I scrambled to my feet and barreled past the man, shoving him out of the way and running to the top of a hill. I shielded my eyes from the glare of the sun and squinted, the sight leaving me wrecked. My entire body crumpled as I laid eyes on nothing but rubble and dust down below. So much dust, which was what I must’ve smelled, what must’ve awoken me. I lifted my thick red hair, now coated in the remains of my tower, and sobs racked my body as I wrapped my arms around my stomach, trying to hold myself together, as if the tighter I squeezed, the more I could contain these emotions pouring from me.
I cried harder at the splinters of wood peeking through the wreckage, at the glass shining brilliantly under the sun. At the torn papers, all those books I’d lost myself in... gone. Just... gone.
A hand grabbed my arm and wrenched me up so that I came face-to-face with the man, his thick eyebrows scrunching over his large nose. “What did you do?” I cried, wanting to throttle him.
“What did I do?” he asked slowly, like he didn’t understand.
I pawed at my tears. “To my tower!”
“Your tower?” he asked again.
I pinched the bridge of my nose, head pounding both from this conversation and from the reality that my protector was gone.
I’d never survive out here alone. I couldn’t protect myself. I never had been able to, always relying on others, others who sacrificed their lives for mine. “The tower I lived in.”
His bearded jaw worked back and forth. “We have to go. We’re wasting too much time.” His gaze flitted back and forth like he was expecting an attack at any moment, and panic replaced some of thesadness filling me. Did he know something I didn’t? Were we in danger this very moment?
I didn’t have time to ask before he spun around and marched back down the grassy hillside, dotted with rocks and boulders. It crested downward and then swooped back upward into more hills as far as the eye could see. If I weren’t so distraught, I might have actually thought it was rather beautiful.
“Am I supposed to follow you?” I yelled after him with a shaky voice.
He didn’t even respond. Just continued tromping his way along the dusty road. Morton would have a lot of say about this, and it had just occurred to me that the little bookwyrm wasn’t sitting on my shoulder like normal. I’d been in such a panic, I hadn’t even thought about my best friend.
I looked back at the carnage far below, my stomach dropping to the ground as I imagined Morton under all that rubble. He’d been tucked into my book when the tower started to crumble, and the only person who might know where my book was would be...
I bolted after the man. “Wait! Please, wait!”
He stopped, not bothering to turn around, his shoulders bunching up to his ears.
“My book. Was there a book when you rescued me? A-a blue book. Or, no, was it green? Oh, I can’t remember, but?—”
He turned, reaching into his black cloak and pulling out my book, and I prayed to the ancient godwitches that Morton was nestled safely inside. “You mean this? You were clutching it for dear life when I rescued you.”
I let out a strangled noise and snatched it from his massive hand, opening it. All the tension bled from me when I saw the little pink bookwyrm lying in the crevice.
“Well, you’ve certainly done it now,” Morton said, glaring up at me. “I know I said we’d have to leave the tower one day, but I didn’t mean so dramatically. And how in the world did it all come crumbling down like that?”
“Why do you assume that was my fault?” I asked, then turned thebook to face the man, who stared at Morton in wonder, his dark crescent-shaped eyes taking in my little bookwyrm.
He loomed over us, and even under his black cloak, I could see the bulging muscles in his arms, his thick thighs underneath those leather-plaited pants. Despite the cool air, sweat dotted his pale, ruddy skin, making it glisten as he frowned at us.
I jabbed a finger at the man, wishing I could take that sword hanging by his side and shove it right through him. “He destroyed the tower.”
“I rescued you,” the man said through gritted teeth, then pushed past me and kept walking.
He was doing that a lot. Declaring things and then just walking away like it wasn’t a big deal that my entire life had just fallen apart. I had nowhere to go now, for the second time in my life.
Last time Morton and I had lost our home, we’d fled and gotten lucky to stumble upon that magical tower. I wouldn’t get so lucky again.
Oh, godwitches. I might actually be sick. I had no idea how I’d get out of this situation. I had no plan.
I swallowed back the bile rising in my throat. I’d starve to death out here alone. Or get eaten by some magical, terrifying creature. Or I’d stumble across some member of the brotherhood and they’d either take me captive or kill me. There were so many ways to die out here, and right now, I was thinking about every single one.
The man continued walking, and I trailed after him, not knowing what else to do. It made me feel so pathetic and helpless, but if we were attacked right now, he’d surely protect us. He wouldn’t have taken me from a tower just to let me die.
At the bottom of the hill, a cluster of rocks encircled a few rucksacks, and another man stood, this one wearing a red cloak, his hands and arms covered in deep cuts, visible through the rips in his silken gold shirt.
He glanced up and smiled, already seeming so much friendlier than his companion. “Ah, I see you’re already making friends, Wolfe,”he told the other man, his voice airy and jovial, making some of that tightness in my chest loosen.
