Memorybound

Chapter 20

Someone shook Aaron's shoulder. He gasped and sat up.

"Your turn," Christian told him. Only the whites of his eyes were very visible.

Aaron scrubbed at his face. Many of the men had set up camp in locations near the shimmer. It was easier than riding to and from the castle, and he had done the same. He climbed out of his bedroll, noting that the fire had gone out and the four men around it all seemed to be snoring.

Christian had already wandered off to find his own place to sleep, and Aaron didn't blame him. He was so tired of being near the shimmer, of worrying that at any moment, he might be lured into it and attacked, but it was his shift and he wouldn't ask anyone else to take it. He picked up his sword belt out of the dirt and strapped it on, something he had become quite proficient at doing one handed.

He walked along the shimmer, staying on the inside of the walls. He did not want to get lured in, like so many others had. Every night, soldiers pulled people away from the shimmer, waking them from a sort of trance, or followed them in and pulled them back out. Sometimes, people were wounded and sometimes they were dead.

Gillian had told him that this normally would have been the mage's job, since they were the ones who could walk into the shimmer without risk, but that was back before Gillian had even begun soldiering, when Taivalon had more than one mage. These men were all the country had to offer to protect their own, but they would do their best and hopefully Hailey would figure out what was happening and fix it.

A child wandered through the darkness, he could see her trying to catch a fairy in her chubby little fingers. She couldn't be more than five years old. A man chased her yelling, "Natalie, Natalie come back. It's a bad fairy."

But the child hurried on, not listening to her father's calls. Aaron hurried to intercept the child. He caught her up in his good arm and the child struggled against him, pushing at his chest and neck. "I want to get the fairy," she said.

"No, it's a bad fairy," Aaron said, trying to mimic the child's father's tone of voice. At least he thought the man had to be her father. He glanced around. Where had the man gone?

He turned to see the man disappear into the shimmer. He cursed and then apologized to the little girl, who didn't seem to understand what he was talking about. He chased the father into the shimmer, shifting the little girl to his other hip. She was a beautiful child with big brown eyes, which became wider as they stepped into the shimmer.

She struggled against him. "Mama said not to go in the shimmer."

"I know. We're just going to get your papa out and then we'll come right out. He had thought about putting the child down and telling her to go home, but this had to be safer. He found the man, and put down his daughter. This would be so much easier if he had two hands. He knew that shouting wouldn't work. Tugging on them didn't seem to work once they were inside the shimmer, either.

He slapped the man across the face. The little girl began hitting Aaron and kicking him. The punches didn't hurt, but her kicks to the shins did.

"Don't you hurt my papa," she said.

Fortunately, the man woke. "Where are we?" He asked Aaron.

"In the shimmer. I need you to go home. It's that way," Aaron pointed and was relieved when the man picked up his little girl and headed out. Aaron was relieved to be on the other side and received to see the man and his daughter walking back the way they had come.

The long night continued. He glanced at his pocket watch constantly, longing for his shift to be over of the sun to rise. The darkness with the glow of the moon on one side and the glow of the shimmer on the other was wearing at him. He saw a figure in the distance and groaned. He would need to stop another person from walking into the shimmer.