Chapter 13
1080 Words
The soldiers surrounding us advanced. Our soldiers retreat. "What do we do?" Jessie whispers to me. "Let me talk to their leader." I nod to Hunter who slowly approaches the leader of the other soldiers. The leader raises his hand and his soldiers stop. The leader steps forward and so do I.
"I need you to state your business." He says
"I am King Jo Bones of The Skulls."
"State your business." He repeats.
"Well, we're here to speak to King Mesha."
"What is this regarding?"
"His failure in complying with the peace treaty." The leader calls on one of the soldiers from the army,
"send word to King Mesha. He has visitors." He shouts to the rest "Retreat!" They disappear as suddenly as they'd arrived.
Jessie calls everyone together, "We need a plan of action."
"Where are the rest? They should have arrived by now." Hunter observes. Jessie glances my way. I shrug. Indra pulls me aside. I rip my arm from him. "Sir, she's gone." I seize him. I have him pinned to the ground. Jessie grabs my jacket. He tries and fails to get me off Indra. I pummel his face. "WHERE IS SHE!" I command!
"I don't know." He pleads. "One minute she was there, the next she was gone!" I search his eyes for an ounce of sincerity. I cannot tell if he's lying.
"What have you done?" I whisper. In the background I hear Jessie giving orders.
"Search the grounds! Find Lilith!" He commands. "Where was the last place you saw her?" His question is directed at Indra, but I still have my hand squeezing his throat.
"You need to let him go Jo."
"You don't understand Jessie, him and Atticus were conspiring with them" I look up for a second. He acknowledges and calls to Bear. "In my bag, there's rope. Tie him and Atticus up. Let's get some answers." Bear nods and does as he's told.
Indra and Atticus are tied to separate trees near each other. Jessie is calm. He kneels before each of them. I cannot hear a word they say. Jessie ordered me to stay away until I've calmed down. I know we won't get anything out of them if they're dead. And I WILL kill them.
"Take a walk." Jessie said earlier. I watch how he calmly speaks to them. I wonder at how he's able to maintain his composure with them. When Lilith almost turned into one of the monsters, Jessie almost killed me. And yet now that she's disappeared he's serene. He's a hypocrite. I decide. I force my fists open. It burns where my nails penetrated flesh. My heartbeat has not slowed. The air becomes thinner and my head feels light. I peel my eyes away from the three. Force my steps to retreat and turn to run.
The wind whips past me and I run straight for the woods. I don't run the way we came nor do I run for Mole City. I run parallel to our camp site. The cold air stings my nose. I focus on my feet pounding the ground. The twigs snap. The wind whooshes past my ears. My heart hammers inside my chest. My eyes burn and I feel the tears warm my cheeks.
Lilith.
Everything I did was to keep her safe and she disappeared anyway. They promised they'd leave her alone if I did as they'd asked. Could they have taken her? OR...
The soldiers! But why would they take her?
She's wounded. She's alone. I need to find her. I need a plan. I fall. Head first into a ditch. My chest hurts. My ankle too. I don't know how far I am from the site. I take a few gulps of air and take in my surroundings. This hole is much deeper than the one Lilith fell in. The rich earth fills my nostrils. My head starts to pound. The dark trees are all I see above ground. I try to stand. It sends a sharp pain through my leg and I fall back down again.
"Aaargh!" I scream.
***
"Stop squirming young princess" the voice is gruff.
"Could you just," I kick as hard as I can... and miss. Again.
"If you keep squirming I'll drop you and you'll fall very hard on your butt."
"Let. me. go." I kick again. "oomph" Great! I hit someone.
"Why not just let her walk?" A woman says. So there's more than one of them?
"She'll run." gruffy says. He's smart. I think.
"Then tie her legs."
"How can she walk if her legs are tied?" He asks. I snicker.
"I meant for her to stop kicking!" the woman yells at him. They're quite a pair. I've delt with worse than them. I'm sure I can take 'em. If only.. I could.. get my hands... untied.
"Stop squirming." I feel a thud on the back of my head. "Hey!" I yell. "Let go of me."
"No can do. We're taking you to the prince." The woman says.
"The prince of what?"
"The prince of all good things." She sounds like she's swooning.
"Pssh. Oh please." I roll my eyes. Not that they can see it. "What does he want with me anyway?"
The woman's laugh is almost heartbreaking. "To marry you of course."
"Yes, big wedding banquet. He's been planning it for days." Gruffy says.
"There's no way I'm marrying anybody I've never met before!"
"Not to worry princess. You'll meet him soon, then you can marry him." Gruffy says.
"Just let me go, please? My brother will reward you handsomely." I plead with them. Where is Jo and his recklessness when you need it?
"Aaargh!" The scream sounds close. Gruffy stops. "What was that?" He whispers. "I don't know," the woman responds. "But we better get out of here fast, before it catches up to us."
"HELP!!!!!!!" I scream before I feel a hard thump and everything goes dark.
***
"Lilith?" I swear I heard her scream. "Lilith!!!" No response. I grab hold of the nearest root coming out of the mud wall that surrounds me and pull myself up. My ankle hurts like mad but I bite through the pain. "I'm coming Lilith." I whisper to myself through painful breaths. I tug the root a bit to test it's stability. I use my good leg and start climbing, pulling myself up and out of the hole. She was here, I know it. She's close.
- Writer
