Page 7 of The Song of Sunrise
“We can take them. Go!” Bane shouts.
There are only a few Underlings left, still cutting people like trees.
“AKEMI, GET OUT OF HERE! GO!” Row booms.
Why, I wonder distantly. Why am I so special to be saved?
The fog-wielding Watcher picks me off the floor, tucking me in his arms as if I weigh nothing. His bright blue eyes look down at me as white tendrils of smoke wrap protectively around us, blocking out the rest of the room from view. There is something sharp in his panicked stare, like he recognizes something in me.
My eyes feel so heavy as they roll back behind my fluttering eyelids. My head lolls into the crook of the Watcher’s massive shoulder. Did I lose blood? Perhaps if I just rested a bit…
“We’ll get you out of here. Stay with me. Stay with me,” the Watcher promises as he leans over me, eyebrows furrowed.
Another war horn rings in the distance before my vision fades to nothingness.
I wake from the jostling of movement of a large black mare galloping beneath me. Rain pelts from above, stinging like needles with each drop. I’m cradled tightly to a broad, warm chest. My feet dangle off the side of the saddle.
I look up to find the same Watcher who carried me in the tavern. Above him, the dark sky is full of rolling thunderclouds, no stars or moon in sight. He is looking intensely ahead, hood drawn over his brow.
I wiggle my fingers and toes, checking to see if they can still function properly. I let out a breath of relief only to be greeted with a stabbing pain in my ribs.
Ouch.
My shoulder feels like it’s stretched over the wrong bone.
Then it all comes back to me. The Tavern, the hecklers interrupting my Telling, Marrow taking over for me, standing in my spot one moment, crashing to the floor the next.
The spot where I was just standing only moments prior.
Marrow!
Just as my tears fall, the rain wipes them away. As if losing Marrow and my home wasn’t enough, even my sorrow is stolen by this night.
“Go, Lux, go!” The Watcher yells and shifts us forward. The black stallion responds, galloping faster at the command.
A small part of me wishes he would just let me go. Let me fall from this horse to the muddy forest floor.
Instead, his grip tightens.
Behind us, the other long-haired Watcher is astride a gorgeous white mare. Two Underlings run alongside him. One grabs his leg.
“Oh no you don’t!” The Watcher, who seems to command the sun itself, shakes his leg, causing the massive Underling to fall from the horse. “Motherfucker took my boot.” He sheaths his sword and grins maniacally, clapping his hands high above his head.
The ground vibrates with the force of his magic. A blur of light illuminates the night as the final Underling thrashes to the ground, scratching the gaping holes where his eyes once were.
The tall light-wielder pats his horse a few times on the neck before commanding it forward. He catches up with us and looks to his comrade, wiping the sweat and blood off his angular face. “I think I got them all. Only two were tailing us.” His warm chocolate eyes crinkle as he grins. Swatting back dark-brown braids off his neck, he appears seemingly unfazed by the fact that he just killed multiple Underlings. “I’m Leaf by the way, a second-stone at The Watch. As you could probably guess, I’m a Sun Watcher. Sun’cher for short.”
I open and close my mouth, but he continues quickly in a low sing-song baritone voice, “This is Castor, a third-stone Moon’cher.”
Castor, the Watcher with eyes the same color as the ice he commands, stiffens behind me. “We are sorry for what happened back there. We only received the missive that your festival required additional Watcher protections last minute—”
“—and technically as students,” Leaf interrupts, “we probably should have waited for formal WatchGuards, but we were closest, and well, you know what happened next. What is your name by the way?”
“Akemi,” my voice croaks. I start again, “Akemi Nox.”
Leaf’s expression is filled with sympathy. “It’s nice to meet you, though I’m sorry to say it’s under these circumstances.”
Castor scans their surroundings, one hand gripped around the reins, the other holding me tightly. “Let’s keep riding hard until we reach the edge of the Darkwoods. Then we can make camp.”
