded and looked at Aesira, sprawled across his bed, leg wrapped in a fresh bandage. “She’s been mumbling, but none of it makes sense.”
“I’m amazed she remained conscious as long as she did after the beast ripped her thigh open. The talons of a Strix contain enough venom to knock someone out almost instantly. Must have been motivated.” Birdie cut him a glance. “Are you alright?”
“Fine,” he said. “I imagine it’ll be at least a few more hours before she wakes up.” Birdie sighed, a note too long and he already knew what she wanted to say.
“The Strix could have solved our problem.”
There it was. The ugly truth. The bold reminder of who they all were.
Odegas.
Criminals.
“You would have preferred me to leave her paralyzed in Dire?” Stone shook his head. “Deranged, even for you.”
Bird smiled, her sharp eyes narrowing. “I’m just saying, if we wanted to run away with the queen’s loot without harming the Commander ourselves, nature gave us a way.”
“You’re sick.”
She laughed and Stone knew her well enough that she wasn’t serious about leaving Aesira in Dire to fend for herself. “We can continue to look through Dire, but the chances that we find—”
“We can’t turn back now, Bird.” He kept his eyes pinned to Aesira, monitoring the pinch of her brows and twitch of her lips. “Not when we’re so close.”
“Are we close?” She shot him a glare. “You’re not the only one who can read a map, you know.”
He did know that. He knew that if there was anyone to stand over his shoulder, fact checking along the way, it would be her.
“Six days,” Stone said. “It’ll take roughly six days to get to where Ravki is located on the map.” He turned to face her, keeping Aesira and the door to his room in his line of sight. Nora had checked on her every few minutes, she was due to be back any moment. “We can’t turn back when we’re lessthan a week away.”
“Bee and I found no survivors.” She cast her narrow eyes down to her feet. “No evidence of supplies that haven’t spoiled. The reservoirs were empty. There’s noastrato fuel the ship.” She shook her head and sighed that long, telling sigh. “If one Strix could do that much damage, just imagine what might be waiting for us in the Whispering Mountains.” She blew out another long breath and tucked her short, blonde hair behind her ears. “There’s a littleastraleft, it would give us a small start for Vargah.”
Stone chewed his bottom lip, eyes darting between the door and Aesira.
“Not everything lost is meant to be found, Stone.” Birdie stood and took a few steps to the door.
No, he thought. He knew that. But Ravki held so many promises and they were just outside his reach. Everything in his life, it seemed, was always just outside his reach. His eyes flicked back to Aesira. “The Commander won’t turn back easily,” he said. “She’ll insist we persist to find the king.”
Birdie’s laugh cut through the small room like a razor blade, jagged and deadly. “If she wakes and really thinks the king could have survived the Strix on his own, she’s more delusional than you.”
Stone had already thought of this, of course. It was one thing for the king to survive the storms and make it to the Outpost, it was another to survive a Strix. They were solitary creatures who hunted only at night, but they made crawlers look like children. If the king made it as far as Dire, Stone had very little faith that he made it out.
“We’ll need to vote,” Birdie said, pulling him from his thoughts. “Rule number one.” Stone nodded and stood to join her.
A swift knock at the door drew their attention. “Still asleep?” Nora poked her head inside. Dark purple lined around her eyes, her freckled cheeks more sunken than usual.
“Likely will be for a while longer,” Birdie said as Nora settled in beside Aesira. “Looks like you’ve got it from here, we’ll be back.”
The walk from his room where Aesira slept to the crew quarters felt ten miles long. When Birdie opened the door to the mess, Bee and Patch were waiting. Relief unclenched his shoulders as he slid into the booth.
“You okay, boss?” Patch asked, pouring four cups of tea. Stone watched the hot water melt into the loose leaves but bit his tongue from mentioning their lack of rations.
How did everything go to shit so fast? That was life in the Outpost, and he chastised himself for believing things could be better somewhere else.
