Eliona's War 2: Veiled Healer

Chapter 74

Time Elapsed: 02:03:56

Maun took him to a familiar location.

The heat, sand and crumbling ruins were all Severance needed to recognize the place. He'd spent a lot of time with Batin here, though the majority of it had been under the heat of day. Now the sun was about to set, casting long shadows across cooling sands.

Clan members waited for them like dark wraiths. They stood motionless, silent, with only the evening breeze whispering through their clothing. Their faces were shadowed by the approaching dusk.

But Severance didn't need to see their faces to recognize them; he could see their names: Kamau, the gruff man in charge of clan 'security', and a man named Kioshi.

Kioshi was probably the most scarred man he had ever seen. The mangled flesh of half his face put even Hassiba's battle scar to shame. Thankfully the lighting was poor, so Severance wasn't able to see much of it.

There were two other people there. They were kneeling in the sand, hands bound behind their backs and a dark hood pulled over their heads. He blinked, suddenly unsure.

Prisoners?

"What's going on?" he asked.

Maun moved past him to stand near the captives. When he turned to face Severance, all hints of amusement had been scrubbed away.

"Do you remember what you agreed to help us with?"

For a blissful, ignorant moment, Severance's mind drew a blank. What was Maun talking about? He hadn't agreed to anything, had he? He looked at the hooded prisoners. Two of them, bound and held in an unknown, isolated place deep in the Lost Lands. Then he looked at the three Veiled men, all grim and serious.

And then he knew.

He knew why they were here.

They wanted to— they wanted him to— his mind filled with fuzz. He remembered the discussion, remembered agreeing, but never had he thought this moment would come so soon. He wasn't ready!

You promised, a tiny voice whispered. It was a quiet, soft reminder, but it might as well have been loud as a giant church bell ringing right overhead. It felt like cold shackles of iron snapping shut around his wrists, binding him a prisoner to his promise.

Something must have shown on his face, for Maun cocked his head. "Sev, if you-"

Severance shook his head sharply. Maun fell silent. Somehow, Severance made himself take a single step forward, and then another, getting closer to his clansmen and their captives. Each step felt like walking out on thinning ice, cracks splintering out as far as the eye could see.

A promise was a promise. No matter what.

"I remember," he said.

Thankfully, Maun only gave a curt nod in response. He turned to one of the prisoners, and grasped the hood. "We'll start with this one."

With one sharp yank, he pulled the hood off, revealing a thin, feeble old man.

Severance forgot how to breathe.

The old man lifted his head, ratty hair hanging in strings about his face. His creepy gaze found Severance, and cracked lips peeled back to reveal a chilling grin. Blood bubbled out of his mouth, adding to the growing stain of crimson that soaked his chin and the entire front of his soiled clothes.

A quiet cackle shattered the silence, as if Ervante found this situation to be completely hilarious.

Severance couldn't look away, even though he wanted nothing more than to turn and run at the sight of the Trader. It didn't matter that Ervante looked like he was a walking corpse. Seeing him like this was even more horrifying.