“Not terribly long. Enough time for the guys to catch a hare and roast it, though, so maybe longer than you intended.”
“It smells delicious.” The growling of my stomach only confirms my statement.
I sit up and begin to pack up my bedroll, tightening the belt around the fabric.
Caym makes his way over to me, charred hare in hand.Gods bless this man.
He grabs the bedroll from me in trade for the roasted meat. I greedily rip off a bite that’s much too big for my mouth and happily choke it down before doing it again. I’m sure it tastes great but between the poor food options from the dungeon and our nonstop ride yesterday, I’m starving and hardly notice between mouthfuls.
The imagination does great things. I can almost believe I’m eating this paired with some buttery rolls that flake with each layer. The greens that would be dished as a side, cooked with garlic and salt, make the imaginary dinner delectable.
I finish my meat and then flick the bone over my shoulder onto the wooded floor. Kina quickly caws, claiming the remains. She pecks at them ruthlessly.
“What are we doing with our captive?” Caym watches me, waiting for me to take the lead.
“I hadn’t thought that far, truthfully. I figured it would be a good way to piss off the king by taking his executioner, he can’t very well make public displays with The Devourer missing..” I smile falsely as I wipe my face onto my already pitiful sleeve.
“You’re not cute when you do that, you know.” His brows furrow together and I swear his nose lifts higher into the air.
His teasing is brotherly, familiar so it’s only fair that I quip right back. “You’re not cute ever, I’m not sure why Lees hasn’t come to her senses just yet.”
He clutches his chest, face grimacing.
“You’re feeling better I see.” It’s more of a question than a statement, but I don’t risk digging up more emotions from their watery grave.
His eyes roll as he lowers his arms. His expression turns serious as he shifts from foot to foot. “Really, what are we going to do with him? We can’t risk him memorizing the way into Rivers End.”
I look away from Caym and roll my lip between my teeth. Things are more complicated than I’d originally considered when we traipsed with our captive through the forest yesterday. There were more things that could go wrong. We havetheDevourer. He’s important to the king and his companions would come for him—risking The Nightmare finding us is something I won’t willingly do, not for Caym’s sake.
“I’m aware,” I whisper, “we still have a few days before it gets to that. I guess we can continue to have you lead him until I can decide what exactly my plans for him include.”
I glance at the man in question. The Devourer just sits, still chained to the same tree he was bound to when I fell asleep.
His disheveled appearance makes him appear more beastly. I’m sure he’s seen better days, but I’d be a liar if I admitted it didn’t make at least a little part of me warm and fuzzy knowing he’s suffering.
Looking back to Caym, I continue, “Well get him up, give him scraps, and let’s get going.”
It doesn’t take long before we’re loaded up and on our horses again, making our way along the dry bank this time as we’re miles from Astoria and hopefully far from any trackers.
My mind races through the events from the last couple days.
Hesitantly I shout back to Caym. “Did we destroy the culling band storage? Even though we ended up being captured?”
He sighs in disbelief. “Yes, they’re gone now. I guess once we didn’t come back, Naveen and his men arrived and saw you being hauled off and waited in the underbrush until you were long gone. The Nightmare had left me to writhe, locked in my subconscious. I’m sure it’s not often people with fractured minds from his grasp are able to return to sanity.”
He stops for a moment, his eyes focused on something faraway. I let the silence carry until Caym starts talking again.
“Shockingly it wasn’t that hard to meld them once we brought them back to the village, Jessamine oversaw that. She was ready to level the realm when she’d heard you’d been taken so it was a good distraction for her, continuing on with your work.”
Relief flows through my veins. That’s a huge step in the scheme of things, knowing we just dissolved one of the biggest iron manacles stores in the kingdom. I’m grateful for Jessamine’s swift action as well, especially knowing how hard it is for her to be still.
Caym kicks his horse, urging it to start onward again. “Really though, there weren’t as many as we thought.”
“Well, we got rid of them and that’s all that matters.” I face forward, watching Merinda clear the trail in front of us.
We continue on like this, small talk exchanged past the moons’ rise. This feels normal, like we’ve won something we didn’t anticipate.
I’ve only glanced at our prisoner a few times, his lips still pursed, focused straight ahead, ignoring me and everyone else.
