Arissa's Fate (Redemption Trilogy) (6 page)

Chapter Thirteen

              After leaving the eerie resting place, Arissa could feel a bit of the tension leaving her and it was somewhat easier to breathe again after they were well hidden on a footpath deep in the forest.

             
Cayl seemed even more disoriented and in more pain than the night before. While he had still been asleep, Arissa had carefully checked the wound and had felt her heart sink when she saw the inflamed, red skin. He needed help today or he wasn’t going to live.

             
She knew there was only one place to go. Hating the thought of it, she had forced herself to breathe deeply several times and then locked the thoughts of hesitation from her mind. She had to, otherwise he would die. They had gotten this far, she wouldn’t let anything else happen. She would finally win.

             
Again, they hardly spoke a word to each other as the bay horse dodged between trees, shying occasionally when a bird would flutter up beside them.

             
Most of the day passed before Arissa stopped the horse in the woods just outside the village where she had spoken to Landon. She couldn’t predict what his reaction would be, but if he ever wanted to help her, now would be the time.

             
“Where are we going?” Cayl asked, still trying to put on a tough front for her, even though he was painfully clutching his side after dismounting.

             
Before answering, Arissa stripped the horse of all equipment and let her go free. She had been abused in their journey back and she didn’t want to be responsible for her while they hid within the city limits. The horse was no doubt hungry and weary, being free would give her the best chance of survival.

             
“I’m taking you to Landon’s. You need medical help and we need to rest for a few days before we do anything. Don’t bother arguing with me, because it’s already decided.”

             
Even through his grimy, sweat-streaked face, he flashed a quick smile. “Somehow, you always end up winning the argument anyway, so why would I bother?”

             
Despite her stress and terror, she smiled. Even though they were both exhausted and very clearly, Cayl had been through more than she could imagine, the familiar spark in his forest green eyes made her feel suddenly comforted.

             
Finding a section of the poorly constructed blockade around the village wasn’t difficult. It was painfully obvious that he didn’t yet realize it, but the General’s obsession with controlling every excuse of a settlement was actually causing more harm than he thought. There weren’t nearly enough soldiers to do all of his bidding, so it was all too easy for people like Arissa and Cayl to simply slip between two shacks and hide until the sentry guard passed. Then they were free to navigate anywhere they wanted throughout the settlement. Arissa had never been caught, keeping her cloak pulled far over her face and blending into all the other wandering, unidentifiable people.

             
Gripping Cayl’s hand as tightly as she could, Arissa piloted them to the least trafficked paths. His pace was beginning to slow drastically and she could feel that his skin was burning hot. Once he even announced breathlessly that he needed to stop for a moment. He leaned against a dilapidated building that was clearly once been a house and let his eyes flutter shut. Fragments of furniture and broken glass could easily be seen among the burnt and splintered chunks of wood from the house frame.

             
Feeling sick to her stomach, she could see the wound had begun bleeding again, staining the already saturated clothing. A steady sheen of sweat beaded on his face. The knife slice on Arissa’s arm was beginning to sting as well, becoming infected, but she remained tense and ignored the pain. Landon’s home wasn’t far. It had been dark and stormy the last time she has seen him, unsure of where she even was in a village that was basically foreign to her.

             
Arissa rested her hand on the side of his face, feeling her heart twist when he purposefully avoided her eyes. There was so much she wanted to say, but knew the silence was more appropriate. The next minutes could separate his life and death.

             
“We’re almost there, Cayl. Please hang on for me. We’re almost there. We’re together again now, everything will be over soon, I promise. You just have to hold on.”

             
His breathing was heavy and laboured and he was beginning to tremble from exhaustion again. After a moment of shallow gasps, he nodded, finally opening his bloodshot eyes again.

             
Arissa gripped his forearm, attempting to help him move more easily. The familiar feeling of exposure was beginning to creep into her again. For the first time, she actually started looking around them to observe the other people. Given, there weren’t very many on the dark paths that they were on, but they were all very clearly travellers or the broke residents of the city. Seeing a severely injured man like Cayl on the streets was nothing new to anyone and they continued on their way. The lifestyle of the territory had quickly become a “save yourself” battle of survival.

             
Finally, she could see the back of the building that had once been very familiar to her. The small, dark shed that hung crookedly from the back of the house looked the same, covered in a harsh dust from the blazing fire that was almost always flaming. Long rods had been attached to the walls, a few inches away to leave a gap and they were hung with new and old horseshoes of all sizes. A large woodpile filled the back corner, and there was a heap of metal chunks that had been damaged or discarded for one reason or another.

             
Arissa had spent a good deal of her collective memory around this house, but she couldn’t remember a time when she had been more excited to see it, as unwelcoming and shabby as it appeared from the outside.

             
Without even bothering to knock or call in, Arissa opened the door more forceful than necessary, repeating to Cayl over and over, “We’re here, Cayl. We made it. You’re going to be okay.” She couldn’t decide if it was more for herself or Cayl. Again, she realized a part of her had never expected to make it this far. She yanked the cloak hood off her head to be able to navigate better into the crowded room.

             
Hurried footsteps echoed through the frail house from the room beside them. It was dark and hard to see where they were, except that Arissa knew everything about the house like her own hand. She expertly reached into the darkness to grasp the back of a chair, pulling it away from the table that had a block of wood jammed under one of the broken legs. Guiding Cayl to the chair, she got him seated precisely as Landon burst into the room, loaded rifle in hand, ready to fire.

             
“For God’s sake, Arissa! Do you have any idea how close you came to getting shot?”

             
“No, I wouldn’t. I got stabbed instead. Cayl’s the one who got shot,” Arissa retorted back, sharply, pulling the hood off of his head, revealing his soaking wet hair and red, sweating face.

             
The look on Landon’s taut face was shadowed by the dim lamplight that lit the room as he gazed down at the weak and injured man. Both shock and horror appeared on his face at the same time. He quickly set down the rifle, leaning it against a corner and rushed forward to them, his brows knitting together over squinted eyes.

             
“You found him,” he gasped, almost in disbelief.

             
“He was already shot when I found him yesterday, but it got worse overnight. You were the only place I could think of that we could go without getting ourselves killed. I need Yasmine.” Arissa spoke fast and now that she was finally in a safe place where she could relax and recover for a few days, she was beginning to quiver and shake as well, feeling unnerved.

             
Without a word Landon nodded, the surprise and initial shock leaving his expression. He darted out of the room, calling out the name of his young wife, a skilled healer.

             
Arissa continued talking to her partner, but he was becoming more unresponsive, hardly able to hold himself upright. The sight of him so weak and helpless made her feel sick in the deepest pit of her stomach.

             
Only a moment later, Landon returned with Yasmine, a petite, pretty woman who was at least a few inches shorter than Arissa. Her dark auburn hair was pulled back into a braid, her dark brown eyes zeroing in immediately on Cayl, ignoring Arissa.

             
They took over from there and now Arissa only felt as if she was in the way. Landon lifted Cayl and carried him into the next room, Yasmine following directly behind him, already rattling off different things to Landon about what she needed to treat Cayl.

             
Arissa was left alone in the room, only the flickering lamplight left to accompany her. She suddenly felt numb and useless. She just stood, gripping the back of the chair he had been sitting on. It felt as if all of her muscles were suddenly giving out on her at once.

             
She sat slowly in the chair, staring off into the darkness, unresponsive. For the second time that day, for the second time in years, tears freely began to pour from her overwhelmed eyes.

Chapter Fourteen

              “How are you holding up?” Landon asked, quiet and solemn as he handed Arissa a mug of steaming liquid. They were the only two in the room and an eerie sort of quiet tension had settled over them.

             
Arissa felt cold and more exhausted than she ever had before. She didn’t even question what was in the mug, but the moment she started drinking, her stomach began to burn and twist in hunger. Her eyes remained fixated into the darkness.

             
She didn’t answer with words, simply glancing up to meet his eyes and he immediately understood. He nodded, remaining quiet for a solid length of time after that, sitting beside her in silence.

             
At least several hours had passed since Yasmine had disappeared into the other room of the ramshackle house with Cayl. Since then Arissa had sat through the sound of Cayl’s heart wrenching cries, which she could only imagine were from the pain of  Yasmine removing the bullet. Even after it became quiet again, she lacked the energy or will to even move from the wobbly chair she sat on. It was as if she had become permanently frozen, unable to react in any way.

             
She had almost forgotten that Landon was sitting directly in front of her until he spoke, his voice unusually soft. “Arissa, what happened?”

             
In the same moment she heard his words, it was as if she suddenly relived through everything that had happened in the past months, seeing flashbacks of the terrible things. She knew he wasn’t just asking about her sudden stage of silence or how Cayl had been shot. He was asking about everything. What happened that had made her run in the first place, and why Cayl had been kidnapped.

             
Arissa remembered the last time she had seen Landon, when he had helped her get into Vailwood to meet with Karson. It had been the first time seeing him in a while, especially since she had been on the run. She recalled the difficulty she had had getting him to believe that she was innocent. Obviously he believed her now.

             
No one besides herself actually knew what had happened that night. Nobody. Not even Cayl or the General. Even the Captain had been clueless. She had never had the chance to explain, not that anyone bothered to ask. It was easy for everyone to let the blame fall on her. Now that she finally had the chance to explain herself, she felt choked up. It had taken everything in her power to do her best to forget what had happened, what she had been forced to leave behind so that she could fix it, and now she felt totally weakened by letting herself feel it once again.

             
It was time somebody knew. It was time that Arissa could allow herself to feel human again. She took a deep, ragged breath, avoiding Landon’s eyes.

             
“They came in the night,” her voice spoke softly, sounding groggy and tired. “It was late and I left to go to the other room. A moment later I heard this noise, the sound of shattering glass. I ran back to see what had happened. The window of our bedroom had been shattered. There was glass everywhere. I was suddenly really cold from the wind and I didn’t understand what had happened at first.”

             
“That’s when they took him?” Landon guessed, trying to help her along in the story. It was painfully obvious how difficult it was for her to dredge up the memories that had destroyed her so.

             
Fresh tears threatened to glisten in her eyes as she nodded. “I had only left a minute and he was gone. I knew something terrible had happened and I was so afraid it was because of what I had been doing under the General’s command. I had to find out if I was going to have a chance at figuring out who had kidnapped Cayl.

             
“I went to the Governor’s mansion immediately. I had already thought of ten different things that could have happened to order a hit on Cayl, but I needed to know for sure if something serious had happened.”

             
A cold shiver of terror flashed through her as she tried to allow her scared brain to relive it.

             
“I got to the mansion and, of course, everybody knew me and I went straight to the Governor’s office. I opened the door and he was lying on the floor, dead. I couldn’t tell what had killed him, but the next moment a group of militia soldiers came in behind me with guns. Obviously, they thought I had done it. I was standing over the body, I had been the only person on that floor and I had no alibi because Cayl was gone. Nobody believed me about what I had to say, all they wanted to do was arrest me.”

             
The liquid in Arissa’s mug had cooled down by now, but she continued to sip at it, just as an excuse to stop talking for a moment to gather her thoughts.

             
“I panicked. I couldn’t let myself be arrested, the General would have me sentenced to death the next day and Cayl would have been killed. I had to run. I’m just lucky that the majority of the General’s army is made up of clueless amateurs.”

             
“I couldn’t stay at home, but I had another safe house in Daer that no one knew about. I stayed there for a while and the only one who knew was this apprentice boy who Cayl had been training. Several times Cayl was able to smuggle letters out to me from wherever he was. I have no idea how he did this, but they always ended up with Jefferson, his apprentice. It was the only news I could get about him since no one seemed to believe he had been kidnapped, even though he was suddenly missing. Immediately after I received the last letter from him, Jefferson disappeared and I haven’t seen him since.”

             
“What made you finally start looking for him?” Landon encouraged, his voice remaining soft and heartening. It was obvious he empathized for her.

             
“At first I thought something would blow over and he would show up, but then I began to lose faith and I had more than my job and my name to lose. I had to do something because, evidently, nobody else was going to. I went back to our home to get Raze and I left.”

             
Thinking of Raze saddened her even more. She loved her stallion and hoped that he had somehow found his way home or at least off the dreadful mountain.

             
“I had no idea of where to start. I stayed hidden as much as possible. I didn’t enter any towns or villages until I came to find you a few days ago. After meeting a few groups of soldiers in the forests, word must have gotten out that I was on the run and before I knew it, I had dozens of people trying to kill me every day. It took me months of making countless circles around the entire country just trying to get rid of as many as I could. I was scared. I was terrified for my family. I didn’t know where to go. I was running blind until I got it out of a bounty hunter who tried to arrest me that they were bringing him to Vailwood.”

             
“You didn’t do it,” Landon whispered, his voice sounding shocked. It was the first time Arissa looked up to meet his incredulous gaze.

             
“Of course I didn’t do it. The Governor was my friend. I was either set up or just had a horrible stroke of bad luck being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Landon rose to his feet immediately, running his fin
gers through his hair, clearly aggravated. His eyes were dark, reflecting the subtle glow of the lamp. He turned back to Arissa with a miserable expression on his face.

             
“I am so sorry, Arissa. When I heard what you were being wanted for, I didn’t even stop to think that maybe you were innocent. I was too shocked and scared that they would come for my family because of our past together. Yasmine had just had the baby and my blacksmith shop had already been searched several times by guards. I know you too well and I should have known better before I assumed you were guilty. I’m sorry, Arissa. Please forgive me.” He was genuinely overwrought about this.

             
“Don’t worry about it, Landon. You were putting your family first and that’s exactly what I did, too.”

             
“You’ve got to be starving. I’ll make you something to eat,” Landon muttered as he turned toward the cupboards of the tiny kitchen. “By the way, what did you even live on while you were out there?”

             
“Anything I could find or kill.”

             
He didn’t answer right away. He worked studiously for a moment, preparing the dish in front of him. When he set it before her a moment later, she had no idea what kind of food it was and even though the last thing she wanted to do was eat, she began nibbling slowly. Her stomach immediately responded to food and she continued to pick at what appeared to be rice and some sort of shredded meat. It was delicious.

             
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you were able to survive through all this. You were such a tough little kid when I first met you. When we were growing up, you were always the one picking fights with other people,” Landon recalled, chuckling.

             
For once Arissa cracked a smile, remembering their childhood together. “After my mother and father died, I thought I was going to have to fight to keep alive on the streets. I guess even after your parents took me in, it was a hard habit to break. Good thing I had you as a brother to pull me out of most of them.”

             
They shared a mutual smile and Arissa felt immediately enlightened that he no longer held the dark, threatening gaze when looking at her, like he had before.

             
In the next moment, Yasmine reappeared from the other room, her hair tied back with a torn strip of fabric and she was wiping her hand clean on a ripped piece of cloth. Her eyes were tired, but when she met Arissa’s hopeful, yearning expression, she grinned slightly and nodded.