Diane Hartsock Nathaniel

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ringing voice, surprising them all.
Foot soldiers swarmed the general, swords
leveled to protect him. Lowel crouched, but before he
could move, Nathaniel put a hand on his shoulder,
drawing his wild eyes.
“Don’t.” Nathaniel touched the soldier’s freckled
cheek. “Not for me. Run!”
Galvanized into action, Lowel sprinted for his
horse. His lithe body swung into the saddle, and he
raced the animal back the way they’d come before
anyone could stop him. Amidst a bellow of voices,
Sutherlin soldiers grabbed for Nathaniel, dragging
him towards their camp in the trees.
“Nathaniel!” Taden called after him, filled with
terror. “Nattie, they’ll burn you!”
Nathaniel stopped in his tracks, and the soldiers
around him became frozen in place. There was shock
on the general’s face. Taden’s heart thumped as
Nathaniel came to him, gently moving Beka’s sword
aside.
“They won’t hurt me,” Nathaniel told him.
Taden shuddered. Nathaniel’s eyes were almost
completely golden, the green shining brilliantly at the
edges of his pupils. His heart clenched as Nathaniel
untied the rope binding his wrists and then cupped
his face with a warm hand. “When the time comes,
flee to the east, back to the coast. You’ll be safest
there.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You will.” Nathaniel embraced him, kissing
Taden’s mouth. “I love you. Remember that.”
“Nattie, they mean to kill you,” Taden tried
again.
“They won’t,” Nathaniel assured him, his
expression going cold as the soldiers moved and
seized him again, pulling Nathaniel into their midst
with a roar of fear and hatred. Tears blinded Taden as
they dragged his love into the trees. He thought of
flinging himself onto the horse and going after
Nathaniel, but Beka had her sword on him again, and
her face was a mask of anger.
“You can’t let them do this,” he pleaded. He
would have gone on his knees to her, but he stood
helpless with her sword at his chest. He could only let
her see his anguish. She acted as if he hadn’t spoken,
her attention on the voices moving further into the
trees.
The clamor stopped, and Taden’s ears thrummed
in the unnatural silence. His heartbeats counted out
the seconds of quiet. Beka’s sword arm dropped to
her side, her face growing pale in the utter stillness of
the forest.
Taden’s hair rose on end, and he hastily scanned
the sky for lightning, though there were no clouds
present. Tension gathered in the air, tight as a
bowstring, and his nerves became plucked to an
exquisite quiver. He wanted to cry out in anticipation
of what was coming, though he didn’t know what it
would be.
It began with a stirring in the treetops, a slight
breeze that picked up speed until it raced through the
branches far overhead, cracking limbs and casting
them to the forest floor. Taden heard Beka’s whimper,
but couldn’t pull his attention from the sky. With a
shattering boom, the sky cracked open and a funnel
cloud hurtled towards the earth. It struck the ground
with a crash of thunder, knocking Taden’s feet out
from under him.
He staggered up and watched numbly as ancient
pines were ripped from the ground and tossed in the
manner of a child’s stick game. Soldiers screamed in
terror and mortal pain as fire burst from fissures
opening in the shaking ground. The ground rumbled
and pitched, flinging Taden to the dirt again. A
roaring filled his ears as the tornado passed overhead
and was suddenly gone.
Taden gazed at the horror around him and
shivered. He felt in his heart that Nathaniel was dead.
Who could have survived such a nightmare? He
climbed to his feet and blinked the burning tears from
his eyes. Toppled trees and an upheaval of earth and
stone marked the place where the Sutherlin camp had
stood. With a leaden heart, he walked through the
desolation. He had to find Nathaniel, if only to say
goodbye. Trees lay flattened in a circular pattern at
the center of the camp.
He stared in disbelief. A redwood tree stood,
undamaged, at the heart of the nightmare. A figure
rose from the grass and leaned against the solid trunk
of the tree. Taden cautiously approached but stopped
within arm’s reach of Nathaniel. The man blinked
dull eyes, not moving, seeming dazed.
“Nathaniel?” he murmured. The young man gave
him a bewildered, frightened look as if he didn’t
know him. Taden gripped his arms, desperate.
“Nattie, come back to me!”
For an instant, Nathaniel’s eyes cleared and his
lips parted in wonder as they gazed at him. Then a
shiver ran through the slim body and he crumpled.
Taden barely managed to catch him before he hit the
ground.
Taden took another look at the damaged earth
around them, having trouble accepting what his eyes
saw.
“What have you done, Nattie?” he whispered in
the small ear as he held Nathaniel against his heart.
He carried the unconscious young man to his horse,
waking Nathaniel sufficiently to mount. Climbing up
behind him, Taden urged the horse from that horrible
place, cradling Nathaniel on his arm. He allowed the
roan its own pace on the eastern trail, holding the
reins with a loose hand. They came to the sea as
evening descended and shadows filled the forest
behind them. The waves seemed unnaturally loud in
Taden’s ears after the silence under the trees.
He found a grassy spot on the edge of the forest
and dismounted, gently lifting Nathaniel to the
ground. His darling was shivering, and Taden
covered him with a blanket from Beka’s saddlebag,
keeping his thoughts from what must have happened
to the soldier. He unsaddled the horse with numb
fingers and let it go free, not caring as it fled up the
beach. He methodically gathered sticks to build a fire,
and while it burned, sat on his heels and stared at the
growing flames, trying desperately to block the
horrible pictures of mutilation and fire from his mind. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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