14. Runaways
1113 Words
14
Runaways
They snuck quietly through the camp. Centaur guards paced the outside of the settlement every night, making sure no Dragons could hunt them while they slept.
Emilia led Jacob to the farthest corner of the camp.
Jacob’s heart raced, his pulse thundering in his ears. How good was a centaur’s hearing? Would they be able to hear his heart’s desperate attempts to leap out of his chest?
Speckled white and brown hide shone in the moonlight. Jacob pinned Emilia behind a tree as Bly swung around, looking for the source of the faint rustling they had made as they moved through the forest. Jacob held his breath, waiting for Bly to keep moving. A branch snapped much closer than Bly had been only moments before.
“Invectus,” Emilia murmured. A warm breeze whispered past Jacob’s skin, and the air around them shimmered. A moment later, Bly appeared next to them, looking directly at them, but Jacob knew he could only see the tree.
Bly’s breath felt hot on Jacob’s neck, but he turned and stalked away through the trees.
“Nice one,” Jacob whispered into Emilia’s ear.
“I know,” she answered with a smile before leading him deeper into the woods.
The night breeze whispered around them. But they met no one else.
“Shouldn’t there be more guards?” Jacob searched through the shadows for some sign of life.
“You would think.”
But still they saw no one.
Up ahead, a stream glistened in the moonlight, six feet wide and flowing more slowly than Jacob had ever seen a stream move.
Jacob pulled out his wand and pointed it at his feet. “Calaridus.”
Emilia looked at him, one eyebrow raised.
“I hate having wet socks.” Jacob shrugged.
Jacob stood at the edge of the water. Even in the quiet woods, he could barely hear the murmur of the stream. He stepped into the water and felt nothing. His feet had remained dry.
“I’m brilliant,” he said quietly to Emilia, before noticing that something was wrong. Horribly wrong.
His feet had been on solid creek bed only a moment before, but now he was sinking, and fast. As he tried to pull his foot up, the water around him began to shake.
“Emilia, don’t step in,” Jacob said, but Emilia was already staring in horror at the opposite bank. Jacob followed her gaze and knew in an instant what scared her. The other side of the water had gotten father away. Jacob struggled more, and as he did, the water again grew wider.
“Jacob, stop moving,” Emilia said, her quiet voice filled with panic.
“I would love to, Emi, but I’m sinking!” Jacob was up to his waist now. As though he had been wearing waterproof boots, the water now flowed freely around his feet, stinging them like ice.
“Just hold still,” Emilia said.
“Great, I’ll be right here.”
Emilia turned to the tree behind her. The light from her sapphire pendant glowed blue on the tree’s bark. “Colubra me bratus.”
One of the branches of the tree began to snake itself down toward Emilia as she continued to chant. She gathered the branch in her hand like a rope.
“Terminora,” she finished. “Catch the end.”
She threw the end of the branch-turned-rope to Jacob. A bit of it touched the water, and looking behind him, Jacob watched the water grow wider yet again.
“Hold on tight,” Emilia said.
Jacob wrapped the rope around his wrist, expecting Emilia to try and pull him out of the water, which he wasn’t sure she could do. Emilia may be a talented witch, but he was bigger.
“Evedeo,” Emilia said, and in one swift and squelchy instant, Jacob was soaring into the air. The rope whipped itself from his grasp as it turned back into a normal branch, and Jacob tumbled to the ground, landing in a heap at Emilia’s feet.
“You all right?” Emilia asked as she reached down to help Jacob up.
Jacob gasped as pain seared through his arm at her touch. “I think I dislocated my shoulder.”
“Sorry.” Emilia grimaced. “But on the bright side, you’re not sinking anymore.”
“Yeah, thanks for that,” Jacob said through his teeth as he stood, feeling the rest of his body smart with the bruises forming from his fall.
“Exhale,” Emilia said.
“What?”
“Paricio.”
Jacob stifled a shouted curse as his shoulder popped painfully back into place.
“Thanks,” Jacob grunted, turning back to look at the stream. It was twenty feet wide now and running fast. “Now we know why there aren’t more guards. They drown intruders instead.”
He scanned up and down the stream. It ran through the trees and out of sight. “I don’t think we can go around.”
“No need. Denursus.” The branch turned back into a rope and landed at Emilia’s feet.
“You couldn’t have pulled me out gently then?” Jacob asked.
“I needed more power. I may have overestimated, but still, no drowning.” Emilia handed the rope to Jacob.
“I think the water’s too wide to swing across.” Jacob shook his head, handing the rope back.
“A rope swing ruined my life once. I learned how to make these things do exactly what I want.” Emilia settled herself into Jacob’s arms, and his heart began to race. “Ready?”
Jacob held tight to the rope.
“Volitus!” Emilia cried.
Before Jacob could ask what he was supposed to be doing, they were flying over the water.
It was impossibly wide. As they passed over the creek, it seemed to grow wider still. The speed of their swing raced with the expansion of the water. The rope was nowhere near long enough for them to land on the other side. Jacob pulled Emilia closer to him, preparing himself for the fall into the cold water, but they kept swinging out over the far bank.
“Crestundo!” Emilia cried. The rope cracked like a whip, sending them toward the ground. Jacob twisted in mid-air, and Emilia landed on top of him with a squeal.
“Oops.” Emilia pushed herself up enough to look Jacob in the eyes. “I guess I’ve never tried that with two people before.”
She was so close to him. Jacob could feel her heart pounding on top of his. The hum in his chest grew stronger as her faint scent of lilac reached him.
“Jacob,” Emilia whispered.
Her face was only inches from his. All he had to do was raise his head from the ground, and their lips would meet.
“Jacob.” She leaned in closer to him.
Jacob stood, knocking Emilia to the ground. His heart tried to beat out of his chest. “Great, I’m glad we made it across.”
Emilia didn’t say anything. He felt her confusion wriggling through his mind. He shook himself and turned back toward the water. It was now wider than any river he had ever seen and rushed past at a furious speed. Squinting, he could barely make out the bank where they had been only a minute before.
“No going back.” Emilia stood beside him.
“No going back.”
- Writer
