Knowledge is Deadly: Book 1: The Azuran Series

Chapter 6

Katelyn's eyes widened. "Jackson?" She whispered quietly.
When she had confirmed it was him she didn't hesitate to step out from behind the brush. She limped towards him and the others who were with him.
Jackson smiled.
"We found them. Thank Azura." He said.
Four other guards stepped out beside them, the uniforms unfamiliar to any of them.
Aspen slowly lowered his sword, followed by Blake. Kilin didn't move and watched Jackson carefully.
Katelyn smiled with relief. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to find you." He said walking over to her. Kilin bit her lip and slowly sheathed her daggers.
"Are you with Camp Exurius?" Blake asked. Jackson looked at him.
"Yes. I ran there once the castle was attacked." He said with a nod.
Katelyn fought the urge to hug Jackson. "So we're close to the camp?" She asked hopefully.
"Yes. We are. I didn't think you'd actually make it here. How did you do it?" He asked.
"It's really complicated. You see, we walked." Kilin spat. Jackson just glanced at her and then back to Katelyn.
"We got chased off by those terrorists." Katelyn said, shooting Kilin a quick glare.
"Oh. Well we can talk about it back at the fort." Jackson said. "You need help walking?" He asked eyeing her swollen ankle.
Katelyn swallowed and looked down. "I think I'll be ok.." she said hesitantly, resisting whatever urge was compelling her to let him help.
"But if you've been walking on it for days then you don't need to continue to do so." He noted.
Katelyn bit her lip and looked at him. "It can't be that much farther of a walk.." she said.
"Ok." He said simply. "It's this way." He added and turned to start walking threw the woods.
Katelyn followed contentedly, but suddenly wished she had agreed to his help when she felt pain in her ankle. She looked back at Aspen, Blake, and Kilin. Aspen and Blake had both concealed their emotions under a blank face but Kilin seemed moderately disgusted.
     Katelyn stopped and motioned for them to come on with a wave of her hand. Kilin huffed and followed behind Aspen and Blake and they caught up with Katelyn.
     Katelyn kept up with Jackson. "How long have you been here?" She asked, watching the ground so she wouldn't fall
     "About a day." He said calmly.
     Katelyn was quiet for a bit. "How did you get here so fast?" She wondered out loud.
     "I rode a horse. Had to fight my way into the stables before I did though."
     "Oh." Katelyn said quietly.
     "I'm just glad I found you before they did." He said glancing over at her. "There looking everywhere for you."
     She looked back at him. "How do you know?"
     "They are in the woods." He said looking around. "I assume the word got out that you where in them and now there are searching  under every leaf for you."
     "Yeah... they want my whole family for some reason." She said.
     "They didn't hurt you did they?" He asked placing a hand on her shoulder.
     She startled at his touch and looked over at him, blushing. She steadied herself quickly. "Me? No, not physically."
     "Good.." he said and dropped his hand back to his side.
     Katelyn looked down again. "Can't say the same for my dad.." she mumbled. He looked over at her.
     "Did something happen?" He asked gently.
     She nodded but didn't let him see her eyes getting moist. "It's serious, not just a scratch. They told me he didn't make it but he--" embarrassingly, her voice cracked.
     Jackson was quite. "I'm sorry.." he said quietly.
     "It's ok. It's not your fault."
     Jackson was quite as he looked at the ground.
    'Should...... her?' She heard from somewhere. The voice was foreign to her and it sounded far away, and muffled.
     Katelyn looked around. "Did you hear that?" She asked. She felt her head beginning to pulse.
     "Hear what?" Jackson asked cautiously and looked over at her.
     "I don't know, this weird voice..." she said, bringing her hand up to her head.
     'Does she.......' she heard in the same voice.
     "Are you ok?" He asked placing a hand on her shoulder again.
     "I have a splitting headache." She muttered.    
  'I wonder...... read....' she heard.
     He looked at her hands and then to her face again. "You need rest." He said. "When we get there you can rest."
     She just nodded while rubbing her temples. "This is so strange.."
     He crossed his arms and they walked out of the forest and into the Fort.
     There where many buildings the roads were gravel and most of the buildings where wood or stone. The original Fort was in the middle, its grey, stone walls towering over the smaller one story buildings.
     "Finally." Katelyn sighed, quickening her pace.
     "This way." Jackson said leading them to a two story inn. "I can get you rooms." He said holding the door open for all of them. The four guards nodded to him and left.
     Katelyn immediately sat down on a bench in the lobby with a relieved sigh. Jackson walked to the counter and Kilin stood in front of Katelyn, her arms crossed.
     "What?" Katelyn asked, looking up at her.
     "I don't like this.." she mumbled quietly.
     "Why? We were coming here anyway. We need rest, food, and water, and Jackson is helping with it."
     "Something feels off. The sooner we leave the better."
Katelyn frowned. "We shouldn't focus on leaving when we just got here."
"I want to leave quickly." Kilin replied looked at her with a blank face. Jackson walked up to them.
"This way." He said with a smile.
Katelyn managed to stand and stepped beside him, waiting to follow.
Jackson lead all four of them upstairs.
"I got four bedrooms because I didn't know what you all would say about sleeping arrangements." Jackson said glancing over his shoulder.
"Four is great." Aspen said calmly.
"Thank you so much." Katelyn said gratefully.
"Not a problem." Jackson said. "Here you are. These two and those two." He said pointing to two doors across from each other and two down the hall a few doors that where across from each other.
Katelyn smiled at him before walking to the nearest door on the right.
She entered and marveled at the nice room. It had a large, tempting bed on the back wall, a small table in the middle of the room, a dresser on the left wall, and a big bathroom on the right wall.
She bathed, changed into clothes she found in a dresser, and sunk into the bed for long awaited sleep. She was too tired to care about eating right now, and dozed off as soon as her head hit the pillow.