Chapter Eleven
Once we arrived at the abandoned stable behind the tavern, I dropped the connection with the shadows as though I’d touched something hot. Immediately, my wing resumed bleeding, the thick red liquid streaming down the length of my body.
The pain radiating from my wing was sharp and prominent, but I pushed it aside in favor of helping Ezra.
He and Rayven appeared a moment later, the spy laying the male down on a bed of hay in the corner, under a part of the roof that hadn’t collapsed yet.
While Rayven settled an unconscious Ezra onto the hay, I headed for the corner that we’d left our bags in, partially hidden under some hay.
Except Matea had beat me there, and our bag’s contents had been ravaged.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I heard my sister say as I rushed over.
“What happened?” I asked as I watched her crouch down.
“Must have been looters that came through.” She rummaged through what was left. “They took nearly everything…”
“Not the kits Chess gave us, right? Please say it isn’t so,” I begged the Stars as I kneeled next to Matea.
She checked her bag and shook her head, indicating there was no trokav kit in it, nor anything else of use. She reached for Rayven’s bag next, while I grabbed my own.
“Nothing in this one either,” she said, throwing the second empty bag to the ground.
“Please,” I whispered to the Stars before peering into the last of our three bags.
And to my relief, a small wooden box sat at the bottom, the image of a vial carved into the top.
“I got one!” I spoke loud, excitement edging in my voice.
I pulled out the only trokav kit we had left, then looked up at Matea.
Instead of being relieved, though, she looked beyond worried, her brow crumpled with concern.
“We only have one, but two of us are harmed…” she trailed off as she glanced towards my wrecked wing.
“Every bit of this is going towards Ezra. Do not try to convince me otherwise,” I nearly demanded before standing and heading over to the corner the two males were residing in.
Rayven had propped Ezra’s head up slightly, though I didn’t understand why until I drew closer and heard the ragged, heavy way he was breathing—as if his airway was partially obstructed.
Likely internal bleeding, I thought. Not a good sign.
It wasn’t until I was that close that I noticed just how badly Ezra was hurt.
There were places on his bare chest where you could see his ribs had been cracked and were slightly displaced, but you could only notice that if you looked past the extensive level of burns and cuts and bruises littering his skin from head to toe.
It looked as though he used to have a shirt, but now pieces of it were charred to his skin, the rest likely ash underfoot somewhere at that point.
Even his white streak of hair was filthy, like the rest of him, coated in blood.
I almost looked away as fresh tears threatened to escape.
“Aviva, we can’t stay. We need to keep moving,” Rayven said, and although it seemed like an uncaring request, I knew he was doing his best to keep all of us safe.
Before I could respond, Matea was at my side. “How heartless of a friend can you be, Drayven?” she asked harshly.
“Matea,” I scolded.
“I mean, Ezra obviously needs time to heal! Plus, Aviva is wounded, too. Did you even notice that part, master wielder?” Matea mocked.
“Matea!” I glared at her. “Go get me some water so I can get to work on Ezra.”
“I’m not leaving you—”
“Now, Matea,” I said sternly, then added softly, “Please.”
Matea’s mood shifted, likely realizing her stress and concern were showing itself in a negative light. Huffing, she snatched up an empty bucket from nearby and headed out of the stable.
Sighing, I turned my attention back to the males in our group. “Sorry about her. I don’t think she’s used to dealing with her emotions like this,” I said to Rayven.
“It’s alright, we all have to learn at some point.”
“What is it with you two and your endless bickering, anyway?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. I don’t think she does, either. I just know she gets under my skin like nobody else ever has,” he explained, then sighed.
“Well, try to keep it together, please. For mine and Ezra’s sake.”
Rayven agreed, and I began inspecting the extent of Ezra’s wounds.
And Stars, were they bad.
The burns were all at least a second degree, and the bruises were varying shades of purple and blue across his creamy skin. His skin had split in multiple places, likely on impact, but I couldn’t bring myself to think any further on how this had all come to be.
Soon enough, Matea returned with a bucket of cool water. Taking a small cloth from the trokav kit, I got to work cleaning Ezra’s wounds.
“Could you hand me a cloth, too, Drayven?” Matea asked. Her tone sounded calmer now, which I appreciated.
“I need pretty much all of them, Matea,” I warned.
“I’m going to clean your wound, little sister,” she said, and I could tell this was a hill she was willing to die on.
Sighing, I knew my wing needed it, so I nodded slightly to Rayven, who then handed a cloth to Matea.
“Only one,” I said firmly.
With that, we set to work cleaning wounds. I even assigned Rayven to sit on Ezra’s other side and clean what he could over there, just to make things go by a little faster.
I did my best not to flinch each time Matea’s cloth touched my wing, but the pain was doing its best to bubble up out of that deep spot I’d pushed it down into. But if it escaped, so would my complicated emotions, and we simply didn’t have time for me to process all of that.
So I pushed it all down further and got to work.
Rayven didn’t have any formal trokav training, but I soon learned that Matea knew a thing or two.
I knew she was a plant wielder, but apparently, Billie—our shared grandmother—had trained as a trokav for a while, and taught Matea what she knew.
I’d spent enough time with Hugo growing up whenever I was bored—which was often—that I knew the basics, too.
After she’d finished tearing small strips of her cloak to wrap my wing with, she insisted on helping me with Ezra. We fell into a rhythm of sprouting small herbs, using things from the kit Chess had given me, and doing our best to apply our combined knowledge to the unconscious male before us.
We ebbed and flowed well together, and soon enough, we’d done all we could for Ezra.
I still wished I could’ve done more.
Now, Ezra had varying bandages and wraps made from strips of our clothing tied around him and his wounds. By morning, he should be alright enough to discard some of the wraps.
“I’ll keep watch,” Rayven offered. Before I could object, he added, “Please. I won’t be able to sleep, anyway.”
I watched as his gaze slid over to his friend’s unconscious form, and I understood. I was worried about Ezra, too.
He may heal physically, but how was he besides that?
Only time would tell.
“Alright,” I said, nodding. “Thank you.”
It didn’t take long after that for Matea and me to find a dry section of the stable and a bed of hay. We curled up next to each other, and with the wing that she didn’t wrap, I covered her shivering form. It was obvious she wasn’t accustomed to the weather here in the mountains.
“Thanks,” she mumbled, and soon afterwards her breathing leveled out in a way where I knew she’d fallen asleep.
I laid on my back for moments afterwards, staring up towards the Stars through a crack in the roof above.
Please get us home safely, I wished to them before I allowed sleep to overpower me.
***
Heavy breathing and a horrified yell woke me while the sky was still dark with night.
Drawing in my wing that had been draped over Matea, I quickly sat up, my eyes adjusting faster than I could process what I was seeing.
Rayven was whispering something to Ezra softly, obviously trying to keep him calm, but Ezra was outright panicking. Sweat slicked his skin and stuck his hair to his forehead, and he had begun to hyperventilate.
“How did I get here? How did I get out?” Ezra asked Rayven, frantically looking around. As I got up and slowly moved to Rayven’s side, I watched as Ezra flinched at the sight of me.
I must’ve looked so much like Dimitri to him.
“Ezra,” I said gently, kneeling next to him. “Breathe. Part of our mission was to search for you, and once we found you, we couldn’t leave you behind. You’re safe now.”
“No, I feel the chill in the air. We aren’t safe anywhere near them.” He shook his head. “How do I know this is real? That I won’t wake up and be back… there?” he whispered, his eyes boring into mine now, searching for answers he wasn’t sure he’d find.
“Listen,” I told him. “You can hear the crickets out in the tall grasses nearby, and the wind shifting through the roof of this stable.”
I drew a small amount of water from the bucket we’d used hours before to clean him and froze it into a small sphere.
“Hold this, and focus on the cold while you listen. It’ll help ground you.” I held the ice out to him, moving slowly so as not to spook him.
He stared at the ice for a moment before letting me drop it into his hands, our skin not making contact even briefly.
Taking my advice, he held the ice tightly and tilted his head to hear the wind better.
“Also, if you look through the holes in the roof, you can see the Stars twinkling. I bet they’re welcoming you back to their presence,.” I said, looking up. He followed my gaze.
“You can also smell the hay all around us, if that helps, too,” I suggested.
He looked around then, his eyes clearer than they had been before, and his breathing beginning to steady before it could get too bad.
Then, he saw Matea. His eyes widened, but before he could panic again, Rayven and I both tried to explain.
Our sentences ran together, and Ezra looked back and forth between us wildly.
Finally, I pinched Rayven just hard enough for him to gasp. In the break between his words, I quickly jumped in to explain.
“You’ve missed a lot, but you can trust her, I promise,” I reassured him. “She helped get you out.”
At that, his gaze softened. He looked up again at the Stars, then met my gaze.
“How long has it been?” he asked.
“Over a month, brother,” Rayven said, guilt lingering at the edges of his gruff voice.
“I… I’ve really made it out?” Ezra asked after a beat of silence, tears welling in his eyes as he stared into my mismatched ones for confirmation.
“Yes, Ezra. We’ve got you now,” I responded softly.
Finally accepting this reality, the tears spilled over onto Ezra’s cheeks and his chest was wracked with quiet sobs.
Unexpectedly, he looped an arm each around Rayven and me, pulling us both into a fierce hug. Tears brimmed my own eyes, and even in Rayven’s as we hugged our friend back, gently so as not to disturb his wrappings, but solidly enough so he knew we were there.
“Thank you,” he said between sobs. “Thank you for not forgetting me. For coming for me.”
“I’m so sorry it took us this long,” I responded remorsefully.
“Me too,” Rayven added.
Ezra let go and looked at us both as he replied, “I’m just happy you came.”
He looked past us then, toward Matea. “Thank you, too,” he said to her.
She dipped her head respectfully, then added, “Any friend of Aviva’s is a friend of mine.”
Rayven shot me a skeptical look that almost made me laugh, but then I heard a twig snap outside, and the laugh died in my throat.
“Since I doubt any of us are going back to sleep, why don’t we get going? We have a long trek back home,” I suggested.
“Home,” Ezra murmured, and I could tell by the look of love in his eyes he was talking about more than Cairnyl.
He must think of Quinn the same way I think of Byn.
As home.
“Good idea,” Matea said, and Rayven nodded.
Considering we no longer had any bags to pack and take with us, we simply covered any sign that we had been there before stepping foot outside.
Ezra, to my surprise, could walk better than I’d expected. Yet, I was drained, and I hadn’t slept enough to recharge my energy.
With that factored in, we began our journey back to the South under the blanket of the night sky, every step we took bringing us closer and closer to our destination.
Home.