He clenched his fists tighter. “Fine! I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”
“But…seeing all of this…meeting the people you were meant to rule…seeing the safety you could have had…” She waited a few heartbeats before she asked, “How are you feeling about all of this?”
How was he feeling?His first reaction was to shake off the idea that he would think about his feelings at all. He was a warrior. One who had survived alone, with vengeance driving him, for years without once thinking about how he felt about it all. Why would he start now?
Yet, the way she reached out and stroked his forearm gave him pause. Her touch sent warmth throughout his body and straight to his midsection. He didn’t believe for a second that she had meant anything overtly sexual with the light stroking of his skin, but it was putting all kinds of dangerous thoughts in his head. He was picturing her hands smoothing over other parts of him, touching his skin, stirring sensations he knew better than to give into.
It was better to focus on the “feelings” she wanted to discuss.
“It’s strange. I don’t really feel anything. As much as they are my people, I don’t belong here. I’m not sure I ever would.”
He looked around at the people still spilling out of the tents in front of them. No one waved. No one called out in greeting. They simply stared in awe at what Rise could only imagine looked like a demon incarnate in their midst.
He knew what his image conveyed, and it was far from kingly. His visage was more of that of the usurper who came in the night to steal the kingdom away.
“Yet, they all look at you like you’re the one who could save them.”
For what felt like minutes, Rise stared at Liv before glancing back at all the faces watching him with the kind of longing one has when watching clouds passing after weeks without rain. Liv was right. They expected him to save Umbraland.
They didn’t expect him to salvage the wreck that Grawl had created because they wanted revenge. That was what had driven him this far.
They wanted to live, to be free of the tyranny of the land. They wanted a hero to save them.
But Rise wasn’t a hero. He kidnapped and killed and destroyed. He was more villain than hero.
“Well, that’s too bad. I’m nobody’s savior. I am fighting for one purpose, and one purpose only. I want to kill Grawl to make him pay for all he has done to me and my mother. Anyone who doesn’t understand that is setting themselves up for great disappointment.”
15
It had been too much to believe that Rise could ever care about more than his vengeance, but Liv had hoped the moment would elevate him to something higher. Of course, Liv herself had selfish reasons for wanting to remove her father from the throne, mostly so that she could actually…well…live.
If her father had his way, she would have been dead long ago. She just hoped by freeing Esvie, they were able to convince Atta to help them find the curse breaker that gave them what they needed to make Grawl vulnerable.
After making their way throughout the maze of tents that made up the city, they finally came to a halt at the last tent, turning back toward Decelia. She hobble up behind them, but no one exited the last tent.
With a grin stretched across her face, Decelia swept her outstretched hand toward the entrance of the tent just as wagons turned the corner filled with supplies.
“You’ll stay here tonight. Look through the wagons and pack what you need for the journey.”
Liv stared in awe as more and more wagons slipped into the wide alley created by the tents erected across from each other.
“Surely, not all of this was offered to us? We couldn’t possibly take even one-tenth of these items with us.” Rise’s deep, gravelly voice sounded confused.
“Of course not! The rest is for when you return.”
With that, she reached out a soft hand to pat first Liv and then Rise on the arms before turning and making her way back toward the long stretch of tents.
Liv marveled at the faith the entire village showed by their offerings. Not only did they sacrifice their belongings so that Rise and she would be able to survive through the journey outside of this pocket dimension, but they obviously believed they would be successful enough to need to return to a tent with all the comforts of home.
The idea left Liv baffled. No one, except Val, had ever been so generous with such necessary resources, especially in Umbraland where a majority of the land that had once been lush was now desert.
As several, winged men unloaded the items and placed them inside the tent, Rise moved to do the same. After a few awkward moments, the men struck up some quiet conversation, and Liv watched as Rise gave a few small chuckles at something they said.
After some time, the wagons were emptied, and the men waved as they left the same way they’d come. With a deep sigh, Liv threw the tent flap back and she and Rise stepped inside together. Having been moving in and out earlier, he seemed to know where to go as he stepped deeper into darkened recess that went back farther than Liv had expected. It seemed to be made up of four, individual compartments, and in each, furniture had been placed.
In the main room at the front of the tent, a long bench with a cushioned back stretched along one of the outside walls. Another room was open to this one, but inside that room, therewere devices meant for food storage and preparation. As Liv moved through the other two rooms, she thought they were more spaces of convenience. One seemed like a place to take care of washing and relieving oneself. The other was a sleeping area with a raised platform covered in furs and other pillowy materials. With the exhaustion that had taken over Liv at the sight of that comfortable-looking place, that was likely where she would spend most of the evening. Yet, before that, she really wanted to wash up. It seemed like forever ago that she’d bathed in the lake, and, of course, met Spot, Atta, and enjoyed the feel of Rise’s callused hands on her body.
As the memory of how he’d touched her in the cave filled her mind, her body heated and her heart began to beat erratically. She glanced over to catch Rise watching her as if he knew her thoughts. Had she projected the scene into his head? She really needed to get a handle on this new ability.
