Page 66 of Burdened Bonds
“Can we use it straight away?” I ask her.
From down the hallway, the birds start to tweet again and the dog races from the kitchen yapping away. Rosa peers after it, the smile slipping from her face.
“I think you’d better take it to go,” she says, “there’s someone coming.”
27
Rhi
“What the hell was that?”I gasp. “An earthquake? An avalanche?”
The assassin looks over his shoulder at the distant mountains, in the direction from which that noise came.
“I don’t think so.”
I stare off in that direction too and suddenly I’m overwhelmed by that feeling of déjà vu. This is like my dream. Just like my dream. I was running through the mountains, under the falling snow towards the beast in need.
A violent shudder races down my spine.
Fate. Destiny. It’s calling me. Leading me a certain way.
But do I want to go that way? What will I find if I do? What kind of burden may be laid upon my shoulders?
“What’s up, little rabbit?” Renzo asks, observing me.
And I realize I’m too damn curious not to go. I need to find out where this dream ends. If it was just a dream – the similarities to our here and now purely coincidental – or whether it was a glimpse of the future? Like the ones I used to have as a kid. Like the ones my mom endured.
“Which way do you think that came from?” I ask him.
He swivels the rings on his fingers. Then tilts his head to the south. “That way.”
Yes, that’s what I thought too.
I start walking, another groan, the earth trembling, causing me to pick up my pace. It’s not the sound of sliding snow, or the ground splitting. It’s the sound of an animal. A fuck-off big animal by the sounds of things. A beast for sure.
“Little rabbit, that doesn’t sound friendly.” Renzo pants from beside me. “I think we should be running in the opposite direction.”
“No,” I tell him, “it’s like my dream. We have to go this way.”
We skid down a hill, passing the skeletons of mountain goats as we do, the dark sockets of their eyes staring up at us as we pass.
I don’t want to think about what killed these. I don’t want to think about that at all. Because if I do, I’ll stop running altogether.
“Little rabbit,” Renzo says, glancing at the gnawed bones, “I’m all for a bit of fun. But this–”
“Are you scared?” I challenge him, as another of those monstrous groans tells us we’re drawing closer. I swing my gaze around, trying to work out where that sound is coming from.
“Of what?” he asks.
“I don’t know. Being mauled, being eaten, dying!”
“Nah,” he says without the merest hint of bravado, overtaking me and running between an outcrop of rocks. I follow him, squeezing through the narrow gap, the stone scraping at my body and when I emerge through I find myself in a crevice, somewhere the snow has been unable to penetrate, Renzo stopped right in front of me.
“What?” I say, trying to push my way past him. “What is it?”
He blocks me from passing. “Stay back, little rabbit,” he hisses.
“What is it,” I say with irritation, pushing at him harder. Despite my attempts, I fail to move his solid body at all.
