Chapter Thirteen Caspia
Thirteen
Caspia
Xandra clung to my hand as we staggered through a forest. Her palm was clammy, her face pale gray.
I stumbled a step, my ankle rolling, but her grip kept me from falling. My head was spinning so fast the world looked like a streak of green and brown and blue sky. My breaths were coming in shallow pants, and the sweat soaking my body did nothing to cool the fire raging in my veins.
For three suns we’d been trekking across this strange land, waiting for the ritus to change us. Xandra and I had worried the dank, moldy air from the cave had made us both ill, but maybe we should have stayed. With every passing sun, we’d both gotten sicker and sicker.
I’d hoped we’d find a shelter where we could rest until the illness passed. But the only thing we’d found were trees and more trees.
“I need to stop,” I murmured.
Xandra released my hand, and like it had been the only thing keeping her on her feet, she dropped to the mossy forest floor. Her arms wrapped around her middle as she rocked back and forth, curling on her side. Tears welled in her eyes and cascaded down her cheeks.
My knees buckled, slamming into the ground as I collapsed. And just like Xandra, I curled into a ball on the wet, green earth.
It rained constantly, from thundering downpours to gentle drizzles. I couldn’t remember what it felt like to wear dry clothing. We were soaked to the bone, but the water was a minor inconvenience compared to the pain.
Divine, it hurt. My insides were being shredded by invisible claws. My head was throbbing, every pulse of my heart was a hammer cracking against my skull.
Neither of us had been able to eat since that first moon in that strange cave. The dried fish we’d packed from the ship was untouched, though probably not so dry anymore. That moon, we slept against the slippery rock walls, and in the morning, we both woke to stomach cramps.
The first sun, we’d managed to gain quite a bit of distance, both of us pushing through the discomfort as we traversed past the cliffs and into this dense forest, hoping to find a town or village to rest and ask about a silver-eyed warrior.
As we walked, I marveled at the intensity of the green, so bright and vivid it was unlike any forest in Nelfinex.
Now, the color was an assault to my eyes. It was as blinding as the noontime sun, and all I wanted was to find another cave where the darkness could block out this nauseating green.
Even when I squeezed my eyes shut, all I could see was green. All I could feel was pain. The cramping in my stomach was ten times worse than it had been in the cave. My skin was hot to the touch and every muscle sore. Breathing ached.
“I don’t think this is the ritus, Xandra,” I murmured. “What if something is wrong?”
“I don’t know,” Xandra whimpered.
“I’m sorry.” A sob escaped my lips, but it hurt too much to cry so I swallowed the next. “I never should have brought us here.”
We should be in Showe, in our palace, with our family.
“It is not your fault.” Xandra reached to take my hands in hers. “The ritus called to us both.”
“What if this is not the ritus?”
“It is. It has to be. We must endure it.” Her eyes fluttered closed, the tears still streaking down her face as she began to cry. “Caspia?”
“Yes?”
Her breath hitched. “I don’t want to die here.”
“Neither do I.” The pain was nearly unbearable as I wrapped my arms around her, holding her close as we both cried.
There was a reason it was forbidden to follow the swift to their migration lands. There was a reason no Starling came this far for the rite.
We were going to die here.
Never again would I return to my beloved homeland. Never again would I hear Graciella’s laugh. Never again would I cuddle with Hop and pet his fluffy tail.
And Xandra would not have the chance to find Cap on the Marixmore.
We would die in this green forest.
We would be lost to the Starling.
“At least we are together.”
“By the grace of the Divine.” Xandra opened her eyes and gave me a sad smile as she cupped my cheek with her palm.
“By the grace of the Divine.”
There was something wrong with her eyes. The gold hue was dull, and her irises had a milky-white sheen, like the flame within her was sputtering out. Like the life force in her blood was waning.
My fault.
If I’d never come on this journey, Xandra would be safe at home. She’d be in the mews this morning, stroking the soft feathers of the swift we were supposed to become.
Except there would be no shift. There would be no flying, not for us.
My tears blurred my vision. “I’m sorry.”
Xandra’s thumb stroked my cheek. “I’m not.”
I rested my forehead against hers, and together, we cried for the life we would not lead. Until blackness stole away the pain.
And erased the cursed green.
Xandra’s claps woke me from sleep.
My eyes fluttered open, and for a brief moment, I was home. Warm in my bed with the spicy scents of Showe drifting through the castle’s arched windows.
Except as I pushed up off the mossy earth and stared into the surrounding forest, the harsh reality came crashing back.
Home was across the world.
The noise came again, not Xandra’s claps, but a string of sharp and crisp notes, like the click of a tongue. The clicks were so loud that they bounced off the trees and sent a chill down my spine.
“Xandra,” I whispered, shaking her shoulder. “Wake up.”
She groaned, curling forward around her stomach.
“Xandra, hurry.” With the little strength I had, I stood, swaying on my feet. Then I bent to take her arm, jostling her until her eyes cracked open. I was too weak to haul her off the ground, but I managed a strong tug.
“W-what?” Her eyes fluttered open. They were milky white.
“Get up. Now.”
She glared at me, like she’d been lost to a dream of her own. Like I’d stolen her away from Cap’s bed on the Cirrina. But then the clicks came again, and she jolted fully awake. “What is that?”
“I don’t know. But we can’t stay here.” With a grip on her hand, I helped her to stand.
Neither of us had bothered to take off our packs when we collapsed earlier, so with her hand in mine, we set off through the forest, weaving around rocks and stepping over branches, as those clicks seemed to follow us on our path, getting closer and closer.
The air was sticky and damp. The thick moisture made every breath a chore, and sweat dripped down my brow and into my eyes. “We should hide.”
“Where?” Xandra panted. “There is nothing. Where are all the people?”
We were surrounded by trees, but their branches and trunks were too slippery to climb, not that either of us had the strength. Rocks and boulders were sprinkled through the trees, large enough to make stepping over them difficult. But they wouldn’t conceal our forms.
Maybe we could pry up heaps of moss to cover our bodies. Except as those clicks got louder and louder, I knew that whatever was following us would not be easily fooled.
The sound was so close it rattled my bones.
Xandra trembled, her eyes meeting mine. “Caspia?”
I pulled my kukri from where it was secured across my spine. Xandra took a dagger from a sheath on her thigh.
“Ready?”
She shook her head.
“Run.”
We tore off through the forest, stumbling as we ran side by side. Terror chased some of the haze from my mind as we pushed harder and faster.
If the clicks kept coming, they were drowned out by the roaring of my pulse and heavy, labored breaths. This forest was too thick for much speed. At our fastest, if something was chasing us, we would still be too slow.
Then, by the grace of the Divine, a narrow trail of brown interrupted the green. A road with twin wheel tracks cut through the trees.
So glad to see a clear path, I misplaced a step and tripped on a rock. My ankle rolled, my knee bent, and I flew forward, landing on the road, my face and belly sprawled on the dirt.
“Caspia.” Xandra rushed to my side, taking my arm.
“I’m okay.” Pain shot through my ankle, but I pushed it aside as I let her help me to my feet.
“Come on.” Xandra looped her arm through mine. “Maybe this road will take us somewhere safe.”
Every step was agony as I limped to hurry along, constantly checking over my shoulder. The clicks seemed to fade away as we clambered down the path, until the only sound was our ragged breaths.
“What do you think that was?” Xandra asked.
“I don’t know.” I slowed to a walk, pressing a hand to the cramp in my side.
“How is your ankle?”
It throbbed, and putting pressure on it sent a bolt of pain through my leg. “It’s fine.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
I sighed. “In the scheme of what hurts at the moment, the ankle is not on the top of my list.”
“Fair.” She planted her hands on her hips, tilting her face to the sky, looking past treetops and branches. The blue skies from this morning were being overtaken by gray clouds. “It’s going to rain again.”
“By the grace of the Divine, this road will lead to a town.” I wasn’t sure what kind of coin the people of this land would accept, but Emery’s elfalter rings were in my pocket. Even though I hated the idea of giving them away, if sparing one meant survival, then so be it.
I limped forward, and Xandra fell into step at my side, moaning as she wrapped her arms around her stomach. “I think I’m going to ret—”
Click. Click. Click.
We stopped, turning slowly as the sound came from somewhere in the trees.
“Vexx,” I whispered. We were fools to have stopped running. Fools to think we might survive.
Xandra drew a knife as a dark streak shot through the forest.
A four-legged beast leaped onto the road, its curved claws sinking into the earth. It stared at us with eyes as black as its hide.
“What is that?” A shudder ran over my shoulders as it took a step closer.