Broken Aro (The Broken Ones) (18 page)

"Try to rest. We will need to leave camp and you
will have to walk then."

She nodded against his shoulder. She knew he wasn't
being mean. They would all have to carry everything they could, that wasn't
much, but would still weigh them down, and now they didn't have Kei to help
either.

The others met them before she and Prince reached the
camp. Their loud exclamations hurt her head and she gritted her teeth again.
Prince did the talking, explaining what he could about what had happened.

He didn't stop once they entered the camp, but headed
directly for the stream, telling the others about the slavers and instructing
them to start packing up as he walked. She barely heard most of the
conversation, her mind didn't want to work. Too many emotions bounced around in
her head. Too many memories. Much of what had happened was a blur. Too much of
it wasn't.

He set her down by the edge of the water and she shook
her head. "We don't have time."

He frowned at her. "We do. You need to clean your
wounds and wash off the blood."

She did as she was told, silently and carefully but as
quickly as she could. Prince washed her blood off of his hands and left for a
moment, returning with one of his spare pieces of cloth. He used it to wash his
face and neck where her bloody hands had left red smears. He wet it again and
turned it on her.

He paused after gently dabbing at her face for a
while. "Aro. Did..."

She looked up at him through the eye that wasn't
swollen shut. "What?"

He looked down and took a deep breath. "Did they
rape you?"

She stared at him for a long time before looking away.
Yes, he'd fixed her clothes hadn't he, when he'd first taken her into his arms.
Her cheeks flushed. She lowered her head. "No," she whispered. "Not...they
didn't get that far." They had been close though…so close. Her breath
shuddered out of her and she tried to focus on anything else.

His face softened as he let out a relieved breath. He
ran the back of his fingers gently down the side of her face that wasn't beaten
bloody. "Good. I apologize for not getting there sooner."

She looked away and bowed her head again. She suddenly
felt the need to explain. "I went to pee, and got turned around." She
let out a deep breath. "I'm sorry you had to come and save me." Her felt
her eyes tear up "And Kei...I lost Kei again." The tears started
falling again.

He silently wiped them away with the blood.

* * *

It didn't take the men long to pack up the camp. They
didn't give her anything to carry. For that, she was extremely thankful. She
trudged along at the back of the line they made as they picked their way along
a narrow animal trail that at least for now ran parallel to the stream. They
headed west, the only way they could go really. North would bring them to the
slavers cities, east back to the beach where more slavers searched for them. She
didn't know if south should be the direction they traveled. Perhaps, but none
of them knew what lay in that direction.

She knew they were in serious trouble. Not only were
they running from slavers, they had no provisions or weapons, and had no idea
even where on the coast they had come ashore. She sighed and winced suddenly as
she stumbled and pain shot through her. She wrapped her arms tighter around
herself and continued putting one foot carefully in front of the other.

As the pain grew worse despite her careful steps,
tears again began to trickle down her cheeks. She kept her face lowered, hiding
behind her hair and trying not to think about how much she hurt and what the
slavers had done. She concentrated on how hungry she was. They had eaten the
night before but it hadn't been much. It was never enough. She always wanted
more, always felt so hungry. Her brothers would certainly make a joke about her
growing right about now.

She wanted to close her eyes against the pain and the
hunger. She knew she couldn't. If she even blinked, or let her mind wander in
the slightest, the memories came crashing down on her.

"How are you doing, Aro?" Bo's voice came
from somewhere ahead of her.

"Fine," she managed through gritted teeth.
The sound of his loud voice pierced her throbbing skull like daggers.

"Aro?" He hadn't heard her.

"Fine!" She didn't mean to snap at him, but
she really wished he'd just be quiet.

Prince stopped in front of her, forcing her to stop as
well. She cursed under her breath. Stopping wasn't good. She didn't know if she
could get herself going again.

He turned and bridged the few steps between them to
rest a trembling hand on her shoulder. No wait, she was the one trembling.
Shaking actually. Yes, stopping had definitely been a bad idea. She squeezed
closed the eye that wasn't swollen shut already as the trees started spinning
around her. "Wither me."

"You need to rest," Prince said quietly. His
soft, quiet voice didn't hurt her head at least.

Shaking it in response to him did, and she knew she
was about to throw up again. She managed to turn off the trail and drop
painfully to her hands and knees rather than hit his expensive boots.

As before, he knelt beside her, holding back her ragged
hair and not making a sound. Wasn't he supposed to make soothing noises or something?
She wanted to hit him.

She had very little to throw up other than water and
bile and finished more quickly this time. She stayed on her hands and knees,
not wanting to lie down even though her body shook so hard she thought she
might break apart into a million pieces. She had to get up. She had to keep
moving.

She sat back on her heels and covered her face with
her hands, trying to regain any kind of control. She heard the shifting of the
others close by. Perfect. Now they'd all seen her.

Not that it really mattered. Who were they to her? Allen
and Garic had betrayed them. Because of them the slavers had come looking and
had found her. She had trusted Kei and he had turned into a monster. She had
trusted Prince, but now she knew such an idea to be her dumbest yet. He was a
prince. Of course he would always save himself first. And the others? She
raised her head to look at them as she lowered her hands. Would they betray her
as well? Most likely, if given the chance. Luckily they still did not know her
only secret; that she wasn't a boy at all. Because of the slavers, she
understood how important keeping up the ruse was.

She pushed herself to her feet, turning away from Prince
when he tried to help her stand. "I'm fine. Keep going." They started
to argue and she glared at them, "I'm fine!" She stumbled a few steps
but they parted silently and followed as she headed down the trail again.

The anger kept her going for a while before her steps
slowed noticeably and tears started falling again. Not so much because of the
pain, but because exhaustion from everything that had happened was wearing her
down. She could hardly keep her eye open.

"Aro, we're stopping for a while," Bo called
up to her.

She turned quickly, the anger rising again. "Do
not pity me!"

Avery walked up and smiled slightly, nodding his head
to indicate something behind her. "The trail is starting to veer away from
the stream. We're stopping to decide what we want to do."

She felt like an idiot for getting the wrong idea. It
didn't help her sudden anger. Just to make things complicated she was also
angry no one seemed to be worried about her. Memories of the Were came to her
then. With everything that had happened, the encounter with one of the creatures
she'd only heard stories about had completely slipped her mind. He had called
her stupid. Right then, she agreed.

She crossed her arms and followed him back a few
steps. She didn't sit with the others, but found a tree to lean against and
crossed her arms, trying to hold the pain and the anger in.

Too many emotions pounded through her, screaming and
wrenching, fighting for dominance. She couldn't control them or even make sense
of them all. She shuddered, pain lancing through every part of her. Images and
snips of voices flashed through her head. Terrifying images, horrible words. Fear
held her frozen. Couldn't escape them.

Her thoughts shifted, twisted, balanced on the edge,
ready to break. Something snapped inside of her...all of her feelings tumbled
and broke and...warped into one solid thing.

Anger.

It filled her, every part of her. Her shallow
breathing sped up. She hated the Gelanians for attacking her country. She hated
the Frans for taking her as a slave. They'd destroyed her life. They'd helped
destroy her home. They'd taken or killed her family. They made her a
slave
.
Then they'd attacked her, they'd beaten her, and tried to do even more.
Filthy,
horrible men.

Her thoughts shifted again. It was their fault. The men,
always fighting, always wanting more. Always taking.

Everyone but Prince talked for a while, trying to
decide whether to stay on the easier trail, or go through the brush and keep to
the stream. She watched Prince for a while. He didn't add to the discussion, he
didn't do anything. So like the nobility.

Something tickled at her brain, for a moment pushing
away the anger. Little things she'd hardly noticed edged forward, how he'd
known so much about the slavers and what would happen when they reached port.
She stood up a little straighter. He'd known how to survive here, what to eat.
She'd trusted him blindly on what was safe from the sea, even though much of
what he'd fed her hadn't been familiar. He'd made that strange healing paste
from plants in the forest. They were on a different continent, how could he
know these things? The answer was obvious and brought forth her anger once
more. He'd been using them, for what she didn't know.

The other men continued their debate, growing
frustrated as it became clearer they had no idea what to do.

"Just ask Prince," she finally snapped. She
wanted to get moving whatever they choose to do. Sleep had begun pulling at
her, and the last thing she wanted to do was close her eyes and dream.

Every one of them looked up at her in surprise.

Bo looked over at Prince and then back to her. "What
do you mean?"

She grimaced and looked away, specifically avoiding
Prince's eyes. What if she was wrong? "I think he's from here, these
lands. He should know something at least."

Her words caused more of a ruckus than she'd thought
they would. She grimaced at all the noise, moved her hands to her head, and tried
to hold her brains inside.

"Is this true?"

Prince pressed his lips together angrily, but nodded.

Everyone started yelling at once.

"Very well," Prince eventually snarled. "If
you will all be quiet I'll tell you what I know." Everyone thankfully grew
quiet immediately.

He picked up a stick and leaned forward, flashing an
angry glare at her before looking down at the bare trail before him. He started
drawing lines in the dirt with quick, efficient strokes. "The shoreline.
Running from north to south here, mountains." He paused and looked up at
the others. "Don't think of crossing them, they aren't passable. They are
to be avoided. If you think the forests are full of nasty creatures, the
mountains are much worse."

He drew few more lines. "The north is held by the
Frans. Their border extends to here." He drew another line. "The
southernmost part of their lands is forest that extends to the sea. The border
is marked by the tree-line." He pointed further down, and drew another
line cutting the land between the mountains and the shoreline in uneven halves.
He tapped the larger space next to the mountains. "The forests. They are
inhabited by the Were, the Fey, and creatures that come down from the
mountains. Humans are not permitted in them. Stone markers show the borders, as
some forest had been granted to them when they first settled here. Mostly
everything has been cut and cleared. A few were smart enough to leave some for
hunting and foraging. Some even replanted."

Avery pointed to the other area. "So this is
where the people are. Are they split into countries?"

Prince shook his head. "Not as such. The whole
area is divided into many small city states. Each has a small walled city and
its ruling prince. Few live beyond the walls, the odd farmstead. It is mostly
crops and pasture-land."

"Why the walls?" Bo asked.

"To keep the monsters out," Prince answered
with a faint smile. "Mostly they are all fighting each other over land."
He drew a line down the center of the humans land. "There is one main road
that connects them all. It even runs up into Franua. We should be coming across
it soon."

Bo and Cain regarded each other quietly for a moment.

"We should find that road," Cain decided and
Bo nodded his agreement.

Avery turned to Prince. "Do you think we are
still in Franua?"

Prince nodded. "The forest still runs to the
shoreline, so yes. How far in, I don't know."

"How bad are the winters here?"