The Book of Trials || ONC 2019

Chapter Eleven

The next time I woke, the harsh jostling of a wooden cart rocked beneath me and my body had lost most of its feeling. It was hot, actually, from what I could tell. A light pressure on top of me suggested I was under a covering of some kind. I wanted to puke.

The pain hadn't gone away, nor had any of my ties been undone or even so much as loosened. My hands had gained a bit of feeling, my head still throbbed, and there seemed to be a few more bruises than before, maybe as a result of the rough handling from my captors. But I also felt a hand on my back.

"Evyne?" I whispered, my voice hoarse.

No response.

I went tense. What if the hand on my back wasn't Evyne's? Who else could it be? A bandit? My leg twitched. How long had I been asleep? Had I already been bought? What if that were the hand of my buyer?

Bought. Sold like livestock. The word solidified in my throat and my eyes burned. I wanted this blindfold off so badly.

The cart jolted and the hand yanked away, then several of the bandits burst out in argument suddenly. Not a second later, the wagon slowed to a stop and the argument heated. According to the angered words I overheard, we seemed to have taken a wrong turn somewhere.

The hand touched my back again, this time accompanied by a voice. "Can you move?"

Evyne. I sighed and nodded, some tension leaving my shoulders.

"Good." She sounded strained. "When I say, you and I are gonna climb out from under this tarp with as little movement as possible, then you've gotta run toward the woods as fast as you can. Got that?"

I hesitated, then shook my head, trying to get her to understand that I couldn't see. "Blindfold."

She went quiet and I wondered what she was thinking. Were her hands untied? She didn't act like she had a blindfold on. Finally, she responded. "Stay very still."

She removed her hand from my back and I heard her shift around a bit. There was a tug on my blindfold and I felt her struggling with the knot, then it finally came loose and I released a heavy breath.

I opened my eyes. A woven sacklike cover wrapped around the wagon, which was really only large enough to carry me, Evyne, and a few small crates. The dwindling light that sifted through the holes in the tarp told me it was nearly sunset. More darkness. Great.

One of the bandits swore and drew my attention as the argument died down slightly. "Have you any mind at all? If we change route, we'll be delayed at least a day. We need to get them there before sunrise." He cursed his comrades again and muttered to himself, spouting town names and possible roads.

Evyne had gone silent.

We were no longer going through Kalahkat, which meant that Atlas and Lefeli would be waiting to save someone who wasn't even coming.

Which meant the plan would fail.

My throat itched with questions and concerns. "Evyne, what are we—"

"Shut it," she snapped, quiet as a snake but harsh as a whistle. "Trust me. On the next big bump, we're gonna jump out. The plan hasn't changed."

I chewed my lip and glanced back at her, struggling with the angle in such a tight space. Her deep black eyes were veiled by the mat of hair around her face, but her expression was steel through the dirt smudging her pale skin. There was no way we could turn back now.

"Move up to the edge of the cart, then follow my lead."

The sounds from outside were daunting. The bandits had gone silent, and the only sound that remained was the clip-clop of the horses' hooves on the path and the rustle of the evening trees. The leaves were loud enough for me to believe we were riding next to the forest, but I couldn't be sure exactly where we were.