Chapter 13 #2
Finished, I returned the bag to my pack and laid it on the ground beside me, tipping my head back to take in the jagged stones thrusting through the ceiling above.
My legs shook, and my heart still thumped a furious beat.
Commander Thorne’s training sessions had been grueling, but nothing could’ve prepared me for something like this.
Beside me, Derren pulled Lexie into his side. Fara had settled next to Kerralyn, and they were speaking quietly.
“You’re all too soft,” Bryson said, though with no malice. “I imagine this place will soon toughen you up.”
Or kill us. There was always that.
Breathing easily, Bryson approached the cave entrance, his branch in hand and his weathered face grim.
Maddox hefted a rock the size of his fist and brandished it our way. “Protection.”
“By the fates,” Jaxon said from where he’d sprawled on the dirt floor on the opposite side of Lexie, his voice dry with exhaustion. “Nothing says intimidating defense like my brother waving a rock around at a thunderstorm.”
Laughter burst out of us, the sound echoing off the cave walls.
Maddox’s face darkened, and his mouth twisted into a sneer, though he didn’t speak.
Now that the panic had faded, my arm throbbed where the assassin had cut me last night. I’d take a look at it later.
Rain drummed on the stone outside. Water dripped from cracks in the ceiling, hitting the dirt floor with soft plops.
Even I had been soaked through from water that had gotten in around the neck of my tunic.
My friends tugged at their saturated clothing.
Shifted positions. Grumbled as they shoved back dripping hair.
The cave smelled like wet earth and the green scent of rain-soaked plants.
I pressed my back against the cave wall, trying to find a position that didn’t make my arm feel worse, but it pounded along with each beat of my heart. The pain in my back felt minimal in comparison.
“Your arm hurts, doesn’t it?” Lexie eased closer, watching the way I held my injured limb. “Let me see.”
“What arm?” Derren asked, frowning as he looked me over. “What happened?”
Heat crawled up my spine. “I cut it in the bathroom last night.”
Lexie nodded like that was all that had happened. Like she hadn’t seen me standing over a dead man with blood pooling around him. But she’d helped me without asking questions, and she wasn’t mentioning it now. I was grateful for that.
“I’m a midwife.” Fara got up and came closer, water dripped from her short hair, plopping on the ground. “Can I look?”
I nodded.
She knelt beside me, her hands gentle as she tugged my arm from my tunic sleeve, exposing the saturated dressing I’d applied this morning after bathing.
Fara made a tutting sound as she carefully unwrapped it, tilting my arm this way and that to examine the cut in the scant daylight remaining.
It would be dark soon. I suspected we’d have to shelter here for the night.
“It’s red. Looks sore. Could be infected.” She pulled out her water flask and used some to cleanse the wound. Then she tore a strip from her wet tunic and wrapped it around my arm, securing the ends in a neat knot. “This should help, but keep it clean.”
“Thanks.”
She helped me tug my tunic back on, and I settled back against the wall.
Maddox opened his pack and rifled around inside, tugging out one thing after another to eat. Dried meat, bread, and fruit, stuffing it all in as if we’d walk out of this nightmare within an hour.
“Maybe save some for tomorrow?” Jaxon asked. He could be joking, but real concern came through in his voice.
Maddox grinned. “Maybe I’ll take yours, runt. Better watch out.”
Jaxon’s face reddened, but instead of his usual nervous laugh, he lifted his chin. “Don’t even try.”
Tension shot through the air. Maddox stopped chewing, staring at his brother. For a moment, neither of them moved.
“We should stay here tonight,” I said. “It’s getting too dark to travel, and we shouldn’t split up.”
“Agreed.” Bryson continued to stare out into the storm, smacking his stick against his palm. “Better to rest than stumble around in the dark.”
Kerralyn shifted, clutching her journal she’d shielded with her body from the rain. The edges of the leather appeared to be curling, however. “From my research, although I’ll point out, I didn’t find much, I learned some things about the Rite of Bonds.”
She paused, looking around at us all.
“I worked as a scribe in the library in my village,” she said.
“My mother was a scribe too, and she trained me. When my magic started making pencils write by themselves…” Her wry smile rose.
She stared at the journal she’d laid on her lap, stroking the cover.
“Mother told me to come here. She said if I survived, there was a chance I could return home with better control. Enhanced abilities. If I was able to form a bond with a beast. She never told me what would happen if I didn’t. ”
“Fates, you go on and on and on and you say nothing,” Maddox grumbled. “Make your point or shut up, would you?”
“You shut up.” Jaxon jerked up into a sitting position, glaring at his older brother. “Leave her alone. She’s only trying to help.”
Silence followed.
Jaxon shook from the effort it took to hold back everything else he may have wanted to say. He turned away first, his jaw locked tight.
Surprise flashed across Maddox’s face, and he appeared stunned. Confused. Sad. Then angry—the emotion that remained. His brother joking was one thing, but this was different, a side of Jaxon he probably hadn’t seen much, if ever at all.
“Tell us more,” Jaxon told Kerralyn, his voice softer now. “Please.”
Her fingers twitching on the journal, she watched Maddox for a moment before swallowing.
With a lift of her chin, her gaze met mine before moving to Lexie and Derren.
“There isn’t much information, not even in the library, and we have more volumes than most in our kingdom.
They keep all of this a secret on purpose.
But from what I found, if we survive the trials, we get the chance to bond with magical companions.
The bonding might involve a test too, though I only found hints of that. No true confirmation.”
“Of course,” Derren muttered, pulling Lexie closer.
“That’s just wonderful.” Sarcasm dripped from Maddox’s voice.
“Are we going to have to avoid weapons for this test as well? I don’t like it.
I need to be armed. Food’s great. I love to eat.
But those plants in the jungle…” A shiver rippled through him, and he shook it off with a wiggle of his shoulders.
“I’d rather face them with something other than a rock. ”
Which he’d lowered to his side.
“I don’t believe those we might bond with would welcome weapons,” Kerralyn said softly. “But you do what you feel is best.”
“I haven’t seen the armory yet, but I’m sure it’s out here somewhere.
” He nudged Jaxon’s arm. “Right? We’ll just hop on down to it tomorrow and get some nice leathers like Isi, then load ourselves up with knives.
Maybe a sword or two. Then we can meander to wherever the bonding creatures are waiting. ”
“Would you stop?” Jaxon growled. “You’re tired. Stressed. We all are. We need to be serious. Stop acting like a fool.”
Maddox looked like he’d taken one of his mythical knives in the belly, but he shored up his expression and dragged his pack closer, digging around and pulling out a slice of bread. He bit down on it hard and ripped off a hunk, chewing fast.
Jaxon met his gaze and held it for a long moment before looking away.
Bryson still stood at the cave entrance, leaning against the right wall, the stick propped on his shoulder. He watched all of this unfold between glances out at the darkening sky.
“We should split guard duty,” I said. “I’ll take the next shift.”
Respect shone in Bryson’s eyes. “Good idea. Two hours each. I’ll go first.”
With death breathing down our necks, a fierce, primal side had awakened inside me. I’d become a leader, and it appeared Bryson was my second. Other than Maddox, the others seemed fine with it, though I wondered how long that would last.
We divided up the night with Fara volunteering to follow me.
Then we tried to sleep. The air still hung hot and sticky, and the rain drumming against the ground outside didn’t help. My arm throbbed with each heartbeat, making it hard to get comfortable.
Lying on my side, I rested it on my pack, and I drifted into…
I woke when Bryson tapped my shoulder.
“Your turn,” he said softly, his voice barely rising above the snores echoing in the cave.
With a nod, I got up, and he lay down in my warm spot.
I collected his stick and stood at the cave entrance, leaning against the wall like he’d done, watching rain fall in sheets across the jungle.
My arm was determined not to let me forget about it, shooting pain up to my shoulder each time I moved it.
The skin felt hot and tight, and I didn’t like that.
I’d have to do something about it soon, though I had no idea what. I doubted I’d find a healer out here.
Behind me, the others slept. No one stirred. If anyone dreamed, they were quiet about it.
The jungle did not sleep. It creaked. Whispered. Watched.
I gripped the stick tighter. I hadn’t expected to feel so exposed here, tucked beneath a rock ledge with a cliff behind me, but something about the way the vines shifted across the trees not more than thirty paces away made my skin crawl.
Something flitted through the dense vegetation to my right, coming this way.
A predator?
This was it, what I’d expected when I’d insisted we take turns standing watch. The trials hadn’t ended with the massacre in the meadow. This place wasn’t through with us yet. My spine snapped straight. I braced my legs, lifting the stick. Blood roared in my ears.