The Last Knight (An Awakening the Lightforged Novel)

Chapter 31: Enough

A barely organized chaos had consumed Last Shadow.

Ironpeak had become a faction of refugees even among a people who hid in caves, and they filled the tunnels of Last Shadow's base. The echo of their footsteps and muted conversation through the stone halls, even with the dampening cloths, was a constant buzz. Koruuksi had dimmed his clearnodes below their resting brightness a while ago.

Pausing as he handed out waterskins and spare rolls of blankets, Koruuksi wiped the sweat from his brow. It wasn't hard work, but the flow of people, while slow, seemed endless. He'd been on his feet for hours as they trickled in through Last Shadow's various entry points, bottlenecking farther up the tunnels, closer to the entrances. Transports and speeders brought some, though those were mostly used for resources. Most walked, making their way across Atonga's rocky wastelands while they baked in the sun, and traveling in small groups to avoid detection. From what he'd heard, many still hid outside under rocky outcrops or in the various crags and canyons near the base of the mountains, waiting for Imaia patrols to cease.

Whatever Estingai and Uuchantuu had done, it had rattled the hornet's nest, and most people agreed with Paiz's and Anarak's assessments that Estingai's actions would lead them to ruin, just as Kweshrima's had. Most weren't angry. Just scared, or wondering why the Last Knight would do this. Some wondered if it was what they deserved for putting stock in one of Kweshrima's Knights after the goddess had broken the world. Others wondered if this really was a mistake.

Koruuksi took a deep breath and forced a sympathetic smile as he handed water and supplies to a Natari couple and their child as they came up to him. The closer man smiled, taking the blankets, while the other, his face even redder than most Natari, drank greedily before passing the skin to their daughter, who glanced at Koruuksi with wide eyes.

He held his smile, wishing he could do more, but even as the couple walked deeper into the tunnel, their child's eyes haunted him, tightening his throat. He'd seen that same confusion far too many times.

You helped her as much as you can for right now. Worry about that later.

As Koruuksi helped the next group of people, he thought about finding that couple and having Nomlana play his mandolin for her, or maybe he could conjure some darklight for the girl to bounce things off of.

The more people that came, the more Koruuksi wanted to help. The knowledge that he couldn't reach out to them all individually weighed on him. It grew harder and harder to smile.

How did Svemakuu do it?

His brother always seemed to know how to help people—individuals and groups—even better than his Uncle Suule had.

Did he ever have to deal with this many? Or such a hopeless situation?

Koruuksi sighed. It didn't matter. Svemakuu would have found a way. Koruuksi had offered to help in whatever way he could, and though the pain in people's eyes as they passed tightened his chest, the smiles and gratitude they showed from the simple gift of blankets and water...they helped.

Is that how he did it? Did he look for those smiles and remember them instead of the pain?

It was something he could try, at least.

When the stream of people slowed, following the ebb and flow he'd come to expect over the past day, Koruuksi looked across the tunnel to his friends.

They had positioned themselves at one of the places where a few tunnels from the outside met before continuing onto the larger caves within Last Shadow's base. Nomlana and Lysanda stood a short distance away near their own piles of water skins and folded or rolled-up blankets, and a few of Koruuksi's friends from Ironpeak waited both closer to the entrances and deeper within the base, directing their people as they entered their new home.