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YOU LIVE? Saboraak’s thoughts pierced my shock.
I did. I could barely believe it myself.
We flee.
You and Bataar?
Yes.
Thank goodness she was okay. She was okay, right? Her silence worried me.
I didn’t have time to dwell on it, though. If I didn’t get Zin out of here fast, someone would find us here and string us up like those poor Dragon Riders.
She was in a puddle at my feet, her white dress fanned out around her and sobs shaking her apart.
“Zin?”
I reached for her but froze. What should I do? I was afraid that touching her would make it worse. And she wasn’t responding to my words. I thought that she might be looking at the Dragon Riders hanging in front of us.
“Zin?”
I squatted down beside her, trying to get her attention. Her sobs were gasping, shuddering, ugly things, and emotion whipsawed through her eyes, fear, anger, desperation, insensate numbness, back to fear.
If I waited for her to be whole, I’d be waiting forever. If I waited too long, they’d steal her soul.
I bit my lip and ran a hand through my hair. What did you do for broken people?
Gently, not sure if I was even doing the right thing, I wrapped her in my arms. She gasped, turning to cling to me like a child. She was light, like she’d been created out of parchment, a parchment bird folded into shape. I held her like I’d hold a bird, careful not to break her. Afraid to move too fast or even at all.
We sat like that for long breaths. I counted them. Counting and worrying. Worrying we’d be found. Worrying that if I moved there would be nothing left of Zin to find at all.
I could probably carry her. But people would notice a villainous rogue carrying a pretty girl away. They’d notice. and they would remember, and they would tell whoever Apeq sent looking for us.
Perhaps, if I wrapped her in burlap sacking or a sheet so she looked like a sack of some kind of goods. Perhaps then she would go undiscovered.
We breathed five more breaths together as I thought it through. We’d take the bedding from the rooms above. I’d wrap her gently. How far could I carry her? Could I carry her far enough? I needed to get her to the secret tunnels that would lead us to the hideout. It would be the only safe place for her.
I stood carefully, never letting go of her. She clung to me like a child as I stood, weighed no more than a child as I carried her past the bodies and up the stairs, out of the horrors of this deep cavern to the light above. Her sobs turned to silent tears as I wrapped her first in warm blankets and then in covering sheets and tied a curtain rope around them like a package. She turned her head into my chest, soaking my shirt with her tears as I stumbled out the door to the cold world outside.
No one noticed as I slunk down the street toward our hideout. Would I make it there? Would my legs stay strong that long?
Whatever you do, don’t go back to the hideout. Promise me, Tor.
Saboraak?
Saboraak?
There was no reply.
We were on our own. I stood, staring around me at the city as the snow came down heavy and wet and wondered what to do next.
Continue Tor’s story in:
Dragon Chameleon: Episodes 5-8
Dragon Chameleon: Episodes 9-12