Revenant Slaves Chapter 31: Chapter 30: Ash

Read chapter 31 of Revenant Slaves by Zee on NovelPedia.

Chapter 30: Ash Ash kept going in and out of consciousness; he had a vague concept of time passing in the flashes of lucidity he had. His first clear memory of that time was of seeing Maya across from him; he had to turn his face to the left to see her sleeping in a makeshift cot. He could make out a red circle where he remembered her having been shot, all the way back in the city. ‘By the flame, how had she carried on so long?’ She had looked strong right up until the end. It was only at this moment that he could see her fragility, with her guard down, sleeping. ‘Huh?’ he thought, ‘Where am I?’ Ash felt a wetness where his left eye was supposed to be, and soon a part of his head was on fire, seething with pain; he cried out. His vision blurred, and he couldn’t see who rushed to him; the ringing in the left part of his head was so loud that whatever they told him, he couldn’t hear. A sharp needle pricked his arm, and his world turned into blissful darkness once more. When Ash awoke again, his mother was sitting with him. Her back was against the wall, and she was holding his left hand. Not wanting to disturb his mother, Ash tried raising his right hand instead, but it seemed to be held in place on his chest, bound by something he couldn’t see. He tried raising his head to see. Rain moved swiftly, releasing his hand. She gently pressed on his shoulders. “Easy there, or you will open your wounds again.” “Ma, what happened? I feel uneasy; the left side of my head feels weirdly heavy. I… I can’t open my eye. I can’t move my arm either, I don’t feel my hand.” As he listed all the things that had made him uneasy, his nervousness flared, and he felt his face with his left hand; a part of it was wrapped in cloth, and he wanted to tear it away. He then reached out for his right hand; it was still there, but it felt wrong… ‘My fingers are missing.’ Ash was panicking now. He wanted to get up, but his feet were heavy; it felt like they were wrapped in rocks heavy enough to keep him from moving. There was another prick on his left arm, and he settled down. “Ash… son, listen to me, you were in a fight, you were very brave, you defeated a Wrden! But you got hurt badly. You’ve lost your left eye, and two fingers of your right hand, the third finger is healing, and they told us that it would have a good chance to heal if you don’t move.” “I can’t move my legs,” Ash said, his voice strained. He was on the edge of another blackout. “You hurt your ankles, too. We need to let them heal, as well.” “Ho…” Ash closed his eyes, then opened his eyes again, “How long…?” “Two days.” ‘I didn’t miss much then…’ Ash slowly drifted into sleep. The third day was easier. He stayed awake longer and met Miru and Spark. He still wasn’t allowed to sit up. He was coming to terms with the missing eye and the fingers. He even felt a flicker of pride as an excited Spark recounted the fight all over again. Zain came often to check up on him. They didn’t talk much; he would ask how he was doing, then spend most of the time there with his eyes closed, sitting in a corner. Ash didn’t understand how Zain could sit in a corner with his eyes closed and end up drenched in sweat. Zain’s permanent smile was back, though. ‘What does he have to be so happy about?’ On the fourth day, he was allowed to sit up. Two people whom he had never seen before were attending to him. They didn’t even put him under this time, as they began inspecting the wounds and undoing the bandage, well, he was still very heavily sedated. They filled his eye with some gel and undid the heavy wrappings around his arm and legs. Now that he was up, he looked around the room. It was like they had completely sealed the room from the outside world, with polymer sheets. ‘Where was the light coming from?’ One of the most wondrous things that the rebellion did was provide them with power sources that weren’t linked to the temple. He was an apprentice; their whole doctrine was built on the Flame Engines that powered