Eight
Rohan
I’m thrown into the dirt, the Nighturn making my body weak.
“Fuck,” I growl, getting my hands under me.
“Rohan!” Kaldar shouts from somewhere, and then he’s at my side instantly. “Here.”
He helps me to my feet, hand resting on my arm.
“Are you hurt?” he asks when I waver a little.
I shake my head, trying to starve off the dizziness. “Fucking Nighturn.”
Kaldar grunts and I look around, seeing that they dumped me into the den at the edge of the city.
“Dragonbond,” Agnis says, eyeing me with concern.
“I’m alright.” I scan the growing crowd of my clan. “Alara?” I cough, wiping the dirt off my hands.
Kaldar shakes his head. “She’s not here.”
Fuck.
I look back at the gate that’s now firmly closed, snarling at the guards on the other side of it, passersby’s looking in like we’re some sort of animal exhibition.
Calian, Adora, and Dorkin walk over to me.
“Are you okay?” Adora asks.
No, I’m fucking not.
“Everyone’s here?” I ask instead of answering.
“Not all,” Dorkin says, his glasses cracked on one side.
“What happened?” Kaldar asks, walking me over to a log while handing me a waterskin.
I take a drink. “What hasn’t happened?”
“Are you okay, Dragonbond?” Nora asks, Melle on her hip. Her face hidden in her mother’s neck.
“As well as I can be. I’ll speak to you all soon, okay?”
She nods along with the others. They all look tired. Lykke stands with his mother, Maery, the young man holding her, while Fiona comforts Bertha, an elderly woman who has been with us since before my mother was leader.
“Has food been given?”
“They hand it out daily,” Dorkin says, frowning. “Never enough though.”
Of course not. He doesn’t want us at full strength.
“Do I have a tent?”
“At the side,” Calian points to it.
I grunt.
“Okay, let’s talk.”
I get up, standing tall although my whole body aches.
They guide me over to my tent, this one larger than the others, and we go inside.
“Let’s see what we can do about you bleeding.”
I grunt, lifting my bloodied tunic off and throwing it off to the side.
Calian comes over with some healing salve and a wet cloth. I grab it off him.
He raises a brow.
“I’ve got it,” I tell him, wiping away the blood from where the guards liked to poke at me.
Fuckers really like the spear, but they’re mainly surface scratches.
Kaldar sucks air between his teeth, gesturing to the bruises on my body. “Halen sent for you, I take it?”
“Yeah.” I throw the cloth to the side, not bothering with the salve. Others will need it more than me. “We were kept in cells and then he called for me, getting his enjoyment while he can. I’m sure it won’t be the last, as usual.”
“Bastard,” Adora says, and I nod.
“Who’s accounted for?”
Kaldar sits before me, the others following, faces grim. “There was a fire, we tried to put out what we could, but others needed us first. We managed to get those alive together but…”
“They knocked us all out,” Adora says, a wobble to her voice I’ve never heard before.
I look at her and notice her eyes are red. Kaldar pulls her to him, keeping her close.
“Olaf… he’s not in a good way,” he says, shaking his head before looking away.
“Hurt?”
He nods. “He lost some of his arm. He may not make it if infection takes him.”
Fuck.
“And Asseya… Alara said she was hurt, and she wouldn’t wake up.”
“She’s not here,” Dorkin confirms, looking down.
“Many are not here, Rohan. Some are injured greatly, the same with the other clans too. The king ambushed and burned all of our homes, and whoever was left was brought here.” He tilts his head.
“At least I think they brought us all here. The rest remain in the Wilds, dead or burned.”
“Allowing children here is a new low for him,” I say.
Dorkin nods. “It’s the same with other clans too.”
“Fuck!” I growl, hands running through my hair.
“He’s angry,” Calian says.
“It’s because I didn’t give him Alara. Went back on our deal.”
“We thought as much,” Dorkin says, trying to clean his glasses.
I grit my teeth. “Who else knows?”
“Us and the Dragonbonds,” Adora says. “They came looking for you, and we told them you weren’t here yet.”
“I’ll meet with them.”
“Be careful, Rohan,” Dorkin says. “They’re angry.”
I don’t give a fuck about their feelings, we all need to make a plan to survive the Enclave.
I run a hand down my face. “Alara will blame herself for the children being here.”
Adora frowns. “It’s not her fault.”
“I know, but she won’t see it like that. She won’t believe it’s my fault even though she knows about the deal.”
“Rohan…” Adora says softly.
“We know,” Dorkin chimes in. “The other Dragonbonds told us what happened in the throne room when we asked them where you were.”
“How did she take it?” Kaldar asks.
“She hates me.” I look down at my hands. “And rightly so. I can’t stand that hurt look in her eyes, and I have no one to blame but myself.”
I flex my fingers.
I should have just told her, but with the thoughts swirling through her mind, I couldn’t.
The poker flashes in my mind and I squeeze my eyes shut.
“It’s not your fault,” Adora says, placing a hand on my shoulder, and I stand, grimacing at the pain in my body and in my fucking soul.
“Don’t,” I tell her. “We all know this is on me, but I couldn’t give her to him.”
Silence falls.
“You fell for her,” Kaldar says. “Of course you couldn’t just give her away.”
My jaw ticks. “It wasn’t something I planned. You know I never wanted that. I was fine living out the rest of my life alone until Morana welcomed me, but with her I wanted her, I wanted to keep her… and that selfishness has put her in danger.”
“It’s not selfish to fall in love,” Adora whispers, while Calian stays quiet, glancing away.
“And you haven’t put her in any more danger than she already was in,” Kaldar says.
“It’s put everyone in danger,” I stress.
“We’ve always been in danger,” Dorkin looks at me.
“You breaking your deal feels like the perfect excuse for him, Rohan. Halen was always going to get us here like this. Every year the killing of dragons increases, the attempts to kill anyone in the clans increases, it was the perfect opportunity to get every clan member here. He despises us. He wants to get rid of us. All of us.”
More silence.
“Where’s Alara?” Adora eventually asks.
“In the castle, Halen wants her for something, I just don’t know what yet.”
“She needs to be here, with us.” She shakes her head. “She’s not safe there.”
I glare at her. “Don’t you think I know that.”
“Calm down,” Kaldar warns, moving closer to Adora.
I blow out a breath and look away.
“We have a game soon,” Dorkin reminds us. “Climb of the Clans.”
“Do we know what, yet?” I ask.
“No.” He frowns. “He’ll tell us what it is on the day of as usual, but the name tells us it will be climbing of some sort.”
“Whatever it is, we’ll get through it,” Calian says.
“It will all be fixed when the king is dead.”
They all nod.
“Your spies are working?” I glance at Dorkin.
“Always.” He nods. “Hopefully, we will hear something soon. Anything that can help.”
“He needs to die this time. No more stalling, no more waiting. We need to plan for it to end. He won’t let us go.”
“We have to get out of here,” Adora says, and I nod.
“We’ll think of something,” Calian assures us. “We have to.”
We do. “The Dragons?”
“In the holding pens.”
I go to a chest and pull on a new tunic, gritting my teeth as pain lances up my side.
Fuck, that hurts.
“Rohan, you need to rest,” Kaldar says.
“No, I want to see my dragons.”
“They’re okay,” Calian says. “Restless, but okay.”
“I’ll see for myself.”
“Wait,” Kaldar says as he goes over to the side of the tent. “All of the weapons got thrown in with us. You know the king would love for us to kill each other.”
“Easier for him that way.”
“Not as entertaining though.” Kaldar brings my axe over.
“I was wondering where this was.”
I run my hand over the handle and then look at my wrist.
Alara’s braid is bloody now, hard to see as her hair color is already red.
I go over to the jug of water and pour it into a bowl. Placing the hair inside, I gently wash it, wondering if she was this gentle with my mother’s hair.
Knowing her, she was even more so.
Now clean, I wrap it around the base of my axe, right where my hand would be when I grip it.
I don’t trust that Halen won’t take it if he sees it. My ribbons covered it last time, but that won’t last long.
“Thanks,” I say, and he grabs my shoulder, squeezing.
“Be careful.”
With a nod, I exit the tent and place my axe in its holder, stopping when I see my clan standing there, what’s left of them anyway, watching and waiting.
Tofa and Beau are up front.
Maery and Nora are next, Lykke and Melle holding their mothers and I hate that the innocence of them is now tainted… gone.
“I know this is different from any Games before. You are not supposed to be here, only those who I’ve selected to join are,” I start, and they nod, listening intently.
“I’m sorry.” No bullshit. No excuses. “This is on me, and I will do everything I can to get us out of here. I will do everything I can to keep us alive.”
They nod, but their faces are already full of grief.
“We have lost some of our own, and they will go to Morana as is our custom. We may be here, but we are still Dragorie.”
“We are,” Leon says.
“It will never leave us.” Emmy mutters softly, as everyone agrees.
“It won’t,” I say, feeling my sides twinge as I stand up straight. “We will fight, until we can’t anymore.”
“We will.”
“Let me know if you need anything. Anything at all.”
Melle wiggles in her mother’s arms and then runs over to me.
“Dwagonbond?”
I crouch down, looking into her sad, blue eyes.
“Yes, Melle.”
“Can we gow ome now?”
I swallow, and Nora takes a step forward, tears shimmering in her eyes.
“I hope so,” I whisper. “You still need to work on your fishing.”
She stands taller at that. “I gwot one wast tyme.”
“You did,” I tell her, patting her head. “You did a good job.”
She smiles, all toothy and Nora comes, taking her small hand. A tear finally falling.
Melle peeks around me, looking.
“Where is ewf?”
If only Alara knew how many care for her in the clan.