Page 74 of The Garnet Daughter
And as I fill my lungs to bellow his name again, I notice dark red smudges streaked across the pod’s windows, distinct handprints in the stains and a blood-soaked rock at my feet.
Chapter
Twenty-Three
Ipace around the pod as if he will appear where I have already searched. I scream his name, but he has vanished, leaving behind enough blood to indicate a deep wound.
Why did he venture out if he was wounded? He knows how dangerous the birthlands are. If he hasn’t succumbed from blood loss, there are countless other things that could have harmed him in such an impaired state.
My vision becomes cloudy, and I desperately blink away the frenzied moisture and scan the surrounding area with a clear view.
I spot a few dots of blood on the rock outside the pod. When I follow them, I see a few more.
A trail.
I shift into a more logical mode and follow it a few paces. It’s inconsistent and unlike hunting animals on Frith. They bleed freely, running until their legs can no longer take them. This trail is from someone trying their best to walk and plug the bleeding wound.
I scan the area again for more signs of life.
Sav is standing next to a figure tucked against the rocks and lying on their back, lifeless.
I sprint the short distance, my heart pounding so intensely I can feel my pulse in my teeth.
“Is this the one you are looking for?” Sav asks, examining with a tilted head.
I can tell before I even see the man’s face that it is not August. The form is larger, the clothing the same as the strangers I saw on the ship. A First Son soldier.
“No.”
“He’s long gone,” Sav says, kicking his boot.
The pool of dark blood around him gives the sand a solid and clumpy appearance. His features are grey and blank, his hand still resting on his leaking abdomen.
For a brief moment, I bask in the relief that it is not August. This dead man breached the cockpit and somehow ended up in an escape pod. My heart sinks to the sandy ground as I realize August must have been on the ship when it fell from the sky. He’s still out here somewhere.
“August!” I stride down the ridge and scream, my voice coming out in watery despair. “Au?—”
A hand cuts me off, slapping against my lips with a sudden sting. Sav pulls me down with more force than I believed her small frame could wield.
“Quiet,” she shushes.
Confused, I whip my head out of her clutches, the taste of dirt and whatever is lingering on the cloth wrapping her palms gagging me. I struggle to get out of her grasp, my back scraping against the hot surface of a giant rock.
“You must stay silent.” Her voice is a mix of a whisper and scream. “There are others in the valley below.”
I freeze, staring at her over her strong grip across my mouth, and when she finally lets go, I push away from her.
“What did you see?” I ask, wondering if she means the others she mentioned that would come to scrap the pods like she intends to.
“Like that one.” Her eyes flick back to the dead man with disgust.
First Son soldiers. It shouldn’t give me hope but it does.
I twist away from her and tuck close against the rock, slowly lifting my head to peek out of our hiding place.
“Don’t,” she whispers and tugs on my clothes.
“The ship,” I say on a controlled gasp when I spot it before anything else. The smoke flume rises into the sky from broken pieces of wing. The rest of the vessel is intact but damaged from a crash landing.
