Gold to Dust

Chapter Seven

   She was so entranced by the twinkling and blinking of the stars that the sound of Faine's voice nearly scared her off the cliff. "We'll camp here for the night," he said. "Drink?" He shook the flask at her.

    "I don't drink alcohol."

   "Good thing it's just water, then." Settling onto the ground, he turned his back to her, eyes fixed on the valley below. Following his gaze, she now saw what had him so silent. Horses pulling a large covered wagon were now rested and tied around a bar on the back of it. They had wooden bowls of water and feed to sustain them, but what drew her attention was the family of four sitting huddled around a small fire, barely big enough to warm two of them at a time. The mother and father let the children warm themselves, handing them a flask of something to share.

    Ellegra watched them with reverence, smiling at the way the young girl would inch closer to the older boy. They spoke in hushed tones, but somehow she heard voices in her head.

   "Do you think Mother and Father will be upset when we get back home?" Ellegra asked, wrapping the blanket tighter around her shoulders, hoping to somehow stave off the cold shivers that wracked her body. She was dripping from head to toe, but it wasn't the cold that bothered her. It was the look on Baz's face that turned her stomach upside down.

   Lying on his side and propped on one elbow, Baz lifted his brown eyes to meet hers. "I'm sure initially they'll be delighted to know we are safe, Elle." His lips quirked into a half smile before falling to its resting frown. "But we disobeyed them, and we have to pay for that."

   "The dog would have drowned!" she protested, her voice rising an octave. Tears choked her breath. "I couldn't leave him to float down the river and die!"

   Baz chuckled. "Of course you couldn't. A nine-year-old such as yourself wouldn't care about the consequences of her actions if it meant saving a helpless animal. Even it meant almost drowning because you can't swim." He threw a fistful of grass at her. She giggled and moved around the fire, where he tucked her under his arm, kissing the top of her head. "No, I think we'll be okay. You did what you thought was right. It's a trait that runs in our blood."

   The younger girl leaned her head on her brother's shoulder. He handed her the flask.

   A deep pang throbbed inside Ellegra's chest. Tears were beginning to well into her throat as she looked at them. Stop it, she chastised herself. That's all gone. Baz is gone. Turning away, she walked away from the cliff, sitting with her back to the valley and drawing her knees to her chest. She would not cry. Her brother was gone, and there was nothing she could do about it. All she could afford to think about was getting Tamshie back, not fretting over someone long gone.

   "They have food," said Faine, "and water." His voice carried a harsh edge, a tone she didn't like. She craned her head back to look at him. "We should wait until they fall asleep."

   Her body tensed. "To do what, exactly?"

   He turned to glare at her. "What do you think?" She whipped around to glare daggers at him. "Fine, I'll do it."

   A surge of anger lifted her to her feet. "You won't do anything. We are not stealing from them."

   "That's why I said I would do it. I knew you'd get too emotional about it."

   Her fists clenched as she stepped closer to him, somehow building herself taller so that she looked almost level to him. "Neither of us is stealing anything from that family." Faine, shaking his head with a dubious leer, stepped around her. Her hand whipped out and latched onto his shoulder. "Hey—!"