Chapter 4
A shadowy figure loomed over a desk in a candlelit room. Outside, lightning broke the sky, sending bold flashes to light up the space. Thunder rolled, filling the space with an ominous sensation.
“What’s this?” Raiden leaned over the figure to get a glimpse of the parchment.
Symbols and letters filled the page, written in dark ink. The sight sent a chill through him, a pulse of nerves racing down his spine.
“Nothing for you to worry about,” a feminine voice said, folding up the letter and stamping it with a wax seal.
A mix of reassurance and fear swirled inside him. He believed her, yet a haunting sense of something being off struck him.
Grabbing the sealed letter off the desk, he stared at the familiar handwriting. The ink swirled and moved when he tried to focus on the letters, remaining uninterpretable.
The longer he tried to read it, the more his head hurt. Fear pulsed into him with the steady sound of a heartbeat.
Bright sunlight made Raiden’s eyes water as he walked through a field of velentha trees. The harvest was close, evident by the thick rivers of sparkling amber nectar that shimmered between the twining branches.
The delighted giggle of a child reached him, the effervescent sound winding through the field.
Where was she hiding? A flash of white streaked through his peripheral vision, and he spun in that direction.
Low, dense underbrush in bright purple, red, and green moved as if something small ran through it.
The haunting laughter continued to bounce between the trees, joined by the robust whinny of a horse.
“Come on, you two! We need to go.”
Urgency built in his stomach. He needed to get them away before something bad happened. The heat of the jungle rose, sweat beading on his forehead and dripping into his eyes, further blurring his vision.
A familiar equine huff made him turn. A huge warhorse stood protectively over a wisp of a child. Her tiny hand stroked the gray muzzle as she peered up at him from beneath the shelter of the horse’s neck.
“What about the others? Will you save them too?”
“What others?” he asked.
“All of us.”
Before he could respond, another young voice wove through the trees, seeming to wrap around his heart with a strong grip. “You promised.”
He spun, looking for her, the mounting sense of wrongness growing rapidly.
An older girl stepped through the trees on the opposite side of the clearing. “Help us, please.”
Tousled gold hair blew across her face in the wind, masking all but her deep brown eyes. She held out a necklace with rough-looking stone pendant. The black stone sparkled as it swayed in the wind.
“You promised.”
Shimmers of color glinted through the trees beyond her small frame. The horse lifted his head and gave a violent war cry. Enemies.
Spinning around, he saw looming shadows approaching. Reaching for his sword to defend them produced only a single sheaf of parchment, emblazoned with symbols that began to glow as he stared at them.
Heat trickled down his skin in rivulets and pressed into him. Laboring through the humidity, he fought to push up into a sitting position. He succeeded partially, slouching against the wall.
The heat didn’t feel right. He hadn’t been in wild jungles of Zamyra. No, he’d been in Eldridge... was always in Eldridge. So why was the heat sucking out his soul?
“Raiden, you shouldn’t be up.” Daya knelt hastily on the bed.
His brows dipped in confusion. Raiden. He was Raiden. She was his saving anaiah. He remembered her but not why he was with her. “I’m fine.”
“You’ve been feverish and comatose. Stay still a moment, let me check your wounds. The one on your stomach is badly infected.”
He flinched as icy hands grazed into his skin and began to shake from the chill. Air stung as his bandages were removed. Glass clinked as she pulled out jars of healing remedies, opening one.
The familiar scent of medicinal herbs hit him.
Auburn hair glinted in the sun as the teenage girl pulled him to the side of the training field. She plunked a turquoise bottle with a familiar scrawling label in his hand. “For the cut on your arm. You thought I didn’t notice you were favoring your left? Put this on it for a week.”
Surprise and guilt whispered through him. She took on so much as it was. Even though she was younger than him, the mantle of family responsibility had landed solely on her delicate shoulders.
“I didn’t want to bother you.”
Stressed eyes that matched the hue of the glass softened as she smiled. “Worrying about you is worse. I’ll always help you. But work on your blocking, I’d rather not have to reattach your arm next time. We already have one reckless person in the family, and it’s not you.”
“Is that… ontheara cream?” he asked.
“You’ve used it?”
“Yes.”
“I’m putting it on all your wounds, not just the infected one. Not taking any chances.”
Daya’s fingers ran over his arm and shoulder wounds, rubbing the healing salve into them. The sting startled him, and he fought to keep from jerking away from her hold. She moved onto the smaller surface wound at his chest, which was older and didn’t sting at all from contact.
His lungs struggled to maintain a rhythm as the pain in his arm intensified.
“Can’t breathe,” he gasped. “Burns like poison.”
Her hand stilled. “You’ve been poisoned before?”
It was on the tip of his tongue to confirm that he had, but he couldn’t come up with details as the pain cloaked his mind. “Think so.”
“It’s slow acting, if it is poison. You were fine while we traveled. What poison has a delay like that?”
“Mavish root.”
His mind flashed with the blue Zamyran plant that was sometimes used to coat blade tips. The words took all the effort he had left, and he collapsed, sinking onto the bed. Blade, not arrow. That seemed significant, but the thought dissolved.
Worsening chills wracked his body. He’d been injured many times, but this fiery pain combined with fever was unique. His body remembered even if his mind struggled.
Taking a big scoop of the healing cream, Daya’s hand hovered over the large wound on his side, the other braced on along the border of the infected skin.
“Deep breaths, Raiden. Breathe the pain out.”
It took a second for the herbs to make contact with the infection, but when they did, lightning struck the wound.
Bright, hot jolts ran through his side and into his body, searing his insides as they went.
The healing essence entered his bloodstream and traced through his veins, seeking out and battling the poison.
He lurched forward when the need to move overwhelmed him, refusing to give in to the desire to pull away. Daya’s hand stroked over his uninjured neck and shoulder.
“You’re okay. Just breathe with me, Raiden.”
Giving in, he fell toward her, his head falling on her shoulder. She was stronger than he was right now, would keep them safe until he could help her. The thought soothed his soul even as his body broke and shook.
Daya, he repeated her name over and over, his talisman.
“I’m not going to let you die, Raiden.”
Tipping his head up to catch her gaze, he found a comforting ferocity emanating from her. “I believe you, anaiah.”
Licking his cracked lips, he quit fighting to stay awake, trusting her with his life, again. He held her eyes as he sank toward unconsciousness, rich brown of the earth touched with a hint of mystic gold, making her seem more spirit than woman.
A rainbow of colors glowed around him, the soft hues shimmering in his peripheral vision as he moved.
A few massive trees circled the clearing protectively, their tall, broad bows covered with iridescent leaves.
The larger tree had an unusual trunk. Split near the base, distinct pieces of the trunk rose separately to twine in a huge central knot before continuing up to form the remainder of the trunk.
The two lines of the trunk melded toward the top of the tree, sprouting a myriad of branches covered in blue and green leaves.
Drawn forward, he pressed his hand to the knot of the tree. A burning spark flicked to life inside him, a wave of intense power and anticipation filling him.
“Raiden.”
The deep, resonant whisper of his name on the breeze startled him, and he yanked his hand away, breaking the connection and winking out the flame.
He looked back to study the knot, but a gleam of gold caught his attention.
Walking past the tree, he continued through the meadow of light to greet Daya.
Golden light shimmered, rising from flowing fabric that caressed her skin as she moved.
The flora glowed brighter where she stepped, sparkling as it kissed her own light.
Drawing her to him, he trailed his fingers down her face. His huntress had a hint of sorrow in the downward pull of her lips and the tip of her eyes.
He kissed the corner of her mouth in a featherlight caress. “What’s wrong, anaiah?”
“I have to go.”
“Says who?”
The shadows in her eyes deepened before she turned her face away, hiding her pain from him. He clasped her hand tightly at the harsh, unspoken truth. The surrounding light dimmed as the mist of dawn began to rise, obscuring the magical glow.
“I’m sorry, Raiden. I must go alone.”
Letting go of his hand, Daya began to fade from view. The distance between them grew as she disappeared into the mist of the mountain.
“No!” Raiden thrashed as he came to, kicking at the blanket tangling his legs. “Don’t go.”
Red feathers beat at him with a screech as Ember snapped her beak at him. She landed on the bed in front of him, wings spread in an aggressive fashion until he quit thrashing.
“Daya!”
Ember moved over for her mistress, stepping onto his legs in an effective threat to still his movement. He struggled to sit upright as Daya came to him. Dark brown hair and glittering armor filled his vision as she pushed him back down.
Grabbing her rough arm guard, he held onto her tightly.
“Don’t do it. Don’t go. Fight with me.”