Chapter 16

He looked like a shorter version of Lyle with lighter hair. On second look, the differences were more apparent. His eyes were hard and cold not like Lyle’s warm caring ones, and the man was built more ruggedly and compact, where Lyle was muscular, and lanky.

“Hello Adam, your a site for sore eyes!” Lyle stepped forward and threw an arm around the younger man. They each patted the others back in the embrace, although Amaris noticed that Adam had done so almost hesitantly.

“Amaris, this is my brother Adam. Adam this is Amaris.” Well, thought Amaris, that at least explains the resemblance. “Nice to meet you. Thank you for getting us out of here.”

Adam said nothing just nodded his head. He gave Amaris a curious sideways glance as he turned away to address his brother. “We need to be quick. They have literally spread out everywhere. Our fighters have most of them confined to the other side of the village, but the toll that they took on the village last night was a heavy one. There are 12 confirmed dead, 38 injured and 7 still unaccounted for. We will hold them off as long as we can. What is your plan? Neither of you are safe here. Where is Gran? I thought that she was with you.”

Lyle looked like he was ready to leap out of the mechanical room and run to the nearest fight. He clenched his fists and his jaw muscles tightened. Amaris had never seen such concern and hatred in his eyes.

“Gran sacrificed herself so that we could get in here. I take it you have not heard anything from them about her then. I was hoping that they would try to use her as leverage and ask for a swap. At least that way we would know that she was alright.”

Lyle pulled Adam aside away from Amaris and began to speak in hushed tones so Amaris could not hear them. When Lyle came back toward her, Adam was walking away from them back to the way that they had originally come into the mechanical room.

“Amaris, I told my brother to go on and alert the men to hold the enemy where they were, while we head out of town. I was wrong about us coming here being a good idea. Our coming here has cost too many lives. I am taking you somewhere that no one else will know about. Don’t worry I have fortified that just as well as here. However, being outside of town there will be less casualties. Once we are there we can try and see if we can get some more information on Gran.” Lyle’s eyes looked earnest but sad. There was definite guilt there. Amaris rested her hand on his arm. “It’s Ok Lyle. This is not your fault.” If anything it’s mine she thought. I am the one that they are after and everytime I go near people someone gets hurt, Amaris thought.

Lyle looked into Amaris’ face then and with earnest said “You don’t understand, it is not only my job to keep you safe, but it is also my job to keep all of them safe as well. I have failed in that by bringing you here. I have brought the danger to their front door without warning. I as good as killed all those people.” Lyle shook his head and looked away. He began to walk toward the mechanical room exit. He looked back at Amaris and motioned with his head toward the door. “Come on. We need to get moving and get you to somewhere safe that is not here.”