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Chapter 16 (Supplies)
I woke up,
face pressed against a fluffy white pillow, but when I tried to turn over, I
found my arms and legs strapped down. The groan of my stomach said I was still
alive, which brought up a lot of questions.
Though, the
only one that mattered right then was what could I get my hands on to eat.
A lime
scent clung to the pillow, and there was no trace of my body odor that had been
present since going after the Fevered Four. Not being able to bathe had been
awful, but not nearly as bad as not being able to eat right now. Food. I needed
some food.
I tugged on
my restraints, but it was no good. Opening my mouth to call for help, I took a
deep breath then shut my mouth. I could be a prisoner. The Regime could have
me.
But why was
I strapped to a bed, comfortable mind you, face down?
“That’s a good question,” Barges said,
once again his presence filling my thoughts.
Back after trying to kill me? I felt at
the side of the bed, which my hands barely reached, looking for some way to
release the straps.
“The One wasn’t trying to kill you.”
I’m sure. Throwing me against a tree and
gathering energy to rip me to shreds was just his way of giving me a hug.
“He was just trying to teach you a lesson
for getting in his way and betraying his will.”
His will? You mean killing Orshis? My
friends? The horses? Yes, that sounds like something I would have loved for him
to do. The straps on my arms were bolted into the frame of the bed, so I
went back to tugging on them.
“Horses aren’t destroying this planet, and
your friends are part of the One’s circle. Especially …” Barges made a
garbling sound.
Just be quiet for now. We’ll talk more about
this when I get out of this—
“I wouldn’t
do that if I were you,” Yalrein said from somewhere to my left. “You’ll undo
all the work Torkis did to fix you up last night.”
“Why,” I
said through gritted teeth, “am I strapped to the bed.”
“Because,”
Yalrein said in a low voice with a hint of scorn in it, “you’re a criminal, and
the Regime wants you.”
Muscles
tense, I thrashed about in the bed. “You—”
Yalrein
burst into laughter, but it was full of mirth, not hate. “You are easy to mess
with. I still hate you, but you saved me last night. Twice. And the Regime
burned my home down and killed my family. Until I make them pay, things between
us are on hold.”
“Then why
am I tied to a bed?”
“To keep
you from rolling over onto your back. Whatever that was last night has melted
part of your spine, and it was all Torkis could do after I got you here to heal
you.”
“Here?”
“Yeah, from
our run into the night while being chased, we had made it most of the way to Paster.
With the help of your ointment after that monster disappeared and sent your
hurtling into a tree, I was able to get us here by sunrise.”
“Guess we
got lucky we were going in the right direction.” I knew that was a lie. I had
planned this path long ago when Mother first told me she didn’t want me
becoming a gladiator. Plus it was headed away from my friends.
“Right …”
I tugged at
my restraints again. “Can you remove these? And do you have any food?”
The click
of Yalrein’s boots on hardwood drew closer then the pressure on my left wrist
vanished.
The other
restraints joined the first on the bed before I pushed myself up onto all
fours, not trusting myself not to just roll onto my back. “Thank you.”
“This makes
us even.” Yalrein gestured for me to follow.
In the next
room over, a kitchen, a plate full of sausages, ham and chicken wings acted as
the centerpiece for the table. Around it were all types of peppers and
vegetables that I couldn’t name, but most were yellow or blue. An elderly woman
sat a pair of cups on the table, each filled with Maroon, the sweetest juice I
had ever drunk and my favorite.
I leaned in
close to Yalrein. “Is that Torkis?”
He shook
his head. “That’s his mother.”
After
wiping the drool from my mouth, I sat and began to stuff my face without
ceremony.
“Heathen,”
Yalrein said before taking the place next to me and doing the same thing. He
sure was one to talk.
Once all
the mouthwatering meat had vanished into our stomachs, we moved onto the
vegetables, systematically working our way around the table till there was
nothing left. We each had four more glasses of Maroon before the last piece of
food vanished, and that piece—a long blue pepper—almost sparked up a fight
between me and Yalrein.
A
middle-aged man with tatters of gray in his dark hair entered the room. The
healer’s coat he wore marked him as Torkis, the man who had saved my life.
I stood to
bow. “Thank you so much for saving me.”
Torkis came
over to me and strengthened me with a gesture. “How are you feeling this
afternoon?”
“Better now
that I’ve eaten.” I wiped at my mouth with the back of my hand, sure there were
scraps of food there. There always were.
“That’s
good to hear.” He turned to Yalrein and handed him a list. “I’ve arranged for
some supplies and horses for the two of you, but you’ll have to go get the
supplies and do a bit to help the shopkeepers you’re getting them from. The
horses are already in my stable, as well as the saddles and saddlebags. You
just need to do a few chores and bring your loads back over here.”
“We can’t
thank you enough,” Yalrein said as he stood and bowed. At least, he kept some
of his honor he had learned from Mother.
Torkis
glanced at me. “Don’t do too much heavy lifting. Your back isn’t fully ready
for it.”
I nodded
then glanced down at my white t-shirt, yet again another new one. I’ve been
going through shirts faster than Modaj went through books, but I was still
breathing, so that was something.
Yalrein and
I hit the streets a few minutes later and made our way to the first merchant on
Torkis’s list.
The
clothing shop, which also sold mild armor, had a line out the door, mostly
older women. Despite the looks we were given for skipping the wait, the owner,
a fat man named Hyaxe, waved for them to hurry inside. The tanned smell of
leather and burned silk made the whole place feel authentic, but the constant jab-jab-jab of the sewing machine
quickly wore out its welcome.
“Ummm,” I
said, glancing around at all the angry faces, “Torkis sent us.”
Hyaxe smiled
from ear to ear, chubby cheeks folding. “About time. Help me get this line out
the door and the clothes and armor are yours.” He gestured back towards the
woman on the sewing machine. “She should have the size right by then.”
Helping
customers reach packages up high, carrying boxes down from the attic, bagging
products and collecting money made up the good part of the late afternoon, dusk
taking the sky before we made it to the camping supply vendor.
The young,
bearded owner, no older than Yalrein, had them set up displays to earn the
sleeping rolls, rope, backpacks and traps.
By the time
we finished with the weapons dealer, getting a bow and other hunting weapons as
well as the food and water merchant, the night was half over. A good night’s
sleep in a soft bed before a long, hard ride to Jutzoran would be welcome.
Yalrein led
the way into the stables where we packed up our supplies and prepared the
horses.
“Now can we
take a break?” I asked as we stumbled out of the stable.
“Yeah.”
Yalrein blinked, glancing down the street.
“I know you wanted to concentrate,”
Barges said, “But something is very wrong
to the north of the city.”
And how do you know that? North was the
way we needed to go, and if there was something blocking our path, it would be
good for me to learn.
There was a
crowd gathering around a young woman sitting atop a horse. She was gesturing
wildly with her hands and gasps ran through the crowd.
“I don’t
like the look of this.” Yalrein started towards the group.
And there
went my chance to rest. I started after him. “This is going to be a pain.” Are you going to answer me?
“I can feel something. Some disturbance in
the flow of the planet.”
As long as it’s just a feeling, we won’t
have to waste a few days going around. I reached the gathered crowd with
Yalrein. You’re probably still shaken up
from merging with the other three.
“I don’t think so, but you could be right. I
just can’t shake this feeling.”
We’ll be fine.
“And there
was nothing left,” the young woman on the horse said. “The Regime scouts I had
talked to on the trail said it had been the Fevered Four. They had finally
struck out against Ayuhod with some agents on the inside and killed everyone,
including Mayor Brumpet.”
“We need to
go,” Yalrein said as he leaned in close to me, “now.”
“But … a
soft bed.” I knew Yalrein was right, but it didn’t make accepting this any
easier. I groaned then spun on my heels, heading back towards the stable.
“We have to
keep our eyes out for any strangers,” the young woman said, voice raising,
“because the Regime said they may be trying to do to us what Ayuhod. If you see
anyone you don’t know, report them.”
A lump
formed in my throat, and I doubled my pace, slipping into the stable as the
angry mutters of the crowd grew to a fevered pitch. “How are we going to get
past that group?”
“Blast them
with a wave of fire.” Yalrein grabbed his saddle and set it onto a white horse
with blue stripes down its side.
I had
wanted that horse because it looked awesome, but I didn’t really know much
about them. I had only cared for Guudra with food and checking its shoes. So I
did the same for Wholt—White Bolt was where I got the idea for his
name—checking all six of the metal shoes on the his feet. Then I did the same
for … What would I call her? She was skinnier than Wholt with a purple head of
hair and pink spots covering her brown coat. Hmmm, she could be Pentorse since
the pink reminded him of the monstrous pentabulls that roamed the waists in the
south. Like Wholt, Pentorse’s shoes were fine.
“Everything
check out?” Yalrein asked as he put my saddle on Pentorse.
“Yeah.” I
looked at the door to the stable. “But I don’t think we should hurt the
villagers.”
Yalrein
climbed into Wholt’s saddle. “Only if they get in our way.”
After making
sure all of our supplies were loaded, I got onto Pentorse, patting her on the
neck and flicking on the travel lantern attached to the saddle. “Maybe we could
just scare them out of the way.”
“And if
that doesn’t work?”
“We just have
to race past them.”
“If they
gather against us, they will stop us from reaching the north road.”
Barges
buzzed, but I ignored him and trotted Pentorse forward. “We just have to leave
in a burst and try and sling those out of our way before they know what hit
them.”
Yalrein
turned on his travel lantern. “I hope you’re right.”
I did, too.
Taking a deep breath, I burst out of the stable and charged through the group,
gathering a ball of water in front of me and using it to throw men and women in
the crowd to the side.
Everyone
gaped after us, and it wasn’t until we had gotten several blocks away and
shouts of alarm rose up behind us.
We made it.
Riding hard
for about an hour put us a safe distance away from Paster, and we slowed.
Ahead, a
man, alone, stumbled down the side of the road, heading in the same direction
we were. Without a shirt and his pants in tatters, the bones in his back were
visible as well as his lack of metallic tattoos. He looked like he hadn’t eaten
in weeks, and his long, matted hair spoke of sleeping in bushes and one the
ground.
“He looks
like he could use our help,” I said trotting over to the man.
“Not a good
idea.” Yalrein hurried up behind me.
The man
peered over his shoulder and smiled. His teeth had been filed to points.
Next: Chapter 17
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