Chapter 145: Shardeigh
On horseback, they travelled through the forest until the evening. Evanna and Ronan were relieved to have no difficulties on the way and even found a few corpses of the faceless creatures along the way. Evanna presumed they were left behind by Killian; their bodies still appeared to be relatively fresh. She doubted they were killed by the Flori because they would have ambushed them by now.
Evanna and Ronan now sat fireside, their weapons by their sides, eating some bread Ronan managed to steal at the camp. Side by side, they sat in comfortable silence, though there were many questions on their minds. "Are Ger and Axel safe?" Evanna asked after finishing the last of her bread.
"The last I saw of them was in Kuramji. They were unharmed at the Snake Pitt Inn," Ronan replied while using a stick to move some of the wood in the fire. Evanna nodded her head in response, once again worrying about her friends. She was so glad to see Ronan was faring well, even if he was at the mercy of the royal guard and Conrad and his men.
"And Cilv.." She mumbled unintentionally aloud.
"She.. was always going to be a liability. We knew that.." Ronan replied quietly, trying to tread carefully with the subject as he stared into the flickering orange flames.
"We needed her, you know that. Otherwise, I would have never hired her," She replied, then scoffed at herself.
Ronan twisted in his seat then grabbed Evanna’s gloved hand into his own. She looked at her hand in his and followed his arm to his face, where he watched her. "Evanna.." He squeezed her hand gently, "We really didn’t need her. You were, no are so skilful. You just needed to believe in yourself more. Look at how far you’ve come by yourself. Ger, Axel and I.. we are only your guards and, if need be, will help in your decisions, but Cilv.. what did she truly do for you?"
"She taught me how to kill," Evanna replied bluntly, pulling her hand back from his. "But.." She looked off towards the trees, pulling her legs towards herself and hugged them. "I know this sounds stupid and pathetic, but.. I started to see her as an older sister.. one I’ve never had. She was the one to harshly tell me how naïve I was and how I needed to guard myself more."
"You already have a sister-"