The Sanctuary

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

I saw Reece, her blonde hair dirty, silver eyes glistening with tears. Her mother, crying and reaching out to her. Her father, pushing her into the arms of Madame Widow, barely holding back tears himself. She was howling now, her cries heart wrenching. Reaching out to her parents with grubby fingers, not understanding why they were leaving her.

I saw Jonrick, his eyes wide with fear. His brother torn away from him, his brother in all likeness. His father, hitting his brother so many times, he could barely count. His mother’s fruitless screams of protest – why wasn’t she doing more, why wasn’t she stopping him? His brother’s lifeless eyes. His own eyes, staring back. His father reaching for him, and he ran, he ran as hard as he could. The guilt and the sorrow that threatened to overwhelm.

I saw Kat, curly hair freeing from the leather thong in her efforts, slamming against the window as she saw her brother tied up to a tree. And the lash, over and over again, his small body barely able to handle it. His mother, pleading with the soldiers, slamming her fists onto the ground. It was her fault. All her fault.

I saw more. More and more stories, painful stories of childhoods ripped away too young. Our people, treated like a disease, exterminated, killed off, a complete and utter genocide of a species.

The images raced through me, one after the other, after the other until I could barely take it anymore, the pain of a hundred years weighing on my shoulders, weighing me down until I was screaming, screaming, screaming-

Light.

I awoke, with a gasp. It was bright, which was the first thought that floated to the surface of my hazy mind. The sunlight was flickering in, sharp rays hitting my face like a thousand pins and needles. I groaned, shoving an arm in my face to block the light but it felt like I was moving a ton of weight.

“Alaya?”

The whisper was tentative. I looked around for the source. Reece was smiling at me, her beaming expression almost as powerful as the rays of sun. I tried to say something back, but a mumble came from my mouth instead of formed words. I frowned and then tried again.

“Reece,” I squeezed out. I blinked rapidly, trying to adjust to where I was. Dirt walls. Sun hole. The Sanctuary.

“Oh, Alaya,” Reece said, her voice full of emotion. “I was so sure- I was so sure you would make it, I knew you would!”

I tried to not let my confusion show and instead, focused on the pain in my body. Everything felt like lead weight. I peered down, and pushed back the white sheet that covered me. A bloody bandage covered my stomach.

“What…” I trailed off. And then the memories came flooding back.

Riders. The Crown Prince. Ambush. Marek. The sword, in my side. Samson.The roots, the fire.

It must’ve showed in my face, because Reece quickly gripped my hand, bringing me back to the present. I gave her a panicked look and she hugged me, warmly. I fell into her embrace as if she were my only lifeline.

“You’re okay now, Alaya. You’re okay.”

                                                                                        _________

I had been in and out of sleep for a week. The crown prince and the now armless Marek had disappeared after I had collapsed. The rest of the Farsay men were dead. I had killed all of them.

After I had collapsed, the Riders wrapped my wounds up as well as they could, which may have saved my life, Sarika had said somberly. I was hanging on by a thread when we had finally arrived back to the Sanctuary.