Eden Forest (Part one of the Saskia Trilogy) (28 page)

look he gives me is pity. “We need to warn them. Just warn

them, I promise.” I meet his eyes. “Please.”

He lets my arms go and runs his hand across his bald head.

“Okay, but you do everything I say.”

I nod. “Yes.”

He gives me a stern look. “I mean it, Sarajane.”

“Yes, okay, Neve.”

He hands my dagger back to me. A blush of embarrassment

progresses along my cheeks. “Sorry.”

He just checks his armour, obviously not forgiving me yet.

“They are about two hours ahead of us,” Neve says as I remove

my boots and cloak.

“What are you doing?” he asks as I leave them under a bush.

“We need to move fast and with as little noise as possible.”

He shakes his head, knowing he’s disobeying orders “Fine,

let’s move.”

I follow him, branches poke into my feet, but I just picture

my sister and push on. My noise level is a lot lower. We move at

a fast pace and after two hours, I stop. “We should’ve met them.

They were moving a lot slower.”

Neve nods his head in agreement. “I will try to see them.”

He kneels down and digs his hands into the soil. I stand guard,

keeping an eye around us. “It is not working,” he says after a

few moments. He tries again. “Nothing. Maybe it was you?”

I give a little laugh. “I don’t think so.” Then I sober. “Just

try again.”

He reaches out a hand for me to take. “It won’t hurt. Just to

try, Sarajane.”

I roll my eyes. This is a waste of time, but I take his hand

and kneel down, uncomfortable nobody is watching our

backs. The minute we lower our joined hands into the soil,

I’m pulled from my body again. I can see Neve and me. It

looks like we’re praying. Then I do a full rotation from this

height. Tristan is watching us from a tree; his face displays

his anger, but there’s also a glimmer of admiration. Morrick

is watching from a bush on our left; he looks intrigued by

what we’re doing and a little annoyed at seeing us. And Kiar

is to our right, smiling.

Then I pull back into my body. I don’t feel sick this time, as

we didn’t move through the forest at full speed.

Neve whispers beside me. “It is you, not me.” I’m not

convinced I had anything to do with this.

We stand. Morrick is the first to show himself, then Kiar.

He’s fighting to hide his smile.

“You couldn’t even guard a girl with her hands tied,” he says

to Neve in a low voice.

Neve’s face turns bright red. “She had a dagger to my

throat.”

I have the good sense to look away, mortified. Tristan jumps

down from the tree and saunters over to us at his own leisure.

His movements of confidence annoy me. “You will never learn.”

That’s all he says to me. “Move.”

But before he can, Neve clears his throat. “Tristan, we came

here to warn you.” Now he has everyone’s attention. “There are

fifteen guards in total. It is an ambush.”

Tristan looks at him suspiciously. “And how would you

know that?”

I’m afraid, in case he tells him it was me, so I rush in.

“Does it matter? I saw it too, when he used his affinity. So we

just need to think of how to take out fifteen guards.”

Tristan gives a sarcastic laugh. “And what will you do? Kill

them all with your dagger?” He glances down at my feet. I have

only socks on and they’re darker in some areas from bleeding,

but I don’t care. I just need to get to my sister.

Tristan moves away and speaks to Morrick, who hasn’t

even acknowledged me. Kiar is smiling at me with pride that I

managed to escape Neve. I smile back, causing Neve to nearly

cut me in two with a look.

“All right, we’re splitting up.” Tristan gives me a look that

says, Say anything and you will be sorry. So I gloat silently.

“Kiar, you’re with Morrick and you two are with me.”

Great. Kiar leans in. “Wish I could go with you to see what you

will do to Neve this time.” He walks to Morrick, all signs of his

smile gone.

We follow Tristan at a painfully slow rate. I want to tell him

to hurry but know he might end up gagging me and tying me

to a tree. He motions for us to get down. I can see Morrick and

Kiar on the left have stopped moving too. We hunker down.

I try hard not to move a muscle as a guard walks past us.

Tristan rises slowly and pulls the guard behind the bushes where

he breaks his neck. He has it snapped before we can blink an

eye. The man’s dead eyes stare up into the sky. I feel sick. I gawk

at Tristan in horror; he meets my horrified stare with a fierce

gaze as a muscle tenses in his jaw. Then he returns to scanning

the area. I can hear low moans to the right as Kiar and Morrick

pick off another guard. All ten are dead within a few minutes.

It is frightening to think Tristan could kill someone in seconds.

I shiver with this knowledge.

We’re still twenty feet from the hut, but there is no growth

around. If we move into the opening, we could be picked off one

by one. Tristan moves towards me slowly, still on his haunches.

We’re all behind a large cluster of bushes.

Once he’s near he grabs my wrist roughly. “Listen to me.

You stay here and don’t move.” When I go to protest, he puts

pressure on my wrist. The pain runs through me; it feels like my

wrist will snap. I bite the inside of my mouth to stop from crying

out; blood soaks my tongue. “I mean it, Sarajane.” He meets my

eyes. There is a wildness in his. He reduces the pressure and I

pull my arm away. I swallow the blood in my mouth and then

regret it as my stomach churns.

“You think inflicting pain on people is the only way to get

them to do what you say.” It seems that way to me.

He grins, but it is unsettling. “It is the only way to control

you.”

A door slams, drawing our attention to the hut as two guards

are walking towards where we are hiding. “Where is Cura? He

should have reported back fifteen minutes ago.” They walk past.

“Stay here,” Tristan says and leaves soundlessly. Seconds

feel like minutes. Neve hasn’t moved at all. Then I hear a small

groan, then another. Tristan slides back in as if he never moved.

That leaves three.

We sit there, hoping someone else will leave and hopefully we

can just walk in and get Jessica. No such luck. No one comes

out. Tristan creeps on his belly over to Morrick and Kiar, leaving

Neve and me. I grab Neve’s hand and we see in the hut, only

three guards left. I look around the room for another door or

window, but there is only one way in and out. Jessica is freshly

cut along her forehead. Blood runs into her already swollen eye.

I want to kill them all.

Then I am just hovering above Neve and me. Why am I not

going back to my body? I look around. Nothing? I can see

leaves fall behind us. My eyes shoot up and I honestly can say

my heart stops beating. There has to be thirty men in the trees,

watching us. Then I am back beside Neve. He is pale. The only

advantage we have is they don’t know we know they are there.

We both crawl over to the rest.

Tristan turns to me. “What are you doing?”

I grab his arm, digging my nails in. He doesn’t even flinch.

“In the trees. Men. Maybe thirty,” I whisper in his ear. He acts

calm, which makes me wonder if he even heard me. I pull his

arm again.

“Aim high,” he says. I’m unsure what he means and then

it sinks in. Mirium told Tristan to aim high before we left for

Eden Forest.

Before I can say more, leaves and men rain from the trees,

but they’ve lost the element of surprise. Neve, Kiar, Morrick

and Tristan are on their feet and make a circle around me as

they fight. I stand on shaky legs. Tristan, who is fighting two

men, roars at me to get back down. I do just as an arrow cuts

off a lock of my hair and whizzes past Neve’s shoulder. I stay

low, taking deep breaths to try and calm myself. A man falls

at Tristan’s feet, but he has no head. I close my eyes, blocking

out the horror. This isn’t real, this isn’t real, I repeat to myself.

Neve’s scream makes my eyes shoot open. An arrow is embedded

in his shoulder, but he keeps fighting.

“Get back into the forest,” Tristan commands while

dragging me by the arm. They move in a full circle until the

trees surround us thickly. Tristan grabs me and pulls me against

a tree, saying nothing at first. I peep out. There are only three

men left fighting Kiar and Morrick so we’ve won.

Tristan draws my face back to him, making me meet his eyes.

“Listen, this time I really need you to stay here.” His eyes are

pleading with me, making me feel bad.

“Or else?” I ask boldly.

“I don’t want there to be an or else. Just do this for me.”

I hold my breath. I’m taken back by the sincerity in his voice.

“We’re winning, Tristan.”

He rests his arm against the tree alongside my head. “That

was only ten so there are still twenty left, and if you haven’t

noticed, they have a distinct advantage.” He doesn’t say

anything else, just stares at me intently, sending my heart rate

into overdrive. My feelings towards Tristan are jumbled and

confusing. He touches my cheek so gently, running his thumb

down my face. “For me,” he whispers and then he’s gone and

I’m left breathless.

I look around the tree. He has withdrawn his bow and

arrow, aiming into the trees. Men scream as they crash to the

ground. Neve and Kiar have taken to the trees while Morrick

battles on the ground. My hands tighten around the dagger as

I wait.

The screams of men dying are starting to grind on me and

then I hear a scream that I recognise. When I look out, Neve

is on his knees, blood pouring out of a stub-all that is left of

his arm. I can see his arm a foot from him. The guard raises

his sword again, and I run with everything in me and jump on

his back. He tries to throw me off, but I stick my dagger into

his neck. He falls to his knees. I plunge the dagger three more

times until he’s motionless. My hands and clothes are soaked

in blood.

Neve collapses on the ground. He’s losing too much blood. I

tear my tunic along the bottom and wrap it tightly around his

stub to slow down the bleeding. “Stay with me,” I say while

tying it as tightly as I can.

A blade is placed at my throat. “Get up,” a guard orders and

pulls me against him as he turns to the fighting scene before

us. “Surrender or I kill her!” the guard roars. The sounds of

battle stop as Morrick and Kiar drop their weapons almost

immediately. Kiar’s eyes go straight to Neve; a look of anguish

crosses his face.

Tristan drops from a tree. He is breathing heavy. He told me

not to move and I disobeyed him again. “Drop your weapon,

Tristan,” the guard says while pushing the blade harder against

my skin. Tristan throws down his bow and arrow. “Move to

the clearing.”