Fugitive of the Sky

Chapter Seventeen: Maybe, Adonai...

It was a long time with a lot of shouting before anyone came back into the room. Aqie peeked every so often to check on the door. The steam rising from the bowls slowly disappeared. Eventually, the not-so-bent man came and cleared the bowls away, then knelt beside her and quietly introduced himself as Tanik, Enek being his slave name.

Because he was a slave and slaves were not treated nicely like the Larkwings, Aqie let him gently pry the hunter's bag away from her and unwrap the strips around her chest. It hurt a lot when he poked her ribs, but she was tired of crying so she only gasped a little bit. He carefully checked all the bandages, cuts, and bruises, and even daubed a little bit of ointment on Aqie's head. Then he gathered her and the hunter's bag up and took her through a door, down some stairs, and left her in a dark room. Despite it being completely black and having lots of strange, conflicting smells, Aqie fell asleep.

Bright light and noise made her feel woozy, so it took her several seconds to wake up and realize someone was clomping down the stairs with a candle. She groaned and made to curl up, but her ribs protested and Aqie realized she was already curled up on the floor.

The clomping slowed and stopped. "Little girl?"

Aqie blinked slowly, avoiding the flame making glaring light dance on the floor in front of her. Her thoughts were still muddy and she couldn't quite place where she was or why the voice was familiar. The floor was cold and mostly even, so it couldn't be the forest floor. Was she in a cave?

The light came closer and paused over her, inspecting her arm, her chest, her head, and the bruises on her legs. "Good. Enek did tend to your wounds."

The hunters. Aqie closed her eyes as the pain washed over her. It didn't seem to hurt less each time, only more even. The hunter had told her it would get less, but it wasn't. It still hurt just as much that Mom and Dad were dead. She tried to sob, but her nose was plugged and it got stuck in her throat.

Her hunter sat down, putting the candle to the side, and set a bowl down in front of her. The candlelight made fascinating shadows on his face like fires had done on Dad's face as he told stories from the Scrolls at night. He cleared his throat. "I'm— I'm sorry you had to see that. Maru and I don't fight often, but taking you on after Natik died, a Larkwing, that was too much." He cleared his throat again and swallowed.

Natik. Right, her hunter had someone die that he loved recently too. He was sad and hurting too, like she was. Aqie uncurled and put one hand on his knee. "My Mom and Dad used to fight sometimes, too," she whispered, her voice not wanting to work, "but they did it quietly. I didn't like it." She thought of the way Mom and Dad sounded when they'd talked about the hunters and the war.

Her hunter hesitated, then put a tentative hand over hers. "I'm sorry," he said again.

Aqie drew her hand back, then regretted it. She wanted someone to hug her, to hug and rock and comfort her and not let go. She was tired of crying and feeling hurt and betrayed. But how could she trust him after he'd taken a piece of her kaprae? "Why?" she blurted. "Why did you take a piece of my kaprae?" Her eyes watered and she blinked them away. Her throat was getting tight again and she'd barely woken up. Wouldn't the pain from the chasm ever stop?

The hunter sighed, long and hard and frustrated and hurt. "I had t—" he cut himself off and growled a little. Aqie shrank back. He sounded like the other hunters when he growled. Did that mean he was angry? At her? Would he kill her, or worse, take her kaprae? What for? What had she done?

He struggled with himself for a long moment. "Do you know anything about debt?"

"Debt?"

The hunter looked around vaguely, as if something could help him explain. "It's when... Well... Firot, the man I talked to, he wanted money and I owed him, but he wouldn't wait until I could get more, so I had to give him something that was worth a lot. I know you didn't want to lose your cape. That's why I only took a corner of it." His face pinched, like he wasn't saying something else.