Page 88 of Smoke and Blood

Questions poured into her mind as she lay on the soft bed and tried to figure out her surroundings.

The place was so expansive.Why is the space so big?

Something about her question, about the enormity of the place, seemed to jar something in her mind.She gasped.

She recalled thebigbeast her government had sent after her.A whimper came out of her mouth, and she slapped a hand over it.She didn’t want to alert anyone that she was awake.The pain of her movement and the touch of her hand caused tears to spring up into her eyes, and she realized the water was trickling out of the other one.

Maybe they didn’t take my other eye.Then why can’t I see out of it?

Under her hand, she felt the uneven swelling around her mouth.Pressing her lips together, she locked in her moans and whimpers as she ran her hand gingerly over her face, only to find more lumps andsoreness.Raising her hand, she saw various red swollen bumps covering her hand and arm.She remembered trying to run and get away from the big flying beast with sharp, cruel fangs and front talons spread wide as it aimed for her.

She’d crashed into something warm, sweet, and sticky before the buzzing thunderstorm was the only thing she could hear, and then sharp pain exploded everywhere as they stabbed her with their tiny butt-daggers over and over again.She couldn’t fight them off.It seemed that the harder she fought, the more vicious they became.

Even as she tried to fight away the gazillion and one bees as they violently stung her, the damn beast had been on the ground and still determined to attack or eat her.It had blown out a thick cloud of smoke, most likely to disorient her so she wouldn’t see it snap off her head in one bite.

But I’m alive.

Cannibals had been the tall tale among the Dispatch.That’s what people told children lived beyond the safety of the Wall, but it was so much worse.

The smoke caused her body to tingle and go numb, and then everything went black.She wasn’t sure why she was still alive.Maybe the beast worked in tandem with the cannibals, and they brought her back to their place, preferring their victims awake as they tortured and ate them.The roaring fire in the big fireplace made sense now; they planned to skewer her and listen to her screams as they seasoned and cooked her rotisserie style.She had enough meat on the lower half of her body to feed a small village.

A small village.The space in the room now made sense.

Whatever the reason or their plans for her, she knew she wasn’t sticking around to find out.

I have to get up.Avalore groaned as she sat up, using her core muscles since her hands and arms were too swollen to be much use.A low moan slipped from her lips when her soft covering glided down over her skin.She glanced down and saw a light blue sheet pooling around her hips.Her single eye expanded in shock as she discovered she had been lying under it naked.Naked!

Avalore disregarded the pain in her joints as she snatched the sheet back up to cover her exposed flesh.They had removed her clothes, well a thin gown, but it was still hers.Looking around the bed and the part of the floor she could see, and searched for her clothing.She saw nothing.She snatched at the sheet with her one good hand and gathered it against her body.

That’s when she caught sight of something in her periphery.She turned her head to spy with her good eye, a rock on the bed just below the pillow where she had lain.However, it wasn’t any rock, but a palm-sized piece of stone whose color reminded her of images she’d seen of a perfect summer day with a majestic blue sky and clouds.Not the unique purpleness of the current sky they had all seen since they came out of the underground city.No.

Avalore had never seen anything with such a lovely color.Oddly, her heart began to race the longer she stared at it, and warmth spread through her core as if someone had placed an ember of fire there.The captivating blue of the stone drew her, and before she knew it, she was reaching for it, but she got ahold of her senses quickly.It was big and looked heavy.The stone’s presence was bizarre to her, and the only possible reason she saw for it to be there was whoever placed her in the bed would use it to bash her head in.

Nope.Nope.Nope.Avalore refused even to allow her mind to consider why the cannibals had stripped her because it didn’t matter.She wasn’t staying around long enough to discover their dastardly plans for her.The part of her brain that wasn’t fuzzy from bee venom tried to tell her that her theory didn’t make much sense, but after trusting her government and being used by them, and the fact that eleven other women had disappeared, she couldn’t risk being naïve.Moving as fast as her swollen, tender body allowed, she scooted to the side of the bed closest to her until she could swing her legs over the side.The bed was too damn big.

How many cannibals slept in it at one time?She wasn’t as tall as Michaela, but she wasn’t short either, and her feet didn’t even come close to the end of the bed.She wondered if the flesh-eaters were taller and only a few slept in the bed or tiny like the images of the Pigmy people she searched and found in the archive room when she’d first heard the cannibal story.The village could sleep on the soft, comfortable bed if that were the case.

A part of her almost hated to get out of it.She’d never slept on anything so comfy, and her body still felt weak.

When she got to the side, her legs dangled over it, and she had to shift almost to the end to touch the floor with her toes.Before she got up, she wrapped, wrapped, wrapped the sheet around her as tight as she could take it, then tucked one end between her breasts to hold it in place.With her mind fixed on the door, she stood up from the bed only to become lightheaded, and the aching pain in her legs caused them to buckle beneath her.Her swollen knees struck against the hard, stone floor.

“Dammit,” she swore before she could remind herself to keep silent.Perhaps they would stay away as long as they believed she was still out of it.So, she had to seize the opportunity to get away, even if it killed her one step at a time.

She took a few breaths to get her bearings, then struggled to her feet, this time using more caution.Once she stood upright—well, sort of—since everything from her thighs to her feet was swollen, causing her to keep her knees bentbecause of the tightness of her skin and the raw ache of the pads of her feet.Before she could take a step, she considered her safety.Avalore turned and grabbed the rock.There was a heft to it, and it was uncomfortable to hold, but she refused to let it go.She took a tentative step.

“Ow, ow...Ow, ow,” she whimpered low.It hurt like hell to walk.Her gait was stiff and wide as she shuffled along.She got to the wall on the side of the fireplace, used it for balance, and followed it to the window.It was bright outside.

Before the big window, which had a handle and looked to be a sliding door.One she didn’t understand since the expansive stone balcony before it didn’t have a single guard rail.Yes, it was spacious, but it would be too easy for someone to fall to their death.Since she could see the ground from the window inside, she had no clue how high up she sat or what floor in the building.However, judging by the trees to one side, the place was reasonably high.She turned her head and stared at the dense collection of trees that appeared dark and ominous even in the daylight.She wasn’t afraid of being out in them.She’d survived a day out there on her own.Starving and thirsty all day and chilly at night.This time, she’d take provisions if she could find them.When she glanced in the other direction, she saw buildings off in the distance and movement, but with only one eye, she couldn’t make out the people or the size of things.But at any moment, one of them could come this way, and she needed to find herself out there before anyone returned.

Clothing and food.She’d made the mistake of running in the most impractical garments before, but there hadn’t been time to find anything.I should have stripped the guard.She figured one of the doors closer to the bed would hopefully have clothing.First, she wanted to see what was beyond the open door.She shuffle-stepped her way there.The pads of her feet still hurt like hell with each step she took, but she was grateful for the smoothness of the stone floor.

Avalore doubted that once she left the building, she would get very far, but all she needed was to find a hiding place until she felt better and some of her swelling went away.Instead of sleeping at night, she would do it in the day and use the cloak of darkness to put distance between her and those who lived in this area.

When she finally made it to the door, sweat rolled down the side of her face, the back of her neck beneath the heaviness of her hair, and between her boobs under the sheet.Her body urged her to sit and rest, but she pressed forward.On the other side of the entrance were two more doors down a hall and a set of stairs.

Deciding to move to the stairs instead of the rooms, she stood by the banister and listened as she craned her neck to look around.First, she noticed that it seemed just as quiet below the stairs as above.The second thing was the front door across the black and white marble foyer at the bottom of the stairs.The door appeared carved from the same stone as the walls.Freedom was on the other side.

When her gaze shifted back toward the stairs, she was shocked to see their size.There weren’t more than ten, but their height was hellish.With how weak her legs felt and the swelling in her knees and thighs, she’d need to sit on her butt to get down them.Thank goodness that area seemed clear of injury.To one side, she saw an archway, but at her angle, she couldn’t see what was beyond it, a kitchen perhaps.She hoped so.That would mean she could grab food to go.She could see a spacious living room with a long, wide couch and multiple styles of chairs.By the size of everything, she thought that the likelihood African Pigmy had captured her and lived here wasn’t making sense, and the people had to be very tall.

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