The Choosing (18 page)

Ashton too had recognized Garret’s groan of pain, and had assumed the worst.  Thinking Garret was impaled upon his own brother’s sword, Ashton rushed first to Garret to immediately begin his prayer and his healing.  Reaching Garret, and assessing his body he found no wound other than a lump on his head.  He then remembered Seth’s tumble to the floor and realized that Garret must have defended himself in the attack and injured his twin.  Ashton twisted around on his knees, already in the position to pray and looked to Sara, who now was lifting Seth’s head and torso to her body to hold him tightly like a parent might hold an injured child.  She shook her head, letting Ashton know that Seth had not been injured.  Ashton, not knowing what then to do, turned back to Garret and smiled.

“Welcome back.”  Ashton said cheerily to Garret, his child like face gleaming at the jest, yet knowing as he did that this was probably all his fault.

The remainder of the evening went better than any of them could have expected.  Seth had blacked out again for a while, but rested peacefully in Sara’s lap.  Garret was unharmed, besides a large knot on his head which he refused to let Ashton treat.  After Garret had been able to regain himself, and gather his bearings, Ashton and Garret exchanged their versions of the events that had just taken place.  Garret was not upset with Ashton in the least, telling him he had done exactly what Garret would have done had the roles been reversed.  After telling his tale, Garret brought out the large sack of food, and the small pouch of coins.  Curiosity got the better of them, and wanting to see how much they had been rewarded, Garret drew loose the strings of the small pouch and poured its contents into his hands.  Garret and Ashton leaned their heads together, peering into Garrets palm.  Sara watched from a few feet away unable to see what it had contained, but instead watching her friend’s faces to see how they would react.  Garret sat silently blinking over and over again at his palm.  Ashton however gasped in disbelief.  Regaining his composure Garret poured the contents of his palm back into the pouch, and pulled the strings tight.  He leaned towards Sara, and extending his arm held the pouch out to her.  Sara shook her head silently to Garret’s gesture, not wanting to speak for fear she might wake Seth.  Instead of retracting his arm, Garret spoke.

“It’s yours Sara.”  Garret smiled as he spoke the words quietly.  “Sirus said it was a reward for killing the goblin.  If you had not wounded it we would all be dead, so it only seems fair to me that the reward should be yours and yours alone.  The only stipulation Sirus gave with the money, like I said a few moments ago, was that we use some of it to rent horses when we reach Raven’s Hold.”  Garret gestured again flicking his wrist to swing the pouch in her direction.

Sara’s expression darkened and her face twisted with a look akin to pain.

“I’ve never actually had any money.”  Sara admitted, her cheeks flushing slightly.  “I don’t really understand how it works, you know, what piece is worth how much.  I don’t want to mess up and give away more than I’m supposed to, and then we don’t have enough for the horses or something else we might need.”  Sara finished her eyes on the floor, ashamed of her ignorance.

“That’s no problem.”  Ashton chimed in.  “We will teach you.”

Garret nodded in agreement, and the two boys scooted closer to Sara forming a loose circle.  Garret poured the contents of the pouch onto the stone floor beside Sara, and sorted the coins.  As he sorted them Ashton told her their names.  The small brown ones were copper.  They were the least valuable.  The same sized gray ones were silver.  One silver was equal to one hundred copper.  Next was a large brown one, which Ashton explained was worth twenty five copper, it was made of the same metal as the first one, just larger.  The next coin was a large silver coin, valued at twenty five silver.  Again this was the same metal as the smaller silver coin, and was larger therefore worth more.  Finally the Last coin, which neither boy had ever seen before, was a small gold coin.  It was the same size as the other smaller coins, but was made of gold, and had a crown stamped into its surface on either side.  This one was valued at one gold, or one hundred silver.

Sara committed it all to memory.  Pointing to each coin she would state its value, and the boys would nod.  They played a short game with her then, placing various coins together and asking her the total worth of the coins.  She was an apt student and quickly learned the lesson and was able to calculate the value of varying piles of coins without any mistakes.  The final pile they gave her to calculate was the entire contents of the small pouch.  There were seventeen small copper coins, and three large copper coins.  There were also eleven small silver coins, and two large ones.  Finally there were the two gold coins.  It took several moments for Sara to calculate, but her mother had taught her math at an early age and she was quite good at it.  She figured after several moments that the total value was twenty six thousand one hundred and ninety two copper, or two hundred sixty one silver and ninety two copper, or two gold, sixty one silver and ninety two copper.  The boys congratulated her graduation from their course, and assured her that the money that was now in her hands was a small fortune. 

Shortly after their lesson, Seth regained consciousness.  He was weak, like before, but otherwise unharmed.  He apologized to his twin, who brushed it off as if the attack had been nothing.  Garret was quick to relate the afternoon’s tale to his brother, with Ashton filling in his perspective of the events that had taken place.  Seth was astonished at the amount of money Sara now controlled, and assured her, like the other boys had, that she could buy nearly anything she wanted, after paying for the horses of course.

Garret brought out the sack of food, which he had waited to open until everyone was ready to eat.  In the large sack was enough food to satiate their immense hunger, and still leave them enough for a full day journey.  Garret pulled from the sack two long loaves of bread that had apparently gotten squished in the twins’ battle earlier that day.  He also pulled from the bag a hand full of salted pork and dried beef that had been cut into easy to manage strips.  There was also a large block of cheese which he carved everyone a piece from.  They all ate hungrily, filling their stomachs for the first time in days.  Everyone but Sara had water left in their water skins, but Seth was all too happy to share with her.  While eating they talked merrily, their spirits raised by good food and good fortune.

As the night progressed Seth regained some strength once again, and as his brother and Ashton lay down upon their makeshift beds, he was able to gather his blanket off the floor, fling it around his shoulders, and once again slouch down to the floor, his back to the stone wall that had become his resting place.  Sara had followed him around the small cavern, afraid he might get dizzy or hit his head.  Seth had a full stomach, his eye lids were growing heavy, and tomorrow he knew would be a tiring day.  He reached out his arms to the small, beautiful woman, that he was convinced was an angel, and smiled as she crawled into his embrace.  Seth wrapped his arms around her tightly, lovingly, and crushed her body to his.  He could hardly contain his love for her, yet he knew he must.  He did not want to rush her feelings, force her to do or say anything she did not want to.  So relaxing his hold on her he sighed loudly, trying to be patient.  He would wait for her to take the next step.

Sara did not take the step this night, though she now thought she understood what it was that Seth was waiting for, what was holding him back.  She knew he struggled to contain himself, she struggled as well.  She knew her feelings for him. She too knew how he felt about her in return.  She still believed herself unworthy of him.  She mostly though struggled with herself.  It was her fear to trust anyone that kept her from telling Seth how she felt.  She was afraid that if she told him, he might use her feelings against her.  She felt guilty for thinking it, knowing Seth would never hurt her, but still unable to wash away the stains her past had left on her heart.

Sara nestled up against Seth’s chest listening to his heart beat.  It was a heart beat that had nearly stopped beating, only a few hours ago.  It had been a tremendously long day, and Sara was glad it was over.  Tomorrow, she decided, could not come soon enough.  Tomorrow she would tell him how she felt.  Tomorrow he would hopefully let her get closer to him.  Smiling inwardly at herself with anticipation, she twisted in Seth’s lap, and raising her face to his she pressed her lips to his.  Long and slow they kissed, hugging each other tightly, as if tomorrow might never come.  When it finally became apparent that without oxygen they would probably die, Sara settled into Seth’s lap, and resting her head on his shoulder, kissed his neck lightly and closed her eyes. 

Seth too closed his eyes, wishing into the darkness that Sara would give herself to him soon.  Not in a physical way, he could probably have that now if he let her have her way.  He wanted more than that.  He wanted her heart, her soul and her mind.  He wanted what she feared to give him.  He was aware of her feelings, he even thought he understood why she would not, could not tell him.  He just wished that she would soon realize his intentions, and drop her inhibitions, and give herself wholly to him.  Before, he hoped, he lost his mind trying to restrain himself.  These were his thoughts as he drifted into a deep, all encompassing sleep.

Seth’s eyes opened as if a noise had disturbed him.  Looking around he realized he was not where he had fallen asleep.  Panic took him and he jumped to his feet.  Scanning his surroundings, he was both confused and overcome with fear.  He was alone, in a dark room, with no perceivable door or window.  The walls were made from stone and mortar, the stone glistening wetly.  The room was dark, but not uncomfortably so, there seemed to be some light source though Seth could not locate it.  He spun in circles, slowly, taking in the room and all of its details.  He prayed to no one in particular that Sara was somewhere safe, unharmed.  Try as he might he could not recall how he had arrived in this room.  Nor could he find any way to escape it.  It was as if the room had been built around him, an eternal prison, a tomb, a place from which none were meant to return.  He found himself gasping for air.  The walls seemed to be closing in on him.  He spun himself around again looking in vain for some small detail he might have missed before.  There were none.  Seth knew that he must not give up.  He had to find a way out, a way back to Sara and Garret.  He continued searching the small circular room, this time dragging his fingertips across the stones of the wall, searching for a hidden seam, or hinge, anything that might determine a way out.  It was then that Seth realized he was not alone.  He spun on in his heels, and then gasped in disbelief as he registered the other inhabitant of his cell.  His face had come so near to hers when he had turned that it had startled him, causing him to fall back into the wall he had previously been searching.  Seth stood, confused, staring at the woman before him.  She had not been here a moment ago, that much he was sure of.  He could not imagine how she came to be here, but he intended to find out.

Seth studied the woman before him.  She was tall for a woman.  She wore a long black robe and cloak that shimmered around her as if the fabric it was made of was not quite whole.  It was as if the strands within the fabric were constantly rearranging themselves to better fit her body, a body that Seth was unable to measure with his intent eyes.  Seth realized that this must be due to his tired eyes and the poor lighting in the room.  Perhaps the woman shivered under her clothing, causing it to move so much.  The clothing fit her well, if not a bit tightly, yet with its constant movement he could not really tell much about her build, only that she appeared slender.  But it was not her body, nor her clothing that had Seth reeling in unanticipated horror.  It was the woman’s face.  Not that her face was twisted or mangled, quite the contrary she had a small, pretty face.  She had a familiar face.  The woman before him had a face that Seth had seen recently in a dream.  Or was it a memory?  The face staring back at Seth was the face of his mother.  Only it had been changed, altered slightly for reasons unknown to him.  All the facial features were there just as he remembered them.  Her high cheek bones, narrow pointy nose, full rosy lips, all there just as he remembered.  The eyes and hair however were unfamiliar.  The woman’s eyes could only be described as crimson.  There was no pupil at their center, no interruption to the swirl of blood in her gaze.  This looked horribly unnatural to Seth, and it made him uncomfortable, nervous.  Her hair too was different than his mother’s.  Instead of the long brown flowing locks he remembered, there was in its place rows of black braids.  The hair was knotted tightly to the woman’s scalp in neat rows from her forehead, over the top of her head, and then still braided trailing down her back and over her shoulders.  The image reminded Seth of a farmer’s fields.  In all, the woman was beautiful, with a striking resemblance to his mother.  Seth wondered what illness or injury had befallen the woman causing the insides of her eyes to bleed.  He felt sorry for the woman realizing that she must be blind, not even knowing she was a prisoner.  The poor woman probably did not even realize he was here with her.

Seth’s scrutiny had only lasted a moment, but the woman remained, her gaze fixed in his direction, with no sign of emotion on her face.  It was as if she waited for something.  Seth watched the woman a minute longer, then deciding that what he was doing was rude he decided to let the woman know he was there.

“Excuse me miss.”  Seth began in a tone barely over a whisper, trying not to startle the woman.  “Are you ok?”

Seth waited for the woman’s response, but it did not come.  The woman remained still peering with sightless eyes in his direction, her features unchanged.  Perhaps she was deaf too.