Thirty Three
Alara
“Is there anything else we can do?” I ask Tofa as she looks through a satchel of healing items.
She shakes her head. “I don’t know, I did all I could.”
“I know,” I say softly, placing a hand on Rohan’s arm.
He’s so hot to the touch, his skin glistening with sweat.
He was practically dragged to the tent by Calian and Kaldar, his body weak, and we rushed him inside. He wouldn’t want anyone to see him like this.
We managed to get him onto the furs and I cleaned him up with the help of Adora and Tofa, leaving him bare apart from his underwear after washing the blood from his skin. His body is marred with cuts everywhere. We carefully cleaned them and put salve on but… the poison.
His breathing is erratic, his muscles tensing every now and then like he’s in pain. Even while he sleeps.
I look at the wound on his shoulder where the poisoned dagger pierced his flesh. It has spiderweb marks forming around it, a dark blue in color and they don’t seem to be disappearing. In fact, they seem to be spreading wider.
“I wish Asseya were here,” I say, throat tightening. “She would know what to do.”
“She would,” Tofa agrees. “I only know so much from her, we all do, but we aren’t healers.”
I nod, wringing out a cloth of cool water and placing it on Rohan’s forehead, worry an ever present feeling behind my rib cage.
“He will make it, won’t he?” I look at Tofa. “Halen wouldn’t kill the Dragonbonds without finishing The Games, would he?”
“I don’t think so.” She shakes her head. “But then, you never know with the king.”
I nod, blinking away tears.
They’ll do no good here.
“Okay, let’s think,” I say, determined to help any way I can. “What else can we do? Maybe we can ask—”
The flap of the tent is pulled open, and a woman and a man walk in, followed by Dorkin.
I stand, hands shaking a little as I walk around the bed and stand in front of Rohan protectively.
Alexandar smirks. “I’m not here to harm you, little elf, nor my brother,” he says, moving off to the side and taking a seat. “I’m on babysitting duty.”
“You are free to leave us be,” Niyah says, eyes never once looking away from my own.
“Like I can do that,” is his retort.
My eyes flick to Dorkin, and he nods. “Help is here. I’ll inform the others. Tofa, come.”
Tofa scowls at them, and I grip her hand. “I’m okay.”
She hesitates for a moment before nodding and leaving with Dorkin without a word.
My shoulders slump a little in relief, but I eye Alexandar warily.
“He won’t harm you,” Niyah says, coming closer and stopping two feet from me. “He wouldn’t dare.”
Alexandar scoffs, but we ignore him.
She’s taller than I thought she was, standing this close, still shorter than the men, though not by much. The familiarity is there all the same, however.
Her lips part. “It’s really—”
A groan cuts her off, and her eyes go to Rohan behind me. “We’ll talk after.”
I move aside to let her pass.
She kneels before Rohan and I stand to the side, watching apprehensively.
“You got my message?” I ask.
“I did.”
She looks at the wound on his shoulder before scanning her surroundings. “I need a small pot to grind in, and bandages. I also need some water.” She looks at me. “Boiling.”
I nod, going over to the fire and placing a pot on the hook hanging above it, grabbing a jug of water and filling it.
I return to Niyah as she’s handed a pot and a wide stick, the end flat.
She reaches for her belt full of little satchels and grabs an assortment of greenery from within. Placing them into the pot, she grinds them with the stick, not stopping until they’re a fine powder.
She moves to the fire, and when the water starts to bubble, she pours the mixture in.
Staring at it, her brows furrowed, she waits until it’s dissolved before bringing out a vial with something white inside. She pours some of the thick liquid in then stirs it some more, Alexandar’s eyes never leaving her.
“Can I have a bandage?” Niyah asks.
I bring them over to her and she grabs them, taking a knife and cutting them into smaller strips before placing them in the pot. Once they’re submerged, she takes a leather glove from her pocket, then grabs the hot handle of the pot before moving back over to the bed.
I follow, watching everything she’s doing with a confidence I could only hope to have someday. She reaches into the largest satchel on her hip and pulls out a small set of metal tongs, much like a blacksmith uses, but on a smaller scale.
She moves back over to the fire, quickly heating them before returning to the bed.
“The heat sterilizes the tongs to make them clean,” she tells me softly, before reaching into the hot pot and lifting out a milky strip.
She quickly moves the dripping material over Rohan, and then places it over the poisoned wound. He jerks a little, the tendons in his neck prominent, but otherwise doesn’t make a sound.
“Where is your healer?” Niyah asks, her brows furrowed in concentration.
I have to swallow over the lump in my throat to get the words out.
“She was killed.”
A pause. “I see.”
The air is tense while she continues, no one speaking a word as Alexandar and I watch her work under the firelight.
When I asked Dorkin to go to her, to ask if she knew how to help, I didn’t expect her to come, never mind expecting her to know what to do. But the relief has my shoulders loosening a little as she puts the last strip on Rohan.
“Widowbreak is a nasty poison,” she begins, turning to me as she sits back on her heels.
“It hurts, and it can last days. Some do die from it, though rare,” she rushes out when a distressed noise escapes me.
“But he is strong, he’ll be fine by tomorrow.
His body was already fighting it, I just helped it. ”
I nod in relief, my legs unable to hold me up any longer as I move to the other side of Rohan and sit.
“Can we hurry up?” Alexandar drawls from his place on the floor, gloved hand resting on one bent knee.
“You are free to leave,” Niyah replies.
“Unlucky for you, Princess, you’re not allowed here on your own.”
“I will kill you,” she snarls.
“So you’ve said.”
“I hate you.”
“You tell me daily, Princess, it’s like music to my ears. Now, hurry this along.”
“I’ll be as long as I need,” she retorts.
“Don’t make me force you back,” Alexandar says, a dark edge to his tone, and the room shifts, tension rising. “You won’t like it.”
Niyah grits her teeth. “Give us privacy.”
He scoffs. “I don’t think so.”
“Fuck, Alex, just five minutes!”
Her eyes widen at that for some reason, the same as his, and they stare at each other. Then after a moment, he stands, righting his fine tunic.
“Three minutes.”
He leaves the tent, and Niyah breathes out a sigh of relief, her eyes coming back to me.
I open my mouth to say something, but nothing comes, so I quickly shut it, rubbing my hands together.
“You know me, don’t you?” she says softly, and I hesitate. “Don’t you?” She repeats, almost sounding nervous.
“I… I think so,” I say gently, my eyes scanning her face once more. Then her hair, her ears. The point is so much like my own.
So familiar… so… real.
She blows out a breath before coming around to me, kneeling, moving her very long hair over her shoulder.
After a moment, she reaches out and grabs my hand, looking down at it.
“I’ve been looking for you for many years,” she begins, and I suck in a sharp breath. “I thought… I thought you were dead.”
My nose stings at her words, at the grief in her tone. She raises her head, eyes so much like mine shining with unshed tears.
Her free hand raises, trembling as she cups my cheek, and then leans her forehead to mine.
A memory flashes in my mind.
“Hurry! We have to be quick,” Niyah says.
“Where are we going? I’m scared!”
“No matter what, you must not say our name, understand? No one can know.”
“I don’t want to go. Don’t leave me!” I beg her.
“Quickly, now.” She places her hands on my cheeks, tears dripping down our faces as eyes like mine beg me to understand. “I will find you again, dear sister, I promise. It’s just for now.”
“I don’t want to be on my own!” Hands grab me, and I hold on to my sister’s hand for as long as possible through the doorway. “Come with me.”
“I can’t.”
“Are you… are you my sister?” I choke out, blinking rapidly.
“Sister,” she breathes, nodding as a tear trails down her face. “After all these years, I’ve finally found you.”
Years of yearning to see her again, years of thinking I never would, has me launching myself at her, feeling like a young girl again as I crash into her arms and she holds me tightly, tears pouring freely now.
“I… I...” I can’t get the words out, I can’t tell her what I’m feeling and she seems to recognize that as she gently pulls back, wiping the tears from my face.
“I know, I know,” she says, nodding. “Tell me everything. Tell me how I lost you.”
I look over at Rohan, to his sleeping form and I grab his hand, a little cooler now than before. I settle with my back to him while I tell her what’s happened since the moment she let go of my hand that fateful night.
“I didn’t know,” Niyah says, stroking my hair, jaw tense, guilt in her eyes.
“You were to be hidden and protected until I could come for you days later. When I arrived at the cabin in Heartlay Woods, it was ransacked.” She swallows roughly.
“There was no sign of you, or Adly, the man who was to take care of you. There was only blood and broken furniture.”
I release a harsh breath. “You were coming for me?”