The Unforgiving Moon

19.

Lotta froze and turned around, bewildered, confused, and then looked back at the guards in front of her, two piles of dead flesh.

Her eyes traveled back to us, to me and Aven—who hadn't shown any sign that he'd woken up, as she ran back to us. Soon we were on the run again, our feet pushing us forward.

We stepped over the dead wolves, and Aven's dragging feet hooked on the bodies and made them turn around. Their lifeless faces now stared at the ceiling, dull and glossy and unmistakably dead.

And we ran. As fast as we could, our feet rushed to get us out of these tunnels.

At the first intersection we passed, we headed towards the tunnels where the wolven scent was the weakest. Because what had just happened, would not be able to happen again. I didn't know if it had been Aven or Lotta, but I did know that we'd gotten lucky and that neither of them was strong enough to kill even a single more wolf using Sariranyasa's blessing.

The running never seemed to stop, and we only paused when we'd pass an exit and Lotta sent me to go check where we were in the town.

It was the fourth panel that I shoved aside, that led me to an emptied building in an abandoned alleyway, in the back of the slums. I ignored the smell of decay and rotten flesh that seeped through the ceiling, as I signaled Lotta.

Getting Aven out of these tunnels proved to be even more of a struggle—and we were careful not to rip open any wounds or cause him further harm.

"I don't understand," Lotta murmured, halting next to me as we laid Aven on the ground. "He's not healing at all."

I looked down at him, my heart racing in my chest, and if it weren't for the small movements of his chest or the weak pulsing in his veins, I would have believed him to be dead.

His eyes were sunken into his face, all color was drained from his once warm skin, and he looked fragile. Breakable, mortal.

"Something was wrong in that room," I said, trying to comfort Lotta.

She absently nodded. "He's out of that room now, Sari. And a wolf with his kind of blessing? He should have at least started healing by now, but look at this."

She pointed at the bandages covering his neck and chest, where a big, dark stain was coming through, visible even against the dark fabric.

"He needs healers," she continued, and I detected a small tremble in her voice again, a tremble that could shake worlds to their core. Lotta was never scared. "We can't carry him all the way to Rahas, Sari. I don't have the strength for that. And I don't think he has that time."

"Let's get going, then," I spoke. "Let's give him every chance of survival we can and not waste our time here."

Lotta nodded and got upright. Once we lifted Aven off the ground, we were back on the move, sneaking around alleyways, our scents and visibility once again covered by Kima's shadow.

We'd been right at the edge of the town—we only needed to take two turns before we reached the forest, where more wolves would be present.

Though it was still night, our Moon had begun lowering already, so we had to hurry even more because if we wouldn't be out of here by the time the Sun broke the skies, they would catch us, we would die and it would all have been for nothing and I would be trapped again and again and again and this hell would never end.

Mindlessly, we were running. Running and running, steering clear of low-hanging branches and avoiding paths with stronger scent trails.

We were panting, Lotta just as hard as me, and Aven didn't make any noise, nothing at all, no sign of life or healing or waking up.