The Tangles of Old Sins (The Remnant King Book 2) by John Pretorius

Author:John Pretorius [Pretorius, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

—Chapter Eighteen—

Rustling of Leaves

I

I woke from what felt like a dreamless sleep, feeling more tired than when I went to bed. Sleeping pills, I mused, never truly lifted my fatigue.

Someone wrapped me in blankets during the night, but I had no idea who did it. Maybe I was shivering, I figured, and Ian or the Doctor must have done it. The strangest thing about waking was that I had the sensation that I had forgotten something important, and it scratched at the edges of my mind like a dog at a door it never knew was there. Being who I was, who I am, I pushed it to the back of my mind.

Bull was still asleep, but Erasmus was awake. Had he slept at all? He sat staring at the lagoon. Not far from him, on a shelf of crystal, lay Nishri, watching him like a hawk. He turned his head over towards me, then slid off the rock, out of my sight. Seeing him for that brief moment filled me with anger, though I hardly knew why. I supposed it to be just from his revelations of the day before. It had been an emotional day, I figured, and began to move my mind away from it.

Turning my gaze upwards, I figured the day felt as fatigued as I did. There was no direct sunlight or sapphire skies above us, just a thin, rugged wafer of clouds, like those you might see on a winter day, dulling the sun so that it barely felt more powerful than a fluorescent light. A soft but constant wind shook the trees above us, drowning us almost in the constant rustling of leaves, as if the wind itself was stalking us.

It was my turn to make breakfast though there was not much to make, and I grew tired of our limited menu. I got the supplies and fresh water from the submarine and began cooking. The sound woke Bull up, and he crawled away to sit next to me close to the phyne and core. “Morning,” he said.

“Morning,” I replied meekly.

“What are we going to do today?” he said after a long pause.

“Wake up, then carry on from there. I’ll check in with the Millingstones, then give a better answer. Did you also take something to sleep?”

“Yes. Had trouble sleeping. And you must have been the one who didn’t close my bag properly.”

Despite my weariness, I was flooded by angry, dark thoughts. I hardly knew where they came from. “I can’t recall whether I did or not, but it was probably me.”

“What do you think he’s got planned for us today?” he said, motioning with his head to Erasmus’ direction. “What will we ask him? Everything he told us— never mind, here he comes.”

Erasmus ambled over towards us, probably because he was hungry. His presence felt awkward, uncertain. Despite him not asking, I placed some food onto a plate and held it out to him. I probably showed some emotions on my face, but I at least resolved not to treat him like dirt.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.