“Zevat.”Her whisper blended with Raiden’s as the wound was revealed.
The infection seeped from his side, angry streaks outlining the injury.She’d cleaned and stitched it the best she could on the journey, afraid he’d bleed out if she waited.
Raiden hissed and jerked when she touched the inflamed skin.
Her mind raced through her stock of herbs, sorting out what she had immediately available to help him.Infections could quickly turn deadly if not treated properly.
Labored breathing pulled her attention up just in time see him slump back on the bed, the need for healing sucking him into unconsciousness.
Chapter 4
Ashadowyfigureloomedover 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.
BrightsunlightmadeRaiden’seyes 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.
Heattrickleddownhisskin 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?
