Part 49
Wildman
set a brutal pace. For such a small, wiry guy, he could really move. I couldn’t
go on much longer, and we were already deep in the jungle. “Can we take a
break?” I gasped. I stumbled into a tree and stopped, my shoulder throbbing.
Without its support, I probably would’ve dropped to my knees.
“We’re
exhausted.” Teddy hadn't said anything, but his feet had started
dragging, leaving furrows in the thick loam. I hitched him closer to my side;
my muscles burned, and my arm felt like it was going to fall off.
“Not
there.”
I rested my forehead against the
tree. “Why not here? How much farther?”
“Spider.” He smacked the top of my
head.
“What?” I reeled back, and tripped
over a root. Teddy and I feel in a heap and I stared in shock at the fuzzy form
on the ground that was bigger than my
head. The legs spasmed, then drew in. “Oh my god.”
“More.” Wildman pointed up.
“Babies.”
Disgusting. I shuddered. The
branches in the tree above us were alive with scuttling bodies as big as my
hand. A few dangled on strands of webbing, lowering down.
I found the energy to get me and
Teddy up off the ground and away from that tree.
When we stopped, I made sure I
looked all around the small clearing Wildman picked out, checking the ground,
the trees, and even throwing a rock into a thick patch of bushes. The sun was
fully up, and it was sweltering, even in the dim shade.
“Safe.” Wildman just dropped to
the ground and curled up, his head in the dirt. His eyes were closed already.
I swept the ground of the larger
rocks and tried to make Teddy comfortable on the ground. I arranged his head on
his pack, then curled up against his back. “It’ll be okay, Teddy. I’m going to
take care of you.” I twined our fingers together and held him close.
It had only been a few hours, but
his silence disturbed me. It felt different from his usual fugues. Usually, even
though his mind was working on a different wavelength than the rest of us, he’d
still been… present. This wasn’t the same.
More than anything else, I needed
my Teddy back.
The ground vibrated by my head,
and I opened my eyes. Directly in front of me were a pair of boots. A cold
blade touched my throat, resting against my Adam’s apple.
“Did you really think you could
get away from me, from the king’s justice, after what you did?” Sir Varket
sneered. His clothes and hair were disheveled, but he stood behind the guards
as if he were in the midst of court, a peacock on display with his loud voice
and dramatic gestures.
I didn’t say anything; even
swallowing was likely to get my throat cut.
“Get them up.”
Two guards grabbed me by the arms
and yanked me to my feet. I stood rigid between them, shaking with fear and
anger. Varket moved closer, stepping up to Teddy who hung limp between the
guards holding on to him. “You two have
made a lot of powerful people really angry.” He trailed a finger across Teddy’s
cheek. “Overloaded him, did you? How sweet of you to get him ready for me; I do
so enjoy them when they’re in this state… until they come to.”
How could I have believed Wildman
this would be safe? We might not have been attacked by animals, but I should’ve
known Varket would follow us, even outside the city.
Wait. Two? I tried not to move my
head; I didn’t want to be obvious, but when I scanned the clearing, I didn’t
see Wildman at all.
Varket turned toward me. “You’re
still alive. I’m shocked, after how much power you threw into Schvesla’s
machine through your friend. You two are very special. Maybe even special
enough to fix the machine.”
“Never.” I finally found my voice,
and it didn’t waver. “We’ll die first.”
Smirking, he patted my cheek.
“You’ll wish you could, but the king doesn’t believe in beheading traitors any
longer. He’s decided to grant you two leniency… a lifetime in the cells with
daily visits from his special advisors.
One way or the other, you’ll learn your place and do as you’re told.”
I lunged forward, but the guards
held my arms too tight. I fought them, but it was no use. They bound my arms behind
my back and attached a rope around my neck that was also attached to Teddy’s.
If I fought, they let him go, choking us both.
We marched through the jungle,
back toward the city. Even if I could use my ability, the guards kept their
distance from me, as if I could still supplant their will with mine. That gave
me hope that my power would come back and Teddy really would be okay eventually,
but that only led to more despair.
How would they use me, use us,
once that happened? We were doomed, unless Wildman found a way to help us, but
he was one scrawny boy against eight guards. No matter how ferociously he
fought, he could not overpower them all, and Teddy and I were less than useless.
The trees were thin enough here to
see the sky as the light began to fade. We hadn’t yet reached the city walls,
which meant we’d walked a lot farther than I thought before we collapsed from
exhaustion earlier in the day. I looked up at the sky, wondering when those
giant birds would appear.
The king might not kill us, but if
Varket didn’t make camp, it would happen anyway. We were making so much noise,
he hadn’t even noticed the way the jungle went still around us, but I did. I
didn’t want to die, but I knew they’d make us suffer in unspeakable ways. Teddy
would have agreed with me.
I didn’t warn Varket or the
guards.
Now on to more flash!
