Exsanguinated

by D. K. Holmberg

  Alec took her hand and squeezed it gently. “I understand.”

  “It’s more than that,” she said.

  She looked around and kept her voice low. No one had seemed to want to speak very loudly in the forest, and Marin continued to scan the treetops, having not started them forward again. That bothered Alec. Was there something more here? The way Marin searched the trees, led him to believe it was a possibility. Could it be the creatures she had warned them about?

  “Something feels different now,” Sam said. “I don’t know how to explain it any better. It’s not what’s happening around us that’s different. I feel different.”

  “I think you’re just tired from the loss of blood.”

  “Don’t you think the easar paper augmentation would have made that better by now?” She glanced over at him and bit the inside of her bottom lip. “Every time we used the easar paper in that way before, the effect was fairly rapid. It has been days since you placed it. I should be completely recovered. Weakness shouldn’t linger, not like this.”

  Alec sighed. “What if it’s the effect of what Helen did to me?” He hadn’t considered that before, and he should have. “I gave you some of my blood. What if that is making you feel the same malaise I’ve felt ever since I was poisoned?”

  Sam frowned. “I don’t know if that’s it.”

  “Do you get any benefit when you eat eel meat?”

  “What kind of question is that?”

  “When I eat it, I don’t feel the same thing as Jalen or others. All I feel is normal.”

  Sam held her hand out, and Alec pulled the top off the jar and handed her a hunk of meat. Sam chewed it slowly, her nose wrinkling as she did. When she swallowed, she closed her eyes.

  “I feel warmth, no different than I have the other times I’ve taken it. I feel a strange surge of energy within me. I feel… good.”

  Alec smiled to himself. “That’s reassuring.”

  “Why?”

  “Because if my blood somehow carried the poison, you wouldn’t feel that at all. I don’t feel that at all. What I feel is nothing.”

  “Have you tried not taking it for a while.”

  Alec swallowed. He couldn’t imagine what would happen if he were not to use the eel meat. How tired would he be then? How rundown would he be? “I haven’t tried, and I don’t know that I should. I don’t know what would happen to me if I did that.”

  “Yeah. And maybe now is not the best time to try,” Sam said, looking around.

  Alec started to laugh, but the sound came again.

  Sam tensed, and she pulled her hand free of his, looking up at the trees. She reached for her canal staff, pulled one end of it out, and gripped it almost like a club.

  “I heard it that time,” she whispered.

  “What do you think it is?”

  “We need to move,” Marin said.

  “Is this what you warned us about?”

  “I don’t know. I can’t see it, and if it is, and if they’re directly overhead…”

  She started off, moving at a rapid pace. Sam somehow kept up with her, even in her fatigued state, but Alec had a little harder time. He wondered again about the eel meat’s effectiveness. Even Jalen struggled, though maybe that was only for his benefit. They reached a log that blocked their way, and Sam scrambled over, flipping with a twist of her half canal staff, leaving Marin with Alec and Jalen.

  “What is it, Marin?” Jalen asked.

  “Not yet,” she said.

  “Not yet? If not now, then when are you going to share anything about this with us?”

  Marin frowned. “Knowing about it will do nothing but frighten you.”

  “I think I’m getting frightened enough just from the fact that you aren’t sharing something,” Jalen said.

  Alec started to smile. There came a soft gasp from the other side of the fallen tree.

  Sam.

  Marin jerked her head around, grabbed Jalen and Alec, and jumped, carrying them up over the tree.

  Alec barely had a chance to marvel at her strength or the fact that she hadn’t needed her canal staff to clear the fallen trunk. When they landed, the ground absorbed the jarring, and they sank softly into the ground.

  Where was Sam?

  They had heard her gasp, but she was nowhere to be seen.

  “Kyza!” Marin said.

  “What happened? Where is she?” Alec asked.

  Marin scanned the treetops. “I need an eyesight augmentation, and quickly,” she said to Jalen.

  He didn’t argue and quickly withdrew a knife from one pocket and a slip of easar paper from another. He jabbed the center of his hand, and Marin stretched out her hand. They slapped their palms together, mixing the blood, and Jalen scraped the blood off her palm with the edge of his knife and quickly used that to write something on the paper.

  Alec stared up into the trees, trying to see what might be up there, and what might have grabbed Sam, but could see nothing.

  “Maybe she only went to explore.”

  “She didn’t go to explore,” Marin said.

  “Maybe she—”

  Marin’s eyes changed. There was a slight widening, and Alec didn’t know whether that came from the augmentation or from something that she observed in the trees. Either way, her breath caught, telling Alec more than the changing to her eyes did.

  “Kyza!”

  “What is it?”

  “I’m going to need you two to stay here,” Marin said.

  “Stay here?” Jalen said. “Marin, if something happened to Sam, I don’t think it’s wise for you to go running off into the trees after her, especially if—”

  “If I don’t go after her, she will be lost.”

  Jalen fell silent. Marin jumped, using her canal staff to slip into the trees, landing on a branch. She scrambled away, quickly disappearing from view. With her gone, Alec felt a surge of nervousness. They had no Kavers with them now.

  “We should probably find someplace to conceal ourselves,” Jalen said.

  Alec looked around. The trees were large enough that they could rest near them, but the ground around the trees was soft and spongy, making it unpleasant for them to stand, much less sit.

  “We could go and hide near that fallen tree,” Alec suggested, pointing to the trunk that Marin had jumped them over. It was enormous, and the trunk should provide some decent protection from whatever it was that was out here in the forest.

  Jalen stared at it for a moment. “That’s probably a good idea.”

  When they reached the tree, Alec found the trunk unpleasantly mossy. He didn’t want to stay too close to it, but at the same time, he didn’t want to remain exposed any more than was necessary.

  “How long do you think she’ll be gone?” Alec asked.

  “I don’t know. Marin hasn’t told me a whole lot about this forest, but I can tell it makes her nervous.”

  “She was trying to downplay it with Sam.”

  “I don’t know why she would. Marin isn’t comfortable here.”

  “I’m not comfortable here. There’s just something about it. It’s almost as if we’re being watched.”

  Jalen chuckled. “I’m glad you said that. I thought I was the only one thinking it.”

  Alec looked around, staring up at the trees, but he didn’t feel that same sense of movement and didn’t hear anything, not the same as he had before. How long would Marin be gone? How long would they be left alone?

  “How good are you with that sword?” Alec asked.

  “Why?”

  “If something happens, I want to know that you are skilled enough that you can defend us.”

  Jalen shrugged. “I’m good enough that I was able to pass as a Kaver for years.”

  “Yes, but a lazy Kaver.”

  Jalen smiled at him. “It was easier to play up the idea that I was lazy rather than to reveal that I was simply a terrible Kaver. Laziness creates a better excuse, I think.”

  Alec noticed the sound again.r />
  It came as a softness, almost a scraping, and it was almost directly overhead.

  He looked up, trying to stare into the darkness, but saw nothing.

  “What you think it is?”

  “I don’t know,” Jalen said. He unsheathed his sword, and having him here, with his sword and with his armor, made Alec feel only slightly better.

  Jalen might survive this, but would Alec?

  There was a flash of shadow.

  “Kyza!” Jalen darted forward, moving rapidly, but not the same as Marin or Sam would move with augmentations. He swung his sword and slammed it down. It hit the trunk of the tree with a loud thunk, and Jalen swore again.

  “What was that?” Alec asked.

  “I don’t know—”

  Jalen was shoved forward.

  Alec caught him, and wetness covered his hand.

  Not wetness. Blood.

  Jalen lost his grip on his sword, and Alec picked it up, holding it out, trying to understand what happened.

  There was another flash of movement, and he heard a strange howl that quickly faded.

  Kyza!

  Sam’s swear seemed to fit here, especially with the strangeness he had experienced.

  “What happened?” a voice called from the darkness.

  “Marin?”

  She appeared next to him, almost as if coalescing out of the shadows. She carried her canal staff, and a bruise had formed on her brow.

  She crouched down next to Jalen, rolling him over.

  “I don’t know what happened. You disappeared, we crouched near the tree to see if we could stay shielded, and then we saw movement.”

  “It was good you moved closer to the trunk, but he’s going to need help.”

  “What kind of help?”

  “The kind only a Scribe and Kaver can provide.”

  Alec reached into his pocket for his easar paper, but as he did, he froze. “What happened to Sam?”

  Marin shook her head.

  “Marin? Where is Sam?”

  Marin looked over, and he noticed the anguish in her eyes. “She’s gone, Alec.”

  “Gone? What do you mean she’s gone?”

  Marin grabbed the slip of easar paper from him, quickly pricking her finger and mixing it in her palm with a drop of blood from Jalen before scrawling a few words on the paper.

  “Marin?” Alec pressed.

  When she finally looked up, she could only shake her head. “She’s gone.”

  20

  Decisions and Returns

  Alec watched Marin as she guided them further into the forest. It was dark, and with every passing moment, he feared for Sam. There had been no sound of anything other than her startled gasp, and whatever had happened to her had torn her away. Now what would happen to her? Would there be any way to get her back?

  “Marin?”

  Marin glanced back at him. She had a determined set to her jaw, and she gripped her canal staff tightly. “I’m doing as much as I can, Alec. I don’t want anything to happen to Samara, either.”

  “I know you don’t, I’m just saying…”

  Marin shook her head. “I know what you’re saying. And I’m telling you that I am doing everything possible to rescue her.”

  “What if there is no rescue?” Jalen asked. When Alec looked over at him, frowning, Jalen only shook his head. “I understand what we’re trying to do, but what if there is no rescue? What if we have already lost Samara?”

  “I don’t think we’ve lost her,” Alec said.

  “Because you don’t want to believe it, but you’re a physicker—a master physicker—you need to be realistic with what we know.”

  “I know that Sam has seen worse,” Alec said. “She’s come through it.”

  “Even if she has, do you really think she can get free?”

  “Not without knowing what happened,” Alec said. He looked over at Marin, and she paused near the trunk of a massive tree. Deeper into the forest now, the trees were still somewhat similar to the svethwuud, but not the same. Different enough that Alec wasn’t sure whether they would even be useful for creating easar paper. Then again, getting to the roots may not matter, not when there were no eels that swam around them the same way they did in the swamp.

  “We know what happened,” Marin said.

  “We know that she disappeared,” Alec said. Sam had been gone for no more than half of an hour, maybe less, and already he felt that getting to her was hopeless. As much as he wanted to find and rescue her, he had already begun to think it wouldn’t be possible. And if they failed, if he failed, what would happen to him then? What would he do?

  “I’ve already shared with you that there are dangerous creatures in the forest. If one of them grabbed Samara—”

  “They would eat her?” Alec asked.

  Marin sighed. “Not eat her. That is not what they would do.”

  “Then what?”

  “The chamyn serve the Thelns.”

  Alec blinked. “Those creatures? The ones that you described? How do they serve the Thelns?”

  “They are the reason the forest has been so difficult to cross. Without the chamyn here, it wouldn’t be nearly as difficult. I warned Samara about the sinkholes, but they are easy enough to avoid if you stay near the trees, which is why I have been guiding us in this direction. But the chamyn prowl the treetops, and they watch for signs of outsiders, of people who should not be here. Most of the time, it’s easy enough to avoid them.”

  “It doesn’t seem easy enough,” Alec said. Why would Marin not have shared with them that these creatures worked for the Thelns?

  Maybe it didn’t matter. If they could avoid them—if they had managed to avoid them—then it wouldn’t have mattered.

  “They aren’t usually found this far out in the forest. I hadn’t expected to need to watch for them.”

  “And now that you know they are here?”

  “Now that I know, we need to keep an eye on them. If they have come this far, it’s possible we will be limited on where we can go in the forest.”

  “Limited? How so?”

  “In that there are certain places in the forest where—”

  Marin spun and twisted her canal staff, thrusting it into the air. There came a strange muted cry, and Marin sucked in a breath.

  “Kyza,” she said, backing into Jalen. “There are more.”

  “These creatures?”

  “Look into the treetops. You can see them there. I count five—no, six.”

  Alec looked up, but he didn’t see anything. Everything beyond the lowest branches was nothing more than blurs of shadows. He couldn’t make out anything up there, not enough that revealed the chamyn.

  “We need to move back,” Marin said.

  “Back? We can’t go back. If we do, we won’t be able to help Sam.”

  “If they grab us, there won’t be anything we can do to help Sam.”

  Alec started backward and felt movement behind him. He spun around, and one of the creatures was there.

  “Marin!”

  She flipped and moved quickly—so quickly that Alec knew she had an augmentation—and landed near the creature. She smacked it with her staff, and it jumped back into the trees. It managed to do it with such speed and grace that Alec knew the creature was augmented too. There was no natural way for a beast to move like that.

  “I think we need to move quickly,” Marin said.

  “Where?” Jalen asked. He had a sheet of easar paper out and was frantically writing on it while standing.

  “We have to get back to the swamp,” Marin said.

  “If we go back the swamp—”

  Marin turned toward Alec. “I’m well aware of what happens if we go back to the swamp, but if we don’t, these creatures will drag us into the Theln lands. Trust me when I tell you that you don’t want to experience that. We have lost too many that way.”

  “Lost who?”

  “Scribes, mostly. Kavers have been captured, but Scribes are typical
ly the ones who are captured. It’s the reason few Scribes ever ventured this way. I thought… It doesn’t matter what I thought. What matters is that we need to keep moving to reach the barge.”

  Alec resisted, but Marin grabbed him and pushed him forward.

  “If you get caught, what can you do to help Samara?” she asked.

  She jumped and spun with her staff flying out from her. Alec heard the solid thud of it striking something—or more than one something. When she landed, she grabbed him and Jalen and began running.

  They streaked through the forest, and every so often, Marin would pause, whipping out with her staff, attempting to strike, but she never managed to catch one of the creatures again.

  Alec hated that they were going the wrong way. Away from Sam. It felt like they were abandoning her. She wasn’t lost to them, not yet. He wouldn’t believe that. And yet, what choice did he have? What else could they do but return to the barge? The creatures wouldn’t be able to reach them there.

  Finally, the edge of the forest appeared. Marin single-handedly grabbed the barge and threw it into the water. Alec marveled at the sheer strength she managed, the way she was augmented and was able to do that, but he didn’t dare stop. Marin grabbed him and tossed him onto the barge. Jalen came after, and Marin stood on the shoreline in the forest, remaining there long enough to strike at another one of the chamyn.

  Once out of the forest, Alec had a chance to get a better look at the creatures. They were enormous. He had read about horses, never having seen one since they didn’t exist in the city, and the creature reminded him of what he’d envisioned based on the descriptions he’d read. They were large enough to ride, and large enough to grab him and carry him off to the Thelns.

  The creatures had elongated snouts and large ears that flopped forward. The eyes were the strangest. They glowed with a greenish sort of light. Three of the creatures surrounded Marin, crouched as if to jump.

  Marin leaped, but one of the creatures grabbed her by the leg and threw her back to the ground. Marin spun, whipping her staff around, and she caught that creature on the side of the jaw. It withdrew, but two others jumped forward and grabbed Marin and began to drag her back into the forest.