𝐒𝐈𝐋𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐑𝐄𝐅𝐋𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒 ✯ 𝑝𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑝𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑒 ✓

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

'Yes, and it will be another day until we reach Anvard,' Seren retorted.

'What do you want me to do, then? Complain? Wallow in my pain and stay behind?' she snapped at him. 'The only way is forward. I'm not a damsel in distress.'

Seren's eyes softened. 'I never said you were. But please, Rose, there's no shame in admitting you're hurt. I'm your friend.'

Rosaleen hesitated for another moment but just when she was about to open her mouth and admit it, a hammock at their left moved in the distance and Hashim's face appeared, sending them a suspicious look.

'I'm fine,' she whispered to Seren, before turning around and setting course towards the horses to prepare them for another journey through the scourging heat. She was the only woman in a company of men, she couldn't show weakness.

✶••━━━━━━••✶

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓 𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐓 𝐒𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐋𝐘 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐏𝐇𝐄𝐃 into the mountainous countryside of Archenland as the sun described her course through the sky.

The continuous rocking in the saddle by the horses' swaying rhythm had long sent Tisroc and his aghas in a bored state of mind while the foot soldiers marched forth as if in a trance, their faces stoic and their eyes unseeing.

Seren's senses though, were on high-alert as he kept a close eye on Rosaleen. Despite them leaving the desert far behind them, the blonde fell only more ill, but every time Seren wanted to ask the company to halt, she shot him a stubborn look.

In the last few minutes however, she had barely blinked at all while she stared at the reins in her hand, her green eyes glazed over in pain and exhaustion.

With a trembling last effort, Rosaleen pulled at the reins and her horse stopped walking. 'Ren,' she whispered, glancing aside to catch his gaze and Seren immediately jumped off his horse, ordering the others to stop as well. Still, he wasn't fast enough when her eyes rolled back in their sockets and her limp body fell out of the saddle. She collided harshly with the rocky ground, landing in a messy heap and the thud echoed through the air.

Seren suppressed a curse, dropping on his knees next to her head and turning her over to her back. He pressed his fingers against the vulnerable skin under her jaw to feel her heartbeat as her chest only moved up and down faintly.

'What's wrong with her? What happened?' Rabadash asked, sliding out of his saddle as well when he saw the commotion behind him.

'I don't know,' Seren answered, 'but her pulse is weak.' Her skin burned dangerously under his touch and he opened one of her eyelids, but the pupil didn't show any sign of awareness.

Seren leaned back on his heels with a thoughtful expression just as the Tisroc halted next to him.

'Is she ill?'

Seren wanted to answer that it was a possibility, but then something caught his attention. Above the collar of her shirt, he saw some faint dark lines and he leaned back over her. He carefully pulled the fabric a bit farther down, revealing a series of blackened veins and he let out a shaky hiss.

'She was poisoned.'

Rabadash frowned. 'Poisoned? How?'

Seren made a half-shrug before examining Rosaleen's unconscious body further, his hands working gently and as respectfully as he could, until he reached the small cut in her side, hidden between the layers of her clothing.

'The sand bandits. . . Their daggers. Of course.' Seren couldn't believe his own stupidity, he should have realised it sooner. He jumped back on his feet and sprinted towards his satchel hanging on the horse's saddle.