“Put your knife down,” Nev called, lowering her own sword. “I only want the queen to be let go.” She put her hands in the air, palms out. “I’ll do you no harm. Just let her go.” She met Kamari’s eyes and gave the slightest dip of her chin.
I have you,she wanted to say. Nev had distracted the woman enough for Kamari to wriggle slightly from her grip to clamp down on her hand with her teeth. “Shit!” the woman reeled back, giving Nev just enough space to swoop in and pull the queen free.
The woman scrambled backward, abandoning her knife in the sand. The wind picked up, sand churning in the distance, a new storm brewing on the horizon. Then, the woman was on her feet, darting straight for the storm.
“Go back to the Citadel, Your Majesty! Get Rahashi, tell her what happened.” She glanced to her right, where Kamari was still panting on the ground. “Go, Your Majesty!” There was no time for politeness and she would apologize later but right now, she needed the queen on her feet and back to safety. “Kamari!” Her eyes snapped to Nev’s, the use of her name seeming to wake her up. She jumped to her feet and darted toward the small doorway hidden in the wall.
Nev returned her attention to the woman. She’d made it halfway from the wall to the growing storm. Determination guided her boots as they dug into the sand. She set an unrelenting pace, her sword long forgotten behind her. It would only weigh her down, when her bare hands would do the job.
Lungs burning, eyes stinging from the sand that whipped around her, she reached the woman with more ease than she anticipated. She hurtled forward, pinning her to the ground and pushing her face into the sand. A muffled scream, maybe a plea, Nev wasn’t sure, nor did she care. Sand flew around them and Nev knew the patterns of the storm well enough to know that they had only a minute before they’d be completely engulfed.
“Let me free!” the woman shrieked as Nev pulled her to her feet, pinning her arms behind her back. She shouted and pleaded and perhaps at one point started crying but Nev trudged forward. Through the sand, through the wind, through the door, until Rahashi was there, her dark skin and white hair, like a beacon of hope in the midst of the storm.
“Take her below the city,” Nev said, pushing the woman forward into Rahashi’s arms. “I’ll deal with her later.”
Without a word, Rahashi spun, the now prisoner in her grip, still pleading and crying that it was all a misunderstanding. Nev slammed the door shut, sand and wind pelting the other side.
She took only a moment to close her eyes, thanking Celestria for the speed at which she was able to run. For sparing Kamari’s life not once, but twice. Then she wiped the sand from her face, plucked it out of her ears, and headed straight for the temple, where she knew her punishments would be waiting for her.
Twenty-One
Aesira
Aesira cupped the boy's cold cheek and brushed the stiff hair from his face. “Celestria be with you,” she whispered, then gently laid his head on the ground.
There was nothing but the quiet drum of rain against rock as Stone and Birdie worked together to get the torches relit. It seemed overly cautious since the Strix was dead, but she also understood the need to be busy at a time like this. She wished she could keep busy too. She glanced down at the boy again and her stomach lurched.
For a sick moment, she thought it was Eldrin in the Strix’s clutches. But it couldn’t be. That nightmare had already happened. Eldrin was dead. The pain of that memory overtook herlike a storm, swelling in her chest until her lungs were too full to work.
“Hey.” Bee crouched next to her. “Are you okay?” She tugged Aesira close, her arm tight around her shoulders. “You were brave,” she said.
“I was careless.” Aesira stood, brushing Bee off. “We all were.” She cut a glance at Stone, who was already watching her over the flickering of the freshly lit torches. She’d let herself get distracted. Let her guard fall and if she hadn’t been so quick, it could have been any one of them lying dead on the ground.
“We should sleep,” Aesira said, trudging back into the cave. “It’s almost dawn and we have a long trek tomorrow.” She dressed in everything but her armor and found a spot away from the group to settle.
The ground was cold but she pressed her body tighter into it, letting the rocks tear into her skin. She’d do this. Find punishments where she could. Sometimes small. Other times, more devastating. She deserved it, she thought. To be uncomfortable and in pain. To be sick with guilt and shame for being so distracted. For ignoring her duties even for a moment.
Sleep did not come easy, just as it hadn’t the last few nights, but this time when she dreamt of the Strix, it wasn’t her it was after. It was afterEldrin again.
The sun exposed the extent of last night's storm as they packed and ate a ration of dried meat and fruit each. The few bare trees that lined the mountains had lost limbs, branches broken and scattered. But none of the carnage was as bad as what lay before the cave.
The Strix, with its awful stench and razor teeth.
And the boy, with his sunken face and pale cheeks. Stone helped Aesira wrap him the best they could with her blanket. Aesira withdrew a small piece of charred wood from her pocket, one that had broken off from one of the torches last night and with it, drew a small ‘C’ on the center of the boy’s forehead.
C, for Celestria.
She pressed her fingers to her lips, then touched his forehead before joining the others. It wasn’t a proper burial, but it would be enough to get him through Celestria’s gates.
“We’ll walk all day,” Stone said. “The incline is steep but if we keep a consistent pace we should make good headway.”
She let the others lead the way, lingering behind for a few extra moments to create some space between them. She needed the silence. Needed to breathe the fresh air of the open mountains. Needed to clear her head before the weight of her mistakes came crashing down again. Not just last night, but all the others that festered inside of her like a plague.
Her brother, being the worst of them.
The sun reached mid-sky before they stopped for a break. They each had their own canteens which they refilled during last night's rain storm.
Aesira made herself comfortable under a mature olive tree, finding relief beneath its thick branches. She sipped her water in silence, counting the seconds until it was time to move again.
