Chapter 34 #3
During the night, I kept waking at any little sound, hoping it was Torgrin and Cillian coming into camp, but it was only someone needing to relieve themselves or the nightwatch changing.
When dawn came, I felt worse. I wasn’t healing like I usually did.
I tried to eat, but I felt nauseous and feverish despite the cold.
We rode a little longer than the previous day but stopped early to set up camp before dark. I took Torgrin’s journal out of my pack and found a place alone by the fire.
?
I made Caris laugh today and felt everything inside me come alive again. I spent the morning in the stables humiliating myself by telling her stories about me and Atlas doing ridiculous things as young men. It was worth it to see her happy and laughing.
?
We leave for Capita tomorrow. I don’t know what will happen when we arrive, but if everything goes as planned and we return, I will give Caris her mother’s dagger and this journal.
I was an empty shell before I met Atlas. We are as close as brothers, but we felt a piece was missing until we met a girl by the Red River. I think that is when Caris became one of us.
Three souls bound across eternity. Fated to find each other in every life.
She is our person. We are her people.
She will always have us.
?
I flipped through the journal again, coming to a halt to reread.
She is our person. We are her people.
It triggered the memory of my mother’s dream, in which my father had spoken to her. Find Caris’s people. They are waiting for her.
I always thought we were searching for the family who had abandoned me.
I had believed my connection with Torgrin and Atlas was because they were the only living people who could understand what I had lost that night.
But how could I deny that it was more than that now?
Even though we’d been apart, Torgrin and Atlas had been dreaming of me for years.
Three souls bound across eternity. Fated to find each other in every life.
Torgrin’s words soothed me as I read them over and over. Before leaving Murus, I had slipped the drawings I loved inside. Looking at the snowcapped mountains, I wondered if I’d ever see them in my lifetime.
‘He has so many of those books stashed around Pedion.’ Atlas sat next to me.
‘For someone who doesn’t express his emotions, he sure writes about them a lot,’ I murmured, running my hands over his writing.
‘Are we still pretending we didn’t meet ten winters ago?’ Atlas raised his brow in question.
‘No.’
‘Good, because I’ve wanted to apologise for hitting you on the head so hard all those years ago.’
He sounded genuinely sorry, which made me smile a little.
‘It was my first time knocking someone unconscious, and I think if you weren’t the goddess Hecate reborn, you probably would have died.’
‘Gods aren’t real.’ I shook my head at his silliness.
‘Sure they are. My mother said my father was a god, and that’s why I’m so strong. She was crazy, but it would explain why I’m so good-looking.’
I found myself chuckling despite my mood.
‘So, am I forgiven?’
‘Well, have you gotten better at knocking people unconscious?’ I asked, my tone serious.
‘Much! They rarely die now,’ he said with a reassuring nod.
‘Then I forgive you,’ I said. I looked down at Torgrin’s drawings again. ‘Have you ever been to Ephemeros?’ I asked.
Atlas shook his head.
‘I met his father, you know?’ I proceeded to tell Atlas about the kidnapping and how Torgrin came to confront his father, who had planned on handing me over to King Goa.
‘Why do you think King Goa wants me?’
‘I don’t know, Caris. But I do know Torgrin despised the king.’
Night fell, and Wolfe came to sit silently next to me while I tended the fire. He had not spoken to me or anyone else since I’d arrived. Ania said he’d been like this since the night of the attack. She sat down close to her brother, and Tomas and Finn joined our little group to eat.
I picked at my plate, still struggling to keep food down. My shoulder was showing signs of infection, something I’d never experienced before.
We were running out of time. ‘We need to go back for them.’ I didn’t need to say who. Everyone present knew I spoke of Torgrin and Cillian.
Tomas spoke first. ‘They will have hundreds of soldiers guarding the gate now they know what you are capable of.’
‘The Order also has dragon fire,’ Finn reminded us.
‘King Hared and Merrick will have set a trap expecting you to attempt a rescue,’ Atlas warned.
‘What if we had more men? Possibly an army. What would be the plan then?’ I wouldn’t wait another day. I needed to do something.
Ever the captain, it was Atlas who replied.
‘I would send the bulk of my troops in hard to take down the gate. Then, two small units would go to the castle. The first would execute the rescue of Torgrin and Cillian, and the other would find the dragon fire.’ Atlas looked up at everyone.
‘We would destroy Capita Castle, just like they did Murus.’
‘Good. Then that’s what we will do.’ I stood up. Wolfe looked up at me and I smiled at him reassuringly.
‘There’s one problem, Caris, we don’t have an army anymore,’ Ania said bitterly.
‘Give me two days, and I’ll be back with one,’ I said as I moved towards the horses on the other side of camp.
‘Caris!’ Atlas ran up behind me. ‘I think that fever is messing with your mind. Where do you think you’re going?’
‘I’m going to find Torgrin’s father. He has soldiers, and he can get me an army.’