The Dream Keeper's Dragon

42. Is She Alive?

Aurelie ran down the steps, skipping three, four at a time. That evening, Leila had been placed on watch as the men had gone out on a hunt, restocking their meat supplies, and the women exhausted themselves helping Orken prepare for the spell.

When Aurelie turned the corner, her heart swollen with fear and dread, she fully expected to not see Leila in that basement. She was there, however. Unconscious and tied up with the prisoner's role, but there.

The remains of the prisoner's chair lay scattered around Leila. Her cheek was sliced and oozing with dark blood. The top of her head had been colored crimson and splinters clung to her hair.

"Is she alive?" Aurelie asked and was instantly surprised at how disconcerted her voice sounded.

How was she going to explain this? Even with Leila lying on the floor unconscious, Aurelie knew that neither Orken nor Kirin would let this go. Everyone else had been absolutely fine watching the prisoner, everyone but Leila. This looked bad.

"Forget about her, he's gone. Do you have any idea what that means?" Daerious shouted and closed his eyes in regret of his outburst. He rubbed his hands through his hair and paced to where the prisoner had been seated earlier that evening.

Aurelie was surprisingly calm, her breath heavy from jumping the steps, and her heart strumming to regain rhythm. "I was awake the whole night, I didn't hear any of this," she said. "You can hear a bloody pin drop in this place when everyone's asleep."

The ripe scent of cranberries filled the air second before she felt Kirin enter the basement. He stood directly behind her. "Do you see now why I killed that hunter?"

Her jaw was clenched and her chest still ripe with anger.

Aurelie stiffed. "Well, we can't bloody well change anything, now can we?" she asked him, adding just enough of his words into her sentence. "Oh, that's right, here's a thing that'll fix everything; I'm sorry, Kirin. Truly."

She moved away from him to sit beside Leila. The ropes that had been used to secure the prisoner were bound around her wrists and ankles. Blue bruises had formed underneath the ropes.

A flame ignited on the tip of her finger, Aurelie pressed it against the rope and waited for it to catch fire. Daerious held out a brief hand to stop her but then withdrew it and let Aurelie continue, himself confused as to what they ought to be doing.

Kirin leaned against the wall, his eyes glued to her. He crossed his arms and exhaled. "The first thing we can do is not act like children," he replied.

"Is that why you didn't tell me? Because you think I am a child?" she spat. This was not the time, but if she did not blurt out the words, they would suffocate her. "That makes all the sense in the world then, that you would think you're able to make decisions about where I live without consulting me."

"You are acting like one right now," he said loud enough for just about anyone to hear. "Do you realize what this means?" Kirin asked. "We all have to leave now, not only you. They might already have guards coming here, and if the King is still at his castle he will arrive here with his men by this evening. If he's at his castle . . . If not then we have a couple of hours. So, can you please focus on the current problem? You can hate me again when we are safe," he said, curved his back, and pushed away from the wall, leaving the room.

Aurelie opened her mouth to retaliate, but Daerious saved her the embarrassment.

"What are we going to do with her?" Daerious' gazed over Leila.

"Can we take her upstairs? Sasha probably needs to take a look at her wounds. Her head looks pretty bad."

"We have bigger things to worry about than creating comfort," he said, sounding as bitter as Kirin.