[THIS STORY WILL BE TAKEN DOWN ON SEPTEMBER 30, 2024]
He had hunted me, captured me, and locked me in a tower.
Season 3 'Of Crows and Thorns'
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While in RISING, Tabitha discovers something peculiar that may assist Nelle in her plan to escape the...
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Before the sun had even risen, I was out tramping through the forest. Careful not to swing the canvas bags gripped in my gardening-gloved hand, I hastily moved between trees. The sun gathering beneath the horizon turned the sky into a dirty wash of gray and the glow of my flashlight blended into the oncoming dawn.
The soft crunch of pine needles and wet leaves beneath my bare feet spilled through the shadowy understory as I hurried onward. The thick shawl wrapped around my shoulders to keep the chilly air at bay ruffled with my quick movement. Sage trotted ahead of me, his wispy ears pricked forward as his lupine figure cut through fern fronds, grasses, and weedy saplings damp with dew. The rousing bird call as the feathered creatures sang to one another welcoming the rising sun didn't ease my irritation. Nor did the forest's refreshingly crisp smell soothe the toxicity burning inside my lungs.
A few days had passed since learning of Zrenyth's mites in the old book Dustin had slyly given me in the library. And my failure to discover the escape tunnel continued to wear on my nerves.
I kicked a stone, sending it skittering into the undergrowth with a rattle of leaves as spiteful anger slashed through my veins. It wasn't just anger I felt, it was a noxious plume of disheartenment and frustration that poisoned every hopeful thought that I was going to get myself off this estate.
When I'd been trapped on my family estate by my parents, I'd filled in my time with little things, simple things. Runs first thing in the morning and evening to burn out the savage power of the wyrm before it could overwhelm me. I'd played cartographer and mapped the entire estate, tracked animals in the woodland and checked on their nests. Swam in the water well and basked on sun-heated rocks. In the mornings there were lessons with my governess and online classes where I'd try to learn a new language, though it was mostly the cursing I was interested in. Afternoons were spent in my father's office, reading and keeping him company while at the same time eavesdropping on the matters of the Houses. Then I'd chew through the remainder of my day in the library hunting monsters.
Right now, life wasn't so different, it was just a new estate and a new objective to fill in my time.
I'd gone for a run in the forest every morning and evening for the past few days as I used to at home before everything. During the morning run, I took my notebook with me and sketched out a basic map of the Crowthers' estate, traveling as far as I could—which wasn't very far—shadowing the enormous boundary with its adamere walls ranging the rolling hills. I hadn't been able to capture all of it but I'd made a good start.
Though in reality, it did me no good. With the rope around my neck, I couldn't even get within 10 feet of the adamere wall enclosing the estate like a compound. Every time I drew near the imposing barrier the noose snagged and tightened. Even if there was a hole blasted through the stone wall I wouldn't be able to escape.
So, Dustin Reed, no matter if he was my sister's spy and there to help me escape, couldn't free me with Zrenyth's rope tying me to the estate. Dustin hadn't returned from the Wormwood Driads with a case of Absinthe, either.
