Page 93 of Synodic

“You would do your queen’s bidding,” I asked, trying my luck at distracting him, “even if it means burning an innocent village to the ground and harming those who live there?” I waited with my heart in my throat, unsure if he would answer with his words or with his violence.

The moment hung in the air, heavy and suspended on an invisible hook, the mere weight of a feather enough to tip the scale.

Red didn’t even turn around or slow his relentless steps as he answered, “I would do whatever it is that my queen asks of me, even if she asked me to fall on my own blade. I would do it. I would do it for her.”

Great. A fanatic willing to sacrifice himself for someone else’s gain. His blind loyalty absolute.

“You would take your own life for her?” I further prodded, needing to keep him talking. I still had no idea what Aliphoura intended to do with me or how she would take what she wanted. Maybe I could glean more about this mystery queen from the person closest to her.

“I would take much more than that,” he said, barely twisting his face to look back at me over a well-muscled shoulder. “My queen found me and brought me up from nothing. She saw the depths of my fealty and promoted me up the ranks until I was right by her side. There is no detail she would spare me. I’m her most trusted and valued soldier, her favored.” His head cocked at an odd angle, and his chin raised with an air of pride. “She entrusted me with delivering you to her. I thought it would be more difficult from what I’ve heard, but it only took burning one village to the ground to find you.”

Beyond the horror of what he was telling me, I realized he was a sycophant in love. Obsessed even. Indoctrinated and brainwashed.

I had to get away, and soon.

I meant to make my move when we stopped for water, but he was ruthless, mushing me along mercilessly without even the briefest reprieve. We had been walking for hours now, but he showed no signs of stopping anytime soon.

No matter the terrain, he made me walk it, over dirt, sharp rocks, sticks, and burs, even across hot stones from the afternoon sun. Each and every step was a painful wince, but the fear of stopping outweighed the pain of trudging on, and I cursed myself for removing my shoes on the beach.

We climbed over boulders and fallen trees, scratching up my body and feet more and more.

One of my most valuable weapons was being destroyed with every step, and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it. So I kept going, trying to pretend like I didn’t have feet at all.

Being a runner, I had a slightly higher endurance than most, but my shredded soles could only take so much.

My bound hands weren’t helping the situation either. Without my arms to help for balance, I’d fallen several times, scrambling back up as quickly as possible. When I didn’t walk fast enough to his liking, he would violently tug at the rope, yanking me to quicken my pace.

Walking the outer rim of a geologic uplift, I noted how the expansive scenery succumbed to a stagnant death below. The healthy green woods slowly morphed into a sickly grey landscape before entirely succumbing to the sleek black silence of a frozen forest.

Where the land was eerily calm in its petrified shock, the vast lakes and rivers raged savagely, veining off into webs of tired waterways and weary streams. Without an adequate host for the Alcreon Light, and with people brutally taking from the land, the balance was tipping, churning all into chaos.

Monolithic grey mountains towered above us like long-forgotten titans, impassively gazing down upon us mere mortals and the destruction we wrought. A flock of purple birds soared through the cold breeze of the valley, their membranous bodies shining iridescently with each labored stroke of their wings.

My heart ached at the sight.

“This place has turned useless,” he said after a while, indicating to the lifeless forest. “No longer providing for Aliphoura and her people. She moved us to a place where this death couldn’t touch us.”

My feet were raw, pulverized messes, and stains of blood dried around the edges of my feet and toes. I stole a quick look backward, only to see my bloodied steps echoing behind me like footprints in the sand.

It may have been a trick of the light, but I could have sworn each stamped sole shimmered with a pearlescent gleam upon the earth.

Countless times I’d contemplated making my escape as the landscape gradually morphed, but it could be detrimental to rush this. The slightest tug or jerk from the rope would alert him to look back, which he frequently did as it was. I couldn’t risk him seeing me grab for my weapon. Plus, his hand never loosened or relaxed from his rather large sword.

I would have to wait until we stopped for a drink, when it would be the easiest to reach for my blade. But escaping the queen’s favored was only half the battle; the other half was making it back to the Wyn village in one piece, which was a long shot considering I had no idea where we were or how far we traveled from the sliver of darkness he pulled me through.

Finally, after more than half a day’s journey, we stopped by a creek crawling across a drying bed with desperate watery arms. This was the moment I had been waiting for, but now that it was here, my legs almost collapsed from underneath me.

The red man roughly wrapped one hand around the back of my neck and forced me down to my knees in front of the water.

It was now or never.

“Drink,” he commanded with annoyed detachment. The very fact that I even needed to stop and take care of my basic needs seemed to agitate him.

I leaned over the stream, making a show of how I was struggling to bend and scoop water into my tightly bound wrists. Despite my trembling nerves, my hands had a steady calm about them, ready and accepting of what they were about to do.

While I was down, I took in several replenishing gulps of water and slowly brought one leg out from under me. The movement wasn’t lost on Red, I just hoped he took it as me adjusting to better hold myself up while I drank.

Thanks to the ripped slit in my dress, I could spread my knees farther apart, granting me access to the weapon strapped at my thigh.

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