DARKNESS

DARKNESS | Chapter 9

"Sweet as sugar, hard as ice.
Hurt me once, I'll kill you twice."
- Unknown

CHAPTER NINE

"Ms Harper!" A Rebellion member calls out as I help a family set up their temporary white tent.

Maria, the mother of two boys, smiles at me, letting me know she doesn't mind if I go.

"You've been a great help, Ms Harper," Maria smiles.

Shooting her a smile back, I look around for the person who had called out.

A petit woman with long red hair and a bright smile hurries over to me, looking curious.

"Ms Harper-"

"You can just call me Harper," I smile politely. "What can I do for you?

The woman looks taken aback but smiles nonetheless.

"I was wondering when we're leaving for the next campsite?"

"Three days time."

"Thank you Ms- I mean, Harper." She scurries away again, disappearing into the mass of rebels.

"Looks like you're quite a hit," Brayden comments nonchalantly, coming to stand beside me, hand on the dagger sheathed on his belt.

I shrug. "Most of them look scared of me. I think it'll be good for them if I can prove I'm not some big scary monster like The Hulk or anything."

Brayden raises an eyebrow. "What's The Hulk?"

I give him an equally weird look before remembering he's a forest boy. "It's like this massive green man that smashes things. Kind of like a troll," I muse.

"A troll?"

I sigh, rolling my eyes. "It's not important."

"Mortals truly are strange creatures. Is your tent up?"

"It will be. I was just helping everyone first. Mine's only a one-person. It won't take that long."

Brayden nods shortly. "My father is seriously considering the idea you put on the table earlier. He agrees Ash's sons are his weaknesses."

"Anyone with eyes can see that," I shrug. "What father doesn't care at least a little bit about his children?"

"He's trying to find a solution so as not to use you to attack. He wants to find another way around that."

Sighing, I state, "There is no way around that. If I present myself to Ash, it'll take a number of days for him to prepare the Attachment Ceremony with Kale, right?"

"Right."

"If I act like I want to become a Shadow, he'll loosen my leash and I'll be able to sneak you guys in- it leaves Ash open and unaware. We do what we need to do and then we get out of there. Ash won't even notice I'm gone until a while after. It'll be a piece of cake."

"I've never had 'cake', although I've heard it's good," he comments genuinely.

I groan frustratedly. "It's a figure of speech. I didn't actually mean it like that- just, you know what? Forget I said that. The plan will make it easy."

"Easy?" Brayden laughs drily. "Bryant, nothing involving Ash is easy. Or 'a piece of cake', as you said. Not that that makes any sense to me."

"Everyone knows that saying, tree boy. Look, the plan just needs to be fleshed out. You know Ash's castle inside and out- you can tell us the exits, the positions of the guards and all that extra stuff. You'll just need a team to execute it."