Black Dove (Watty Awards 2012)

Chapter Fourteen

            It’s a while before we speak.

            “Where are we going first, Avalynne?” Darran asks.

            I push the backpack up further on my back. “I don’t know…Sevalia is nearby, we could ask there.”

            “Don’t you think that’s a little foolish? They’ll still be looking for us…”

            “I don’t know, Darran!” I snap. I guess leaving everything behind—again—has gotten to me more than I care to admit.

            “…I’m sorry, I’m just lost.”

            “I’m lost too, Darran. You all can’t expect me to make all the choices! What are we even doing!? We have no chance.” I kick a pebble out of my path. Darran looks nervous.

            “Keep quiet…someone might hear…” I glance around. The dirt road we’re on is deserted. There’s probably not a house for a hundred miles. Everything makes me angry. Even the sunflowers look insolent. “You should have thought about the hopelessness of our cause before we left Gaby’s.”

            I try and keep my strange mood to myself. My emotions have been plucked like strings over the last few days, and it’s finally getting to me. Instead of venting it, I just play with my necklace, fiddling with the chain.

            We get to the town of Sevalia that night. Its tiny houses and pub look warm and welcoming, although I know we can’t stay for too long. Danger could be lurking around any dark corner. I hope that Trident has given up on his prey and his earlier plans by now, but I can’t be sure. All I’m sure of is that I need to find Sarge and get the truth from him, and somehow meet up with Kane and Essie without getting caught.

            We bunk at a small, ramshackle inn that night. The crowd is boisterous downstairs and I’m glad to retreat upstairs to our room. It is small, partitioned down the center by a rough spun curtain. After walking all day, I’m glad to collapse into the creaky, filthy bed. My dreams are strange again. Zoe hovers around, staring at me in malice, screaming that I abandoned her. Then the dream shifts to Kane, in a pool of his own blood, while Trident stands over him and shoots the corpse, laughing at me mockingly.

            “What are you going to do, girlie? You can’t stop me.”

            I wake in a cold sweat, grabbing the blankets like they’re my last lifeline. I resist the urge to run out, find Kane and Zoe, and hole up somewhere where nobody can hurt them.

            “Darran? Darran?” I whisper his name until I hear him groggily shift and wake.

            “What is it?”

            “We should leave before sunrise, just in case someone’s following us and is staying here as well…” I say. He just groaned and falls out of bed with a thump.

            We dress, leave our fee at the deserted front counter, and sneak out. I can hear the drunken snores of guests who had too much liquor last night, probably celebrating the end of war still. If only I were one of them, asleep, innocent to the crimes which are happening right under their noses. I haven’t forgot the fact that Trident started the whole war in the first place, and prolonged it as well. He could definitely do it again, if it worked out in his favor.

            Suddenly, I stop. My heart is thundering. I didn’t just see…I didn’t just see what I think I just saw. My eyes must be tricking me. Perth?