“Seth?” Lark looked around for
him, but couldn’t see him. All she saw was his little red notebook by the river
bank. She wandered over to it and sat down to wait for him. She glanced over at
the notebook. She knew she shouldn’t, but her curiosity got the better of her.
She picked it up and started to flip through it. She stopped on a random page.
Her blood froze when she realized what was on it. It was coded. And not the
code that their army used. She’d only seen this a few times before, on documents
stolen from their wagon raids. But this couldn’t mean that…
“Lark, drop the notebook.” Seth’s
growly voice made her jump, and instinctively she held the notebook tighter. “Now.
And stand up. Keep your hands where I can see them.” She dropped the notebook
into her lap and raised her hands above her head. Slowly she stood up, and the
notebook fell into the dirt. She turned
to face him. He held his knife in his hand, and she knew that he could have it impaled
in her heart within moments if he so desired. Her hands shook and her insides
turned to jelly.
“Seth…what’s going on?” She
struggled to keep her voice from trembling.
“I could ask you the same thing.”
He said, eyes glinting dangerously. “What were you doing with my notebook?”
“Nothing! I just…I didn’t see
anything.” She said, looking at the ground.
“You’re lying.” His voice was menacingly
quiet. It sent goose bumps up Lark’s spine.
“You can’t kill me. Cap will
find me, and he’ll figure out who did it. You won’t get away with it.” She said
defiantly.
“Who says I won’t kill him too?”
Seth walked slowly towards her, knife still at the ready.
“Please Seth.” She begged. He
smiled wickedly, not saying anything. He walked up to her and used the tip of
his knife to gently trace her jaw.
“You know Lark, you’re not bad.
Definitely not the sissy I thought you were at first. But that’s not going to
change anything.” He stepped back away from her, and held his knife up, ready
to plunge it into her quivering heart. Then something whizzed past Lark’s ear.
Seth’s face changed from one of malicious pleasure to pain. His hand went up to
the arrows protruding from his chest. Lark’s breath caught in her throat, and
she backed away from him. He collapsed to his knees, blooding bubbling out of
the corners of his mouth.
“[enemy country’s name] will win
this war. You stand no chance.” He gasped, blood spatters spewing out of his
mouth.
“Lark!” She didn’t turn towards
the voice. She stood frozen, eyes glued to the sight of Seth dying.
“Long live King [name of enemy
king].” Seth raised his hand in a salute, and his eyes locked with Lark’s
before he collapsed in a pool of blood on the ground.
“Lark!” The Captain reached her
and grabbed her arm to help steady her swaying body. She collapsed into him,
sobbing. Everything had happened so fast. Her brain was having a hard time
processing it all. She leaned harder into the Cap, unable to control her
emotions. She knew she would be terribly embarrassed about this later, but she
couldn’t stop the flow of tears. Cap patted her back awkwardly, not sure how to
deal with her sudden display of emotion. He helped her sit down, then sat down
next to her. She buried her head in his shirt, and he rubbed her shoulders
until her sobs quieted and her breathing grew more even.
“I’m sorry.” She whispered into
his shoulder. “It’s just that…”
“No need to explain.” He said. “Are
you ready to go back to camp?” She nodded and straightened up. She look at the
wet spot on his shirt, and felt a rush of hot embarrassment.
“And I’m sorry for your shirt…”
She looked away. He simply stood up and held out his hand to help her. She
accepted it. They started the walk back to camp in silence. When they were
almost there Cap spoke.
“Listen Lark. We don’t need to
talk about this anymore. And we don’t need to give them details.”
“Thanks.” She said, looking at
the ground. As if her puffy red eyes wouldn’t give her away.
“Hey! We were wondering where
you guys went!” Henri shouted to them as soon as they rounded the corner into
camp. His eyes rested on Lark’s red face. “What happened?” He asked. The Cap
shook his head, warning him not to talk about it anymore. Tobin stepped out of
his tent.
“Hey, where’s Seth?” Cap just
motioned for them to all gather around the fire, which they did, curious.
“Seth…betrayed us. Our team only
has five members now. Henri, Tobin, could you go dispose of the body?” He
jerked his head in the direction they had just come from. Looking at them, Lark
could see they were all terribly surprised, but they all knew that if the
Captain didn’t want to tell them anymore they couldn’t make him. Tobin and
Henri nodded. “Tomorrow we’ll pack up camp again and head south. Dismissed.” Cooper cast a worried glance at Lark, then
went back to tending the fire. Henri and Tobin started back towards the river.
“If you don’t mind, I’m going to
turn in early tonight. Don’t bother waking me for supper.” Lark mumbled at the
ground. The Cap studied her for a moment, obviously concerned, then nodded.
“Be ready to head out tomorrow.”
He said, still looking at her.
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