Daughters of the Night

Chapter 5

Juriah once made me copy a map of Kerberos from one of his dusty geography books. I used the word useless to describe that old book at the time. My brother just shook his head in gentle disagreement and told me I'd go on many adventures as Warrior. A sense of direction would not only prove to be valuable but absolutely necessary.

Now here I was walking away from the village and leading a bunch of strangers into the mountains of Kerberos. Not as a Warrior but as an exiled woman.

And my brother was not by my side.

The grief pounded into me. Over and over and over again. I thought my chest would rip open, and my bleeding heart would fall into the white snow.

The women waited while I walked deep into the woods for a moment of solitude. Most of them had nodded their heads in understanding. Understanding. I just ripped them away from everything they ever knew for reasons unbeknownst to me, and yet they treated my sorrow with grace.

A terrible scream ripped up through my stomach and out my mouth, releasing all the pent-up tension and stress. It wasn't a scream of power like the one that broke the shield. It was one of sadness and unsurmountable pain. My throat went raw with the action.

High One, why did you not leave my brother here and take me instead?

I drove my fist into one of the trees hoping for some kind of release. Bark crunched and flew. My pain lessoned for a second before my hand began to throb.

Then I just knelt down and surrendered. All was quiet, but I felt very much alone. And scared.

One of the women found me in that position. I saw her ragged combat boots first, then her knobby knees, and then finally her red cloak. A scar ran down the side of her face. Its jagged edges made my stomach queasy for a moment while I imagined the pain it must have caused her.

"You have to pull yourself together." Her voice was stern but not mean. "Your brother is dead, and I am sorry. Truly, I am. But there are many women looking for direction right now, and they need you to lead them."

Lifting my head to meet her eyes required effort. "I don't know if I can." Juriah would have been so disappointed in those words.

"You will." The woman reached into her cloak and handed me a rag to wipe my face. "You will because whether you planned for this or not – we are here. And it is getting unbearably cold. Crying here will not bring him back, but it may kill us tonight."

She was simplifying the problem. And in her doing so, a great weight was lifted off my shoulders. All we had to focus on now was getting warm and surviving the night. That was it. Whatever happened in the past and whatever was going to happen in the future could be handled another day.

The woman reached her hand out and helped me stand. "My name is Maia by the way."

"Rhea." I whispered, my throat raw.

She snorted. "Yeah, I know."

On our walk back, we brainstormed ways to stay warm for the night. It was a distraction that lessoned the hurt.

Maia surveyed our surroundings with deep concentration. "We're deep into Kerberos now. There has to be a cave somewhere around here. Then we could start a fire."

I was more hesitant. "There would have to be a wide opening for smoke to escape. But that's if we can even start a fire. We don't have the right tools." I wished I had taken a detour by the cabin to gather supplies, but I was sure the Elder's wouldn't have been too happy about that.

We approached the group of women now huddled by a large boulder to protect themselves from the harsh winds. There were mixed expressions. Some were tired. Some were scared. And some were very angry. They looked at me expectantly and awaited an actual plan.