by Melody Rose
“Yes, you did, Stella,” I said.
Then, my friend went still in my arms. I never knew if she heard that validation or not. She simply went still and silent.
Heloise cried out and collapsed into Troylan’s arms when I laid Stella down. I rested Stella’s body gently on the ground and tapped into my anger. As the light flared bright and hot in my hands, I whirled on Reon.
“We broke your bond,” I shouted at Reon as I shot a ball of light at him. Reon held up his hand, and a ball of darkness knocked aside my light. “She broke your bond!” I took another shot. He dodged me again but remained still as I confronted him. “How do you still have access to the darkness?”
“Because I have more than one bond,” Reon answered.
Once again, Reon flung out his arm, but instead of doing it in my direction, he pushed it out sideways, towards the open door. An array of darkness illuminated hundreds of strings that moved in alignment with the dragons. Each black cord connected to one of the collars on the dragons.
“Not for long,” Julei called out.
The young girl stood with the sword in her hands. She was between Reon and the door, with the perfect angle to cut through all of the bonds. With a grunt, Julei lifted the sword.
In that single moment, the world seemed to slow down. Reon opened up his hand and shot an arrow from the center of his palm. I watched the arrow soar down the line directly towards Julei. My legs darted forward, and I pushed myself through the projection of the bonds. They dissolved around me, still there but no longer visible. I launched my body in front of Julei and pushed her to the ground. The sword clattered out of her hands just as something collided with my lower back.
I fell on top of the girl and grunted from the fall. Julei wailed beneath me. “Eva, you are squishing me!”
But I found I couldn’t move off her. My body was paralyzed. A pain seared in my body, coiling through all of my limbs. A tang of burnt chocolate ran over my tongue, and blackness consumed my vision.
I was infected with the contamination.
34
Kehn
After Eva was struck with that vile arrow, Reon threatened all of us with those same tainted weapons. To resist then would have been instant death, so we had no choice but to go where he led us. We were thrown into dank cells with bars for a door. The rock walls curved upward and hung low so that no one but Julei could stand upright. Luckily, we were all together, so the minute that we were locked in, I rushed for Eva.
“Are you alright?” Hannan said, beating me to the punch.
“Not really,” Eva said as she blinked several times.
It was unnerving seeing her eyes like that. I couldn’t decipher between her iris or pupil. Everything was black, like an obsidian marble. However, I tried my best to look past that and see Eva as she was before.
“And you’re sure your light does not work?” Hannan checked. He crouched in front of her and waved his hand in front of her face.
She did not react to Hannan’s movement at all. “We wouldn’t be here if it did, trust me. I would have blasted his ass.”
“Even though you could not see his ass?” Freja countered.
Eva turned her head in the direction of Freja’s voice, but she was three inches too far over to the left. “I would have gotten him, eventually.”
“How come you are not dead?” Heloise said.
I looked over my shoulder at my friend. She huddled in a corner of the cell, her back pressed into the stone wall. The caretaker lifted her head from her knees, and I saw the redness around her eyes.
“Stella died instantly,” Heloise spat, almost spitefully. “How come you are not dead?”
“I don’t know, Heloise,” Eva responded. Again, she turned her head towards Heloise’s voice but ended up missing the mark.
“It has to be the light,” Troylan offered. “Because she has the light that heals people from the contamination.”
“Maybe that is healing you right now, fighting the infection?” I suggested, trying to calm the panic that stirred in my stomach. My heart could not handle the idea that I might lose Eva to the contamination, not after I had already lost so much to the awful disease.
“Why did you not heal her?” Heloise said, her voice rising in anger.
“I tried,” Eva shot back. “The contamination was too advanced. I got there too late.”
“Too late?” Heloise sneered. “You were right there! I have seen you heal entire villages. You saved the king’s life and even that traitor, Jae, but you couldn’t be bothered to save Stella.”
“That’s not true, Heloise,” Eva said as she got to her knees. She tried to stand but crumpled back to the floor, too weak to stand. I took a step forward, but once again, Hannan got to her first and pushed her back against the wall.
“I did everything I could,” Eva said, and her voice cracked. “It wasn’t enough. The light wasn’t enough.”
“Why were you not with her?” Heloise accused as she turned on me next.
“I…” I stuttered, surprised by her change in focus.
“Yeah, you!” Heloise snapped. “If you were with Eva, you could have enhanced her powers or something. Made it so that the light was enough to save Stella.”
“Heloise,” Julei said gently, “there was nothing to be done.”
“What?” Heloise looked up at the girl with weepy eyes. “What are you saying?”
“Stella knew what she was doing when she took up Eva’s sword,” Julei said. She rubbed her arms with her hands and hunched in on herself. “I told her before we left for all of this.”
“What?” Heloise asked again as she got to her feet.
Once again, Troylan put himself in Heloise’s path, holding her back from attacking Julei. I rushed to the girl’s side, but she dropped her arms to her sides and looked up at Heloise, right in the eye.
“I told her that if she ever took up Eva’s sword, it would be the last thing she ever did. She would save us, but not herself.” Julei’s voice hitched at the last word, but she stood strong as Heloise crumpled into Troylan’s arms.
“She knew?” Heloise croaked. “She knew, and she did it anyway? Stupid Stella, stupid.”
“She did not exactly save us either,” Freja commented. The soldier leaned against the bars and looked out into the dark depths of the mountain castle. “We are trapped in here with our best asset incapacitated.”
“Does that mean…?” Troylan looked from Freja to Julei. “Was Julei wrong?”
“I do not know,” Julei said, her voice returning to its weak state. “I was supposed to save Eva, but I might be the cause of her death instead.”
“Julei,” Eva said, almost insulted. “We don’t know that. I’m not dying.”
“You are contaminated!” Julei shouted, hurt piercing the air. “And your light is not working, you said so yourself. Are you even trying to heal yourself?”
Eva closed her eyes and sat still for a moment. I watched her chest rise and fall as she breathed. We waited for her to open her eyes again, but she didn’t. Instead, she kept her eyelids closed and spoke.
“It’s there,” Eva said. “The light, I mean… but there is so much darkness. It’s not responding to me. Normally, I can just call to it but… nothing.”
“Use Kehn,” Freja said as she pushed herself off the bars. She pointed between Eva and me. “Hold her or something. Maybe she just needs a little push.”
My own gaze shifted between the two of them. Even though Eva could not see me, I knew she thought she was looking at me. Her eyebrows wrinkled together, and her mouth opened slightly.
“Do you think it would help?” I asked the room.
“It cannot hurt,” Freja argued. “Think about it. We are lost without Eva. None of us can speak with the dragons, combat the darkness, or heal the contamination.”
“When you put it that way,” Troylan huffed, “it looks kind of hopeless.”
“Not if Eva can heal herself,” Freja said as she pointed a fing
er at Troylan. Her determination shone through with a single glare and firm stance. “Which she might be able to with Kehn’s help.” She pushed me in the shoulder. “Go on. Touch her already.”
I stumbled forward, caught off-guard by Freja’s jab. I did not know why I was so nervous. I had touched Eva plenty of times, in plenty of different ways, and in plenty of places. There was no reason for me to be so paralyzed by the idea.
Despite my fear, the pressure of the room buckled my knees. I could not let the rest of the group lose all hope. Even though the odds were not in our favor, I knew I had to do everything I could to help us get out of here. If I had a chance to save Eva, I had to take it.
I situated myself next to Eva and sat cross-legged. Eva’s breathing quickened, but she held out her hand atop her own knee. I laced my fingers through hers and heard her sigh in relief. A small glow appeared between our hands, and Julei exclaimed in excitement.
“Look!” She pointed at our conjoined hands. “The light. It is there.”
Hannan turned away and continued to console Heloise while Troyland and Freja high-fived. I clutched Eva’s hand tighter, and she cried out in pain in response. I almost let go of her hand, but then I saw her crouched over and clutching her stomach.
“It’s okay,” she said through gritted teeth. “The contamination is reacting to Kehn’s gift.”
“And that hurts?” I asked, cautious and hesitant.
“Yes,” Eva said as she lurched forward again.
“I do not want to hurt you,” I concluded and moved to pull away again, but Eva held on tight.
“No!” she exclaimed. “It’s the only semblance of light I’ve seen since I got hit. Stay, please.”
There was no way I could refuse her, so I sat next to Eva and stayed.
Time passed with the two of us not moving. Eva fell silent soon after we conjoined hands. She concentrated on her body, and her eyes twitched beneath her closed eyelids.
I kept my own eyes closed, unable to look at the rest of the group. Freja watched us with a keen eye, while Hannan never glanced in our direction. He purposefully kept his back to us and concentrated on consoling Heloise. Troylan and Julei sat with one another, not speaking. It was a tense room that I wished all of us could escape from. There was nothing better for me to do than be next to Eva and hold her hand.
I wondered what was going on in her mind. That thought alone scared me, but I wished I could be in there with her, helping her somehow. She was battling this twisting evil sickness inside her with the brightest light she could. Unfortunately, even with my help, I could see that she still struggled with the contamination. A black vein inched up her neck behind her ear, only visible on the left side where I sat.
I could not stand the thought of a world without her. Even if I was nothing more to her than a friend or even an ally, then I wanted to be a part of her life. She was incredible and changed my life ever since she fell through the trees that day in the Cross Woods.
Suddenly, Eva lifted her hand off mine. I reached up to grab it, but she pushed a single pointer finger in my palm. As if she was controlled by something, her hand danced around my hand. It repeated the same motion over and over again.
First, it snaked through the middle of my hand in a drunken line. Then it curved up to the top of my hand, went back down to the bottom and curved on the other side. The motion made no sense to me.
“Eva,” I asked, my voice hoarse from the lack of water and lack of speech. “What are you doing?”
She did not respond.
“Eva?” I repeated, pushing urgency into my voice. “Eva?”
“I do not think she can hear you,” Freja concluded. “What is she doing with her hand?”
“I do not know,” I said, “that is what I wanted to ask her.”
“Get her chalk,” Julei said suddenly. “Maybe she is trying to draw something.”
Freja scrambled forward on her knees and searched Eva’s pockets. She stuck her hands in several before pulling out the nub of chalk Eva carried with her.
“What happened to the rest of her set?” Troylan asked.
“She used it to draw something for the king of the mermaids so we could get the key from him,” Hannan said, with his back still turned away from us.
“So, that is all?” Freja held up the piece in front of her face, examining it. “It will have to do.”
The soldier put the chalk in Eva’s hand. I moved my grip up to her shoulder so Eva would have a solid rock canvas to draw on. Once again, her hand completed the sequence, but this time, we could decipher what she drew.
It was Queen Irena’s symbol. The circle with the crack down the center. Once Eva drew one symbol, her hand shifted over slightly until she completed another one. Furiously, she moved around the cell and drew the symbol over and over again. The Queen of Dragons never got to her feet but crawled like a child around the floor of the cell. I followed her awkwardly, always making sure I stayed connected to her somehow.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Troylan asked the obvious question.
“Irena’s symbol means so many things,” Julei concluded. “Which one is Eva referencing?”
“Is it for her or for us?” Freja wondered, adding another question to the pile.
We each tried talking to Eva, to get her attention somehow, but no one could get her to blink or respond in any way. She simply moved about the cell, drawing Irena’s symbol until her chalk wore out. When that happened, Eva sat back and continued to draw out the symbol with one finger, now on her pant leg.
We all looked at the array of symbols but could not make hide nor hair of it.
“Is it a pattern?”
“A message?”
“What is she telling us?”
“This is ridiculous!” Heloise shouted, interrupting our speculation. “Is there anything we can do to get out of here? Maybe get her to safety while she recovers?”
“If she recovers,” Hannan said solemnly.
“She has to recover,” Freja snapped. “Otherwise, we will be lost. She is our only hope.”
“She always was our only hope,” I muttered. “We never had a chance against Reon and the contamination until she and the dragons came along. It was a losing battle. Eva finally gave us a chance.”
“I do not like sitting here,” Heloise said with a hiss, “doing nothing.”
“None of us do, trust me,” Freja gripped, “but I do not see another option.”
“Neither do I,” Troylan agreed.
“What about Uri?” Julei said. “Did you not send her back to Andsdyer? What if she is bringing reinforcements?”
“They would still be too far away,” I concluded, doing the math in my head. “We might be able to attack after the Lunar Eclipse, but who knows how powerful Reon will be after that?”
“Julei, do you see anything?” Freja asked the young girl.
“No, but even if I did, I do not know if I am right anymore.” Julei gestured to Eva and then out towards the door. “I was supposed to save Eva, but she got hurt because of me. She might die because of me.”
The young girl squeezed her eyes shut and shook a little. Freja enveloped Julei into a hug.
“I should not have tried to be a hero,” Julei muttered into Freja’s shirt.
“I hate to say this,” Troylan said as he rubbed his chin with one hand. “But what do we do if Eva does die?”
“She is not going to die,” I snapped at him.
“Okay, I understand that,” Troylan said. He held out his hands at me as if trying to calm an angry tiger. “But if she does, what are we going to do? I do not want to die in here.”
“He is right, Kehn,” Freja agreed. “We should have some sort of back-up plan.”
“I am not leaving her,” I declared. “I said it before, but she really is our only hope. Say we get out of here, huh? What then? We are no better off than when we started.” I looked at Freja and Troylan. “You both know what I am talking about. We scouted out the conta
mination but had no way to heal it. We really only tracked how far it came to see how much time we had left.”
Both of my fellow soldiers exchanged a glance and then looked uncomfortable. Troylan scratched the back of his neck, and Freja crossed her arms with a grunt.
“If Eva dies, then Stella dies in vain,” I said, hating the truth even as I spoke them. I knew it would hurt Heloise to say so, but I did it anyway. I needed to get them on board, that saving Eva was the only way. “We need to protect her. That was our mission, and we will see that through until the end. Because without her, all of Andsdyer is lost.”
Out of nowhere, Eva began to shake violently. She flopped around in my arms, and I tried my best to hold her tight so she wouldn’t hurt herself.
“What is happening?” Julei asked, her voice rising to a squeak.
“I do not know,” I said, my own voice rising in worry. “Eva. Eva!”
She fell over into my lap and convulsed harder. I watched as she squirmed, and black tendrils rose from her neck onto her face. I grabbed both sides of her face and shouted at her.
“Eva! No! You cannot let it take you. You do not get to give up, you understand? We need you! I need you! I love you. You hear me, Eva Lawrence? I love you, and you do not get to leave me like this!”
I was hysterical, I knew it, but the words left my mouth in a flurry as the blackness rose against Eva’s skin, paling it as the contamination infected her. It spread out onto her hands, which finally stilled from their repetitive drawing.
I called out her name once more and started shaking her until I realized it was only me moving her now. The flails and jerky movement ceased. Eva’s eyelids rolled open, revealing dark and empty eyes.
35
My eyes fluttered open, and I stared at a white ceiling. For a moment, I thought I was in heaven, but when two familiar faces appeared over me, I knew exactly where I was.
“You have got to be kidding me!” I exclaimed as I bolted upright.
