“What about Randall?” I ask. As a result of the hunter spending a lot of time around my family, he had also gotten to know Robyn well over the years.
Robyn’s face darkens. She raises her hand to gulp down the last of her ale.
“He’s still recovering. Becker’s men hurt him really bad,” she says.
Mother had said that they had attacked him after he tried to get in their way, but I had assumed that meant maybe a few punches until he stopped getting back up. I never thought that the attack might be enough that even now, weeks after Avlym’s burning, he would still be recovering.
“Can we go see him?” I ask, trying to convey my concern.
“Sure,” she answers.
“I’ll see you back at Arthur’s,” I say to Orrian pointedly. I don’t know why but this is a trip I would prefer to make alone.
I reach for Alice’s hand, but she pulls away shaking her head.
“What? Do you want to stay here? Yeah?” I ask.
“Yes,” she answers.
“Is that alright?” I ask Orrian. To Alice’s delight he nods without hesitation. We leave the three of them alone at our table in the corner and set off back into the night.
Robyn directs me towards Randall in silence. I want to tell her how much I missed her, how often I thought of her. A part of me never expected to see her again but now that I’m next to her I have the urge to tell her how I feel. My brain muddles through what I need to say whilst my heart aches for me to open my mouth, but no words come. Now probably isn’t the right time anyway, with everything that’s going on and about to happen. A voice deep inside of me complains at my excuses and so I make it a promise: one day, when this is all over, I’ll tell her everything. She’s my best friend, I would never want to ruin that, but if I keep this inside of me for much longer it will eventually erode me away.
The scraping of our boots in the dirt is the only break to the quiet stillness between us. What do two reunited friends say to each other after so long, when both have been through too much since they last met that they couldn’t possibly know where to start? She’s a little taller now I notice, we’re almost the same height, and she doesn’t bounce as she walks in the same way that she used to. I suppose such a walk wouldn’t have suited a hunter.
How can we have both grown up so fast? What happened to the two children whose responsibilities extended only to spending the day gossiping and picking berries? Will that ever be us again, would it be possible, or is this just how things are now?
We stop at a particularly small shack right at the very end of the street. It’s so far out from the life and warmth of the rest of Tarrin that the outer edges of the forest stroke its walls.
With no door to knock on, I flinch as Robyn smacks a wooden pole by the opening, if she had hit any harder the entire hut may have collapsed in on itself.
“Come in,” someone groans from inside.
The hut barely has a roof, random leaves and branches have been laid across the tops of the walls but it will do nothing to stop the rain. The wind also seems to have brought a lot of it down, patches of the makeshift roof have caved in bringing the forest into the house. Even by Avlym’s standards this place is a wreck.
The interior is not dissimilar from the fisherman’s shack near the mountains. Old equipment leans against the walls of the single room, in its centre sits a bed of tightly bound straw. The man resting on it lays so that he faces away from us, he stares up at the brightest stars that have begun to appear above.
“What?” the man croaks.
“I’ve brought someone to see you,” answers Robyn.
“Hi, Randall,” I say before he can finish complaining. I walk around the edge of the bed to face him as he struggles into a sitting position.
His face is a mess, one side of it is still slightly swollen and even in the dim light I notice the bright red vein that clings to the edge of one of his eyes. His trousers have been torn off at the knee and I notice that his ankles and the bottom half of his legs have been treated with some green paste.
“Dale? Come here,” Randall says. I wince as his face contorts into a pained smile. I lean down as he drags me into a fierce hug, he grabs Jaq’s undershirt in his fist with one hand whilst he pats me roughly on the back with the other.
“I’ll leave you two alone. I’ll see you in the morning, Dale,” Robyn says from the doorway. I pull away to mutter a thanks, but she’s already left.
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” says Randall as I sit next to him on the straw. “I’m already back to limping around thanks to Ida, she’s been checking in on me every night. Don’t worry, I’ll be back to normal in no time.”
“We’ll make them pay for what they did to you and Avlym, I’m sorry I wasn’t there,” I apologise. If I had never run off with Orrian, the colony would never have come to Avlym in force, and Randall wouldn’t have had to suffer in this bed-bound state.
I tell him about Thoren agreeing to Orrian’s plan. This leads to me revealing Orrian’s position among his people and giving Randall the increasingly shortening version of our story. Randall’s face lights up as he finds out that we’re finally attacking the colony.
“I’m coming,” he says with certainty.
“Randall, you can’t.” I say.
“If you’re going then I
