by Amy Bearce
“Yeah, your life. Your life working for a dark alchemist, one that dispenses poisons and illegal elixirs that destroy peoples’ lives. What kind of person wants to do that job, anyway? I’m stuck, but you’re not. I think you’re the kind of person who likes to hurt other people.”
Nell paled for a moment before her lips mashed into a thin line and a red flush stained her cheeks. If eyes could shoot arrows, Sierra would be riddled with them.
“Yes, poor little you,” Nell snapped. Her voice dropped, soft like she was sharing a secret, all while an arrow was trained on her. “You’ve never known what it is to go without protection.”
Sierra shook her head in disbelief. “Give me a break, Nell. You know Jack. You think living with him is some sort of festival? My home is a cage that I’m stuck in forever.”
“Give me a break, Sierra,” Nell mocked. “All you know is Jack. You’ve never lived outside the protection of an alchemist’s circle. You’ve never seen what happens to families who don’t have a master’s protection when they don’t have a father, either. You may live in a cage, but at least a cage keeps out other dangers.” Her eyes looked haunted, filled with memories she couldn’t or wouldn’t share.
Sierra stared and wondered if an elixir was at work after all, because none of this made sense. “What are you saying?”
Nell stomped one foot, then winced as the movement jarred her shoulder. “Look. You know how you say you resent being forced into life as a keeper?”
Sierra nodded hesitantly.
“Yet here you are, seeking your fairy. For your sister. I’ve got three sisters. You’ve seen them. Three Phoebe’s. No father. A mother who can’t work except small jobs like doing other people’s laundry. That doesn’t pay enough for food, Sierra. Now tell me you wouldn’t be an enforcer if you were strong enough to do it.” Nell’s face twisted into an expression of disgust, revulsion rank in her voice.
Sierra couldn’t get words out of her mouth. She didn’t want to know these things, not about Nell. Sierra didn’t want to think about Nell, without a father, with three little sisters. Nell, desperate and alone, taking on so much responsibility for someone her age. If those things were true, how could Sierra hate the older girl when they had so much in common?
All those years of Nell picking on her. Those years of Nell’s scathing remarks, Nell working up the ladder of Jack’s enterprise. Maybe she had just been jealous of what she saw as Sierra’s security, not to mention her close friendship with Corbin. Her mind spun. She took a deep breath and tried to distance herself from the swell of empathy rising inside. She wasn’t sure who Nell was upset with―Sierra or herself―but Sierra knew what it was to wish your life was different, to want to be different, to hate what you had to do. Maybe Nell knew that feeling, too.
A finch twittered its tune somewhere in the trees, uncaring about the tension simmering below, startling both girls as it broke the silence.
Nell closed her eyes and hung her head for a long moment, breathing heavily, kicking at the dirt with one foot. In that moment, Sierra lost her hold on the familiar feelings of hostility. Pity swam up through her anger, wiping the scowl from her face.
Nell glanced up and her face darkened, eyebrows drawing to a sharp V, making those blue eyes like frost.
“I don’t need you to feel for me, Fairy Fanatic. I’m doing fine for myself and my family.” She stood on the broken bit of earth, leaning to one side, arm cradled against her body. She flushed red like Sierra had seen her naked. It felt that way. Nell’s breath came fast, and she looked over Sierra’s head, refusing to meet her eyes. Sierra realized she still had the arrow aimed at her, a girl without a father, a girl with three more people to worry about than Sierra. She dropped her arms, holding the bow and arrow to the side like a snake that might bite her. Shame welled up, fighting its way through the confusing combination of dislike, pity, understanding, blame, and mistrust.
“So… no elixirs? I thought maybe…”
Nell met her eyes at last and said, “I promise. My word. No elixirs. No poisons.”
Sierra’s breath whistled out of her lungs in relief, her shoulders slumping as the heavy tension left her. She still had no explanation for the weird psychedelic flashes, but at least she felt a truce of sorts had been reached with Nell. They were more alike than Sierra had realized. Now she needed to get Nell out of here. But with her at Sierra’s mercy, she had something important to share.
“If you hurt him, I’ll hurt you,” Sierra said, keeping her tone casual as she looked around for anything she could use as rope.
“I could tell you the same.” Nell didn’t have to ask whom Sierra meant.
“I’d never hurt him.”
Nell measured Sierra with a long look, face completely expressionless. She shook her head, arm still hugged to her chest. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep. I know you two have been friends forever, always Sierra and Corbin, Corbin and Sierra. But people change, and you have to let them or it hurts everyone.”
Sierra stared back, confusion and indignation making her tired and queasy. As if she would ever hurt Corbin. Of course she and Corbin had spent a lot of time together. Nell made it sound like a bad thing. Sierra and Corbin were the only keepers in their area, so they had a lot in common, especially once she bonded to Queen. Naturally, they’d become best friends. But now that she thought about it, Nell had often been around the edges, always watching them. Had that been smothered longing in her expression instead of anger? Maybe Nell had needed a friend, too, and had been hurt when Corbin became less available. After all, Nell and Corbin had been pretty close before Sierra began spending so much time with him. No wonder Nell had hated her. Sierra’s throat tightened.
But she still had a job to do. Talking of Corbin brought him swiftly to mind, and she suddenly wondered if he was okay. The question sent an electric pulse of fear through her. She had no way to know what an earthquake could do in the mountains. Send rocks on top of them, of him? Adrenaline made her breathless and jittery. “We need to get to Corbin!”
Without hesitation, Nell said, “Check on him. I can wait.”
Her response finally broke something in Sierra. She couldn’t deny Nell must really care for him. Sierra also knew if she left, she might never find her way back here again. She laid down her bow and started to climb over the cliff.
“What are you doing?” Nell braced herself against the rock wall with her good arm as she glared up at her. “Go find Corbin!”
“I’m not going to leave you behind.”
“He could be hurt. He could be dying.” Nell’s words came out in a gasp.
“So he’ll need both of us.”
She clutched at the roots sneaking through the crumbling black dirt. Her knees sank into the torn earth around the edge of the cliff, and she pushed her fingers through the dirt like earthworms until she found a secure grip on tree roots and plant stems. The rich scent of decaying leaves filled her nose. One foot after another, she lowered herself, the dirt digging under her nails. The packed soil crumbled into her eyes, into her mouth, leaving a taste of mold and minerals, grit crunching under her teeth. She shook her head to clear dirt off her face, thankful all the dizziness was gone. When her toes touched the rocky solid ground, she gave a sigh of relief, ignoring Nell’s increasingly loud curses. Then Sierra craned her neck to look up at the path she had taken and rubbed her hand across her forehead, forgetting about the dirt until its dry crumbs mixed with her sweat to smear across her skin. Nice. Mud on the face now. She had bigger problems, though. If Nell hadn’t been hurt, the climb back up wouldn’t have been a concern. Nell’s being one-armed, though, made things difficult.
“You may as well shut up and help me fix your arm now,” Sierra said, crossing her arms.
Bile rose up the back of her throat at the sight of Nell’s right shoulder up close. Sierra wished even more, now, that Corbin was with them. He’d know what to do. Nell’s jacket had fallen halfway down her arm, but even through her thick wool
en shirt, the lump of her bone visibly pushed forward at the wrong angle. Sierra pushed the jacket out of the way. Her stomach twisted, but she kept her emotions off her face to project a sense of calm. Nell kept her lips tightly pressed except when she opened them long enough to scream, turning her head to look at what Sierra was doing. Sierra jumped back, the hair on her neck crawling.
Nell panted and slumped forward, then gritted out, “I can fix it myself.”
Sierra rolled her eyes. “Sure you could, but why would you if you don’t have to suffer like that?”
“Ironic coming from you, don’t you think?”
A reluctant smile hovered on Sierra’s lips despite the gruesome sight of the dislocated shoulder. Nell’s face was as pale as milk, but that stubborn girl would fix her own arm if Sierra let her. Or at least try.
Sierra held her hands up in a gesture of peace-keeping. “How about we say I don’t want to have to climb down another cliff if you pass out from the pain, all right? We’ll pretend you fixed it yourself.”
Nell bent her head down and took a deep breath. She clenched and unclenched the hand on her good arm. The pain must have been tremendous, but there she stood, refusing to let Sierra help.
“What. Do. I. Do. Nell?” Sierra spaced out each word, taking one tiny step closer with each syllable.
“You’ll vomit.”
“I won’t. Nell. Please.”
There was a long pause. Sierra waited. Nell’s white blonde hair looked dirty blonde now, drenched with sweat around her brow despite the cold air.
“Bend my hurt arm ninety degrees at my waist.”
Sierra leaned in close to follow Nell’s directions. She smelled of forest, that tangy resin of pine, but also of old sweat, dirt, and fresh sweat mingled. It was uncomfortable standing this close to her. Sierra always figured she’d be more likely to pitch Nell over the cliff rather than help her get back up one. But Sierra lifted Nell’s arm more gently than if it were a newborn babe.
Nell continued, “Now bend my hand over toward my belly, keeping the angle of my arm exactly the same.”
She sucked in breath as Sierra followed the directions, until Nell’s wrist was touching her own waist. Sierra swallowed loudly.
“Now”―Nell’s voice was breathy―“keep the arm steady and slowly take my fist and move it away from me, toward the outside of my body.”
“Like this?” Sierra asked, biting her lip, sweat beading her forehead. What if she hurt Nell worse?
Nell nodded, but froze and hissed at the pain caused by the movement.
Sierra steadily moved Nell’s arm until it reached ninety degrees from her body and began to move in an outward arc. Sierra squeezed her eyes shut as she continued the movement until there was a sudden ricocheting pop. Nell let loose a yell that swayed Sierra with its sheer volume and terrified her for an instant. What if she’d done something wrong? Something must have finally gone right, though, because Nell sagged in her arms, groaning in relief. The bone had snapped back into joint. Sierra dragged gulps of air into her tight lungs, able to breathe properly again.
Nell slumped to the ground, leaning against the cliff wall. “Keep my arm bent, but move it in front of my stomach. I’ll need a sling.”
Sierra gingerly placed the sore arm in position, then looked around for anything to use for the sling. They each had on their only jacket, and there was no way they were going to rip those up. They still had farther to go up the mountains, and the temperature was going to drop. They had their woolen shirts on and pants but no extra cloth at all.
Sierra had an idea. “Tuck your good arm inside your jacket, and I’ll tie your sleeve over onto your other arm to try to keep it in place. Corbin can help us make a sling back at camp.”
Alarm flashed on Nell’s face at the mention of Corbin’s name. She hurriedly stuffed her arm in her jacket. The brown material flapped in the breeze, because she couldn’t button one-handed. Sierra had never seen her so dependent. It was a nice change.
Sierra buttoned Nell’s coat without saying a word, because now that the moment of pain had passed, Nell was pink, not pale. Nell probably hated that Sierra was the one there, the one who helped. Thinking over their conversation and her memories of their childhood, Sierra wasn’t too happy about it either.
Understanding Nell made hating her much harder.
he thought of getting up the cliff made Sierra break out in a sweat, but she gulped and moved forward. The girls strapped on Nell’s weapons so they could use their remaining hands freely.
“Hurry,” Nell said.
“I’m doing the best I can,” Sierra snapped. “I want to find him too.”
Sierra made a stirrup out of her hands to hoist Nell a few feet up the cliff wall. Once Nell found handholds in the dirt, Sierra knelt and leveraged her hands under Nell’s feet and heaved, giving Nell the strength to pull herself up a few feet, one-handed. Nell clung to the side of the cliff with her one arm and legs while Sierra used the freshly exposed roots and rocks to haul herself alongside.
It was slow work, and Sierra couldn’t quite keep the momentum going. They hung halfway up the craggy wall.
“It’s too hard,” Sierra said, pulling on Nell’s coat to help lift her. Sierra’s foot broke through her foothold, and she slid down three feet.
Nell cursed, trying to find a better way to maneuver. “Keep going,” was all she said.
Their plan was precarious, but they were driven to get off the cliff and get to Corbin. Sierra pulled herself back up and tried again. They moved ever-so-slowly up, with Sierra scurrying all around.
She acted as Nell’s right arm, held Nell’s leg against the wall, dug small footholds in the crumbly dirt for her feet. When Nell’s aching right shoulder swung away from the cliff without the right hand to hold her steady, Sierra pushed her back. They were fortunate that the fall hadn’t been a farther drop.
Still, even with Nell’s amazing climbing skills, they were running out of strength, and the top was still out of reach.
Sweat burned in Sierra’s eyes, and her arm muscles were on fire. Her legs trembled. She wanted to scream. To come so close and fail!
“I’m sorry,” Sierra panted. “I can’t. I can’t. I’ll have to go on without you. Let’s get you back down. I promise we’ll come back to you. Do you hear me, Nell? We won’t leave you.”
The two girls met each other’s gaze, faces close in their climbing positions.
Nell nodded and began to lower herself.
“Wait!” a voice said from above. The girls gasped and nearly slid down the cliff wall.
“Corbin?” Sierra cried out.
He leaned over the cliff and waved down at them. “I heard you, thank all the trees! I’ve been looking for you since the quake! Are you okay?”
Tears stung Sierra’s eyes. He was alive. Corbin was okay, and Nell would be okay.
“Nell’s hurt! We need to hurry and get her out of here!”
“Hang on,” he replied. “I brought some rope, in case you needed to be pulled out from something.”
Sierra sighed with relief. They’d be okay now. She said, “Hold tight, Nell. I can help you hold on, as long as I don’t have to lift you.”
Nell snorted. Despite their shaking arms, the girls clung tightly. A couple minutes later, after many grunts and curses from above, Corbin dropped a thick rope beside them.
He swung out on the rope and lowered himself hand-over-hand until he was alongside them.
“What are you, part-squirrel?” Sierra gasped as he managed to pull Nell so she was holding the rope but also leaning on him.
“Hush up and help me,” Corbin grunted.
By the time the three of them hauled themselves over the edge of the cliff, the sun was setting. They had never caught anything for dinner, but, at this point, they had other priorities. They had to get to camp and make sure Nell was okay.
They dusted off their dirty knees and brushed off their hands as best they could. Their faces were smudged like they had bee
n cleaning out a fireplace, though Sierra bet hers was the worst from the feel of it. Given the late time of day, though, being muddy might save them from predators that came out as the sun went down. Corbin’s dark skin and hair merged easily with the dusky shadows, but Sierra and Nell needed all the help they could get for camouflage. Nell’s pale blond hair shone with the last rays of sunlight. Sierra grabbed her bow from the ground, and they worked their way back to the camp, Sierra explaining what had happened as they went. Corbin had thankfully remembered to notch the trees as he came, so they found their way back even with Nell unable to pay much attention.
Sierra and Corbin each walked on one side of Nell. She seemed too quiet and stumbled a lot. Sierra wondered if shoulder dislocations could cause shock, not to mention the fall itself. Sierra’s mind seemed fuzzy. Maybe she was in shock, too.
Nell nearly fell while stepping over a fallen log, so Sierra and Corbin both wrapped one arm around her back for support. When no protest was made, Sierra quickened their steps.
The orange glow of the hastily banked fire sent soft light through the darkening trees, the truest beacon Sierra had ever seen. Relief made her giddy and warm.
They’d all survived an earthquake in the mountains, and they had time yet to find a fairy and rescue Phoebe. Rocks and branches scraped at Sierra’s ankles as they hurried through the underbrush in the straightest line to the fire, but she didn’t care. She smelled wood smoke and, even better, cooked grains. Her mouth watered. The fact they would have no meat in them meant nothing tonight.
“I know I should have put the fire out completely,” Corbin earnestly explained, though Sierra really didn’t care about fire safety details at the moment, “but I just took off to find you guys after the quake.”
They set Nell on a fallen log he’d dragged over by the fire and he quickly built it back up. Sierra had never been so thankful for Corbin’s impulsive, passionate nature. So sweet―so very Corbin! She was glad the forest didn’t catch fire, but no harm had been done, and he’d saved them.
