I opened my mouth, not sure what I was intending to do, and suddenly water was rushing in.
My throat burned, then my lungs. I tried to cough, but more water simply rushed in.
I was going to die.
That was my last thought before everything went dark.
Adis was kicking me, directly in the chest. I opened my mouth to yell.
“Come on, Runa, come on.”
The voice didn’t sound like Adis. But he was kicking me again.
Then I was coughing—no, vomiting—liquid rushing from my mouth.
“Come back to me, Runa. You can’t leave yet.”
I cracked open my eyes to find a dark shadow leaning over me. I could just see the glint of his black hair in the moonlight. It was Otho. I couldn’t stop the smile that spread over my lips. We had made it. I wasn’t dead.
“We need to keep moving,” a female voice hissed. It took me a moment to find her name in my memory. Was it Friar? No, we were running from Malheim, it was Ena.
“Did you know she couldn’t swim?” Otho snapped.
“She told me,” Ena snapped back with just as much malice. “There isn’t time to argue this now, they’re coming.”
I didn’t bother to ask who was coming as I was lifted from the ground. Though I had almost drowned, and we weren’t out of danger yet, I felt instant comfort in Otho’s arms. I knew I shouldn’t, but I couldn’t remember why at that exact moment.
The ride was anything but smooth though, the jostling increasing with every step.
“How bad is your leg?” That was Ena.
“It’s fine,” Otho replied, but I could tell he was lying. “Just a scratch.”
“Well, that scratch is making you limp an awful lot.”
I knew I should walk myself, but I couldn’t find the energy to even open my mouth to argue, though the motion of Otho’s uneven gait was upsetting my empty stomach.
I don’t know how much longer we continued like that, but soon we were stopping and I was being laid on the cool ground.
“I need a moment,” Otho panted. “Here, take my horse, ride straight along the trees, my captain, Askel, will be there. Tell him that Otho sent you. We will be right behind you, on foot.”
“But you both are injured,” Ena tried to argue, and I wondered suddenly what I had done to earn such care from a woman I had only spoken to once.
“Askel can come back and help,” Otho insisted.
I don’t know if it was the knowledge that both Otho and I were going to die there, somewhere in the barren land outside of Malheim, or the fact that I was entering the delirious stage that came just before death, but suddenly I was able to speak. “Just leave me here to die. Save yourself.” The words were barely a whisper, but I hoped Otho would hear them.
The sound of hoofbeats reached my ears. Had he mounted and left with Ena that rapidly?
“I can’t do that I’m afraid,” Otho replied, his voice strained. There was some shuffling.
“You can. I was supposed to die the day I was born. It was all borrowed time anyway.” I was already planning what I would say to my mom and dad when I saw them in the afterlife. After I told them how dumb it was to try to hide me my entire life, and how they had effectively wasted it for me.
“I can’t leave you, Runa.” Otho pulled me into his chest. I thought maybe it was a hug goodbye, but then I felt him doing something with the wound on my shoulder. It was numb at this point.
“You can. Please, Otho. It is my dying wish is for you saveyourself,” I begged, my voice hoarse, something pulling in my chest. Hopefully the afterlife was more comfortable than this.
“You don’t understand, Runa.” There was an edge to his voice I couldn’t seem to place.
