He tried not to stare at her bare back as he quickly tugged down her shorts, removing them too before he rolled her over and scooped her up into his arms. Then he carried her to the bathtub. He peered down at the tub, trying not to stare at Malian, but every curve of her beautiful body was now burned into his memory.
Focusing on the tub, he realised it was filled with cold water. He shot a questioning glance at Holly.
‘Put her in the water now,’ Holly said without looking up.
He gently lowered Malian’s unmoving form into the water, careful to keep her head above the surface.
Holly came over with a vial of blue liquid in her hand. ‘Okay, stand back. First, we need to cool her enough to break the fever. Then we need to discover what manner of creature she is.’
‘But we know what she is.’ He didn’t move. ‘She’s a human, like you.’
Holly looked up at him, and her green eyes glittered. ‘I’m certain she’s not like me.’ She then swept her hand out, creating some kind of invisible force that shoved him back, away from the bathtub.
He widened his eyes as she poured the blue liquid into the water, and it instantly froze into chunks of ice around Malian. Frost grew on her cheeks as the water changed, but then it melted away a few seconds later from the heat of her skin.
‘What are you doing. It’s too cold!’ he cried.
The healer touched Malian’s brow. ‘It’s hasn’t broken the fever yet.’ She studied Malian. ‘She’s certainly not human though.’
‘Then what is she?’ He stared at Malian as her cheeks began to turn blue.
‘Oh, that’s it. It’s working. The fever’s broken. Get her out of there and back onto the bed.’
Caelan reached into the tub and quickly lifted Malian out, cradling her icy body in his arms. Her skin was so cold to touch. He lay her on the bed and quickly wrapped the nearby quilt around her before he began rubbing her down inside the quilt to dry her.
‘Good job. You’d make a wonderful nurse. Get her dry and wrapped up warm there. We’ll start her on some medicine when she wakes up.’ He heard the voice of the healer behind him.
He turned to face Holly. ‘What is she?’
She shrugged, her impassive expression present as always. ‘Something natural. She’s not human, but she’s of this dimension unlike your charming friend downstairs.’
‘You don’t know what she is though?’ Caelan widened his eyes. ‘How do you know what medicine will heal her if you don’t know what she is?’
‘I tend to find that if one medicine doesn’t work, it often tells me which one will. Don’t worry so much. It’s in our nature to die. Just like it is in our nature to be born. Life is a fleeting thing. Whatever happens, she’ll be fine.’
Caelan widened his eyes as the healer left the room. ‘I won’t be fine if she dies.’ He growled out the words.
After drying Malian, he lay her on the bed and then rummaged through the nearby wardrobe to find her a dry quilt. He found a quilt folded up on the top shelf of the wardrobe. After grabbing it, he paused and studied the quaint white cotton nightdress hanging on the rail below the self. He grabbed that too and then returned to Malian’s bedside.
After taking the damp quilt off her, he quickly pulled the white nightgown over her head and dressed her in in it. He’d never seen her in a dress before. She looked so young and helpless.
That’s probably why she doesn’t wear dresses.
He couldn’t help but smile as he tucked her into a dry quilt because she was still a warrior to him. He sat beside her while holding her hand in his, and relief washed over him when he discovered that her skin was warm again, not freezing, but not too warm either.
Her hand felt so small in his, so fragile. ‘What are you? Are you an elf in human form? He couldn’t shake the feeling that she was special in some way. She’d been special to him since the first time he saw her, like some kind of golden goddess with tawny skin and her golden eyes.
Recalling the first time he’d seen her, so vibrant and full of life, caused a lump to form in his throat. She’d taken him from his empty life and given him a quest, a mission, a purpose. She brought life to everything around her, and now that she seemed so weak, that life seemed to be disappearing from the world.
It wasn’t just the decaying swamp. Even here in the heart of the Dwarven kingdoms, the sun shone a little less brightly. He looked up to the window as clouds gathered outside, blotting out the sun and creating shadows in the green countryside.
‘What are you, Malian,’ he asked.
‘She’s important.’
He jumped when he heard Binks voice behind him, and he turned to face the tiny wizard, who looked old and worn out for a moment. ‘What does that mean? Do you know what she is?’
Binks stepped into the room, and he walked over to the bed. He took her other hand in his and held it tightly for a moment. ‘I don’t know. I don’t know anything at all, but I knew she was special when I found her.’ He looked up at Caelan in silence for a moment. ‘Orphans don’t get left with guardians, but she was. Tagra was just a bear cub then, but she was guarding Malian when I found her. She looked human, so I told her she was, but no humans ever claimed her. I sought out mystics and scholars, I searched far and wide to find out who she was, but to no avail. In the end, it seemed wise to keep her safe in Dorlendell, but then she found that rune…’
‘You think the rune changed her?’
He shook his head. ‘I think she changed the rune.’
Caelan frowned. ‘What kind of rune was it?’
Binks stared at Malian. ‘I don’t know. We need to find the next one. All the answers are in it.’
16
INFERNO
While crawling across the burning rocks, Malian cried out as her palms were scalded when they encountered the heat emanating from the mountain she was climbing. Smoke blinded her, and soot covered her skin as she tried to navigate this hellish terrain.
Glancing back, she saw an endless fall into a river of lava. Everything was burning here, even the reddened sky above.
She couldn’t remember what happened. She couldn’t remember how she got here, but there was something familiar about the mountain, about the layout.
Ignoring the feeling that she’d been here before, and ignoring the burning pain every time she touched the mountain, she gritted her teeth and launched herself at the wall. She cried out in pain as her bare skin slapped against the scalding surface. Then she began to climb.
I just need to get to the top. I just need to get to a safe place.
She climbed as fast as she could, using her boots to grip more than her bare hands.
She roared when she eventually reached the top and dragged herself over a burning surface before quickly jumping to her feet.
Smoke billowed around the soles of her boots, and even though she was exhausted, she knew that she couldn’t stand still for very long.
Forcing herself to keep going, she hurried to the other side of the mountaintop, but she froze when she saw the landscape ahead.
The ruins of a burned city smoked in the distance. The whole terrain was burned and devoid of life. Skeletal trees left haunting shadows across the barren ground.
A whimper escaped her mouth when she noticed a massive pile of bones outside the city. Skulls and ribcages were piled on top of more bones.
As she focused on the city, she fell to her knees. Numb to the pain of her skin burning, she realised where she was, and nothing mattered anymore. The city was Ilsador. This hellish landscape was her home. It was Ispa that was burning.
She couldn’t find the strength to fight because there was nothing left to fight for. There was no one left to save. She was here alone in a broken world. Her heart froze. Everything froze as she watched the world burn.
* * *
Malian shot awake. Her heart pounded in her chest while she fought to catch her breath and calm down. The vision of a hellish world was still behind her eyelids when she closed he
r eyes, so she opened them wide and stared at the stone ceiling and wooden beams above her bed while her pulse slowed to something vaguely normal.
After a few moments of terror, she calmed down enough to assess her body.
Am I burned?
She didn’t feel any pain, so she peered at her arms. They looked normal, unmarred smooth skin. She pulled off the blanket that was tucked around her. Her body looked fine. There wasn’t even any soot on her.
She sank back into the pillows.
It was just a nightmare.
She closed her eyes, and the burning world came back to life. With a gasp, she snapped her eyes open and sat up.
What is this hell?
Now scared to close her eyes, she studied the room she was in. It was quaint, with ornate wooden furniture and dainty floral furnishings. The quilt at the end of the bed was embroidered with flowers, the sun and the moon. She focused on the pretty designs, scared to close her eyes again because when she did, she was transported into some kind of demonic hellscape.
Frowning for a moment, she tilted her head as she stared at the flowers on the bedspread. At the centre of the flower, it looked like a cat’s eye. All the flowers seemed to have cat’s eyes at the heart of them.
Oh great. Now I’m seeing things. Where am I anyway?
She swung her legs off the bed and paused when she peered down at the white cotton nightdress she wore. It had thin straps made of ivory lace, with matching lace at the hem, which fell to just above her knees.
Where are my clothes?
She stood up, pausing for a moment while a spell of dizziness passed before walking over to the ornate stone fireplace. She brushed her fingers along the mantel while studying the ornaments that were dotted across it. She frowned again. They were all cats. There were wooden carvings of cats sleeping and stone sculptures of cats proudly sitting up.
Whoever lives here must really love cats.
When she heard voices below her, she turned and headed for the door. Her legs were wobbly as if she really had climbed a mountain with them. She tensed her muscles and continued through the doorway towards the voices.
She paused at the top of the stairs to listen to the conversation below.
‘It’s not science if it doesn’t follow logic!’ She recognised Aleck’s very proper tone, which sounded a bit growly when he raised his voice like this.
‘Who says it doesn’t follow logic?’ A female voice purred in response. Her voice was commanding and smooth at the same time, an appealing, persuasive sound that resonated right through Malian.
‘I do. It makes no sense, therefore it’s bloody illogical! We’ve been at this for over a week. We don’t have time for your ridiculous magic!’ Aleck snapped.
Malian walked down a few steps and peered down to see Aleck pacing the room. His usually crisp shirt was rumpled and creased, and his tailored jacket was thrown over a chair. His slick hair was a tangled mess, and his porcelain human face looked tired with dark circles beneath his eyes.
‘So, simply because you do not understand something, it is illogical? Logic, in your mind, only applies to what you understand? In a world brimming with knowledge, you assume you know it all, and yet you have no capacity or willingness to learn. How does a creature such as you hold so much knowledge and so little respect for learning?’ Malian watched the women fold her arms, her golden bracelets jangling down her ebony arms in the process.
Is she a human?
She looked like a human, but then so did Aleck right now, and she knew that he wasn’t human.
Aleck growled in response as he turned away from her. ‘I don’t want to discuss this now.’ He clenched his hands into fists.
‘Why? Is it because you know I am right?’ the woman asked.
‘No!’ Aleck growled again.
Malian frowned as she watched his left hand unclench to reveal claws. His shoulders bunched up with tension. She opened her mouth to say something, but she wasn’t fast enough.
‘Oh, how intellectual of you. You can’t even discuss it without losing your rationality.’ The woman mocked him with unrelenting scorn. ‘Don’t tell me how to heal my patients if you can’t even handle a rational conversation.’
Aleck appeared to be having trouble speaking as he stammered out the words. ‘It’s not the conversation. It’s the moon!’ He howled as he turned to face the woman, his face that of a wolf and his fangs bared while his body grew in size and fur covered him.
‘Oh hell!’ Malian gasped as he launched himself at the woman.
But the woman easily sidestepped him, and then she hissed, her own face transforming into that of a large cat, a sleek jaguar with glowing eyes. ‘I knew I didn’t like you for a reason,’ she shrieked before she leapt into the air and clawed across his nose with a swipe of her paw.
He lunged at her, but she leapt again, landing neatly on the chandelier above him, where she scowled down at him, hissing and swiping at the top of his head with her claws.
Aleck gnashed his teeth at the cat lady above him, jumping up and trying to knock her down.
Malian tried to think of what to do. She didn’t fancy getting stuck between them, but she couldn’t watch them kill each other either.
Then the front door burst open, and Caelan walked in carrying chopped fire wood. He stared at the scene in silence for a moment before he dropped the wood and unsheathed his sword.
Both the werewolf and the werecat turned to face Caelan, and Malian’s heart skipped a beat. She instinctively reached for her dagger, only to end up patting her nightdress.
Where are my weapons?
‘Move!’
She looked up when she heard Bink’s unmistakable command, and she saw the gnome push past Caelan.
Binks shot a lightning bolt at Aleck with one hand, and he hit the cat woman with a bolt of blue electricity with the other. Both the shapeshifters yelped and fell to the ground, shaking all over for a few seconds until the lightning abruptly ceased.
Malian watched them both transform into humans again. Then she turned to see Caelan staring down at Binks.
‘You only know that one spell, don’t you?’ Caelan said.
Malian suppressed the urge to laugh. It was true that she’d rarely ever seen Binks use another spell.
‘The extent of my power transcends what you think you know by a millionfold.’ Binks stuck out his chin in indignation before he walked into the room and stood over the two fallen shapeshifters. ‘Are we done with the pissing contest?’
The woman pushed herself up onto her elbow as she scowled at Binks. ‘You might have warned me that you brought a dog into my house.’
Aleck sat up and ran his fingers through his hair, which might have been a smooth move if his hair hadn’t been still crackling with blue electricity. ‘Ggnahh!’ was all he managed to say as he shuddered with another minor electrocution for a moment.
Malian couldn’t help but giggle, which caused Caelan to raise his head and look up at her. Their eyes locked for a moment.
‘You’re awake!’ He smiled and hurried over to her, rushing up the stairs and then capturing her in his arms. ‘How do you feel? Are you okay?’
She nodded and hugged him for a moment. ‘I’m fine. How long was I out for, and where are we?’
‘You’ve been asleep for ten days. You were really ill. You should rest. We’re in Holly’s house. She’s been healing you,’ Caelan said.
‘Where in the world are we?’
‘We’re near the Dwarven capital. You got sick on our way here. Do you remember?’ Binks called up from the bottom of the stairs.
She remembered the swamp and having hallucinations, but not much after it. She frowned. There was something important that she had to do though. She was certain of it. She widened her eyes. ‘The rune! We need to find the rune.’
Binks nodded. ‘The scroll points to it being in the Dwarven ruins of Aldrathor. When you’re feeling better, we’ll go there and find it.’
Malian couldn’t hel
p but feel that her time was running out. ‘I feel better now.’ She lied, ignoring the terrors that were waiting for her behind her eyelids. ‘We need to go now.’
Binks studied her for a moment before nodding. ‘Then let’s get ready for the journey.’
‘I’m coming too,’ Holly said.
‘I don’t think that’s wise.’ Aleck narrowed his eyes at her.
‘I think we might need a healer. You’re welcome to join us.’ Binks looked at Holly with stern eyes. ‘But you have to teach Aleck to control himself during a full moon.’
‘I will not!’ Holly looked appalled by the idea.
‘I refuse to learn from her.’ Aleck folded his arms.
‘You both will if you want to come with us.’ Binks said before he turned on his heel and left the room.
17
DARK EMBRACE
The sound of Aleck and Holly bickering about the complexities of shapeshifting, or more accurately science versus magic again, caused Malian to awaken. She winced when she reluctantly opened her eyes and pain spiked through her skull.
Oh great. I get the mother of all headaches while listening to a dog and cat fight.
It had been a long five-day journey to Aldrathor, and the terrain didn’t help as the cart she was lying in bounced up and down on the rocky road, but she was relieved to have slept at all. Along the way, she’d feared closing her eyes for a long time until exhaustion had taken the choice out of her hands, and she’d fallen asleep anyway. Thankfully, if she’d had any dreams, she never remembered them.
She pushed herself up onto one elbow to peer behind her at the front of the cart. Holly and Aleck were sitting beside each other on the front seat while Tagra pulled the cart ahead of them. They appeared to be following a path between two mountains, and there was just a hint of a city on the horizon ahead.
Rubbing her temple to soothe away the banging in her head, she tried to ignore how unwell she felt.
It’s probably an after- effect of the fever.
Lost Sorcery- Mage of Myths Page 10