The Blade and The Bird

Chapter 16

Sidra awoke to the feeling of a cold cloth on her forehead. Her entire body ached and her clothing felt wet and sticky. She sat up with a start, ready to fight, and brought her firsts up from her side.

"Hey, it's just me," Baron said as he let the cloth drop from his hands. She paused and stared at him in the dim lighting before she put her hands back down at her sides. His usually cheerful expression was replaced with a deep furrow of worry between his brow.

"What happened? Where's Selene?" she asked as she tried to stand up. The motion made her too dizzy and she had to lean back onto the cot as her vision became spotty.

"Don't move so fast, you've lost a lot of blood," Baron said. She seems to notice the cold cloth he had been holding in his hand, it looked as if it had once been white but was now stained a light pink from blood.

"What happened?" she asked again, determined.

"Well, you got hit pretty hard. I found you half-dead in the middle of the wharf. I carried you out," Baron said.

"And Selene?"

"They got her," he said, "but it's alright. Some help arrived and we're on a boat."

"We're on a what?" Sidra asked shocked. She tried to stand up again, slower with her movements this time, but a piercing headache slammed through her skull and she had to lean back again as she resisted the urge to vomit.

"You hit your head hard when you fell, please be careful," Baron said.

"Since when have you cared," Sidra spits, her anger getting the best of her. "How long have we been on the boat?" Baron's expression became unreadable as she snapped.

"It's been three days. We know where they're taking her," Baron said, "We'll get her back."

"How did we get onto a boat?" she asked.

"Well, I was on the pier near you when I saw a girl running up toward me. You remember that girl from the dungeon? I guess she had a boat that was locked up at the pier and had gone down there to try and get it when she saw what happened."

Sidra let out a little laugh.

"I guess it was a good thing I let them go then."

"Yeah," Baron said, "that really saved us that you did that."

"And you thought it was a bad idea at the time," Sidra laughed again.

"Alright, I get it. You were right, I was wrong. Do you want to hear what happened or not?"

"Okay, tell me what happened."

"Well she came over and she asked me what happened. She helped me stand up and we went over to see how injured you were. You weren't breathing." He looked down as he said the last part, there was a sadness in his eyes.

"And?"

"The little boy you saved was with her and you remember the Moroi we met in Yariky? I guess he and his brother had been tracking us for a while. They showed up and carried you into the woman's boat. I filled them in on everything that happened and the woman said we could take her boat to Llyrca. She wanted to help, you saved her life."

A somber feeling washed over Sidra that ached throughout her entire body as she took in the events that had happened while she was unconscious.

"And Selene?"

"She got away. We were both hurt. The woman thought we were both dead when she walked up."

"But you can't die right, isn't that what you told me?"