Tiana by Lizzy Ford

Author:Lizzy Ford [Ford, Lizzy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lizzy Ford

Chapter Eight

Tiana had never seen a sunrise unobstructed by buildings or the boards that used to block the window in her former room. She stood on a flat boulder squatting near the edge of the forest and watched the sun crest the horizon. The snowstorm had cleared late last night, though the morning felt colder than the night had. The remaining clouds hovered near the horizon, reflecting pastel pinks, yellows, and blues as the sun hefted itself into the sky.

The winter air numbed the tip of her nose and her ears, but nothing penetrated the cloak her brother had gifted her. Beneath it, she was as warm as her cheeks were not.

Of everything that surprised her most about the world outside the city, it was the relative silence she found most striking. She had grown up with the sounds of the city outside her window without ever realizing just how noisy the city was. Here, on the snow-coated plains, with no one else in sight, she experienced a sense of peace she had never known before. The sun rose in revered silence, as if the rest of the world stood still to watch alongside her.

Tiana squinted, and tears stung her eyes. She lifted a hand to shield them from the brilliant, pale yellow sun but dared not miss any part of her first sunrise. With a smile stretching her stiff, cold cheeks, she could think of nothing more magical than this moment.

“We need to continue,” Warner said from below her. “Are you rested enough to travel?”

“Yes!” she replied cheerfully.

“Come on down.”

Tiana crouched and made her way down the boulder. She pulled her hood over her head instinctively, despite knowing Warner had already seen her deformity. Exhilarated by the first night outside her room, which was spent trudging through snow, Tiana had not slept at all during the two hours Warner allocated for them to rest. Her mind was on her surroundings, on the sky, the forest, Arthur, the snow … there was too much to see for her to sleep!

“Here. I will have to hunt in the forest tonight, but this will keep us going today.” Warner handed her food wrapped in a soft cloth.

She accepted it and glanced up at him then back. “Are you well?” she asked. “You look pale.”

“I’ve not yet recovered,” he admitted. “Exposure has peculiar effects on one’s body. It makes you less capable of handling the extremes a second time.” Dressed in the dark scarlet of the Guild and wearing a cloak, he appeared sickly with dark rings under his eyes.

Tiana unfastened her cloak and twirled it off with a shiver. “You can wear mine. Yours is not as thick,” she offered.

Warner straightened, and his jaw clenched. “I am here to protect you, not the other way around.”

“But if you are too cold to do so, does it not make sense to take my cloak?”

He gazed at her for a long moment before turning away and beginning to walk. “We need to move more quickly.

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