“But, Cole can’t talk about it,” she said furrowing her brow.
“Funny thing about the Ancient’s magic, if an Ancient has done it, an Ancient can undo it. Shiphra told me it was like Newton’s law of physics. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction and all that. It takes the same amount of energy to do something as it does to undo it. So she just took the binding spell off of me.”
So she could take it off Cole too? Would he want to talk about those things, even if he could? she wondered, spending a moment in thought before realizing the blond boy was still talking. In fact, she wasn’t sure he was able to stop.
“That’s why they locked Shiphra up instead of killing her, you know. I’m sure they would have given all of the Healer’s lives to put her down, but it doesn’t work that way. It takes an Ancient to take out an Ancient,” he said, looking back over his shoulder.
“Why is that?” she asked.
“It just takes so much energy to kill an Ancient, probably would have taken more than most to put her down too.” He chuckled.
“Seems like it would have been easy. Five against one.” “Sure they outnumbered her, so they could have, but it wouldn’t have been easy. I wouldn’t want to be on the other end of a fight with Shiphra. She understands and controls magic and energy like no one else. In the end, they just wouldn’t risk their own lives.” He laughed, shaking the excess water from his hands as he stood up. “My name is Armaan, by the way. If you’re done interrogating me, we can go now,” he said, looking into the darkening forest.
She followed his gaze and thought that they probably should head back. “I’m Amanda, but I’m sure you already know that,” she said. “I need to head back to Cole and Madgie; you can come with me. Just stay behind me in case we’re attacked.”
She moved her eyes from the forest back to Armaan. The right corner of his mouth was turned up in a half smile. How many darn smiles can one person have? She was immediately annoyed at herself for even noticing.
“You want me,” he said, gesturing to his large frame. Blood rose to her cheeks, and she was about to argue when he continued. “To stand behind you.” His hand rested on the top of her head, which was a good foot lower than his. “In case we’re attacked?” He finished with an eyebrow cocked skeptically.
“Yes, you idiot, and get your hand off my head.” She swatted away his big palm.
“Wow, calm down. I just had to make sure I had it right.”
He moved behind her and crouched down. “Onward bodyguard!” Armaan whispered.
Amanda growled. “Have I called you an idiot yet?” she asked moving forward.
“Yes, yes, you have,” he said, following in her footsteps. “I think I found the one thing you and Nell have in common.”“And what’s that?” She let go of a branch early and sent it smacking into Armaan’s face.
“Ouch!” he said, rubbing his cheek. “I was going to say bravery. But now I see you volunteered to lead the way out of sheer jealousy.”
“Jealousy?”
“It’s okay. I’m not mad. I’ve dealt with this kind of thing my whole life. You’re jealous of my chiseled face and want to see its destruction,” he said in an overly dramatic voice.
She tried to stop her laughter, but was unsuccessful. “Well, I do believe people have been smacking you in the face your whole life,” she said.
It was silent as they walked, and they had just reached the densest part of the forest when he put a hand on her shoulder. She stopped, waiting for him to say something funny.
“What is it now?” Did he not understand that she needed to get back to Madgie? He didn’t say anything, so she turned around.
He had his head down, but being so tall, she could still see his face. It looked torn, searching even. His brow was furrowed, and most of the light had gone from his eyes. He had his lips pursed together, as if he were trying to prevent himself from speaking, but when he met her gaze he wasn’t able to stop himself.
“Why are you so angry with me?” he asked in a breath.
His question took her so off guard she took a turn hiding her face. He looks so miserable, she thought guiltily.
“I know that’s probably a stupid question with all that’s going on. It’s just… I’ve heard about you for so long. I mean, you were even a topic of discussion in the Guard before all of this. You leaving the way you did. Most Healers who run just disappear without a trace, hoping everyone will forget them or assume the worst had happened to them in a Scar. But you, you stick a note to the message board.” He paused.
She was glad to see the light had returned to his eyes. He seemed so full of life. She wondered how he could exude such excitement. When she reached her energy out to his, she felt only darkness and death. Yet he was standing before her, eyes gleaming brighter than a child’s on Christmas morning. How could he do that? How could he be all darkness and a bright beacon of light at the same time? “Your note is the reason I left the Hovel. You saved my life,” he said.
Her throat tightened, and she almost choked on her tongue. “How is that possible?” she asked through a cough.
“I woke up early the morning you ran. No one else was up, but I was usually the first person wandering the halls. The nightmares were so strong back then…” He raised his hand to his head and began to rub his temple as if to massage out whatever bad memory had worked its way into his mind.
What did they do to those boys? She didn’t want to know the answer.
He opened his eyes after a moment and smiled apologetically before continuing. “I was looking for Cole. He was in the Guard with me, and I always felt saner when he was around. He wasn’t in his normal hideouts, so I went to grab breakfast early. I was in the dining hall before all of the shouting and hysterics. When I showed up, there was only one person standing in front of the message board. Cole.”
The ground seemed to shift below her feet, and she thought she might fall.
“We never cared about what happened around there. So, I didn’t understand why he stood there, still as a statue, mesmerized by a lone piece of paper. But when I got to him, I understood. The words on them affected me like nothing ever had, and there were so few of them, just five small words. ‘I’m leaving because I can.’ I left two weeks later. You inspired me.”
The way he said her words, annunciating everything precisely, made it clear the scrawled-out sentence was of the utmost importance to him. She didn’t want to shoot the wind out of his sails, but she had to.
“I’m sorry to tell you this, but that isn’t what I wanted to say,” she said honestly.
Amanda was glad for a moment when he looked so surprised, and then she reminded herself he was a good person. Not like Frey. He wasn’t her enemy. They just looked so like one another.
“What do you mean, ‘that isn’t what you wanted to say’? You started a movement with those words, Amanda. You’re the face of freedom and bravery to so many Healers,” he said almost hysterically.
“Bravery? Heck, I was too much of a coward even to finish my own sentence. I was going to say, ‘I’m leaving because I can’t take this anymore,’ Or something along those lines. It’s been awhile,” she said with a shrug.
His eyes drilled into her. “You inspired me and started an underground rebel movement with an unfinished sentence?” he asked.
“Well, this is the first I’m hearing about an underground movement, but yeah, I guess I did.”
She was worried he might be angry, sad, or disappointed in her, but that wasn’t even close to his reaction. He chuckled.