Don’t make me laugh, she’s the safest person in this camp,I said dryly.
Well–
Aiden,we said at the same time, and I chuckled to myself.
Before I could say anything further, my attention was snagged by some raised voices.
“The dam– it’s working!”
“Thank the prophet!”
“Is he here?!”
People were taking notice of the dam, slowly emerging from their tents and calling out to get others’ attention. I moved closer to Skye on instinct, and Aiden did the same. These weren’t dangerous people, per se, but after speaking to Wyatt and realizing this was one of the Crusader’s camps, I couldn’t be too careful. Someone here could recognize Skye from the description of thephantom.
“The Prince has saved us!” One woman cried, falling to her knees in front of me, Skye, and Aiden.
The three of us went rigid, and I couldfeelSkye’s urge to run.
I rubbed the back of my neck a bit sheepishly. I should’ve prepared them for how people acted around me. I couldn’t blame anyone other than myself, really, I’d played the part of petulant brat of a prince for so long.
“Thank you, thank you, my Prince!” The woman cried. “He’s saved us!”
Murmurs broke out among the medium-sized crowd, and Skye was beginning to sweat beside me. A shadow took her wrist just as shemoved, and she froze, her chest rising and falling quicker. I stepped in front of her, blocking her and Aiden with my body while he soothed her behind me.
“There’s no need for that, ma’am,” I said gently. “Please get out of the dirt.”
The woman blinked at me, then stood, staring at me like I hung the moon.
Holy fuck. We needed to get out of here.
The three of us began to move through the crowd, and Aiden did a really good job of keeping people from touching Skye how they touched me, with a weird reverence I’d never experienced. Raaz would’ve cut any of their hands off if they’d touched my mother this way.
A voice raised from the soft murmurs of the crowd, and I sighed deeply. Skye went rigid behind me once again, and Aiden was practically plastered to her to keep her from taking off.
“Blasphemy!” A man cried. “This is treason! The Crusader would have helped us. We’ve let these false idols ruin everything!”
False idols? Hmm.
“Stop, Mark!” A woman hissed. She stood with a girl who was a little pale. My hands itched to call Wyatt over here to heal her, but she was standing on her own, so she must’ve been fine.
“No!” Mark shouted, drawing more of a crowd. “The tempest exacted her judgement. We were not meant to recover! Have any of you considered our wrongdoings? Have any of you really sat and considered how we could improve?”
Skye made eye contact with me.I can’t listen to this.
I nodded in acknowledgment. I could see her ready to crawl out of her skin, her PTSD around religious conversations palpable.
“The tempest shouldn’t have hurt children,” Another woman hissed. She clutched a stuffed dog to her chest, and Skye’s knees trembled when she saw her. “The children are innocent, they didn’t deserve to be washed away. My son didn’t deserve to die!”
Skye let out a shocked breath as the crowd grew a little louder.
I gently took her arm, pulling her closer to me while shadows wrapped around her waist, guiding her behind me. No one seemeddangerous, but that could change at any moment, and I wouldn’t risk her safety.
Or Aiden’s.
Aiden didn’t react as shadows pulled him back as well. The people began to jeer and argue amongst themselves, and I backed us into the shade of a nearby tree before shadow-walking us the fuck out of there.
I only took us several yards away from the dam, just far enough that we could walk away unseen. The crowd was loud behind us as we made our way down the hill, back to the main gathering of tents.
