Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“ E veryone stay back. I’ll handle this.”
Dane’s voice is low and authoritative as he makes his way toward the cage, toward me. I hope he isn’t too angry with me, but I know he has every right to be. I didn’t follow orders, and now, after witnessing everyone else and his authority over them, I know following his orders is not up for discussion. I know I’ll eventually be out searching on my own, following my own orders, but I am not ready for that yet. I am not familiar enough with the island or the dangers it holds.
Clearly.
I wasn’t expecting the dangers to come from people on my side.
Heavy footsteps echo through the trees as Dane approaches my cage. I can’t help but feel a little uneasy as he gets closer, even knowing that there is no reason for me to fear him. My father never really scolded me. It was punishment enough to have his disappointed scowl directed at me, or just outright ignore me. If Dane were to truly be angry with me, I’m not sure how I’d take it .
I wait as he comes through the trees and into view, hoping that he is more concerned than angry.
“Lennox?”
He actually sounds surprised, thank the gods.
“This is where you’ve been?” Concern laces his voice as he quickly works the lock open and yanks on the door handle.
I grunt a response against the gag.
He drops to his knees in front of me and reaches behind my head to untie it.
“I’m going to kill them,” he murmurs. His eyes are etched with concern, and I feel them drag over every inch of my face as he looks me over. “Are you alright?” His hand reaches up, thumb brushing across the top of my cheek and wrapping around to my hair.
Pain shoots through my jaw as I open and close it, and Dane’s eyes catch my wince. “I’m fine. These are really hurting, though.” I raise up my hands, showing him the ropes that are still confining me.
“Hang on, let me get them.” He reaches into his boot and pulls out a small rustic looking knife with a serrated edge. He saws through the ropes until they break away, then drops the knife to grab my forearms. He turns my wrists over, inspecting every inch of them.
The trail of his fingertips over my skin causes tingles
that directly combats the pain from the ropes.
“The skin is rubbed raw. We’ll need to put some salve on them.” He moves his attention to my ankles, where he does the same. They don’t hurt as badly as my wrists, as my pants protected the skin from most of the rubbing, but they are still sore.
“Did they take your dagger?”
“No.”
“But you didn’t protect yourself?” he says, aghast.
“I didn’t even have time. They were shooting at me when I tried to get away. I was running when I got knocked down. I could barely breathe, let alone reach for my dagger, before they were tying me up like a criminal. ”
“But they didn’t take it?” He asks.
I shake my head. “They didn’t even check me for a weapon.”
“Fucking idiots.” He stands, reaching down to grasp my hands and pull me to my feet. “You should have stayed where I told you. This never would have happened.”
“I know. I’m sorry I didn’t listen, and that was stupid. I’m just glad it was them and not the Castaways. As soon as I hit the ground, all I could think was ‘I need air’ and ‘Dane’s going to be so mad that I was captured after only a day.’”
That gets him to laugh, and the sound puts me a little more at ease. He wouldn’t be laughing if he was too angry. “I’m glad it wasn’t them, too.” His gaze turns intense as he stands over me, overwhelming me.
I look away, trying to stop some of the discomfort from the intensity. He is still holding my hands and being so careful with me. It is a different careful than back in Blackwood. Everyone there treated me like glass or like I didn’t exist, but Dane. Dane is treating me like I mean more than just another person seeking a cure.
“I need to take care of this. Please, just stay quiet until it’s dealt with. Then I’ll introduce you to everyone.”
“Alright.” He drops one hand and leads me out of the cage. I wince with pain as I walk, the skin on my legs stretching and pulling with each step. Just before we come out of the trees and back into the clearing, Dane releases my hand and steps directly in front of me.
Everyone is standing in the clearing, waiting, and there are more of them now than had originally captured me. News of having caught a Castaway must have spread, and they all rushed back to camp to see the prisoner.
“Why’d you let her out, Dane?”
“Don’t tell me she tricked you!”
“Tie her back up!”
“Did she give them up that quickly already?”
The outburst is just as loud as it was before, everyone speaking over each other, and by the sounds of it, I’m sure this happens often .
“Enough,” Dane says. He doesn’t yell, but it is clear he is not joking. “Who is responsible for this?”
“I am.” The boy from before, who was giving the orders, steps forward and clasps his hands behind his back. “Did she give you any information about the Castaways?”
Dane ignores the question. “Did you find out who she was?”
“I didn’t need to. None of us know her, so I knew she wasn’t one of us.”
“You didn’t ask her?” Dane crosses his arms over his chest, his muscles tensing as if he is holding himself back.
“She said you brought her here,” Mara says from her spot in the group.
“Typical lie from one of those brainwashing spawn,” the boy spits. “We couldn’t trust anything she said.”
Dane’s jaw ticks. “Did you check her for weapons?”
“Ye—” He starts before cutting himself off. He snaps his mouth shut, and the realization hits his eyes.
“Did you?” Dane pushes again, taking an intimidating step closer to the boy.
“No. We didn’t.”
“So, you mean to tell me, you were so caught up in having caught someone you assumed was a Castaway that you didn’t check her for any weapons, and then sent me in there alone? Without knowing whether or not she would attack me within the cage?”
“I— I—” He stammers, his eyes widening as he realizes his mistake.
“Stop.” Dane raises a hand, then turns to face me. “Lennox, can you show them, please?”
I reach behind me, into my waistband, and pull out my dagger, holding it up so they can see the glint of the weapon that they didn’t even attempt to take off of me.
Multiple faces drop. Some look angry, some surprised. Some even look like they want to take my dagger away and keep it for themselves.
“She’s not a fucking Castaway,” Dane says, his voice a loud growl. “I brought her here last night. She’s only met Storm. ”
“That’s why she knew my name,” I hear Mara mumble.
Glad to see she finally figured out I wasn’t lying or manipulating her.
“You were the leader in this?” Dane says as he directs his attention back to the boy.
“Yes.”
“You’re on watch duty for the next two weeks.”
His face breaks as he responds with shock and dismay. “But Dane! That’s not fair! How was I supposed to know who she was? I thought she was lying!”
The arrogance and authority he displayed earlier today is gone with Dane’s command, and I’m glad. From the way he behaved with me earlier, he needed to learn a lesson.
“You took a captive without checking to see if she had a weapon. You let one of us go into a cage with an armed prisoner. You didn’t question her yourself. And you harmed one of our own. We don’t harm our own. We’re better than they are!” Dane is almost yelling now, and I can feel his anger rippling through him. “I could keep going on with all the ways you endangered your family, but I think that’s enough.”
The boy’s head hangs as he accepts Dane’s wrath.
Would he have been this angry if it had happened to anyone else in the group, or was he more upset because it was me? I don’t want special treatment, especially if it might set me apart from the group. I don’t need to start relationships with these people in a negative light.
He nods and keeps his eyes downcast as he steps back to rejoin the group.
Dane doesn’t speak as he glares at them.
My eyes travel over them too, taking in each of their faces. Some look guilty, some suspicious, some outright angry. Hopefully they will all move past their feelings quickly. I don’t know how long this will take, and while the goal of being here isn’t to make friends, I don’t want to make enemies, either. Having some friends wouldn’t be so bad.
Dane finally speaks, the rage gone from his voice .
“Everyone, this is Lennox. She arrived yesterday. She’s from Blackwood.” He proceeds to point out each person in the group and says their name. I’ve never met so many people at once, so I know it is going to take me some time to remember them all. I’d remember Mara, since she was the only other girl here at the moment.
“We have another new arrival back at camp. He’s waiting in the tavern for us. He’s young. I expect everyone to be kind and help him out.”
A chorus of agreements sound off before Dane nods at the group and everyone disperses back to camp. The severity of the past few minutes seems gone as they race each other and fool around as they head up into the camp.
“Come on,” Dane says to me, stepping aside so I can walk in front of him. “Let’s go get some salve on those wrists.”