Aerisia: Land Beyond the Sunset, Book 1 by Sarah Ashwood

Author:Sarah Ashwood
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-09-18T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Six

Suspicions

Not a lot can be said for those remaining hours on the forest trail. For the most part they were passed in silence, with no conversation between us. The only noises were the plodding of the horses, the drone of insects, the creaking of leather saddles, the warbling of birds in the trees, and my own quiet humming.

My attempts at a little music to break the endless monotony didn’t last long, however. Only a few bars into the melody, I felt eyes upon me, and turned to find the Simathe leader regarding me with a peculiar expression. Apparently, music wasn’t a big part of his world. Somewhere between one note and the next, I broke off. No more humming.

Anyway, having begun to observe a strange activity among my escorts, I’d already found something else to hold my attention. Every now and then I’d see one of them turn and look into another warrior’s face like people carrying on a verbal exchange. They never traded words, and these stares lasted mere seconds. Still, it was pretty obvious something fishy was going on.

Once, I caught the “young” Simathe who’d held the horses during our stop exchanging this sly swap with the Chief Captain. He was riding a few paces ahead and to the right of myself, and after swapping glances with Lord Norband on my left, his gaze met mine in passing as it swung back around. He must’ve known I was watching, for a mischievous smile flitted lightning-fast across his face…and then he winked at me.

My eyebrows jumped at this actual attempt at humor, the first I’d witnessed from any of these guys. He quickly straightened in the saddle, his face going blank like nothing had ever happened.

I couldn’t help it. I laughed.

Beside me, the man assigned to be my personal bodyguard turned my direction with another what-sort-of-weirdo-are-you-anyway? expression.

This time, rather than cower or flinch, I lifted my chin and flashed him my brightest smile. “Nice day, isn’t it?”

He gazed at me a long moment before offering a simple, “Aye,” and then resuming his stony stance.

Whatever.

Snickering to myself, I gave my attention back to the road but couldn’t help smiling. Maybe there was a possibility of finding a friend among these strangers, after all. At the very least, I now knew one of them was capable of showing signs that he was truly human. My guess was, he probably wasn’t as old and set in his ways, so to speak, as his companions—although since the Simathe were supposedly immortal, he could still be way older than me.

As for the strange pattern of wordless stares? I wasn’t sure. Teasing my brain was the suspicion that, on top of everything else odd about them, these men were communicating with their minds. I tried to push the idea aside, telling myself it was absolutely ridiculous. It refused to leave. An inner voice kept insisting that, if so many impossibilities on Earth were possible here in Aerisia, perhaps mental telepathy was, as well.

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