by Mara Amberly
“It really depends,” Ariane replied. “I don’t know much about spiders, but the large ones can be dangerous sometimes. Others are harmless. It’s possible that a dragon might have a natural ability to fight their venom.”
Cassia glanced over at Ariane. “One of us could use the method that you used to help me.”
She avoided delving too deeply into the circumstances with her explanation.
Ariane nodded at that. “It might help. It doesn’t clear poison, but it could certainly help the body fight it and heal any damage it causes.”
Alexa studied the dragon as it lay resting – weak but alive. “I’d like to try.”
The dragon seemed to awaken from where it lay. It might’ve been listening to the conversation, or perhaps the mental component of it.
“I’m going to try and heal you,” Alexa told the dragon, speaking only to its mind, but not audibly.
“Thank you,” it answered her. “You saved me.”
Alexa felt its thoughts turn to its mother and sighed.
The priestess closed her eyes and tried to sense the energy of the dragon. As the moments passed, she felt her attention drawn to areas that seemed damaged or compromised. She thought those must have been the places where it had been bitten. With a deep breath, Alexa let her energy flow through her hands and to the dragon. She centred especially on those areas where she felt it was wounded. Most of the energy she used was from her own stores, but she supplemented it with energy she drew in from the world around her.
The energy felt thick – almost like syrup as opposed to water, and moving it was an effort. She assumed this might have been an effect of the starlight magick cast before they arrived in Kelbani. If so, it was a sign that the Sisters of the order had successfully slowed the flow of magick in the world. Unfortunately, it didn’t make healing with this method any easier.
The dragon fell into a fitful sleep as the energy flowed into its damaged body.
Alexa stayed by the dragon’s side, trying to heal it and compensate for the venom, until the dragon could recover from it and remove it from its system. It was a long night for Alexa, but the dragon survived the night and looked in much better condition by morning.
The others took shifts keeping watch and took turns sleeping.
Alexa realised with the new day that she needed rest more than ever. The healing took a lot out of her, but thankfully they were all still alive. Her magick was almost depleted, but she didn’t regret her decision, and she knew her magickal ability would refresh itself with time and some much needed sleep.
Chapter 14
Cerus was tempted to remain in his chambers until he was summoned by the King, but he was growing hungry and he wasn’t one to linger about waiting when there were things to be done. His mind might have been on the Nemorans and their influence at court, but he was also a Governor and he had the interests of his city to address.
He left his rooms armed only with his knife. He made his way out into the corridor and down several flights of stairs to a large drawing room. He saw no one else on the way, but once he reached the drawing room he could tell that something was amiss. There were people collapsed and unmoving on the floor – one man and two women, still dressed in their finery. A second man was slumped unconscious or dead on a lounge nearby.
Cerus glanced around cautiously, but he saw no sign of anyone else. He made sure his knife was still sheathed, but he left it where it was for the moment. One by one, he checked the unconscious people for signs of life. Each one had a pulse and no obvious injuries. They seemed almost too perfectly unharmed, as though they’d simply fallen asleep. He immediately pieced together the possibility of poison or some other drug as the likeliest candidates.
Once he was sure that each could breathe in the position where they lay, he moved quickly to the door and took cover beside it. Cerus carefully turned the doorknob and glanced out into the hall.
He noticed another man slumped on the ground – an aristocrat of some kind. Unlike the unconscious men and women in the drawing room, this one had been stabbed in the chest.
Cerus wondered how he hadn’t heard the fight. He wouldn’t have missed it, given a choice. Of greater concern was King Merrion’s wellbeing, and he wondered what had become of him. Could he be too late?
Listening carefully, Cerus was sure he heard voices – no, moans of pain.
If he’d been a more cowardly man, he might’ve returned to his rooms, but it wasn’t his way. Cerus prided himself on his swordsmanship and his unwillingness to back down when required. Deciding quickly, Cerus stealthily hurried down the hall, while he kept a hand near his knife.
Ideally that would’ve been a sword, but he’d found the stewards touchy about weapons. It’s why he hadn’t brought his sword to what would’ve been breakfast. A knife was better than nothing, especially when one was trained in the fighting arts, as he and his brother Luca were.
Cerus reached the end of the hall, and glanced out into the larger room ahead of him. He noticed a young woman sitting on the ground, who begged weakly for help. She looked like she might’ve been under the influence of the poison or drug that had knocked out the people in the drawing room, and she seemed to be rapidly losing the fight against it. She slid to the floor, as his eye was drawn by movement down an adjacent corridor. Someone was coming.
The footsteps clacked off the marble floor, and Cerus intentionally slowed his breathing as he slid his knife from its sheath. A man walked into the room and glanced around cautiously. He was dressed as one of the stewards, but Cerus noted the sword he wore and that he had a warrior’s build. Most of the stewards were more slender men, while the guards were bulkier.
Cerus wondered if he’d infiltrated the staff or whether this was a disguise he’d hoped would blend in. Judging by the casualties, it must’ve been effective.
Cerus had little patience for hiding around corners. He stepped out into the open, and the man turned around at once to face him. Cerus noticed the canny look in the supposed-steward’s eyes, a split-second before the man spoke.
“Please, you must help us. But you’re not one of them, are you?” he asked, as though he were merely a steward.
Cerus was many things, but a fool wasn’t one of them.
“Not like you, no,” he declared, his knife in hand as he approached.
“A pity,” the man answered, baring his teeth in a toothy grin. He quickly drew his sword, seeming as though he expected Cerus to be a weak adversary.
Cerus saw his sword was a rapier – not one of the heavier and stronger blades popular among the military or the curved style favoured by his own people.
The stranger swished it through the air, demonstrating his speed and supposed skill.
Cerus could already tell he was a ‘showy one’. The more grounded types normally made far better fighters.
“Is that supposed to impress me?” he asked, swiping at the cultist with his knife blade, before levelling a punch with his right fist.
Cerus learned the rapier was sharp and not dull as it sliced his hand, but his punch knocked the man back and unsteadied him on his feet.
Cerus didn’t hesitate to inflict a bruising punch on the cultist’s sword arm, then hooked his arm around the man’s neck and held him there.
He struggled, but Cerus ended it quickly, if not cleanly, with a swift cut. As the cultist weakened, he let him fall to the floor and wiped his knife on the man’s clothing.
Once he was sure the risk was at an end, he ran over to the young woman and checked her. She had a stomach wound he hadn’t noticed earlier, and while she still breathed, without magickal healing, he feared there was nothing more that could be done for her.
He would get her help if he could find it, but the condition of the King also weighed heavily on his mind.
There were two doors off the room. The man he’d killed had come through one of them, and the other led out into the garden at the front of the palace. He opened the front door and looked out, seein
g what appeared to be rubbish strewn over the ground. Some people had likely left in a hurry.
Cerus felt he was far more likely to be noticed out there, and it seemed unlikely the King had vacated the palace that way, so he opted for the inner door instead. It led to a dining room, which seemed to have been set for breakfast.
He gasped in shock at the dozens of unconscious people and guards in the room and subtly shook his head. Some were out cold and others had been murdered. Most had fallen out of their seats on to the floor but several had slumped over the table.
As he walked across the room, Cerus was glad he’d held off on getting breakfast.
Large platters of food still sat mostly-untouched on the table, while drinks and food were scattered from the table to the floor.
It seemed that most of those killed had had their throats cut. Most likely someone had gone from person to person, killing them once they were unconscious. It was an act of supreme cowardice, and he knew no man or woman of honour would ever entertain such a notion, let alone carry it out.
Cerus was angry at the perpetrators, and if these were the Nemorans – and he believed so – then he had even more grounds to hate them.
Still armed with his knife, Cerus stepped through a side door off the dining room, which led into the kitchen. He could smell smoke and something more distasteful – likely pots and pans boiled dry. The kitchen was conspicuously empty, through trays and cups had been knocked down on to the floor.
Cerus was tempted to return upstairs, so as to warn any guests who hadn’t ventured out to stay in their rooms, but the King took precedence. Once he was sure the palace wouldn’t burn down, he began searching for the King. The building was massive, but he stayed on the ground floor for now, because it would give him more options to escape if it became necessary.
He knew he must be getting close to the palace’s waiting area, where he’d spent so much time when he first arrived at the palace. As he thought he recognised the right door in the distance, Cerus stumbled on to a contingent of guards. There was a large entrance hall, which he’d briefly seen the night before, and a dozen guards were assembled there. They looked like palace guards, but Cerus couldn’t be sure they weren’t cultists. There were familiar faces – of that much he was certain, but he couldn’t be sure of their allegiances.
For now he watched and listened, and tried to remain unseen as he gauged the situation. He knew they’d be keeping a look out, no matter which side they were on.
“We know there are stragglers in the palace, as well as teams of three, so we will begin a room by room sweep–”
Cerus saw one of the guards glance at him, and he took an involuntary step back. He considered how quickly he could kill the man, but it wouldn’t be fast enough.
“Captain, over there!”
Cerus froze when his presence was revealed. The question raced through his mind: now what?
“I’m just a guest,” he said, quickly sheathing his knife before he stepped further into the open.
“I came down to breakfast and people were dead, dying and unconscious.”
He couldn’t be entirely sure about their loyalties, but the guards’ earlier mention of sweeping the palace gave him hope that they were supporters of the King.
“I’m here to serve the King.”
A tense moment passed, as glances were exchanged between the guards.
The Captain was the first to speak.
“Arrest that man.”
Chapter 15
Tiptoeing closer, Cassia checked on Alexa, who still slept soundly. She didn’t know how long her sister had stayed up healing the dragon, but it was late afternoon and Alexa was still asleep.
She returned to the others, where Knave was telling them dragon stories.
The young dragon was in much better condition than he had been the night before. He’d listened for a while, before retreating to the lee of a rock, where he still slept and recovered.
“How is she?” Knave asked of Alexa, keeping his voice down.
She seemed like she needed the rest, especially for her magick to replenish, but they were losing hours of daylight. There was less motivation to travel by night with a massive spider infestation between them and the town they expected to find on the other side.
“Still resting,” Cassia replied, as she sat down beside him and Ariane.
“I think perhaps we should wake her soon,” he admitted. “I don’t think the spiders are going to overrun us here or they probably would’ve already, but we’re near enough stuck here until we can navigate around them. I’m sure you could light the place up well at night, but it’s likely to be seen for miles out here.”
She nodded at that. “That’s possible and the closer we get to the town, the more likely it is something like that would be noticed. Even if they didn’t see the flames, someone with the sight might notice the instance of magick.”
Knave’s brow furrowed. “I don’t like the sound of that, especially if these Nemorans are as powerful as they sound.”
Cassia shrugged at that. “I don’t know. I think if they knew we were here, they’d have come looking for us already, though I could be wrong about that. Alexa’s ability to read people and places is an uncommon form of empathy. It’s more a gift than a form of magick that a powerful mage is likely to have. Of those who have it, most aren’t very skilled with it and a lot of sorcerers ignore it.”
He nodded in understanding, reassured by the fact. “That’s a relief. We should get moving while we have the light on our side.”
Ariane gave him a tap on the shoulder, and then nodded toward Alexa. “The lady’s awake.”
Sure enough, her eyes were open and Alexa lay on her side, watching them.
When she sensed that they were talking about her, she climbed out from under the thin blanket and joined them where they sat.
“How long was I out for? It looks late.” She glanced around her, quickly sensing where the dragon lay.
“You slept most of the day,” Knave told her, noticing dark circles under her eyes.
She looked like she could’ve slept another eight hours, and probably needed it.
Alexa released a deep breath and rubbed her tired eyes. “I’m feeling much better than I was. Thanks for being patient and waiting for me. I really needed the rest.”
Ariane smiled at her. “We could tell. Your dragon’s doing well.”
Alexa’s expression brightened, and she only thought on the fact after a moment that he probably shouldn’t be called her dragon.
“I’m relieved to hear that. When we brought him back to the camp last night, I wasn’t sure he’d pull through.”
Knave took a sip from his canteen, as he glanced between the ladies and the dragon. “He was testing out his wings earlier, so I don’t think you need to worry. He seems like he’s not at his best, but he’s a lot better than he was.”
Alexa smiled at the news. “I don’t know why I feel quite so relieved and grateful for that, but I do. It seemed like it could’ve gone differently so easily,” she said, her voice uneasy with emotion.
Cassia put a hand on her shoulder. “I know, but it’s going to be alright. Do you feel up to breakfast? We toasted some bread and melted cheese on it. It’s gone cold but it’s easy enough to heat up again.”
With a smile, Alexa nodded. “That sounds good to me. So what’s the plan, after ah… late breakfast?”
“About what you’d expect,” Ariane answered with a yawn. “We get moving and try to skirt around the area the spiders have taken over. We have to consider the possibility that this is a boundary that’s been fully established around the town you saw. It seems like a good way of keeping people away.”
Knave nodded, “Or keeping people in. No one in their right mind would want to navigate that. But you’d think a town out here would get the bulk of their goods through trade, unless there are farms, and so far there haven’t been any.”
Alexa didn’t want to have to face the spiders agai
n. They had to try and find a way around them. There was no going back.
“Once the dragon can fly again, I think he’d find it easier to skirt the boundaries of the land affected by the spiders. I can try sensing them but I didn’t notice they were so large the first time so I’m not hopeful I will.”
She wondered if the true nature of the spiders might’ve been concealed by magick in much the same way the town was, but she couldn’t say for sure.
Closing her eyes, Alexa reached out with her mind and intentionally tried to detect the spiders.
“That’s a good idea,” she heard Ariane say, and pushed past the Sister’s presence in search of the spiders. She sensed the minds of some in the area – they almost felt like part of the landscape, but she didn’t sense any that carried with them a sense of danger or stood out from what was normal. Their minds felt much the same, regardless of the size of the spider.
Alexa opened her eyes, slightly creeped out but glad she’d at least tried. “That wasn’t successful, I’m afraid. I’ll get my things together so we can go.”
***
They left soon after, knowing it might not take much time to return to the edge of the area where they’d encountered the spiders the night before. As the arachnids were best avoided, they took a northward course that took them away from where the dragon had been held captive. If the spiders inhabited a limited area, it might allow them to approach the town from a less threatening angle. If not, it would give them greater insight into the area the spiders inhabited.
“You know, this might not put us that far from Eldennaia?” Ariane asked of Cassia and Alexa.
“I didn’t think we’d be that far across the kingdom,” Alexa admitted.
“We might be. If we came out of the tunnel near the edge of the Painted Desert, it means the town to the east–”
“It’s definitely Feidhlim, isn’t it?” Cassia asked, drawing nervous glances from the other sisters.
Knave sighed. “So it makes it more likely we have a town full of cultists to deal with? It couldn’t just be a regular town?”