Chapter 13

Chapter

Thirteen

CALLISTO

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"Zepher isn't here," Silas mutters.

"Oh, that's really sad. I'm sorry to hear that… wait… who is Zepher?"

"My wyvern."

That takes me far too long to comprehend. "That was your wyvern?" I ask in disbelief. "What the hell. Why didn't you let me pet him, then?"

"Her."

"I could have pet her so hard," I realize. "How dare you withhold the petting from me?"

"You need to stop trying to make friends with things that can eat you," Silas says as he looks around. He's not very anxious; instead he seems quite steady. Very sure of himself… nothing like a tavern keeper suddenly thrown out into battle.

"While the tunnel might fool them for a bit, they'll soon figure out where we went, and if I'm walking on foot they'll find us instantly," he muses.

"Dandelion looks quite well… maybe he can carry us for a short distance," I suggest.

"Of course you want back on the murder mount," Silas mutters. "I will carry you." He seems determined not to let me anywhere near Dandelion who clearly likes us since he's hanging around when he could run off.

"While I love the feeling of your mighty and muscular arms, you can't keep carrying me. Are they so muscular because you're used to carrying bodies out of your tavern after you murder them?" I tease. Honestly, I wish I felt better so I could enjoy this ride.

"I don't murder people with my food."

"There's no other reason you would have such wonderful body-carrying arms," I determine, quite pleased by them, but I know he has to be getting tired.

He sighs and sets me down gently. "Just… stay there for a moment. I have some supplies hidden here that I'm going to gather and hope that Zepher arrives."

"Okay," I say, but now that he's put me down, my mind slowly begins to clear as I question what the fuck I should do. I need to do something. I've obviously fucked up. I should never have done what I did… what if I get Silas killed because of it? Should I leave him here? That would keep him safe, right?

I don't want to leave him… but he could die if he stays with me. The last thing I'd ever want to do is put him at risk.

I push myself up onto unsteady feet and head toward Dandelion. "Can I please ride on your back?"

Dandelion stares at me as I slowly reach out to him. When he doesn't seem prepared to murder me, I reach my leg up for the stirrup. I can't get it up more than a few inches before pain tears through me and I fall face-first into him, deciding that this is now where I will live.

"Just drag my body away," I murmur into his dirty coat.

"For fuck's sake, it's like you want to be eaten ," Silas yells as he comes running over while looking a bit angry. Can't imagine why.

I wave him off, determined to accomplish what I set out to do. "No! I'm saving your life by getting very far from you."

"You've gotten like… half a body's length from where I left you," he says… which… might be true. "If I didn't want to be involved, I wouldn't have done all that I have, would I?"

While leaning against Dandelion, I glance at him. "Is it because I'm pretty?"

"Yes, I'm risking my life because you're pretty ," he says with so much sarcasm. He eyes my cute little Dandelion. "Monster, as thanks for me not killing you and for Callisto babying you back to life, you're going to get us as far as you can."

The cute beastie stares at us, obviously agreeing with this arrangement.

"You're such a good baby. Papa loves you. Silas, I told you he likes me. Let's take his muzzle off," I say as I reach for it but before I can, Silas grabs my hands.

"Let's see how much we can trust him first," Silas says as he picks me up and sets me on Dandelion's back. When Dandelion doesn't proceed to try to kill me, he hooks two ropes to the headpiece and climbs on. Dandelion is taller than Banks, but he's skinny enough that I can feel his shoulders as he walks, and it makes me want to feed him as much as I can.

I want to tell Silas to be gentle with the muzzle, but he proves to be, even if he doesn't seem to like Dandelion anywhere near as much as I do.

"That's a good baby," I praise as I try to scratch his neck. "Papa will treat you to so much meat when I'm no longer dying. You'll be fed like a prince! I'll make sure Silas never feeds you. He'll poison you like he tried doing to me."

Silas sighs, probably questioning why he'd been so adamant about going with me. "I didn't poison you."

"You poisoned me so hard," I say as I slump back against his shoulder before closing my eyes. "I rode a horse like this once."

"Like what? Half dead?"

"Yeah…"

"What was a prince doing half dead?"

"Being half alive," I mutter.

"Did someone try killing you?"

"Yeah… but then someone saved me. I was positive he was a guardian angel from the stories I used to hear about," I say, unable to keep my eyes open any longer. "He was so nice… like you."

"You better not die on me."

"I'll only die by your cooking. I promise."

And with that, I drift off. I'm not sure if it was my rambling or the fever, but my dreams are packed full of nonsense from the past.

There are dead bodies everywhere. Everywhere I walk… so many are dead.

I'm so tired and hungry. I wander over to a freshly dead body and start to pull at his armor, looking for something… anything. He wears nothing valuable around his neck, so I pull at his pants, hoping to find a coin pouch or a locket or anything .

Finding nothing, I wander to the next dead body when I hear someone groaning in pain, but among the sea of bodies, I can't tell where it's coming from.

I wander toward the noise where I find a man lying partly beneath a dead horse.

"Help. Please," he begs, but I don't know what he expects me to do. I can't drag him, and I sure can't drag a horse.

"I will help if you give me money," I say.

He ignores what I say and instead reaches for me. "H-Help me."

I hesitate before taking his hand and pulling it, but there's nothing I can do when he's significantly older and larger than me. Still, I pull and pull as he struggles. When we are both met by exhaustion, he drops his hand.

"What's a child doing out here?" he asks.

"Do you have money?"

"I don't. Fetch someone to help."

"I don't know where anyone is."

"Please? Please? I need to return to my wife. She just had a child. I want to see him before I die."

My stomach aches as I stare down at him, too worried about my own issues to care about his. "Will you give me money then?"

"Yes, I will pay you handsomely. You'll have more money than you'll know what to do with."

"Okay," I say as I look around uncertainly, but the idea of having money pushes me on. I'm thrilled by it, and instead of hiding from the soldiers, I find myself jogging toward a handful of people wandering among the bodies.

"And who might this be?" a man asks as he squats down before me so we're eye to eye.

"There's a man who needs help."

"Oh?"

"You will help him and then he will pay me," I say, pleased by this arrangement. He better not ask for any of the money because I don't want to give him any… I mean, I guess I could let him have a little but then the rest would be all mine.

"Well then we better help him," he says as he waves me forward. "Let's go now."

I jog through the bodies and climb over the dead until I reach the man pinned beneath the horse. "I can't pull him out." I grab his arm and tug.

"Then we should help, shouldn't we?" he says as the man on the ground opens his eyes, but what I see there isn't relief… it's fear. Did I mess up? Aren't we all people of Vermillion? I suppose he must have been human, unlike the men behind me… but with his helmet on, they all look the same.

"No, no, no!" he cries as the other man drives his sword through his chest, spraying me with blood.

He makes a gurgling sound as he dies, and all of the hope I'd felt drops out of me as I let go of his hand.

What a fool I was to think that something good would happen. Nothing good ever happens out here. Not in this sea of death and suffering.

The man and his soldiers laugh, and I realize they're laughing at me.

"Grab him. We'll sell him and make a quick coin we can spend at the brothel," he says.

I turn and start to run, but the men are faster than me and one grabs me with ease. When I try to twist from his arms, he gives me a shake.

"Let go! Let go! Let go!" I scream as I jerk and twist, but no one seems to notice the way the grass beneath my feet begins to wither and die.

They laugh and laugh, ridiculing me for how "stupid" I am.

"He looks like a pretty little girl. I'm sure selling him won't be a struggle," the man holding me says.

"Let go!" I scream and the man holding me stops laughing. He opens his mouth as he gasps before black lines trail up his hand from where he's made contact with me. He lets go of me and staggers back as two other men grab me.

"What the fuck did he do?" the man asks.

"Must be something with his magic," another says.

"Fuck. Fuck," one of the men holding me yells as he sees the blackness creeping up his arms.

"Stop it!" the man in charge yells.

I won't stop! They don't deserve it! "Let me go! Let me go!"

He picks up a rock and rushes up to me before bashing me in the head with it. The first hit makes me lose my concentration, and the second makes the world go dark.

I moan as I flail against his hold the moment before suppressing magic tears through my chest. Fear unlike anything I've ever felt hits me as I watch the men cower who'd just been laughing at another man's death. My consciousness fades in and out as I hear them scream before a man clothed in black steps up to me.

From where I lie, I can tell that their bodies have joined the rest as I realize that I've encountered another enemy, but my vision is blurred by blood. He's going to kill me too. I don't want to die.

I don't want to die.

He reaches down and I want to pull back, I want to poison him… I want to do something… but I can't. He lifts me a bit as he tips my head to the side, and when he lets go, I fall down onto my back.

And without a word he steps past me, leaving me to watch his back as he fades off into the night.

Good. I'm alone. I'm alone again. That's for the best. That's always for the best.

Slowly, I try to crawl toward the newly dead bodies. They have to have something. Yeah, they'll have something… and then I can eat. Then I can finally eat.

Instead, nausea hits me, and I throw up. My stomach is empty so it's just water.

I sink down but when I fall, I don't hit the ground. I'm floating… am I finally dying? I must be dying.

But when I sink back, I feel something solid behind me as an arm tightly wraps around me. The arm is here to hurt me. They're always there to hurt me… but as darkness consumes me, I feel weirdly at peace… like the arm holding me up is going to protect me from my nightmares.