Chapter 40

Kedo sat in a hunched bundle. He counted the endless seconds that sluggishly passed to keep track of time. It was a involuntary habit of his. He had done this each time Emeric had been taken to the Domes. It helped keep him calm and also, after a while he got a good grasp of the estimated time Emeric would usually be gone. He was rarely gone for more than thirty minutes at a time. Kedo had counted twenty so far.

The silence was haunting and each small sound sent shivers up his spine. Kedo tried getting accustomed to the sounds of the forest so that he would recognise any foreign noise that broke through.

Kedo waited patiently as minute after minute slowly crept by. He was on high alert the whole time and that was what saved his life. He spotted a group of Elites from within the hollow as they made their way past his hiding spot. He stayed perfectly still and they didn't notice him in the shadows as they stalked by. When they were well out of hearing reach, Kedo let out a sigh of relief. He sat in empty silence...

The silence, however, was interrupted by a bone chilling cry that made all Kedo's hairs stand on end.

He knew Emeric well enough to know that the cry of pain was his...Emeric was extremely hurt or in immanente danger. Kedo sat frozen, wrestling with his conscious...However, as a second cry split the air, Kedo threw the branch aside and leapt out of the safety of his hollow.

He sprinted in the general direction that he thought the cries had come from. His heart thundered in his chest. More because of his fear for Emeric than the exertion of the sprint.

Kedo made it one hundred meters when he suddenly ran into something with a thunderous crash. He grunted as he fell back, reprimanding himself for not seeing the tree...But, as he raised his eyes, it wasn't a tree standing in front of him, but rather a hooded man. Kedo swallowed nervously as he sprang to his feet. He turned to run away, only to notice that he was completely surrounded by similarly hooded men.

Kedo stared at them with wide eyes fear. Their hoods hid their faces in a deep, shadowing mask. It was impossible to make out any of their features. They all stood still like statues. Kedo stepped back as one of the men stepped towards him, but as if noticing Kedo's fear, the man stopped. He observed the young Rogue for a few seconds before throwing back his hood.

Kedo's eyes grew even wider. The hood had hidden a thick tussle of pitch black hair and knowledgeable, blue eyes...The men surrounding Kedo were all Etreshian...

*****

Emeric dragged himself away from Cart, but the chain that tied the trap to the ground was lingering on the shorter side, and Emeric couldn't put more than two meters between him and the Elite leader. He did his best to hide the fear he felt, but in his pained state, the act seemed easier said than done.

"There's nowhere to go now, Rat." Cart spoke mockingly as he twirled his blade. However, instead of approaching Emeric, he stooped down and got a firm grip in the chain. Emeric paled as he realized what Cart was planning.

He barely had time to prepare himself for the pain before Cart slowly started dragging Emeric closer. Emeric couldn't hold back to cries of pain as agony worse than ever shot up his leg. He grasped at the ground to get away from Cart, but the feeble undergrowth easily gave way under his grip.

After what felt like hours, Cart finally dropped the chain and stood over Emeric. His face was dead serious, no signs of his deranged, humorous side was visible. "Calvert said I can take you to him dead or alive...How about we let the blade decide." He twirled his blade for effect...

Cart suddenly grabbed Emeric by his throat and lifted him off of the ground. Emeric choked in the vice grip, only managing to suck in dire amounts of air. He struggled against and clutched at Cart's arm, but nothing he did eased the pressure. His eyes were wide with shock and realization that he wasn't going to get away this time. Cart was going to kill him, and he couldn't do anything to prevent the fateful act.

Emeric stopped struggling when he felt a cold sting against his stomach. He was just barely able to make out the dagger that Cart was holding against his mid-rim. He swallowed nervously as a small trickle of blood started running from where the tip of the blade cut through his skin.

"I've heard that a stab wound to the abdomen doesn't always kill a man. I want to see till which extent this is true."

Emeric shut his eyes tightly when he felt pain explode in his abdomen and as the sound of a blade cutting through flesh met his ears. He froze for a few seconds before a thought passed through his head, 'It doesn't hurt half as bad a I thought it would.'

He slowly peeled his eyes open only to meet the shocked one's of Cart. His face was pale and uncomprehending. At that moment a trickle of blood started dripping from the hunter's lips. Darius was standing behind him with his own dagger, hilt deep in the Elite's back. He pulled the blade out and allowed both Rogue and hunter to fall to the ground.

Cart was dead before he hit the ground. Emeric shifted his shocked gaze away from the corpse next to him and looked down at his torso. Cart's blade had only cut a centimeter deep. It wasn't a serious wound. Emeric shifted his gaze and stared at Darius with a mixture of disbelief and awe.

"W...Why did you do that?" He managed to ask after a few seconds of silence. Darius looked at him with a dead serious stare. "I owed you a favour." He explained, but Emeric frowned, not understanding his remark.

"You saved Aire's life." Darius elaborated. "Right." Emeric said through gritted teeth as his ankle throbbed with unimaginable pain.

"We need to get that off. The other Elites aren't far." Darius sank down to his haunches besides Emeric's foot. "You think..." Emeric muttered softly.

Darius ignored the comment and took hold of a lever that released the jaws of the trap. He pushed down with all his might, grunting with the effort as the lever moved millimeter by millimeter. Emeric just barely contained the cry of pain that threatened to escape his lungs. It took nearly five minutes of constant struggling before the jaws finally came apart far enough to allow Emeric to release his foot. He dragged his mangled ankle free and put a good distance between himself and the trap.

Now free from the horrid snare, Emeric was able to evaluate the full extent of damage that had succumbed his ankle. Although the cuts were deep and damaging, the bone didn't seem to have broken under the pressure. A fact that Emeric was grateful for.

Darius helped him to his feet, although, Emeric could barely let his injured foot touch the ground before it exploded with newfound pain. "You good?" Darius asked seriously. Emeric grimaced as he took a deep breath. "I'll live."

Darius nodded then instantly got to the point, "You have to get out of here. I'll lay a false trail for them to follow." Emeric nodded his thanks, but then glanced at Cart. "What about him?" Darius shot a disgusted look at the corpse. "You freed yourself from the trap just as he reached you. You overpowered him and stabbed him with his own weapon." Darius theorised. Emeric nodded, "Alright."

Darius retrieved Cart's blade from the ground and thrusted it into Emeric's slick grip.

Darius turned away and started laying down a false trail when Emeric called after him, "Hey Darius...Thank you." Darius tilted his head in acknowledgment, and then turned away again. "If Aire found out that I helped kill you, She'd skin me herself..."

Emeric knew that Darius was right, but he didn't have anymore time to chat idly, the Elites weren't far. He had to get away.

He limped into the woods. His pace was slower than a snail, but it was all he could manage without his ankle giving in under him.

It took him more than an hour to reach the tree where he had left Kedo, but as he approached he sensed something was amiss. His heart started hammering in his chest. Limping as fast as he could, he got to the tree, but the branch that covered the hollow was cast aside and the hollow lived up to its name...It was empty.

Emeric desperately searched the surrounding forest with his eyes, but all he saw were trees and undergrowth. There wasn't any sign of Kedo. Emeric searched for disturbances in the leaves in the floor and soon spotted tracks. He did his best to follow them, but after about a hundred meters, more footprints joined Kedo's. There were evident signs of struggle on the ground and Emeric felt his throat turn dry. Kedo had been taken. All the footprints left the area in different directions. He had no idea if anyone of them were Kedo's or if not, which one belonged to the man carrying Kedo's body away.

Emeric fell to his knees as hopelessness betook him. Living freely in the woods meant nothing if Kedo was still trapped in a cell. He couldn't live with himself knowing that he was living comfortably while Kedo was being forced to live a life he hated.

"Kedo!" Emeric cried into the woods, but the name was met with silence. There wasn't any young voice to answer his call, and Emeric feared there never would be again...