The Choosing by Annabelle Jacobs Read Free Book Online

off after Serim, back to their village, dreading what he might find when he gets there.

Chapter 4

     
    J ERATH ’ S legs are protesting violently by the time he makes it back to the outskirts of his village. He’s out of breath and sweaty and his clothes are starting to stick to him in the most unpleasant way, but Jerath hardly notices. He looks around for Serim, but he can’t see any trace of her.
    He crouches low, taking cover in the tree line that borders the village, and tries to make out what’s going on. The village itself seems deathly quiet, and Jerath tries to swallow but his mouth is so dry it almost hurts. There’s a gentle rustle of leaves behind him, and Jerath whirls around in time to see a very naked Serim crawling toward him on all fours.
    He stares at her for a second before turning back to watch the village again. A soft but very pointed cough has Jerath’s head whipping around again. “What?” he mouths at her.
    She nods at the bundle of clothes wedged under his arm.
    “Oh, right. Sorry,” he whispers.
    She rolls her eyes and shakes her head as he pushes them into her hands so she can hurriedly get dressed.
    “Come on, then.” Jerath starts to get up. He’s impatient to check on his mother. He wants to check on Mahli and Kinis too, but his mother is his first priority.
    “Wait,” Serim hisses. She pulls him sharply back down and Jerath frowns at her. “We can’t go in there.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because of that.” Serim puts her hands on either side of Jerath’s face and gently moves him so that he’s looking over toward the barns.
    Oh.
    Jerath would never normally curse, but fuck it all. He can’t believe this is happening.
    There are strangers wandering out of the barn, men Jerath has never seen before. They’re dressed in much the same clothing as the raiders who passed them earlier by the lakes. More and more of them appear, and Jerath can clearly see they are armed.
    He turns away and slumps on the ground, burying his face in his hands. He sits like that for a few silent minutes, the enormity of the situation only just starting to sink in.
    “Our mothers could be—”
    “They’re alive,” Serim interrupts. She peels Jerath’s hands away from his face and gets him to look at her. “I could smell them, Jerath, Mahli too. I don’t know what’s happening to them, but they’re alive and unharmed, so that’s… that’s something.”
    She looks close to tears and Jerath grasps her hands in his. He tugs her closer until she settles into his lap and he wraps her up in his arms. “Yeah…,” he breathes into her thick hair, now falling in disarray down her back. “That’s something.”
    “What do we do now?” Her voice is muffled by his clothes, but Jerath hears the faint traces of desperation in it.
    They can’t stay here. There are armed men in the village, and Jerath has no wish to become one of their prisoners. He’s even less inclined to find out what they might do with Serim. But neither of them has ever left the village before—not overnight anyway. The thought is terrifying, and he can tell by the way Serim goes stiff in his arms that she feels the same way.
    “We have to leave and try and get help,” he says eventually.
    Serim pulls back so she can see his face. “To Westril or Lakesh?”
    “We can’t go to either of them,” Jerath says. “The prisoners weren’t just from our village, Serim. I think they went to the others first. We can’t risk it.”
    “So what do you suggest?” she asks.
    There’s only one other place they can go, and Jerath knows that Serim realizes this too, so he just raises an eyebrow.
    “But we haven’t been in contact with the Southern lands in over five years.” Serim looks resigned as she speaks.
    The last time they’d seen the Southerners was when their village had been attacked by raiders from one of the more northern villages. The Northern and Southern lands are separated by the River Valesk. It’s wide and long