Chapter 13
I wake up staring at an overcast sky. My body aches and my face is raw. My lips are cracked and wet with blood. How long have I been lying here exposed?
Standing, I try to spit out the dirt between my teeth, give up. The last thing I remember is anger, then shock, then fear on Ristoph’s face. Hopefully I killed the bastard. Without taking off my jacket, I can only wrap the tatters of my scarf loosely around my head. The wind keens. I hope Paules got out.
The world is too bright. I don’t see Del Lasmar. Don’t see roads. Endless rows of apoks, though, blurring into the horizon and sky.
I pick up my backpack. Everything spills out. Everything. Needing to know, I upend the pouch with my crystals. One by one they tumble into the thin dirt. All are stained a clotted blood black. A
