Terres (Old)

Chapter Thirty

The sky was streaked with blood that crawled across it like fire. Elyn walked like a shadow along the borders of the caravan with the setting sun to his back. He'd have an hour to make it to where Michael stood waiting with the cart, and then a few hours before he'd be forced to reluctantly trudge home. It always took shorter than he liked and left him longing for the next night where he could get away without notice.

They'd communicated for months with slipped notes in deliveries and secret meetings that neither dared stretch beyond the boundaries of nightfall. They were different social classes, different races, and of a persuasion not everyone found palatable. But for him, they worked. Their meetings soothed the ache that came when he remembered he'd never be what his mother intended. 

When news had reached his ears that Wren had fledged and his mother cut off all talk of marriage, Elyn's heart soared so high he thought it might never come down again. He knew the freedom wouldn't last. Soon there would be another girl and another wealthy family and he'd be whisked away again to make a decision he neither wanted nor needed. Next time the girl might not be so reticent. He might not be as lucky. 

His heart raced as the cart came into view, and his feet floated light as stars across the desert earth. Michael hopped down from the driver's seat and wrapped him up in a big bear hug that smelled like sweat and salt and made Elyn feel entirely safe and welcome. After a moment Michael let go and Elyn was a little disappointed the hug wasn't longer. 

"How's the marketplace?" Michael said with a gag. He patted the camel's neck and hopped back up into the driver's seat while Elyn took the seat next to him. They'd ride around for a while, hidden by the stars and their dark overcloaks, and Elyn would forget that his family was even an issue. No more sister shouting or babies babbling or toddlers trying to pull his hair and rip pages from his ledger. No more dead father. Just him and Michael and the night. 

"Wren fledged," Elyn said, though he supposed Michael already knew that, since she'd managed to get home without dying and the floor behind their seats was stained with blood. Their hands intertwined while Michael kept an easy grip on the camel, slowing him only slightly so they wouldn't travel too far away from the caravan's rest stop.

"I know. I guess that's a bit longer before I'm just a stray," Michael said, and his lips quivered into a smile he couldn't hide even if he tried to. Elyn grinned and leaned against the hard wooden seat back. Even a temporary reprieve from the insanity that was Terres marriage custom wasn't something he could say no to. 

"Do you think she can go back?" Elyn said quietly, trying to hide the guilt in his voice. He squeezed Michael's hand a little tighter as he pulled the cart to a stop and let out a long, drawn-out sigh, the corners of his mouth tugging at his beard.

"It's not safe there for her," Michael said. "At least it won't be for very long. The men in the lower caravan are getting more anxious every day. It won't be very long before something happens. They'll steal one of your women or kill a baby, or something. Before we might have been able to hide her but now--"

"--Everyone saw," Elyn finished for him, dark eyes suddenly filled with regret. He'd sent her there so she could die. She'd only just gotten lucky that she didn't, and in a way, she owed him everything. 

"Yeah," Michael replied. He scanned the horizon, face unreadable. "Ittra wants to leave, sooner rather than later. She thinks we're close enough to the city to make it ourselves if we leave before the fighting gets bad or someone gets hurt. I know she's crazy, but I trust her." He let go of Elyn's hand and folded his arms over his chest. 

"It'll be hard," Elyn agreed, and he found himself with a lump in his throat. He couldn't ask to go with him. They barely even had enough food for themselves, and Elyn's family didn't have enough to spare, either. If he stole from them he'd just be dooming his mother and his sister and the babies to death by fighting, or by starvation. He couldn't do that. Not for Wren and not for himself, either. 

"I'm sorry," Michael said. His eyes slicked over with water and his hands clenched into fists. "It's...best if we stopped meeting. If we made this the last time."

Elyn nodded. He knew this would be coming. For months he knew. He'd heard Michael talk of the trouble in the lower caravan and of the fighting and the tears that screamed from every corner. How children were starving and burning to death in the sun. How men had no money and even less to get by on and killed each other by the dozens. How eventually they'd run out of each other to kill and come for the marketplace.

And really, he knew this would never last in the first place. They were both sixteen and eventually sixteen year olds got older. They grew up and got married and strayed, if that was their persuasion, but they didn't stay with each other. They kept it in the shadows where nobody could see and no one could question.

"You know something, don't you?" Elyn said quietly.

"I don't know when. In the next week, maybe two. Some of the men are talking about attacking the marketplace. They're not as well armed but there's a lot more of them, Elyn. A lot more. There's going to be a lot of bloodshed."

Elyn nodded. He was no stranger to war. He remembered the fear in his father's eyes when the riots started, back when they lived in Opaline City. When the riots slowly spread like a disease until they were right outside his doorstep. How he clung to his mother's leg and cried out in the dark the night his father had taken up arms to fight the looters from their doorstep. How his father had never come back and how flames had gathered in the corners of the alleyway and spread until they consumed his building and then his entire street.

And then they'd come to the caravan and everything was safe again. There was no fire and no fighting families. No war and plenty to eat. He'd never have to worry about wielding a sword except for swordplay or lighting a fire except to cook food at night.

"I'll be okay. We always make it out somehow." Elyn swallowed the lump in his throat. Michael threw his arms around him and Elyn felt wet spots on his shirt. Suddenly he felt very scared and alone and utterly conflicted about their parting. If he ever cried in public he had a feeling he'd be crying too. 

Michael tipped a hand under his chin and kissed him softly, and the world melted away like butter until there was nothing there but them. For a brief moment the fires and the bloodshed didn't matter, because they didn't exist. All too quickly, though, he pulled away and the night drew around them and Elyn knew that it would be time to say goodbye soon.

In another world, another time and place, it might have meant something different. They would have kissed each other in public instead of while hiding in the shadows from prying eyes. It would have signified an unbreakable promise. But not here. Not in this time and place. Here it was the seal of something beautifully simple and utterly broken. Heartbreaking, but nothing more. 

Michael pulled the cart around without saying anything and clicked the camel forward. The wheels rolled across the cracked earth like a soundtrack that kept either of them from speaking to each other. Elyn kept a grip so hard on Michael's hand that his knuckles blanched and his joints ached. The cart pulled to a stop too soon for his liking, though there was no timeframe he felt would make it any easier.

Michael didn't look at him as Elyn hopped out and started walking. Elyn couldn't look back either. Heat rose to his face and his eyes stung. Soon the world would be changing for all of them in ways too dark and scary for him to want to contemplate, though not new. Never new.

Elyn tried to block out the sounds of fighting emanating from inside his head and just kept walking. Soon they'd be all too real. 

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Elyn has given up a lot for other people. He's going to miss Michael terribly. If you were Elyn, would you go after him?