Dagger's Sleep (Beyond the Tales Book 1) by Tricia Mingerink

Author:Tricia Mingerink [Mingerink, Tricia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sword & Cross Publishing
Published: 2018-05-27T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

Rosanna

SHE CHOKED ON EACH breath. Her heart thundered in her ears. Too close. The Tuckawassee were too close. Her legs weren’t strong enough. Her gasping lungs wouldn’t hold out.

Her hand in Daemyn’s grew hot, sweaty, but she didn’t let go. He didn’t either, as if by his grip on her he could save them both.

He couldn’t. She slowed him down.

They were running downhill now. Ahead lay a small waterfall and creek set in a hollow too peaceful for the danger stalking their heels.

Daemyn jerked her to the right. “Over here.” He led her to a section of boulders just below the hollow’s rim. Moving aside a fallen log, Daemyn exposed a small nook created by a crack in a boulder. It would be barely big enough for Rosanna, if she curled up small. “Get in.”

She didn’t question him. The dirt and leaves in the nook pressed damp against her hands and knees. She couldn’t think about the spiders or rodents or snakes that might inhabit a place like this. Sitting with her back to the stone and her knees tucked against her chest, she fit.

Daemyn crouched and met her gaze. “Whatever happens, don’t move. Don’t make a sound. Stay here. I’ll be back for you. It might take a while, but I will come back.”

How could he be so sure? “What if they kill you?”

His mouth quirked at one corner. “I’m rather hard to kill, as they’ll soon learn. Don’t worry. I’ll come back for you. Please promise you’ll stay here.”

She nodded. “I promise.”

He pulled the straight-bladed, old-fashioned dagger from his belt. After taking the clear-stoned ring from his finger, he held both the ring and the dagger out to her. “Take care of these for me, all right?”

She took them. Why was he giving these to her? He had seemed so sure he wouldn’t be killed, yet giving her the ring and dagger seemed like he thought he would be. It didn’t make sense.

But Daemyn didn’t have time to waste explaining to her. “Be careful.”

With a nod, he moved the log back into place and scattered dead leaves and fallen twigs across it until only a few shafts of sunlight pierced through. From the outside, he must be making it appear as if that log had been undisturbed for years.

The rustle of leaves and scuffing of his feet moved off slowly. Rosanna leaned forward to peer through one of the remaining gaps.

Daemyn smoothed the leaves and twigs where they’d left the trail, then he barreled down the rest of the trail to the creek in a rush, leaving enough disturbed leaves and skid marks in the dirt to look like at least two people had come through.

When he reached a broad, flat stone beside the creek, he turned and planted his staff as if forming a wall the Tuckawassee wouldn’t be able to knock down.

What was Daemyn doing? Shouldn’t he be trying to outrun the Tuckawassee? Use the creek to hide his tracks and get away? Instead, he looked like he intended to fight the Tuckawassee armed with nothing but a stick.

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