6
Kora
Kora crawled forwards as two wonderful beings emerged from behind a woollen blanket. Her fragmented heart beamed as Erick straightened, peering from a makeshift den replicated from her time in here.
“Kora!” He darted from the wooden pallet, hay clinging to his bare chest as he knelt in front of her, pulling Kora into his arms. “You’re alive!”
“Is it truly her?” Agatha stumbled from the corner, and Kora cried snot-worthy tears as Agatha’s aged body hobbled across the space, swathed in a stained, grey dress. She’d somehow aged a further ten years since Kora had seen her last.
“I’m here,” Kora croaked, reaching out as Agatha gently sat down, balancing an arm on Erick’s shoulder as her knobbly hands wavered over Kora’s face.
Her skinny arms wrapped around them, crying into their shoulders as they both rejoiced at her being alive. But she felt far from it. That kernel of life holding on in her chest burned brighter from inhaling Erick’s natural warmth and Agatha’s exoticness.
“I can’t believe you’re both here,” Kora sobbed. “You’re both alive. I was so worried! Did Ivar help you? He’s here.” The calm self-control she’d maintained in front of Barron and Blake melted. Emotions flooded her system, causing her heart to trip over itself, straight into her gut.
“He’s been sneaking us extra bread whenever he can.” Erick grasped her face, bringing her focus to him. Despite being half naked, and the icy winds of the dungeon, warmth exuded from his skin. “Kora, I . . .” The words died on a choked exhale, his chapped lip catching between his teeth.
Kora shook her head at him, avoiding his deep-brown eyes desperately pleading for her forgiveness.
Kora’s attention snagged on his features, from his grey-flecked hair to his stubbled chin and rough palms. Not an inch of flesh had been left unharmed by Barron and his guards, his body a patchwork of dark bruises.
His bare feet were dark with gangrene and his trousers were ripped, barely granting him any reprieve from the cold.
He betrayed you. Kora flinched at the vicious tone in her own mind. Erick had infiltrated Galen. He’d become an informant on the inside for Barron, and tore her away from her family, from her father.
From the Windwards . . . whoever they were to her.
He’d hidden her from the world, suppressing her true nature, training her to hunt innocents, and transformed her into the perfect weapon for the Talmon Empire.
Kora peeled his hands from her face, suddenly wanting space between them. “No, Erick. Not now. I can’t . . .” She coughed, her dry throat rasping with the weight of the words. Of the forgiveness Erick clearly desperately craved.
“But—”
“Stand firm, Kora,” Agatha interrupted by his side. “Men should not be so easily forgiven.”
Erick sighed. “She doesn’t have to forgive me right now. I’ll grovel for the rest of my life if I must.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less, Commodore.” Agatha rolled her white eyes.
“I know you don’t believe it,” Erick shifted back to Kora. “But you are my family. I will protect you at all costs from the empire. I will do whatever I can to make this right.”
“She knows who her true family is,” Agatha bickered. “The Windwards will find her.”
“You . . . you know the Windwards?” Kora sat back away from Erick.
“I’m an old hag, I know a lot of things.
” Agatha reached out, blindly fumbling for Kora.
Her braided grey hair had been swept up onto the top of her head, the lighter strands running through it still sparkling.
Aside from her stained clothing, and aged appearance, Agatha seemed unharmed, and still her coy self.
Her curled fingers swept over Kora’s face and she tsked at her gaunt frame. Agatha continued exploring Kora’s features, stroking the ends of her hair before she gasped at the metal wrapped around Kora’s throat.
“The empire knows no bounds to their cruelty.” Agatha’s voice darkened, and Kora shuddered at the depth it reached. Around her light brown wrinkled neck was a matching collar, and the same with Erick. “They treat us like chattel.”
“How long have you been in here?” Kora peered around the cell. Identical to her last one, with the large empire insignia carved into the right wall, the four sharp points stretching across the space.
“They put me in here after the forest.” Erick shivered, rubbing his peppered arms. “Agatha arrived shortly after. I don’t think we would’ve made it this far without Ivar’s help.”
Kora’s stare snapped back to Agatha. “Why you? Why hasn’t Ivar tried to get you both out?”
Agatha’s all-seeing white eyes flickered, her lips curling. “The same reason as to why they have allowed us all to be together now. They’re trying to hurt you, my child.”
“This place is a fortress,” Erick added quickly. “Ivar has only survived by hiding in the shadows.”
“Hurt me?” Kora exhaled shakily, her mind torn. She was beyond relieved to see them both, and Ivar, but worry and fear quickly chased it, dragging torment along with it. She couldn’t protect them. Her power was gone, and she was unsure whether it would ever return.
“I won’t let them,” Erick snarled, and Kora blinked at his resolve.
They guided her to the far corner as the dungeons darkened, using the wooden bed to shelter themselves from the wind as Erick draped the thin blanket over them.
“Where’s Sam?” Kora mumbled, her mouth dried and her mind fogging. “Do you know anything about Theron? Will Ivar come back?”
“I haven’t seen Samuel or Theron,” Erick replied. “Ivar can’t jeopardise his position. Barron is on the move, so you need to rest, Kora. I need to keep you safe until you regain your strength. We can discuss everything tomorrow.”
“You can’t protect her forever,” Agatha chided. “She has a greater purpose.”
“Kora can pave her own path. The gods can’t force her to do anything,” Erick shot back.
Kora sighed as they continued bickering, unable to summon the energy to form words on her lips or keep her eyes open.
Gods, had they been bickering like this for over a month?
Maybe Ivar’s hiding place in the sewers would be better.
Her entire body screamed with fatigue, and her heart swelled with simultaneous betrayal and relief.
As the darkness deepened, and the familiar beat of the guard rotations vibrated across the floor, Kora nestled between Erick and Agatha, grateful for their warmth and brief reprieve of safety as she succumbed to sleep.