Trusting Dust

Chapter 6

Connor saw a little boy and girl in a garden. He looked around him and realized he was having a dream. The boy and girl were talking but he couldn't hear them. There was no sound in the dream. The girl got up from the table they were sitting at and left to fetch something. Connor tried to focus on what she looked like but it was too blurry to see distinct features beside her blonde hair. The girl had just left when three horses showed up and grabbed the boy. He tried to fight back, but it was impossible since they were easily three times his size. The princess ran out as the horses were riding away. The girl shouted something, but instead of the girl's voice all Connor could hear was Ava shouting the prince's name. With her voice ringing in his head he woke up to the blaring sun in the desert.

                    ***

Ava was sitting next to him. She hadn't noticed that he was awake yet. He slowly sat up and rubbed his neck where the leader had suspended him in the air. Ava spotted movement out of her peripheral vision and turned towards him. She immediately became cheerful. "Connor, are you ok?" Connor nodded, he'd been through worse. Ava checked the bruising around his neck. "It's going away," she said. She then lost her smile, and in harsh whisper began criticizing Connor. "What were you thinking? He could have killed you!"

Connor shrugged, "He deserved it. No regrets."

The princess just started at him in shock. "You say to me we need to be careful what we do because they are bandits, and then you go and attack the man who is in control of whether we live or not?"

Connor just shook his head, "He's not in charge of our lives." He chuckled at the thought. "They're working for someone."

Ava just looked at him with a curious glance, "And when exactly did you figure this out?"

"Whenever he didn't kill me, because he really wanted to, you could tell by his eyes. He wanted to, but something stopped him. He has orders to keep us alive until the execution is to take place."

Ava just shook her head in disbelief, "You figured out all of that by a guy grabbing your neck and suspending you in the air."

Connor shrugged, "It's not my first time dealing with someone's henchmen. The only difference is that I've never dealt with henchmen that were bandits. That's the part that makes me nervous."

Ava saw his worried face and immediately got the chills. "Why?" She asked.

Connor looked at her and rubbed his neck, "Bandits work alone. That's the way it has always been. This guy must have a lot of power in order to have bandits working for him." Ava sighed, the situation they were in kept getting worse by the minute.

The bandits walked up to them and motioned for them to get into the carriage again. They both followed the captors, not wanting to cause any trouble at the moment. As they sat in the carriage Ava listened in on the bandits' conversation outside. After a while, she turned around and faced Connor. "You were right. They do have a boss, and that's where they are taking us."

Connor was confused, "Why are they supposed to bring us to the boss? Since he has men working for him, doesn't he want to remain anonymous?"

Ava didn't know the answer. Connor was the one who knew more about their situation, and it made her uneasy that Connor didn't understand it.

The carriage ride had started and Connor and Ava were forced into long hours of silence. About five hours into the trip, or what seemed like five hours to the passengers, the carriage slowed. The bandit sitting opposite them seemed alarmed. Outside they heard several horses galloping toward the carriage. One of the men on horseback spoke, but Connor couldn't see them.

"On behalf of the king of Hazrad we order you to reveal the contents of your carriage."

The leader of the captors replied, "What could we have that you are looking for?"

The man on horseback responded immediately, "Are you men fools and know nothing, surely you have heard of the kidnapping!"

The leader remained calm and replied, "A kidnapping, that is horrible! But who was kidnapped."

The man sighed in annoyance, "Just open up your carriage now, we don't have time for this."

Connor heard some of the horses move towards the back. When they opened the back door they would surely see them, but Connor didn't get his hopes up. The bandits had gone through too much to give up everything now. His thoughts were confirmed when the leader whispered something in Arabic to the man across from us and Ava's eyes were filled with fear.

When the door was opened the light was blinding, but not enough to cover up the killing that followed. It seemed as if the men fell down like dominoes, one after another. Ava buried her head in Connor's shoulder trying to forget what she had just saw, but his eyes were glued to the scene of the crime. Five bullets, five men.

The blasts from the bandit's gun continued to ring in Connor's ears. Ava began crying, but Connor sat eerily still and gritted his teeth. He believed that there was always to prevent killing, the reason he never became a bandit, and these men had acted like killing the five soldiers was nothing.

And they did it with guns. Guns were never seen in the Hazrad kingdom. There was no need for them and they only caused problems.