Taste of Darkness (An Avry of Kazan Novel - Book 3)

by Maria V. Snyder

  I paused, letting the irony sink in. Death Lily toxin killed my sister and might take Kerrick, but it stopped Tohon’s dead soldiers, and had given me my healing magic. Ironic or warped? Or twisted? How about plain old sad?

  Loren arrived with the information I’d requested. We consulted and pinpointed the closest Lily cluster. Half a day southwest. I remembered that group of six Lilys. One had been a Death Lily, and I’d harvested its toxin sacks. More important, five were Peace Lilys.

  Standing, I said, “Let’s go.”

  Quain exchanged a look with Loren, doing their silent monkey communication that Belen liked to tease them about. Belen. I bit my lip. No. I wasn’t going to think about him right now. If I did, I’d dissolve into a little puddle of goo. And time was too critical right now.

  Pushing past Quain, I fetched my knapsack from my sleeping cavern. Kerrick’s clothes remained where I’d tossed them last night. I shoved them into my pack along with his boots. He’d need them; the air turned cold at nights. I wrapped my cloak around my shoulders.

  When I returned, Loren and Quain waited for me with their packs. Flea sat by the fire. Two bright red patches spread on his cheeks, and his lips were pressed into a hard line. Odd stood behind him with his arms crossed. Their body language said it all.

  “Here.” Loren handed me a few sticks of beef jerky. “You can eat it on the way.”

  “Thanks.” I bit into one as we left the cave. A half-moon lit the sky, giving off just enough light for us to see the trail, but not enough to see well. We traveled slower than normal to avoid tripping. Plus we kept searching for Kerrick. He might have collapsed on his way to the Lilys. I touched the greenery from time to time, seeking his magic. My heart, though, wanted action and it raced regardless of our pace.

  “I’d rather you had a hot meal before we left, but I rarely get my way,” Loren said.

  “You stopped Flea from coming along.”

  “Only because Odd threatened to sit on him. Flea said he wasn’t going to speak to me ever again.” Loren shook his head. “I’ve been waiting for Quain to say that for years.”

  “Hey!”

  I cut in before they could launch into a verbal battle. “You did the right thing, Loren. He needs to rest after yesterday.”

  “Yeah, but he doesn’t like to miss out. And I’m with him on this one. I wouldn’t want to be left behind, either.”

  “Why is he so tired?” Quain asked in concern. “Is it because of...me?”

  “I don’t remember him saving anyone else’s life yesterday,” Loren said.

  “I know I owe him one. But what did he do to break the spell? I wasn’t dead. I was just...” Quain glanced at me. “What was I? I didn’t feel anything.”

  “You were paused. Neither living nor dead, just suspended. Sepp once explained it as a fake death.”

  “And now Tohon’s trapped in this fake death?” Quain asked.

  “Yes. And according to Sepp, Belen is, as well. He used that information to try to stop Kerrick from killing him,” I said. Tohon had told me he’d turned Belen into one of his dead soldiers. I didn’t know who to believe, but I knew who I desperately wanted to believe. Either way, Belen had been missing for over a month.

  “Estrid and her top staff are also frozen,” Loren added.

  “Yeah, but it didn’t matter. No offense, Quain, but Tohon had to be stopped,” I said. “By taking out Sepp, no one would have been able to awaken him, or so we thought at the time. Cellina can’t create more dead soldiers. In the end, by killing Sepp we’d have saved thousands of lives.”

  Except Wynn had hit Kerrick with her knife before he could finish Sepp off. Eventually Sepp, Wynn, and Cellina had escaped and Flea had awoken Quain.

  “If it makes you feel any better, it was a very painful decision,” I said.

  Loren put his hand on his stomach. “Like a bad bout of indigestion.”

  “Thanks, I feel all warm inside.” He bumped Loren with his shoulder. “So now that Sepp’s still alive, what does that mean?”

  Loren met my gaze. What indeed?

  “It depends on Cellina,” I said. “If she likes being in charge, she’ll leave Tohon frozen. If she truly loves him...”

  “She’ll come after Avry,” Loren said. “She’s the only one who can heal Tohon.”

  Not exactly. Danny’s healing magic had awoken during his adventure with Kerrick in the north. But not many people knew about him. Yet another worry flared. Had Tohon told Cellina about his experiments with the Death Lily toxin? The people who survived being poisoned with the toxin all developed healing powers. Tohon had been injecting it into children, hoping to make healers. Danny and Zila had lived through it, but I’d rescued them. If Tohon had kept it secret, all should be well.

  If not... I considered. Danny remained with the northern tribes and Zila stayed with Kerrick’s brother, Izak. Both were in Alga Realm, safe on the other side of the Nine Mountains for now.

  “But Avry won’t heal Tohon,” Quain said. “Right? You agreed with Kerrick’s decision to kill Sepp.”

  “Right. I won’t.”

  “And we all know you can’t be threatened, bullied, coerced, or bribed to heal someone you don’t want to.” Loren smiled.

  Quain rubbed his neck. “Yeah, we learned that lesson the hard way.”

  “I’d say Kerrick had the most learning to do. Fun times.”

  I wouldn’t go so far as to call them fun. However, those days when we’d been all together had been...nice, despite the danger. And now... Grief and sadness filled me. Would I lose everyone I loved before this war ended?

  We lapsed into silence. The farther we moved away from the infirmary cave, the greater the chance of encountering an enemy patrol. The night insects buzzed and chirped.

  When the sun rose, we stopped for a quick breakfast and continued. In the daylight, the monkeys searched for any signs that Kerrick had passed this way.

  “Would he even leave a trail?” I asked.

  “If he was too sick to do his tree mojo, he might have broken some branches,” Quain said.

  And I still hadn’t felt a ripple of his magic. Which meant he was either unconscious, already inside a Lily, or dead. I leaned against a tree’s trunk for a moment as a wave of misery swept through me. No. Not until I had proof.

  Pushing away those dire thoughts, I straightened. “I’ll meet you guys there. You’re slowing me down.” I sprinted down the trail.

  They picked up their pace and we reached the Lily cluster a few hours after dawn.

  “There’s no sign Kerrick came this way,” Quain said, examining the ground.

  I shot him a nasty look.

  Loren punched him in the arm. Hard.

  “What?”

  Ignoring them, I pulled off my cloak and knapsack, setting them down. I moved closer and studied the six Lilys. The cluster grew among the trees. Giant white man-size flowers topped thick green stalks. Thorny vines jumbled below and the scent of honey and lemons filled the air. Get too close to a Death Lily and either the petals snatched you or the vines ensnared you and pulled you in. Once trapped, you couldn’t escape even if armed with a sharp knife. The thick and fibrous petals and leaves resisted punctures and tears.

  Death Lilys moved fast for a plant, hissing a warning a second before they grabbed their victims. Once you were caught, it pricked you with two barbs and injected its toxin. One of three things happened next. You die, and it feeds off your flesh, spitting your bones out when it’s finished. Or you don’t die, it spits you out, and you suffer horribly, dying later. Then there are the very few who don’t die at all and become healers. Like me.

  On the opposite side, Peace Lilys wouldn’t capture a person or bother anyone. As far as I know, Flea and I were the only people they’d taken. And here was another irony—Tohon used Peace Lily serum to create his dead soldiers. The serum preserved the dead body in a fake life so they didn’t decompose. His magic did the rest, but I still hadn’t figured out how.

  “
Stay away from that one.” I pointed to the Lily farthest southwest. “That’s the Death Lily.”

  “How can you tell?” Quain asked. “They all look the same.”

  “Death Lilys have a faint odor of anise when you get closer, and Peace Lilys smell like vanilla. If you smell anise, then you’re within range of its vines.”

  “Oh, so anise will be the last thing you smell before you’re plant food. Good to know.” Quain backed up a step.

  “Now what?” Loren asked.

  “I’ll see if any will open for me.” When I had returned to the Peace Lily that held Flea’s body, it had bent down and deposited him onto the ground. Perhaps one of these would drop Kerrick. Every fiber of my being hoped so.

  Please be here.

  I approached the closest and waited. Please be here.

  Nothing happened. Not a twitch of a vine nor a rustle of a petal.

  After a few minutes, I moved to the next. Please be here.

  And the next. Please.

  And the next. Be.

  And the last. Here!

  The Peace Lilys ignored me. “Please?” I said to it, hoping it would take me and explain as one had after it had refused my sister. I’d gotten the impression that the Peace Lilys were all one being with each flower an extension of it, like fingers. Same with the Death Lilys, but with another being at its core.

  Still nothing.

  Loren gestured to the flowers. “What’s going on?”

  Crushing disappointment and grief, but no need to state the obvious. “I’ll see if I can find out.” I walked over to the Death Lily.

  “Uh, Avry,” Quain said. “Are you sure that’s a good—”

  A loud hissing drowned out the rest of his words. In a flash, white petals surrounded me, blocking all light and noise. In the darkness, two barbs pricked my upper arms and the toxin flowed into me like a soothing elixir. Escaping my pain-filled body, my consciousness floated free and I connected with the thoughts and contented feelings of the Lily.

  Welcome back. A surge of pride. More? Thinking I wanted its toxin sacks, it showed me a mental picture of another cluster of Lilys nearby.

  No, thank you. I formed a picture of Kerrick in my mind. Seen him?

  A flood of images hit me. Kerrick running through the woods, hunting, walking with Belen, Flea, and the monkeys, holding me in his lap, blending into the woods, using his magic. They tumbled one right after the other, threatening to drown me.

  Stop, please! I concentrated on how he’d looked that night without his shirt, feeling sick. Did he come here?

  He stopped. Sorrow flowed.

  Stopped where? If I could just find his body, I might—

  Gone into the green.

  Where?

  A vision of the entire forest filled my mind. It was empty. However, I refused to believe it. The barbs pulled away and the Death Lily set me on the ground. I huddled there in utter misery for a moment, then gathered every bit of strength I had left.

  I still had no proof. Gone in Death Lily speak could mean he left the forest or was in a cave. It didn’t have to mean he... No. Not going to go there. Not yet.

  Quain and Loren hovered as close as they dared, their expressions hopeful.

  “He didn’t come here,” I said, standing.

  I glanced away. Bad enough to feel the grief burning inside me, I didn’t need to witness that same pain reflected in my friends’ eyes.

  “What now?” Quain asked in a quiet voice.

  “We go back to the infirmary cave. I’ve patients to check on.”

  “And Kerrick?” Loren touched my shoulder.

  “We keep searching.”

  Taking another route back, we reached the cave after sunset. Ryne had arrived. He sat by the fire intently listening to Flea and Odd. I exchanged a glance with the monkeys.

  “Did you send a messenger?” I asked Loren.

  “Kerrick did when we returned from our...uh, encounter with Tohon and the others. Thought Ryne should know what happened, especially about Cellina’s takeover.”

  It made sense. Prince Ryne led our ragtag army. He had the military savvy and strategic acumen to counter Tohon. However, he was the last person I wanted to see right now. His genius tactics had caused me quite a bit of pain and suffering over the past few months.

  Before Ryne noticed me, I sent the monkeys over to the fire. “Talk to him.”

  “What about you?” Quain asked.

  “I need to check on my patients. It’s been—” my sluggish thoughts refused to add the hours “—too long.”

  Concentrating on the injured soldiers, I moved from cot to cot, talking to the men and women. No new casualties had arrived since yesterday. The caregivers had done a fine job of keeping everyone comfortable and the bandages had all been changed. I consulted with the head caregiver, Ginger. Her capable and no-nonsense attitude was perfect for this type of work.

  The floor wobbled under my feet, and I stumbled. I stared at the ground, trying and failing to understand how it had moved. Then the room spun. Ah. Exhaustion had finally caught up to me. “Wake me if you need me,” I said to Ginger.

  Keeping to the shadows, I slipped into my cavern. Still empty. The guys had moved out the night before last to give Kerrick and me privacy. It was just as well. I didn’t want company. Before lying down, I pulled Kerrick’s shirt from my knapsack. I pressed it to my face and breathed in his unmistakable scent—spring sunshine and living green.

  Tears pushed and my nose filled, but I wouldn’t cry. Not yet. Not until I had proof. I fell asleep clutching his shirt tight.

  * * *

  “Avry.” A voice shattered my dream.

  With effort, I opened one eye. Ryne knelt next to me.

  “Go away,” I mumbled, rolling over.

  “Avry, we need to talk.”

  “I don’t want to talk to you. Go away.”

  “You can’t avoid me.”

  True. I sighed. “We’ll chat in the morning, before the search parties go out. Okay?”

  “I’ve called off the search.”

  I sat up, turning. “What? Why?” Fury blew away the sleep fog.

  He reached for my hand, but I jerked back. Ryne settled back on his heels. “He’s gone, Avry.”

  “No. You’re wrong.”

  “I wish I was, really I do.” Ryne pushed a lock of his brown hair from his tired hazel eyes. Worry lines creased his face and he appeared much older than twenty-seven—the same age as Kerrick. “Remember that book on magicians I have?”

  “Couldn’t forget that.” I didn’t bother softening my sarcasm. His school textbook on magicians and their powers had led to Ryne leaving me behind to be caught in Tohon’s nasty trap. I shuddered at the memory.

  He ignored my tone. “It reports that forest mages go into the woods when they die. And their bodies disappear.”

  “No. Not buying it. What if they’re in a city?”

  “Avry, it fits. You know it. Death Lily toxin is lethal. He died in the woods and the living green reclaimed its gift to him.”

  “No.”

  “Then why can’t we find his body? And if he didn’t die, why isn’t he here? You know Kerrick, he would never just leave you.”

  “No. No. No. No!” I screamed the last one. And with that one word, all the emotions I’d been suppressing burst from my core. I collapsed as great gasping sobs pounded my body.

  CHAPTER 3

  I woke in Ryne’s arms. He was curled next to me. It took me a moment to remember what had led to this. Ah, yes. Ryne insisting Kerrick was gone. The suffocating pain returned, pressing my chest as if I lay under the Nine Mountains. Groaning, I rolled away.

  Ryne pushed up to one elbow. “Avry, are you—”

  “Don’t ask. Ever.” I grabbed my boots and left.

  After checking on my patients, I searched for Loren. He sat with the group around Ryne. They’d probably been discussing military tactics, but I didn’t care. I caught Loren’s attention and gestured for him to join me.
He nodded and slipped away.

  His face tight with concern, Loren approached me as if I’d attack him. I would have laughed if the circumstances had been different.

  “What’s going on?” he asked.

  “Do you still have the map with the search areas marked on it?”

  “Yes. Why?” He shifted, wary again.

  “I need it.”

  “But Ryne—”

  “I don’t care what he said. I’m not giving up until I have proof. Can you get it for me, please?”

  His shoulders drooped, but he shuffled off to fetch it. I consulted the Lily map and located the cluster the Death Lily had pointed out last night.

  Loren returned with the map and Ryne.

  I glared at Loren before snatching the map. Ignoring Ryne, I scanned the search grids.

  “Avry, you’re needed here,” Ryne said.

  “No, I’m not. My patients are doing fine.”

  “What if more casualties arrive?”

  “I’ll be back by nightfall.” I folded the maps and tucked them under my arm.

  Ryne trailed me to my cavern and watched as I organized my pack, removing Kerrick’s boots. Debating about my cloak, I left it behind and strode for the cave’s exit.

  “I can order you to stay here,” Ryne said, hurrying to catch up.

  “You can.” I kept moving.

  He huffed. “I can order the guards to stop you.”

  “You can.”

  By this time Loren, Quain, and Flea had joined Ryne.

  “Avry, you’re not going to find Kerrick. He’s gone,” Ryne said.

  I stopped and turned. Suppressing the desire to punch Ryne in the mouth, I asked, “Who said I was going to search for Kerrick?”

  They all blinked at me in surprise.

  “You need more toxin sacks, right?” I asked. “Or did Wynn lie about that, too?”

  “We do need more, but—”

  “So what’s the problem? I’m going out to collect them. Unless you know someone else who can harvest them from the Death Lilys?” I waited.