Page 76 of The Lands Defying
I look around the area, noticing all who came with us to The Drylands are safe. They look a little worse for wear, especially Jerrod who has a large wound running down his cheek. He doesn’t seem to care for the droplets of blood that drips from him and is collecting in a small pool at his feet.
His eyes meet mine briefly, and he answers the unvoiced question in my eyes of healing him by the small shake of his head.
“We will continue toward where we saw smoke, and then leave The Drylands,” Darius tells Kruten.
He nods. “It will be wise if this is how the land is acting.”
“Why did it do that?” I ask.
“I do not know, Halis. It seems as though we are not the only ones it disturbed.” He frowns as he looks to the west, and then back at his tribe. “I just hope it does not happen again. We cannot lose anymore.”
I look behind him at his tribe huddled together. Some weep, and some stare into the distance.
“I hope they run free,” I tell him, referring to the dead.
Sorry won’t make it okay, it won’t bring back the dead.
He dips his head to me. “We thank you for your help. We stand with Halis, with the Gods.” His eyes come to meet mine. “The Gods didn’t abandon us, Hali, do not think they did. They were stolen from us.” Stolen? “Call through the lands if you need us, we will come.” My brow furrows as the guys look at me. “You will know what to do.” I go to open my mouth to speak, but he bows his head again and turns towards his tribe that’s preparing to leave.
I shift uncomfortably as the guys stare at me.
“What?” I grumble, not liking the too-intense eyes on me, not liking that I just realized I’m the only female here.
If Anna was here, she would back me up and tell them to stop staring.
“You seem to be collecting beings wherever you go,” Leo says, eyeing me.
“Do you think it’s witchcraft?” Damian says, tilting his head. “She does have that blood witch in her pack.”
Zaide grunts. “The witch wouldn’t put something so pathetic on anyone.”
We all look at Zaide in surprise, but he takes a knife out and sharpens it.
“I’m not spelled,” I say. “They just want what’s best for the lands, like we do.”
Though call them through the lands?
How am I supposed to know how to do that?
“Let’s move. I don’t think we want to stay here and risk the chance of having the land cracking beneath our feet again,” Darius says.
That, I agree with.
We head further into The Drylands, my eyes looking at Josh’s injury and seeing that he’s walking fine on it.
I look down at my hands in wonder, wiggling each finger.
“We will speak on it later,” Darius says to me and I nod.
The smoke can be seen more clearly the deeper we go, just a day or two away.
A day or two from hopefully seeing my pack again. Alive.
Gods, please be alive.
A chill settles in my bones, and I pull my hood up over my head, hating that we didn’t manage to grab some of our packs so we don’t have any extra clothing.
I stroke over my pocket, feeling the port stone and the glass wolf Darius gave me there, safe and sound.
