Eden-South (29 page)

“Come on,” Elisa said, rising. “We need to
go down and meet the others. It will be a long journey, and there
are many of us to travel.”

He stayed where he was, unable to move.

“Aiden, everything will work out. The God
and Goddess will make sure of it.”

What can they do,
he thought
bitterly. They didn’t help all the people who had already been torn
from their homes, their whole villages sent up into flames. Where
were these Gods then? Anger burned in him now, resentment toward
the deities of this world. He quickly stopped himself, pushing away
those thoughts.
Now is not the time,
he reminded
himself.

“All right.” He sighed, getting up and
stretching out his legs. “I guess it’s now or never.” She smiled
encouragingly at him, waiting for him to grab the small bag he had
packed. They walked out together, heading toward the city gates,
out where all the others already stood.

Wolf was waiting for them, just outside the
wall, with their horses. “What took you so long?” he asked lightly.
The excitement was practically radiating from him. Aiden could only
guess that this was exactly what Wolf had been born to do. He
probably had been waiting for this moment, lived for it. No second
thoughts would cross his mind. He was ready.
Damn him,
thought Aiden.

“Just grabbing my things,” Aiden answered,
tying his bag to the back of Ty’s saddle. The horse snorted, also
visibly excited to be going for a real ride this time. Aiden hadn’t
ridden him very far yet, so this would be new for both of them.
“Don’t get too ahead of yourself,” he whispered to the beast.

Logan and Felix rode up on their horses,
Logan holding another one for Elisa. Aiden watched as she swung
herself up onto the back of the horse just as naturally as Wolf
did. He expected it from Wolf, knowing that he was from the west,
where riding was like breathing for them. He hadn’t expected it
from her.

“What?” she asked, catching the surprised
look on Aiden’s face.

“I didn’t know you could ride so well,” he
answered honestly.

She laughed, twitching the reins, jolting
the horse forward. “How else did you expect me to get around?”

Aiden and the others watched as she rode
off.

“What a woman,” Felix breathed. They all
looked back at him with the same startled face and then burst out
in laughter at the same time.

“You need to meet more women.” Wolf laughed,
kicking Grumpy forward to follow Elisa’s retreating form.

Aiden pulled himself up onto Ty, whispering
in his ears to be careful with him. The horse huffed in response,
which was good enough for Aiden. They rode all day, not stopping
until the sun started to lower in the sky. The High King picked an
open field for them to set up camp. It had a small lake nearby
where the horses would be able to drink. Aiden could tell that Ty
was tired, though he seemed to be holding up better than some of
the other horses. Ty and Grumpy seemed to be much larger than most
of the horses around them. He wondered what made them different
from the others.

“They are genuine wild horses,” Wolf said
when Aiden asked. “We catch them in our lands, and train them to be
our own. They run in large groups, filling our fields with their
massive bodies. Beautiful creatures, aren’t they?” he asked,
smiling up at his miserable horse.

Aiden suddenly appreciated Ty more,
realizing that he could have been free from this life too, left to
roam the west with the other wild horses. They shared that common
detail.

“We’re roasting some sausages,” Logan yelled
to them.

“Bless him.” Wolf grinned over at Aiden.
“I’m starving.”

They left the two horses by the water,
walking over to where the others had set up camp. Aiden was sharing
a tent with Felix, and Wolf and Logan were in the other one. They
hadn’t seen much of Elisa that day—she stayed up by her father for
most of the ride. No one had seen her since they stopped for the
night.

“How’s your backside?” Logan asked, grinning
at Aiden.

“Sore,” he admitted. Sitting all day in a
saddle, while you felt every bump in the road, made you go numb. He
hadn’t actually thought he’d be able to last much longer, when the
King finally had called a halt. “I can only imagine what it will
feel like tomorrow.”

“Ha, worse, I can tell you that much!”

“What is the plan when the armies meet?”
Felix asked, looking toward Aiden. The question made Aiden feel
breathless, like someone had just punched him in the diaphragm. Of
course, they would be asking him this; everyone would expect him to
have some sort of
plan
for the battle. Throughout the whole
time he had been training, it hadn’t once occurred to him to devise
a plan of attack. Now it was the last minute, and he’d be
scrounging for one. His face was probably the picture of panic.
Wolf reached out a hand, placing it reassuringly on his
shoulder.

“Don’t worry, Aiden,” he said, obviously
noticing his fear. “We’ll figure it out together. No one is
expecting any grand ideas from you.”

“Yeah, we all know how much you suck at this
stuff,” Logan said. Aiden looked up to see him smiling at him from
the other side of their tiny fire.

“I don’t know how I would have survived this
long without you guys,” he blurted out.

“Well, let’s hope we survive even longer,”
Logan replied, lifting his glass up in cheers.

Wolf grabbed a cup, handing it to Aiden, and
then grabbed another for himself. Holding up his cup along with
Logan’s, he said, “To surviving past these next couple of days, and
returning home to take full advantage of all the rewards that come
to soldiers who return home from war!”

“Hear, hear!” Logan and Felix cheered. Aiden
smiled, lifting his glass with theirs, and took a large swig before
he realized what it was they were drinking.

“Is this alcohol?” he asked, coughing as the
liquid burned his throat.

“How else do you think men sum up the
courage to go into war?” asked Wolf, looking at him like he was
crazy.

Needless to say, they spent most of the
evening sitting around their fire, refilling their cups as they
drained them quickly. Everyone’s nerves were on edge, and the drink
seemed to be the release they needed. Aiden was sufficiently
drunk—his head felt light and free of worry.

The boys were lying down, Aiden between
Logan and Felix, and Wolf on the other side of Logan, on the side
of a hill, looking up at the night sky above them.

“I think I’m going to be ill,” Felix said,
breaking the silence that had filled the space around them for so
long. They were set apart from the rest of the army, the shouting
and laughter sounded far off to them. The three others laughed.
“I’m serious,” he said, springing up and running off into the
distance. They heard him vomiting a second later.

“Lightweight,” Logan said, snickering. Felix
didn’t come back. Aiden didn’t find him again until he went to bed
much later.

“What are you three doing?” they heard Elisa
call. None of them lifted his head to see her coming, largely due
to the fact that they couldn’t. Aiden’s world was spinning as it
was; he was too afraid to move at the moment.

“Looking at the stars,” Logan replied.

“Aw, just like three lovers,” she teased,
taking the spot where Felix had been. “Where is the fourth?”

“Sick,” Aiden replied, and the three of them
chuckled again.

“Are you
drunk
?” she accused them in
a shocked tone.

“Half the men here are drunk,” Wolf
answered. “Don’t act so surprised. Where have you been all
night?”

“In my tent,” she answered, her voice
sounding somewhat defensive. Aiden noticed how easily Wolf could do
that to her.

“Well, you missed some good sausages.” Logan
smiled, rubbing his full stomach. “I wish I had more.”

“You’re going to be fat when you’re
older—you know that, right?” Wolf jabbed.

“Probably, but I’ll be one happy fat
man.”

“That’s all that matters,” Aiden said,
smiling. He wished nights like this could go on forever. Their
lives at that moment were simple, but they wouldn’t be for
long.

“I wish there were girls here,” Wolf
commented dryly.

“You would,” Elisa scoffed. “What am I to
you exactly?”

“Elisa,” he answered plainly.

“What is that supposed to mean? Am I not a
girl?”

“Sure, but you’re you. It’s different.”

Aiden could sense the tension in the air,
and he didn’t want the mood to be ruined. Finding something else in
his brain to change the conversation with, he blurted out the one
thing he didn’t want them to know. “I’ve never slept with a girl
before.” His face heated immediately when he said it. Wolf sat up
quickly, quicker than Aiden had thought he was capable of. Logan
looked sideways at him, a huge smile covering his face, his teeth
glowing in the dark.

“Come again?” Wolf said, his voice showing
no traces of being drunk anymore.

“Never mind,” Aiden said quickly.

“Nice try,” Logan said, snickering. “We
heard you loud and clear.”

“What do you mean, you haven’t slept with a
girl yet? What are you waiting for?”

Aiden shrugged. “I don’t know. The right
one?”

“The right one? What does that even mean?”
Wolf looked confusedly from Logan to Aiden. Logan shrugged his
shoulders, as if what Aiden had just said was a completely foreign
idea to them.

“It means he doesn’t want to be a slut like
some men,” Elisa intervened in his defence.

Wolf held up his hands to her, halting her
from talking further. “You’re not a guy. I don’t expect you to
understand. We all know you would never sleep with someone unless
you were in love, but for us guys … well, that is just crazy.”

“
Oh,
I understand,” she spat back,
standing up to face him. “I understand that you are the most
egotistical, overindulgent man I’ve ever met, and have no concept
of what it is like to actually feel a real emotion for someone
besides lust. You disgust me—everything you stand for is repulsive.
You sit there and criticize someone for actually wanting something
more than just a random encounter with some whore you met at a
tavern. You’re no better than those women you can buy in the
pleasure district. No doubt you’re well known there anyway.”

Aiden and Logan were both sitting up now,
their faces identical looks of horror and shock as they looked from
one speaker to the other. It was dark, but Aiden could see the
anger written on both of their faces. He wished he could stop them,
but he was afraid to say anything at that point, at the risk of
getting his head bitten off as well.

“That’s rich,” Wolf mocked her. “You think
you’re so much better than everyone else around here, just because
your father is the Captain. It must be nice for you up on that
pedestal, looking down your nose at the lowly soldiers around you.
How can you expect any man to meet your expectations? We’ve worked
hard for what we’ve accomplished here, and we deserve to enjoy
it.”

“If you call throwing yourself at anything
with a pair of breasts ‘enjoying it,’ then I feel really sorry for
you. Why don’t you try actually acting like a gentleman and being
worthy of your position. Maybe you would find something worth more
than a one-night stand!” She started to take off, storming down the
hill away from them. As she reached the bottom, she turned back
once more. “As for being the daughter of the Captain, I would think
you of all people would realize what a disadvantage that is rather
than an asset. I’ve had to work twice as hard as any of you to
prove myself. Do you see any other girls around here? Do you really
think I’d be here if I didn’t deserve it? I’m the best at what I
do, because I’ve worked my ass off since the day I turned five!
Don’t you dare be so presumptuous as to take that away from
me!”

They sat in silence as she stormed off, her
figure disappearing into the dark. Wolf stood to the side of them,
his hands balled into fists at his sides. Without saying anything
to them, he took off toward his tent. Logan and Aiden sat in
complete astonishment.

“Wow,” Logan breathed. “That was a long time
coming.”

“That was a little unexpected ….” Aiden
said, still shocked by the fight. “What is it with those two?”

Logan shrugged, lowering himself back down
on his back. “You know how husbands and wives can be,” he answered
lightly.

Aiden sat up straighter, looking over at him
in complete surprise. A numbing feeling was spreading through his
chest. “What does that mean?”

“They’re betrothed. Didn’t you know
that?”

“Betrothed?”
It can’t be true,
he
thought disbelievingly. They hated each other.

“His father is the Chief of the Riders,
Hawk,” he explained. “They’ve been matched since they were young,
although I don’t think either of them wants to marry the
other.”

“Do you think they won’t then?”

Logan looked at him, as if he were seriously
considering it. “Who knows,” he said finally. “They won’t marry
until she reaches the age of nineteen, so there are still a couple
of years till then. Things could always change.”

Aiden’s heart hurt, and his head pounded.
From the very moment he saw her, he had fallen in love. Now he had
discovered she was trusted to someone else—not just someone else,
but his friend. A mixture of betrayal and complete despair was
running through his entire body. Eventually, they both got up,
following their roommates into the tents. Aiden crawled into his
sleeping bag, curling himself into a ball. He had received a
significant blow that night, and he didn’t know how he’d get over
it.

The next day was even worse than the last.
Not only did his head pound like someone was beating him
repeatedly, but the news he had discovered the night before weighed
down on him still. Both contributed to his terrible mood the moment
he woke up. Felix seemed to be the worse for wear as well, and he
didn’t ask many questions as to Aiden’s current state of mind. They
crawled out of the tent to the early sunshine of the morning. The
whole camp was already on the move, packing up as quickly as they
could to get on the road. They both worked together, folding up the
tent and their sleeping bags. Aiden went over to retrieve Ty from
the water. Wolf was already there with Grumpy.