City of Dod (Land of Szornyek Book 2) by Ariele Sieling

Author:Ariele Sieling [Sieling, Ariele]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-09-25T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7: The Bikak

Askari woke up, her head aching and her feet burning, all of her skin and bones and muscles on fire. The only thing she knew was that she was alive, but she felt as if she had been run over by a wagon, then set on fire, then dragged through the mud, and then bashed on the side of the head—which, if she thought about it, wasn’t too far off from what had actually happened.

“You’re awake!” a voice said, and Askari opened her eyes a slit to see who was talking to her.

It was a little girl. She had cornrows and long braids, and her wide brown eyes gazed down with unabashed interest at Askari. Askari guessed she was around nine or ten years old.

“I’m Millie!” The little girl gave Askari a broad smile. “You’re Askari. We’re friends now.”

“Where…” Askari squinted and tried to focus on the room around her. “Where am I?”

“In the wagon!” Millie exclaimed. She leaned forward and poked Askari in the arm. “Can’t you feel it?”

Now that she mentioned it, Askari could feel the rolling and bumping of wheels trying to cross large ruts in the ground. The inside of the wagon was largely dark, probably because no one in their right mind would have fire for light inside a moving wooden wagon, and she appeared to be lying on a bed of some kind, covered with warm, soft blankets. A curtain hung over the back of the wagon, and light periodically flickered through it. Though daytime, Askari could not determine what time of day it was or even whether they were in the woods or in the open.

“Whose wagon?” Askari asked, feeling slow and stupid. The last thing she remembered was the city filled with fog, and Devor had mutated into a nightmarish skeletal snake with a long, forked tongue—that must have been a hallucination, right?—and then a monster with enormous empty eyes and a long snout had carried her off… or something. That didn’t make any sense at all. It must have all been a dream. Maybe Shujaa and Harcos had rescued her somehow…

“Shujaa!” she exclaimed. “Where’s Shujaa? And Harcos?”

“I’ll go find them,” Millie said. She crawled toward the back of the wagon and disappeared through the curtain.

Askari shifted her attention back to her wounds. Her feet still burned, although the pain was much more like a sunburn, indicating that she had made remarkable improvement since she had arrived—wherever she was. Her head throbbed as if someone was repeatedly stabbing her temples with matching ice picks. The wound Agi had given her in the abdomen was still sore, and the rest of her ached all over. She felt like she never wanted to stand up again.

“Millie tells me you’re alive and awake!” a voice said from the rear of the wagon as a rather large man leaped gracefully into the darkened interior and strode, undisturbed by the rocking and jolting motion of the wagon, over to where she lay. He lowered himself onto the floor next to Askari and smiled at her with warm brown eyes.

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