Sanctuary Of Sin

CAUGHT REDHANDED

Elias’s POV


I hit the stone wall hard when the man shoved me. Pain shot through my shoulder. I pushed myself up at once. Riven and the stranger were on the ground. The man’s hands were around Riven’s throat. Riven’s face was turning red. His fingers reached for the knife in the dirt.

I heard shouts coming from the road behind us. More people were coming. If they saw this fight and recognized Riven, everything would end here.

“Riven!” I shouted.

Riven’s hand closed around the knife. The man on top of him looked up for a second when he heard the new voices. Riven drove the knife into the man’s side.

The man made a wet sound and stopped choking Riven. Riven pushed him off and rolled away, coughing hard. Blood covered the knife and Riven’s hand.

The man held his side and stumbled back. His eyes were wide with hate and pain. He looked at the blood on his fingers, then at us, then toward the voices that were getting closer. He turned and ran into the trees, holding his wound.

Riven tried to stand and almost fell. I ran to him and put his arm over my shoulders.

“Can you walk?” I asked.

“Yes,” he forced out. His voice was rough. “Just help me.”

We moved as fast as we could up the path to the church. Behind us I heard men calling to each other.

“I heard a fight!”

“Someone was shouting!”

“Check the trees!”

We reached the side door of the church. I pulled it open and helped Riven inside. We went straight down to the crypt. I closed the heavy door at the top of the stairs and locked it from below.

Riven sat down hard on the cot. Blood ran down his arm from a cut and more blood stained his side where the old wound had pulled open.

“You are bleeding too much,” I said. My hands shook as I grabbed clean cloth.

“It looks worse than it is,” he said. But his face was pale.

I pressed cloth against the cut on his arm first. Then I lifted his shirt and looked at the old wound on his ribs. The stitches had broken in two places. Fresh blood seeped out.

“You need new stitches,” I said.

“Later. First we listen.”

We both stayed quiet. Above us we heard heavy boots enter the church. Voices called out.

“Father Elias? Are you here?”

I looked at Riven. He nodded once. I went up the stairs, opened the door just enough to step into the nave, and closed it behind me.

Three soldiers stood near the altar. One of them was the man who had spoken at the meeting earlier.

“Father,” the soldier said. “We heard a fight on the path. A man was stabbed. Did you see anything?”

“I heard shouting,” I said. I kept my voice steady even though my heart was racing. “I stayed inside. I did not go out.”

“A trail of blood leads toward this church.”

“I do not know about any blood. I have been here praying.”

The soldier studied my face. “If you are hiding the pirate, Father, the general will not show mercy.”

“I am not hiding anyone,” I said. “You may look around the church if you wish.”

They searched the nave, the vestry, and the small rooms upstairs. They did not find the hidden door behind the tapestry that led to the crypt. After a long time they left.

I waited until I could no longer hear their boots. Then I went back down.

Riven was still sitting on the cot. The cloth I had given him was dark with blood.

“They are gone,” I said.

“For now.”

I sat beside him and started cleaning the cuts properly. My hands were still not steady.

“You could have been killed,” I said quietly.

“But I was not.”

“That man knew you. Others will know you too. The bounty is high. People will look harder now.”

Riven watched me while I worked. “You are shaking.”

“I thought he was going to kill you.”

He lifted his good hand and touched my cheek. “I am still here.”

I leaned into his touch for a moment. The fear was still thick in my chest. The general was in town. The bounty was large. A man had almost died on the path because of us. And I was still lying for Riven every single day.

I finished binding his arm and his side. Then I sat back and looked at him.

“We cannot stay here much longer,” I said.

“I know.”

“The next search might find the crypt.”

Riven’s eyes stayed on mine. “When I leave, you still refuse to come with me?”

I did not answer at once. The words felt stuck.

Above us, the church was quiet again. But the quiet did not feel safe anymore.

I stayed sitting beside Riven on the cot. The bandages were tight now, but blood still spotted the cloth on his side.

“You should rest,” I said.

“I will rest when you stop looking so afraid.”

“I cannot stop. The general is here. That man with the knife saw your face. People will talk.”

Riven reached up and pulled me closer. His hand slid to the back of my neck.

“Then stop thinking for a moment,” he said.

He kissed me. The kiss was deep and hungry. I should have pushed him away. The soldiers had only just left. Anyone could still be near the church. But I kissed him back. My hands rested on his chest. I felt his heart beating under my palms. For a few seconds the fear faded and there was only the heat of his mouth and the way he held me like he would not let go.

A loud voice cut through the crypt.

“What is this?!”

I jerked back from Riven. My blood went cold.

Cassian stood at the bottom of the stairs. The hidden door behind the tapestry was open. He must have found it. His orange eyes were wide with shock and then with fury. He stared at my swollen lips, at Riven’s hands still on me, at the narrow cot and the blood-stained cloths.

His face turned red. His voice rose into a shout that filled the stone room.

“Father Elias… what in God’s name are you doing with this man?!”