A Dawn of Onyx (The Sacred Stones, #1)(7)

I bit down on the roiling in my stomach.

“Garnet is far away enough to be out of the fray, and close enough for us to make it by boat. We can start a new life there.” He looked at our mother pointedly, then Leigh, then me. “Together, somewhere safe from a war that will only get worse.”

“But we don’t have a boat,” Mother’s tentative voice surprised me. I would have gone with you’re out of your damn mind.

“There’s enough Onyx coin to buy the four of us safe passage on one this evening. We need to leave right now and head for the harbor. We’ll make it to Garnet in just a few days. But Mam, we have to move swiftly.”

“Why?” whispered Leigh.

“Because the Onyx men won’t be far behind me. We aren’t safe here anymore.”

With that, the room fell into silence, save for the wind rustling in the tree branches outside the open window behind me. I couldn’t look at my mother or Leigh as my thoughts churned along with my stomach.

The options were pretty clear: stay put and watch Ryder be beaten and killed in our own home by incensed soldiers, who would then likely kill the rest of us, or pack everything we owned and travel by sea to an unknown land and start anew. There was no guarantee of safety or survival either way.

But hope was a tricky thing.

Even just the spark of an idea that our lives could be more than they were here in Abbington—that Leigh and I could avoid the draft, continue to take care of Mother, maybe even get her more help, better medicine—it was enough to force me to my feet.

I didn’t want to leave Abbington. The world beyond this town was so unknown—so vast.

But I wouldn’t let them know how terrified I truly was.

It was all I had been striving for—to take care of them. To be strong enough to protect them. This was my chance.

“We have to go.”

Leigh, Ryder, and Mother all looked at me with the same surprised expression, as if choreographed.

Ryder spoke first. “Thank you, Arwen.” Then, he turned to Leigh and Mother. “She’s right and we need to move right now.”

“Are you sure?” Mother asked Ryder, her voice barely more than a whisper.

“Yes,” I said for him, though I wasn’t. At all.

It was enough to get Mother and Leigh haphazardly throwing tunics and books into cases two sizes too small. Ryder followed after them, his sore arm hardly holding him back from grabbing everything he could get his hands on.

It was a luxury, I told myself. A blessing. If anyone left in Abbington could have afforded the journey, or had somewhere to go, they would have left years ago.

I ran outside to gather some food from our small garden for the journey and say goodbye to our animals. Leigh was already out there, weeping against our cow, Bells, and our horse, Hooves, both named by a young Leigh. She was incredibly close to our animals, feeding them every morning and night. Bells, especially, had a bond with the girl we couldn’t imagine breaking, not even out of desperate hunger.

Leigh’s stifled sobs rang through the pen, and my heart began to truly ache. I even felt a surprising weight in my own chest when I approached the animals. Their loving faces had been a stalwart presence in my life, too, that suddenly I couldn’t imagine waking up without. I nuzzled them both, putting my cheek to theirs, and felt their warm breath on my face in contrast to the cool night air.

I rubbed Leigh’s back. “We have to go. Go grab the pouch with mother’s medicine, I’ll tie up the animals. Nora will take care of them, I promise.”

Leigh nodded and wiped her nose with a pale cotton sleeve.

I thought of Nora. Would she need me at the infirmary? She was a harsh woman, but I would miss her. In some ways, she was my only friend.

Tears prickled in my eyes, for my animals, my work, the humble life that I had lived here in Abbington. For all my offhanded thoughts of new experiences, now that I had a chance at something more, I was genuinely scared.

I realized with another thorough pang of sadness that I probably wouldn’t ever see Halden again, either. If he were to return safely, which I still hoped he would, how would he ever find us in the Garnet Kingdom?

I couldn’t even leave Halden a note, as the Onyx soldiers might find it.

I’d never know what could have happened between us, and if I might have grown to love him. That thought made my heart break all over again. I was so grateful Ryder was home and alive, but had no idea I’d be saying so many goodbyes tonight because of it.

I didn’t want to leave. I couldn’t help it—it was too much change.

As we filed outside, I peered into my home one last time. It looked exceedingly bare. How wild to think that just two hours ago we were having stew for dinner just like every other night. Now we were fleeing for a foreign kingdom.

I shut the door behind me as Leigh helped Mother down the dirt path. The docks were one town over, and it would be a long walk for her. I followed beside a still-limping Ryder. Who, of course, wouldn’t let me help him.

“I can’t believe you,” I whispered.

“I know.” Then he looked behind us. I peered back, too, my heart spinning in my chest, but nobody was there.

We walked in silence.

The sun was setting beautifully over the mountains, a pink and purple sky dotted with clouds.

“I mean,” I continued. “You went to war, left us for a year. I honestly thought you were dead. Then you come home, falling apart like a broken doll, with enough stolen riches to start a new life in a new kingdom. Who are you? A hero from a folk tale?”