Death Flag

by Richard Haygood

  “I’ll give you the same chance you gave him,” she finished coldly, turning and walking away. “Good luck surviving.”

  He’d heard those words before, and they weren’t lost on him.

  CHAPTER 11

  Madison gasped in short, shallow breaths, and every ounce of air he sucked in was paid for in pain and blood. He completely ignored Alyanna’s allegations, looking back down at where he had been stabbed. He weakly placed a shaky a hand over the knife’s handle and hesitated. Am I supposed to pull this out? Or am I supposed to leave it where it is? His mind raced as he tried to figure out the right answer. He gripped the handle as if he were going to remove it, but even that tiny movement sent rockets of pain surging through his insides. Okay. I guess it’s staying right where it is. I’ve got a way to go before I’m dead, but . . . Ugh!

  He knew that he couldn’t just sit there, so he gritted his teeth together and shoved upward with his legs. The sudden motion sent a fresh surge of pain through his side, and his vision swam for a moment as his body caught up with the idiocy his brain had forced upon it. He stumbled forward a step, the toes of his boot kicking up against the raised fountain before he was able to catch himself, and several fish darted away from the edge of the fountain as they sensed his presence at the same time, diving for deeper cover.

  Holy shit. He turned and staggered several steps toward the exit to the patio, and it took everything he had just to move that far. Every step he took wrenched the knife around inside of him. Reaching up, he grabbed the handle and jerked it out before he could think about it or change his mind. Like ripping off an adhesive bandage, he figured the best thing he could do was just get it over with. He was wrong. He felt it tear in a completely different direction as it exited his body, and blood started pouring from the wound. He sliced his shirt open at the collar with the knife he had just removed and quickly stripped it off, more or less letting it fall away for fear of twisting around. Once he had it removed, he balled it up and pressed it up against the wound, putting as much pressure against it as he could stand, and then tossed the knife away into a planter.

  Then, hobbling one step at a time, he slowly began making his way across the patio. He made it to the door after several agonizing minutes and leaned up against the frame to catch his breath before going inside. I wonder if they’re going to get pissed at me for bleeding all over their floor? Hah.

  Madison pulled the door open and then kicked it out the rest of the way with his foot and slid inside. What is this? Like my sixth trip to the infirmary in two days? I wonder if they can just rent me a permanent room there. It might solve a lot of problems if they did. At least I’d have an excuse to make an appearance every few hours if that were the case. Madison took his time limping along the corridors—not that he was in any condition to move very quickly anyway. Several people passed by, giving him curious looks as they went, but no one bothered to ask if he was alright or if he needed help. And that was fine by him. He wasn’t going to swallow his pride and ask.

  By the time he made it to the infirmary, he was starting to feel dizzy. Blood had soaked through his raggedy shirt and down his leg until it began pooling in his boot, and every step felt like someone was stabbing him in the side all over again. He hobbled up the steps, through the doors, and down the white hallway. Unbelievably, he made it almost to the center of the building without actually finding anyone.

  Where the hell is everyone? he wondered. He had passed several people in the hallways, and several more on the quad, but not nearly as many as he would have expected. Is everyone involved in some sort of class right now? They’re all at drills or training or what? Giving up on finding someone, he made his way over to a storage cabinet and simply started going through everything. There were all types of gauze and bandages and staples and pins and several instruments he didn’t recognize, but nothing that looked like healing elixir. It had been a liquid when he drank it before, so it had to be in a bottle or a container of some sort. He frantically jerked open another draw, and when he didn’t find it there, he just tossed it onto the floor and moved on to the next one. Before long, he had emptied out the entire contents of the cabinet without finding what he wanted.

  He idly wondered if breaking one of the large windows would be enough to gain someone’s attention, but he held off. He wanted to keep the idea as a last-resort option, but he wasn’t going to rush into that one if he didn’t have to.

  Wait. Didn’t Warren say that it was expensive? They wouldn’t just keep it out in the open. Where is the . . . His head swiveled back and forth until he spotted what looked like a storage room. He hobbled over and tried the door, and to his surprise, he found it unlocked. Not expecting to find what he wanted, he stuck his head inside anyway. The storage room was deep and instantly reminded him of the one he had been in with Warren before. It was lined with tall shelves and racks of boxes and barrels. But, there in the back, he saw a row of what looked like vials lined up on one of the shelves.

  Success! He greedily made his way to it, leaning up against the various shelves as he went and using them to support his weight. When he arrived, however, he realized that there were dozens of bottles of varying shapes and sizes, and he had absolutely no idea how to tell which one was which. He picked up a bottle with one hand and held it up to the light as he examined it. It had a dark, yellowish tint to it and frothed up slightly as it swirled around in the glass bottle.

  “What are you doing in here?!” a voice shrieked from behind him. “Don’t touch that! Put that down! Do you know how much trouble I will be in if you break something in here? What are you trying to steal anyway? Oh my gosh. I’m so dead. I’m so dead!”

  Madison groaned. Really? Of all people? Doesn’t anyone else actually work here?

  “Do you know how much trouble you got me in last time you were here? First you messed up all those linens and I got in trouble for that, and then you got into a fight while I wasn’t watching! You just can’t stop, can you? Don’t you ever think about anyone but yourself? Do you ever consider how someone else feels? Or how what you do affects them?”

  “Rae . . .” Madison gasped.

  “No, you don’t do you?! You just go about your business and the only person you ever worry about is you! Do you know why I’m here and not at the welcoming ceremony? Do you have any clue how boring it is to be here alone? I could be out there meeting the prince, but I’m stuck here because of you!”

  “Rae . . .”

  “This was my chance to have fun and meet someone! I can’t believe it! This is the first time anyone has ever visited K’yer Utane in all the years I’ve been here, and I can’t even go to the reception because of you! I’m stuck taking inventory of bed sheets! Do you even understand how awful that is? Do you?!”

  “Rae!” Madison heaved the flask he was holding against the wall. The glass container shattered, spraying its contents over several nearby boxes.

  “Oh my gosh. Why would you—”

  “Rae,” Madison growled. “Which one is the healing drought?”

  “What?” she asked perplexedly. “Why would you want that?”

  “Seriously?” he gasped, looking down at the blood-soaked shirt he held pressed against his side. He’d left a trail of blood and bloody handprints all the way down the hall. There was no way someone could have missed that—even someone as airheaded and self-centered as her.

  “We don’t just give those out to just anyone, you know. Those are hard to make and expensive. You have to have a Guardian’s permission and be seriously injured. If you—”

  Madison picked up another bottle and hefted it for good measure. “Which one is it, Rae?”

  Her eyes grew slightly wider. “Oh my gosh! Did you know you were bleeding? It’s the red one!” she shouted when he reared his arm back to throw it.

  Madison glanced at the shelf below him and picked up a red bottle. He bit the cork between his teeth, pulled it out, and then pressed the glass against his lips. The warm liquid flowed over
his lips, and he swallowed a large mouthful before stopping. The thick, viscous liquid was hard to choke down, and he started coughing as soon as it hit the back of his throat. It was like he had swallowed something that was either too large or too cold, and he felt it slide all the way down until it landed in his stomach, where it sat like a giant rock. He took another small sip from the bottle and leaned up against the shelves.

  “How long will this put me out for?” he asked, gasping for air. He had been out for four days last time. There was no way he was going to lose that much time again.

  “A couple of days,” Rae answered. “But—”

  She cut herself off when Madison cast her a look. He should have seen this coming. He had picked up on the details as Alyanna told him the story. He knew where it was going before she ever finished it, but he hadn’t thought that she was actually going to stab him over it. Hell. I don’t know what I expected. A tearful story? A loving sharing of emotions rounded off by me comforting her over the loss of her brother?

  “I don’t have that long,” he answered. His side already felt better. He felt a warm, tingling sensation in the wound, and he knew that the magic was working. He draped the tattered, blood-soaked shirt over his shoulder until he could figure out something to do with it. “I can’t afford to be asleep for that amount of time.”

  “I mean, you could always take a shot of Rush, I guess. But you really shouldn’t! I would get into so much trouble if you did that! It’s even more rare than the healing drought, and only Sworn are supposed to take it! Even then, it’s only in small amounts. Only the Guardians really use it, and even then, it’s only when they really need it!”

  “Rush?” Madison asked curiously. “What does it do?”

  “It just . . . it keeps you awake. It makes you more focused, but—”

  “Which one is it?” Madison asked instantly.

  “No! No way! I would—”

  He hefted the half-drunk vial in his hand threateningly. After several seconds, he set it back on the shelf. “You said that you were doing the inventory, right? Or you’re supposed to be, anyway. That’s why this room was unlocked, isn’t it?”

  “Wh-What, I don’t . . .” she stammered, looking lost.

  His head was a bit foggy from the effects of the medicine, but he was already feeling better. The pain was almost gone entirely, and he could turn about without feeling like he was going to keel over. “Look, Rae. You’ve helped me out. You’ve probably even saved my life. You did a good thing here.”

  “Yes, but I’m still going to be in so much trouble when they find out what you’ve done!” Her voice grew in pitch and desperation as she spoke, and by the time she was done, it was more of a whine. “They’re going to blame me for it! Don’t you understand?” They never even punish you! That’s why you keep doing these things and getting me in trouble!”

  “But no one has to know about it, Rae. It’s really simple. You just clean up this mess”—he gestured to the shattered vial—“and then pretend that the bottles are still here. When you count them, just remember to add two to the healing droughts and one to the rush.”

  “What?!” she asked dubiously. “There’s no way! I’ll just get into even more trouble when they figure it out!”

  “But who’s going to figure it out?” Madison asked slyly. “It’s not like they’re going to come behind you and count them, are they? No one is even going to notice until someone else gets in trouble and has to do this again as a punishment, right? So, you don’t have to get in trouble for not doing your job when you’re supposed to. No one has to find out about you walking away and leaving the storage room open, and no one has to find out about me being here and using these potions.”

  “Okay. Yeah, I guess. But . . .”

  “Which one is the Rush?” He moved back to the shelf and picked up the bottle with the golden liquid again. “Is this it?” he asked, looking back over his shoulder. When she shook her head, he placed it back and picked up a small blue vial. “What about this?”

  “Yes, but . . .”

  The ampule itself was tinted blue, and the palm-sized bottle was completely filled to the top. “See? That’s so easy. How much am I supposed to take at a time?”

  “This is a really bad idea. Just . . .”

  “How much, Rae?” Madison pressed.

  “Only a sip,” she answered. “A single sip will keep you up for a full day. But you don’t understand! There are side effects! There’s a reason only the Guardians and Sworn take that!”

  Madison shrugged. He removed the cork and took a small sip. It was hot and burned his tongue as he swallowed it, and like the healing drought, he felt it until it landed in his stomach. He smacked his lips after he swallowed, savoring the aftertaste. “Hmm . . . Tastes like cinnamon,” he commented to himself. He went to stuff the vial in his pocket, but it bumped up against something. He reached and fished out the small and compressed footlocker that Warren had given him. How in the world did I forget about this? How many times have I changed pants since then? I keep moving it from one pair to another every time, but I don’t even notice I’m carrying it around until then.

  “Hey, Rae, how do you unshrink this?” he asked, holding it up.

  “Why would you do that?” she asked, looking at him like he was an idiot.

  “So that I can stuff the two vials in there. I don’t want to carry them around in my pockets. What if they break?”

  “What? Just . . . Wait, you don’t know?” she asked, suddenly beaming like she had a winning lottery ticket. “I can’t believe no one told you!”

  Madison watched her carefully. This is the same expression she had on her face when she told us about the envoy coming. This is her gloating, ‘I know something that you don’t know’ look.

  “It’s really easy! Just hold the item in your hand and think about it being in the locker. That’s it! It will just go there after that. There’s no need to ever unshrink the locker! Isn’t that neat?”

  “Magic and intent?” he muttered. He held the small blue vial in his hand and thought about it being transferred to the jewelry-box-sized footlocker he held in his other; and, sure enough, the bottle disappeared from his grasp.

  “Well, I’ll be damned.” He quickly retrieved the cork for the healing drought, stuffed it back into the bottle, and stowed it away in the same fashion. “Does this mean I can pull stuff out in the same way?” he asked. “I just have to think about removing the item, and I’ll have it?”

  “Yeah! So totally cool, right? But don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone that you didn’t know how to use the magic chest. I mean, every kid learns how to do it before they can even walk, but it’s totally not a big deal or anything to be embarrassed about.”

  Despite her words, she looked like she was about to burst. “Yeah. Cool. Thanks. Anyway, I better get going before someone catches me in here. Thanks again for all the help!” He stuffed the box back into his pocket and walked across the room, brushing by her on the way out. Spying an open box packed with rolls of gauze just as he was about to leave, he grabbed a handful and quickly transferred those to the footlocker as well. “Just in case,” he added, flashing her a huge smile. “And don’t forget: Clean up the broken bottle and add two to healing droughts and one to Rush when you check those!”

  He was already out the door and headed down the hallway before she had a chance to respond, so it was lost on him if she actually said anything in response. He almost felt bad for what he had done to her. He had set her up in a big way, and she just hadn’t realized it yet. Ryder had known about him fighting with Shayna in the hot springs and then about him helping her escape. The mysterious eyes were watching, and he knew it. He had known it even when he conned Rae. She’d figure it out eventually, and he would have to figure out a way to make it up to her. I’ll settle that score. This time, it’s on me. But I’ve got another score to settle first.

  He ground his teeth together as he strode down the hallway. It felt like the two different p
otions were fighting for dominance in his stomach. He felt a bit nauseous, but it was nothing compared to the pain of being stabbed. I should have seen this coming. Madison shook his head at his own naiveté. She had laid it out for him, he just hadn’t been willing to see it at the time. Even now, he still felt such an intense kinship to her because of the magic. He glanced down at the wrappings on his arm. They were completely soaked with blood—bright-red blood in some places and brown in others where blood had soaked the gauze and dried already.

  What was I thinking? Or was I thinking at all? You’d met her twice, and you let your guard down. What was the number one thing they told you about K’yer Utane? Never let your guard down. Expect to be attacked anywhere at any time by anyone. That was the number one rule, the cardinal rule, and he had forgotten about it. He had been so lulled into complacency by her magic that he had completely dropped his guard. How am I ever going to stay alive long enough to get home if I let myself be attacked by every girl that looks my way?

  Madison ground his teeth together, and he pushed his way out of the infirmary. He was completely covered in smeared blood. His pants leg was soaked, it was pooled up in his boot, and his upper torso was coated from the blood-drenched shirt he had thrown over his shoulder. Every time I set foot on this damn quad, I’m covered in blood, and my clothes are in tatters. Madison jerked the bloody rags off his shoulder and dropped them on the path as he stalked toward the main building.

  How could I have been that careless? The thought repeated itself in his mind, over and over again. Like a record on repeat, the question bored itself into his brain. The minute she got close to me . . . The minute she mentioned the slavers, I should have known what was coming. All that talk about accepting death and how it’s simply ‘the way.’ What a load of rubbish. She planned it from the beginning. She knew what she was going to do from the very moment she saw me in the glade. And, just like an idiot, I served myself up on a platter for her.