Arranged (47 page)

He knew he needed to give her space, but he was very anxious to see her. He forced himself to eat slowly, to help fill time. They had argued before lunch and it was dinnertime now. Was that enough time for her to calm down?

He had his captain run through a few more drills then let his men have the rest of the night off. A few of them remained behind and went over more drills, sparring with each other.

The Eclipse festival was growing closer, therefore so was the attack on Torin, yet all Qwinn could bring himself to think about was Alison. Never before had he prepared to go into battle this unfocused. The only way to fix it was to resolve things with her before the festival or he ran the risk of getting him and his men into a sticky situation, someone would get hurt.

Qwinn found himself outside of Adalia's door. He was looking for advice, but he heard murmurs and her giggle. Vin was most likely over. He had half a mind to interrupt them, but decided to give them some privacy. Adalia was a big girl, though if Vin hurt her, Qwinn wouldn't hesitate to kill him.

Vin was turning out to be much different than his poisonous family. Shea and even Kesni Yorath, were proving to be a menace to his life. And their father, Sedarr, pressing for a council position gave him a headache.

But ever since Vin had first showed interest in fighting and continued to pester Qwinn until he was allowed to attend trainings, Qwinn realized that he had more brains than the rest of his family. However, that didn't mean he necessarily liked him, let alone trusted him.

Qwinn continued to wander and eventually found himself right outside of Alison's door.

Larius nodded at him and remained silent as Qwinn pressed his ear to the door. He listened for a moment before he did anything. He couldn't hear anything and for a moment he was afraid she wasn't in there. Then he heard her drop something and swear under her breath.

Before he could chicken out, he knocked lightly on her door. He heard her gasp in surprise at the sound, then there was silence. He knocked again.

"Go away!" she yelled at the door.

"Can we talk?" he asked gently, praying she would let him in.

"I don't want to talk to you!" she yelled again, and as if to emphasize her point, he heard a thud of something being thrown at the door.

Qwinn backed up, despite himself and forced himself to take a deep breath before he did something stupid like barge in on her and make her hate him even more.

"I really need to talk to you," he tried again.

There was silence for a moment and his heart leapt at the idea that she might actually let him in. Then she said, "just leave me alone..."

Her voice sounded so sad it nearly made him moan. He wanted to apologize until he could no longer speak. He wanted to force her to see his side of the story. He wanted to hold her until she could love him again. Instead of doing any of these things, he turned away from her door and went back down the hall, feeling completely alone and rejected.

He took a detour before his room and went to the baths, maybe soaking in hot water would give him the answer he searched for?

ALISON HELD HER BREATH UNTIL SHE KNEW HE WAS GONE. That had been too close for comfort, she had been busy packing what little belongings she had in her room, none of which actually belonged to her, but she planned on taking what she could. She had saved what food she could from the dinner tray she'd been given and wrapped it in a cloth, tucking it in the backpack she'd made out of a sheet. She didn't know how she was going to get away from the guard, but she had to try.

She knew scaling the palace wall was impossible. The only way out was out the door. She shivered as she remembered the last time she'd made an attempt to escape and absentmindedly rubbed her leg. This was something she had to do.

When Qwinn had come to the door, her heart had yearned to let him in. Just the sound of his voice had stirred a longing she'd been trying to fight since he'd told her the truth. He'd betrayed her, that was that. It didn't matter what her heart wanted, her head was ruling in this argument.

She tucked her small backpack under the bed until she was ready and began to pace her room once again, going over the plan and trying to come up with all possible outcomes so that she would be ready with a counterattack.

After hours of agonizing over what she was about to do, Alison smiled as she watched the sun set through the bubble in the cavern ceiling. Show time. She tucked the small backpack and her cloak behind the door and opened it quietly. Just as she had hoped, Larius had been relieved of duty for the moment and there was a scrawny soldier left behind.

He stood from his chair and faced her. "what do you need?" he asked with a slight bow.

She slumped forward slightly and pretended to have a hard time breathing. "C-can you find...Naliya. I-," she paused, acting as though she was holding bile back and moaned, "I don't feel very good," she added another moan and held the door frame as though she had no strength.

The soldier looked around desperately for someone to help, but everyone was asleep at this hour, just as she had planned it. He would have to leave her in order to find Naliya, clear down by the kitchen.

He looked nervously at her, taking an uncertain step toward to leave. She quickly grabbed her stomach and groaned, covering her mouth. "Hurry!"

He was off, hurrying down the hall. She knew her plan didn't buy her much time, but it was enough to get out of her room. As soon as she heard his foot steps on the stairs, she grabbed here cloak then her bag and the lantern and let herself out into the hall.

Her heart picked up with adrenaline as she hurried down the opposite hall, that adalia had taken her down a few times. She kept her lantern well turned down so that no onw could see the light. She reached the stairs and hurried down, keeping a hand on the wall so as not to fall.

Her breath came in short gasps as her nerves made her limbs tremble, but she shoved all thoughts of being caught from her mind. She came to the main hall, staying still for a moment to make sure no one was around, then she bolted for another side hall, with another door that lead to the outside. She rushed to the door and turned the handle, only to have her heart leap into her throat, locked.

She bit her lip nervously as she desperately looked around for another exit. She hurried by many doors, trying to remember what was behind them, then she came to the kitchen. It made her extremely nervous to be so close to where naliya and the soldier would be, but she couldn't hear anything, so it was obvious that the soldier hadn't found her yet. She held jeer breath and darted for the window on the other side of the room. It took quite a bit of arm strength to open the solid window, but she managed to get it open just enough to slide through. She threw her bag out and quickly followed it, landing in a heap just outside.

She froze, listening for footsteps of angry voices, she heard none. So wasting no more time, she ran for the stables.

There was a set of guards chatting tiredly by the stable fence. She stayed in the shadows, creeping slowly, too slowly for her own taste, toward the stable. She finally made it to the door and opened it, again slowly. Most of the Ou'tani were sleeping and she looked for a saddle. Though she had ridden a horse once at her uncles, she didn't know how to saddle it up, so she settled for grabbing thick blankets and set to searching the stalls for An Ou'tani she thought she could handle.

Then suddenly there was a snort behind her. She dropped the blankets as she jumped in fear, turning only to find Qwinn's Ou'tani sticking his head out of the stall. She breathed in relief and picked up the blankets, hoping he wouldn't make a sound as she unlocked his stall.

He snorted again, but tromped his hooves slightly in excitement. She carefully patted his snout, his feelers tickling her fingers, then held onto his neck, leading him gently out of the stall.

To her great relief he followed, not making a sound. She led him out of the barn, looking around wildly, expecting to be busted already. No one was around, there were no shouts, no alarms, no one knew she was gone yet.

She led him down a side path of the castle, thinking it looked familiar and would led her back to the gate of the city, she hadn't decided how to get past the gate yet, but she would face that issue when she got to it.

When she thought she was far enough away, she grabbed onto the stiff hair that was the Ou'tani's mane and tried to climb up. She hadn't realized how much Adalia or Qwinn lifted her when she climbed up. She tried and failed again, letting out a frustrated sigh. Then suddenly the Ou'tani knelt to it's knees, allowing her to climb on much easier. She smiled with relief and adjusted the blanket, climbing on. As soon as she was on, the Ou'tani stood and waited for her to guide him.

She looked behind her, no one was after them, yet. She tried to remember how Qwinn or Adalia guided them and gently bumped it's sides with here heels. He trotted into action, almost sending her flying. She managed to stay on by holding onto it's bristly mane. Her adrenaline continued to course through her, but her anxiety lessened the more distance she out between the palace and herself.

She thanked the heavens that the Ou'tani had come with her so easily and tried to ignore the dull ache in her heart at leaving all the new "friends" she'd made. She chided herself, trying to reassure herself that they were not her friends, but her captors.

She hugged her small bag to herself, telling herself that she was going to be alright. She didn't need Qwinn or Adalia to protect her. The Ou'tani trotted on a familiar path that she realized rode into town. She knew she had to go through town in order to get to the gate, but pointed the creature in the direction of what she thought she remembered as a side road that headed on the outskirts of town, but led to the same destination, so as to avoid getting caught.

She wondered if they'd discovered her missing yet. She wondered if Qwinn knew. Was he looking for her already? Was he worried? She quickly pushed her thoughts from her mind and concentrated on the road. It forked up ahead. Her mouth ran dry; she couldn't remember which way to take.

The Ou'tani hesitated, waiting for her demand. She held her breath and made a choice. Right. She figured it would stay out of town. They rode down it for a few minutes when it forked again. The creature continued walking down the right on its own and Alison prayed that it knew better than she did.

They had been trotting for a long while, when she looked around and realized she didn't recognize a thing. Her heart picked up in fear and she held out the small lantern, trying to light her surroundings more. It seemed the creature sensed her mood because it became jittery. She had never realized that they were so sensitive to the rider's emotions.

Alison tried to calm it and keep going, figuring all the roads would eventually lead to civilization. When she calmed, the Ou'tani calmed. They rode farther down the path and Alison spotted a large stone wall to her left. She swallowed nervously, remembering the story of the Torin and the statue she had seen of the horrible beast. Qwinn had told her that they lived deep in the woods.

She tried to stifle her fear, but the creature sensed her already. It stomped nervously and snorted. She murmured soothing sounds to it, but her fear was growing.

Suddenly, there was a rustling in the bushes nearby. Alison squeaked in fear as her scream froze in her throat. The Ou'tani froze. She nudged its sides to keep going, but it remained frozen.

The bushes shook again and Alison's heart stopped. Something was going to attack and kill her! There was nothing she could do; no one even knew where she was. She should have just stayed in the palace.

Suddenly, a strange lizard the size of a cat scurried from the bushes. The Ou'tani bucked, easily knocking Alison off. She screamed and landed in a hard heap, knocking the air out of her lungs. She coughed and gagged, trying to pull in more oxygen. The lizard creature ran back into the bushes and to Alison's dismay, the Ou'tani galloped off. She tried to call for it to stop, but could barely form a word.

When she finally did catch her breath, it was too late; the Ou'tani was long gone. Alison felt tears of despair prick her eyes, but then the bushes rattled, reminding her that she wasn't alone. She scrambled to her feet and grabbed her things, darting down the dirt path in the direction the Ou'tani had run.

She ran quickly, barely able to see in the dark. Only when her lungs were burning did she decide she was far enough and leaned back against a tree, trying desperately to suck in air.

She fumbled with her things and found the tiny lantern. In all of the hurry, she hadn't made sure to be careful with it. To her relief, it hadn't been broken and surprisingly, it was still lit. It definitely had to be a magic flame.

She felt a glimmer of hope as she turned up the tiny flame and light bloomed around her. She regained her bearings, or what she could, and continued walking.

By now, she was positive they knew she was gone, which meant she had to hurry. She jogged for a while, and then settled for a quick walk. Ever since she'd broken her leg, she hadn't gotten much exercise, other than dancing. The running was taking a lot out of her.

She had gone for what felt like hours, when she heard the rushing sound of a river. Dying for a drink, she headed toward the sound, hoping the water was clean enough to drink.

She tried hard not to stumble over the uneven ground and managed only to stub her toes twice when she reached the river. It was bigger than she had thought and was running quite swiftly, but it was a welcome sight.