“You gotta make it through this, adelfos. If anyone has a chance of making the fucked-up system we live in better for our people, it would be you,” I said as I worked.
“I remember when you were just a kid, you were such a stubborn brat. I remember this one time, Erix and I were training with the Weapons Master, and you wanted to join us, too. The Weapons Master said you were too young, and you’d insisted you were old enough, so he handed you his sword belt and said that if you could get his sword out of the scabbard, he would let you train with us.
“You studied that thing for over an hour while we practiced, trying to lift it out of the scabbard over and over. It was taller than you were, and I think it weighed more as well. Then you got this look in your eye, like a light bulb had gone off somewhere. ‘Master,’ you’d said so excitedly. ‘I’ve got it.’ We all walked over to see you try again to lift the sword. Instead, you tipped the sword up on its hilt and pulled the leather scabbard away from the sword leaving the metal bare. ‘There! I have the sword out of the scabbard. Now may I train with Erix and Elex?’”
I chuckled at the memory.
“He was so surprised at your solution, he had to let you start training. He hadn’t said you had to lift the sword, although that was what he meant, he had only said you had to remove it from the scabbard. He didn’t really have any grounds to refuse you. By the letter of the law, you’d done what he’d asked.”
As the night deepened, V’s eyes remained closed, but at least his heart was beating strongly now, and I hadn’t had to do chest compressions in a while. Every now and again I would hold my power to see if he was breathing on his own again, but every time I had to restart my efforts to keep the air flowing. Thethought of losing him, too, was unbearable, and I refused to even entertain it.
The moon rose and was the only light in the clearing. I ended up laying on the ground next to Vlakas, covering us both with the thermal blanket, my arm wrapped around his shoulders. I lay with my head on his chest, the sound of his heart beating loud in my ears.
Truth be told, I don’t think I could have sat up if I wanted to at that point. I was exhausted from using my power for hours on end, especially having not eaten since the day before yesterday. It began to feel like white hot blades were running through my body from my brain to my hands and back. Finally I dropped the shield protecting us, too weak to keep breathing for Vlakas and keep the shield up.
“C’mon, V, you gotta breathe, bud,” I whispered. The night was cool, but not cold. The sounds of insects droned in the darkness. The stars had come out overhead, their light cold and distant. We hadn’t eaten for a while and the drain on my power making the hunger pangs worse. Using magic requires energy. The more magic you used, the more energy. I was running on empty.
The moon rose higher, and I struggled to keep my eyes open, the pain in my head so piercing that even that weak light was painful.
Staring into the darkness, I concentrated on moving the air in and out of V’s lungs, his chest rising and falling as I did so. Silence crept into the clearing, so slowly I didn’t realize it at first. It was so quiet that the sound of a twig snapping was like a gunshot. My head jerked up as I looked around.
The silver eyes of a creature stared back at me from the darkness, and I froze. I didn’t have enough power to shield us again, not without losing Vlakas.
I pulled my knife from my belt, scrambling to my feet as adrenaline gave me a burst of energy.
The creature froze, not moving. I couldn’t make out its form, just the reflection of the moonlight in its eyes but I knew it was the same person we had run into previously. No one else could have those eyes.
Knife in hand, I stood protectively in front of my brother, my body shaking with the effort. The creature didn’t move, just stayed where it was, staring unblinkingly from the darkness.
My head swam, the power drain greater than anything I had ever experienced. I had to keep this thing away from V.
“C’mon, asshole,” I snarled, forcing a show of bravado I didn’t really feel, hoping maybe I could scare it away. “I don’t have all night to kick your ass.”
Kick his ass? Ha. I could barely stand, much less hold the knife in my hand, but I hoped the darkness would hide my weakness, giving me the chance to bluff my way through the encounter.
I could have sworn I heard laughter as the beast moved forward out of the shadows, the moonlight slowly revealing it was no beast at all, but a man. A man with glowing, silver eyes. I’d never seen anyone with eyes like that. They were oddly beautiful, reflecting light like a cat’s eyes.
“Peace, little Mageia,” a deep voice growled. “I mean you no harm.”
I tried to take a step back at his approach, but stumbled and went down on one knee, barely managing to keep my knife hand up.
He moved into the moonlit clearing, but it was too dark to make out much of his features. His movements were inhumanly graceful. He was tall. Taller than me, taller than Vlakas even. He had long hair that draped across one side of his face.
“Who… you callin’…little, asshole?” I gasped defiantly, struggling to remain upright through the pain firing through my nerves as I forced V’s body to keep breathing.
He ignored my gibe and squatted on his heels, his shadowed gaze never leaving mine. He cocked his head at me in curiosity.
“Your friend is hurt?” he asked, his voice low and raspy.
I shrugged. It was rather obvious, so I didn’t answer.
“What happened?” he asked.
“Snake,” I bit out through clenched teeth, the burn of continuing to use my powers for hours sliced through my brain. Fuck, this hurt!
“Do you have the body?” he asked. It took me a minute to realize he meant the body of the snake. Maybe he was hungry? If I gave him the snake, maybe he’d leave V and I alone.
I nodded toward the tunnel entrance we had escaped from.
