Denial of the Whisper

Chapter Forty-Eight.

Chapter Forty-Eight.

I was being pulled around and stood face to face with three tall men, all of them wore dark clothes, were armed and grinned down at me.

The one to my left eyed me, his eyes traveling down my body awkwardly slow, then upwards again. He said to the others "Let's go."

"What? No?", I tried to protest, to fight against their hands on me, but I was barely able to stand on my own wobbly legs.

"Shit. He's coming. I wouldn't have thought he would violate the border. Come on, fast now.", one of them hissed, and I turned my head, saw Nyshard on the other side of the river, his dark blue-black wings spread, pushing him up in the air, and there were also men on the bridge, which was even farther away.

Wide-eye, I stared at his form but the next moment, I felt a sharp pain on my temple, and everything went black.

I don't know how much time had passed, I don't know if it was day or night when I woke up, but when I opened my eyes again, everything was pitch black. Only the pounding in my head from where they had hit me was telling me that I was still alive and not somewhere in the darkness of the damned afterlife. Or whatever people believed would happen after death. Grimacing, I tried to move, but my hands were bound behind my back and I was lying on my right side. Right on a broken rip, as I guessed from the pain of it.

Taking a few calming breaths, I rolled onto my stomach to lessen the pain on my side and also to get the blood circulation in my right arm going again. I felt... as if I'd fled from a Lord, knocked out a few of his soldiers and managed to swim through an ice-cold river.

Damn.

I... was in trouble.

Deep trouble.

I tried to fight against the feeling of panic that tried to overwhelm me and tried to get my hands free, but the ropes were too tight, cutting right into the skin at my wrists.

But I tried, nevertheless, I needed something to keep my occupied, I didn't want to feel that helpless, I needed to do something...

I tried not to think about Nyshard, who had, despite his injuries tried to fly over the river. A part of me wanted to think that he had wanted to save me.

But... my heart clenched painfully as I faced the bitter truth.

I was his. I was his treasure and he wanted to keep me. He had tried to get me back because of what I was. Not... because of me.

Fresh tears began to prickle in my eyes, and I rapidly blinked them away.

For a short moment, I had believed he would try and safe me from whoever those people were. Because he... liked me. I had wanted to believe that he would care.

But the sooner I would get in into my head, that he didn't... that probably none of them actually did, the better it was for me.

But it still hurt too much.

Friends... I had liked the feeling of it.

But now... it just hurt.

I tried to turn around, to crawl over the cold floor with my hands bound behind my back, but when I heard a noise, I turned my head towards it and saw, that in the darkness there was a slit. And only then I realised, that I was in a tent. Someone walked inside, a lantern in his hand. The person placed it next to me and roughly, he rolled me onto my back.

I bit back a groan, but I couldn't help the pained expression that crossed my face. I was probably bruised all over from hitting the rocks in the river. I shivered slightly, as I looked up at that – from what I could tell – dark haired, tall man who was smirking down at me.