Page 22 of Vow of Magic
“Good thing I wasn’t feeling lazy today, I guess.” Ash curled up in a ball as she rubbed the ice and cold out of her limbs. We all huddled up around her to help bring back some warmth to her space.
The next morningcame entirely too quickly. Thankfully, we weren’t attacked in the middle of the night and we were able to get some rest. As much as I hadn’t wanted to, I gazed around the camp as my people put their boots back on and their threadbare cloaks. No one was prepared for a trek through The Wastes. No one was ready to fight monsters. This trip was a harebrained one that seemed impossible to get through. All I could do was hope that the journey on the island to the Last Fortress wasn’t as bad as the first. Alric’s eyes met mine and I felt that tug to mourn all over again but instead, I blinked back the burning in my eyes, wrapped my cloak around myself tighter and straightened my shoulders. I would get through this. It wasn’t as if I hadn’t been through enough. I could keep going.
At least that was what I told myself. With every step, I did not want to keep going. I didn’t want to imagine how different mylife was going to be from this moment forward. I didn’t want to have to build a kingdom without the man I cared for, but here I was. I guess he got his wish that I would end up with someone better. I squeezed my eyes closed and sucked in a breath.
Snow and ice bit into the sides of my face but I could hardly feel it. There would be no complaints coming from my lips throughout this journey. The people traveling with me had it much worse. Some of them were still wearing their finest clothing. Many of the women tied the skirts of their dresses around their legs, the rest of them just let the skirts lay tattered against their skin, with no care as to if the material kept tearing or if it actually kept them warm. Most of their cloaks were blankets they’d probably grabbed in their haste to escape either their homes or the villages to the outside world. At least most of them had something to help with the cold. No one complained of frostbite but I knew it would come when we settled again.
The journey to the ocean was days long with horses and carriages. On foot, I didn’t know how we would even make it there. Would the fraud kingdom be waiting for us when we finally arrived? With a closed fist, I rubbed at my drooping eyes. Alric wrapped his arm around my shoulders and righted me. I hadn’t realized I’d been falling over. How long was I walking silly? Exhaustion was heavy in my body but there was nothing that could be done about that. Between the cold, the mourning, and the lack of sleep and then add in my use of magic… I was dead on my feet. How was I still functioning? Adrenaline ran out a long time ago, I knew that for sure. I also couldn’t ask Leo to carry me again, I would walk with my people.
CHAPTER TWENTY
JUNIPER
Walking quickly turned into running as monsters swarmed from above. One moment there was nothing, then the next we were being picked off one by one. No one could see where their next target would be either with the dense fog and low clouds. The big-scaled beasts dipped down from the clouds and terror filled my chest. Their beaks were pointed monstrosities and their talons were as big as my leg. They didn’t bother with grabbing their prey, that didn’t seem to matter to them. No, they stabbed their massive, pointy beaks into the chests of their targets and ripped their hearts out right before our eyes. There was no organization as chaos continued to unravel. People scattered as they were more concerned with living than actually making it to our destination.
I just wanted these people to live. I clutched my blade close to my body as I ran and then I heard it. The shriek rattled my bones and seemed to have shaken the earth beneath me. I turned at just the right second as a blue-green beast exploded from the clouds above me. I was too slow and my arms didn’t want to work right with the cold. I was done for.
But somehow, Ash was faster. She threw herself in front of me just as the big-scaled bird dove with his beak down.I watched in horror, almost in slow motion, as the monster pierced Ash’s chest instead of mine. Piercing screams erupted around me but everything sounded muffled. What was I seeing? She grinned at me as she stabbed the flying creature in between his slitted eyes. Red splattered on the ground but not from the other worldly thing, but instead from my friend. She collapsed in the white snow at my feet and I went down with her.
Monsters were still coming down from the heavens but it didn’t matter. I couldn’t hear or see anything else but the red blooming beneath my crazy friend.
“What have you done?” I whispered down to her as I tried my best to figure out how to save her. I had nothing to saunch the blood with and the big monster was still pinning her down. There was no way around this. Her arms shook as she yanked her blade free from the skull weighing her down and held the knife to her own neck.
“I did what we were trained to do, I protected the queen,” she coughed and blood splattered on her lips and ran down her chin. I shook my head as I grabbed for her hands. She couldn’t end her life like this. She was too full of life to go out now. “You’re going to be incredible. Don’t let Reva get too serious. Keep her on her toes. Get in trouble. Live your life as I would. Naked and laughing.” She winked before she slashed right across her throat and the light went out in her vibrant eyes. It took me a minute to realize that all the screaming happening was coming from me. Someone wrapped their hands around my shoulders and pulled me from Ash. I yanked myself out of their arms to close her unseeing eyes and then allowed them to pull me away. I didn’t know who it was and I no longer had the strength to keep fighting but I couldn’t leave her. We couldn’t leave her. Not like we did Ryven. What kind of death and burial was this? What kind of honor was in this?
“Shhhh,” Someone rocked me and tried to shush me as I was dragged away from more bodies than I’d ever seen in my life. I thought the screams had been bad but nothing prepared me for this. Nothing prepared me for the destruction that war and monsters could bring. My throat hurt when I realized I was no longer screaming. I didn’t know when I’d stopped and I honestly, no longer cared. I felt like I was having an out-of-body experience. I couldn’t feel anything anymore and in that mercy, I slept.
When I awoke,I fought the person who held onto me until I was put on my feet. Unsteadily I swayed across the snowy terrain. “How long have we been walking?” I asked anyone. I didn’t care who answered or who didn’t, I didn’t have it in me to look around to see what else we’d lost. I would do that when I no longer felt like this.
“Two days,” Reva said from beside me. Her voice sounded just as flat as my own.
“How much longer?” Maybe the answer would make me feel better.
“A few days, maybe,” Alric’s response didn’t make me feel any better. Nothing about this situation did. Had we really lost another person of our team? How? How had this happened?
I blinked down at the blindingly white snow under my boots and kept putting one foot in front of the other. Would the death and destruction ever stop? Would we ever truly know peace? Would this hollow feeling in my chest ever go away? I rubbed the spot in between my breasts and let out a hiss, the skin was tender there. There was no telling how it got like that either. And did I really care? At least it was some kind of feeling besides heart-wrenching sadness.
“How many?” The question was mostly to myself. I didn’t truly want to know how many we’d lost but I also needed to know and I couldn’t pretend any more. The journey would only be that much harder if I didn’t keep my wits about me. I had to do better than this. As much as it hurt and as much as I didn’t want to go through it, I would face it later, in my own chambers when I could be alone. These people didn’t need to see their leader have another breakdown. How many could I have before they lost all trust in me? Had they already lost all trust as it was? Probably.
“More than half.”
It was too much, all of it but I nodded anyway, squared my shoulders and marched forward.
It was no surprise,once again, that I could no longer feel my feet. The snow and icy wind were nonexistent for the last day and a half. For that, I was extremely grateful. Grove’s nose hadn’t stopped bleeding since the previous night and many of the survivors’s faces were scabbed over from the harsh conditions and nothing to protect their skin. But it was better than being dead, I guessed. I didn’t ask Alric how much longer again because I could feel it in my bones we would be to the ocean soon enough.
The smell of firewood and roasting meat stayed in the air for the last few hours and I knew that meant we were coming upon the nearest village. All I could do was hope there was mercy waiting for us there. I didn’t know how much more I could take.
You have been through much worse. A voice seemed to whisper within my mind. The starvation, the blood moons, and the torture didn’t seem to be as bad as the grief clouding my mind but I wouldn’t argue. Maybe at that point in my life, it was worse. You are strong enough to get through these things.
But was I really? Was I truly strong enough to lead people? I didn’t think so even though the magic was running through my veins.
What would Ryven do?
He would probably square his shoulders, clench his jaw, and get back to work and that was the only thing that kept me going. I couldn’t disappoint him, I couldn’t let him down. I needed him to be proud of me.
He would be proud of me. I swiped the tears from my cheeks and kept going.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
