My hand moved to his, and I gripped it.
But his touch was lifeless, his fingers open like he didn’t want to touch me. “I’m sorry this happened.”
“It’s not your fault, Morco.”
His hard stare remained locked in place. “I’m the chief—everything is my fault.”
I watched the side of his face, watched him carry yet another responsibility alone. “Nothing happened?—”
“His failure doesn’t minimize the crime. It doesn’t change the intention.” His chin dropped, and his eyes moved to the floor. “You’re the victim of his actions. You’re the one who should decide his fate—not me.”
My heart had calmed in his cabin, but it raced once more.
“Death or exile.” He finally looked at me head on, his dark eyes on my light ones. “What do you choose?”
“I—I don’t think I can make this decision.” I’d had Morco’s responsibility for just a few seconds, and I was already overwhelmed by it, holding the fate of someone’s life in my hands. Krull had been nothing but a threat to me since I’d gotten here and I didn’t care whether he lived or died, but to be the one to decide was another matter.
“I can make it for you—if you wish.”
“What will you choose?”
He looked away again. “Death would be easy. My sword deep in his heart. We could use his body to bait the coyotes. But being exiled to the darkness…banished to solitude…sounds far more terrifying. A slow torture, a slow death, that’s what I would choose.”
If I hadn’t followed Morco after I’d fallen from the opening in the chasm, I would have been subjected to the same dark cruelty. It gave me heart palpitations just to think about it. But perhaps it was what Krull deserved.
“Every fighter is invaluable,” Morco said. “But the second he attacks his own, that trust is broken. He’s lost the right to live among us, to be a member of our society, to be of our tribe.” He pulled his hand from mine, not that he had been holding it in the first place. “You can join me or wait for me here.”
I wouldn’t hide in the cabin. I was ready to be free of this asshole once and for all. “I’ll go with you.”
He was on his feet before I finished the sentence. “I’ll retrieve your clothes. Do you want to stay with me, or would you rather?—”
“Yes.” I’d wanted to stay with him for the last week, since the moment he’d asked if I was his. “I want to stay with you.”
He held my stare for a second before he headed to the door.
Krull hadn’t moved. A rope bound his wrists together, and he lay on his back near the fire, silently writhing in pain from the burns that charred his face and the entire form of his body. Most of his shirt had burned away in the flames. His chest rose and fell at a rapid rate, like his body couldn’t keep up with the air he needed.
I almost felt sorry for him.
The entire tribe was gathered around now, not seated at the tables like during meals, but standing in a circle as they waited for Morco to cast his sentence. Morco left my side then circled the fire as he approached where Krull lay. He stared down at him for a heavy moment, like he might raise his fists and smash his face in again. Instead, he stepped closer, Krull taking an audible breath as he flinched.
Morco pulled out a dagger and continued his stare.
Krull breathed, stuck in place with his wrists tied.
Then Morco bent down and sliced through the rope.
Krull kept his wrists together like he didn’t understand he was free. Or it was literally too painful to move.
“Rise for your sentencing.”
He lay there for nearly a minute, just breathing. Then he slowly rolled over and grimaced in pain when the front of his body felt the pressure of the dirt. He groaned and winced and then lay still.
One of the guys stepped forward to grab him.
“Don’t help him.” Morco didn’t take his eyes off Krull. “Get up.”
Over the course of several minutes, Krull rolled over and slowly pushed himself to his knees and then his feet, every breath full of agony.
