Chapitre 98: Waiting, Once More
---Indigo---
I came to slowly, blinking in the afternoon sun. I was lying on a sleeping bag on top of a flat boulder. I tried to sit up, and suddenly two concerned faces were hovering over me.
"Don't move, Indigo; you need to rest." Rachel said as she pushed me back down. Beside her, Lucian nodded vigorously.
"What—" I croaked, but my throat was hoarse and my lips were too dry. Lucian passed Rachel a water canteen, and she fed me some water. I swallowed the cool water and tried again. "What happened? Where are we?"
"We're beside the creek that Ashley was talking about. If we go downstream, we'll exit the forest." Lucian explained. "Rachel and I ran like you told us to, but after a while we realized that you and Ashley weren't behind us. We doubled back to find the two of you, but then the explosion occurred, so we had to take cover. You wouldn't believe the wreckage, Indigo. The radius of the damage area had to be at least half a mile. The part around our campsite suffered the worst damage. A good portion of the forest was ablaze. We couldn't even approach the area without feeling like we were being burnt alive."
"At first, we couldn't find you or Ashley," Rachel continued. "After Lord Victor's soldiers doused the fire, we saw them rooting through the wreckage, most likely searching for our bodies. As we tried to sneak past them, Lucian saw you lying half hidden in some bushes. We were going to get you and leave, but then one of the soldiers wandered towards us, and we didn't dare move from our hiding spot."
"Did they see me?" I asked fearfully. Rachel shook her head.
"Surprisingly, no. A soldier was literally right there, looking into the bushes, but he seemed to just look right through you. Even we could see your arms and legs sticking out. You don't know how scared we were, Indigo. We thought that you were going to be found and captured for sure. But somehow, they didn't see you and left after a while."
"Magic…it was Ashley's magic…" I muttered to myself. Lucian looked at me oddly.
"Indigo, what happened to Ashley? How come she wasn't with you?" He questioned. "We searched for Ashley too, but we couldn't find her. Where is she?"
I sighed, knowing that I had to tell them the truth. It was better to tell them right now and get it over with. "Ashley sacrificed herself to protect us. She stayed behind to trick Lord Victor so that we could escape."
I didn't tell Rachel and Lucian about how Ashley worked with Lord Victor. They didn't need to know that, especially now that Ashley had sacrificed herself to save us, in an attempt to make up for her mistakes. There was no need to tarnish their view of Ashley. Her death alone was already bad enough news.
Rachel sat down hardly on the forest floor, her eyes hollow. Even Lucian's body trembled before he steadied himself. The forest was quiet for a long time, with only the chirping of birds in the air.
"…What?" Rachel finally whispered in shock. "Ashley—Ashley's dead?"
"You're kidding right?" Lucian's eyes pleaded with mine, refusing to believe the tragic news. I shook my head sadly, feeling a lump form in my throat.
"I tried to reason with her and get her to come with me, but Ashley drew a circle around the campsite and her magic blocked me out." I said softly. "She said that Lord Victor was watching the campsite, so she conjured up illusions of us to fool him. She had to stay behind to maintain those illusions. Her magical barrier contained the blast so that it was mostly concentrated around the campsite, in order to keep us safe. Some of her magic must've lingered to hide me from the soldiers."
Lucian closed his eyes and let out a long sigh. "We already lost Jason. Aaron and Katherine are still in Lord Victor's deadly grasp. And now, we've lost Ashley too."
"At least Jason and Ashley got to be together in death," Rachel sniffed. "I hope they get the happily-ever-after they deserve. I suppose we should make a funeral pyre for Ashley too, even though there isn't a body?"
"We'll do that later. Right now, we have to decide if we're going to keep going or if we're going to wait for Aaron and Katherine to catch up." I tried to sit up again, and Lucian propped me up with a backpack as a makeshift pillow. "Ashley said that she gave them the keys before she left so they could escape, but it might take them a bit longer than expected. So do we wait here, or do we keep going?"
"We should wait here," Rachel said. "You need to rest, Indigo, and after all that's happened, I don't think we're going to make much progress anyway. What do you think, Lucian?"
"I agree with Rachel. I'd much rather the five of us continue together than in separate groups. I don't want to lose another member of our team." Lucian said. "We've lost enough people." He seemed to have aged ten years in the past couple of days.
"Let's just wait here for a couple of days. When you recover a bit, Indigo, we can double back to meet Aaron and Katherine on the road." Rachel said. "It's going to take them a while to get this far. Plus, I'm sure Lord Victor will be keeping an extra eye on them, so it will be even more difficult for them to escape."
I nodded, praying silently that Aaron and Katherine were still alive and well.
* * * * *
The days passed slowly. To avoid being seen or detected by Lord Victor's soldiers—though I doubted they were going to be out this far—we refrained from using fire and rarely ventured out. Lucian was constantly waiting at the edge of the forest and looking down the empty road for any signs of Aaron and Katherine. Rachel kept herself busy by looking for herbs around our campsite and making poultices for her collection. I carved a small tombstone for Ashley, because even though she was a traitor, she still sacrificed herself to save us. She deserved something for that heroic act.
On the third day, Lucian finally lost his patience. "Guys, we should go back to Devil's Peak. It's been three days; Aaron and Katherine should have escaped by now."
Rachel and I looked at each other. "I don't know if it's a good idea," I said slowly, putting down the flat slab of rock I was planning to carve. "Maybe we should wait a little longer? It's only been three days."
"You can stay here and wait then," Lucian snapped. "I'm going to go back. I can't stand not knowing what happened to my friends. It's been way too long." He stood up and began to head towards his tent to pack.
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS 
SkyEmpress
SkyEmpress The timeline is a little jumbled, because even though the events are happening simultaneously I have to show them through different perspectives, which makes the story jump forward and backward in time. Hopefully it's not too confusing!
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone