Death Flag

  “Then we need to get her to the doctors,” Alyanna responded quickly, her voice filled with concern and a little unsteady. “But I’m not sure that it’s safe to move her. If something is injured like you say, we might do more damage than good.”

  Madison only hesitated for a brief moment. He knew that she was right, but he also knew that he didn’t have much of a choice. If the healing was as good as everyone had made it out to be—and from what he had experienced so far, it was—then taking the risk of potentially doing a little more harm for the sake of saving her was the right choice. He gingerly scooped her up into his arms and lifted her off of the ground, surprised at how light she was. He had known that she was a small girl, but he had never realized exactly how small. One he had her securely in his arms and was confident that he wouldn’t drop her, he quickly set off at a brisk walk. He was certain that he could run while carrying her, but he didn’t want to take the risk of jarring her around too much. She had shown him patience and care when he had asked for help only a small time ago, and he wanted to be able to return that favor now.

  Rather than taking her directly to the infirmary, however, he switched directions and took her back into the main building. His sudden change of course threw off Alyanna, and she fell a few steps behind and was forced to jog to catch up to his long strides.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, even as she ran up the stairs ahead of him and held the door open.

  “We’re not going to the infirmary,” he responded as he ducked inside the building. “I’ll just have to deal with getting her out again, and I don’t want to give anyone another reason to chase me down for something.”

  “So, what are you planning on doing then?” she argued pensively. “She needs medicine; she needs healing. How are you going to do that without a healer? You don’t know the first thing about magic, let alone healing someone.”

  “No, but I know people who do.” He came to a stop in the middle of the hallway, much to the curiosity of several people who happened to be walking by. “Why does this place have to be so damn frustrating all the time? Focus on your suite,” he said, finally wheeling about and looking at Alyanna. “We can’t just drop her off in the women’s dorms, and I don’t think she would receive a warm welcome in the men’s at the moment. I can’t risk leaving her alone again with her in this condition, and we need somewhere she can rest. Focus on getting us to your private apartment.” He brushed past her as he had explained himself, turning back the way that they had just come from.

  Alyanna still looked apprehensive, but she didn’t say anything to argue with him, only falling into step instead. She opened the door for him into her private suite a few minutes later, and he rushed Shayna into the back. He had never been beyond the large common room, but he suspected that there was a separate series of bedrooms beyond the door there, and he was right. He turned into the first one on his left and found a large, well-furnished bedroom. He laid Shayna out on the bed and immediately reached into his pocket and pulled out the small, palm-of-his-fist-sized chest that held everything Warren had given him.

  “What are you doing?” Alyanna asked as she breezed into the room behind him.

  “I’m guessing no one explained this to you either,” he said, glancing over his shoulder at her.

  Truthfully, he had never tried this part before. He was only going on what Rae had told him was possible and expecting it to work. He held up his empty hand and thought about the half-used healing potion that he had stowed away in the chest. It only took a second, and a half-filled red bottle appeared in his open hand. Once he had it, he stuffed the chest back into his pocket and removed the stopper from the bottle.

  “Alright,” he said. “I guess this is the tricky part. I need to get her to drink this without spilling it everywhere.”

  He reached one hand behind her head and tilted it back while he pressed the other to her lips. He took a breath to steady himself and then tipped the bottle forward into her mouth, slowly letting the thick liquid flow into her mouth. He had no idea of how to gauge how much he should give her. He didn’t even know how severe her wounds really were. All he knew was that she was going to be in real trouble if he didn’t do something. He fed the liquid to her in small amounts so that she wouldn’t choke on it, and it seemed to work. She licked her lips, and her throat moved on its own as she slowly and unconsciously swallowed the potion, and he gave her about half of what was remaining in the bottle. He figured it was better to start off small and give her more if she needed it later on.

  The most important thing right now was that he did something for her to ease the pain; and, even before he had finished setting the bottle on the nightstand beside the bed, her breathing seemed to have become slower, deeper, and more peaceful. Her face didn’t immediately heal up, but it stopped changing colors at an obvious rate, and it no longer seemed to be as puffy and swollen as it had before.

  “That’s incredible,” Alyanna said softly. She walked across the room and sat down in a small cushioned chair next to a window. She stared at Shayna’s unconscious body for a long moment and then forcibly jerked her gaze away, burying her face in her hands. When she looked up again, she was slightly pale, and her face was streaked with tears. “I understand now, Madison. I understand what you were trying to tell me . . .”

  Madison nodded and took a moment to choose his words. He knew that it was still raw for her, and he didn’t want to say something that would set her off by sounding callous and uncaring. “I’ve been through this more times than I can count now. That guy wasn’t wrong when he said that I end up in the infirmary two times a day. I hadn’t really thought about it until now, but I really have spent more time there healing than I have anywhere else since I got here. You saw what happened to me in the testing room, Aly. I walked through a flame and came out whole on the other side. Now, you’ve seen this as well. That’s two forms of healing that have saved our lives in an instant. Your brother should be here with us. Darrius should still be alive, and there’s no reason for him not to be. Something’s going on.”

  “I understand now,” she repeated, but there was no anger or malice in her words. It was only her stating an obvious truth—one that she had accepted and come to terms with. “I thought that my duty as a sister was filled when I attacked you, but . . . Now . . . Now, I feel as if I was in the wrong. I’m not saying that you aren’t responsible, maybe you are. But . . . I don’t know anymore. I don’t feel as if you were the one I should have taken vengeance on.

  “I was just so convinced . . . Well, it’s also more than that. When I did the viewing, I saw a lot of things . . . I also felt a lot of things. That was the most vivid viewing I’ve ever done. It was raw and powerful and humbling . . . but it was also dark and ominous and filled with fear and hatred and death and . . .” She trailed off and closed her eyes as if resting them before continuing. “That was as close as I’ve ever come to touching another person’s soul, Madison, and it affected me in a way that nothing else ever had. Even now, there are still these lingering emotions, these feelings . . . It’s as if I’ve somehow known you my entire life. I feel as if I’m bonded to you, as if I owe you my life and my loyalty and my love, and it’s . . . It’s hard. It’s so much.”

  “You mean that’s not normal?” he asked. “I assumed that seeing the vision along with you was normal . . . that feeling these things was an effect of the magic you use.”

  “What? You mean you . . .? Oh . . . I don’t . . .” She shook her head as if trying to clear it again. “No, it’s not normal. I’m the only one who is supposed to see. You mean, all this time, you saw it all as well? All those images . . .”

  Madison nodded to confirm it again.

  “And the feelings? You feel the same way I do? This is . . . Something is wrong. It has to be. After what I saw of you, I assumed that you had to be manipulating me. I thought that you had cast some spell or used some type of magic while we were close to one another to toy with my emotions. I thought you wer
e trying to influence me somehow. That’s why I was so convinced that you had to be punished for Darrius . . . I was certain you were trying to hide your true motives, that you were trying to cover up something and keep it hidden from me. I . . . I really thought that you were evil. I thought that you were going to be the death of us all . . . especially because of . . .”

  Madison took one last look at Shayna’s body to convince himself that she was going to be alright for a moment and then crossed the room to Alyanna. He pulled a cushioned footstool around until it was beside her and pressed up against the wall and then sat down and leaned back so that he could watch Shayna. He wanted to make sure that her breathing remained steady until he knew for certain that she was going to be alright.

  “Look,” he began once he was settled, “I told you before: You did what you thought was right at the time. That’s all there is to it.”

  She looked over at him and studied him, her eyes roaming up and down his face. “How can you say that so easily? How can you just forgive me so easily?”

  Madison took a deep breath and slowly let it out to buy himself time. He hadn’t exactly come up with an honest answer to that question himself. Part of him knew that he didn’t trust her, and yet another part of him still wanted to despite what she had done. It was insane and illogical, and he knew it. She had stabbed him, left him for dead, and then gone about her day as if it were the most natural and right thing in the world. Yet, at the same time, he also knew that was her way of dealing with things; that was what she thought was necessary and appropriate. She had blamed him for her brother’s death at the time because that accursed group of slavers had still been looking for him. That didn’t mean he accepted that as an excuse. Doing what she had done was inexcusable, and he would probably never truly forgive her for it. There would also be a small part of his brain that refused to accept her because of that. If he had been in the same situation, however, he may have done the same thing. And that bothered him, knowing those two things.

  “I know you had your reasons,” he said, carefully spelling it out and putting it into words as best as he could. “I don’t agree with them, but at least you had them. You weren’t just lashing out blindly in a fit of rage and sorrow. If I had been in the same situation as you, I would have might have done the same thing. So, I understand what you were thinking and why you did it. I really do. I’m just trying to move forward as best as I can. I meant what I said before as well: I think someone was just using you for their own reasons. I know that sounds paranoid, but it makes sense when you consider everything else. Now, look at what happened to her. We weren’t even away from her for a full hour, and look what happened.”

  “Are you saying someone did this on purpose? Someone set her up?” Her voice was filled with skepticism, and he could tell that she didn’t want to believe it.

  He leaned forward and scratched at the back of his head before leaning back and answering, “You mean: Am I accusing Ryder of separating us from her so that someone else could take advantage of that fact? Seems a bit over the top, doesn’t it?”

  “Yeah, it does. What motivation would a Guardian have for intentionally harming one of the students here?” she asked suspiciously.

  “What motivation did he have to attack me and drag it out like he did? He could have subdued me at any time, right? You don’t really think that he was going full out in our fight, do you? I’m completely untrained, and he’s supposedly a master. I admit that there’s some uncanny knack I have for fighting—though I have no idea where it came from—but there’s no way I should have even been able to keep up with him, much less pull off half of what I did. He had to be pulling his punches, so to speak. He was holding back, and I’m not sure why. But I’m certain he had a purpose.”

  “What makes you so certain? He is a teacher, after all. He might have been using it as an example to teach you or the other students here. Maybe he wanted to inspire them and show them what was possible if someone applied themselves and worked hard. Or, maybe he just wanted to make an example of you so that no one else would do something half as foolish as you did.”

  “Perhaps.” The idea just didn’t seem right for some reason. Making an example out of him might have been the right answer, but that wasn’t it. Madison had looked directly into Ryder’s eyes when the Guardian cut into him. What he had seen was pure, blatant, and obvious shock. Unmasked surprise. Madison had no clue if any of that fight was real, and he doubted that any of it was. As far as he was concerned, the entire thing had been masterminded by Ryder for some grandiose, unknown reason. But, that one maneuver, that had been all his own. He had caught Ryder completely off guard, and the Guardian had slipped up by cutting into him. That was one move that he hadn’t planned.

  “There are two other things that I don’t understand,” Madison continued. “First off, why didn’t your father attack me while we were in the apartment? He had plenty of opportunities, and even you said that he was fairly good with a sword. He doesn’t seem so old and frail that he couldn’t swing a sword to save his own life or that of his daughter and only remaining heir.”

  “I . . . I don’t know,” she answered, staring blankly at Shayna as if replaying those events in her mind. “Perhaps he was too stricken with grief over the loss of Darrius and wasn’t thinking clearly. Perhaps he thought that Barton had it under control. Maybe he was counting on someone to show up and protect us. I just don’t know.”

  “Mmm. Your father doesn’t strike me as the type of man who waits for someone else to fight his battles for him,” Madison said honestly. “He also doesn’t seem like the type to be struck by grief. After all, that’s not ‘the way.’ The other thing worries me as well, although it might be nothing too. Ryder didn’t show up until after I had you on the ground and a sword pressed against your throat. They can supposedly watch everything we do in this entire valley through some magical system. They had to know that I stole the sword, and they had to know where I was going. Like they said, I pressured that information out of two other guys. He waited until that time to show up when he could have been there at any moment. Actually, any of the Guardians could have shown up during that time. But no one did. And that bothers me.”

  “Don’t you think that you might be getting a little too paranoid?” she asked, glancing over at him. “I’m sure they all have a lot of things to do. Even if there is a magical system in place to keep an eye on everything, so what? That doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily keeping an eye on everything all the time. It’s not like someone was expecting for you to make a move on a visiting family and try to kill them.”

  “Maybe. But it’s not exactly commonplace for anyone to visit here either,” Madison said pointedly. “This entire place is full of assassins and killers. That’s literally what everyone is here for: to learn how to kill. Why would you leave a family alone and unprotected without anyone watching them? It’s like dropping a rat into a den of vipers and then acting surprised that it was eaten.”

  Alyanna sighed in frustration. “I see what you mean, but we’re not going to get anywhere just sitting here chatting about it. It’s all just speculation until we can prove something. We have to find something concrete. Otherwise, we’re just running in circles.”

  Madison got up and walked over so that he could check on Shayna. Her breathing was steady and regular, and she seemed to have a bit more color to her face than she had before, but that was about all that he could say she had going in her favor at the moment. He had never been on this side of the healing before, so he didn’t know what he should honestly expect. He debated whether or not he should actually give her more of the healing potion. He didn’t want to sentence her to being unconscious and missing days at a time if he didn’t have to, but he also didn’t want to run the risk of not doing enough. After watching her for a moment and convincing himself that she wasn’t going to die during the night, he moved back over and sat back down.

  “Any idea what time of day it is?” he asked.


  “No,” she answered, shaking her head. “Why?”

  “To be honest, I could use something to eat,” he answered, afraid that his stomach was going to start growling at any moment. “It’s hard to believe, but I feel like I can keep going without any sleep for as long as I want. I’m tired, sure, but it’s not like I’m going to pass out anytime soon. But my body is demanding food.”

  “Hmm . . . Normally, I’d say that we have something on hand that I could offer, but . . .”

  Madison grinned despite himself. “But all the cooks left with your father, and you burn water when trying to boil it?”

  “No!” she responded indignantly. “Of course not. I have been taught how to properly prepare a meal. We are not like the southern ladies who are unable to complete the simplest task without assistance. We are taught to be self-sufficient from an early age, thank you. You never know when you might become separated from the rest of your people. If that were to happen, you would be dead rather quickly if you weren’t prepared. “

  “You really have something against the south, don’t you?” He had no idea what the politics in this world were other than the fact that the word ‘war’ had been tossed about a few times, but he had picked up on the fact that she really seemed to hold a grudge against anyone who wasn’t from her home. She took every opportunity that came her way to call them weak and helpless.

  “What?” She twisted her head around to look at him, confusion growing on her face. She studied him for a moment, her eyes searching over his face, and then she said, “You are very curious, you know that?”

  “Erh?” He hadn’t been expecting that, and it caught it off guard. “What? Why?”

  She reached over and took his perpetually-bandaged left wrist and held it up. “You wear the mark of the Legion, but it’s as if you know nothing about it. It’s like this world’s history is completely foreign to you—like you don’t even know the simplest children’s tale.” She studied him for a moment longer until she realized that he wasn’t going to refute her. When she saw that his expression wasn’t going to change she asked quietly, “You don’t know them, do you? How is that possible?”