SAGE (under edit)

Chapter Twenty-Three

'And that is all you saw?'

Leon loosed another breath, his gaze on the closed door of a hospital room before it swept back to the Renark standing before him.

'That's it,' he confirmed again.

The Renark pinched the bridge of her nose, eyes squeezing shut for a moment. 'This doesn't make sense.'

Leon silently agreed.

When he raced toward Yuan Outlook, the young Soldiers of his patrol squad far behind him, he had expected to be greeted with only the view of the city and the twilight sky. Instead, he had found Sage and Raidan.

Raidan's Kyra had been concealed, just as Leon's had, but as he had drawn closer to the outcrop he had caught the faintest, familiar touch of Sage's Kyra. Leon had dismissed it as his imagination, but the closer he came the stronger Sage's Kyra felt, and the sudden thought that perhaps Sage had somehow escaped the Shadow Soldiers during the chaos in Sector Two, that she had been mere days behind Leon and the others in their return to Lion Crest, propelled him to move faster.

Sage's name had left his lips just as he stumbled through the trees and into the open, before he had even seen the other person with her. His shock at seeing Sage had blinded him to Raidan's presence, at least until Sage had tried to run toward Leon only to be pulled back by him.

But then Sage was collapsing, unconscious, and Leon darted forward in the vain attempt to catch her. Raidan was already fleeing, and Sage was on the ground just as Leon skidded to his knees beside her.

He told the Renark that the other Soldiers on patrol arrived just as Leon was lifting Sage into his arms, that he shouted a warning to them that Shadow Soldiers were in the area, and then they were rushing back to the city.

The other Soldiers had headed for the Citadel to tell the Renark, and Leon went straight to the hospital. Standing outside Sage's hospital room with the Renark now, waiting for a medic to assess Sage, he tried not scrunch his nose at his surroundings. The white walls, distant voices over the speakers, and sharp tang of the sterile air all reminding him why he despised hospitals.

After learning of Sage's return, Lilith had sent a call to the outpost camps about Raidan's presence, but none had reported back any sighting of him. His thoughts calm now, Leon suspected that the other Shadow Soldiers hadn't even been in Lion Crest; it would have been far easier for Raidan to move through the territory on his own, especially given his knowledge of Lion Crest's patrol routes.

The door opened and Ashe, one of the senior medics – and Sage's friend – stepped out of the room. Curly, strawberry-blonde hair was haphazardly tied atop her head, a pen slotted behind her ear and a clipboard in hand. The freckles scattered across her cheeks shifted as she offered a kind, reassuring smile.

'Sage will be fine,' Ashe told them. 'Her body is undernourished and fatigued, and her Kyra needs to restore, but aside from some bruises she is unharmed.'

'Whilst I'm relieved to hear that, it is surprising,' said Lilith, looking back to Leon. 'She was a hostage of the Shadow Soldiers for almost a month. If they were not interrogating her for information on Lion Crest, what were they doing?'

'Whatever wounds she sustained during her abduction were all healed,' Ashe told them. 'Some are more recent, but they were all tended to by someone with medical knowledge. It couldn't have been Sage herself; there is significant evidence of Kyra-suppressants being used on her.'

The Renark pinched the bridge of her nose again, brow furrowing. 'This doesn't make sense,' she said for the third time.

'Is Sage awake?' Leon asked.