{"id":4671,"date":"2021-07-21T19:36:12","date_gmt":"2021-07-21T23:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4671"},"modified":"2021-07-21T19:36:12","modified_gmt":"2021-07-21T23:36:12","slug":"twenty-three-04-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4671","title":{"rendered":"Twenty-three – 04"},"content":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thomas Merlin Ambrose’s point of view.]<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve still got questions,\u201d she said softly.\u00a0 I choked on a laugh.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course I do,\u201d I said, then sighed a little.\u00a0 \u201cA thousand of them.\u00a0 But I\u2019m not sure you or anyone else has answers to those questions, do you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably not,\u201d she admitted.\u00a0 \u201cThough you\u2019re welcome to try me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t know where they went,\u201d I said.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s the biggest question.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs it should be,\u201d she admitted.\u00a0 \u201cAnd you\u2019re right, I don\u2019t know where they went\u2014just a direction, one that probably doesn\u2019t surprise you at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey went south,\u201d I said.\u00a0 \u201cToward New Hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carolyn nodded.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t know if they passed through or not, but they headed in that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey wouldn\u2019t have,\u201d I said.\u00a0 \u201cNot if the ruse was that they were dead.\u00a0 They wouldn\u2019t have risked it.\u00a0 More folks than Cameron head through there\u2014and I\u2019m guessing he\u2019s in the know?\u201d<\/p>\n

Carolyn nodded.\u00a0 \u201cHe is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWho else?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA few,\u201d she hedged, and I decided not to press.\u00a0 I could guess who might be involved\u2014my aunt and uncle, of course, probably Phelan and Jacqueline, obviously Carolyn and J.T., plus Cameron and Neve.\u00a0 For all I knew, that might have been it, but something told me that Sif and Thordin might know, too.\u00a0 It was a distinct possibility.\u00a0 Odds were good that I didn\u2019t go any further than that, though.<\/p>\n

I closed my eyes as she hugged me a little closer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry, Lin,\u201d she said, resting her cheek against my head.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m sorry we kept this from you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s okay,\u201d I said faintly.\u00a0 \u201cI can understand why you did it.\u00a0 They asked.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

I nodded, my eyes still closed.\u00a0 \u201cThen they knew what would eventually happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want me to stay with you out here?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I want to?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen stay,\u201d I said quietly, eyes opening again.\u00a0 \u201cJust a little longer. \u00a0Then we\u2019ll go back.\u00a0 I probably have to talk Tory off a ledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo I want to know?\u201d<\/p>\n

I had to smile.\u00a0 \u201cProbably not.\u00a0 Not yet.\u00a0 But you will.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d she said, tone wry.\u00a0 \u201cI suppose I will soon enough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thomas Merlin Ambrose’s point of view.] \u201cYou\u2019ve still got questions,\u201d she said softly.\u00a0 I choked on a laugh. \u201cOf course I do,\u201d I said, then sighed a little.\u00a0 \u201cA thousand of them.\u00a0 But I\u2019m not sure … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[336,337,373,14],"tags":[340,150,163,171,170,149,148,168,147,165,200,146],"class_list":["post-4671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ambrose-cycle","category-book-8","category-chapter-23-book-8","category-story","tag-ambrose-cycle","tag-awakenings","tag-carolyn-roberts","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-original-fiction","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-thomas-merlin-ambrose","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-1dl","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4671"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4672,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4671\/revisions\/4672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}