I glanced toward the hill, seeing Astor struggling to get Beru into the carriage.
He was still unconscious. This was not going well.
When I turned back, Widow was closer. With a smile wider than any I’d seen, she taunted us, her front hands making a “come-hither” gesture. Before I could think to stop her, Sade lunged forward with her sword held high and swinging.
Widow lashed out. I heard a loud “clunk” when her leg hit Sade, knocking her off her feet and flinging her several feet out of the circle of spiders.
Now it was just Widow and me.
“I expected more. This was disappointingly easy, like taking an afternoon walk. It’s always such a letdown when you expect greatness and receive fly soup instead.” Her black tongue licked at her lips as she sauntered closer.
I tried to step back, but one of her legs reached out, wrapping around my waist. I struggled to break free, but she held me effortlessly with the sticky appendage.
She yawned, lifting me above her head and dangled me, turning me from side to side. She was enjoying my fear even as I tried to suppress my tears.
“Do you know why I’m here?” Widow waited for me to respond, giving me a little shake when I took too long.
“No.” Obviously, she was here to kill me.
“The God of Darkness sends his love. I’m Dag'draath’s gift.” She flung her head back and laughed, the noise compounding the headache I already had from her shrieks.
I looked at Astor, the only one of my friends still awake and squinted when I watched his mouth moving. Was he telling me to dreamwalk? I glanced at Widow. I didn’t know if I could do it, but I had no other options. Closing my eyes, I prayed to all the gods I could think of. I had to somehow transport my body and hope I could bring her with me. It was clear I was the one she wanted, and the reason for the spider attacks.
Dag'draath had sent her for me, just as he’d promised he would.
I’d dreamwalked under pressure before, but never with my body. I quested down to the ground, searching for the energy and using the magic of Lynia herself. I prayed she’d be generous as I shut every noise out of my mind. I felt Widow’s anger grow as her grip tightened on me.
I opened my eyes, expecting to still be trapped in her grip, but instead, I appeared to be in the dreamplane, a place between Lynia and dreamwalking. I felt my body, and it was whole as I stood with ease. Fear ran off my body like rain as all the negative emotions disappeared. I felt calm for the first time in a long time in the pure white room, free from danger.
I wanted to stay, relishing the unexpected moment of freedom. I had no idea how much time had passed though and knew I needed to return to my friends and heal them. The longer I waited, well, I wouldn’t think about that.
I closed my eyes and prepared to go back. After several moments where bright light shone on my eyelids, I knew it hadn’t worked. I refocused and tried again. It was harder without access to Lynia and her energy, because now I had to rely completely on my own power.
The memory of lying next to Beru after dreamwalking to the prison filled me. The warmth of his body near me, the comfort I’d felt. Darkness fell and I opened my eyes.
I could feel Lynia underneath me as I slowly sat up, the pain from my fall making my movements slow and stiff. I was back where I’d been before trying to dreamwalk, but now Widow and her spiders were gone.
Sade was on the ground beside me, unmoving.
Silence filled the clearing.
Chapter 12
“I can’t do this anymore.” Sade turned away, shaking her head as she stood up.
I’d spent the last two days healing Astor, Beru, and Sade, and I was too drained to get up and follow her. Iri was weak but on the mend and we were waiting for a local healer to arrive to finish his healing. He would have been there sooner, but the surviving villagers had needed him more than we did.
“I know it’s been a lot.” Panic set in. I couldn’t go on without her. She was my rock and soldier, and I needed her guidance.
“I don’t need this kind of trouble in my life.” Sade had begun to pace, agitation present in every step she took across the floor.
I stood up to close the door, my legs shaking as if I was walking uphill. I had to fix this, but it needed to be done in private. “I get it. It’s hard. But we couldn’t have gotten as far as we have without you. I would have been dead so many times already.”
“This is going to end in death.”
Sade stopped at the window, standing with her back to me, every muscle tense as she pretended to look out of the dirty glass.
“I need you. I’m not going to lie and say I don’t. I’ve learned so much from you, but there’s so much more I need to know.”
“Did you tell Beru?” She half-turned, looking at me with narrowed eyes as she waited.
“Tell him what?” I squinted, confused as to what she was asking.
“Did you tell him you’ve been going back to the prison? Since you’ve rescued him?” Her eyes bored into me.
I had to look away. I couldn’t tell if she was angry or jealous, but I was ashamed I’d kept it to myself when it was because of me everyone had been injured. “I didn’t tell anyone,” I admitted in a whisper, unable to meet her gaze.
“Well, you certainly didn’t tell me.” She turned back to the window, crossing her arms.
“I’m sorry. I wanted to figure this out myself first. I was wrong.”
“So much for needing me.” She barely spoke loud enough for me to hear, but it compounded my guilt, nonetheless.
“I should have told you.” I lowered my head, clasping and unclasping my hands. I had the same feeling in the pit of my stomach I’d gotten when my brother told me to leave. For a moment, I wondered if I needed to empty my stomach. I was scared I would, and choked the bile back.
We’d grown as close as family and I couldn’t handle another abandonment.
“But you didn’t.” Sade's voice wavered, and for a moment, I wondered if she was holding back tears.
I stepped closer, but when she stiffened, I changed my mind about approaching her. I hung back, unsure whether to stand or sit. I knew I had to convince her to stay with me. She was a pivotal part of the team and my life.
“I can fix this. I know I can.” But how? I couldn’t find the words I needed.
“I need some time. I’ll have to think about it.” She turned her head to the side, still avoiding eye contact. “I’d like to be alone.”
“Okay.”
I walked slowly toward the door, hoping she would turn and tell me she’d been joking. But when I reached it without any movement, I sighed, and left to check on the others, closing the door gently behind me.
“Is she okay?” Astor was on his way to the room, and I grabbed his wrist just as he reached for the handle.
I tried to smile, but it fell flat. “She asked to be alone.”
“What’s wrong?” He turned his head to the door, then looked at me with a frown.
“I can’t talk about it,” I managed to choke out, then took off down the hall as hot tears escaped to run freely down my cheeks. With my vision blurred, I bumped into something hard and looked up, startled to see Beru looking down at me.
“What’s wrong?”
I pushed him away and ran out of the house. I didn’t want Sade to see me talking to him and couldn’t handle explaining my feelings to him of all people.
Once I was sure no one had followed me, I sat on the ground with my back to a tree and sobbed into my hands. How had everything changed so much? I’d lost so much this year. I barely recognized myself.
I hated I’d let Beru come between us. Ever since I’d dreamwalked him out of prison I’d been unable to get him out of my head. I was putting others at risk for him. I swore I wouldn’t do that again. I’d never be alone with him again, no matter what.
Burying my head in my arms, I cried until I couldn’t cry anymore. Once my tears dried up, I sat numb to the world, the bright sun on my
back mocking me with its cheeriness.
“Aria!” Someone was calling me from the house.
I ignored it, then they called again. It was Beru. I hunched over, trying to make myself smaller. Maybe the large tree stump would hide me from him. I wasn’t strong enough to resist him. I needed more time if I was going to uphold my promise to myself.
“Aria?” He came closer. “I can see you there.”
I sighed loudly, making certain he could hear me.
“It’s Iri.” He approached slowly.
I jumped up my inner turmoil forgotten as I recognized his solemn expression. “What’s wrong?”
“He’s worse. Much worse.”
Guilt flooded me again. I’d tended to Beru before Sade, before Iri. And now Iri was failing. My face reddened with shame at how I’d let him interfere with my decisions. I ran past him to the house as fast as my legs would carry me. All that mattered was getting to Iri.
I pushed the door open, finding Astor and Sade already by the bedside.
She was crying softly as Astor attempted to soothe her. “Where were you? We looked everywhere.” Sade stood up, her face red.
I saw judgment in her eyes and shifted my gaze to Iri. I couldn’t deal with her right now, so I bent down instead of replying. I blocked my turbulent emotions as best as I could and examined my patient.
Iri was drenched in sweat. I felt for his heart rate. Too slow. My pulse picked up, and I began to question my abilities. I was in way over my head and my energy was too low to chance draining myself completely. “When is the local healer arriving?”
“He should have been here by now.” Beru brought a chair to the head of the bed, straddling it as he sat, leaning his arms on the top of the back as he looked down on Iri.
“We sent someone to find him just before you returned,” Astor added helpfully.
I looked at Sade, who was kneeling on the floor beside the bed.
She hadn’t let go of his hand.
I lowered myself to sit at the opposite end of the bed, but she avoided looking at me. I held back my tears at the loss of my friend and focused on being there for Iri in the best way I could.
Seeing no other options, I placed my hands over Iri and focused what little energy I had on him.
Astor saw what I was doing and placed his hand on my shoulder.
I turned to him, and he nodded, a half-smile on his face. I smiled back, then closed my eyes, and carefully tapped into his energy.
It was a dangerous gamble, as I had no way of knowing how much energy I could take.
He was still healing from the attacks himself, and if I took too much it would undo my previous work.
We sat in silence as I harnessed as much energy as I could.
Astor stepped aside as Beru took his place, then Sade.
My hands began to shake, but I held on for as long as my friends were willing to give their energy. I leaned over, so I didn’t have to hold myself up. I could give that to Iri as well. Soon, my eyes wanted to close. I fought to keep them open, lasting until dusk before I finally had to stop.
I couldn’t lift myself off the floor.
Beru picked me up, even though he was still weak himself. He sat me in a nearby chair and Astor wrapped me in a blanket, handing me warm tea as shivers wracked my body.
“How is he?” Astor sat in the chair beside me.
“I don’t know. I don’t know what’s wrong with him. He’s stronger for the moment, but everything I give him keeps depleting so fast. I’ve never seen anything like it.” I shook my head, not knowing what to do next.
We all sacrificed everything we had to spare of our own energy, and it still wasn’t enough.
The door flew open and a stranger entered the room, filling it with the cool night air. “Where is he?”
“Over here.” Beru called him over to the bed.
The man’s eyebrows shot up. He strode over, dropping his medicine bag on the floor beside the bed and began his examination. “When did this happen?”
“Two days ago, when we were fighting off spiders,” Astor told him as he placed a large pot of boiling water on the table beside the bed.
“Did she bite him?” The healer examined Iri for wounds, turning swiftly to me.
“Bite him?” I stood up, my legs trembling slightly as I walked over to the bed.
“Yes. Bite.” He made an exaggerated biting movement with his mouth, looking at each of us in turn.
“She licked him. Widow, I mean.”
When they all stared at me, I realized I must have been the only one awake to witness it.
“He’s poisoned.” The healer nodded once, digging through his bag.
“Poisoned?” Sade sniffled, fresh tears springing to her eyes.
“Her fangs are poisonous. None of you knew?” He shook his head, then placed his ear over Iri’s chest, holding up one hand to quiet the room. “Hmm, he’s pretty far gone.”
“Can you help?” Terror filled me at the idea I would lose another of my friends. It was all my fault. I couldn’t live with myself if he died.
“I’ll know in the morning. Right now, I need a table.”
Beru slid a second table over to the bed as the healer unpacked his bag.
With the hot water on the other table and ingredients from his bag he began measuring and mixing powders together.
At first, I just watched, but after a few moments I approached. Maybe I could help.
“You were a healer.” He didn’t turn to look at me, continuing to work as he waited for a reply.
“Yes. Not a very good one though.”
“Good enough. He’d be dead otherwise.” He glanced at me, smiling briefly before looking back at his work.
“What are you doing?” I marveled at everything he had contained in the bag. The ingredients were more numerous than I’d expected once outside their container.
“I’m making two different plasters to draw out the poison. Once they’ve done all they can, we will offer him more energy to restore his life force.”
He handed me the first paste in a small mortar, gesturing for me to take it to the bedside, then swiftly grabbed another and ground different herbs, mixing them as well. He joined me a moment later, passing me the next mortar. I placed it with the first bowl on the bed beside Iri and waited as he washed his hands in the remainder of the hot water.
“Where did she lick him?” He held out a hand for the first bowl.
I passed it to him, pointing out the discolored patch on Iri’s face. “His left cheek.”
He quickly slathered the paste on the skin with the bruising. “The most minuscule amount of her saliva in an open wound can be deadly.”
He concentrated, his hands steady and wise as he focused solely on Iri’s still form. He repeated the process with the second paste, and tears sprang to my eyes at the thought of Mother Ofburg. His movements were so similar the memory stung.
“Now, we wait.” He reached over, patting my shoulder.
I wiped away my tears, blinking rapidly to avoid breaking down, and watched Iri as the healer got up and began to tidy his supplies. I hoped this would work, otherwise tomorrow we may need to bury him.
“He won’t heal in front of your eyes.” He glanced at me reprovingly.
I turned away, embarrassed at being caught. “I know.”
I stood up, emotionally and physically drained. My friends were all asleep by the fire, sleeping innocently after expending their energy to help.
“Here.” He passed me a clean bowl, waving toward the prep table. “You’re up next.”
“Oh, no. You have to do it.” I pushed it back.
He stepped forward, firmly placing it in my hand and wrapping the other around the bowl. “It’s your turn. You can use any of my supplies. I think you’ll feel better if you do this.” Gently, he pushed me toward the table and brought a chair for me. When I sat down, he clapped my shoulder in approval. “I’ll rest while I wait for this to take effect. Wake me when you’re finished
.”
I nodded, still unsure I should be interfering, but he joined the others on the floor, covering up with a blanket and closed his eyes, leaving me alone with my doubts.
I closed my eyes, listening to the memory of Mother Ofburg’s voice and allowing her to guide my movements. Working quickly with my eyes closed, I reached into my pocket and pulled out a few weeds from her garden, adding them for good measure.
When I opened my eyes, the paste almost seemed to glow in the dark. I moved to the side to look at it under the light, and it sparkled as the fire hit it.
“It’s time to try your ointment.”
I whirled around, startled to see him standing behind me. I exhaled shakily, handing the new paste to him with a smile. “It’s ready.”
I wiped the old paste from Iri’s face, revealing raw, red skin beneath it. He passed my paste over, and I gently coated the area. As I finished, Iri began to moan, restlessly tossing his head from side to side.
I glanced up at the healer, who simply nodded. “I must go. I can see he’s in good hands.”
“You can’t leave.” I stood up quickly. I couldn’t be trusted with his life.
“It was you who healed him, not I.” The healer held his hands over Iri for a moment, then let them drop, a look of satisfaction on his face. “You’ll know for certain in the morning. But he’s turned a corner now.”
“But what if he worsens?” I felt lightheaded as my heart pumped faster, anxiety setting in. I couldn’t bear if anything happened on my watch.
“Make another batch of your paste. Wait till it dries, then reapply it. Do that every two hours.” He packed up his belongings, leaving out the herbs I’d made my paste from, along with the mortar and pestle. “I’ll be back in the morning for what’s left.”
I didn’t argue as I watched him leave, even though I wanted to protest I shouldn’t be trusted. Once he was gone, I turned back to the bed. I wondered if it was just my imagination when it seemed as if his breathing had smoothed out. I turned to look at Sade, sleeping peacefully with the others.
I prayed when morning arrived, everything would be okay again.
Chapter 13
Spell Breaker Page 10
