Clanless (Nameless #2)(59)

When he wasn’t talking, Joshua tracked almost as well as he did, noticing irregular bends and breaks of the plants and the unsettling of leaves and grass. Boar’s men left humongous footprints. Every time Gryphon singled out Zo’s small tracks, painful hope exploded in his chest. She was still alive, or had been when they passed through this part of the mountain.

It wouldn’t be long now.





Boar leaned against a tree while Zo spooned broth into his mouth. “No more,” he said, pushing her hand away. “All that salt is likely masking poison.”

Zo rested the bowl on the ground by his feet and shrugged. “The broth is salted to help your body replenish the blood you’ve lost. You need the fluids.”

Boar squinted, his animal eyes calculating in the flashes of light from the fire crackling at Zo’s back. “You fell on purpose. You tried to escape.”

Zo held her chin high and rummaged through her medical kit. She was low on several herbs. Constantly running for her life left little time to replenish her stock.

“You would have died in that river if I hadn’t saved you,” said Boar.

“Then I would have died on my terms. Not Barnabas’s.”

Boar frowned. His brow rolled into deep folds and he winced from the pressure on his fresh stitches. “Curse these!” He held his hands up to his forehead as though he’d like nothing better than to rip them out. Then he directed his anger at Zo. “Why heal me then? Why bother?”

Instead of answering, she turned back to her kit, ignoring the question.

“Ask something of me.”

Zo lifted her head. “What?”

Boar growled, “Ask something of me.”

“W-why?”

Boar narrowed his eyes, and spat, “I don’t like feeling like I owe you anything, Healer. Ask something of me.”

“Let me go back to my sister.” Zo held her breath, afraid to even hope that it could be that simple.

Boar shook his head. “I can’t give you that. Something else. Something reasonable.”

“Wanting my life isn’t reasonable?” Zo crossed her arms in front of her chest and turned away from Boar to stare at the hypnotic flames of the fire. Most of the men turned to look in her direction, but then quickly looked away—likely stunned that she had contradicted Boar and afraid of Boar’s wrath if he caught them watching.

“Never mind,” Boar’s gravelly voice rolled.

“What about their lives?” Zo glared at Boar. “Have you been honest with them? Do they know what will happen to them when they’ve passed through the Gate?”

The back of Boar’s hand flew through the air and cracked against her cheek, knocking her flat on the ground. Hot pain pulsed where his hand connected with her face. She blinked away tears as her vision tilted to the right, then the left. A sob welled in her throat, but she refused to release it.

“Why do you make me do this to you?” Boar took her by the arm and helped her off the ground so she sat in front of him again. She tried to pull out of his grasp but he only squeezed her arm harder. He reached out and rested his hand on her pulsing cheek. A lover’s touch conflicting with his brutality.

Zo’s stomach flipped with nausea. Her only rebellion was to stare at the ground.

When he finally released her, she scurried backwards, putting as much space between them as she dared. Her cheek swelled to the point of pinching her eye closed and obstructing her vision. She rubbed her arm and wiped another tear.

To think she’d healed the man!

With a shaking hand, Zo took a sip of her own broth, wincing at the heavy salt. She almost wished it were poisoned. The anticipation of facing Barnabas’s soldiers in some interrogation room had to be worse than one swallow of poison.

Zo’s head snapped up as an idea struck her. It was crazy. But if there was one thing she’d learned inside Ram’s Gate it was that giving up guaranteed defeat.

“Herbs,” said Zo, turning back to Boar. “If you want to thank me for healing you, I’d like permission to collect more herbs for my kit.”

Boar frowned again, this time remembering not to scrunch up his forehead. “Why herbs? They won’t serve you inside the Gate.”

Zo nodded and fiddled with a band of leather tied around her wrist. Gabe had given it to her months ago. A present, just because, he’d said.

“It’s what I love the most, Boar. If you want to thank me, that is how you can do it.” She turned back to the fire and her salty broth, mentally begging him to say yes.

The fire snapped and whizzed. Zo hugged her knees. Ikatou walked over and added wood to the hungry flames.

“Bear,” Boar said to Ikatou. “Take the healer to collect her herbs. Bring her back before the sun sets or our band will hunt you down and kill you.”

“I understand, sir.”

Zo suppressed a smile and mumbled thanks as she gained her feet. Her head still throbbed from Boar’s attack.

“Don’t wander far, Ikatou, if you want to see your family again.”

Ikatou’s nod was solemn. He lifted a hand, gesturing for Zo to lead the way.

Boar couldn’t have assigned her a better escort. When they put a safe enough distance between them and the camp, Zo said, “I’m so glad he sent you.”

Ikatou held a finger to his lips as he scanned the forest then whispered, “I am not in Boar’s inner circle. It isn’t normal for him to give me such responsibility. This is a test. Others will follow us, so watch you words.”