Page 42 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
So many hours flying at top speed in this strange hover had taken its toll. His head ached like someone had taken a hammer to the inside of his skull and attempted to crack the bone.
No Cerls on the horizon behind or ahead of them. At the height and speed they were flying, Kase doubted anyone could match them.
Pain spiked in his head, and blackness spread across his vision.
“Steady, steady!” Stowe yelled as Kase’s eyesight came back.
Towering trees appeared out of nowhere. They’d lost altitude.
Kase whipped the steering control up. His stomach followed. Déjà vu made his head swirl even worse; at least he hadn’t hit any Yalven columns that time.
“I’m going to land, ” Kase gritted out. The pressure in his head ground his teeth against each other. His stomach rebelled, but it’d have to wait. He could throw up when they were on the ground.
Faster than he would’ve thought possible, Kase landed at the edge of a meadow, the trees he almost crashed into standing unscathed behind him.
Stomach in his throat, he shut down the craft, and the ship went dark. He popped the windshield and pushed it up.
He unbuckled himself with shaking fingers. Stowe was talking, but Kase couldn’t hear a word. If he didn’t get out of the machine soon, anything he’d eaten in the last day would be all over the dashboard. Finally, freed of his safety restraints, he scrambled out of the cockpit and down the hover wing—
And then he promptly heaved up the contents of his stomach onto the mottled brown and green grass.
He put his hand on the side of the hover to steady himself as he dry-heaved. The metal warmed under his fingers.
Stowe came up behind him, his footfalls crunching. “Let’s sit you against one of those trees there once you finish up.”
Kase couldn’t answer. Nothing was left in his stomach. His bones ached. It was like he had the latest strain of influenza that had passed through the capital a year back. Kase had been laid out for a week.
This time, he didn’t have soup to settle his stomach or books to read while he convalesced. Shocks, just thinking of it now brought on a whole new wave of nostalgia…and a little shame.
Maybe Bookshop Attendant Hallie had been correct about him. He’d been rather pampered, sure…but if he had the chance, he would go back to that in a heartbeat.
He tried to relax his muscles, but even as exhausted as he was, he couldn’t get the tension to release.
Was this his punishment for what happened in Nar? Was his body finally catching up with his actions? He’d shot Ossie. He didn’t think he’d killed him or the Cerl pilot, but he’d never know for sure.
Another wave of sick washed over him, and a third left his throat burning. He wiped his mouth, though nothing but spit and acid had come up.
If I hadn’t done anything, I would be dead. Stowe would be dead. I did what I had to do.
His heart skittered weakly. He squeezed his eyes shut, forcing himself to keep using Zeke’s method of dealing with Battle Fright.
If they’d figured out who I was, they would have imprisoned me and used me as leverage. They would’ve killed Stowe. I had no choice.
There was no Hallie to save with his name now.
An arm went around his shoulder. “Come on.”
A few beads of sweat dripped down the back of Kase’s neck and into his already damp collar. He steadied himself and tried pushing off from the older man. “Thanks.”
“Stop wriggling, boy, I got you.” Stowe didn’t let go of his upper arm until he’d walked Kase over to one of the trees and eased him down to the ground.
Kase’s body felt like it was about to fall apart at the seams. He leaned his head back against the tree, the bark scratching at his head and catching on his hair. He didn’t care. It was nice to justbe,if only for a few moments. His eyelids scraped like sandpaper as he shut his eyes.
Stowe climbed back up into the hover. After a few minutes of shuffling, the man said, “I got something that’ll perk you right up, but I’d rather you rest a spell first.”
Kase didn’t even bother opening his eyes. “I’ll be okay.”
A few more moments with only a light breeze and the sounds of shuffling for company, Stowe’s footfalls crunched closer. “Drink some water.”
