He looked back at her, eyes narrowed in confusion. Nevertheless, a moment later he pressed a jagged rock into her palm.
Perfect. Keira let out a deep exhale. Now to sit up.
Shifting herself upright wasn’t as disastrous as she had feared. She did not lose the contents of her stomach or faint. However, it took three tries to overcome the dizziness. The pain of even such a simple shift had her breathing sharply through her teeth. Keira could feel her strength waning, time running out. She needed to finish this and fast. Who knew if she would regain consciousness again before the venom completed its work.
Caspian sat beside her, half holding her upright and all the while looking at her with the greatest concern.
She could do this. She could, Keira told herself again and again. The determination must have shown on her face, because Caspian said nothing as she began to carve into the wall of the cave. The rock left behind clear marks as she drew a circle large enough. Every so often, Keira would close her eyes, to steady herself or to recall the proper symbol.
In the end, Keira wiped her brow and sighed with a faint satisfied smile. The stone clattered to the floor as she placed her hand within the circle.
A tower on a lonely hill, the image conjured slowly, hazily into her mind. A green leather binding on a wooden shelf. She clenched her jaw against the effort it took to focus. The memory became sharper, stronger. She could see it clearly now.
Caspian’s body tensed beside her in surprise as her hand passed through the stone. Her fingers reached until they closed around the stippled leather cover.
Keira fell back into Caspian’s chest, clutching the book against her tightly.
“This has the answer?” Caspian asked.
Keira nodded, eyes still shut against the dizziness spinning through her mind. The last of her strength was waning, absorbed by the magic.
“Keira?” He shook her shoulder.
“Hmmm,” she managed. But she could feel herself slipping.
Her brain was shooting through the stars, orbiting the sun.
He said something else, but she couldn’t hear it.
He was too far away.
Caspian
Keira’s eyes fluttered, and she fell limp against him. Caspian cursed as he held her tighter. He settled her into the bed he’d made. It was damp with melted snow, but it was better than the uneven stone of the cave floor. He carefully cleared a few strands of her dark hair from her forehead. Her skin was flushed with fever. The black lines had spread further, curling around her jaw. Her eyes were sunken and dark.
She looked so weak…
Caspian rubbed his mouth. He didn’t know how much longer she had. He didn’t know if he could wake her again. A sob caught tight in his throat, and he shook his head.
No. Caspian pushed himself to his feet. He wouldn’t lose her again.
He picked up the book she’d produced from her portal. The dark green leather of the cover was almost black in the shadows of the cave. Yet, the golden lettering flickered in the firelight. He recognized it, the Toxinomicon. It was one of a hundred thick old tomes he’d seen her hunched over at one time or another. He remembered this one particularly because it was the last. The book she’d read to him the day before he’d been sent away.
Caspian opened the cover and flipped quickly through the carefully inked text and illustrations, skimming its contents for anything that seemed of use. It seemed the first half of the book was dedicated to toxic plants, their uses as poisons. Then it wenton to a list of venomous creatures and their properties. Nothing about cures. Caspian sighed in frustration. Had she made a mistake?
He continued foraging through the dense tome until he found himself rereading the same line again and again. Exhaustion played with his vision and hazed his mind. Caspian forced himself to focus. This book was the answer; it had to be.
When he finally found the section on cures, he found it was primarily for the ingesting of inedible substances, snake and spider bites. Then he straightened.
Universal Cureswas written in brilliant calligraphy at the top of the page. He read about bezoars, stones found in the stomach of a goat, which if swallowed would cure most poisons. Toad stones, taken from the forehead of large toads and could draw the venom from a wound. A complex potion of mistletoe and belladonna and at least a dozen other cures was suggested if the nature of the toxin was unclear. Unicorn horns could heal nearly any malady if used to channel the right incantations.
Caspian slammed the book shut. He didn’t have any of those things. He didn’t have magic. He didn’t have time!
He paced around the fire three times, trying to think through the weight of dread crowding his mind. He needed to figure out what that thing was. If it was venomous, maybe he could find it in the Toxinomicon. Then maybe…
An hour passed. His eyes grazed each description, and nothing came close to the monster they had struck down in the snow.
Mandragora, a sharp leafed plant which forms… yellow and orange berries… deathly screams-
