Chapter 8

They were on their way back home at last, Daniel and the men who had been captured with him. Beth didn't know why he was the only one who had been so stubborn that he refused medical care all this time when everyone else was hale and healthy. In fact, he was the one slowing them down, and finally, after a day of traveling through hard terrain, he ordered them to go on without him. He would follow at his own pace as his body recovered now that Beth had treated his wound.

"No," she said flatly when he tried to make her go with them. "You can make them obey, but not me. So stop trying."

"You -"

"I said no."

"You've been angry at me since we left Troy territory," she said, voice flinty and sparking with impatience. "And now you're only taking back the cold shoulder treatment to tell me to leave? Forget it. I came all this way on foot and alone without your family's permission or mine to get you out of there, so I'm not leaving on your word either."

"And how exactly did you do that, B