Page 68 of A Simple Truth (the Freckled Fate #2)

67

FINNLEAH

M y goggles steamed up as my eyes drowned in moisture. I painfully bit my cheek until the taste of iron filled my mouth, fighting back the tears.

I had cried these tears before.

I cried the day I had made the decision to leave, and I had cried every single day after. But as I was soaring high above the icy clouds, with nothing but a small compass to keep me on track, I couldn’t cry any more I had to be strong.

The back of my legs cramped, but I ignored it as I continued flying through the night without a single break.

The stiffness of my body and the muscle aches were nothing compared to the gushing wound in my heart. But I had no one to blame for it. Not even Fate herself, because I was the one holding the knife.

I was the one who left.

This was foolish.

I understood that.

But reason wouldn’t fix a guilt-riddled heart.

The chances of Viyak surviving another year, another winter, were slim. You bet on someone dying, not surviving in the Quarries. But I had left everything and everyone behind in pursuit of this wild idea that he’d be there. That he was still alive. That I could save him.

Foolish, idiotic, and completely irrational.

Yet, just in the last week I had not had one single night of sleep where I didn’t see his face, not a single day where his crying didn’t echo in my ears as I woke.

If I were to be haunted by those dreams for the rest of my worthless life, I would go insane. I had to do something to combat that terrible feeling within me.

I needed something for my mind, for my soul, to hold on to when the pain and the agony and the terrible guilt suffocated me. Because if I didn’t, the guilt would spread, tarnishing everything in my life, even the purest feelings that I now harbored in my heart.

But my guilt would find a way to ruin it somehow, even then.

And perhaps it already had.

The air was getting thinner as I neared the sharp peaks of the rocky mountains. I had forgotten how my lungs had starved for more oxygen each day as a slave, how we spent the little energy we had panting and gasping for more breath, to just keep us afloat.

My stomach was queasy; I wasn’t sure whether it was from the flight or the flooding emotions that came crashing down at the sight of the quickly approaching Rock Quarries.

My body painfully jerked back upon landing, my back cracking a few times as the long legs of the dragonfly touched down roughly in the small opening between the overgrown pine trees.

“Thank you, Greyfas, sorry your rider sucks,” I mumbled as I patted the beautiful creature on the side, tying his reins around a tree nearby. I clenched my jaw, securing a few more knives at my waist, crossbow neatly fitted to my back, and Heart Piercer sheathed at my thigh, before starting the long hike towards the Quarries.

It felt as if I was back in the lost villages with Priya, hunting for the priest, or the baker, or some other poor soul. So much had changed since then. Life never stopped its race, even as some of us fell.

A part of me wished to have Priya by my side. She’d casually stroll into the Rock Quarries, turning all the guards’ brains into mush while making some inappropriate jokes.

She would not question the insanity of my decision.

Though, perhaps she would.

I knew very little of Priya, as it turned out.

And yet, I still longed for her comforting presence to be near me as I climbed through the rocks and trees, up the hill towards the bridge, towards the one place I’d thought I’d never leave alive.

My thighs still burned from the steep climb as I laid on the ground, watching the two guards at the beginning of the arched stone bridge and the three guards at the end of it.

They never kept too many guards here—it was hard to feed them, hard to station them in these harsh conditions due to the high-altitude sun and thin air. Still, Royals kept enough of them to make sure there would never be any chance of an uprising; that we’d never consider taking out a guard because there would always be more to follow.

Though, even with plenty of guards there, Inadios was cautious. Never overfeeding a slave, never keeping a rebellious spirit alive, carving out life itself from within our souls.

One day, I’d come for his soul too.

I eyed the patrolling soldiers on top of the walls, with their large spear launchers protecting the bridge, the thin, sharp spears able to shoot long distance. I scoffed, as if a slave somehow would make it out that far.

Yes, Inadios was cautious to make sure not a single slave would ever escape. Unlucky for him, I was no longer a slave.

My clammy hands silently slid down my leathers, pulling out the throwing knives. I let myself take a long breath, my chest filling with cold air before I lunged across the plains to kill the unsuspecting guards.

I moved, but a large hand clamped across my mouth, yanking my body in a tight grip as I thrashed against his clasp. Only after a few panicking blinks, my mind registered the dark armor of the General. But even then, he didn’t let go, forcing me to look to the bridge. My eyes widened in shock, recognizing Orest and Broderick, dressed fully in their armor, already slicing the throats of the unwary guards.

“Stay close,” he growled in my ear, letting me go. His cold voice sent a shiver down my spine, but I nodded and followed him. He marched down the bridge with brutal force, the spear throwers and their guards immediately being incinerated under his wrathful stare.

Orest and Broderick opened the gate for us as we entered the Rock Quarry. Rows of Royal soldiers were lined up, ready for battle. Actual Royal soldiers, not the measly guards that I had expected. I shoved down the initial shock as my feet halted. I reached far within me, preparing for my powers to come forth. But before I could summon a spark, I heard a small buzzing.

Ten dragonflies appeared high above the Rock Quarries. Large, thick ropes dropped from them like snakes, and the Ten, dressed in their leathery armor, slid down them.

Yanush and Ioanna, with a rope wrapped around their legs, sent countless burning arrows flying like fiery rain as the rest of the Ten were literally dropping from the sky.

I gaped at the Ten, fighting the whole battalion of Royal soldiers. Only after a minute, I noticed the familiar creeping shadows of the robed figures floating towards them. But before I could shout a warning, the General had unsheathed his swords; a single blink and the metal sparked to life with silver flames. His flaming swords moved as he beheaded the approaching Kahors in one swift motion.

The strong smell of burnt human bodies and the stench of the dead Kahors suffocated me, making my eyes tear up, as the grunted screams and commotion encompassed me.

I found myself sending fire and shields as I made my way through the Rock Quarries, my mind focusing on one thing: finding Viyak.

I ran down each carved layer of the quarry, until I made it to the very bottom, to the small alcoves below, where frightened slaves hid in terror.

I thought I was prepared to see them. I thought that I could handle facing their starved figures, their haunted eyes.

But I was wrong.

My heart shattered at the sight, their chains thicker than their arms, holding them all together. Their bodies trembled as they watched the slaughter, preparing to be next.

But my eyes looked past their despair in search of the bright summer eyes in the crowds.

“Vi! Viyak!” I screamed with all my might, attempting to yell over the battle behind me.

I screamed his name again, yet no answer came.

I shouted.

I yelled.

Again and again, until my voice became raspy.

Only to be met with frantic silence.

I pushed through the slaves, looking for him, continuously calling out his name.

My voice cracked mid shout, desperation choking me.

I was too late.

He was gone.

“Viyak!” I shouted again. My chest squeezed excruciatingly tight, and my vision blurred.

He was gone. I was too late.

Tears poured out of me as my knees dropped to the harsh, pebbled ground, no longer able to take another step as pure, merciless defeat struck me at last.

I was late.

Too late.

Painful sobs shook my back as I knelt by the slaves’ bare feet.

“Finn?”

My eyes widened, and the tears stopped mid streak as I heard a trembling voice.

I rose to my feet, swallowing the tears rolling down my throat, as I twisted and turned looking for him again, but still not finding him.

Perhaps it was my imagination playing tricks on me. But before I had fully succumbed to hopelessness, I had managed to cry out his name one last time.

“Vi, it’s Finn!” my broken voice echoed against the cold alcove, as my eyes feverishly looked for him.

My hand went to cover my mouth as I saw his skeletal figure.

Broken.

He was so damn broken that I had barely recognized him in that shell of a body. The previously bright blue eyes, that kept me afloat amidst my darkest storms, were now a dull, washed-out watercolor, bleakly reflecting the light.

“ Finn…” he mouthed. His voice was unsure, as if he too was wondering whether I was just a mirage, a fleeting dream.

“Vi!” I stumbled past the chains, making my way to him, pushing through the starved bodies of the slaves.

“Finn!” he cried as silver streaks ran down his sunken cheeks. He attempted to take another step towards me, but fell harshly to the ground, unable to get up. My knees crashed into the hard rock next to him, my daggers clattering to the ground as I embraced him with everything I had.

“You’re alive. You are alive. Alive.” Pure gibberish mixed with flooding tears came out of my mouth, as I held him tighter, unwilling to let go.

“Finn…You’re here. You’re back.” His body shook with sobs. “I...I... waited, Finn. Each day. I waited for you. Each morning and each night, I said your name. I wanted to give up so many times. I wanted to. But I didn’t. I waited for you. I-I-I waited.” His voice broke with each word, muttering through our convulsing sobs.

“And I came back for you, Vi. I came back.” I held his head as I covered his face in frantic kisses, still not believing that he was here.

Alive.

“You’re free, Vi. It’s over. You are free ,” I repeated those words to him, again and again. “ You are free .”

I turned to the surrounding slaves, some of them daring to raise their eyes to look at me, to look at Vi. Then, without letting go of Viyak, I told them what they’d thought they’d never live to hear.

“All of you are freed. You are all free .”

And then the people wept.