Chapter 24:
Alone with Him
It has been a few hours since we left Marcellus to rest and recover. Trevus and I continue side by side through the sparse forest.
“He’ll be fine, right?” I ask.
“He shall be in Troas tomorrow,” Trevus says. “I am certain.”
Trevus’s confidence is reassuring. As an expert survivalist who campaigned beside Marcellus, his judgment is trustworthy.
My bare hands are still out in the open, free of the sleeves that once bound them. Trevus has known since my escape attempt that I can’t bring myself to use my connection on him. The sleeves were only in place to stop me from threatening his party – something I took advantage of a few times.
Trevus clicks open his locket again. This must be the fifth time today. His venture has grown grueling, and the image of his mother reminds him of what hangs in the balance. I’ve tried to catch a covert glimpse of Elie’s portrait inside, but I can’t see anything beyond dark hair.
“Can I ask you a personal question?” I say.
His eyes don’t leave the locket. “You have my intrigue.”
“How were you separated from her?”
He clicks the locket closed and tucks it under his shirt beside his heart. There’s a long silence. I regret asking.
We keep walking. My eyes remain forward.
“We shared quarters in the palace.” He answers long after I thought he wouldn’t. “Rumors spread of King Tytius’s affair. To conceal the circumstances of my birth, Tytius instructed his most trusted personal guard, Barius, to marry my mother.
“There was no love between them, but one does not defy the king, hence, our fraudulent family was formed. Barius rarely visited our quarters, appearing with us only in public spaces to appease the king.
“In my fifteenth year, Barius began to see my mother in a way he had not yet before. Neither of them still had their youth, and Barius was no longer the improvident pugnacious warrior he once was. They fell for each other.
“It did not escape King Tytius’s eye. He was envious that my mother had found joy in the arms of another. Barius, a personal guard of the king, was reassigned for the first time in twenty years. His new position was a menial role in a city near the border – Antiock.
“King Tytius expected that lavish palace life would keep Elie with him. Instead, she collected her most-valuable belongings and left her home of twenty years, parting with every person she knew.” Trevus pauses. His expression is pained.
“She pleaded that I follow her and Barius to their new home. While the prestige of palace life did not influence her, it did influence my younger self. I had found my place in the capital guard. I was receiving accolades, surpassing my peers and climbing in rank. In my desire to belong, I let the only one who truly cared for my wellbeing slip away.
“In the month that followed, my mother stopped answering my letters. I rushed to Antiock, but the critical time had passed. I was unable to find her or Barius. His home had been packed in haste and abandoned.
“What I did find was King Tytius, and upon questioning my mother’s disappearance, he was reluctant to answer. Being the young boy that I was, my trepidation won out.
“My resolve to ask him again returned days later, but the opportunity was forgone. He launched a rash, unprovoked campaign into Mephia, and had subsequently been captured.
“He is the man who knows where my mother now dwells, and he is the only such man. I shall find out where he sent her.”
If the jealous king is responsible for her disappearance, what if he ordered something worse than banishment? I can’t dare suggest that the king may have taken Elie’s life, but how can Trevus be so confident that he didn’t? I take care in wording my next question. “Did your father still love her?”
“He married her to Barius. Barius shielded the king from harm for decades, and the king knew he would do the same for Elie. To whatever place he sent her, Barius was sent too.
“You’ll find her soon. I’m sure,” I say. He doesn’t speak about anyone with the fondness he speaks about his mother. He needs to be reunited with her, with his only real family.
“You are confident in that assessment,” he says.
“You’re the most capable man I’ve ever met, and you love her.” He’ll find her, even without me.
Trevus nods, but he doesn’t say anymore.
We trudge through forest and vegetation for hours. Powdery white ash still coats me from head to toe, and the fine particles are impossible to wipe off. I have the scent of a campfire.
For the first time since setting out on this expedition, I’m not only tired, but also hungry and thirsty. We left the last of our food and water with Marcellus. Losing one bag to the Merk, another to Giddius, and dividing what was left with Marcellus cut our supplies razor thin.
We step over a ridge, and a valley is revealed. Where there’s a valley, there may be a river! I hurry down the slope with a renewed spring in my boots.
“Jade!” Trevus calls out behind me. He better run to catch up because I’m not slowing down.
I duck under the branches of a thickmull tree and sidestep around a vampire thistle. To my delight, a thin stream greets me.
I kneel beside it. The stream is no wider than my arm, and it wouldn’t reach my knee if I stepped in, but it’s so clear the orange rock bed sparkles.
I dip both hands in the stream and bring the water up to my lips. The drink washes away the dry scratchiness in my throat.
Trevus’s boots stop behind me. With more restraint than I had, he reaches down to fill up the waterskin before bringing it to his lips.
Once I’ve had enough to drink, I splash the water over my face and wash the sticky black ash away. I clean my arms, my legs, my torso under my shirt and my hair.
Trevus takes a seat on the rock and dips his bare feet in the water. That looks like a great idea. I yank off my boots and sit beside him. The water feels great between my toes. We don’t exchange any words, but I know he’s just as relieved as I am.
Judging from the sun’s position in the sky, it’ll be another two hours before dark. We’ve been trudging through sparse forest the whole day. The dry loopy cilca stems catch my boots, and lifting my foot pulls their roots from the earth. They feel like a child hanging onto my feet, wearing me down further with each step.
A large smooth rock catches my eye. It’s a few steps away.
Upon reaching it, I immediately take a seat and stretch my sore legs. Trevus is still walking, but he doesn’t go far before looking back.
“If we stop a little earlier today, will we still be on schedule?” I ask. My legs are screaming for him to say yes.
“We shall reach Nepolis the day after tomorrow,” he says.
My stomach tightens. We’re already that close? I only have two nights left to escape before I’m thrown to the soldiers and executed for impersonating their leader.
“We shall find a clearing, then halt for the day,” Trevus says.
I wish I could help him find Elie, but I can’t. Using my connection on human beings again would make Mehlia’s death meaningless. I’d be a murderer with no remorse – the monster the guards in Antiock claimed they were confining. When Lord Reger and his soldiers at Nepolis discover I’m impersonating their leader, I’d sooner take my last breath than risk anyone else losing their life to my connection.
“Jade?” Trevus’s voice brings me back to the conversation.
“Sorry. Yes. Uh. We’ll find a clearing.” I stumble over my words. My backside slides off the rock, and I catch up to him.
“Your mind set off on a path at the mention of Nepolis,” he says.
“I’m just tired.” My pace quickens, and I walk out ahead of him.
We soon find an open area free from prickly cilca stems. Trevus sweeps away the sticks beside a large boulder with his boot before sitting down, and I settle beside him.
For the first time in three days, our view of the sky is unobstructed by trees. We’re free of the Merk’s forest.
I’m relieved to sit down. The orange sun slips behind the forest we just left, turning the trunks into column-like silhouettes. It’s a relief to be off my feet.
“After this venture, shall you too seek to reunite with your family?” Trevus asks.
My family? “No.”
His gaze doesn’t leave me. He wants to know more.
“After I’m away from all this, I’ll have to learn how to live on my own,” I say. “Searching for them would mean revisiting my village, and that place holds a bitter memory.”
“Do you not miss them?” he asks.
“I never met my mother and father. Death may have taken them, but if they abandoned me, then I don’t want to meet them. If I had parents in the village, then maybe I wouldn’t have felt so different. I wouldn’t have been so alone.”
Trevus nods. I’ve never shared that with anyone before. My legs shift up to my chin. If they were there for me, then maybe none of this would have happened. It hurts to think about.
A hand rests on my back. Trevus strokes the path between my shoulders. His touch is comforting. Before Trevus, no one dared touch me more than necessary. They were afraid. I never asked to be a witch.
I nudge up to him and rest my head on his shoulder. He wraps his arm around me. It’s nice to be held, almost like I’m being hugged. It’s a precious feeling.
I glance up at him for just a moment. He is the Versillian guard keeping me prisoner, the sole man left standing in the way of my freedom. I know that I shouldn’t take comfort in his arms, but deep inside, I don’t care that he’s my adversary. It’s pleasant to be held by someone who cares for me.
The sun sets behind the woods. The sky darkens, and the cool air begins to nip at my skin. Trevus takes his arm off me and unrolls the sleeping pouch. There’s only one between us.
“Get in,” Trevus says. “Now is the time for rest.”
I climb inside the pouch and lie with my back to him.
His feet scrape over the ground behind me, and an arm wraps around my middle outside the pouch. “You shall have to forgive my hold, but I must sleep tonight, and I fear waking to find you have vanished. Time is something I no longer have.”
My stomach twists. While I don’t want to abandon him, staying will achieve nothing but my death.
Trevus fidgets to get comfortable. The leather wall of the pouch is the only barrier between his chest and my back. It can’t be comfortable lying on the dirt.
A cold gust of wind bites my nose. I sink deeper into the warm pouch. Trevus must be freezing. He could have easily held me in the same way and taken the pouch for himself.
“Why did you give me the pouch?” I ask.
“With your small mass, the elements are of greater danger to you,” he says.
The weather isn’t frigid enough to pose any danger past shivering. This is like when he offered his dry shirt.
“I’m small. You could have squeezed in next to me,” I say.
“I do not wish to cause you discomfort.” No one has ever laid against the length of my body, but he is the one person that I wouldn’t mind.
“You don’t cause discomfort.” I trust him.
After pausing to consider it, he kicks off his boots and begins sliding into the pouch behind me. I suck in my stomach and straighten my limbs to be as thin as possible. Soon he’s fully inside. It’s a tight fit, with my front squeezed against the pouch and my back against his chest.
It’s comfortable enough to sleep, and the guilt if he had stayed out in the cold would have kept me awake anyway. The pouch is far warmer with his body against mine, and his rhythmic breathing shifts my frame like a slow rocking chair.
“Are you strained?” Trevus’s deep voice ripples through my core.
“I’m fine.” My voice comes out as more of a squeak than I had hoped.
“I shall see you tomorrow.”
“Goodnight.”
Author’s Note:
After the next chapter, nothing will be the same.
Yeah – I’m really hoping she changes her mind and tries to help him – she doesn’t necessarily have to use her connection to do so…
she really needs to stop trying to escape now… I know you’re afraid you’re going to die but im more afraid of what happens when your alone with nobody to aid you.
she’s almost promoted them to more then a town watchmen 😂😂
ngl at this point i would feel bad to leave him
uh oh
Both actually
Trevu’s mother. Jade gives me second hand embarrasment 🤦♀️.
I don’t hate her, but I won’t forgive that easy
Yes
Same
@iceheartgoldsmile I’m talking about just that. She didn’t love him. She was forced to marry him and pretend they were a couple while the real man she loved had to save face and leave her. She gave up her happiness to play this charade for her son. So he wouldn’t be labeled as an illegitimate son to the king and mistreated. It took her 15 years to actually fall in love with the man she was married to. How happy would you be to have to be married to someone you didn’t love for 15 years? I can understand her leaving her son to finally pursue her own happiness for one and not making him come as that would have stolen his happiness, at the time.
@Kittycatkilala I’m confused where she gave up her happiness? she was able to up and leave when the king didn’t want her to, to stay with the man she was made to marry and didn’t originally love. So from what I’m understanding is, she had her choices and she knew she had her choices. I will not forgive this woman for leaving her child that loved her this much, for some random guy, people can call in love again, you can’t just leave the love of a child for that, at least that’s my personal feelings and I will stand by them, this woman has my hatred lmao
AHHHH IM SO EXCITED
@Thegigl I don’t hate her either. She already gave up her own happiness and life for the king and married a man she didn’t love for 15 years. I’m sure she was ready to finally embrace the happiness she had found and didn’t want her son to give up his own happiness to join her. In medieval times, 15 was often considered the age where people were old enough to marry and consent to sex. So he was likely seen as an adult at that time. Especially since he was climbing ranks and becoming a captain.
Yeah. I feel the king was trying to get her back and so they fled to Mephia. That’s why he attacked. Not that he send them away somewhere. It’s very likely they are in Mephia, hiding from the king and his jealousy.
Can’t wait
@Thegigl 15 is still a child, even in mediaeval times
@iceheartgoldsmile yeah and now he’s stuck with a captive who still has escape on her mind
@iceheartgoldsmile Yeah that is young… but not a child anymore really
Oh, intriguing
Yeah they really are, shows she does care about him though that she doesn’t want him to be cold
True I suppose, I guess there’s likely not a lot of her to keep herself warm
In survival situations it’s better to have a barrier between yourself and the ground then yourself and the air… it’s the ground that will steal your heat and leave you frozen.
Yeah some of it definitely her fault though
Poor girl definitely needs one after everything she’s been through
He trust her not to use her gift against him… to not harm him
It’s sweet
@Thegigl but we don’t know what happened to the mum
Poor girl… at least if she had parents who cared about her she could have at least held on to those memories to cherish
@Thegigl definitely, but at least he previously had some protection
@Thegigl but he was only 15
Well he’s certainly astute lol or just aware I suppose
Wasn’t his life always at risk with this plan?
That would have been so disappointing lmao
That’s real sweet Jade
Yeah shes his mother
Eh I don’t hate her… Trevus was nearly an adult when it happened and who knows what would have happened to him if he was also there when that stuff happened considering the man she’s with is a guard too
He attacked Mephia to get Trevus’s mother?
I can understand why she did it though… an affair that left her pregnant with a child who’s father couldn’t and wouldn’t fully claim him.
Forced into a marriage with a man she didn’t love then once they did fall in love he was sent away.
Who knows how the queen treated her or the people there in general. She did try to get him to follow her but he turned her down while he set up his life in the guard.
He made his choice while she was just trying to take the next step in her own life too… Though I’m not sure why Trevus think the king knows where she is if she left on her own volition.
Yeah, controlling… only wanting Trevus’s mother to himself ugh
Improvident pugnacious? I don’t think I’ve heard either of those words tbh…
yessss finally
That also sounds so uncomfortable lol
That sounds so uncomfortable lol
I want to escape but please lay against me
He’s already lost everyone else
All hugs are good hugs
It will not be hard to escape now lol, seeing how easy it was to run to water, but, she does know his life would be in peril right? and it would be her fault
yeah but imagine if it had of been a dry stream lmao
Lol, the trust in each other
Love is love, and he does deserve to find her again