Of Two Suns

xi

She stared at Riven's back as he started down another tunnel, away from the one they had come from. In all of his dark clothing, he nearly blended into the hues of black and grey of the tunnel walls, poised to disappear at any moment. His steps were even and hardly audible, his powerful legs carried him like he weighed nothing. But Ryla couldn't bring herself to follow after him.

Her mind was gasping for breath within the torrent of thoughts. She felt like a puppet dangling on fraying strings, and the threat of falling grew every time a new memory flashed before her eyes. She couldn't tell if she was breathing, couldn't tell if she wasn't. She was ice, frozen within. It was all too much. And it was all too little.

She was plagued with visions of that night: of Myr crying in panic at the front door, of being led to momentary safety by Delsie, of flying through the trees with her only child. Visions of Delsie's face lined with fear and regret, but mostly loss for the son she could never see again. Visions of what her back must have looked like to Myr as she disappeared from view on her legs that carried her too swiftly. Visions of the people who had raised her, corralled together like the livestock of the farms at the bottom of the village.

She may have still been in the mountain, but all she could see was the pain of her loved-ones. All she could feel was their anguish, their sorrow, their betrayal. How betrayed they must have felt in knowing she was the reason for the attack.

She didn't understand how people dealt with loss and kept on living. How had her father been able to cope after losing his comrades, his friends, in the War? How long had it taken before he was okay again? Would the fresh loss of his home and daughter spur him back into his warrior mentality, or cripple him with the memories? Ryla squeezed her eyes tightly shut. The thought alone of Rheon was painful, but to think of him in such a debilitated state threatened to crumble whatever was left of her.

Vaguely, as if from far away, she could hear Gale calling her name and felt his warm hand on her shoulder. It almost felt like a dream, as if she wasn't really there at all. As if none of this was real. But she wasn't that lucky.

She wasn't even aware that she was crying until her cheeks began to itch beneath the damp. Her eyes had finally replenished their reserves, it seemed, and were now keen on emptying themselves once again. She choked back her sobs as she wiped at her face with shaky hands, her senses suddenly returning her to inside the mountain. She blinked the tears from her lashes as she continued to wipe at her eyes in an attempt to quell them.

As her eyes focussed, she found Riven paused just ahead of her. He was staring at her, his lips pressed tightly together as he clenched his jaw, the scar over his mouth pulled taught. His blue eyes, although grey within the tunnel, held a mixture of frustration and something she didn't recognize.

Gale's grip on her shoulder tightened in a firm squeeze that he likely meant as comforting; it wasn't. He repeated her name again, his voice low and soft from where he now stood beside her. She turned her head to look up at him, almost a full head taller than she was. His eyes held more apologies than she could recognize.

These two males who didn't know her, had been sent to rescue her by a mother she did not know. And she believed them. Even with Riven's initial offense to her, and his personality as prickly as a quill-pig. She wasn't sure why, but she believed it, as if something deep within her could sense their truth.

And now, these two males planned to deliver her to a location they would not disclose, all but stealing her away from her crumbling village.

Away. That's where they were taking her. Away from Rheon, from Perneah, and from everyone she knew and loved. She imagined the two Elves would lead her as far away from Perneah as they possibly could, to a place where all hope of ever seeing her father again would be lost. She wondered if there would be sunlight there, or if it would be just another hole for her to suffocate in.