The Eighth Excalibur (The Excalibur Knights Saga Book 1) by Luke Mitchell

Author:Luke Mitchell [Mitchell, Luke]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-12-23T16:00:00+00:00

23

Vorshna Et

The following hours were the most hellish of Nate’s life.

It wasn’t just the conditions of their imprisonment. The cold almost didn’t bother him—hadn’t much seemed to since he’d begun his metamorphosis under the Excalibur’s influence. The pain and discomfort, too, were at least somewhat tolerable. His wrists ached where he’d strained against the shackles one too many times, and his hips and back and neck all felt like shit from a few hours pinned to the hard deck. But that much, he could stand.

It was watching the suffering around him that was really killing him.

It was the terrified silence that stretched on long after the head troglodan left. It was the lone sob that eventually broke that silence, and the rapid unraveling of the brig from silent mausoleum to wailing shit show that followed.

It was the look in Gwen’s eyes as she turned to him with her own silent tears, like a quiet plea for him to do something. Like for some intangible reason, she actually believed he could.

Until then, even knowing what he did, it had all been too fast—too alien to be real. Even the brutal execution behind them had felt like something out of a movie. But when he saw that look in Gwen’s eyes, it all came crashing in. Too much raw emotion to process, even if the overwhelming majority of it did feel a lot like guilt. Guilt that he’d failed to bond with the Excalibur and find the Beacon in time. Guilt that he’d failed to even remotely grasp what was at stake, even after the Merlin had shown him. A deep burning shame, underneath it all, that he’d never even had the courage to simply tell Gwen how he felt years ago, when he’d had a thousand ample chances.

It was almost laughable, how afraid he’d been—how completely ignorant to how good and easy his life was before the Excalibur had come to him. How worthless and naïve he’d been once it had. So laughable, so pathetic, that he found himself sharing in Gwen’s silent tears before he knew it, clutching to her hand while the brig howled on around them.

He feared every moment that the troglodans would come bursting back in to make another bloody example and quiet the racket, but there wasn’t as much as a thump on the wall. They didn’t seem to care. Not even when some of the more optimistic voices rallied enough to start telling their neighbors how the army or the air force would be sweeping to save their asses any moment, just you wait. Not even when a few particularly bold spirits started asking if anyone still had their phones, or any ideas about how to get free.

Maybe the troglodans didn’t understand what they were talking about. Maybe they just didn’t care.

Nate refrained from joining the conversation, pretty sure that what little he knew would only succeed at scaring the shit out of everyone, and possibly turning them all against him, to boot. He needed a proper plan first, he told himself.

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