Clanless (Nameless #2)(25)
The door in the floor closed and locked.
Gryphon glanced around the room. The flickering light cast wicked shadows across the birds, whose mouths opened as if shrieking in anger.
So this was it? Gryphon was to sit in this treetop room without windows or doors until morning? He couldn’t help the relieved laughter that escaped him. He’d been prepared to fight a lion or worse. This was nothing.
Footsteps sounded on the roof of the enclosed room. Other movement surrounded the hut. Gryphon backed away from the walls to stand in the center of the room with knife raised. Something bitter tickled his nose. Smoke rolled from the mouths of the five birds in a continuous, loud exhalation. Gryphon dropped to the floor to avoid the smoke, but within minutes, the entire room was cast in a clouded haze.
Gryphon held his breath as the smoke reached him. His lungs burned in pain and he had no choice but to inhale the smoky air.
Only moments later, his screams shook the entire tree.
Joshua carried Tess on his shoulders so the group could travel at a faster pace. A hard wind picked up leaves and dirt as it blew north, against them. Having a Ram scout come so close to taking her brought the danger of their situation back to the forefront of Zo’s thoughts. She guessed the others shared her fears.
Ram scouts usually traveled in pairs, as insurance in case one was killed. That meant the Ram who’d tried to take Zo had a companion. And he was close. Joshua and Eva had dragged the dead Ram’s body into a thick patch of grass and covered it with branches. There wasn’t time for a burial, not that a Ram would extend the same courtesy to another clan.
They’d been lucky the Ram hadn’t expected them to fight back. But if the second scout found the body of his friend, he’d want blood.
Joshua refused to meet Zo’s eye. He wouldn’t even accept the water skin she handed to him when they stopped to hydrate.
“We’ve got to be close,” said Eva after taking a greedy draw of water. Beads of sweat dotted both her and Joshua’s foreheads, and Tess looked ready to fall asleep standing. The terrain grew rockier the higher they climbed. Skidding on loose gravel and climbing over boulders added to their exhaustion.
“Can’t we rest?” said Tess. She slipped her hand into Joshua’s and leaned against his side.
“Why are you complaining?” Joshua flicked her nose. “I’m the one doing the heavy lifting.” He tried to smile at Tess, but his lips barely curved at the sides. His hero, his mentor, was dead, and Zo had lied to him. Joshua wore his pain like one might a ragged shirt. It hung on every dent and crease in his freckled face for the entire world to see, no matter how ashamed he might be to appear affected.
“I know, but I don’t want to ride on your shoulders anymore,” Tess whined, placing another hand on his arm.
Zo knew her sister well enough to sense the healing blessing she was covertly giving Joshua. Her “I’m tired” plea, was just an excuse to touch him with her healing hands. With hair blowing into her face, Tess flashed Zo a sad grin.
Tess had trained as a healer with Zo for only a year before they entered the Gate. Zo looked forward to continuing her sister’s education. A healer had to love the person they healed, and watching little Tess will her compassion into Joshua during his time of denial and anger made Zo more proud than she had any right to be.
Tess was special. She’d make a much better healer than Zo.
Without waiting for her approval, Joshua snatched Tess and threw her back onto his shoulders. She let out a strangled cry and Joshua battled a smile that under normal circumstances would have come easily. The girl may have been a liability in every tactical way, but at that moment, Zo considered her the most valuable asset of their little company. If nothing else, while she sat on Joshua’s shoulders, Zo knew he wouldn’t do anything drastic, like sneak off to look for Gryphon on his own.
Zo tightened her grip on her pack and medical satchel and followed after them. The trail took on a steeper grade approaching the summit of the small mountain. Patches of snow dotted the ground, even though spring had settled in the valley. The cold wind burned Zo’s cheeks as they fought against it and the rise of the mountain.
Eva matched Zo’s stride, falling in step with her behind Joshua. “He’s going to be all right.” She looked straight ahead as she spoke. “So are you.”
Zo shook her head thinking about Joshua’s future. The image of her, Tess, and Joshua living with Gabe—making a life together—didn’t settle properly in her mind. Would they set up a farm near the Valley of Wolves? Maybe keep sheep and a few goats? She imagined Gabe’s lips on hers, adoration filling his touches with warmth as little children laughed at their sides. Gabe would be a good father. It should have been a happy thought. But every touch would seem like a betrayal to Gryphon in Joshua’s eyes. And in a way, hers too.
Zo wiped her tears and forced Gryphon from her mind.
As they crested the summit of the mountain, a glorious sight made them all halt on the trail. Joshua helped Tess down from his shoulders, his chest pumping from the effort of carrying both of them up the steep climb. “I don’t believe it,” he gasped between breaths, looking to Zo for the first time since she’d told him the truth about Gryphon.
A large group of people—at least a few hundred men, women, and children—had set up a makeshift camp. Families huddled in circles against the wind, while others combed the area for firewood and items to help provide a temporary shelter. A group of small children no older than Tess chased each other in circles before collapsing in a fit of giggles from the effort.