Ander - Part 1: Subchapter 33
33
Kiana didn't think they would be able to cross that river, but they did. She didn't want him to try that plan with his arms all mangled, but he wouldn't listen. Just kept saying "We have no choice."
Ander's plan worked just as expected, of course, even with his injuries. He lassoed a heavy boulder on the opposite bank, tied the other end around their waists, and the current simply arced them over to the other side. Getting out again was more of a challenge, but the bank on that side wasn't quite as steep, and the current was already starting to slow down in the absence of rain.
Even so, Kiana suspected there was something more at work here. The way he climbed up the mountain to reach the pass, leaving bloody handprints in his wake, all while carrying her on his back...
He was doing it all so that he wouldn't have to think. Because stopping, even for a second, would invite a flood of fresh memories, memories he simply couldn't face. Not yet.
When they finally made it out of that tear in the mountain, Kiana was greeted with a view of her people's valley she thought she never would have seen again. The winding paths lined with rows of juniper bushes, snaking their way through the rolling hills randomly dotted with trees of apple and orange, the long, green grass rippling with the wind. And somewhere, over the crest of one of those hills...
Her village... her home...
Her family.
How she could have abandoned it in the first place now seemed almost blasphemous.
"You can let me down now, Ander," she said, eager to walk these hills once again, and also to stop being such a burden on him.
"But your leg?"
"I'll just lean on you."
Ander set her down on her good foot so she could lean against him like a crutch. It was slow going at first, but they quickly adjusted to each other's movements.
Kiana was getting worried about him. They made bandages for his arms by tearing her cloak into strips, but they were already starting to get tacky. He was still bleeding under there, and although he was trying his best to hide it, you'd have to be blind not to notice how he was struggling. His breathing was slow and laboured, and his shoulders were slumped in abjection. Every so often he would stop and sway on the spot, as if teetering on the edge of unconsciousness, but he'd just give his head a little shake and soldier on, always, despite Kiana's insistence on stopping for a rest.
Eventually, they made it to the top of the third hill, and there it was, spread out before them like a beacon: Grovenglen, with its patchwork ring of farms on the outside and grid of sturdy cottages on the inside, pinpricks of warm candlelight still shining from some of the windows, it was the most beautiful scene Kiana had ever known. For the first time since leaving her home, she felt safe.
She tugged on Ander's vest, but he stubbornly refused to take another step. "Ander?" she said, worried that he might be suffering from another of his woozy spells. "What's wrong?"
He looked down at her, so tired, and said, "This is as far as I can take you, Kiana. I'm done."
"You're done? What do you mean, you're done?"
"You should be safe here for now. They'll find you."
"You're just going to leave me here!?"
"That was the plan, remember?"
"But! Things were different back then!"
"Very different." Ander agreed. "I'm sorry, Kiana. I have to go."
With that, he turned around and started walking back the way they came, leaving Kiana practically stranded, balancing on one foot, staring after him with her mouth slightly agape. It didn't take her long to find her voice again, though.
"Where!?" she screamed after him. "Where will you go? Answer me that."
Ander stopped, but he didn't turn around. He just stood there, looking at the mountain. "I don't know," he said. "Home?"
"Home? Do you even realize what you're saying? Ander, you told me they might kill you just for saving me! Do you really think that after what happened with your brother they'd just welcome you back with open arms and pretend like nothing's wrong?"
"Maybe if I explain what happened -"
"I can't believe what I'm hearing! You really do live in a fantasy world, don't you? After all the years you've spent inside those walls, can you look me in the eye and tell me they won't grab you and kill you the moment you show your face?"
Ander sighed. "No."
"Then why are we even having this discussion?"
"I know my people better than you do, Kiana. Everything you saw was merely a glimpse, horrific though it was. I know what they'll do to me."
"Then why? If you realize that, then why?"
Ander didn't say anything, but he didn't have to. Understanding dawned upon her like the sun just starting to tint the Eastern horizon.
"Oh no," she said, hopping her way over to him like a child playing squares. "No, no, no! Here I thought you were clever, but that is the stupidest, most moronic, idiotic, nonsensical thing I've ever heard! Are you trying to get yourself killed!?"
"Maybe it's what I deserve."
"Look at me! I said look at me, dammit!" She seized Ander by the shoulder and spun him around. Acting quickly, before she could change her mind, she slapped him across the face. In the eerie silence before dawn, the sound seemed to echo throughout the entire valley. "Don't you say that! Don't you ever say that!"
Ander didn't so much as flinch. She supposed her little slap was nothing compared to one of Banno's punches, but the sad, defeated look on his face just made her want to slap him again.
"Listen, I don't know what kind of relationship you had with that... brother of yours. But I do know he was a vile, ruthless murderer."
"Yeah? That's something he and I have in common now. It may have taken twenty-three long years, but at the very end, he was right about me. I'm not so different after all."
"You are nothing like him! He killed for pleasure! You killed to protect the ones you care about! If that doesn't set you apart then I don't know what does!"
"And how would you know!? How long have we known each other? Exactly one day! One! What makes you think you suddenly know everything about me? About who I really am inside? How can you know something like that when even I don't!?"
Ignoring his outburst, Kiana took his hands. She was still surprised by how big they were. "I just do."
Ander looked down at her, and she looked up at him. "You saved my life tonight," she said. "More than once. Now, let me save yours."
"Kiana..."
"I won't let you go back."
"But there's no other place for me."
"Your place is here..." Kiana placed his hands on her shoulders, then wound her arms around his neck. "With me..."
She started to lean in close, her heart beating so hard she could feel it throbbing in her cut ankle, but that dull ache was nothing compared to the nerves tying a knot in her stomach. What was she thinking!? It was too late to back away now, but what if he doesn't return her affections? By the gods, she didn't even know if kissing was a thing Wolves even did! What if he just stands there, trying to puzzle out what the hell she was doing? Worse still, what if he pushes her away? Or what if -
That's when she realized he was leaning in, too. This is going to happen! By the gods!
Kiana closed her eyes. She could feel the distance between them shrinking, could feel them coming closer in more ways than just the physical. She could feel... his hands... painfully squeezing her shoulders?
She opened her eyes, but Ander was nowhere near kissing distance anymore. His head was straight up, his ears swivelling around. He sniffed the air while his eyes darted left and right.
"Ander? Ow, you're hurting -"
"Shh!"
With barely a rustle, a dark figure emerged from the juniper bushes, his face obscured by a green cowl. Even so, Kiana would recognize him anywhere. The crossbow he held in his hands was a dead giveaway.
"Get behind me!" Ander tried to cover her with his body, but this only seemed to infuriate the newcomer even more.
"You get your filthy hands off my fiancé!" He raised his crossbow, aiming it directly at Ander's heart.
"Mateo! Wait!"
It was already too late. She could see what was about to happen an instant before it did, like a cruel premonition. She could see Ander lying on the ground with a bolt sticking out of his chest, gasping for breath. She could see him turn his head to face her, blood flowing from the corners of his mouth. "It's what I deserve..." She could see the light leave his eyes, could see them go dull and lifeless. A debt paid he did not owe.
No. No! She won't let that happen!
Kiana slipped out from Ander's grasp (with his arms all bandaged up, he simply couldn't keep a hold of her) and shifted herself between him and her fiancée just as he pulled the trigger. It happened in an instant, but to her, that instant lasted an eternity, as does the final moments for us all.
She could see the string straighten out with a twang as the locking mechanism was released, driving the bolt forward with deadly speed. She could see Mateo's eyes widen in shock as he realized what she was doing. She could see the bolt itself, lazily spinning through the air. Flying straight at her, it looked like a perfectly round circle of steel, steadily growing larger and larger until it would blot out the world.
Forever.
She closed her eyes.
I sat for hours trying to come up with a name for this damn place. Eventually I just said, "Screw it! It's a lightly wooded valley, so I'll just call it that!" So I took a word for "small wood" (grove) and combined it with a word for "narrow valley" (glen) to create "Grovenglen." Not the best name, I know, but at least now I can get on with the story. :P
This has been the 33rd subchapter in my serial novel, "Ander". If you enjoyed it, please help keep my face un-mauled by irritable ostriches by dropping me a donation. Thank you! ^_^
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