The Boy in the Field (9 page)

You pulled on the boots. “What about Noah? And your mother?”

“If we find him, we’ll take him, but we’ll all be killed or
worse if we stay.” Ethan grabbed your hand and pulled you to the window. “Come
on.”

The streets outside were full of people, running, fighting,
screaming. Ethan kept you away from them, scrambling between gardens and under
hedgerows. Branches snagged at your bare legs and caught on your clothes as you
fought your way through, all the while searching desperately for some sign that
Noah was still alive.

Eventually, you were out of the town and on the road to the
dilapidated old house you once called a home. It seemed the perfect hiding
place, already fallen into disrepair – the kind of place nobody would bother to
attack. You hoped Noah would know to look for you there.

You pushed the door open, the lock busted. The empty rooms were
cold and quiet as you crept between them, avoiding the creaky and rotting
floorboards. You gathered fusty blankets from the bedrooms, huddling beneath
them under the kitchen table. Ethan pulled you close to him, stroking your
shoulder as you cried.

“What if I never see him again?” you whispered.

“Don’t think like that.”

“But what if he gets killed? What if I never get to tell him—?”

“We’ll look for him in the morning. And if we don’t find him,
I’ll look after you until we do. Anyway, tell him what?”

Choice:
48. “I’m Pregnant”
or
49. “I Love
Him”

You fetched several buckets of water and pulled all of the
greens around the therin fields, bringing back any food you could find. There
was always someone watching though. You just kept working until they stopped.
Then, you ran.

You thumped on every door that you ran past, trying your
hardest to wake anyone or everyone on your way to the Wicker household. If you
only saved them, it would make the whole deal worthwhile. By the time you got
there, half the street was shouting at you and you were shouting back about the
Taatars. Noah and Ethan were both hanging out of the window at the front of the
house, watching you making your scene.

“What’s going on?” Ethan asked.

“Did you say Taatars?” asked Noah.

“Yeah,” you shouted back. “You need to get out of town – warn
people. They’re coming soon. Real soon.”

You looked over your shoulder. Behind you, a long way down the
road, you saw two figures running, coming for you. They wore ill-fitting
clothes, but clothes you recognised, clothes that had come from the wardrobes
in your own house.

“Run!” you shouted, not looking back again as you fled.

Instruction:
92. Epilogue I

You went backwards and forwards between the house and the well
all night. You searched every cupboard in the kitchen for food and spend every
stationary moment pressed against the hot stove, boiling rice and beans or
vegetables. You suspected that your father would have played the same role if
he were still alive.

By the morning, you were exhausted, but the work didn’t stop
even as many of the Taatars slept. The woman kept you busy, questioning you
about exactly how the town was defended, where the public buildings were
situated, which streets housed the most people and which roads were least used.

You realised what they were doing, keeping you occupied so that
you couldn’t warn anyone of their intentions. From the outside, the house
looked the same as ever, the windows blacked out by heavy cloth and the
fireplace cold. Only a close inspection would reveal the eyes at the windows,
ready to pounce on anyone who came too close – or who tried to run.

When they began their assault, they took you with them. Keeping
you close ensured you couldn’t fetch assistance and having a young woman for a
hostage would only help them; if anyone in the town tried to resist, you would
be the first to pay.

They were swift, effective and brutal. They moved street by
street, busting down doors and dragging the sleeping inhabitants from their
beds. The noise soon caused chaos and panic – disorder that the Taatars used to
their advantage. Any man who tried to resist was disarmed or injured and forced
up against the side of a building, the family he was protecting corralled into
the street, separated from one another. Nothing you could do would stop it.

Ethan was amongst the fighters and you cried out when you saw
him being stood up against the wall, blood dripping from a gash across his
face. The man holding you repositioned his knife and pulled your hair. You
heard someone cry out and then felt an impact like a charging bull, sweeping
you and the man from your feet. You flailed, trying to free your arms and save
yourself. Your head hit the cobbles and everything blurred.

* * *

The morning sun roused you from your unconsciousness.
Something heavy lay against your back. You lifted your head and looked around.
The streets were deserted. No Taatars. No hostages. Nobody.

Except behind you. As you tried to get up, a sharp cry of pain
filled your ear, making you flinch.

“Please! Don’t move!” It said.

“Ethan?” You recognised the voice and remembered seeing his
face in the night.

“Noah. Please don’t move.”

You lay down once more. You could feel him now, slumped against
you, his arm draped limply over your waist.

“What happened?”

“They took everyone. All of them.”

“To you, Noah. What happened to you?”

“I can’t move.” Each breath he took caught in his throat.

He snorted. “I thought the man was going to kill you. I think
both my legs are broken. Maybe my arm. Maybe my ribs. I need help.”

“This is going to hurt,” you said, looking up without moving.
“But it’s the only way. Roll onto your back.”

Noah screamed as he followed your instruction, half-deafening
you in the process. Once he was still, his chest heaved and his eyes streamed.
You sat up, taking note of your surroundings and drawing a map in your head.
There was a pharmacy a few streets away. It would only take you a few minutes
to get there and back, but Noah looked weak and wouldn’t be able to defend
himself if anything happened.

Choice:
93. Find A Medic
or
94. Stay With Noah

“I’m pregnant.” You sighed. “I was supposed to be, you know…
but I’m not…”

Ethan frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I’m due. But I’m late.”

Ethan’s eyebrows rose and his jaw fell open. “With Noah?”

You nodded.

“I knew you were close, but I didn’t think—he didn’t tell me.”
He closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the wall. “Please tell me
this isn't happening. Tell me you’re joking. I can't have run away with my
brother's pregnant girlfriend.”

“I think so.” You shook your head. “Ethan, what do I do?”

“Well, you've got two options. We go back and look for him and,
if we’re not killed and he’s still alive, we tell him. Or we keep running and
hope that somehow, he’ll find us.” He shook his head. “And we hope he
understands when he does.”

Choice:
73. Go Back For Noah
or
74. Keep
Running

“I love him.” You sighed. “I never said it. And I’ll never
know if he… I didn’t…” You shook your head. “What if he doesn’t?”

“I’ll tell you a secret,” he replied. “We both love you.”

“What?”

“You’re like a sister to me. Anyone that ever hurt you… I’d
punch them in the face.”

You wrapped your arms around yourself, pulling the blanket
tight. “Yeah. I was worried you’d say that.”

“Everything is going to be okay,” he said. “We’ll go to Kinta.
We’ll be safe. The King will have hundreds of soldiers around the city. You’ll
see.”

“And what about Noah?”

“If he survives, he will find us. Don’t worry.” He put his arm
around you. “We’ll wait until tomorrow and then we’ll leave. Okay?”

* * *

Ethan was right and he was wrong. Kinta was full of soldiers
but they weren’t all from the Kinel army. They weren’t Taatars either. They
were Serlorans, troops sent from the Empire to the north. Part of you was glad
your country had support but Ethan seemed unsure.

“We should fight back before Kinel becomes nothing more than
another suburb of Serlora,” he said. “The papers are saying it’s just a quiet
invasion. They’ll push the Taatars back and then they’ll never leave, saying we
can’t cope by ourselves.” He handed you the paper. “There’s a group called the
Liberationists. They’re fighting back against the Serlorans. We should help
them.”

You scanned the article in the paper. “It’s dangerous, Ethan.
Do you know how much the Serlorans are paying for information on the
Liberationists? And that the King doesn’t support them? We’d be much better off
on that side of the fight.”

Ethan shook his head. “We need to think about what’s right, not
what pays.”

Choice:
59. Become a
Liberationist
or
60. Become a Hunter

“I’m pregnant.” You sighed. “I was supposed to be, you know…
but I’m not…”

Ethan frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I’m due. But I’m late.”

Ethan’s eyebrows rose and his jaw fell open. “With Noah?”

You nodded.

“I knew you were close, but I didn’t think—he didn’t tell me.”
He closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the wall. “Please tell me
this isn't happening. Tell me you’re joking. I can't have run away with my
brother's pregnant girlfriend.”

“I think so.” You shook your head. “Ethan, what do I do?”

Ethan sighed and stood up, leaving you on the floor while he
looked out of the window. “I don’t know. If you get killed because of me…” He
shook his head. “It’s dangerous out there. Right now, we’re alive and if we
keep moving, we’ll stay alive. If we go back…” He swallowed and moved away from
the window, returning to your side. “If we go back, we’ll almost certain be
killed. And if we’re not, he might have been. They were Taatars. And there were
so many of them. And Noah… He’s not… I don’t think…” He fell silent.

“Just say it.”

“If he’s still alive, we won’t find him.”

Choice:
72. Keep Moving
or
73. Go Back
For Noah

“We can do it together,” he said. “We’ll join the army, we’ll
get trained up and then we can pull it down from the inside. There are still
Taatars everywhere. They still want more people. We can do this!”

“I don’t know, Ethan. It’s going to be dangerous. If we get
caught…”

“So let’s not get caught. And we’ll actually be doing something
worthwhile, something to stop what happened to us from ever happening to anyone
else.”

You stopped, thinking of Noah. “Yeah. You’re right.” You stood
up straight and smiled. “Let’s join the army.”

* * *

Training with the Serlorans was hard. Most of the Kinn soldiers
struggled to keep up with them and you and Ethan were no exception, despite
having youth on your side. Nevertheless, you pushed on, determined to do right
by your country. Kinel needed heroes and you were ready.

Being separated from Ethan was the hardest part. Although you
trained together for the first two months, you were housed in separate parts of
the city and rarely found enough free time to meet. Instead, you spoke when
your lunch breaks coincided, passing notes to one another on things you’d
overheard.

By the end of the last month’s training, Ethan had managed to
meet with other members of the Kinel Resistance. They called themselves the
Liberationists and it wasn’t only Kinel they planned to free. It was the entire
Serloran Empire.

It didn’t take long for you to convince them that your interest
was genuine and they soon had you carrying out tasks for them. They were small
to begin with, their leaders testing your loyalty, but after a few sabotaged
supply caravans, numerous eavesdrops and a few courier runs, you had their
trust and the real work began. You moved into a small, ground floor apartment
together in a building shared with the two other soldiers in your team, also
members of the resistance.

“I’ve got a job in Ethigos,” Ethan said over dinner one night.
“You will be okay while I’m gone, won’t you?”

You laughed. “You ain’t the only soldier in the house. I can
look after myself just fine.”

Ethan smiled. “I worry about you.”

“I’m a big girl, Ethan. I’ll be fine.”

* * *

He had been gone for less than an hour when you heard the key
in the door. You smiled, standing to see what he had forgotten but it wasn’t
him that you saw. Instead, it was a magister, the black armour unmistakeable.
You put your back against the wall beside the doorway, hoping that he hadn’t
seen you.

Choice:
61. Ambush Him
or
62. Escape

You, however, were not so sure it was the kind of work you
could manage. The Serlorans were weeding out resistance fighters every week,
parading them around the town as traitors to their country. The King of Kinel
allowed it too, employing hunters to find them and bring as much information as
possible to his attention.
That
was the work you wanted to do.

“Are you sure?” Ethan asked, as you told him your plan. “Why
work with Serlora? They’re colonising our country.”

You smiled. “The Kinel army is useless. They let the Taatars
invade Landia. They left us to die. If we support them, the same thing that
happened to us is going to happen to every small town on the desert border.
Perhaps every city too. If these ‘resistance fighters’ try to sabotage the
Serlorans, the Taatars will overrun us and we’ll all be living in the sand six
months from now.”

* * *

Hunting wasn’t easy. There was no official training for
hunters. You relied on your own skills and your own equipment to bring down the
marks. For the first year, all your jobs were small, more like pest control
than bounty hunting, fetching lost cats from neighbours sheds and driving stay
foxets out of gardens. But it all helped to build your reputation and as one of
the few female hunters in the city, you soon gained popularity.

You had been in the city for nearly two years when the military
council called you in for a meeting. Ethan was away on his own contract,
searching for three men linked to a spate of break-ins in the posh end of town
but you went along. The soldier you spoke to showed you a drawing of a man in
Serloran armour.

“His name is Anek Amitava,” the soldier said. “He is working
with the resistance movement calling themselves the Liberationists. He has
killed seven of our men already.”

“Then why not take him to court?” you asked.

“He is clever. The evidence he leaves points to our own men,
men we know could not have committed the crimes. That’s why we need you.”

A second man beside him slid an envelope across the table.
“Find him and stop him by any means.”

“What’s this?”You took the envelope and looked inside. It
contained enough cash to pay your rent for six months.

“For expenses,” he said. “You’ll get double when you bring him
in.”

Choice:
64. Accept the Job
or
65. Turn It
Down