Reign of Shadows (Reign of Shadows, #1)(48)

“I’m going with you.” That stubborn chin of hers went up.

“Luna—”

“It’s dangerous everywhere.” She held her arms out wide at her sides. “What makes you think nothing will happen to me out here?” She stepped closer and seized my hand, clasping it in both of hers. I stared down at our hands, her pale, small fingers wrapped around my bigger ones. “We need to stay together, Fowler. Don’t you see that? After last time . . .” She gave my hands a squeeze. “We’re stronger together.”

I gazed into her earnest face and felt my resolve crumble. “Come on then.”

She started to pull her hands from mine, but I tightened my grip around one of them and held fast. Without looking at her face again, I turned and led the way, weaving back through the woods, straining my eyes for the first glimpse of civilization in the thick press of giant trees.

They spotted us first. A soft swishing whispered on the air. I looked up. A silhouette swung across the night, vaulting from one tree to the next like some sort of tree monkey. I instantly dropped her hand.

“Something is above us,” she pointed out.

“Smart,” I murmured, watching the body deftly maneuver between trees. “It’s a man. He’s swinging from tree to tree.” Aside from branches, various pegs and boards of wood stuck out from the trees, giving him plenty of places to land—a well-arranged system for spying on anyone or anything on the ground.

“A man?” she echoed.

“A watch, I’m guessing. Come on. Let’s follow.” If he’s tasked to report interlopers, then he’d be heading back to the village now.

I lost sight of the figure as we moved deeper into the woods, and, according to Luna, closer to the smell of water. The watch was gone, but the forest felt like it had its own eyes now. Our progress was being monitored.

“Remember, you’re no longer a girl,” I whispered, assuming we weren’t going to be alone much longer.

We were moving uphill now. Her pace slowed. Our breaths fell a little faster and I had to resist reclaiming her hand. If we were still being watched, holding her hand might not help convince them that she was a boy.

“Fowler,” she gasped. “I can smell . . . dwellers.”

“We’re close,” I called back. The gold light bleeding onto the dark horizon told me there was something just beyond the rise.

I could almost imagine the village ahead, a smaller version of Relhok City, the great walls protecting its citizens. The lookouts on the battlements would see us and lift the gate so we could take shelter within. I saw this all in my mind’s eye.

Eager, I pressed on, reaching the top of the hill. A large platform appeared in the sky, built into the tops of the trees. “Whoa,” I breathed, gazing up in awe. So this was how they survived. “They live in the trees.”

Never, since I left the capital, had I seen anything like it. It was a vast village. A true city in the trees. I gazed at the underbellies of buildings and paths constructed around the elaborate network of trunks and branches.

There were a few big houses and buildings, but most were small, no more than shacks similar to the lean-tos that had been erected on the outer edges of Relhok City. A jumble of shanties that didn’t look fit to sleep a dog. It was the kind of place Bethan had lived in. Her image rose in my mind, her face an elusive smudge of features. I remembered her eyes had been blue, but knowing and remembering were two different things. I couldn’t see them in my head. Not her blue eyes. Not her face.

Brown-black eyes set within a pale face swam in my mind. When I closed my eyes at night, it was Luna’s face I was coming to see.

I shook off the distracting thought and continued to assess the mad jumble high above, looking for a way up. All the structures were interconnected with paths of wood planks. Light spilled from the buildings and out the cracks between the planks.

Luna choked my name again as she stopped beside me. “Dwellers,” she hissed.

I jerked my gaze back down and spotted them. They were everywhere, like hungry ants swarming beneath the trees on the forest floor, hoping for a crumb to fall.

We just had to wade through the minefield of them. And not die in the process.

“Come, hurry!” I dragged her by the hand, not caring anymore if anyone spotted me. This was life-or-death. Her slight fingers were slippery with sweat and I readjusted my grip, determined not to lose her.

We wove between the colossal trees. I had to break stride when a dweller came too close. Cursing, I released her and let an arrow fly, striking the creature directly in the face. It dropped to its knees. Running forward, I kicked it onto its back. Lifting my gaze, I did a quick scan around us and reclaimed my arrow, pulling it free of the claylike body with a sucking sound. Using the same arrow, I took aim and let it fly again, clearing our path of another dweller.

We were surrounded. Their wet, sawing breaths crashed all around us. I kicked one square in the chest, launching it back, knocking two others down in the process.

We were under the city now, and I stole quick glances up, searching the trees, looking for a way up.

Luna stayed close. I felt her warm body beside mine as I dispatched dwellers, her shoulder aligned beside mine, never getting in the way of me reaching into my quiver for arrows.

Sometimes she would call out and warn me of one advancing at my back or side and I would answer the threat, launching another arrow. I might not hear anything over the dwellers’ soggy breaths, but evidently she still did.