But Rose didn’t respond. Instead, she lifted the bottom of her T-shirt to her mouth, exposing everything beneath like she’d done in the cage at the royal complex.
Despite knowing he shouldn’t, Flynn stared at her pert breasts and said, “Um …”
But Rose ignored him as she bit a strip from her top. The tear of the fabric ripped through the large barn. Flynn looked out through the open space where the doors should have been. He couldn’t see anyone outside, but that could change.
“We don’t have any water,” Rose said, her teeth clamped onto her T-shirt so she could pull another strip free, “but at least we can put fresh bandages on them.”
Rose focused on Flynn’s left wrist first as she lifted it up. When she leaned close to it, he could see down her top. As much as he wanted to stare, he looked up at the barn’s ceiling instead. She’d respect him more for looking away.
Because Flynn had only ever been with Angelica, a dryness spread through his mouth and throat. An attempt to swallow it down felt like swallowing cotton wool.
When Rose finished, she looked up at Flynn and he looked back at her. She’d dropped her T-shirt back down so it covered her. The torn garment looked more like a crop top now.
“I could have given you some of my T-shirt,” Flynn said.
“What, you don’t think the shorter top suits me?”
The dryness returned to his mouth and he said nothing.
Rose laughed and silence hung between them for a few seconds. She finally said, “I guess we need to head to the royal complex, then?”
The reality of what they had to face sobered Flynn up. He nodded and spoke with a sigh. “Yeah. I guess we should.”
Chapter 21
The sun still had a long way to climb in the sky before it reached its zenith. During his stay in Home where there had been a working clock, Flynn had gotten used to what different times of day looked like during different seasons. If he had to guess, he’d say it was about nine in the morning.
It was hard to tell exactly, but it had taken them maybe three hours to walk there. They’d moved through the meadows without incident. No hunters, nomads, or rats along the way. And no sign of the Queen and her crew.
They now stood on the brow of a hill, looking down at the royal complex. “I reckon they’re still having breakfast,” Flynn said. As confident as he tried to sound, his courage had started to slip away from him. To see the vast community in front of them reminded him just how hard it would be to get in there. There seemed little point in hiding it from Rose. “I’d forgotten how well fortified this place is. We’ve got our work cut out.”
Rose stood next to him, squinting against the wind and the sun as she bore the full force of it. Her long blonde hair blew away from her and the thin fabric of her crop top pressed against her form. A deep frown, she watched on as if contemplating how they’d take the place down. “We definitely need to get the prisoners from the town,” she finally said. “No way are we getting back in there on our own. And even with a small army …” She let the sentence fly away on the breeze.
From where they stood, Flynn could see everything: the hospital building—which had definitely seen better days, but still remained standing—the barn in the middle of the complex where the Queen insisted everyone went twice a day, the large tree close to the barn, and the cage they’d strung them up in still hanging down from its branch.
The area surrounding the complex looked like most meadows. A sea of long grass, it bent and swayed, yielding to the elements. “Where do you think we should wait for them to come out?” Flynn said. “I can’t see anywhere to hide down there.”
But Rose didn’t respond.
When Flynn followed her line of sight down to the complex, his stomach sank to see them emerge from the other side of the barn. “They’ve got their horses back already?”
It took a few seconds for all of them to appear. What seemed to be most of the hunters and royal guards were mobilising. They looked like they were preparing to go out somewhere with a distinct purpose.
“From what I’ve seen,” Rose said, “she treats the horses well. I’m guessing they decided to come back to her. Probably about the only living things that would choose to be in her company.”
A loud call sounded out from the guards stationed by the complex’s exit and Flynn jumped. A second later the large gates creaked and groaned as they started to open. He dropped down into the long grass and dragged Rose with him.
The meadow served as the perfect shield to hide them from sight. Flynn raised his head enough to be able to see, but remain invisible to those leaving the complex. The first of the horses stepped out into the meadow. It looked like Mistress’ guards—Mistress’ guards minus Mistress.
“I suppose where we hide is a decision we don’t need to think about now,” Rose said.
“But what if they come our way?”
“That would be quite unlucky. They could head in any direction, and they’d have to get quite close to see us. Besides, you say it like we have a choice.”
Another flutter of anxiety took charge of Flynn’s heart.
It seemed to take forever, but the pack of riders outside the complex swelled until it looked like all of the hunters and guards had stepped out to join them. When Flynn saw the Queen, his breath caught in his throat. Surrounded by guards in royal blue, she sat on her horse with a straight back, her nose in the air. He tasted the bitter tang of bile at the sight of her. She’d get hers.
The horses at the front of the pack led them away from the complex in the opposite direction to Flynn and Rose.
“Do you think they’re going to the town?” Rose said.
“I think it’s in that direction,” Flynn replied. “Hard to tell because they blindfolded me. But we would have passed it on the way if it was this side of the complex, right?”
Rose nodded.
The horses might have been far away, but when they quickened their pace, the thunder of their hooves rolled over the landscape like a brewing storm. “Come on,” Flynn said when all the horses had galloped away. He stood up and Rose stood up with him.
They walked back down the hill away from the complex. If they were to follow them, they had to find a less obvious path than the one that led them in plain sight of the guards on the gate.
Chapter 22
The ridge Flynn and Rose had moved to the other side of ran all the way down past the front of the royal complex. They remained out of sight and walked in the same direction the riders had gone in. Hopefully they’d catch up to them at some point.
About twenty minutes had passed and they hadn’t spoken much. They’d moved at a quick pace that made breathing a hard enough task for Flynn. Rose had always seemed fitter than him, but even she glistened with sweat from the rapidly warming day.
At the top of another steep hill, Flynn stopped and wiped his brow. The wind cooled him a little, but not enough to escape the oppressive heat.
Because they hadn’t spoken much, when Rose suddenly grabbed Flynn and hissed, “Wait,” he jumped, a jolt of panic spiking through him at her urgency.
Flynn watched Rose drop down into the long grass and copied her. Then he saw what she’d seen.
Two people walked through the meadow below them about two hundred metres away. A man and a woman, they looked to be moving down a well-trodden path, the grass flattened all the way along it.
“Is that woman pregnant?” Rose said.
How hadn’t he seen it? “Yes.” Flynn stared at the woman and her large bump. “Very.”
Now he’d stopped, more sweat poured from Flynn’s brow. He wiped it away several times in quick succession to stop the saline trickle into his eyes.
“Where do you think they’re going?” Rose asked.
“I don’t know. It looks like they’re following a route plenty of others have walked before them. A lot of people must have trodden that path for the grass to remain flattened.” Before Rose could reply to him, Flynn noticed something alon
g the path. “Are those signs?”
A few seconds of silence and Flynn watched Rose squint as she looked where he had. “I think they are. What do you think they say?”
A sinking dread dropped through Flynn. “I think we should follow them and see where they’re going. Maybe we can stop them from making a big mistake.”
Although she didn’t reply to him, Rose moved off through the grass at a low crouch. Flynn followed. It swayed from their movement, but if the two people below looked up, it wouldn’t seem like anything other than the wind. Hopefully.
By the time they’d travelled about fifty metres closer to the pathway the couple walked down, Flynn’s legs and back ached. Sweat gushed from him, itching around the collar of his thin and filthy T-shirt.
The strong sun pushed down on Flynn’s head and his throat had turned bone dry. The start of a headache bit into his eyes. He needed to find water soon.
Rose moved through the grass a few metres ahead and she stopped first.
When Flynn caught up to her, he could see the signs much better. Lumps of wood attached to stakes, they’d been speared into the ground and all bore a similar message. The painted mess looked like the person barely knew how to write, but they were legible, just.
Come and live in a safe community.
We have food and water.
We look after one another.
The war is over, time for peace.
We have shelter.
Many more signs lined the path and they all offered similar promises. A glance at Rose, Flynn wiped his brow again as he waited for her to finish reading them. When she did, she dropped her head with a sigh before looking back at him. “The Queen.”
“Fuck,” Flynn said. “I was worried it would be. So this is how she fills her dungeon. We have to stop them before they get to her.”
Chapter 23
Flynn and Rose moved alongside the path, duckwalking through the long grass. They remained far enough away not to be seen. “I’m going to run to them now,” Rose said.
A shake of his head, Flynn reached out and grabbed the top of her arm, “Don’t be too hasty. We’ve got time. Let’s see where they’re going. We’ll stop them before they get into trouble.”
Although Rose watched him for a few seconds and looked like she’d say something, she didn’t. Instead, she dipped a nod at him. They’d get to the couple before the Queen did. They had time to stop them from making a big mistake.
The couple then disappeared from view as they followed the path over a small hill. Flynn saw Rose about to stand up, so he grabbed her arm again and pulled her back down. “If they turn around, we’ll be exposed. We have to keep low. We’ll catch up to them in a minute, I promise.”
Sweat stung Flynn’s eyes. It came from his brow in a torrent, so he’d given up wiping it away. The duckwalk ran pains all the way through his thighs up into his lower back. Too much longer and he’d have to stop and rest.
Neither Flynn nor Rose spoke as they quickened their pace. The effort left no room for conversation.
Close to the brow of the hill, Flynn stopped and Rose paused a second later. When she looked at him, he cupped his ear to encourage her to listen.
Rose’s eyes spread wide. It told him she’d heard them too. Voices. The couple had run into a group of people on the other side.
What little strength Flynn had left in him went and he slowly folded to the ground. They were too late. They didn’t have time like he thought they did.
Rose sat down too, her mouth partly open as she fought to recover her breath.
They both listened to the voices on the other side for a few seconds before Flynn said, “I can’t hear what they’re saying, can you?”
Rose shook her head.
Curiosity overpowered fatigue and Flynn crawled closer to the sounds with Rose next to him. The second he saw it, he knew Rose must have too.
“Shit!” she said.
It looked like all of the hunters and guards from the royal complex. They remained on their horses, surrounding the two people Flynn and Rose had watched walk through the field. The couple were no more than twenty metres away. But as far as saving them went, they might as well have been on the opposite side of the planet.
The woman cradled her bump, her mouth open wide as she looked up at all the riders. The man spun on the spot, his fists clenched, but lowered at his sides.
“What is this?” the man finally said, his voice carrying through the small valley.
The riders parted and the Queen came forward on her horse. To see her so close ran tension through Flynn’s stomach, and his tired body shook. Thank god he’d never had to fuck her.
“You followed our signs, then?” the Queen said.
“Of course.” The man paused and looked at the riders again. “They promised a friendly community.” It sounded almost like a question.
A sadistic smile spread across the Queen’s angular face. “And they spoke the truth.” She looked at the riders and laughed. “We’re friendly, aren’t we?”
Some laughed with her; others simply nodded. None of them spoke, and many of them held onto the handles of their sheathed weapons as if ready to draw them.
“About as friendly as a disturbed wasp’s nest,” Flynn said beneath his breath.
“Look,” the pregnant woman said, her words coming out quickly, “if we’ve got this wrong, we can turn around and head back.”
“You’d like to do that, wouldn’t you?” the Queen said.
The woman burst into tears. “Please, I’m pregnant.”
For a few seconds, the Queen didn’t reply. Instead, she stared down at the pregnant woman, a strange twist to her features as if she was in pain. Then she shook her head, her black hair blowing out behind her. The moment of what might have been compassion vanished. “Oh, I can see that, princess.” She sneered as she looked at the man. “Yours, is it?” She looked down at his crotch as if he had a diseased cock.
When Flynn saw the man raise his balled fists, his entire frame sank and he whispered, “Don’t rise to it.” Part of him wanted to run down there and help them out like Rose had suggested. The couple didn’t know what they were up against. They were about to make a huge mistake.
“Look,” the man said and Flynn shook his head with a sigh. Especially when the man pointed up at the Queen, his face twisted and red. “I don’t know who the fuck you think you are, but if you don’t want to let us into your community, that’s fine. Just let us through and we’ll be on our way.”
“Oh, we’ll let you into our community, all right,” the Queen said. “You just need to prove you’re the right kind of person to be let in. We look after our own, so once you’ve passed a simple test, you can join us. You’ll be as good as family after that.”
The man looked at the pregnant woman before returning his attention to the Queen. “A test? Who made you the boss, you twisted bitch.”
Flynn watched tension snap through the riders and they all looked at the Queen as if waiting for the nod.
But the Queen didn’t give it. Instead, she smiled. “I’m the Queen. Everyone knows that.”
The woman turned to the man and said, “Come on, Dave, let’s get out of here.”
The riders closed in tighter around them. Were it not for his elevated position, Flynn wouldn’t have been able to see the man and woman because of the close press of horses.
“Let us pass,” Dave said through a clenched jaw.
“Or what?” the Queen replied.
Dave spun on the spot, taking in the riders surrounding them.
When he didn’t speak, the Queen laughed. “I’m not sure you’re in a position to be making demands, David.”
The pregnant woman cried more freely than before as she looked up at the Queen, her face ugly with her grief. She continued to hold her pregnant belly.
“How long do you have left, dear?” the Queen asked her, her glazed stare fixed on the woman’s stomach.
The woman pulled her brown hair behind h
er ear and continued to cry.
“A couple of weeks at the most,” Dave said. He spoke it like an accusation.
The Queen spun on him, shouting so loud, her call disturbed a flock of birds in a nearby tree. “I didn’t ask you!”
Even with the distance and the horses between them, Flynn saw Dave clench his jaw. He still had his fists balled, but he didn’t reply. A scorned child, he had to swallow his shame and accept her authority.
Other than the sound of the wind, silence swept across the grassy meadow and the Queen continued to focus on the pregnant woman. “Well?”
Her words came out in stuttered bursts. “Two-two-two weeks.”
“I’m sorry?” the Queen said and leaned forwards. “Is that two weeks, or two-two-two weeks?”
The riders around the Queen laughed again, and the woman stared at the ground as she spoke. “Two weeks.”
“Well, that’s fine, sweetheart. You will have proven your worth to us by then. We have a hospital, you know.”
The woman looked up again, the sun glistening off her tear-sodden face. “Please, just let us move on. We wanted to get somewhere safe to have our baby. We’re not in any state to go through trials now. Look at me.”
“Oh, I am, honey.” the Queen said. “And you might not be in a fit state, but he is. He clearly has quite a lot of fight in him too. I like them feisty.”
Dave ran at the Queen.
Before he’d made two steps, one of the royal guards slipped from her horse and drove an uppercut into his chin. It knocked him backwards. The pregnant woman screamed as he crashed to the ground.
A wider smile than before, the Queen tutted several times and shook her head. “Oh dear. It looks like he couldn’t control his temper. I kind of figured. He came across as an angry little man. Shame, really, I was excited to see how he’d do in the trials.”
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