28. Kit
Kit
After the unplanned foray into town, we only stopped a few hours each of the next four nights.
We weren’t allowed to leave the cart except to relieve ourselves in the trees and, even then, we did it under close watch.
The only exception our guards made was for Isla when she offered to brew some tea to help keep the watchmen awake during their shifts.
She played unassuming better than the rest of us.
During the days, we were all miserable. The heat swelled the higher the sun rose, and by midday we were all sweating, uncomfortable, and irritable. Not to mention the dread and anxiety that grew in me with every passing mile until I was nearly sick with it.
The guards fared a bit better. They got at least a few hours rest on the ground instead of the wooden floor of the cart. Still, even they were terse and short with us by the time we pulled off the road outside of Forstford just past dusk and set camp.
“I can’t wait to sleep on the ground,” Penny said. There wasn’t a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
I helped him down from the cart, then accepted the pile of bedrolls one of the guards dumped into my outstretched arms. Another guard similarly loaded Penny up with the sack of provisions, and Rosie and Isla helped the other two gather wood to build a meager fire.
We were too close to town for anything sizable.
Besides, the balmy nights also meant we were more likely to be too warm than to need to chase away a chill.
While Penny deposited his burden near the makeshift fire pit, I spread out the bedrolls. They looked inviting after days cramped in the cart, but I wouldn’t be doing any sleeping that night.
Still, I couldn’t help a smile when Penny eyed the space between our blankets with a scowl. He scooted his over until it touched mine, then gave an approving nod.
“That’s better.”
Once camp was set, we shared a tense supper before dispersing to our bedrolls.
“Don’t get too comfortable,” one of the guards called over as Penny and I sat on our makeshift bed. “We’ll rest here until full dark, and then you’d best be ready to prove your faith.”
Rosie scowled at the man before claiming the bedroll on Penny’s left and stretching out on her back. Her shoulders remained stiff even after she crossed her arms over her chest and closed her eyes.
Penny tugged on my arm.
“Come on. You need sleep.”
We both settled down, and a grunt escaped as I stretched my aching back. Penny tucked himself into my side, his head pillowed on my shoulder and his arm draped across my chest.
It was too warm for so much contact, but I curled my own arm around his shoulders and pulled him closer. I wasn’t sure how many more nights we’d get, and I wasn’t willing to waste a single moment.
“You’re tense,” Penny murmured against my shoulder.
“Can you blame me?”
He shook his head.
“Try to get some sleep,” I told him. “Better to face the horrors at least somewhat rested.”
He shuddered, and I squeezed him tighter.
I hated that there was nothing I could do to protect him from the blaze we’d soon be unleashing on Forstford. He’d struggled for weeks after the fire in Wendwood, and now here we were, facing it down again. Only this time, we were striking the match.
But if everything went to plan, the houses we’d be burning would be empty.
Quiet settled over the camp. Rosie finally relaxed as sleep took her, and Penny wasn’t far behind.
The four guards remained awake, discussing watch rotations on the other side of the fire while I fought a doze of my own. Once they settled on who would take first watch and three of them retired to their bedrolls, I glanced over to the right where Isla was still sitting up.
Her gaze met mine for a split second before she looked away to dig through her pack for the tea stashed within. It would taste almost identical to the tea she’d been brewing them for days, she’d told me back in Ashpoint. Easy enough to miss the difference for someone without a discerning palate.
“Almost forgot your tea,” she said as she rose and moved to the fire. “Can’t have you dozing off before all the action.”
The guard on watch didn’t so much as crack a smile.
Once she had the tea brewed and the mug handed off, she returned to her bedroll and settled in to feign sleep.
Too much time passed before the three guards succumbed to sleep. Then, the watchman’s head dipped and his shoulders slumped and a faint snore rumbled out of him as he joined them. We waited several minutes past that before I carefully extricated myself from Penny and pushed up to my feet.
Isla pulled my knife from its hiding place beneath her skirt and held it out to me. When I took hold of it, she didn’t let go right away, her fingers curled tight around the hilt until I met her eyes.
“Be careful. And get back before he wakes up.” She canted her head to indicate the sleeping guard.
“I’ll do my best.” I glanced back down at Penny, and the air caught in my chest. “If—”
“Don’t,” she whispered. “Don’t think it; don’t say it. Just go. You’re wasting time.”
I wanted to linger, to watch Penny rest a while longer, to make sure I had every bit of him memorized before I risked it all, but Isla was right. Time was short.
There were lives to save.
I slipped out of camp without rousing anyone. Once I got far enough away, I broke into a jog until I made it out of the trees. Forstford sprawled out before me then, and I made for Ben’s house first. In case people wouldn’t listen to warnings from me, I knew they’d listen to him.
But despite pounding on the door for almost a full minute, he didn’t answer. So, I struck out for the market and his butcher shop in hopes to find him there.
I was almost to the square when a voice from the shadows drew me up short.
“Kit?” Ben stepped out into the street. The moonlight caught on the silver in his hair and made it look white.
“What are you doing out so late?” I asked.
His brow crinkled with confusion. “The messenger arrived about two hours ago with your warning.”
Apparently, the confusion was catching. “What? What messenger? What warning?”
“Some man from Brightwell came galloping in here in a big hurry. Said you sent word that bad people were coming and we needed to leave. We assumed since the warning came from you, it was the Bone Men. Most of town has evacuated. I’m gathering up stragglers.
” He glanced around and looked mildly relieved at not seeing anyone else.
“But Kit,” he added hurriedly, “you can’t be here. We sent for the militia.”
I had no idea where Brightwell was, or who the supposed messenger had been. Thoma had planned to head out to Eastcliff with Liam the day after we left, but there was no way they’d have made it here before us.
…But we had made an unexpected stop, where Penny had been all too eager to lend his strength to the guard to fetch more grain for the horses after our supply mysteriously dwindled.
Had he sent the warning under my name so the people here might heed it?
A last-ditch effort to save Forstford, even after I’d told him I’d given up on the possibility?
I’d have thanked him then and there if I could have, because it made my job that much easier.
“I’m not going anywhere, Ben. We have orders to burn the town in an hour or two, and I’m not leaving until I know everyone is safe.
I’ll help you gather up the last few people and get them out of here, and then I’m going to haul as much water as I can from the well and start dousing houses.
I doubt it’ll do much, but it might help mitigate the blaze. ”
“No,” he insisted, grabbing my arm and trying to physically turn me back the way I’d come.
“I don’t know when the militia will get here, but I don’t doubt they’ll sweep you up with anyone else who came with you.
I don’t know that your warning will buy you as much grace with them as it did the rest of the town. ”
“Penny’s warning,” I corrected him. “I had nothing to do with it.”
His mouth pressed a thin line.
“I’m sorry for bringing Forstford into my trouble,” I said. “Please let me make whatever amends I’m able.”
Ben drew in a long breath and let it out in a rush before he nodded.
“Widow Thatcher insisted on packing her things.” He pointed to the east side of town.
“Avelyn Wright is with her, but she’ll need help getting the old lady to actually leave.
Galen should be waiting at the edge of town by the mill to take the last few people to safety.
Get them to him, and then meet me back at the well. ”
I took off to the east, and Ben headed west. Across town, I made it to the Thatcher house as Avelyn was hauling the elderly homeowner through the front door. They were both heavy-laden with sacks of Widow Thatcher’s belongings.
“Let me take those,” I offered.
Avelyn jerked in surprise, but a smile of relief quickly followed.
“Oh, Kit, it’s good to see you.” She eased the sack off her shoulder and held it out to me.
I wanted to tell her that I was a harbinger of destruction. Maybe I always had been, and this was where it was always going to end. But there was no time.
I took the other sack from Widow Thatcher and slung both of them over my shoulders.
“We need to move,” I said. “Quick as we can. We’re heading for the mill.”
No one spoke again while we hurried along the deserted street. It was a relief, because I spent most of the trip looking back over my shoulder to make sure there were no familiar faces waiting with torches and lamp oil to light the town up around us.
At the mill, I passed the women and their belongings off to Galen, said my goodbyes, then set off for the square. Anxiety quickened my steps and made my heart pound. My gut was a mess of knots, and when I rounded the corner into the market, it clenched so painfully I thought I might vomit.
There in the center of the square, barely illuminated by the waning moonlight, were Klaus and Violette.
I ducked back into the shadows beside the inn before they could spot me, though I found myself thankful that they’d turned toward me anyway instead of away. Because behind them, down the lane by the butcher shop, were Penny and Rosie.
My stomach hit my feet.
What were they doing here? Any of them?
Klaus and Violette should have been back in Ashpoint, and Penny and Rosie had been asleep when I snuck out of camp. They weren’t supposed to be here. They were supposed to be safe. But here they were, seconds away from being discovered.
I swung back around the corner and into the light, then pounded on the door to the inn as loudly as I could. The racket drew the Sentinels’ attention, and a moment later, hands seized me by the arms and yanked me off the stoop.
“This was unwise, Kitten,” Violette crooned in my ear. One of her hands slid down from my shoulder and around my waist to tug the knife from my belt and hand it to Klaus. “And you weren’t meant to have this. Naughty, naughty.”
They hauled me around, and I nearly collapsed in relief to find the lane across from us deserted.
Wherever Penny and Rosie had gone, at least they were out of sight.
I just hoped that Rosie wouldn’t let Penny come after me.
That she’d keep him here, get him to safety. Save his life the way I never could.
“You couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you?” Vi clicked her tongue and loosed a coil of rope hanging from her belt. “I was hoping you’d do something stupid like this so I could drag you back to Ashpoint in chains.”
Klaus wrenched my arms behind my back and held me still while she cinched the rope around my wrists.
Once they were secure, she pressed flush against me and rested her lips on the shell of my ear. “Now, where are Rosie and your Pretty Penny?” she whispered.
A shiver of disgust traced down my spine, but it only made her giggle.
“Out foraging,” I lied. “They went out before I left camp. They’re probably out in the woods.”
She stepped back and yanked on my bonds, making me stagger and stumble into her.
“You expect me to believe that?” she snapped as she shoved my shoulder to right me on my own two feet, and Klaus gripped my bicep again.
“Believe what you like,” I replied, “but I planned this alone. Penny had no part in it.”
She scoffed. “We’ll see about that when we find them.
But you, Kitten… You and Isla will be coming with us back to Ashpoint immediately.
” She leaned in close and dropped her voice to a whisper.
“I can’t wait to hold you down while Merrick cuts your throat like we did to Levitt.
You deserve a traitor’s death just like he did. ”
Bile burned in my throat, and I swallowed it back. I’d always known Merrick had killed Levitt, but to know that my old friend’s own twin had restrained him…
Klaus jerked me forward. “Time to go.”
Neither Sentinel said another word as they dragged me out of town.
They didn’t seem in too great a hurry until we were almost at the tree line and Klaus glanced over his shoulder at the sound of some sort of commotion far behind us.
He jerked his head toward camp, and Vi nodded understanding as they quickened their pace.
But when I tried to look back, Vi fisted her hand in the hair at the back of my head to keep me facing forward.
“Move,” she growled.
As the woods closed in around us, a pit yawned in my gut, and it grew and grew until I was sure it would swallow me whole. Because the militia were coming to Forstford, and if the Sentinels didn’t find Penny, the soldiers surely would. They could kill him, and I would have no idea.
Would my soul feel his leave this world?
I knew my heart would, because if he died, that part of me would die with him.
And then there was Ben. I clung to the hope that he got the last people out of town safely. That the Sentinels wouldn’t find him before he could get to safety, too.
That if Penny lived, he would forgive me for getting myself caught to keep him safe.