Page 51 of Tortured

My legs release from the saddle.

My body is thrown to the side, away from Huflaih, and then whipped up into the spiral.

I’m completely blind as I close my eyes to avoid the scourge of the sand. My body tumbles endlessly. I’m so drenched in the deluge I can’t draw a breath without feeling as if I’m drowning.

“Huflaih!” I can’t hear him. He’s gone from my senses. I only hope he escapes. “Return! Return to Westin!”

Please let him survive this.

I tuck my limbs tightly to my body. I can’t stir. Can’t control a single one of my movements.

The storm completely commands me.

I feel the thrust, sense it before it happens.

My premonition tells me I’m going to hit the desert floor.

And then I’m hurled. Straight through the abyss.

This is the end.

Defeated by a storm.

I won’t ever reach Caedryn, but at least I’ll be free of him.

Maybe I’ll see Niawen.

The light in my body sears through me, strangely, without my control.

My body jars, and I think I’ve made impact, but I don’t feel the pain of broken bones, of smashed organs.

I jerk as if impaled. A gruesome sensation rips through my heart, and then I’m weightless.

I’ve met death.

My bond with Caedryn is severed; I feel as much.

The pelting sand is gone.

Comforting lightness holds me.

I open my eyes. I’m in a gray void, being sucked and coaxed along.

Then piercing light blinds me.

I startle from the shock of it, just as my body smacks the ground.

I groan but remain motionless.

Lots of hurt. My body has shattered.

Is this death?

Niawen?

Nothing, but I didn’t really expect to hear her, did I?

Caedryn?

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