Page 45 of A Spark So Bright
And yet, he watched her skirt around a boulder, step over a firepit that was left in the worst place possible, and then turn right down a twisting corner. All without him telling her to do so.
"What else do I not know about you?" Gunnar sped up to go ahead of her, at least guiding them through the winding tunnels in the direction he wanted them to go.
"I don't like talking this much." Her voice was ghostly in the darkness. He watched her hand appear from underneath her cloak, a pale figure gently reaching out to touch a stone for a moment, almost rubbing it as though... he didn't know.
All he knew was that this Rose had changed very much. Or perhaps, this was the Rose she had been hiding from them all.
Eighteen
Rose
Her first glimpse of the outside world made her feel as though a weight had been pulled off her shoulders. She hadn't realized how heavy it had been just existing. But she hadn't been outside, like this, in... years.
Ten years.
She'd been taken by the king, stuffed into a single room without any way to get out. Of course, the realm she had created in her head had gotten her outside. But those were all pieced together memories of a time she had forgotten. She was surprised the flowers still had color after all these years of forgetting the outside.
And then she'd run with the trolls. Pressed against his chest with her face tucked into his neck, the outside had been the last thing on her mind. She'd been so terrified of living that she hadn't even looked around.
But now? Now she had time to heal. She'd had time to be in Trollveggen, deep within the heart of the mountain that pulsed around her. She'd been able to hear the sounds of it breathingand to know that there was no one around her with hands that would hurt.
They stepped out from the dark mountain tunnel into the sunlight, and she had forgotten sunlight felt so good. It was warm and comforting, easing a tension in her shoulders as she turned her head toward the heat. Rose lifted her hands just a little, almost reaching for the sensation.
Then she registered the birdsong that fluttered through the air. They trilled, bright and light and so pretty it made her heart hurt a little to hear them. They were so small to make a song that was so infinitely beautiful.
What a bright world existed here. What a lovely, wonderful, heartwarming place and so many people took it for granted.
"Rose?" Gunnar asked.
She glanced over at him, surprised he was still here. She'd threatened him with a knife, by the gods. He should have been far angrier with her than he was.
Frankly, she'd expected him to argue with her more. He hadn't wanted her to come. She had actually tracked him and followed when he didn't want to risk her life. There were plenty of reasons for him to be furious. But he wasn't. He just stared at her warily.
"Still here?" he asked. "I know you haven't been outside in a very long time."
"I haven't." Talking to someone this much felt strange. She was a little rusty at conversation, but knew this was part of living. Rhydian wouldn't let her back if she didn't at least try. "I didn't talk to anyone in the labyrinth all that much. The men that visited me, or the ones that I visited later, they didn't..." She shrugged. "They didn't talk."
A dark expression passed over his features. "I know they didn't, Rose. They should have. I imagine they would have found you a much more interesting person if they had."
Memories filtered through her mind. All the men who hadn't even said a word as they stalked into her room. Or the one... The one man who had tried to talk to her.
"One did," she whispered. "I killed him. I didn't mean to. I just knew if something scary happened around me, that I could disappear into my mind. So I tried to get him to be mean to me, but I didn't realize that hitting someone over the head with a vase could kill him."
The act still haunted her. He was the only person who might have been kind to her. If she’d had her wits about her, if she hadn't been going insane for years, she might have seen the opportunity for what it was. If anyone could have gotten her out, it was that man.
Gunnar grunted. "Don't hold on to that guilt for too long, Rose. If he was visiting you in that place, he wasn't a good man. Even if he couldn't go through with it."
She realized he was right. That man had still been connected to the king. He'd still come to her room, still planned on fucking her when he should have known how wrong that was.
More of the weight came off her shoulders, and she felt a little braver. Maybe she did know how to protect herself after all. She'd just never trusted that she could do it again.
Rose followed Gunnar for the rest of the day, marveling at the world that she had missed. It had been so long, and she had never gotten out of the city when she was a child. She remembered being so wrapped up in becoming a priestess that it was hard for her to look around herself and really enjoy what she was seeing.
But now she did. Now she saw the emerald green of the leaves above her head in a canopy that rang with sound. She noticed the tangled roots that were pulling out of the ground as they headed down a steeper side of the mountain than she hadexpected. She saw little eyes in the hollows, hiding away from her sight as creatures watched them pass.
She wanted to stop and look at everything. Thick vines hung from the trees, and she swore one of them moved when she looked a little closer. Was it a snake? Or was it some other creature she had never seen before and therefore desperately needed to see?
And of course, there were all the smells. Rose wasn't sure she'd been in a forest before, but she hadn't realized that it would have a scent. Sometimes she could smell the leaves crunching underneath her feet, an earthy, loamy smell that reminded her of the gardens in Trollveggen. Sometimes she'd catch something sweet, or something horribly stinky, and then moving past whatever animal had left that scent, the air would bloom again. Fresh. Clean. Better than the city she'd been in her entire life.
