When we finally stopped moving, I opened my eyes again. There was my mother, along with a few other health care workers from the medical tree flitting about. They were in the process of cutting the tattered remains of my shirt off before I’d even been set down. Compresses were applied to the bigger cuts first, bringing me to the edge of a blackout. When the myriad of cuts had been washed and cleaned out, I was given water to drink before a cool, pasty mix of honey sugar was liberally applied about before being wrapped in cloth. The same mix was rubbed over the burns that decorated my arms and hands. Once finished, I was half carried, half dragged back through the door and into a room filled with clean white cots in neat rows of two. Depositing me on the first empty space available, I was told to stay there.
Whatever drink I’d been given was beginning to fog my head, while also numbing the pain. I lay there, fading out of awareness. I really needed to stop getting involved with people carrying sharp objects I thought. A few more people were brought in, mostly burn victims. The spaces around me began to fill up with the injured as I became less and less conscious. Finally, the scales tipped in favor of sleep, overcoming enough pain that my mind slipped away from my body. My dreams were not gentle or kind.
Forty
I woke to my mother’s pinched smile gazing down at me. Her eyes were tired. Bloodshot. Fresh bandages covered my arms and chest. In one hand, she held the dried and bloodied wraps from before. Her other held mine. Tightly. I blinked away the sleep, but was only able to raise my head a few inches before pain bit at my chest. It was quiet, apart from the occasional snore.
“Easy, son,” she said, squeezing my hand harder.
“Where’s Volant?” I asked. My voice was hoarse. The words came out barely a harsh whisper, throat protesting the abuse.
She gave me a sad, half smile. “He’s alive, but I’m not sure if he’ll stay that way.” Another squeeze of the hand, and she continued. “Lost a lot of blood on the way here. I wouldn’t get your hopes up.” Letting go, she reached down and pulled up a cup of the sporadically fizzing water.
I silently took it. Tears blurred at the edge of my eyes as I drank, head tilted up. The drink had barely touched my lips before I was nodding off again. Another day went by in this fashion before I knocked the drink out of my mother’s hand on what seemed like the fourth time for her to wake me up. Still no news of Volant. Ignoring her protests, I sat up. A dull, irksome throb coming from the cut on my chest. She could have easily pushed me back down. I was in no shape to fight back. But I doubt the thought ever crossed her mind. Not an aggressive bone in her body. Apparently, no one had decided to take my pants. They still reeked of smoke, and were fairly scorched. Good to go besides that, thankfully.
“You need more rest, Nil,” she scolded, weariness tingeing her words.
“I think a walk would do me better. Does anyone know anything about those priests?” My voice rasped from smoke damaged lungs.
She closed her eyes briefly. “They disappeared for all we know. A letter’s been sent to Andreska about the situation, but otherwise I’ve been telling everyone that you and Volant were killed in the fire.” When she opened her eyes again, I had moved to standing next to the bed.
Food and a walk. That’s the kind of medicine I needed. Anticipating my decision, she had brought a spare shirt for me. I smiled in genuine gratitude, and I left without us saying anything else. A few rooms over, I found Volant and a doctor.
When the doctor saw my bandages, I received a rather disapproving look but he said nothing. I faintly remembered him from my childhood, someone that worked with my mother and had come over for some holiday celebration but the name escaped me. Ignoring the look, I went to Volant’s side. Compared with the other patients I’d seen on my way out, he looked practically healthy. Minor burns were wrapped up around one arm. The other arm was heavily bandaged were the arrow had gone in, and had a very unhealthy look to it. As a whole, he looked pale and his breath was shallow and erratic. I reached out to touch him, but the doctor held up a hand to stop me.
“Won’t do any good. He’s been unconscious the whole time,” he said, finishing out some notes on a sheet of paper.
“When will he wake up?” I asked
The doctor shrugged. “We’re afraid he won’t. His lungs were damaged by too much smoke, I’m guessing. Either way, he needs far more rest if he’s to make it. The blood loss, mixed with smoke, and possible infection mean he’s in for a bit of a fight.”
I took it all in silently, never looking away from my nearly-dead friend. “Have someone find me if he wakes up,” I said.
Rolling his eyes, the doctor nodded and gestured for me to leave.
Each step tugged at the tightly wrapped bandages until I thought I’d lose my mind from the annoyance. Light headed from lack of food, I stopped at the first stall I found. I pulled out the few coins that had somehow remained in my pocket and placed them on the counter. “Whatever that buys. As much as I possible.” I said hoarsely.
A woman stared hard at me from the other side of the counter, before recognition lit up her face. “Nil, is that you?” she asked excitedly.
“Luana?” I said, equally surprised.
“It is you! I’d heard you were dead!” Luana gushed. She came around the stall, grabbing me up in a tight hug that reminded me quite distinctly of my new injuries. She took in my tattered pants, bandages, and I guessed an incredibly strong smell of honey and smoke by the way she wrinkled her nose. “Where have you been? I haven’t seen you since that day you chose the school and caused so much trouble. You were practically a curse word for a bit after.”
“It’s good to see you,” I replied, before wobbling slightly. “It’s been a spell, that’s for sure.”
Her eyes widened, finally registering my appearance. “Oh lucks, you’re hurt!” She grabbed at my arm, more pain accompanying the movement. I was hastily sat down in one of two chairs behind her stall, followed with my money being shoved back into my hand, before she was fussing over my cuts and bruises.
“I’m fine, really,” I tried.
She ignored me, pushing a bottle of citrus flavored juice into my hand before hurrying about on her grill. The sound of meat sizzling brought my focus down to a narrow-minded passion. A good couple swigs of the juice did more for me than I thought was possible. My throat relaxed, a pain I didn’t realize was there disappeared. Amazingly, my nose started working as well. I blinked in surprise. It smelled incredible. She tried to say something over the sizzle of the grill, but I couldn’t hear what it was. A few minutes later, and a pile of still-steaming meat was on a plate in front of me.
Luana sat quietly, a feat in itself, as I inhaled the meal dangerously fast. She tittered happily when I leaned back, clutching a now aching stomach. I closed my eyes against the sweet, overstuffed joy of too much food. This was something I could get used to.
“I guess you were around the tree fire? Part of the trial?” she asked, gesturing to my pants.
I nodded grimly. “In the trial actually, but yes.”
“Left hand, I should have guessed!” Luana chuckled. “They said there was a Learner, and I just didn’t even consider you could have been it.” Her eyes grew stone cold, and hard as ice. “You didn’t burn the tree down, did you?”
“No, never!” I assured her. “It was some blue robes. They were trying to kill me, I think.”
Both shock and relief mingled across her features. “And you’re still alive?”
“Barely,” I said. “I still don’t think it’d be good to go about announcing my presence though, apparently I’m pretending to be dead.”
Luana nodded enthusiastically. “Our secret!” She took the now empty plate from me, dropping it into a soap filled bucket. Another customer was coming up, and she made a shooing motion, accompanied by a conspiratorial wink. When she turned back to the customer, I was already slipping away. A few people looked at me strangely, but I had enough bandaging to pass as some random patient, not as the boy who wen
t to study forbidden knowledge at the school.
It wasn’t until I had dropped down to the forest floor from a rather low hanging branch that I realized where I was headed. My favorite thinking spot. The stone in the river.
A bandage on my arm caught on a tree’s branch, unraveling it slightly. Barely paying it any attention, I let the sticky thing unwind itself from my arm as I walked. Another layer of bandage followed suit the closer I got to the eternity river. I’d missed home. But the true homesickness had been for here. Bandaging on my other arm came away with some determination on my part. I wrapped it around a passing limb, dirtied cloth flapping in the breeze. Red, puckered burns kissed my forearms. My skin had mostly healed over everything but the worst parts.
Thankfully, there were no mirrors in the forest as I pulled away the larger wrappings from my torso. My chest had a deep cut still, scabbed over red at the edges. The abdomen was a mix of cuts, bruises, and burns. I’d never seen so many colors on my normally pale skin. Finally, there was the river, deceptively clear and placid. No edge stopping the view out over the sea.
Excitement hammered in my heart. I reached into the water and simultaneously felt inside of me, finding a strong, pulsing reserve of Skill. Probably all that sleep and Luana’s generous meal. Squishy earth and leaves squelched under my bare feet. I leapt, Skill propelling my weak jump into a soaring flight over the river bank. Within the same motion, I controlled my fall onto the rock, landing ever so gently on its broad, twilight gray face. Water-chilled stone felt cool beneath me.
A deep breath in. I sat down, legs folded under me. Slowly, I exhaled. Again, in. And again, out. Over and over, in and out until only the breathing mattered. My aches and pains faded into the background. Chill air kissing my body until it too was discarded as background noise. Time went by and I dipped through varied levels of consciousness.
Far out, a person shaped speck moved down the winding causeway, coming towards the shore line below.
Forty-one
My eyes snapped fully open, consciousness reasserting itself over my in-between state of mind. Panic rose up through me.
There was a person.
An actual, living person walking the gods cursed causeway.
I didn’t even hesitate. Another leap, and I was plummeting down the cliff face. My rational inner voice was succinctly reminding me of the levels of idiocy I had just accomplished. I gathered more Skill. Nothing guaranteed a faster death than using any kind of Skill or Talent in the eastern sea. The only thing that might come close was crashing into a rock after jumping off a hundred pace tall cliff. I pushed out Skill in a wide cushion, slowing my fall until I was going to hit the water at a relatively safe speed. The wound on my chest ripped painfully when I impacted the icy water and the same inner voice congratulated me on being stupid enough to be bleeding in open, deep water using Skill on top of everything else.
I kicked and pulled against the icy water. Never having actually tried that before, I did actually congratulate myself on surviving so far. Something slippery brushed against my foot, sending terrified, spine tingling chills throughout my body.
Don’t use Skill, I reminded myself. At the causeways edge, I heaved myself up and over, rolling until I was in the middle of the broad path. Here, you were almost safe, at least this close to the cliff. The mysterious rock path that had always been the causeway began to taper a few hundred paces out from here, until it was barely the width of two men side by side. And the water was unfathomably deeper at that point. Out there lived the true terrors of the sea.
Still only a speck, the person had picked up speed, it seemed. Already having been a complete idiot, I decided it would just be embarrassing to die a coward as well if I didn’t follow through. Down the causeway I went, trepidation mixed with excitement and an overwhelming sense of curiosity. Whoever it was, they were far beyond what any person I’d ever heard about had survived, and they seemed to be walking back in, not out.
It looked like a child shuffling down the narrow, almost guaranteed fatal path. I quickened my jog, heart now thudding rapidly somewhere in my throat.
Without warning, an enormous reptilian horror erupted from the water, teeth lining a mouth three times the size of the kid. Sea spray exploded around the causeway. A small wave crested around the sea monster.
I froze in my tracks, some animal part of my brain turning into a puddle of fear and the desire to run away. My heart forgot to beat in a drastic comparison to its previous pounding. I blinked. And then the creature was crashing into the water on the other side of the jagged path. Its scaly and legless body whipping angrily in the air until the spike like tail dipped under the dark water leaving ripples in its wake.
I blinked again. The child was still there, somehow. Unimpeded, the bundled-up form continued towards me. Not knowing what else to do, I continued as well, amazement replacing all other emotions. There was just no way the creature had missed. Its sheer size denied the possibility of the child surviving, and yet there we were.
Some creature decidedly smaller, but still far bigger than any predator had a right to be, crawled up in between us. Square, powerful head swaying back and forth taking the girl and I in with its slitted eyes. It looked similar to the crocodiles I’d heard inhabited the far southwest banks of what technically was still Brod. I’d never heard of them being so large. Or so gray. Dorsal fins arced on its back, and the thing, still on its four legs, was tall enough to obscure my view of the oncoming child. Textured scales covered it. The creature looked like a child’s nightmare mashup of all things deadly. It’s lower half still sat submerged in the water, but the jagged horns and overlapping teeth were by far my main concern.
About fifty yards away from the creature, I stopped. Standing just at the point where the causeway began to juke and taper from its slightly less murderous beginning, I watched horrified and unsure what to do. Unconsciously, I was beginning to pool energy in both my hands and feet. The amphibian’s yellow eyes snapped in my direction and locked onto me. A shiver of true fear raced down my spine. Immediately I withdrew the energy.
Hopefully that slip up didn’t draw any more creatures. I cleared the memory of a Natural I’d seen in my youth who tried to manipulate the sea. He’d been on the rocky shore, a normally safe place, when he’d been killed by one of the terrors that took issue with him using his talent.
I took a few steps closer, and the creature turned its full attention on me. I saw the reptile’s weight shift slightly in my direction, while a giant tail rose from the water behind it, barb tip poised in the air like a scorpion.
Shirtless. Bootless. Weaponless. I couldn’t use any Skill, and I was dripping wet. I’d rather be back with the priests. At least I could punch them. I reached down for a loose stone, when the pointed tail flashed down in a torrent of sea spray. I flopped backwards, startled.
More surprising than the tails movement, was the fact that it had struck home into the base of the creature’s own skull. Just to the side of where the tail had embedded itself, stood the heavily-bundled child. Casually, as if jumping on horribly dangerous, unknown sea beasts was a daily occurrence, the kid dropped off the now twitching corpse.
There was no way this was possible. The child followed the jagged path to where I sat. Not once was a corner cut. Neither was a single step wasted. As the child got closer, I saw dirty black hair framing a rather girlish face. Still pretty young, but older than her size gave credit for. She might actually make it back to the shore.
Another icicle of fear raced up and lodged in my brain as a black eye the size of a horse embedded in a head too large to properly be made sense of briefly broke the surface far out from us. The creature seemed to only be taking in the little girl. Black and red, the eye was slanted and predatory as it then dipped back into the deep sea. This is why you didn’t walk the causeway. It was just a buffet line for creatures of the deep.
“You going to sit there all day, or could we get moving?” A high-pitched voice demanded as slight tre
mors shook me as I tried to watch for the unfathomably large eye and head to surface again.
I turned back, finding here standing in front of me. “Umm. I guess we could head off.” My confidence returned, realizing that for all my fear, we were just a hop and skip away from the shore. “Actually, I was just beginning to enjoy it out here,” I tried to joke. I gave her a crooked smile shaking away the last of my nerves.
Only her nose, eyes and forehead, plus a tangle of escaped long hair could be seen. None of her was amused.
A spray of water was the only warning we had before enormous jaws were closing on the girl. Without thought, I flung myself backwards, hands held together as if praying. I swung them up and across my body. The void left by the Skill I’d used was breathtaking in its suddenness.
“RUN!” I bellowed, leaping to my feet.
Dumbfounded, the girl was staring at me with eyes showing every ounce of white. A now severed head lay next to her, mouth still twitching in a death spasm.
With speed that surprised myself, I’d grabbed her under one arm and was headed back down the causeway. On either side, water began to churn with alarming activity.
I tripped. Not missing a beat, the girl rolled inhumanely fast and had my head resting softly on her boot instead of the smooth rock it would have met otherwise. Fear overruled surprise though, and I was back up and running, with the girl easily pacing me on the other side. She opened her mouth to ask a question. She wasn’t even winded. A wave gently rolled across the causeway, covering it in water. And then another.
A Leaf and Pebble Page 39
