37. Eshe
Eshe
The first thing I could feel was the sand in my mouth.
No, it wasn’t sand, but it sure felt like it.
I felt as though I hadn’t tasted water in months, in years. I lifted my heavy eyelids and was met by the faint glow of the candle on the table that nearly blinded me. My eyes burned.
The pounding of footsteps behind me caused me to jump. The steps continued down the hallway.
I lifted my heavy hand to my head. It was throbbing. With great effort, I went to stand up and nearly tumbled back to the floor. My legs were like boulders pulling me to the bottom of the dune.
The candle in front of me barely had any wax left, letting me know it’d been burning for a long time, perhaps for an entire day or two. With that thought, my stomach growled.
My body felt as if it had been sleeping on the floor for days in the same position. Oof.
I stretched as much as I could as my eyes flitted over the teacup that Targon gave me.
He drugged me, that bastard.
The footsteps behind me stopped, and my breath hitched. I heard a sliding metal of a latch, and the door creaked open.
Two robed Atrovians came through with a copper bath, not acknowledging me as they filled it with water and brought forward a dark blue dress.
If I had the energy and the agility, I would have lunged for their weapon, but I could barely take a step.
It’d be better to hold my efforts until I knew I would win a fight.
The Atrovians made their way toward the door as I kept my body slumped on the opposite wall, waiting.
“He’ll be expecting you in one hour,” the last Atrovian said as he shut the door, and the echo of the lock rang in my ear.
My shoulders dropped, and I struggled to take another deep breath.
I didn’t know whether I should confront Targon or if I should keep what I knew to myself. I decided against it. Gaining my strength back was a priority, and accusing Salazar of murdering my family wouldn’t get Norrah back into my safety.
After I found Norrah… well, after that… My thoughts drifted to Ezra, and how I felt being in his arms in the last moments we were together.
My eyes stung, and I was surprised at the emotions that rose within me.
A heavy sensation spread through my chest, a deep, heart-wrenching sadness that I couldn’t hold back. My hand flew to my mouth to cover the sobs that escaped me. I squeezed my eyes shut and shoved whatever feeling this was down, down, down.
My family being gone and now Ezra… Casimir. Who knew if they survived… most likely they had not.
If I hadn’t been born—
I tightened my body and breathed through the knot that circled my chest.
Breathe.
Breathe.
In and out.
Something inside of me ruptured—
Silent sobs broke out of my body, and tears ran down my cheeks. If I hadn’t been born… none of this would have happened.
My mother would be alive.
Yonam would still be here, happy and laughing—living.
Ezra would be alive.
After having the slowest bath, I eventually dressed in time before the Atrovians were back.
I was feeling more in control of my motor movements after the bath and slapping my cheeks, promoting more blood to reach my brain.
They had their weapons drawn as they followed me down the hallway and into the next level above.
The tunnels were dark except for a couple of torches nailed to the stone walls.
They brought me into a large chamber, half the size of the arena and as tall as two floors. A large chandelier hung at the top of the limestone chamber, and an impressively massive wooden table at the center, filled with meats, cheeses, rice, and sauces.
Norrah’s small frame sat at the side of the long table, completely in a daze. I flung my body into motion, rounded the table, and called out to her.
Her head turned to me slowly. A smile touched her lips, but it didn’t quite meet her eyes.
“Norrah, Norrah.”
She lifted her body from the chair, and I wrapped her in my arms. She was so cold.
I rubbed my hands on her arms to regain their normal temperature. “How are you?”
“Don’t worry about me, Eshe. I’m okay, really,” she whispered to me.
I turned my head to study the room. There were a few guards posted, and Targon was just walking in.
In a low voice, I said, “I’ll get you out, I promise. I’ll get to the bottom of this.” I held her ice-cold hands in mine, hoping the warmth of mine was comforting to her. “We’ll be in Urnaz in no time.”
Norrah’s eyes flickered around me. The look in them was not the Norrah I’d come to know. “I have a bad feeling about this.”
Targon trudged to the front of the table, sliding the chair and sitting as if he were the Qahl of this place. I stifled the instant protectiveness I felt for Ezra down into the very core of my body. That type of energy would be useful later, but not now.
I began to sit down next to Norrah’s place at the table, just as Targon announced, “Eshe. Come sit here, next to me.”
He was to our left, and he wanted me to be on his left, Norrah on his right. I wanted to roll my eyes. He was acting as if we were some big, happy family. No one even knew I was his daughter except for Kavid, himself, and me.
Mustering my most annoying glare, I shot it toward him as I lifted myself from the chair and shuffled over to his other side.
“Why are you keeping her here?” I demanded in between gritted teeth. God, I wanted her away, away from this mess. Away from my mess.
Norrah shot her eyes at me, seemingly nervous that I was even bringing her up. She hadn’t touched a single piece of food.
“I couldn’t leave her with Ezra, now could I?” Targon said. Why did I not notice how he always answered a question with another question? It made me want to throw food in his face. Suddenly, everything he was doing was annoying.
Everything he did now was so different from the man I used to know, the man I used to look up to and love. How did I not see this before? How could I have been so blind?
“And why not?” I felt my hands tighten into a fist.
Targon started to scoop up rice and beans onto his plate, but Norrah and I hadn’t so much as moved a finger toward our plates.
He took a bite before saying, “Because that’s not where she belongs.”
My heart thudded. Norrah met my eyes. I could feel her breath faltering from where I sat across.
“And where does she belong?” I breathed.
Targon swallowed a bite. “With her husband, of course.”
“She has no husband,” I enunciated each word.
“Not yet,” Targon sang, pointing a fork in my face. My fingers edged to grab that fork and shove it into his eyeball.
Just then, the large door to the chamber opened, and my heart froze. It froze, and then it shattered into a million pieces from the coldness of the man who had just entered the room.
“Good evening.” Gabriel tilted his chin to us. He was dressed in a black tunic and trousers to match his dark, lifeless soul.
My body was so tense, I couldn’t move a muscle even if I wanted to. Norrah’s face turned a ghostly pale, as if her life had just flashed before her eyes and she was gone.
Something snapped inside me, and I whirled toward Targon. “Why are you doing this? What benefit does this give you to bring her to Gabriel?”
“Eshe, calm down, or I’ll take you elsewhere.
” I inhaled sharply but bit my cheek. “His protection while traveling through his lands is invaluable. It was a pleasant surprise when I found direction from Gabriel when he came to me and told me he saw a young woman twice with eyes like the Silver Snake. I knew it was you. He told me she was with an Atrovian.” He stood by, smoking something that smelled like dried grass.
“I told him to show me the way and promised I would help find his woman, Norrah, in exchange. You know how it is in the desert—we trade. Though I didn’t know both of you would be together.
It was fate by God. He showed me the way to you and to her. ”
Oh, no.
My nerves shook like they had never shaken before. A flooding sensation of defensiveness rolled through my blood.
“As soon as I had Norrah under my care, I sent word to Gabriel a few days ago.” Targon smiled at Gabriel and waved a hand to the chair across from him.
“Welcome. I think this calls for a celebration. There are people here, in the Atrove, who’ve never been Atrovian.
A forbidden act, unless, of course, they are prisoners and soon to be killed. How interesting is that?”
A chill went down my spine.
Who was this man? I quickly attempted to compose my facial expression.
Gabriel sat down at the end of the table and leaned back in his chair without saying another word. His empty, icy green eyes finally slid to Norrah, and she must have felt the pull because she met them.
There was a loud, very loud tension that burned in the room.
I shifted in my seat, suddenly thinking of all the ways I could slit Gabriel’s throat right here, right now.
But my mind was working too slowly and running out of options.
If I were correct, this was their second time meeting each other.
The first time was the day before their wedding.
“Norrah’s had the best of care, I assure you. She’s been safe here, well-fed and taken care of. Isn’t that so?” Targon glanced over to Norrah.
I was going to be sick. She was trapped. She was going to be forced to marry this man from hell.
Gabriel’s eyes perused Norrah’s body as if testing Targon’s words. But I couldn’t read Gabriel. Maybe that added to what was so unnerving about him. He seemed like he couldn’t feel a single emotion. He always had the same face, the same eyes, completely unbothered. Something seemed off.
“If I leave here and find out she’s been hurt in any way, shape, or form, I’ll burn this entire mountain to ash.” His words were clear and dry, a matter of fact. He turned toward me and cocked his head to the side. “Where is your husband?”
I narrowed my eyes. Damn him.
“Husband?” Targon muttered near me while my heart, finally, was pumping more blood now than before. I squeezed the fabric of my dress in my lap, imagining it were Gabriel’s neck for even mentioning him.
With a tight smile, I said, “He’ll be here, but you won’t see him.”
“Oh?”
“You’ll be dead before you can,” I promised.
His eyes didn’t flutter away. Like he couldn’t care less that I threatened his life. It had little effect.
“I look forward to it,” he deadpanned.
“Eshe,” I heard Norrah quietly say, and I pulled my attention from Gabriel. She shook her head gently, and I frowned. I would have a spine for both of us. How could she not fight, even if the inevitable was that we would lose?
She was afraid.
Gabriel slid his eyes back to Norrah and kept them on her for a moment too long. I could only imagine the plans he had for her.
Targon’s voice echoed through the room as he spoke to Gabriel, “Do you enjoy wine? You should try some. We have the most exquisite wine brought from the many regions up north.”
“I didn’t come here to break bread with you. We’ll be leaving.” Gabriel stood up from his chair, straightening his tunic because he was so fucking proper.
I shot up from my chair. “Over my dead body. You won’t be taking her anywhere.”
Norrah threw another glare at me, her lips pursed. But she was afraid. I could see it in her eyes.
Gabriel looked at me as he lifted his palm toward the door, waiting for Norrah without another word. She then lifted herself, straightening her dress and spine before rounding the table to me.
Norrah whispered in a hurry, “Don’t come find me. Swear it?”
My eyes slid to Norrah’s teary ones, and I shook my head. I could never.
“Swear it, Eshe. I don’t want you coming for me.”
Targon interrupted our whispers, “So soon? Why don’t you finish the meal with us? We even have a chamber for you set and ready for… the consummation.”
I gasped and whirled on my heel to Gabriel. “If you touch her, I will kill you.” I was losing control, but everything I was doing was like walking through water.
Norrah’s throat moved as she walked toward Gabriel.
He mouthed to me, Kill me.
My heart thudded once more.
It was as if he were begging me to.
I saw red. I grabbed the butter-knife in front of me on the table and lunged for him as Norrah brushed past him. But an Atrovian nearby snaked his arm around my waist, and I screamed for her, for my friend. “Norrah! Don’t go! Norrah!”
The back of Norrah’s head disappeared into the darkness of the tunnels. I kicked the man behind me, but I was so weak I couldn’t even manage to hurt him. I couldn’t think clearly, but I couldn’t stop trying. I had to do something.
Gabriel tilted his head toward Targon. “I’d rather not waste my time pretending I like to do business with you, Targon.” Gabriel turned and followed Norrah down the dark hallway.
I took a deep, shaky, watery breath. “I’ll fucking kill you, Gabriel.”
I trembled against the Atrovian’s arms. I fought and fought, but it was fruitless. The door slammed shut, vibrating the candles and the table in the room.
The Atrovian dropped my body, and I scrambled to my feet. I whipped toward Targon with red, wet vision. “I will never forgive you for this.”
“This is politics, my darling. Have I not taught you anything? I’m surprised, to say the least. I thought I raised you better than this. This shows me you’re not ready for anything. Nothing that I had in store for you.” He shook his head in disappointment. “What a shame.”
I refrained from blurting out what I knew. The only weapon I had now.
I knew with all my heart that he was an animal.
I would have my revenge. For my family, for Ezra, for Casimir, and for Norrah.
“I expected more from you, Eshe. Don’t disappoint me like this next time.”
Targon waved a hand in my direction before diving into his full plate of food. Suddenly, I was being pulled back to my prison chamber, but I couldn’t stop the aching dread that pressed against my chest.