Chosen

Chapter Ten

A day later, I was still thinking about the ring and wondering if I should have taken it. As I worked in the library, all I could think about was the hurt on Gwenyth's face when I refused it, even though she tried to pretend that she wasn't. We might not have been at the point where I was comfortable with a real commitment, but that didn't mean that time wasn't coming sooner or later. Sticks, should I have just said yes?

Shouts pierced the thick library door. Edmund, Cully, and I stopped what we were doing and exchanged nervous glances. Our eyes all asked the same question.

"Should we maybe..." Edmund began, but his sentence went unfinished.

The shouts came again. Louder. More urgent.Our chairs scraped against the floor as we all simultaneously stood and ran for the door.

I made it there first and threw it open. Edmund and Cully came up behind me. We were just in time to witness the gruesome scene. We hovered in the doorway, frozen and helpless, as we watched.

Two boys raced down the hall carrying another in their arms. Limp and bloody, his clothes were torn and his skin was a sickly shade of pale. His head dangled back, bouncing and jerking with every step. Jonathan followed close behind. "Help. We need help!"

Gwenyth appeared from nowhere. Her forehead creased with worry as she looked over the unconscious passenger. "What happened to him?" she demanded. 

"There was an accident," one of the ones holding him said.

She touched the boy's brow gently and repeated, "An accident."

The other boy nodded. "He fell. He's been out ever since."

"We got him back here as soon as we could," Jonathan interjected.

"Get him to the doctor," Gwenyth ordered.

"There's a doctor?" I whispered to Cully.

He jerked his head to the right. " A few doors down."

They set into motion again. I watched them get smaller and smaller as they ran in the direction of the doctor, my heart thudding in my chest - too loud and too fast. They went inside a room, the door shutting so hard behind them that the sound echoed down the hall. "Should we...see how he is?" I wondered.

"No. He's being dealt with. It's under control, " Edmund told me. His tone left no room for questions. Both he and Cully went back inside the library without another word.

I hesitated, but forced myself to do the same. Before I went inside I took another look down the hallway. At the opposite end stood Liam, still as a statue and silent. The entire time, I'd had no idea he was there. But he must have been. He'd have come in with the others. A stricken look plagued his face, and the rest of him was covered in blood. When he saw me looking, he blew out a heavy breath, turned, and trudged away.

~***~

The boy's name was Gareth.

He died that day.

Jonathan stayed with him the entire time. The impact of the fall had done a lot of damage, he explained to us in the library the day after it happened. Gareth had bled as much inside as he had on the outside, and that loss of blood was too much to recover from.

He'd been a stranger to me. At least, he was to new Jesse. But every time I thought about him, a persistent sadness gnawed away at my insides.

Three days later, at the edge of a cliff, a pile of logs and sticks was carefully erected. Gareth was laid on top of it. His hair fanned out underneath him, as pale and lackluster as straw. His face was gaunt. I could see all the sharp edges of his bones through his skin. I imagined him as someone strong and capable. All the members of the patrol were, excluding Jonathan, who wasn't a regular. But he looked so small lying there.

 As all the village inhabitants gathered at the cliff's edge for his funeral. No one said much. A cold breeze tugged on our clothes and hair. Dark clouds gathered overhead. Gwenyth stood apart from everyone else. When the right time came, she spoke. It wasn't a rehearsed speech. Everything she said seemed to come from the heart. All of the words were pleasant and spoke of Gareth's many good qualities. 

When she finished, she asked if anyone else wanted to say something. I followed the line of her gaze. It led straight to Liam. He gave a brief shake of his head. "Alright then, " Gwenyth said and did her best to smile, but it was noticeably strained. 

 Kai unexpectedly stepped forward. He cleared his throat. "I'd like to say somethin'."

"Of course, Kai. Go ahead." She stepped back into the fold of people. 

"Most of us knew Gareth. Some knew him well. But everyone would say that he was an alright lad. He was brave - always goin' out into the woods. Just for the sake of keepin' all of us safe..."

All eyes were on Kai as he spoke, but I scanned the faces in the crowd instead. Most were solemn, nodding in agreement with what was being said. But Liam wore a strange expression. Something almost like disbelief. Did he have a different opinion of Gareth than the noble picture Kai was painting? I remembered how he'd stood at the end of the hallway covered in blood. Gareth's blood. Maybe...

No. I pushed the thought away, but it kept creeping back in. 

 "...so I know we'll all think of him fondly. And remember him as one of the greats," Kai finished. He stepped back into his former place beside me. 

 A hush fell over all of us. When it was clear no one else had anything to say, Gwenyth made a gesture with her hand and said, "Please do the honors."

Liam came out of the crowd holding a torch. Soberly, he circled around the wood stack holding Gareth, touching the torch to its corners. The small flames grew and merged together, until they were united in a mesmerizing orange blaze that engulfed his entire body. 

 "Should have wrapped the body." The voice was close. I looked up to see Liam standing at my side, shaking his head mournfully. "Not right to watch him burn like this." He pressed his lips together in a hard line. Then he turned on his heel and walked away from the cliff's edge, back toward the village. Slowly, the rest of the crowd followed his lead, peeling off one by one to go back to whatever they'd been doing before the funeral. Aiming to be respectful, I stayed as long as I could. But the stink of burnt flesh became too overwhelming, so I left too.

I spotted Kai up ahead and jogged to catch up with him. "Hey," I said.

"Hey," he said back.

"Is this typical?" I asked him. "I don't know why, but I would have thought he'd be buried or something.""

Dunno. We've never had anyone die."

I stopped in my tracks. "No one?" I asked, astonished.

He shook his head. "Guess we're all pretty healthy. Or careful." We started walking again, and after a minute or so, he added, "But Gareth would have liked to go out that way. The fire an' all... heroic, huh?" He gave me a half smile.

"Yeah. Did you, um, did you know him well? Were you two friends?"

"Nah. I mean, he's been around nearly as long as I have. So I knew him in a way. But friends - no, nothin' like that."

"The way you talked made it sound like you were."

"That was jus' talk. Didn't feel right that no one else was sayin' anything. So I said somethin'. Whatever popped into my head that sounded nice."

"It did sound nice."I glanced over my shoulder. Gareth's funeral pyre was hidden behind a jutting part of the mountain, but the plume of smoke rising up from it was still very visible. It was dark and ominous, even against the hazy gray sky. 

 We've never had anyone die.

The words repeated in my head, each time sounding more strange. If no one ever died in New Conwy, then why had Gareth? And who might be next?