The Rising Stones (Ihale Book 1)

by A. Lawrence

  She took a breath and closed her eyes, sitting back and clearly trying to compose herself.

  "You're faster than me and you can, y'know, see. You need to run and get help." Heln hadn't thought he would be the one taking charge, but someone had to. He wasn't getting out of the tunnels just to lose his sister, anyway.

  "There should still be a Guard camp near the Grove, especially since… well." Rhyss stood up. Her hands were shaking but her voice was steady. "Bel, I know this is really hard, but don't talk. Save your strength. I'm going to be right back with a field medic, okay? Just—"

  She didn't seem to know how to finish that. She nodded and turned, sprinting towards the trees.

  "A-at least a dragon killed me." Bel closed her eyes again.

  "Technically it would be the wall that finished you off, so you'd better live," Heln said it too fast and his voice cracked.

  Bel frowned, but didn't open her eyes. "Oh. Damn. Guess you're right. C-could you. You could put. Dragon. Tombstone."

  "No tombstones." Heln brushed her hair away from her face. "Just. Just don't talk and concentrate on living, on my voice, on anything but tombstones. Besides you can't die when you're this filthy, right?"

  "Mmm."

  "Bel, c'mon, please." Heln grabbed her good hand. Her fingers were cold. Heln was shaking and his voice came out as an unsteady tremor. "We're here. We made it. Please."

  He knew that pleading with Bel wasn't going to help, but he didn't care. He would do anything to keep his sister alive.

  Bel actually squeezed his hand back. "'Sgonna be okay, Heln. Love you."

  "I…" Heln knew that he might not get another chance to say it back. "I love you, too. You're the best sister in the world."

  "And you're best brother." Bel coughed weakly and grimaced, her fingers tightening around Heln's. "Think. Footsteps. 'Sat Rhyss?"

  Heln looked over his shoulder and nearly screamed. Something larger than a person was coming towards them, but as it got closer he realized it was a horse. Behind it, without the aid of his glasses, he could only make out blurry lights moving towards them from the forest.

  "It's a horse."

  Bel didn't respond, her hand going limp in Heln's. He heard the horse, dimly, and someone talking to him, but he was focused completely on Bel. Everything else faded into the background. It wasn't until Rhyss yanked him away from his sister that he came back to himself.

  His throat hurt and he realized he'd been screaming. "Rhyss, I—"

  "She's just unconscious. Brina's one of the best field medics around." Rhyss grabbed his face with both hands when he tried to look at Bel again. He could tell she was scared, but her voice was still steady. "She's going to be okay. I promise. Have I lied to you yet?"

  He shook his head as much as her grip would allow it, not trusting his voice.

  "Then there you go. It's going to be okay," Rhyss said firmly.

  She finally let him go and he let his forehead drop against her shoulder, trying to breathe. Rhyss pulled him into a hug, holding him tightly. She kept telling him it would be okay, that everything was fine, and he even started to believe her.

  There were other people around them, but it was all fading into a blur. Heln was so tired and a headache was pounding behind his eye. He realized his shields were still down and pulled them up. It hurt, but it felt good to shut out the world.

  Rhyss let him go and stepped away.

  "Hey—"

  "Heln!" His dad took her place, his hands on Heln's cheeks.

  And it really hit him that they were back. His dad was checking the cut above his eye with shaky fingers and there were tears in his eyes. He was saying something, but everything was moving too fast. His dad was crying and Heln wanted to tell him that Rhyss said Bel would be okay, but the words wouldn't come.

  "I'm okay," he finally managed to choke out after his dad kept looking him up and down for injuries. It was the first time he'd seen his dad so unkempt, his blue violet hair was nearly loose from its tie around his shoulders. "I'm okay, Dad, it's okay."

  "You were gone for four days — thank Eleti you're alive. I've been so worried." He touched just above the cut again. "You're hurt, let me get a healer."

  Only four days? It felt like he and Bel had been here in the Grove a lifetime ago.

  "I'm okay." He felt like he needed to repeat it. "I'm really okay. Bel…"

  "I know." His dad rested his forehead against Heln's. He was running his hands up and down Heln's arms, like he was sure he was going to find an injury there. "I know. It's okay, the healers… they're…"

  His dad made a soft, broken noise and pulled him into a tight hug. Heln hugged him back, just as tightly.

  Chapter Twenty

  Heln stared out the window of the carriage.

  It had been three days since they woke up at the Festival grounds. It felt like Bel had convinced him to take that shortcut a lifetime ago.

  "Thank you for joining us, Rhyss. I'm sure Bel will be happy to see you." His dad smiled across the carriage at her.

  "I hope so." Rhyss was sitting next to him. She looked like a different person with her hair pulled into a loose ponytail. She was even wearing civilian clothing. Heln had never seen her wear anything but their school uniform and her armor.

  Bel had ended up in the healer's hall. She was expected to make a full recovery and was already sitting up and flirting with all of the healers. Even Rhyss's sister, Brina, who was essentially a softer version of Rhyss in every aspect.

  Heln supposed, after almost being killed by a dragon flesh construct or not, nothing really scared Bel anymore.

  "She's been asking for you." His dad still had a gentle expression, but there was something haunted in his eyes still. He barely let Heln out of his sight, even though he'd been given a nearly clean bill of health. He still had to wear a medical strip on the cut above his eye, but it didn't even hurt anymore.

  Which was why they were taking a carriage to the healer's hall instead of walking.

  "I'd like to visit Vin, too," Heln continued. "I owe him a great deal. And you."

  "We were just doing our jobs." Rhyss sounded steady, but she flushed.

  "Still, thank you."

  "You're welcome, DoVan-an."

  "Please, call me Tavlyn."

  Rhyss went an even darker shade of red at and was reduced to nodding.

  They pulled up in front of the healer's hall and a nurse smiled at them and let them know Bel was up and very lively.

  "You kids go on up, I'll be right there. I'd like to talk to the healers."

  Heln nodded at his dad and showed Rhyss to Bel's room. His dad had managed to get her a private room, but Heln honestly thought Bel would have appreciated some company.

  The healer's hall was where patients went to recover after initial healing. Bel could probably come home, but the healers wanted to keep an eye on her. She'd broken four ribs badly enough the healers called it flail chest, had a punctured lung, internal bleeding, a ruptured eardrum, her right arm had a compound fracture, and on top of everything she had a concussion. Heln couldn't really blame them for wanting to keep an eye on her. Bel was not the best patient, she'd had a cold soon after Heln moved in and it had been ridiculous what lengths their dad had to go to keep her in bed. Mostly it had been outright bribery.

  Bel was sitting up when they entered her room. It was a nice one, all warm tones, the window overlooking the garden in the middle of the complex. She was wearing a pea-green hall tunic and playing with a carved wooden puzzle, failing horribly when she tried to make the pieces work with her left hand. Her right arm was still in a sling.

  "Bet you wish you were left handed now." Rhyss sat down next to her.

  "Rhyss! My favorite left-handed Guard Trainee in the entire city." Bel grinned at her. She dropped the puzzle and flailed her hand at Rhyss, who caught it. "It took you forever to visit. You look great, love the hair."

  Rhyss's smile was a little tight, but Bel didn't seem to notice. She was still holding h
er hand. "They wouldn't let non-family visitors in until today, otherwise I would have been here."

  "Aww that's so sweet. Hi Heln, you look good, too. Very fancy glasses. Did I tell you that before?" She looked around. "Where's Dad?"

  "He wandered off." Heln shrugged, sitting next to Rhyss. "How are you feeling?"

  "Oof. Well. Now it is a medical vest." She let go of Rhyss's hand to tug up the edge of the black vest from underneath the tunic. "And I hate it. I am so ready to go home. How's my dog? Dad said they wouldn't let her come with you, which I think is ridiculous. She would definitely hasten the healing process. Pets are proven to help with stuff like that, I read it once, so it's probably true."

  "She would jump on you and your lung would be full of holes again." Heln couldn't help but smile. "She's good, but I think you've lost her to Dad forever."

  "What." Bel pouted. "I've only been gone for a week and my dog turns traitor on me? You told me yesterday she missed me."

  "Oh, she does, and she's filling the hole with Dad. She was so excited to see me and then she ignored me for him."

  "Rude."

  "Right?"

  Rhyss clearly decided that was enough small talk, for she interrupted then. "Guys. What have you told everyone? I've been saying it's mostly a blur."

  "Same." Heln had been pulled aside by Rhyss before he was taken in for healing and she had told him on pain of death that they couldn't tell anyone what happened.

  "I had head trauma so I think they discounted anything I may or may not have said as incoherent babbling. Which is good because I don't remember what I said, and now I'm saying I don't remember anything." Bel shrugged with her good shoulder. "Kind of wish I didn't remember anything. That was the forest god, wasn't it?"

  They all went quiet. Footsteps approached the door but continued down the hall.

  "Yeah, think so." Heln honestly wasn't sure what else to say. Every other time he'd come here before now, his dad had been in the room and they hadn't had the chance to talk about it.

  He'd talked to Rhyss a little. She'd stopped by on their second day home and demanded that they trade crystal scripts. She'd called him later in the night, just to talk, but he had heard the note of panic in her voice. He hadn't been sleeping well, either.

  "So why aren't we dead? I'm not complaining; it's just an honest question."

  Rhyss sighed, rubbing her forehead. "I don't know, honestly."

  "It's because Rhyss threw rocks at it." Heln grinned at her and she elbowed him.

  Bel looked delighted. "That actually happened? I honestly thought that was a delusion brought about by the concussion. Rhyss, my respect for you has grown."

  "I had to do something; you were hurt and he was stuck in, I don't know, a magical brain place." Rhyss was blushing again.

  "That's not entirely accurate—"

  "Nope. I like it. Magical brain place." Bel smiled sweetly at Heln's scowl. They heard footsteps again. "Well, we'll talk about it more when I'm not partly loopy on pain killers."

  "Really? It doesn't seem far off from your normal personality." It was Rhyss's turn to smile at Bel.

  "I'm gonna take that as a compliment. So what happened with the Guard? I know you were worried about being discharged…"

  "I wasn't discharged." Rhyss folded her arms. "In fact, they wanted to promote me."

  "I'm sensing a but?"

  "I quit."

  They both stared at her. Heln had heard about the promotion but not that she was quitting. She hadn't said a word on that before now.

  "Why?" Bel was the first to recover. "You're like… the best damn Guard Trainee out there, left-handed or otherwise. And I'm not just saying that because you saved my life once or twice. You just are."

  "It's not for me." Rhyss shook her head. "I realized that, down there. Don't get me wrong, I still want to learn how to protect people, but I don't want to be stationed off in the forest somewhere, that doesn't really help anyone the way I want to."

  Bel's shocked expression faded and turned a little sly. "Sounds like you want to be an Enforcer."

  "Don't push it, Bellamy." But Rhyss was smiling again as she looked at Bel. "I don't know yet, still have a lot of time to figure it out. We're sixteen, and now that I know how long four days can be, I can say that I have a long, long time."

  Heln nodded, even though something told him that maybe it wasn't true. "Yeah. We do."

  "And I think I saved your life a lot more than once or twice."

  Epilogue

  Rhyss felt like she could breathe for the first time in days.

  Bel was okay. It was one thing to hear it from Heln and her sister. It was entirely another thing to see her up and talking. A little out of it, but very much alive and breathing.

  For three days the only thing she'd seen when she closed her eyes was Bel lying on the ground, paler than death. The only thing she'd heard was her breath rattling in her throat.

  Seeing her up and hearing her talk was all Rhyss needed to not feel a tightness in her own chest when she took a breath.

  Bel and Heln's dad Tavlyn had bought Bel fruit and books. She'd babbled excitedly at him and Rhyss had taken the opportunity to slip off, needing a moment to just breathe. Bel was okay. They were all okay.

  Mustering up her courage, Rhyss took a deep breath and entered Vin's room.

  Heln had wanted to visit Vin, too, but Rhyss needed this first visit to be by herself. She had a favor to ask, after all.

  Vin was sitting up in bed. He looked up at her, his gaze a little dull. He had a healing patch over one eye. The healers weren't sure if it could be saved or not. An unlucky shard had gotten him.

  That wasn't his worst injury. His right arm had been crushed to the point where it couldn't be saved. The healer's hall tunic was knotted a little below the shoulder.

  "Hey." He sounded like he hadn't said anything for a while. The Vin she remembered usually had a hard time not talking. "I see you made it out of the faerie hole or wherever they're saying you went now. Looking good. How are the kids that were with you?"

  "Bel and Heln are fine," she said, then corrected herself. Bel would still be in the hall for a few days. "Mostly fine. You look terrible."

  "Thanks, Rhyss, you always say the sweetest things."

  There was the Vin she remembered.

  Rhyss sat next to his bed. "I mean… I'm sorry. I'm sorry about everything, I…"

  "I was just doing my job, Rhyss. You know what the job is like." Vin finally smiled, a little. "But hey, my eye is doing better, and they're fitting me for a fancy new arm soon. And those kids I saved, their dad, he said when I'm healed up he has a job for me with the Enforcers. Might piss off a few people but eh, actually makes it more appealing. More importantly, my favorite trainee is alive and well, and I heard something about a promotion…?"

  "I turned them down." Rhyss felt guilty about it for the first time. Her mother had been sending her reproachful looks over meals for the last three days and asking her if she was absolutely sure and she hadn't felt bad at all. "Actually… I quit."

  Vin was silent about that.

  "I don't want to learn useless things," she continued. "I was almost useless. I almost got everyone killed. I don't know if you'll want to, but I want you to train me. I want to know how to fight. How to really fight, and really help. Think you'll be up for that?"

  She wanted to protect everyone she cared about, no matter what happened in the future.

  Vin's smile was more than just a ghost of the one he used to always wear. "Yeah, I think I can manage something."

  Fin

  About the Author

  A. Lawrence has been writing for as long as they can remember. They dabble in a mix of fantasy and supernatural. When they aren't writing they are harassing their cat, playing a video game with friends, or dabbling in art.

  They come from Idaho, where they have spent time being shaped by long roads and abandoned cabins.

  You can keep up with their work on their website: https://a
lawrenceauthor.wixsite.com/authorpage