Chapter Ten

It took Alex a few hours to lumber back to the camp from which the Runners had departed that morning. He was exhausted from his shocking encounter with the psychotic, suicidal Domineer. His mind was cluttered with thoughts about his friends, who had all been abruptly slaughtered right in front of his eyes. Their crazed prisoner coated himself with gunpowder and attempted to kill them all in the blast so that they would not be able to track the Domineers’ messenger any further. 

Despite his efforts, Alex had survived. How it was possible, he did not know. He remembered being slammed by the sheer force of the blast as the intensity of it burned the side of his face. It was painful at first, but as Alex quickly applied snow to his face to cool it down, the presence of it had all but dissipated. It was a minor wound, and that was what concerned him the most. As the intense heat of the explosion knocked him off his feet, just before he blacked out, Alex caught a glimpse of the mysterious red symbol in his mind once again. He did know what it was or why he kept seeing it, and the very presence of it was causing him to nearly lose his grip on reality. He was alive now, that was all that mattered, and he knew that he had to make it back to the campsite and tell the Ravennites what he had learned.

The sun had risen high enough now to illuminate his path. As Alex approached the Ravennite camp, the remaining Runners rushed out to meet him. Alex quickly straightened himself up as he headed back into the camp so as not to appear weak or wounded. Upon his return, Rowan immediately approached him with concern.

“What happened out there?” she gasped as she took notice of the minor burn on the side of his face, as well as the troubling fact that he had returned alone. “Where are the others?”

Alex looked at her briefly, trying desperately to hide his expression of failure, but it was no use. He tried to make for his quarters near the center of the camp, but Rowan caught up to his side.

“Alex, talk to me,” Rowan persisted. “You don’t look well.”

“Rowan!” Alex breathed loudly and hoarsely, almost in annoyance. For a second, he clenched his fists, but as he started to calm down, he took a deep breath and covered his face in his hands. “I-” he stammered weakly. “I never even saw it coming. None of us did.”

“Calm down, Alex,” Rowan put a hand against his shoulder to stand him still.

Alex began looking around frantically. “The Runners,” he muttered as he inadvertently shook Rowan’s hand away. “Kota!”

Just then, one of the Ravennite Runners hurried forward to meet his call. He was young, even younger than Arin, but he was lightweight and one of the most fit and enduring young Ravennites Alex had trained. He stood before his leader as Alex continued to speak almost erratically. “Rally the others! We’re going back out there.”

“No!” Rowan interjected just as Kota was about to head away. “You’re in no condition to track the Domineers right now. I won’t let you!”

“You don’t understand, Rowan!” Alex fought back in frustration. “There was another party. They were heading back to Ramon’s territories and carrying an important message with them. We have to intercept it!”

“Alex, berah!” (Alex, enough!) Rowan cried out in Ravennite-tongue. It was a tone of voice that silenced even Kota, and everyone else in the area ceased what they were doing and looked toward them in astonishment. 

Alex was staring into her green eyes that radiated her growing apprehension. He suddenly became cold and the gusts were forcing him to fight back tears. Never before had she used the language of her people to silence him like that. It was almost terrifying. Alex was shaken as he slowly began to recompose his nerves. However, before he could even speak, Rowan seemed to relax as she took a deep breath. 

“I’m sorry,” she said with an exhale. Rowan reached down and took Alex’s hand. “Come back to my tent with me, please. We’ll talk there.”

Alex was still struggling to relax. He was extremely on edge after his experience that morning. Rowan had shown a lot of deep concern for him these past couple weeks, and he was beginning to see why. Sometimes, he felt as though he was on the verge of losing his hold on himself, possibly due to all of the stress brought upon him by this conflict. Kota was still standing there before him, waiting for Alex to address him. Alex just gave him a quick nod. “Carry on,” he muttered before turning to walk away with Rowan.

“Yes, sir,” Kota breathed his response. He had faith in his leader, the Outsider who gave up his life to fight for their cause, just as much as all the others. However, like the others, he only hoped that he knew what he was doing.

Rowan led Alex into her quarters, where she had been waiting all morning for the Runners to return. As soon as Alex entered through the suspended flap, he immediately felt his agitated spirit begin to cool. He lumbered toward the rear of the tent and sat himself against the post before the fire pit, the embers in which had since dissipated.

Alex took a long, deep breath while Rowan fetched a small bucket resting near the tent’s flap that she had filled with water. As Alex tried to relax the tension in his muscles, Rowan approached him and set the bucket down beside him as she soaked a cloth in the water. 

After wringing it out, she reached up and gently placed the wet cloth against Alex’s face where he had been burned. He winced in anticipation as the cold water triggered his minor injury, sending a slight, stinging sensation across his face. To his relief, however, Rowan was ever so careful as she delicately held the cloth in place. As Alex’s senses cooled, he looked into her eyes as he did every day, but she was focused on tending to his wound instead of meeting his gaze.

“How did this happen?” Rowan asked softly.

The events of their confrontation with the Domineers that morning were still flashing in his mind, and Alex felt uncomfortable as though he was reliving the moment when the lives of the Runners were suddenly consumed by the fiery explosion.

Alex closed his eyes and eased his breath. “We had him surrounded,” he uttered in discomfort. “We killed the rest, but the last Domineer we tried to take prisoner. We closed in on him and attempted to interrogate him on the spot.”

“And he fought back?” Rowan said with curiosity as she placed the cloth back into the pail. “That’s unusual for them to retaliate when cornered.”

“No, he-” Alex was having difficulty speaking the words. “He just blew himself up.”

Rowan’s eyebrows rose at the sound of such a perverse action. “How is that possible?”

Alex sat up straight as Rowan tried to get a closer look at his burn. “He was covered in gunpowder. He had stocked himself full of it, and he tried to kill us all by igniting it on himself. All the other Runners, they did not survive.” He was sinking back into despair over what had happened. They had walked right into the Domineer’s trap.

“But why would he kill himself just to try to kill you?” Rowan questioned as she applied the damp cloth to his face again.

Alex tried to think back to the moment prior to the explosion. Insane as he must have been, the Domineer had a bold sentiment to give before his own self-inflicted demise. “He said they were carrying a message,” he began, recalling his words. “He told us that a messenger was headed back for Ramon’s camp, and that they were carrying vital information that would ensure their victory against us.”

“And he just openly told you this?” Rowan cut in, a look of confusion on her face. “Why would he do that? It doesn’t make sense.”

“He thought he would kill us all in the blast,” Alex answered. “And he should have. I was closer to him when it happened than anyone. Why did I survive when the other Runners didn’t?”

Just hearing those words made Rowan cringe. To her, it sounded as though Alex was carrying the weight of their loss over his head, and she feared it might cloud his judgment in the future. “It was not your fault, Alex,” Rowan inched closer to him. “Don’t blame yourself, you’ve done nothing wrong.”

The words rang out in the dark matter of Alex’s brain. Would Rowan really be saying that if she knew the terrible truth? Alex hated the idea of keeping secrets from her, and from the rest of her people, but the thought of how she might react if he ever told her about his audience with Robert Morenno was too excruciating to consider.

Remaining as calm and tranquil as he could, Alex reached up and rested his hand lightly over Rowan’s, which was still holding the cloth. The two of them locked soft gazes for a moment, and Alex wondered if she felt just as free of worry while looking into his eyes as he did into hers. “I,” he stuttered for a second as he tried to hold onto his composure. “I have to go back out there.”

“Stop,” Rowan placed her free hand against Alex’s chest as if he were about to stand up. “Please, you’re hurt. You need to rest now.”

“Rowan, I have a very bad feeling about this. Whatever message the Domineers are carrying, we need to intercept it before Ramon gets ahold of it.”

“Shhh,” Rowan attempted to calm him down in a caring tone. “No more today. Take it easy, and track them down in the morning.”

“In the morning?” Alex responded. “But they could be long gone by then; beyond our reach in Ramon’s territories!”

Rowan grinned in amusement. “Alex, the Domineers’ nearest camps are more than twenty miles away. They won’t make it far before we hunt them down, not in the snow.”

Many thoughts were going through Alex’s head. “It’s too risky to wait, Rowan. Our numbers were decimated today, we can’t risk them getting too far away.”

Rowan looked as though she was deep in thought. She backed up and dropped the cloth into the bucket of cold water. “I’ll go with you,” she offered. “I’ll help you this time.”

“Rowan, it’s too dange-”

“Do you really think arguing with me is going to change anything?” She stood up and took the bucket back toward the front of the tent. Leaning out through the tent’s flap, she dumped the water into the snow. “You need my help this time.”

Alex could not help but smile at Rowan’s tenaciousness. She was not a child anymore, and if anyone tried to say otherwise, she would not hesitate to shoot it down, in whatever form that took. Right now, she knew that Alex needed her help and she was not taking no for an answer. That was certainly the blood of the Chief in her veins.

Through everything that was going on, Alex’s mind was still fixated on one thing that he could not flush from his vision. “I don’t know what’s happening to me,” he muttered to himself.

Rowan heard his voice and looked back at him caringly. “What do you mean?”

Alex took a deep breath as he tried to gather his words. “I’m seeing things, and hearing voices, just like I have from the beginning. Just after the explosion today, I swear I saw that symbol again; the same symbol on your pendant. It’s invading my thoughts.”

Feeling a sudden weight in her eyes, Rowan let out a sigh. “Oh, Alex, you need to get over that already.”

Just then, Alex stared up at Rowan in disbelief. He had never heard her blatantly object to his concern like that before. “Why would you say that?” he fired back, hardly thinking. “You might be blind to it, and I don’t know why, but everytime I look at that locket of yours, I see it as clearly as I see you right here. Go ahead, take it out and show it to me.”

“I’m not taking it out,” Rowan rejected, putting her hand over her chest where the pendant rested beneath her garment. “And it’s not just me. I’ve shown it to Delmar. I’ve shown it to Matheus, and to Altha. Nobody sees it except for you.”

“So you’re saying I’m crazy, then?” Alex responded, feeling insulted. Rowan obviously had no idea how it felt. Sometimes Alex was not sure if he really was going crazy, or if he was simply the last sane person in these peculiar mountains.

“No, I’m not,” Rowan replied hotly. “But I’m worried that you’re allowing this ‘invisible’ symbol to cloud your rationality.”

Alex could not help but narrow his eyes, even at his own friend, at the sound of her statement. “Rationality?” He knew in the back of his head that he was foolishly allowing himself to speak before he thought, and if he was aware of what he was about to say, then he would have held his mouth shut. 

“Do you remember what you did to me at the Oasis? How do you think I felt when you screwed with my head with all your twisted, religious mind games? Don’t forget the only reason that I’m even still here.” 

Alex had not even finished speaking before he immediately felt a cold wave surge through his head. The guilt that instantly overshadowed his being was incredible. He could not believe what he just said to Rowan.

It was clear that she was thinking the same thing. Rowan was utterly speechless. She stared at Alex with wide eyes and her jaw had fallen open. She was feeling hurt more than anything; hurt that one of the closest friends she ever had would issue such glaring disrespect. She was so choked up by it that she hardly even recognized that Alex was regretting what he had said.

Alex stood to his feet, absolutely shaken. He wanted to approach Rowan and apologize, but suddenly, the tent flap was lifted as one of Alex’s Runners leaned inside. “Is everything alright?” he spoke casually.

Rowan never even looked at him, but replied in a stern tone, “Yes, we’re fine.”

Alex lowered his head in shame. That was the tone of voice one used when they tried to cope with being gravely upset. The Ravennite at the tent’s entrance continued to speak. “Someone is here to see you.” He then stepped aside as someone else lifted the flap and entered Rowan’s quarters. He stood about six feet in height, and on either side of his face, a short, braided tail of his hair hung down. 

Rowan immediately turned to face their guest. In reverence, she touched her lightly closed fist to her forehead and then brought it down to rest against her heart, presenting him with the Ravennites’ form of salute. “Matheus,” Rowan greeted him kindly.