at the task, it had been a while since he’d managed it.
Sarah stood there, unsure if she should stab him whilst he was otherwise occupied or let out the shuddering breath she was still holding.
He was alive. She was slightly surprised to find out how relieved she was by that fact.
She was still trying to master her rampaging emotions—and recover from the fright he’d given her—when he finally splashed water on his face, dragged his hands through his hair, then rose and turned to look at her. His face was so deep in shadows, she couldn’t see his expression. He wasn’t bursting into tears or pulling her into a joyful embrace.He wasn’t doing anything save standing there with his arms folded over his chest.
“I thought you were dead,” she managed weakly. “How did you—”
“I don’t suppose you brought any food,” he interrupted coldly.
She blinked in surprise at his tone. “Well, actually, nay—”
“I imagined not, but never mind,” he said, taking hold of her good arm. “I don’t have enough myself for even a pair of days. You’ll see to earning meals if we’re fortunate enough to find farms along our road.”
She found herself stumbling alongside him as he pulled her away from the river. She was dumbfounded—nay, appalled—not only by the unfriendliness of his tone but the roughness of his grip. It was as if none of their previous journey had taken place. Instead of Ruith, she was now facing that gruff, intimidating mage she’d first met as she’d been desperate enough to brave his front door to beg for aid.
“What is wrong with you?” she managed, trying to pull her arm away.
“Be silent,” he said harshly.
“I don’t understand—”
“Of course you don’t,” he said curtly. “No matter. I’ll explain it to you in simple terms as we go, that you might. Now, come along, wench, and don’t argue with me.”
She would have pulled away and plowed her fist into his face, but she wasn’t a brawling sort of gel. That and since it was too dark to see him properly, she feared she might miss.
“Need aid with your slurs along with your spells?” he taunted, the sneer plain in his voice.
“I ... I ...” She groped for something useful to say, but couldn’t find anything. She continued with him only because he didn’t give her any choice. She was so surprised at what he’d said—and how he’d said it—that she didn’t think to stop walking until they were free of the trees and out in the open. The moon gave no light, but that was because it was obscured by a healthy collection of rain clouds.
Sarah slipped as she tried to jerk away from Ruith. She found her feet and whirled on him, fully intending to give him back as good as he’d given—
Only she felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up.
There was something in the trees behind them. Or someone, rather.
Ruith pulled her along with him. “Don’t dawdle,” he said sharply.
Her desire to stab him was quite suddenly and fully eclipsed by an intense desire to flee. She would have, but Ruith seemed determined to keep her beside him. She imagined that was so she could shovel a bit of manure at their next stop so he could have something to eat.
She began to wonder if she’d strayed into a waking nightmare. She was only hours into a journey across an endless plain with no gold, no food, and no means of protecting herself. She was being followed by something whose menace she could feel from where she stood—or stumbled, rather. And then, as if that wasn’t enough, she had been reunited with a man whose loss she had been fully prepared to mourn greatly only to find that he had become easily the most arrogant, unfeeling, unpleasant lout—
“Hurry,” he snapped.
She did, because he gave her no choice. She immediately discarded the thought of running away from him. If she did, the shadow behind her might follow her, and then she would be dead. If Ruith noticed anything, he was either too tight-lipped to say as much, or he didn’t care. She wasn’t sure which it was, nor was she sure she cared to know.
She just knew she didn’t want any more of the things that made up his life.
She trotted alongside him, numb from what he’d said to her and too unsettled to even attempt to muster up enough energy to tell him to take himself and his rude words and go to hell,