King of Ashes by Raymond E. Feist

Author:Raymond E. Feist [Feist, Raymond E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy, Epic, Action & Adventure, General
ISBN: 9780062315991
Google: t8QvDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Harper Collins
Published: 2018-05-08T04:00:00+00:00

12

Adrift and Alone

Banging wood was the first thing Hatu sensed, the sound cutting through his hazy consciousness. He came fully awake and felt himself sway as he realized that he was back in the gig from which he and Donte had been seized. He looked up.

The small boat was still tethered to the ship’s stanchions; the water lapped just below the keel. Nothing had changed. Provisions still sat beneath the sail, which was ready to be hoisted, and the oars were neatly tucked to one side.

He moved to sit up and every inch of him protested. Besides the expected pain of bruises and ache of joints stretched by chains, there was another feeling: he felt like the very fiber of his being had been insulted, and an echo of pain from the shocking energy that had flowed through him still lingered. He forced himself to sit up, then moved his head over the side of the boat as sudden dry heaving wracked his body. He had nothing to throw up, but his stomach spasmed three times before he could catch his breath.

Hatu was still as he waited for the pain, nausea, and sudden bout of dizziness to subside. He kept breathing slowly, trying to absorb the horrors he had somehow survived.

Donte. Hatu knew that as long as he lived he would never be free of the image of his friend hanging motionless, seemingly lifeless. Hatu’s heart sank further as he remembered that even if Donte were revived, the thing in the cave (he couldn’t think of her as a woman) would then use him. He felt tears rising and wiped them away. He had never felt this alone in his entire life and employed the mental toughness that had been beaten into him to force his mind away from helplessness. Even if Donte survived with relatively little damage, Hatu had no way of finding out where he was, let alone mounting a rescue. He might as well have been dead; perhaps that was even a better fate than what might lie before him.

Hatu knew that letting despair overwhelm him was as sure a path to death as the one he had just escaped. Why he had been freed, and what that evil witch had meant by his being a vessel of power, were mysteries he’d have to put aside.

His first duty was survival. But on the heels of that recognition came the question, Why did she let me go? He had repeatedly pushed it aside. He had no idea what power and danger they had been talking about. His desire to find out what that evil witch meant was another reason he wanted to return with the armies of Coaltachin. Every thought needed to be turned to surviving and getting there.

Hatu needed to find a friendly port. He had an approximate idea where he was, now that he was back at the ship. He calculated how fast the ship was moving under full sail and its heading before the captain put into the cove he mistakenly thought would shelter them.

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