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He sat, his shroud facing the opposite side of the carriage as we bounced along in this prison, the walls only a smaller version than the one we had come from.
“Will you agree to run with me now?” I asked as we left yet another village, my body not feeling so heavy and sluggish anymore, even though I still shivered. I turned to the Boy who continued to stare straight ahead.
He didn’t even click.
“She’s going to keep doing this.” Even lifting my arm as a reminder sent a stinging pain up to my shoulder and I winced, clutching it to my chest. Still, no movement, no click. He had been silent for days, but I had mostly been sleeping, too tired to notice the change.
Too scared to accept what I already knew was happening.
“Why won’t you talk to me? Or click or…” I waved my arms around as my panic grew, my pain singing through the slice in my arm. You think I would have learned from the first time, but no. I needed to find a way to talk to him.
Wincing, I held it against me. That time he turned. Screwing my face up, I pushed any tears away and watched the white cloth to make sure no spots of red appeared.
It was just a stretch of white fabric, and the black gloves there were cradling it from below, tenderly, and clearly worried. He knelt on the floor of the carriage as it rocked and bounced us toward the Temple of the Sister, his hands soft as he held my arm.
His thumbs moved over the side of my arms, the creaking of carriages echoing everywhere even as I swore it all fell away, leaving the two of us alone in the world. My skin rippled as though it was vibrating, something charging through it from whatever was thrumming between us.
For the first time in days I swore I could feel that vibrating heat that had become so familiar after my magic was awakened. One moment it was there, the next it was gone, leaving me with a hollowness that consumed everything.
“Say something,” I whispered, leaning into him. He lowered his head, his face hovering above the bandage before rising again. I saw nothing, but I swear I could see the sadness, I could taste it in the air. He was crying. Then I knew.
“You won’t. Not anymore. She did this because you spoke to me.” He nodded in response, the solitary bob sending a boulder into my gut.
“You’ll never speak again. To protect me.” Another nod. That boulder began feeling like a hot coal against my heart.
The strangled sounds of his breathing was the only sound in the carriage as he lowered his face to my arm, the soft pressure of his lips against the bandage searing through me.
“It’s okay,” I breathed, my other hand soft as I put it on his shoulder. “We have other ways to talk, and I can learn the hand signs. We won’t be alone.”
He exhaled against my arm, knowing it was enough, yet not enough at the same time.
“It’s never going to stop,” I repeated in a whisper, fighting my own tears now as he stood, his hands lingering before he returned to his seat. He didn’t nod, didn’t click. He remained sitting forward, that shroud as unmoving as he was. Almost as though he was looking past me.
Almost as though he didn’t see me.
Dalyah knew he spoke, she knew about my magic, about Aeinya… there was a high chance that she knew about my plan to escape. That I wanted him to go with me.
If she knew that, then she would be ready. There was no way she was letting us leave. There was no way I would have a life other than the one she trapped me in.
Leaning back against the seat, I stared out the window, letting the tears roll down my cheeks as the reality of what had happened hit me.
We were together, but somehow alone.
We were both truly prisoners now.
He had said he would fight. But how do you fight against a monster?
How do you slay a beast?
With magic you can’t control? With magic that was nothing more than a shadow?
It didn’t matter. I would find a way. I had to.
I sat back against the seat, letting the shadow of starlight rumble over my skin as I played with the bracelet on my wrist, the soft strands of hair sending only whispers of magic though me as the carriage bumped over the uneven road. It was as though all that was left were the memories of it. Just as it had been for so many years.
I watched the trees fade to black, watched the line of peasants and wagons in the distance as a long caravan of people in the distance making their own pilgrimage to the temple traveled closer. Something soft and warm lodged itself in my heart as I watched the world that was so different from what I had been led to believe.
I couldn’t help but feel as though something out there was waiting for me.
