Blood Rain

by Nancy Gray

  Pack Leader glared at Cruor. “Is that a threat?”

  Cruor shook his head. “It’s not a threat. It’s just a fact.”

  Mercy shivered.

  Cruor continued. “It’s dark. I’m heading back to the colony. You should leave now and snuff out that fire.”

  Mercy nodded. “Thank you.”

  “No thanks are needed. We’ll meet again, I’m sure. Take care of Erebus.”

  Cruor spread his wings wide, and they glimmered in the moonlight like pearls. In a few wing beats that swirled dust and debris around them, Cruor disappeared into the trees. Mirilee kicked dirt onto the fire until it was nothing more than a thin tendril of smoke.

  Pack Leader waited a moment and then asked, “What are you going to do now, Mercy?”

  “I’m going to find out who’s responsible for the blood rain.”

  Mirilee frowned. “What about Erebus? He might need more than five bags of blood. With him in this state, the trip back to Concord will take ten days minimum.”

  “We have to try.”

  Pack Leader said, “You could come back with me. I wouldn’t let the other villagers touch you. I think you’ve been through enough.”

  “What about Erebus? I can’t bring him into the village.”

  Pack Leader frowned at Erebus’ unconscious body. “As much as I hate the thought of being near him, he doesn’t look much like a beast man anymore. I’ll protect him for you.”

  Mercy shook her head. “If they found out what he is, you would be banished as well. It’s not worth the risk.”

  “Promise me that after you find the source of the rain you’ll come back to the village. I’ll be there, and I’ll make sure that they change that mark on your back and put one on Green Arrow’s instead.”

  “I promise that I’ll come back as soon as I can. Take the vitula back. I think that Cruor meant it for you.”

  Pack Leader rummaged through the bags on the vitula’s sides. There was a well crafted bow and some arrows as well as a few daggers and enough rations to get back to the village.

  “I hate owing them anything, especially the white bat. This is much more than I expected.”

  “I know the feeling. Be safe, brother.”

  He turned and suddenly swept Mercy into a tight hug. She felt him shaking and realized that he was actually crying. She felt the tears fall on her bare arms, like droplets of drizzling rain. She pretended not to notice and buried her head in his shoulder. As soon as he let her go, he quickly wiped any evidence from his face.

  “I will, sister. Be safe on your quest as well.” He glanced at Erebus and added, “And, be on your guard.”

  Mercy nodded and Pack Leader mounted the vitula. He waved goodbye to Mirilee and she waved back. Then, in a buzz of vitula wings he was in the air. Mercy watched his silhouette until he was nothing but a speck against the purple darkness of twilight, and then he was gone. She tried to busy herself by packing up the campsite so that she wouldn’t worry about him. It was hard enough to see how emaciated he looked from his years as a slave, but it was more painful not to go back to the village with him.

  Mirilee cleared her throat. “As I was saying, we can’t take Erebus all the way to Concord like this.”

  “But we need to get back to Concord. I should be there when Pyron and Beryl get back or they might leave without me.”

  “Which is more important to you, getting there before they return or making sure that Erebus survives the trip?”

  Mercy winced as she looked in Erebus’ direction. As it was, he still looked more dead than alive. She had a horrible feeling that Mirilee was right. He wouldn’t survive all the way to Concord.

  “I don’t know. I don’t want Erebus to die, but if I don’t get there in time, I won’t even know where to start looking for the source of the rain.”

  “You seem to forget that I need to find that out as well. I’m asking you a simple question. Which is more important to you?”

  Mercy looked at Erebus and said, “Erebus surviving.”

  “Then, we have to think of something else.”

  Mercy asked, “And what would you have me do? Forget about the rain? Go back to the village with him?”

  “No, what I was going to suggest is that we spend some time with my people until he recovers.”

  “Your people? But won’t that be just as far away? Besides, that means we’ll have to go through the desert. I don’t know if Erebus could take the change in temperature.”

  Mirilee shook her head. “My people are camped two days away from the refugee encampment. It might take about five days to get there with someone wounded, and if they move before we can go, we’ll lose a day or two to catch up, but I think we’ll have a better chance of getting there than we will getting to Concord in time. Besides, my people don’t have any experience with the Blood Wing beast men. I’m sure they’ll gladly donate some blood if it means saving his life.”

  “So it would only take five days, six at the most? Do your people have access to medicinal herbs or anything that might help?”

  Mirilee laughed. “Don’t tell me that you think that we’re a bunch of uncultured thieves too? Mercy, my people send traders to Concord regularly. We pass through your village every year to get medicinal herbs.”

  “You’re right. Why didn’t I remember? It just feels so long ago now. There were two thieves in one of your convoys, though.”

  Mirilee smiled. “I heard that a young girl saved their lives, with auburn hair like dark fox fur.” She ran her fingers through the ends of Mercy’s hair, “That wasn’t you, was it?”

  “That’s how I got the nickname Mind of Mercy. I begged my father to let them go. They didn’t seem to be bad people or to have bad intent.”

  “Then I owe you. One of them is a good friend of mine. He always manages to get himself into trouble.”

  “So, do you really think Erebus will survive traveling through the desert?”

  “I do, but we need to pack accordingly. Every extra water skin we have needs to be filled.”

  “Okay, but where will we fill the water skins? Most streams are still bloody.”

  Mirilee grinned. “Well, the horse didn’t seem to mind much, and I somehow think Erebus wouldn’t mind either.”

  “You’re right. If anything, the blood might do him good.”

  “We’ll backtrack to that pond, and then we’ll go through the desert. The terrain will mostly be flat so it shouldn’t jostle Erebus much.”

  “Won’t the wheels of the cart get bogged down by the sand.”

  Mirilee said in a nervous whisper, “Not if we skirt around the edges of the glass dunes. We’ll have to be careful. I don’t like to travel that way if I don’t have to, but we need to take risks since we’re fighting for the life of one of our friends.”

  Mercy felt dread coming from Mirilee in waves. Even when she was fighting the beast men that attacked them in the caves, Mirilee seemed to regard it with excitement and a sort of detached concern. She was the bravest person Mercy had ever met, and the fact the dunes were enough to make her afraid, made Mercy nervous as well.

  “Why are you afraid of the dunes?”

  Mirilee said simply, “They’re haunted.”

  She moved past Mercy and got on her Desert Strider, saying, “We’re wasting time. We need to go before the beast men get back.”

  22

  For two days they travelled in the forest, going as slowly as possible. There were a few close calls as Mercy heard the sound of large wings flapping above the tree line, but nothing noticed them. Erebus didn’t stir and would barely drink water or blood. Mercy didn’t even want to look at him. He was so pale he looked dead and she couldn’t sense any emotion from him at all.

  As the terrain changed, the first thing that Mercy noticed was the cold. She had always pictured the desert being incredibly hot, but the opposite was true at night. She knew that they couldn’t travel much longer without making a fire, or Erebus wouldn’t make it through the even
ing. He was shivering to the point his teeth were making a clicking sound like the rattle of bone dice on a gambling table. At least it was a sign that he was still alive, but not the sort of sign that Mercy wanted.

  He hadn’t opened his eyes yet and was still clearly unconscious, but Mercy could tell that he was aware enough that he knew he was cold. Occasionally, he would clutch the covers around him and curl up into a ball like a baby in a blanket, but mostly he just cringed and shivered. Mercy only felt one emotion coming from him, misery.

  Mirilee hadn’t spoken since they reached the edge of the glass dunes. The terrain around them was mostly flat, but there were hilly slopes of glass off in the distance. The horse’s hoofs made a strange sharp sound on the glass, like a dagger edge grating against metal. The horse occasionally whinnied in protest, having trouble getting good footing on the slippery surface. Every sound on the surface of the glass seemed to echo across it, and occasionally strange sounds would reach them from somewhere within the center of the Glass Dunes. Even the sound of the wind sounded like a person moaning.

  The strangest thing of all was the cloud cover that seemed to perpetually hang in the center of the dunes. The clouds were as thick and still as the glass itself. They were a strange green color in some places, and orange in others, yet the glass didn’t reflect the colors. The glass remained a bluish green, like the sea. It was tempting to wander in the direction of the clouds. She could feel a warm breeze blowing from the center of the glass dunes, as though beckoning them to enter.

  Occasionally, lights danced within the clouds in cascading, almost hypnotic, patterns but when Mirilee caught Mercy watching them, she would firmly say, “Don’t look at it and stay along the edge between the sand and the glass.”

  Mercy was glad that they had extra furs. It made her wonder if Cruor was hoping they would travel to Mirilee’s people rather than journeying straight to Concord. It seemed that, except for the blood, he provided enough extra provisions for them to go just about anywhere. Even though Mercy was miserable riding during the first part of the night, it wasn’t nearly as cold as when Mirilee finally decided it was time to make camp. The signal for when it was too cold to travel anymore seemed to be when Mercy’s teeth were hammering so hard against her skull that she couldn’t hear anything else. She had never looked so forward to being close to a fire or having something warm to eat.

  Mirilee said, “Prop Erebus up between us. We’ll give him some of the blood first, and then we need to make sure that he drinks some warm broth mixed with those herbs.”

  Mercy nodded and helped her prop Erebus in between the two of them. They tilted his head back and gently squeezed the contents of the blood bag into his mouth. His eyes barely opened, but he seized the bag with more force than Mercy thought he was capable of and squeezed it until blood poured down the sides of his mouth giving it the look of a hinged mouth on a marionette. She almost pulled away from him, but as soon as the bag was finished, his body slumped down again, motionless.

  Mirilee rummaged through her bag and then took a rag and began wiping his mouth.

  She chuckled nervously. “Well, Cruor did say to feed him one bag every night. I get the feeling that might help him more than the broth in the long run.”

  Mirilee tilted Erebus’ head back again and Mercy began spooning the warm broth into his mouth. She watched as his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down with every swallow, and then she heard him gasp in pleasure and his eyes opened again. This time, they focused on her. They weren’t the violet she was expecting, but a light sky blue. His hair was curly and messy; the kind of hair that couldn’t be styled with any sort of brush, and it fell slightly in his eyes as he looked at her with a puzzled, boyish expression. She realized that as a human, he was very handsome. The thought made her want to turn her head away. However, he still looked pale and sick. She took one of the furs from her back and wrapped it around his shoulders.

  Erebus asked in a very hoarse voice, “Where am I? What’s going on?”

  “We’re in the desert, heading towards Mirilee’s people. You’re sick and need to rest a few more days before we can go to Concord.”

  “But what if you don’t get back in time?”

  Mirilee grinned. “Mercy decided that saving you was more important.”

  Mercy stared daggers at Mirilee for the insinuation in her voice. She just grinned wider and began to drink down her own cup of broth.

  “You did that for me?”

  “Well, you did save our lives. It’s only right that we return the favor.”

  “But I failed, I didn’t protect you. I had to protect you because of my oath. You don’t owe me anything. I don’t understand.”

  A tear rolled down Erebus’ cheek. Mercy put a hand on his forehead. He had a fever, but it wasn’t as bad as she expected.

  “Don’t worry. We’re going to take care of you. As soon as you’re better, we’ll go to Concord together.”

  Mercy fed Erebus the rest of the broth and then gave him another cup. She only ate after she was sure he was full. She could see why he gasped in pleasure. The broth seemed to warm her up all the way to her bones, at least temporarily. The fire didn’t produce nearly enough heat, but it was enough that she wasn’t shivering to the point her teeth were banging together. It seemed that Erebus couldn’t get enough heat, but she kept him from getting too close to the fire. Too much heat during a fever would be bad for him.

  Mirilee said in between spoonfuls of broth, “This might be kind of awkward, but we need to sleep close together. It’ll help us stay warm.”

  Mercy said, “Well, if it will help us stay warm, I’m willing to try it.”

  They pulled their bedrolls close together, and Mercy slept on one side of Erebus with Mirilee on the other.

  Erebus laughed a little hysterically. “Yep, I’m still dreaming. There’s no way that this is real. Two pretty girls cuddled up on either side of me? I don’t think so.”

  Mercy put her hand on his forehead. He was burning hot to the touch.

  “He’s gotten worse. I’ll do the cold compress. You get some sleep, Mirilee.”

  “Okay. Wake me up when you want me to take a turn.”

  Mercy put the cold compress on Erebus’ forehead. He shivered and pulled the fur blanket up to his chin. He stared at her with a puzzled expression on his face. It made her wonder what he was thinking about. She didn’t have to wait long to find out.

  Erebus had to clear his throat several times before he began speaking, and his voice still sounded raw, but she was able to figure out what he was saying. “No one has ever treated me like this, taken care of me when I got hurt or sick, not since my mother died.”

  “Well, I never really had much of a family to take care of me either, but my friends did. That’s what friends do.”

  “I guess I’ve never had any real friends then. It feels like everyone is always looking at me with some sort of angle. Like they care more about what I can do for them than about me.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “You’re different. You’re acting like you really care if I live or die, and you don’t even know what I can do.”

  “Well, I saw what you did to the people attacking me, if that’s what you mean. I’m afraid that I’m the reason that you’re hurt right now.”

  “It wasn’t your fault. I had to. I couldn’t think of another way to keep them from hurting you. I always take things too far. Just like with the ambush.”

  “The ambush? Are you talking about the one that happened when I was unconscious, the one from my people?”

  Erebus nodded. “Please, before I tell you about it, promise that you’ll forgive me.”

  Mercy rang the compress out a little harder than she intended as she said, “That depends on what you’re going to tell me. I promise that I’ll try.”

  Erebus shivered again as she reapplied the compress. “I guess that will have to be enough. I don’t deserve to be forgiven anyway. I shouldn’t have done what I did.”

>   “Well, Mirilee seemed pleased with how you handled things, and you were doing whatever it was to protect me. Just tell me that Mender of Spirits wasn’t involved. If you hurt her, I’m not sure if I could forgive you.”

  “She wasn’t there. There were no women in the ambush.”

  “Then, please tell me what happened.”

  Erebus sighed, “When we were riding away, your wounds reopened. We knew we were riding too hard since you were hurt so badly, but we needed to get as far away as possible. It was after I licked your wounds clean. That makes it more difficult for wounds to close and we hadn’t bandaged them tight enough. I didn’t think about that.”

  Mercy frowned. She wanted to snap at him and tell him that was exactly why he shouldn’t have fed from her in the first place, but she kept the comment to herself. If Erebus or Mirilee were in that much pain and begging her for something that would help them feel better, she would probably do the same thing for them even if it might cause some problems later.

  “We had to stop and change the bandages because you were bleeding through them. That’s when a group of four of your warriors ambushed us. They were following us on vitulae but were too high for us to see or hear them. They were being led by Green Arrow.”

  Mercy stammered. “Green Arrow followed us? He was trying to kill me?”

  “It was worse than that. Mirilee shot at one of them with an arrow, but it just grazed him. The other two grabbed her. I pretended to be afraid and ran so that I could change form without them seeing me. I didn’t want them to report back that you were traveling with a Blood Wing.”

  “Thank you. Even my father wouldn’t have been able to talk his way out of that accusation.”

  “I figured. Anyway, Green Arrow shot me in the arm, but luckily it wasn’t deep. The one that Mirilee grazed chased after me, but as soon as he was far enough away that Green Arrow couldn’t see us, I turned and fought him. I knocked him out with the butt of my dagger. I heard Green Arrow telling the others to keep Mirilee still, that clearly I was all talk and Far Cry could take care of me. I guess Far Cry must’ve been the guy I was fighting.”