I surprised myself by agreeing. “Yes. Come with us.” I still didn’t like him. He didn’t disguise his interest in Luna and I would always have to keep one eye on him.
He smirked at me as though doubting the sincerity of my offer. “My place is here. Lagonia needs me, especially considering who my father is. Someday he’ll be gone. Someday this eclipse will end, as before. I’ll be here to pick up the pieces and rebuild when that happens.”
Nodding, I swung up onto my horse, holding the reins loosely in my hands. I had never held out much hope for the end of the eclipse. This world was darkness. I wasn’t waiting for light to return to start living. I wanted Luna by my side in this life, come good or bad. “Good luck. And thank you.”
“Now go. Don’t get recaptured and let my efforts go to waste.” Chasan swung his gaze to Luna, and I knew he was speaking mostly to her as he added, “Take care of yourself.” There was a wealth of meaning in those words. She meant something to him. Even now, saying farewell and leaving him behind, this prickled at me.
Chasan sent me a hard glance and slapped my horse on the rump. I lurched forward. He called out as we started moving away, “Try not to die.”
My horse slid into a trot. Luna followed. I glanced behind me, watching as she turned in her saddle to wave back at the prince. She called a farewell, but he was already slipping through the door back into the castle, as though he could no longer stand the sight of us.
The heavy metal door thudded shut behind him, sealing himself in and us out.
Once again we were together on the Outside.
THIRTY-TWO
Luna
IT TOOK A day to get down the mountain. We rode hard, Fowler pushing the horses down precarious slopes that had us arching sharply in our saddles. I didn’t complain, biting back any fears or concerns, knowing we had to cover as much ground as possible as fast as possible. Mammoth bats flew overhead, their great leathery wings slapping the air as they hunted for prey in the great maw of night.
We stopped only briefly, when necessary, to rest and water the horses. On the second day we were still moving over rocky terrain. Fortunately, we hadn’t come across any dwellers. It stood to reason our luck couldn’t hold forever. Not in this world.
Still, at that first, inevitable sound of a dweller, I froze. Its tinny and shrill call bounced off the rocks of the canyon we were passing through. The eerie sound reverberated across the air, carried far by bat-stirred winds. Even though a part of me had missed the Outside, I hadn’t missed that.
“The ground is getting softer,” Fowler murmured beside me.
I nodded in acknowledgment and swallowed, all my senses squeezing and stretching as far as they could go. I listened. I knew firsthand how one dweller could turn to two to twenty in a blink.
“Luna?” Fowler queried, and I knew he was asking if I detected anything else with my more sensitive hearing.
After a moment, I shook my head. The dweller must have moved on, for we didn’t hear it again.
We kept moving.
We didn’t speak much in those first couple of days, too intent in our flight from Ainswind, too trapped in our own thoughts.
“You have to eat, Luna,” Fowler said as he pushed a piece of dried meat into my hand.
Nodding, I brought it up to my teeth and tore off a chunk. It tasted like leather but I forced myself to chew.
“Do you think Chasan is all right?”
“I think he’ll always land on his feet.” He sounded testy.
“Are you angry?”
“I think we’re out here and Prince Chasan is snug inside his castle. He’s fine.”
We fell to silence again. I felt chastened. “Do you think he’s coming?”
“Tebald?” I felt the motion of his shrug. “It’s risky. He doesn’t like risks.”
“He’ll come,” I stated hollowly even though I had posed the question. I wanted him to persuade me otherwise, but I knew. I had thought of little else except Tebald’s voice in my ear, his determination to have me that went deeper than his desire to unite our countries. “With an army, if need be,” I added.
“We can travel faster than any army. It’s just the two of us. He will make the mistake of bringing too many men with him. Too many men will attract dwellers. They’ll be swarmed. They’ll have to fight.”
I nodded again, heartened by these words.
Fowler rose from where he was sitting and settled down beside me, his arm aligned with mine. “You’re worrying too much. It’s not good for you.” He bumped me slightly. We’d been alone for the last couple of days, but we’d hardly touched.
“Easier said than done, isn’t it?”
He lifted his arm and draped it over me, a comforting weight. “Nothing is easy,” he murmured, and I sighed as his fingers brushed the hair back from my temple. “Except this. Us. That’s easy.”
I smiled a little. “Except when it wasn’t. I remember when we first met and you would hardly talk to me.”
“That’s because I liked you, and I didn’t want to.”