Worry bled through him, the concern that no matter what they did, they’d die.If the prince didn’t have a tantrum and kill them, the volcano or a quake would do them in.The low-level ache at his temples grew worse as the cycle progressed.
They each finished their grid and started on another one.The gnawing ache at Ransom’s temples pushed and ground at his nerve endings until he thought he might vomit again from the pain.As he dragged his tortured body up an incline, his vision went in and out and sweat beaded his brow.With a groan, he heaved himself down the other side and stopped to search around the base of a head.He stared at the statue, finding it difficult to focus.He blinked several times to clear his vision.Phrull, even that hurt.
He doubled over, holding his weight on his knees.His legs trembled, and he fell hard on his knees.
“Ransom!”
He swallowed and turned his head toward her, a sense of dread pressing down on him.
Talon reached him first.The Trolleris let out a startled hiss.
“Have you found it?”
Ransom’s head hurt so much that he was having trouble forming thoughts.
“Didn’t the prince say there was a statue with a pointy hat on top of the entrance stone?”Scarlett pressed her fingers against her temple.“My head has started aching.”
Talon growled and held a paw to his furry head.He hummed.
“You too?”Scarlett asked.
Ransom crawled away from where he’d fallen, and immediately, the pain reduced.He kept crawling on his hands and knees until he could form thoughts without his brain threatening to split into two.
Scarlett and Talon followed, although both wore bemused expressions once they caught up with him.
“That’s the spot, but my headache got so bad I couldn’t form thoughts.How do we enter the chamber with this pain?I don’t… I can’t function that way.”
Scarlett sat beside him and shouldered off her pack.“Between the itching and the ache in my head, I’m finding the going difficult too.What have you got left in your first aid kit?Anything that might help?”
“I have blockers to aid in masking pain, although I don’t know if they’ll help.They haven’t relieved my symptoms much in the past.”
“What else?”Scarlett asked.
Talon wobbled closer, his balance challenged on the uneven ground.He sat beside Scarlett and growled when she swiped at her arm to relieve the discomfort.
“What would you have me do?”she snapped at Talon.“It’s driving me crazy.”
“I have a few medicine vials left that the Elevenoss gave me.Mistress Aelene told me it was stronger and not to use this unless the pain became unbearable.”Ransom gasped, the end of the whoosh of air resembling a groan.He held his head and moaned, his thoughts scattered and in turmoil.
“Where are you?Why aren’t you coming?”
The prince’s whiny splatter-shot words rearranged themselves in Ransom’s beleaguered brain.
“We’re here but having trouble locating the entrance.”
“It’s under the statue with the pointy hat,”Prince Kalim bellowed.
“The earthquake has made the statues topple.The ground keeps shaking.Can you not feel the tremors?”
“Hurry, or you will be sorry.”Prince Kalim yanked free of his mind, taking none of Ransom’s energy.
“The prince?”Scarlett asked.
Ransom lifted his head, stiffening to prepare for more pain.This time, his head remained free from the darting aches.“Yes.I’d say he was panicking.”
“He’ll have noticed the earth tremors.”Scarlett scanned their surroundings.“Where is he going to go?His people will be as hungry as him.There is no one here.”
“The logical answer is he’ll go to the nearest food source.My people,” Ransom said grimly.
