A Girl From Nowhere (The Firewall Trilogy #1) - James Maxwell Page 0,3

crushed foot.

As the thunder of wherry feet filled the air, Taimin grabbed onto the boulder’s sharpest edge and pulled. His muscles strained with effort as he tried to get the weight off his damaged foot. His mother had always called him brave when he hurt himself.

His mother.

He struggled not to cry. She was dead.

The boulder rocked to the side. He renewed his efforts and grimaced. His hands found better purchase. Heaving with all his strength, he screamed when he rolled the boulder off his foot and it tumbled down the face of the cliff.

“Taimin?” He knew the voice calling from above. Aunt Abi’s face appeared at the top of the cliff. The big scar on her cheek matched the color of her wild red hair. Her disfigurement was old; Taimin had never known her without it. “Hold on a moment. I’ll get the rope.”

The coarse rope soon tumbled down the cliff and Taimin held on, his face contorted with pain while his aunt dragged him over the rockslide and up to the escarpment. Abi’s eyes widened with surprise when she saw his crushed foot, twisted with the bones crunching together like gravel in a sack. Her face registered surprise and something else . . . Sorrow.

She helped him up until he was sprawled out in the area that had recently been the scene of such violence. As she walked away, Taimin lifted his head. He saw his father, groaning as he gazed up at the sky. The rover with the bow lay dead with an arrow in his chest; his lifeless eyes stared without seeing. The two swordsmen were nowhere to be seen.

The realization that his father was alive sparked a moment of hope, but then Taimin saw his father’s gray face and the way he held his hands over his chest. A red stain had spread all over his torso.

Taimin tried to crawl closer, but every time his legs moved a jolt of agony pulsed through his body. He wanted to call out but was forced to grit his teeth against the pain.

“The rovers have gone,” Abi said. Taimin involuntarily turned his head to scan the area; he knew he would never forget the two cold-faced brothers. He focused once more on Abi as she crouched beside Gareth. “You fool. You should have run as soon as you saw them.”

Gareth coughed and blood spluttered from his mouth. He tried to speak. Taimin could only just hear him. “Taimin?”

Abi looked over at Taimin and then back at Gareth. Taimin’s father saw something in her eyes.

“No . . .” Gareth croaked.

“His foot’s ruined. He’ll never walk again. A cripple can’t survive the wasteland.”

“Please . . .”

Taimin realized they were discussing his life. Abi took a few moments to reply. “I can’t promise anything except that I’ll do what’s right for the boy.”

Gareth gave a sharp groan. Taimin couldn’t bear how much pain his father was in. Gareth’s face screwed up as his entire body shuddered.

Abi lifted her head. “Look away, Taimin.” Her bone knife was in her hand. She leaned over Gareth. “Are you ready?”

Gareth gave a slight nod and turned his head so that he was looking at Taimin. He struggled to raise his voice. “Taimin. Be strong!”

“Father!” Taimin cried out. He pushed at the ground to raise his head; his eyes were fixed firmly on his father.

Abi’s arm thrust forward as she plunged her bone knife deep into Gareth’s chest. The breath left Gareth’s body. Taimin’s heart gave strong, savage thumps inside his chest.

Abi looked up and saw him staring. “I’m sorry, but he was suffering.” She rose from her crouch and glanced at her brother and his wife. She shook her head. “You heard what we were discussing?”

“Yes,” Taimin whispered.

“The wasteland is too dangerous for a cripple. It might have been better if you’d fallen to your death down the face of that cliff. It all depends on your determination, and how you heal. But you can only control one of those things. Do you understand me, Taimin?”

“Yes.”

“Good. I’ll take you home first, and then I’ll fetch the bodies of your mother and father before the scavengers come.”

Aunt Abi was a fighter, stronger and tougher than Gareth and Tess put together, but as she admitted herself she was no healer. She massaged the bones in Taimin’s foot and then wrapped a cloth tightly around the whole thing.

For the next three days, Taimin writhed in agony. Abi fed him water but he couldn’t keep food down and she didn’t