Chapter Twenty-Three Furi
Chapter Twenty-Three
Furi
‘Put me down, Yeeran,’ Furi whispered. She tried to put strength into her voice, but it still came out a wisp.
Yeeran only gripped her harder. ‘I’ll put you down when we get into the woodland.’
Furi let her head loll back with a sigh.
Yeeran was being insufferable. It had been three weeks since she had taken the cure and still Yeeran refused to allow Amnan to carry her.
‘In case you fall from his back,’ she said, and so Yeeran had cradled Furi against her chest all the way through the city.
‘We’re nearly there, can you see the top of the palace spire?’
Furi didn’t reward Yeeran’s patronising tone with an answer. She may be being carried like a babe, but a child she was not.
They entered the woodland and Furi breathed in the scent of the sweet magnolia blossoms. It masked the smell of the knellsheen mushrooms that Rayan had grown all over the city to kill the locusts.
Their spores left a tangy coating on her tongue and she was glad to be rid of it temporarily.
She looked up to the bough above, the blushing flowers a beautiful sight to behold.
‘The flowers have bloomed since I was gone,’ she said.
‘Yes,’ Yeeran said, her voice strangely neutral.
It was then that Furi dropped her gaze.
She choked on her breath.
Nearly all of the Royal Woodland was gone.
The locusts had stripped most of the trees of their leaves. Ferns, shrubs, grasses, had all been eaten to the root. Yeeran noticed the look on her face.
‘Rayan has prioritised the fields; he spends every day out there healing as much of the land as he can.’
‘Put me down, Yeeran.’ She fortified her voice with as much command as possible.
Yeeran hesitated only briefly before setting Furi down.
As soon as her feet touched the soil, she sank to the ground–a controlled fall. Her legs still wouldn’t do what she told them to. But for what she had in mind, she didn’t need them.
Her fingers slipped between the roots and earth, deeper and deeper until she could feel the ghost of the curse beneath her fingertips. Then she urged Mosima to grow.
Shoots began to burst from the soil around her, the sight of it leaving her giddy.
More, she thought, and green began to fill her vision.
I have this, I have my strength.
Careful, Furi, Amnan said, from a short way away where he was foraging with Pila. This is draining what little vigour you have.
I feel fine, she said, even as his voice began to fade. More, she urged the land.
Thump, thump, thump. The sound of her blood filled her ears as her vision began to blacken.
Strange, my heart is pumping so slowly…
‘Furi!’ Something hard knocked into her and she fell sideways, hitting her head hard against the magnolia trunk. She lay dazed, looking up at the sparse magnolia flowers.
Yeeran’s face filled her vision, because of course it had been Yeeran who had saved her once again.
‘Why are you scowling? I just stopped you from draining yourself completely,’ she said.
‘I wasn’t going to die.’
‘You were turning blue,’ Yeeran said. She looked haunted, as though recalling a memory.
The ground vibrated against her skin with the distinctive beat of an obeah’s footfalls.
Amnan came thundering into the woodland, his eyes wide with panic. Pila followed in his shadow.
You began to disappear from my mind, he said as he nuzzled into her hand.
‘I’m all right.’ She soothed him as he whined quietly.
Yeeran sat down next to her. ‘You went too far, Furi. You need to give yourself time to heal.’
‘We don’t have time, our food stores will only last so long.’
‘Rayan will do it, he has to be enough.’
There was no blame in Yeeran’s tone, but Furi felt ashamed that she wasn’t able to help him in her weakened state.
Satisfied Furi was all right, Amnan and Pila both sauntered away, leaving Yeeran and Furi sitting content on the ground. Furi didn’t want to admit that she wasn’t able to get up by herself, but Yeeran must have sensed she needed the rest.
‘Will I ever fully recover?’ she asked.
‘Lots of people recover their health entirely.’
She tangled her fingers with Yeeran’s. ‘That’s not what I asked.’
‘I’m not a medic. You should ask Jay.’
‘I’m not asking Jay. I’m asking you. You and Rayan are the only two people in Mosima with any real experience of this disease.’
‘I…’ Yeeran turned to her side to face Furi. ‘I don’t know. You took the cure so late, a lot of damage had already been done.’
Furi looked away before Yeeran could see the tears burning in her eyes.
‘Is this what it was like with Lettle? And don’t lie to me.’
‘No, you suffered much worse than she did.’
‘And she lost nearly all the movement in her left arm, right?’
‘Right.’
‘So it’s unlikely I will walk again.’
‘No, I don’t think that’s a reasonable conclusion,’ Yeeran implored.
Furi scoffed. ‘It’s an entirely reasonable conclusion.’
‘You are not paralysed, Furi, only weak. There may be some muscles that do not fully recover, but it is likely you will walk again.’
‘How do you know that?’ She had finally found her voice in anger.
Yeeran sat up and leaned over her legs. She massaged her hands up from Furi’s ankles. ‘Can you feel that?’
‘Yes.’
‘And further up here, can you feel that?’
Yeeran’s hands travelled up from her calf to the top of her thighs.
‘And here?’ Yeeran’s fingers lay dangerously close to her waistband.
‘Yes,’ she said, her voice a rasp again, and it had nothing to do with weakness this time.
‘I don’t think there’ll be lasting damage. But I do think we should start some gentle exercises, build your strength again.’
Furi caught Yeeran’s hand before she could pull it away. ‘Exercises?’
It took a moment for Yeeran to understand her meaning. ‘Furi, no.’
Furi gave Yeeran a wicked grin and placed Yeeran’s hand beneath the seams of her undergarments. ‘I think there’s one place you didn’t check for feeling.’
Yeeran gasped as Furi guided her fingers down into the warm core of her.
The elf shook her head as though she was battling with her own conscience. ‘You’re still recovering, Furi. You can’t even stand.’
‘I need this, Yeeran. I need you.’
Yeeran’s face was flushed but she still hesitated.
‘Make me feel alive, Yeeran. Please.’
Then Yeeran’s fingers were moving, slick with Furi’s desire. She arched into Yeeran’s hand as the other pressed down on her lower stomach. And as Furi’s tempest began to build, Yeeran’s thumb moved to circle the knot of nerves beneath her curling hair.
When she was on the crest of ecstasy Furi said, ‘Tell me you love me.’
‘I love you.’ Those three words were the catalyst for oblivion. Furi trembled around Yeeran’s hand, as she continued to whisper, ‘I love you, Furi. I love you, queen of my heart.’
Furi lay back, well and truly spent. But alive.
She turned to Yeeran. ‘Allow me to reciprocate.’
Yeeran shook her head, moving away from Furi’s reach. ‘No, not today. You’re too fragile.’
‘But—’
‘No.’ Yeeran was firm, and Furi could tell she would not change her mind.
‘Well…I could at least watch?’
Yeeran’s gaze turned molten and Furi felt an aftershock shudder through her. But then Yeeran shook her head.
‘No. We were lucky no one walked past, we’re not exactly in the most private of places.’
‘Pah! You elves and your prudish ways. No one would care.’ But she let Yeeran help her up. When she tried to walk unaided, she stumbled. Yeeran caught her and picked her up.
Then she whispered, her voice hot against Furi’s ear, ‘I tell you what, when you’ve done three weeks of training, I’ll let you do whatever you want with me, wherever you want.’
If Furi had had the strength she would have pushed Yeeran against the tree and made her regret ever saying no.
‘I knew you were a good negotiator when I made you ambassador,’ she said with a chuckle.
Yeeran went quiet and Furi felt foolish for bringing up the war.
‘I’m sorry,’ Yeeran said after a time. ‘I’m sorry for failing you.’
Furi slipped from Yeeran’s arms and grasped her chin. ‘Look at me,’ and when Yeeran did, she said, ‘You didn’t fail, Malak betrayed us.’
Yeeran rubbed her brow. ‘I don’t know how I fell for his ruse. I genuinely believed he wanted peace.’
‘If there is one thing I’ve learned as queen, it’s that everyone has their own agenda,’ Furi said.
Yeeran was looking at her with wide eyes.
‘My words weren’t that profound,’ Furi said.
‘Look down.’
Furi did, and slowly it dawned on her. ‘I’m standing.’
‘You’re standing on your own.’ Yeeran all but bounced with delight. ‘I knew you’d walk again.’
‘It’s not exactly walking,’ she said, but she couldn’t help the smile that spread across her face.
‘I think I know what cured me,’ Furi said, and she brought Yeeran’s fingers up to her lips and kissed them.
It would have been more romantic if she hadn’t then tumbled sideways.
‘Furi!’
‘I’m fine, just a mouth full of dirt. I guess we know my limits now.’ She sat up and realised where she was. Daisies surrounded her.
‘Of all the things the locusts ate, they left behind every flower that grew up from Motogo’s grave.’
Yeeran lifted her up from the daisies. ‘An unwelcome reminder, to be sure.’
Furi’s gaze lingered on the white petals. ‘I don’t regret it, you know.’
‘I know,’ Yeeran said.
‘I’d do it again.’
‘I know that too.’
They made their way past the Tree of Souls, whose magical leaves had remained untouched from the locusts.
‘The Jani dynasty endures still,’ she whispered.
Yeeran held her tighter.
‘You don’t just endure, Furi, you thrive.’
With her legs dangling lamely over Yeeran’s grip, Furi didn’t exactly feel like she was thriving.
She patted the baobab tree as they passed and felt the thrumming of its life within the bark.
‘Do you remember when I said that it’s murder that binds our love?’ Furi asked.
‘ “No matter how hard we try, all we do is murder the people we love,” ‘Yeeran recited, as though she had repeated the phrase in her mind daily.