The Light of Shadows by Ryan Elledge

Author:Ryan Elledge [Elledge, Ryan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blue Axis Press
Published: 2024-01-23T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

Central Qedrad

Grass crunched underneath the bedroll as Rav turned over for what seemed like the hundredth time. Since leaving her home in Felona, she had learned to find comfort without the amenities that had been afforded to her growing up. A four-post bed with a down mattress was undeniably pleasant, but she had spent nights in alleys and gutters when hiding from a search party of guardsmen demanded it. But there was something unnerving about bedding down in a wide-open steppe that kept her mind from rest. She felt exposed, uncovered by the welcoming shadows in which she had always slumbered. Without the canopy draped across her childhood bedframe or the towering walls of Virdoba’s alleyways casting their shade across her, she felt as if the light of every star in the sky were shining on her for anyone around to see.

Despite this discomfort, though, many days of travel had left her physically drained, and she found herself dipping in and out of unconsciousness each night. Those brief moments of rest that existed between the stirring of her restless mind were all she was running on at this point, but as each day broke, she noticed that she was never as exhausted as she expected. As much as Rav had resisted Annika’s assertion that she was a lightblood, she couldn’t help but see the woman’s logic. She was making it through day after day of travel on little sleep; that reserve of energy must be coming from somewhere.

Finding a new divot in the earth that allowed her hip to settle in place, Rav slipped her hand back underneath the bundled cloak she used as a pillow, resting it across the hilt of her dagger. Having her blades within reach at night was a habit independent of where she laid her head. Nestling down into the fabric, she exhaled slowly before snapping her eyes open. Her hand had come to rest on a dagger under her head. Singular.

Rav bolted upright, staring out into the darkness that surrounded them. A low flame in the center of their camp lit the immediate vicinity, ironically making it harder to see beyond the perimeter as her eyes adjusted to the light. However, she didn’t have to scan far to find what she was looking for: Kymil, sitting near the fire with his knees bent in front of him and balancing the point of her dagger on the tip of one finger. The bard was also squinting into the dark grassland beyond the illuminated area while Annika and Wymund slept soundly across from them.

“If you needed a weapon for your watch,” Rav said, fighting her urge to grab her blade back with a little more downward pressure than would be necessary, “there were smarter options than taking one of mine without asking.”

Kymil blinked twice, still staring off into the distance as if he had not heard her. But just before she moved to make a more forceful statement, he turned to her with his typical self-satisfied grin.

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