She had heard the gossip on several occasions, one comment more grotesque than the other, but honestly, she preferred it that way.
Freyah never told anyone she was grateful that the animal had almost torn her face in half, despite all the pain that followed. Grateful that with the huge scar it imprinted on her, she had finally gotten the peace she had craved for so long—the peace of working at the tavern and no longer being stared at like a piece of meat. The only thing she truly mourned from the attack was losing sight in her left eye, yet she found a way to get over that misfortune by creating a collection of fun eye patches to wear. They had become, with time, the thing she looked forward to wearing most.
The look on Alissa’s face when she first laid eyes on her friend that day was unforgettable: the dead animal on top of her, her pale skin covered in blood. Freyah had never seen her friend as shaken since. Not until the moment Alissa came in minutes before ranting about the inevitability of her child’s death.
That moment right there had been the first time since Freyah could remember that she hadn’t agreed to Alissa’s crazy, mostly undoable quests because she felt she needed to. This time, she had said yes because of the terrified look in her best friend’s eyes and the image of Dhalia lying dead and aged inside a coffin only months from then. An image that frightened her more than anything ever had before.
And so, even when her deepest thoughts whispered she wouldn’t come out of this alive and her anxious mind fed her insecurities, she made a plan.
Unexpectedly, though, for a moment, Freyah didn’t feel the ground-shattering panic she used to feel when they were little. Braveness was usually a sentiment exclusively reservedfor Alissa, but at this particular moment, she summoned it for herself to ease her friend’s burden.
If there were anything in this world worth dying for, it would be saving the life of those she loved.
Chapter 6
Into the Unknown
The following night, Alissa had everything arranged for the escape plan Freyah created to help her cross the walls of Bryniard. She packed her bag with enough provisions to keep her alive for a week, some changes of clothes, her small notebook, and a quill pen. Her hands instinctively grabbed one of the drawings Dhalia had made and tucked it in her bag without conscious effort, something to remember her daughter by and the reason she was leaving. Little did she know that the girl would remain in her every thought and dream from that moment forward.
Her bow and quiver of arrows hung across her shoulders, and a dagger was hidden inside her boot. That was all she could carry on her journey to this place of which she had no idea. Alissa didn’t know what awaited her on the way, but she had the feeling nothing she could ever carry would be enough to help her along this crazy path she had chosen to walk on her own.
Leaving the cabin with her daughter beside her, she glanced back, taking in the corners of the place she grew up. The place that carried the memories of the happiest and worst of her days. The room that served as a living room and a cooking place, right beside the little bedroom she shared with Dhalia. The simplewooden furniture and tapestries her mother knitted herself, the rough-hewn timber that made up the walls Alissa used to scribble on as a child. She felt a bit of nostalgia when she closed the door behind her to leave the only place she’d ever called home, walking into the unknown for the first time.
Alissa took Dhalia to the Weller’s place, where Freyah’s parents would be expecting them. She walked the whole path holding back the tears that threatened to surrender to her anguish, her hand attached to her child’s as if they were inseparable. Alissa couldn’t help but wonder if she had gone completely mad, possibly walking toward death as her father once did.
Mrs. Weller received them by the doorway, and the woman’s arms enveloped Alissa in a warm hug.
“Good luck on your journey, my child,” she whispered in her ear. “We’ll take good care of her.” Alissa frowned. She wasn’t expecting Mrs. Weller to know anything about her plans to leave. She blamed Freyah and her big mouth for it.
Her concerns evaporated when she realized this was the moment to say goodbye. An abrupt wave of despair and regret washed over her as she knelt to look into her child’s innocent eyes.
“I will be away for a while, sweetheart,” she spoke, her voice breaking as she gently traced her fingers down the little girl’s golden locks.
“Will I sleep here tonight, Mommy?” Dhalia asked in a sweet voice.
Alissa forced a smile, trying to shake the tightness in her chest away. “Yes, baby. But I will be gone for a while longer. Freyah and her parents will take care of you.” She avoided the child’s gaze so as not to break down in sobs.
“When will you be back?”
“Before you know it,” was all Alissa managed to say, her eyes shimmering with tears.
While she looked at her girl, she felt everything. She felt sadness that began in her heart and welled up to her eyes. She felt revolted enough to break the world in two. And although terror made her legs tremble, she was also determined. Most of all, she felt the sharp pain of being away from her girl in the little time she had left to live. Days that were more precious to her than any treasure would ever be. Days when she would miss moments she could never have back.
It’s not fair.
It really wasn’t.
It wasn’t fair that to save her daughter’s life, she would have to be apart from her in those last days. What if she couldn’t return in time? What if she left, and by the time she was back, Dhalia would be long gone and buried?
That was Alissa’s biggest fear: losing her daughter and whatever time they still had left together in a failed attempt to save her. She almost gave up on leaving when her brain was filled with terrible scenarios, her mind collapsing for every intrusive thought.
I can’t leave her.
That was until her attention flipped back to the black and white sparkling threads that still flew around Dhalia, slowly stealing her life.
There was a particular cruelty to moments like this, when life presented two paths so different from one another. These were the moments that would determine what the rest of their lives would become. Each path held a future that would only be known if she chose to follow it. She would only know if she’d made the right choice when it’d be too late to turn back. Trapped in Bryniard, Alissa had never before faced a moment where asingle decision could alter the course of her life and that of her loved ones.
Was this a suicide mission? Could there be another way to save Dhalia’s life?