Waif Warrior by VJ Dunn

Author:VJ Dunn [Dunn, VJ]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HEA Publishers LLC
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

MY DEATH IS likely going to go unnoticed by anyone but the Metise couple in the cell above, but I hope they’ll at least remember me a bit fondly and not hold my failure against my memory. I did try. I did want to help them. To help Evera and the babe.

It was an impossible feat, though. Especially for me.

I wonder how painful it’s going to be when I hit the ground below, if I’ll feel the pain, or if I’ll die immediately. As he gasped his last few breaths, Papa told me death is but a doorway to another realm and it wasn’t anything to fear. He wasn’t looking at becoming a crater in the ground though.

It seems a very long time that I fall, but I realize it is less than a blink when I’m suddenly slammed flat against the palace wall, just one story below where I’d slipped, pinned there by a strong wind from the Megi Valley. I suck in a shocked gasp, then hurry to find a place for my fingers and toes.

Once I’m gripping the wall once again, I can’t help but laugh. I’m so relieved.

Looking up, I grin at Carlino, forgetting about my sore jaw. In fact, I find I’m now actually thankful for all the pain in my body. It serves to tell me I’m still alive. The man looks like he about died with me, which makes me smile even wider.

But the grin slides off my face when I see the Mergon hasn’t given up.

It’s so intent on getting to me, I don’t think it even realizes what it’s doing as it slides even farther out of the window, re-angling its body toward me, that horrible mouth still wide open. Before I can suck in a shocked gasp, it slips from the window, streaking past me as it tumbles down to the abyss below.

I half expect the thing to scream as it falls, but I’m not sure if it has the ability to do so. I do hear a hissing as it passes me, though, and it sounds strangely terrified. For some reason, I feel bad for the creature.

It had obviously been trying to eat me, but I know it was just acting by its nature. I can’t fault it for that, even if the Mergons might have been partially responsible for the Fleshlings’ disappearance.

I breathe a sigh of relief that’s mixed with a bit of sadness for the creature who hadn’t truly done anything wrong—at least, not to me; there’s no telling what it did to earn a place in the lower part of the prison—and then I look up at Carlino. After the fall, he’s far above me, but I can still see the relief on his face.

There are more barred openings to my right, toward the north, and I’m surprised to see how close I am to the corner. Just three windows separate me and the rising ground beyond. But I’m leery now of passing any more cells—and their occupants.

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