Page 76 of Suncatcher

Pearl dropped her saddlebags from over her shoulder and dug out the lantern. Her hands trembled as she lit the can and light washed over them, making the scene so much worse, but Pearl needed to see.

Driz was incredibly heavy. Pearl worked her grip beneath her armpits and heaved.

She only managed to angle them out of the water, but it was better than nothing. She rested Driz’s head in her lap and reached for her insufficient medical kit.

Pearl couldn’t see well, and she wasn’t skilled, but she tried anyway. And her hands shook too much. Driz had already lost so much blood, so Pearl focused on slowing any more. Driz only had to make it through the night, right?

Pearl opened her blight tin. Only a dab remained. Could Driz even use it in her state? Would it help? Pearl had to try.

She gathered the blight on her fingers and wiped it over the worst wound on Driz’s shoulder. When she pressed down on the bite marks to convince Driz’s body to accept it, Driz stirred. A low growl started in her chest. She opened her eyes and finally looked at Pearl.

“You’re gonna be alright,” Pearl promised. “I’m not letting you go anywhere. You fucking hear me?”

Driz didn’t answer, her eyes fluttering shut again, the growl fading.

Pearl did all she could when it wasn’t enough. She held Driz, cradling her head and stroking her cheek while applying pressure to her wounds, and still, Driz bled. Pearl willed the sun to come faster, so of course, the night dragged. Pearl kept one finger on the pulse that thrummed in Driz’s neck, to reassure herself it still beat. She convinced herself several times it was weakening.

When dawn started to brighten the sky, she didn’t dare breathe in relief. But her sleep-addled mind knew she had to move. She couldn’t be holding Driz when she became stone.

Pearl carefully eased from beneath Driz’s heavy head just as the first light reached the cliffs above.

She watched in exhausted fascination as Driz’s form changed. It was like seeing standing water frost over, solidifying and shifting texture. Pearl almost reached out to check if her pulse beat in this form, but she stayed her hand. Driz was a sleeping stone goyle, even if she was still Driz.

Pearl should leave, but she was too stubborn and too tired, and collapsed sideways, reaching weakly for her saddlebags. As she moved, a cascade of dust shook from her clothes and skin. She looked down, confused, to see where her sleeves and hands had been stained with Driz’s blood now remained unblemished, except for the fine silt that sloughed off. Even Driz’s blood had turned to stone.

Pearl dropped her head on the dusty leather of her saddlebag and fell fast asleep.

Driz woke looking at the sky. She was on her back, water rushing gently over her feet.

Pearl lay curled up only an arm’s length away. She’d slept near Driz in stone form?

Driz slowly pushed up, assessing. Her left side was still mottled, the blisters from burns gone but the skin rough and tender. The hole in her wing was smaller, and her stiff joints proved movable. Her sore ribs no longer stabbed. Yet a heaviness lingered. Instead of shaking off fully when she woke, a bit of the stone clung to her.

“Hey.” Pearl sat up. “How’re you feeling?”

Driz swallowed. Her memory of last night was hazy. She remembered the pain, and she remembered Pearl holding her. Pearl cursing at her as hands soothed.

“Better,” Driz settled on.

Pearl crawled over and studied Driz’s body. What had thrilled Driz before now made her hide. She tried to cover herself so Pearl wouldn’t see.

Her clothes were in bad shape. Her singed trouser legs had several new holes torn in the flimsy fabric. The left sleeve of her shirt was gone and several buttons were lost, so it gaped open, exposing the center of her chest to her navel. Driz reached for the flaps to hold them together and the damaged fabric ripped in her clumsy, oversized hands that couldn’t do anything right.

Then she noticed her shoulder. The teeth marks glowed faintly. When she touched them to rub the glow away, it lingered. Panic filled her chest and she clawed at the skin, needing to rip out the tainted flesh.

“What’re you doing?” Pearl demanded, grabbing Driz’s wrist.

“You used blight on me.”

“So?”

Driz couldn’t breathe. “Now I am cursed.”

“What’re you talking about? The blight’s probably the only reason you lived.”

“We are forbidden.”

“By who? I didn’t think you cared about what’s forbidden to goyles.”