𝚂𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚍 ✔

Chapter Thirty

The entire way back to the carriage, Sheera and I were on edge. Flinching at the smallest sounds, even jumping if our hair lightly touched our skin from being gently blown by the breeze.

I constantly looked around to make sure we were alone, searching for any more bandits in the trees around us, praying we'd see them before they saw us. I was terrified, with each step, that another one of them would find us, but this time we wouldn't have been as lucky as we had.

But even more so that Merona and Rheda had been hurt, or worse, killed.

"Halt!" One of the guards screamed as we rounded a large tree, he was bloody and visibly wounded.

"It is us, Sir." Sheera sighed, all the energy we both had from the fight earlier had completely left us.

"My apologies, Miss de Marre." He quickly approached us, "I had sent men out to look for you, but it appears someone else found you two in their stead."

"Indeed, but we managed to defend ourselves." She glanced around, "As have you."

I followed her gaze and, if I had the strength, I would have retched at such a gruesome sight. About seven or so bodies had littered the ground around the now blood splattered carriage. Two of them were guards and the other five had been bandits.

"We were caught by surprise." The guard shook his head at the dead bodies of his men, "They waited until the other carriages had all gone by so that no one could stop and assist."

"Well, it is a good thing you men stopped with us." Sheera smiled weakly, "Or we would all be dead."

"Sheera?!" The door of the carriage flew open, slamming against the siding, "By the Gods graces you two are alive." Rheda nearly fell out of the carriage trying to get to us. "Are you alright? You look horrible."

Sheera burst into a mixture of laughter and tears. "Tis what a lady looks like after killing two men."

"Neither of you were. . ." Rheda glanced over at me, hesitating to ask, "hurt?"

"No." I answered sternly. "Where is Merona, is she alright?"

"She's in the carriage." Rheda looked back, "She had the door open, about to step out when one of the guards got hit in the eye by an arrow right in front of her. She hasn't spoken since."

Watching a man die was a hard thing to do. Especially if you had never seen it before, and if it weren't for Sheera keeping my sanity together, I think I'd have reacted the same.

I looked down at my arms, sleeves tattered and blood soaked, skin covered in little scrapes and cuts that I couldn't remember receiving. I wanted to cut off every single piece of myself that he had touched. To erase all evidence and memory of what had happened.

My hands had been shaking the entire way back, and I felt so numb and yet also as if I had been teetering on the precipice of total collapse. A dull ache found itself behind my eye, veins throbbing in my head as I cupped my hand over my eyes to help shield them from the stabbing light.

Rheda looked at me, eyes filled with pity, "Let us get back into the carriage and wait for the men to return so that we may leave this awful place." She gently grabbed Sheera's mud speckled hand, then started towards the carriage.

Once inside, I braced myself against the wall, desperate to keep Merona, who I had been sitting next to for the entire trip, from touching me. But she did not even react to any of us when we crawled inside, she just blankly stared off at nothing. A few drops of blood sat on her cheek, skin several shades lighter than when I had last seen her. She was in shock.

It took almost half an hour for the men to return, one less than what I had been told they had left with. From what I heard of the conversation, and the appearance of the guards, they had found the rest of the bandits while looking for us, as well as the two Sheera had killed.