Page 219 of The Doll and The Domination

“I…” Should I tell them the truth? “I escaped.”

The leader lifts his chin, looking to his daughter to silently communicate something.

The young woman with matching braids steps forward and says, “Do you know Helga Bee and Gerta?”

My eyes shift between the many faces staggered through the valley, still holding their weapons, crossbows, torches, and some even camouflaged in the greenery.

I nod once.

“Prove it.”

I look away, thinking about my time spent with them.

“She told me about Bunny Moon Tag,” I say. I hear Ruth’s laughter and Niles’s snide humor as we’d catch each other on that stage.

Collectively, the people of the rebellion start to smile, laugh, slap each other on their backs. I take it that our prison friends mean a great deal to this large family.

“Are they alive?” she asks now, losing one side of her smile.

“Yes.”

Her strong shoulders relax. “And you are their friend?”

“I am. They’ve helped me more than I will ever be able to repay.”

“Then you are a friend of ours!”

The people around me throw their axes up, whooping their celebration, and I slump a little against DaiSzek’s back.

“I need your help.” My cracked, raspy voice hardly makes a dent in their outburst of conversation. However, the leader holds his hand up for those around to be silenced.

“I’m on my way to any army on the shore, maybe you’ve seen them already. My friends are in the Vexamen Prison. They’re important to ending this war, this reign of terror from the Mazonist Brothers.” At this point, I may faint if I don’t get something in my stomach, but that isn’t important right now.

“You are brave enough to start a battle with the Vexamen Breed?” he asks with narrowing eyes.

“And I am strong enough to win. God is on my side. I have the last living RottWeilen fighting with me and the armies of the seven ancient colonies that come from the other side of the Midnight Sea.” I lick my chapped lips, beginning to shiver in the crisp breeze of the lowering sun. “Helga Bee told me of your rebellion. And if you’re anything like her and Gerta, you aren’t afraid of raising your swords. You aren’t afraid of looking the devil in the face and fighting alongside your brothers.”

The leader hops down from the jagged hill he was perched on, walking to get closer to me. I hold my hand up to Knightingale, prompting her to stand down. Though she releases small, annoyed growls anyway.

“If we strike at the Breed, we will effectively be breaking our treaty. Our homes will be invaded. Our people thrown in prison. Our lives become theirs.” The leader is only an inch taller than me, but he’s solidly built with a square jaw and prominent brow that makes him look mean and angry.

I pause. “Only if we lose.”

He cracks a smile, nodding like that answer was what he hoped to hear.

“When do we ride?”

62. Strength In Numbers

Skylenna

The sun burns red on the ocean horizon. A hot piece of coal hovering over the crashing waves.

I’m not sure what keeps me awake and alert. Maybe the nerves of seeing hope in the form of soldiers scattered along that shoreline. The fantasy of running into Chekiss’s arms. The perfect picture of success that I’ve made it this far, I’ve honored my friends by not dying along the way.

“Are we almost there?” I ask my furry travel companions.

DaiSzek chuffs, trotting around a crusty crack in the sandy earth. He picks up his pace with excitement, racing forward. I feel the spray of ocean mist, a sensation that might have me sick and breaking down if I wasn’t so sick and tired already.

---