Chapter 36
CHAPTER 36
T he wind blew cold over the beach, across the three men lying motionless on the sand. One wore nothing but the tattered remnants of a pair of trousers. All three were covered in blood.
A dozen seagulls looked on with sharp avian interest, but whenever one ventured too close to the men, it was chased back by a cadre of scolding ravens.
One of the men slowly sat up. His long black hair was entangled with bits of beach flotsam, and the strands got in his way when he tried to look around. He reached toward one of the others—the man with the short blond hair—but then shook his head.
He shivered… and disappeared.
A moment later, a black bird with a grayish-white beak fought free of the man’s clothing. The ravens called out to the bird, who answered back, his cries more nasal than the others. He looked over the waves and beyond, where a distant shore was barely visible even to his sharp eyes. He grabbed a tiny brown box with the talons of one foot and flapped into the air, fighting the wind, heading north over the sea.
Even though exhausted, he continued until he was midway between the two shores. He would have preferred to turn west, over the open ocean, but he doubted he’d have the strength to make it back.
When the two pieces of land—two different nations, he recalled—were equidistant, he let go of the box. It tumbled end over end and entered the water without a splash. He circled, but it didn’t float to the surface.
He felt a tearing loss, as if some organ had been ripped from his body.
He turned and let the wind carry him back to the beach and the two sprawled men.