AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"It flew back with him, hit the tree. Unfortunate landing," Zeph says as he tracks my eyes to where the bloodstained axe lays.
Plume is attending to the remaining part of Morrow's arm while also trying to assess him for internal injuries. The blood from his arm has slowed to a trickle.
"Why not use your magic to attach the limb?" I ask Plume, keeping my distance to reduce my desire to taste my companion's blood.
"It won't work that way," she says sadly. "Once disconnected from the body, it cannot be healed. If there was even a piece left unsevered, I could have done it, but this cut is too clean." She sits back on her heels, digging into her pack for more tincturesand salves. I watch her work, the combination of magic and traditional medicine, a beautiful dance between the human and fae.
"Do all healers use human medicine?" I wonder aloud, and Plume laughs. "Most don't. We don't exactly have access to the stuff needed. But I did read some texts about it from before the fae left for Ytopie."
Morrow's moans of pain have slowed, and Tulip sits him up, gingerly supporting his residual limb.
"Well," he groans, looking down at the stump. "This fucking sucks."
"I hope your dominant hand is your right one," I say, catching his eye.
Humor sparkles in his eyes, but it's quickly washed away by pain. "Luckily, it is."
Mace snags my attention when I see he's running toward me. I didn't even see him take off. In his hands he has the leather pack the wyrm had been guarding. He passes it to me, and I peer inside.
I see a small book, a tiny cloth bag, a blade, and some clothing. "It just looks like someone's pack," I say, handing it to Mace. "I'm not going to reach in there and confirm, but I do think the artifact is in there. There is an undercurrent of magic coursing through it."
"Thought so," he says, throwing the pack over his shoulder. "We need to get Morrow out of here. All this blood is going to attract the wrong attention."
Tulipsits beside Morrow, rubbing his back, speaking softly to him as Plume mutters over his body while she works on healing whatever injuries are on his abdomen.
I catch Zeph's eye. "Do you have more devotion for me?"
I don't want to say outright that my body is worn so thin I worry they can see through me, but I know he picks up on my discomfort.
Mace walks to Zeph and whispers in his ear. Zeph laughs loudly and shakes his head at Mace. With a sheepish shrug, Mace returns to my side. "Now I do," Zeph says with a wide grin.
I'm going to have to find out what Mace told him.
I feel a trickle of power, like a slow drizzle of rain, through my veins. "I've got what we need now, so let's burn this fucker down."
Chapter 24
Mace
To say the crew was shocked we made it back to the boat is an understatement. Jaz assured us we returned with way more limbs than they expected us to.
Plume was able to get Morrow sorted out as best as possible quickly once we made it on board and she wasn't looking over her shoulder. We all ate and then crashed for an entire day.
Viola still hasn't touched the artifact. When I asked her, she just said, "I want all of our people healthy before I go risking myself being down for the count."
Dinner on the day after we returned from Riosia Island has all of us mostly whole and rested as we chew something that resembles a fish cake. It's one of the better things I've had in the Lowlands. Viola practically inhales hers. What once stuck out to me like a sore thumb in her manners has now become endearing. Food is fuel for her, not pleasure, and she treats it as such. There is no ceremony when she eats.
"I'm going to touch the artifact tonight," she says, looking at all of us. "Are you all willing to be with me for it? We don't know what the effect of this one will be."
"The Autumn one wasn't awful," I said. "Not like Summer. You were out for so long."
"AndWinter didn't do anything to me. But we don't know how it's going to end up, so I want to be safe," Viola says. Her white hair is loose today, salt air dried in slight waves. The clothes she was wearing on the island had to be tossed, so today, she's in a set that must've been borrowed from Jaz – a billowy yellow shirt and black pants tucked into her boots.
Every member of our party responds in the affirmative, and we finish our dinners quickly.
Below deck, I grab the pack, and we all pile into the triangle room. It's easily the biggest of the three assigned to us. Viola sits down on the bed, tapping her hands on her thigh. Shadow wraps around her wrist, placing his head in the palm of her hand. She strokes a finger down his back absentmindedly.
The snake still gives me the creeps.
