Heirs to a Nothing Throne

Chapter 14

I slept until almost noon, at which point Angelique kicked me awake. I spent the next two days with bruises on my arm.

We left the cave first thing, and as we walked, I told them what happened to me in the mine. Angelique seemed doubtful, but Eva was expectedly frightened.

Even when we had looked out from the cliff, we never really understood how big the island was. But as our sore legs carried us over miles of hilly woods and the mountains grew no closer in the distance, out morale began to droop. The next few days dragged on, with only the unusual deer keeping us occasional company. When necessary, Angelique would shoot one and expertly prepare it for sustenance.

Late on morning we camped out underneath a tall evergreen, allowing our sore limbs to rest on the grass. After settling down, Angelique scowled. "Why aren't we there already? How big is this island?"

Eva sighed. "Even with you pushing us, I don't feel like we're getting anywhere."

"At least we haven't run into any... what are they called...Chevaliers," I said.

Angelique wouldn't let us break for long, though, and we were back to dragging our feet in a few minutes. I made a rhythm out of it: left, right, left, right, like a metronome, left, right, left...

Angelique held up a hand. We stopped, and the militaristic nature of it made me smile. She moved her hand downward, palm up, and without a sound, I pulled out one of my handguns and handed it to her. She pointed it forward, her arm steady, and after a second, fired off one clean shot. It was another of the deer, laying on its side with a shocked expression. The bullet had cleanly entered right where I supposed the heart would be.

Angelique moved farther into the trees to skin it and remove the bones, then wrap it up and put it in her pack. Not for the first time, I thought about how Eva and I would have been doomed if it was just the two of us out here.

"Looks tonight will be more of the same," I said.

"Please don't remind me of what she's doing over there," she replied in a less conversational tone.

On second thought, was Eva vegetarian before this? I can't think of a time I saw her eat meat... but I guess she put that aside for the sake of survival. I began tangentially thinking about how one would survive without meat in this forest, noting the lack of plants with fruit or anything.

I looked at her. Both of her guns were holstered, and unlike me and Angelique, she had the safety on. Her face bore a thin layer of sweat and dirt, and there were a few blades of grass in her hair. Eva had quickly lost her delicate, city girl look, and was now looking more like she belonged to nature. Her hands were no longer soft, but scraped and tough, and her legs had lost the layer of fat that comes with opulent living. I was slimming up also. Neither of us were big to begin with, but we were developing muscles.

She looked back at me. Even her jade eyes seemed tougher.

"I wonder what Jasmine is doing right now," she said sadly.

"Yeah..." I said, almost to myself. "I hope she's okay." Then looking at Eva, I hurriedly said, "Well, she's with Andrey, and Verwarr, and the others. She'll be fine." Eva still looked very nervous.

"It's a little ironic, though, right?" she said quietly. "You and I are the ones separated from her."

I chuckled halfheartedly. "Yes, it is indeed; especially us, probably the two who miss her the most."

"I... do miss her a lot..."

"Yeah..." I looked at the ground. "But you know, it's Jasmine, right? Endless optimism Jasmine? I'm sure even she's able to smile right now." That thought made Eva smile a bit also.