The Everlands Chronicles: The Truth

by A. J. Bell

  “Did you go by Bellaterra?” she asked me. I nodded. She tried to hide her worried look, but she couldn’t fool me.

  “The city is empty. Any Gypsy that would have roamed these lands is long gone. There hasn’t been another attack here since the day Bellaterra fell. You need not to worry, Mother Greta. Besides, John can defend himself,” said Sir Richard. “Go to bed. I’m going to do the same,” he added.

  “Goodnight, My Lord,” I said. When he was gone, I turned to my parents. “How did you meet Richard? And why is it that I can’t remember anything about my life in Andora?”

  “I wish you could remember it all. But there’s nothing I can do to help you regain your memories,” Mother said. Yet, she didn’t answer my first question.

  For the longest time, I tried willing the memories to come back to my head, but nothing happened, so I gave up. “Mother, from the moment we reached the mountain, Sir Richard got angry. His teeth were clenched and his fists were closed so tightly that it looked painful.”

  “He has been here before. The memories probably angered him,” Mother said.

  “How exactly did you meet Sir Richard?”

  “A few months before the fall of Bellaterra, he came over to Andora, having heard about Robert’s gift working in the forges. He then asked your father to make him a sword of Clouds and a dagger for his soon-to-be wife,” she said.

  “Richard was engaged? Why did he not marry?”

  “It is not our business to pry. You’ll have to get him to tell you that. Now it’s time to go to bed.” She kissed my forehead and left me standing alone.

  I couldn’t seem to fall sleep, even after a few cups of Aligretto and milk. I felt restless, so I stood by the window, staring at the moon – a beautiful full moon. Up in the mountains, the wind carried the cries of the wolves to me.

  Sir Richard couldn’t sleep either. As I stood up, I saw him right below my window, practicing with the sword. The fury on his face scared me. Normally, his countenance was much gentler. I had only seen him this angry once before. That was the day he found me by the road of Gether, the same day we found out the Haunted Forest was full of Gypsies. Yet, as scary as he looked, I couldn’t stop staring. The wind was playing with his loose hair, and I found myself hypnotized by his image.

  After a few more minutes of admiring him, I decided to join him. He didn’t see me coming, so I barely had time to duck as his sword swooped over my head.

  “Be more careful, John!” Sir Richard said, enraged.

  “No! You watch where you are swinging your sword! You can hurt a child or someone going for a walk!” I said stupidly.

  “Children? Walk? In the middle of the night?” Sir Richard repeated, pointing out what had been obvious from the moment it slipped out of my lips. My words were absurdly unrealistic. We laughed together at my senselessness. It was good to see him smile. “Are you not tired, John?” he asked.

  “A little, but I have been unable to fall asleep, thinking about my life in Andora that I can’t remember. Maybe if I visit our old house, it would refresh my memory,” I said, frustrated.

  “Are you up for a little ride then?” he asked.

  “I’ll get the horses ready, My Lord,” I told him, but he pulled me back.

  “You have servants to do that. Summon one,” Sir Richard said.

  He was right – I didn’t have to do it anymore. “I’m very capable of doing my own things, especially in the middle of the night when all the servants are resting, so I’ll go and get the horses!” I walked towards the stables, and he followed.

  “You’re too considerate of others. No doubt, Dorian saw that too. Maybe I can actually learn some humility from you. Once in a while, I need some.” He saddled Rogue on his own.

  We arrived at my old home, which was smaller than the house we had in Stoneburg. Nobody lived in it anymore. It was empty, except for a few pieces of furniture that were attached to the walls and the floor. Some ivy had found its way into a few of the rooms, along with a variety of bugs and animals, I imagined, that would creep in and out of there. For the most part, it was a place of desolation. I ran my fingers around the walls and furniture, touching and closing my eyes at the same time, but no memories came to me. It didn’t even feel like home to me. In the backyard, there were only remnants of what might’ve been Mother’s garden. Most of it was overcome with wild flowers and weeds, too tall to walk in between them without the risk of being bitten by a snake or whatever else that was hidden there. The shop my father had worked in was just as desolate, but we did find a snake nest there. We moved very carefully after that.

  We found many iron casts that Father had left behind since they were too heavy to be carried by one man. There were some smaller casts. One of them was the one he had used for the dagger Sir Richard had asked my father to forge for his bride-to-be. On the hilt, there was a small rose, very similar to The Ethro, but smaller in size and without thorns. Also, instead of the Fieldstream engraving, the words ‘Arden’s Rose’ were on it. There were a few pieces of metal that were probably attempts to make the original dagger, since they had the same engravings all over them.

  Sir Richard picked up one of them without noticing that a snake was hidden behind it. With lightning speed, it snapped at his hand and buried its fangs into his wrist. I cut the snake’s head off with Heaven as it released Richard and snapped at me. I killed the snake but Richard had already been bitten! In the darkness, it was hard to tell what kind of snake it was, but the venom immediately worked on Sir Richard and he fell to the ground. I took my knife out, cut two slits in his wrist, and tried to suck out as much of the venom as I could, but he was weakening by the second.

  “We need to get you to my mother, Richard!” I wrapped his arm around my shoulder and helped him out of the shop. I put him on Rogue, lying on his stomach, and I cut the reins off Stardust with Heaven so that she could follow us, but I wasn’t going to waste time waiting for her. I rode at full speed.

  We arrived at the house just as the sun began to rise. Father was outside, ready to start a brand new day, and he called for Mother as soon as he noticed Richard’s condition. Then he helped me get him inside the house to be treated by her.

  “What happened?” Mother asked in alarm.

  “He was bitten by a snake. It was dark, and we didn’t see it.” I was beginning to feel dizzy myself. “Can you save him?”

  Mother was cleaning Sir Richard’s wound as fast as she could, but with snake bites and other venoms, only time could tell if her cure would actually work.

  “Are you hurt? Why are your lips bleeding?” she asked me.

  I shook my head at the same time that I wiped my lips with my sleeve and saw the blood she referred to. Suddenly, I started to feel my body temperature rise, my vision became blurry, and I felt as if my lungs were collapsing inside of me. It was getting hard to breathe. I must have ingested some of the venom in the process of getting it out of Sir Richard’s wound.

  I fell to the ground, dazed. I heard Mother scream, and I felt Father pick me up and lay me in the bed next to Richard. Mother undressed me quickly. “I don’t see any wound,” she kept telling my father in despair over and over.

  “I try… sucking… venom.” I wasn’t making much sense with my words; my tongue felt numb and my eyes heavy. Yet Mother understood my blabbing. She disappeared from the room and came back mashing some herbs, which she then forced me to swallow. They were the most disgusting thing I had ever tasted. The nastiness wouldn’t go away, even after she gave me a drink of water. I tried to be strong and hold it inside, but I couldn’t and ended throwing up continuously until I was vomiting blood. When I regained control over myself, I lay down on the bed and fell asleep.

  Chapter 19

  When I woke up in my bed, no foul smell from my vomiting episode remained in the room. I felt tired, but other than that, I was fine. Until I remembered what had happened at my old house. Richard! I ran down the hallway into his chambers. I didn’t care that I wasn’t dressed
like John.

  As I opened the door slowly, Mother was getting a bath ready for Sir Richard, who was lying on the bed, shaking slightly due to the fever caused by the snake’s venom.

  “How are you feeling?” Mother asked, touching my forehead softly with the back of her hand. “Your fever’s completely gone,” she said, smiling at me. “Don’t you ever do that to us again!” Mother said worriedly, and then hugged me. “I couldn’t bear to lose you. I love you so much!”

  “We love you so much,” said Father, coming into the room with more warm water for Richard’s bath.

  “And I love you both,” I said, embracing my parents with as much strength as I could afford. “Mother, how is Sir Richard doing?” I asked. Sitting on the bed next to him and holding his hand gently, I could feel that his skin was hot; yet, Richard was shivering as if he was freezing.

  “I’ve given him everything I have in my garden, but he’s not being responsive. We need the fever to break, or I’m not sure how much longer he can last in this condition.”

  “Richard, can you hear me?” I squeezed his hand tightly. “You’re the strongest man I’ve ever known. If anybody can pull through this situation, it’s you. Don’t give up!” I didn’t notice the tears coming out of my eyes until they started to fall on him.

  “Wait outside. Your father is going to help me to give Sir Richard a bath,” Mother said.

  “I can help you,” I said. Her eyes widened in disapproval. “Mother, this won’t be the first time I’ve seen him naked.” Perhaps I shouldn’t have said that, since she almost fainted. “Not like that. I meant John, not me. John has seen more of Richard than he probably should, but what else could you expect when we’re always on the road, bathing in whatever stream or lake we find.” I could have gone on and on, trying to clear myself from any wrong doing, but talking only seemed to make matters worse. Finally, she agreed.

  “I’ll have your father help us get him into the tub, since he is too heavy for the two of us.” Her explanation sounded lame since I had mounted him on the horse by myself. Father ordered me to turn around and face the wall. Although I rolled my eyes at both of them, I still turned.

  “You can look now,” said Mother. I almost burst out laughing when I saw she had used a small towel to cover his groin area, and she had put the metal tin holding all the other towels and oils to clean him on top of it to prevent it from floating. She pretended to ignore my looks of disbelief.

  I knelt beside Richard and began to pour water on his head. Mother had put a towel behind it to help him be more comfortable, although I doubted he cared in his deteriorating state.

  “How long was I out?” I asked, pouring some soap in his golden hair and giving him small massages, lathering up every last strand.

  “Almost five days–”

  “Five days?” Richard had been battling a fever for five days, and he didn’t seem to be making any progress. It was worse than I thought.

  “You had been running a fever for short periods of time too, but you haven’t had any since yesterday afternoon. If we can get his fever to break, there would be a better chance of him surviving, but I’ve run out of resources.” She sounded defeated. “We sent a messenger to His Majesty Prince Victor to bring the Royal Doctor to see if he can help Richard,” she sighed. I began rinsing his hair. “He is going to be fine!” I said, upset at her negative attitude.

  “Elle, your Father found the head of the snake. We have seen…” She could barely get the words out. “We lost… people die…” She was trying to hold back tears, but was not very successful. “He died… the poison killed him.” She got up and ran out of the room. Mother’s words made no sense to me at all, and the way she left the room confused me even more, but I didn’t go after her.

  Instead, I looked at Sir Richard still in the water. His eyes were a little sunken, his lips chapped. Mother was doing her best, but Sir Richard’s unresponsive behavior was making it harder, since he wasn’t drinking or eating anything. Though I’d been asleep for five days, I knew she would have poured sips of water down his throat, but it wasn’t good enough. If the venom didn’t kill him, the dehydration would. Mother came back in. She had put herself together and started scrubbing Richard’s arm.

  “You sent for His Highness because you’re certain Richard will…” I couldn’t even say the word without feeling a lump in my throat. “You think he’s going to die?”

  She gave a somber nod.

  We didn’t speak again or meet each other’s gaze. I ran my fingers over his dry lips. I never thought I would miss him as much, but I couldn’t grasp the idea of him not being here. I continued to pour water over him, trying to cool him down. Once in a while, he would shiver, but most of the time, he remained asleep.

  “You care too much for him,” Mother said.

  “We all do, Mother.”

  “But he’s more than a master to you.” I knew what she was suggesting, but I tried to ignore her comment. How could she know what I felt when I wasn’t even certain of it myself? All I knew was that his death would be a great loss, and I was filled with sadness. I thought of a diversion – something to get Mother off my back.

  “The water is getting cold, and you still have to wash one spot…” I looked at the little metal tin. Mother followed my gaze and started blushing. I slid my fingers, tracing little waves on his side and going down towards his stomach. “I don’t mind doing it myself, if you don’t want to do it,” I teased her.

  “You keep your little fingers away from his… I won’t let you take advantage of him. I can take care of the rest,” she said, picking up my hand from his stomach and relocating it on his chest.

  “I don’t think Richard would mind at all,” I said playfully.

  “Sir Richard!” Mother corrected me. “Elle, go and get your father while I finish with him. We’ll need Robert’s help to get Sir Richard back in bed.”

  “Don’t go anywhere, Richard. I’ll be back. If you see a light ahead of you, run as fast as you can in the other direction.” I kissed his cheek softly.

  “You wouldn’t have done that if he was awake,” said Mother.

  “Don’t be so sure about that; it wouldn’t be the first time I tasted his lips,” I said teasingly, shutting the door behind me. I only heard her gasp as I exited.

  Mother decided that it would be in our best interest to just put a sheet over Richard instead of getting him dressed and undressed every time we needed to bathe him to cool him down. The less clothing he had on, the better.

  I spent the next three days sleeping on a chair next to his bed, holding his wounded hand. I tried feeding him and keeping him hydrated. I also cleaned his wound three or four times a day, as Mother had shown me, because the snake bite was very deep, and when the swelling went down, it began oozing grayish pus. We were trying to prevent an infection.

  Mother said that as long as it didn’t smell bad, we didn’t have to worry as much. That was bad news, since the wound stunk.

  “We can’t do much about it but to keep praying,” she said. I sighed. I didn’t know when the tears started again, but they ended when I fell asleep. I woke up as Mother shook my shoulder.

  “The doctor needs to take a look at his hand,” she said. I stood up, a little disoriented from the abrupt awakening, and stood to the side, but didn’t let go of Sir Richard’s hand.

  “Doctor, you should probably check her too. I heard she drank the snake venom from Richard.”

  I would have recognized that voice anywhere. “Victor!” I ran to his arms, and he kissed my head softly.

  “Honestly, you keep managing to find trouble, Elle, even in the most peaceful of places,” he said.

  “Oh, hush!” I said, hugging him tightly.

  The doctor cleared his throat to call our attention. “I’m afraid we’ve come all the way here for nothing. The bite of a Ghost snake is lethal, so you better start digging his grave.” I was so enraged at the rudeness of his comment that I let go of Victor and pushed the doctor aside
.

  “You don’t know him! How can you say that? Richard’s strong. He’ll pull through this. I am certain of it!” I took Sir Richard’s hand again and stood between him and the Doctor protectively.

  “Elle!” yelled Mother, walking to the doctor and apologizing to him, but I ignored her.

  “I’m fine,” said the doctor. “This is normal behavior. She’s afraid to lose him.” He continued to talk, ignoring my killing glance.

  Victor, on the other hand, didn’t miss it, so he came to me and wrapped his arms around my waist in an effort to appease the beast awakening inside me, the animal that wanted to tear the doctor in pieces. “Calm down, Elle,” Victor whispered in my ear.

  “As hard as it is to accept, My Lady, this case is hopeless,” said the insensate doctor. “Sir Richard’s a dead man.”

  “I’m going to rip your head off if you don’t bite your tongue!” I yelled. Victor tightened his grip on me to restrain me from hurting the not-so-nice doctor. “There’s always hope!” I said. “Always hope…” I tried to think of a way to save Richard, and then it came to me. “Hope’s Hill!” They looked at me as if I had gone insane. “The people of Surien survived such snake bites thanks to an infusion of berries found only on Hope’s Hill. That is our only chance. I’ll bring it here. Surien is only two days away. I can go and come back in four days, maybe three if–”

  “Elle, you aren’t making any sense,” said Victor, not letting go of me, as much as I squirmed.

  “There’s a berry on Hope’s Hill, right on the outskirts of Surien. It saved that village when a rash of fevers began killing them. It wasn’t a normal fever; those who were extremely sick remembered they had eaten snakes while others were bitten by them – Ghost snakes. They had ingested the venom just like me. They thought they had removed all the venom, but Ghost snakes carry the poison in both their skin and meat. If I can bring that berry back and we can figure out a way for him to ingest it, the fever might break, and we could nourish him back to life.” Everyone in the room grew quiet; only Richard’s labored breathing could be heard. “I’ve got to do it. I must do everything I can to help him, because he would do the same for any of us. If there’s a chance of him living, I want to give him that chance.” Victor let go of me.