Yann didn’t mention it when Eliska let go of his hand before they returned to the Watch. He let the subject drop and they re-entered the camp as if they’d never held hands at all.

Eliska couldn’t decide why she wanted to hold his hand except that she liked him. He saved her life from a Darkling and even managed to kill it. That deserved something.

She didn’t hold his hand to reward him, though. She actually wanted to get close to him. She just didn’t know how.

She couldn’t remember anyone ever saving her life before. She was always the one saving everyone else.

The Watchmen made an enormous fuss over the hog carcass. They all came back to life as if their circumstances never depressed them in the first place.

They laughed and ribbed Yann about killing it. He only blushed and laughed along with them. He didn’t tell them how he actually killed it.

He kept looking at her on the side, but he also didn’t tell Wesh about her getting hurt.

She saw Yann keeping an eye on her to make sure she was all right. She found it impossible to make eye contact with him, but knowing he cared enough to check felt like nothing she’d ever experienced in her life.

She wished now that she could do something more than just hold his hand. He was worth it—a lot more.

She resumed her former position sitting against the tree. The Watchmen did all the work of quartering the carcass and putting the meat on the spit to cook.

She skinned and gutted the biturong. Then they worked to cook that, too.

“We’ll need to take as much food on our journey as we can,” Yvan decided.

“This river looks pretty good,” Omer pointed out. “We should stay near it. Then we won’t have to go looking for game and water when we eventually need to go hunting again.”

“No,” Wesh interrupted. “We can’t stay near the river. Whoever is following us will look for us here first. We should strike out away from this river and cut overland heading west.”

The others glanced at Eliska. She didn’t get involved in the conversation. She didn’t want them to put her in charge.

She didn’t see anything wrong with Wesh’s suggestion. Staying near the river would be the easiest thing to do, so it would also be the most dangerous thing to do.

The group would more likely meet bandits and Barbarians near the river, but she didn’t say that out loud.

She didn’t say anything while everyone ate as much as they could possibly hold. Yann talked and joked with the others.

Bringing this meat back gave him a boost of confidence, but he didn’t make a big deal about it. He just fell in with their casual banter as if someone else brought it back.

This little victory belonged to him alone. He didn’t share it with anyone nor did he imply by any action that anything happened between him and Eliska.

The Watchmen stayed up talking late around the fire while Wesh and Yvan decided that the group would move out in the morning.

Eliska sat up against her tree and watched the firelight play on all their faces. She watched the interplay of relationships between all the men.

They knew each other so well. She’d never known anyone as well as they knew each other.

They eventually stretched out to sleep. Their eyes closed and their features softened.

Eliska would have liked to stay up and watch Yann sleep the way she did last night.

She wouldn’t be able to do that a second night in a row. She already felt herself getting exhausted from staying up last night.

Watching him sleep would have been even more important now. She couldn’t let anything happen to him—not after she went through all this to find him.

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She shuddered at the thought of getting this close to anyone. The danger of getting hurt became unbearable, but she never considered walking away—not again.

Whatever danger getting close to him might pose, she had to risk it just to be near him.

It might come to nothing—whatever “it” was. He might die tomorrow and then she would wind up right back where she started.

She wouldn’t wind up back where she started because he changed things for her. She would never go back to being the person who didn’t care about anyone.

Whatever else happened to her in her life, she would never be able to forget him. He would haunt her forever.

She would spend the rest of her life knowing this was possible—feeling this way about someone—and knowing that someone might actually care enough to risk his life to save hers.

She eventually couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer. The fire dragged her eyelids closed. She stretched out on the ground and fell asleep.

She woke up to sunbeams shining in her eyes. She squinted and then grimaced. Her head ached from yesterday.

She groaned and rubbed her palm across her eyebrow to work the pain out of her head, but it didn’t work out too well.

She sat up and discovered Yann sitting up watching her.

Everyone else was already standing up, pacing around, checking their weapons, and studying the surroundings.

“You should have woken me up,” she mumbled. “You shouldn’t have waited.”

“Are you going to talk to Wesh about getting hit by that Darkling?” Yann murmured under his breath. “I’m worried about you.”

“You don’t have to worry about me,” she muttered. “I’ll be fine.”

“You aren’t fine,” he snapped in an undertone. “I’m not blind. If you don’t talk to him, I will.”

“Don’t you dare.” She picked up her staff. “Are we leaving?”

She got to her feet, but she lost her balance and had to hold onto the tree to stop herself from falling over.

“See what I mean?” Yann pointed out. “Just let him take a look at you.”

She shook the stars out of her head, but she couldn’t shake off the sick feeling in her stomach.

She didn’t want to tell Yann how right he was. That Darkling hit her with something stronger than its tentacle. It weakened her at a magical level. She couldn’t remember getting hit like that before—not in a way that affected her this much.

She pushed herself off the tree just as Yvan and Wesh came over with Omer. “We were thinking of moving out when you’re ready, Eliska,” Yvan began.

“I’m ready.” She picked up her staff and turned around. “Let’s go.”

“Do you agree about heading west like I suggested?” Wesh asked.

“Of course. It’s as good a plan as any.”

He nodded and led the way to a line of stones crossing the river. The Watchmen fell behind him.

Yann kept narrowing his eyes at Eliska on the way over there. He would have drawn too much attention to her by constantly turning around to check on her, so she went in front.

She followed Vidal and Barsali across the stepping stones. Her head cleared the longer she walked.

The party climbed the nearby hills and came to a broad landscape full of similar hills winding away as far as the eye could see.

Wesh passed into the valleys where the group could travel more easily. The Watchmen walked in silence. They didn’t have to stay as alert here.

Eliska checked the surroundings in her hand window, but she didn’t see anything.

That on its own should have indicated something wrong. She’d never known any part of the Ancestral Empire to be this deserted.

She closed her hand so she wouldn’t look at it anymore. She should just accept the blessing that no one was coming around to bother the party.

The group camped in the open that night and finished off the rest of their available food. No one mentioned where or how they would get any more.

No one spoke above a murmur that night. They definitely didn’t talk about their circumstances.

Eliska woke up late again the second morning. The Watchmen’s voices woke her up this time, so she didn’t sleep as late as she might have.

She stiffened when she saw Yann talking to Wesh at a distance from the others. Yann better not be telling Wesh about her getting hurt.

The day began in silence and stayed that way. The pain in her head faded slightly, but it didn’t go away entirely.

She found herself rubbing her eyes and temples every time the group stopped to rest.

Thirst became a serious problem by the second morning. None of the party had drunk more than a few handfuls from random streams since they left the river.

Wesh kept the lead. Vidal, Niyazi, and Barsali stayed behind him with the others following in a loose formation.

Yann always walked behind Eliska. She refused to turn around even to make eye contact with him.

Knowing he was worried about her started to grate on her nerves. She didn’t want anyone worrying about her—ever.

By noon, the valley started to climb another set of hills. Wesh wound around a few more slopes and came out on the top.

The party could see everything from up here. The landscape spread away in all directions with a large, wooded river winding through another gentle valley right below this hill where the group stood.

The water flowing through the channel spiked Eliska’s thirst off the charts. She needed water before she took another step.

She expected Wesh to lead the others down there. They must have been as thirsty as she was.

Wesh didn’t go down there.

She stared down the hill at the water rolling over stones and around eddies….and then she realized. It wasn’t normal water.

The angle of sunlight reflecting on its surface made the dark waves look black from this distance. She tried to look away, but she couldn’t.

She couldn’t tear her gaze away from that river no matter how hard she tried.

The water swirled and tumbled over itself in a sea of black. Waves and eddies of Darkness roiled and crested against each other.

The sight mesmerized her into a trance. She couldn’t look away. She heard the others talking nearby and then someone shouted.

That voice came from a long way away. She couldn’t understand what the person was saying….and then she felt herself falling….falling deep into that Darkness…..down there…..into that endless Darkness……

End of Chapter 20.