Gold to Dust

Chapter Five

Her abrupt movement sparked pain all along her stiff body, and no matter how much she tried to focus on taming her breaths, the sharp pangs of discomfort only made her gasp to keep them at bay. Her eyes still closed, she pushed herself onto her side, wincing at the throbs of her ankle as she moved it. Then she smelled smoke and froze completely. Her eyes snapped open,  blinking at the bright shadows creeping along the cave wall, the glints of drops of water as they fell beaming and dying before she could remember to breathe again. She hated just how accustomed she was getting to the feeling of fear and panic. The strange and otherwise terrifying sensations no longer made her want to throw up. Instead they twisted her stomach into knots until she was practically gasping for air.

A silhouette moved along the wall, tall and lean and otherwise masculine. It reminded her of the shadow puppets she and Baz used to create inside the barn at night, playfully using their hands to conjure barking dogs and evil dragons to startle the horses. Looking at the shadow in front of her, she now understood just why all of those animals had hated her.

Heaving a deep and quiet breath, Ellegra slowly flipped onto her side, careful not to move excessively. If her kidnapper hadn't discovered she was awake yet she didn't want to give him any more signs. The figure hunched over the fire didn't give any notice to her movements, continuing his work on stoking the flames and keeping it warm. Other than the occasional crackle, pop, and drip of the water, the cave was silent. Ellegra felt along her body, touching sore areas to assess the damage. She was both surprised and confused to find her ankle wrapped and slightly more panicked when her fingertips brushed against the bandages fixed around her head. She stared back up at the stranger, who now had his back to her and was sifting through a large bag. Then she looked back down at her body and frowned. What exactly had he seen?

As if reading her thoughts— and the idea of him doing so terrified her even more— he shuffled back towards the fire and spoke. "Relax. I only tended to your wounds." He produced a bladed disc from the bag and turned it over, examining it. "I have to admit that for all their brutality and ignorance, the Asaani people know how to make weapons. Flawlessly crafted." Her heart jumped inside its cage. She recognized his voice. The low timbre and the rough edge to it felt so familiar, even though she'd only heard it once before.

Ellegra's body eased, but there was no chance in hell that she could possibly relax. "Who are you?" A name was on the tip of her tongue. She knew his name, couldn't forget it, in fact. But she didn't believe it until he turned around to face her, blue eyes jaded and piercing and his jaw firmly set. "You," she said, so low that it might as well have been a whisper. "You were in the ring." Her words were beginning to blend together in her escalating voice. He narrowed his eyes at her. The action reminded her to breathe. "You won."

Shrugging, Faine turned back to the fire and began poking it again with the tip of a broken arrow. "Not like it matters anymore," he said gruffly. "The guards took the whole place, arrested everyone."

She contemplated her next words, but her mouth had a mind of its own and spewed out more. "Why did you help me?"

He looked back over to her. Something in his expression was almost warm, inviting even. She found it hard to believe that someone as subtle as him could have knocked out a two-hundred pound beast like Javo only hours before. "I'm all for a fight, so long as it's fair. Four against one doesn't exactly seem just. Especially not when that one is a girl."

Ellegra felt the hard rock and sand under her hands and body suddenly shift and jerk. The cave became too small and suffocating. She couldn't remember to inhale or exhale, and when she did it sounded like a defeated sob. Naturally and out of instinct she reached for the dagger in her boot. Her fingers grasped at empty air. Cold dread seeped into her skin as the images came flooding back. Tamshie. A lump of unshed tears began to build in her throat. "My friend," she choked out. "The girl I was with. Where is she?"