ONE (Book 1 in the Amnesia Archives)

Chapter 26

"Senka, if you take one more step, I'm going to pull all your threads out and then take out your stuffing and stitch you back together inside-out," Aknon threatened coldly and breathlessly as we continued to walk through the long grass. "Maybe I'll clean you in a puddle as well."

We had been walking for ages, so long that I felt I would simply collapse if I took another step. I was boiling hot, and not the good kind of hot. I'd taken my coat and shirt off, my dark blue skin open to the world as the sun beat down on us. I wasn't sure I'd ever felt this kind of heat from the sun before. I was tempted to slice through my trousers to turn them into shorts. I was that desperate for relief from the wretched heat.

"There has to be another road, we made it this far!" Senka replied in a desperate exclamation. I could tell that she was panicking quite a bit, but I couldn't currently give her any sympathy, because she's the reason we were walking through the long grass in the sweltering heat.

Prin and Sarphi weren't enjoying themselves either. Their shoulders were slumped and Sarphi had also taken her shirt off, declaring that most of us had seen her without a shirt anyway, and the fact women had to hide their chests was unfair. Prin was wearing a dress, so it was much harder for her to deal with the situation. I wasn't sure how she was still managing to walk, considering that her heat tolerance was probably less than my siblings' and me. We'd always had some sort of heat resistance, always preferring to stay right by the fire and drinking boiling tea.

"You've been saying that since we began walking off the road," Sarphi pointed out, face turning a darker blue from the warmth. "I think it's safe to say now that there isn't."

"But we can't go back," Senka said in a voice which was almost delirious. "No, we can't go back. We'll just suffer more going back. If we go this way, then there's more chance of us finding a road. We won't be back where we started."

"But we knew where we were when we were walking along the road," Aknon argued and whined like a child. "This is unnecessary. We don't know where we're going."

"Not like we ever knew where we were going," Sarphi mumbled.

"We have a mission," Aknon snapped. "We know our path, and that's back the way we were going." Aknon reached for my arm and pulled me backwards, his hand slippery with sweat.

"No, it wasn't." Senka shook her head. "That road will lead you to nothing but pain. I know it. Aknon, that road is magic I swear. I don't know how I know, but I know. We can't trust that road."

Onyx whimpered. He seemed to be faring quite well in the heat. It's probably because those two were made out of the same shadow, or whatever it was they were made from. He had been trailing after us, almost sadly, tail dropped and head down to the ground. I had guessed that he was sniffing for potential friends or foes.

"How are we meant to believe you, Senka?" Aknon asked with a groan. "There's no evidence that the road is bad. Nor is there evidence that we're going to get to another road."

"Can't you use your book?" Sarphi asked, her footsteps uneven in the grass. I would've offered her a piggy-back ride, but I wasn't in the right state to do that.

"I'm not summoning any heat or light here," Aknon replied with a shake of his head. "That stuff takes energy which I don't have the ability to spare."

"You could use the sun," Senka said, which I supposed were Prin's thoughts. Senka didn't seem too enthusiastic to pass on the suggestion. "But if we just keep going then we'll get the answers anyway."

"Maybe that's what the people in the carriage thought?" I thought aloud. "Maybe they rode through the very same grass we're walking through and decided to turn around? That's why they were skeletons because they burned to death."