37. CHAPTER 37

He blew out his candles and led the way until natural sunlight replaced the darkness. I smelled the water and wanted to relax, but just getting to the boat was half the battle! I couldn"t rest until I was off this planet. As far as it concerned me, I"ve seen enough of this place to last several lifetimes.

He led me to the towering wheat fields, but it wasn"t enough. I heard the screaming rant of a soft voice; it was that young girl, and she was waving off to the side.

"Shit, she saw us!"

"Make haste," Zai ordered, making a run through the field toward the shallow water. The bright yellow and red-trimmed boat looked like one of those gondolas you"d see lining some canal in Italy. How the hell did he plan for us to get away in this?!

Zai was already pushing it to the deep end of the lake, causing me to dive into the water to climb inside.

"Hold on!" he ordered once he was inside and headed to the front, where a crank was embedded. I didn"t know how he would control this thing, but there was nothing I could do but urge him to hurry as the villagers pushed through the wheat and made it to the clearing after us.

He turned the crank, and we were off just before they reached us. I grabbed a hook from inside and held it like a weapon, ready to stab the living hell out of the first person who put their hands on this boat. They waded in the water, shouting a barrage of words at us while I grunted like a madman. Between their guttural language and my grunts, the scene could have been mistaken for some sort of caveman spat or something. All I knew was that the primal urge to defend myself and my child was at the forefront of my mind, and I knew I would swing that hook if I had to.

We were traveling further away from shore to the much larger body of water until I felt safe enough to lower the hook and breathe a sigh of relief.

"Only one boat here? What are the odds?" I coughed and tried to swallow to coat my sticky throat, but not even that mattered as I was a step toward freedom from this place. A part of me wondered if this entire thing was just some strange dream, and I would wake up at home in North Carolina, hating everything and everyone again.

"Not really odds. I just sunk the others." Zai pushed along the water like a gondolier. Well, if a gondolier used a crank.

Those crazy bastards followed on the shore until I couldn"t see them anymore, and it was just water for miles. I tried to see if I saw anything familiar about our new area.

"I know I landed near a small river where these rocks are." I held up the scarred jewel that was still around my neck. "Like this."

"There are a few of those here, but you will have to be more specific than that."

"There was a huge fight nearby between your people... the ones in white and these dark armored-wearing ones."

He appeared to think for a moment. "I think I know of the location."

"Good." I sat back, unwilling to relax completely. I had heard of those stories of people dying just moments after being rescued because they allowed themselves to get too relaxed before they were out of danger. "Mind if I ask you something?" I said, trying to keep some sort of conversation going; otherwise, I would fall asleep.

"Go on."

"Are you a Valisian? You look like one, but I don"t think I see any markings... unless those are your markings and not tattoos."

"These are tattoos. I was born without markings, but yes, I am a Valisian. We all are."

"Is there a royal palace somewhere? Maybe Lorvian went home."

"No such thing exists here. This is not the Valisian home world if that is what you were thinking."

"What is this place?"

"A planet with a strange rotation. It turns in and out of an anomaly, which makes it for a time, only becoming visible for a few days before vanishing for another 300 hundred years."

"300?!"

"Yes. If we don"t leave this planet soon, we will have to wait to get you back home."

"I don"t have that kind of time!"

"I would prefer not to wait either."

"Well, at least we agree on that." Glad we could agree on something.

"Relax, Caspian. We hopefully won"t need to abandon our boat for a while."

"I saw my ship flying overhead not too long ago. Hopefully, they"re not too far away."

"One can only hope."

I didn"t know how long we were on the water, but it felt like ages. It reminded me of the times my dad taught me how to fish. We were on the water for hours, the sun shining down, catching nothing until we got that one catch, and then I felt so bad for it that my dad would unhook it and let it go.

"I"m so bored," I said, sitting up again. We were now sailing a narrower section of the water.

"That will be rectified soon. Get back down." Zai turned the boat away from the left side of the shore and left the crank to lay his body flat inside the boat. I followed.

"What"s going on?" I whispered.

"The armored ones will kill us the moment they see us."

We waited, but we didn"t have to wait long because the guttural sounds of the others were getting closer and closer. A hook latched onto the wall of the boat, and we were being wheeled in.

Zai scoffed and grabbed the hook. I latched on to help, and we pulled the thing in and out of the boat.

The voices became rougher and more frantic, and we were both on our feet—no use in hiding now. We were too damn close to the shore!

Zai held up his hand, summoning a gust of force that knocked them away.

I ran for the crank and turned it to steer us away from the land.

Another blow sent them reeling, and the boat rocked harder with the waves created by the shock. My arms felt heavy, but I didn"t stop. I just couldn"t!

They prepared arrows from a distance. I stood to get better leverage on the crank.

"Oh, God!" The sharp metal pierced my gut, and the force caused me to stumble back and plant my ass on the boat.

"Hold on!" Zai yelled and pulled an arrow from his shoulder. He took over the crank, guiding us away.

All my strength left my body. The arrow had pierced my belly, leaving a trail of blood pooling into my belly button. "I"m going to die! My baby is going to die!" I panicked as the pain rippled through my body.

"Hush, you don"t know that." He rushed over, shielding me from another volley of arrows. We dropped hard, and something sucked us into the cool, rapid waters below.

The boat was gone, and the water slammed me to the rocky bottom like an inescapable vortex. I felt his hand on me, gripping me and pulling me to the surface. So far, it was just the two of us down here, and I couldn"t hear anything else over the waterfall. I hated myself for being nothing but dead weight. "Leave me and go," I said, meaning every word.

"Nonsense. We need shelter to lie low." He stood on one of the wet rocks to scope ahead. He then helped me up. "I think I saw a clearing in the woods."

Sure enough, he was right. There was a small wooden cottage there, and it didn"t seem as if anyone was home.

"We have to move fast," he said, laying me on the bed and tearing a larger hole in the tunic. He rolled me over. "I need to see if the arrow pierced the other side." He yanked the thing out of me, causing me to groan. "I"ll be back," he said, leaving me inside alone. He returned with what looked like ashes in his hands and rubbed it over the hole. "This should accelerate the healing. Let me find something to dress the wound. You should heal soon."

"What about...?"

He pressed his hand against my stomach. "I don"t know. I"m no doctor, but I"ll do my best to monitor you for any complications." He looked away from me, and I could tell he was hiding something, but I didn"t want to hear the words that my baby was most likely injured and lost. "Optimism is the best way to go here."

"Me and optimism rarely go hand in hand," I chuckled ruefully, thinking of how I got here. Not wanting to be left behind or face Derek and Fran alone, I behaved like a child, not like someone"s soon-to-be father. I was stupid and selfish, and now I was paying the price for it. Or rather, my child paid the ultimate price for my recklessness!