Chapter 38 - Locked Away

The prisoners sat in the bed of the truck. Relik and Kysandra were cuddling in the corner, trying to comfort each other. Sylva and Tyra each sat in their own corners crying as well, though they had no one to comfort them. They did not know if there were guards outside, but the thoughts on all of their minds were that it was not worth the risk.

What had caused Hylik to go bad? And how had he managed to convince the entire Free Council of his cause, whatever it may be?

They sat there for what seemed like hours. In actuality, it probably was hours, but there was no way to mark the passage of time in the truck. Sylva had cried herself to sleep, and Kysandra and Relik had not moved for some time, leading Tyra to believe that the same was true for them.

And so Tyra was all alone, left to contemplate her own thoughts, in addition to wondering why Hylik had gone bad, she wondered about another thing. Where was Krynn? Had he joined the rebellion as well? Or had he left to go somewhere else?

She could not imagine that Krynn had left to go hunting, as the Council had had plenty of food before they had gone out on their fateful mission to explore the mystery of the deer. Nor could she imagine that Krynn had joined the rebellion. After all that they had been through together, there was no way that he could have turned against them so suddenly. There had been no warning.

But he had become friends with Hylik, so given enough prodding, he may have turned. This seemed too impossible to Tyra, but she had no other explanation.

One other possibility remained. Perhaps Krynn had tried to stop Hylik from taking control. If this was the case, and he had had no success, then he likely now was dead, shot by Hylik.

Her thoughts led her further down this road. No one in the group besides Hylik seemed to have the potential for organizing a revolt like the one that had taken place. If he had been the one to try to instigate the revolt and Krynn had fought against him, surely others would have joined Krynn in a desperate attempt to stop Hylik?

Tyra did not know of anyone else who was a member of the Free Council who was not present when they revolted. If no one else had, then Krynn had likely managed to escape or had joined the rebellion. Of course, nothing said that Tyra simply did not notice anyone else who was not present, which would imply that Krynn did try to stop Hylik’s actions, but that he and the others were killed.

As it happened, Kysandra was not asleep either. She was thinking about Hylik and what could have led him to retaliate in the way that he did. Yes, it was obvious that he was not happy with Kysandra’s leadership. He had spoken out at the meetings against her, and had attempted to stop her nomination when she was chosen.

Nothing had worked for him, as she had indeed been chosen regardless. Perhaps he was retaliating for this, although why he would also turn on the other three in the way that he did was unknown.

There was also, of course, the attempted relationship between Kysandra and Hylik. It had been a happy one, and Kysandra had never suspected that Hylik was as desperate of a person as he was. And it hadn’t broken up because of a faux pas commited by either person.

Rather, the relationship had fallen apart because they were captured by the Order of Vengeance. Slavery is no place to keep a romantic relationship going. When you have to work to live, it simply does not make sense to fall in love.

So they had broken up. Kysandra considered another possibility of why he might be upset at her.

Perhaps he had thought that after the Order was disbanded, they would get back together. Kysandra had never seen this as what would take place, and so therefore had gone right ahead with her relationship with Relik. Hylik, had he thought that they would be together again, would be understandably upset.

Still, none of these things seemed to explain why Hylik had done as violent of a thing as he had.

Not knowing the answers, Kysandra shifted closer to Relik, and fell asleep.

At some time at night, when it happened that the prisoners were asleep, Hylik opened the doors to the truck. He tossed in some bread and closed the doors again. No one awoke, though they were pleasantly surprised to see food when they woke up. Despite what a small portion it was, they divided it equally, so that they could last longer.

When they had awoken, they sat in their corners again, saying nothing. Morale was already dissolving.