I turned back to my new friend. “Thank you for
helping us.” I reached up with one arm to rub his ear while I checked for
injury to his neck with my other. Blood had matted his short fur and made it
sticky, but I could feel no damage. I wrapped my arms as far around his neck as
I could without strangling him. “I’ll see you later. Don’t forget to find me,
and I’ll try to think of something to serve you for dinner. Do you like crows?”
“You’re not giving him Tibbit!”
Edward growled
in my head.
The beast glared out at the shore, as if he had heard
Edward too and didn’t approve.
“Bye,” I said.
I walked carefully towards the ship, but kept looking
back to make sure the beast didn’t follow. He remained in the dark cover of the
forest, watching me. Divina took my arm again when I caught up to her, but
Edward was nowhere to be seen.
This ship, identical to the one we boarded in
Shomodii, was a lot more crowded. “How come there are so many people getting on
this ship? Where did they come from?”
“The waters are very dangerous around Mijii, even to
ships, and there are only a few safe places to drop off and pick up people by
sea. These people got here by sky travel, but there is no sky travel around
Shomodii, so we had to come by boat. Quiet now,” she said as we approached the
crowd. Divina kept her arm around mine with a blood-stopping grip. It was hard
to mind even though my hand fell asleep; her warmth pressed up against me was
worth it.
The interior of the ship was so familiar to the
previous ship that it was almost uncanny. It was almost like everything we had
just gone through never happened, because here we were, right back on
the
ship.
We found Edward and he led us to our room, which was
also identical to the one on the other ship.
No first-class options at sea,
I guess
.
“They were following the smell of my blood, weren’t
they?” I asked as he shut the door.
He nodded. “I just can’t believe they ambushed us.
That couldn’t have been your bad luck; nobody has that much bad luck.”
“Do you remember my heart being fried a little while
back?”
“You were asking for it by doing the magic in the
first place.”
“Wait, Edward… When we get to Anoshii, how will we
get back? We can’t go through the forest again.”
He shook his head. “No, we can’t, they’ll be waiting.
You will not be able to set foot on Mijii after sunset for years, now that they
know the scent of your blood. Anoshii has different means of transportation.
However, there could still be trouble ahead, and trouble seems to have a target
on you.”
“I thought you said the creatures didn’t attack us
because of my luck.”
“It was not
just
your luck. Cutting your ankle
so they could follow the scent was your luck.”
“Do you know that the words ‘luck’ and ‘fault’ are
very similar?” I asked.
“It wasn’t your fault and nobody is that unlucky,”
Divina insisted.
I wasn’t convinced. I sprawled out on the bed and
pulled my legs up while Edward unpacked things. Divina gently unwrapped the
bandage and I had to look. Even through the white paste, I could see the
swelling and black skin. I’d been injured enough to know that it wasn’t right,
but the expression on Divina’s face and her wide eyes was what truly worried
me.
“Kiro? Um… He’s infected.” Edward kept hunting
through his and Divina’s bags. “I’m serious, you really should see this.”
Edward sat back and sighed. “Of course he is; he
probably has multiple infections. Expect it with him.”
“No, I’m not talking about that kind of infection.”
He got up and stood next to her to see my ankle. He
sighed again, groaned, and put his hands over his eyes. “He’s still got a few
hours before the effects become irreversible.”
“What?!” I cried. They were both startled by my
outburst. “What am I infected with?!” They looked at each other, deciding
whether or not to tell me. “I can take it, whatever it is, but I have to know.
It’s far worse to not know!”
Divina sighed but it was Edward who spoke. “You know
the zombie movies on Earth? Well, there is a virus that inflicts people with
death-like symptoms. The virus has somehow gotten in through your cut. I have
no idea how, though; the virus hasn’t been around for two hundred years.”
I slumped back. “I’m gonna die.”
Divina smiled weakly. “But on the bright side, you
won’t stay dead.”
I glared at her. “I’m going to eat you first when I
undie.”
Edward started moving jars and little cloth bags onto
the bed and gave Divina a glare to match mine. “No one is going to die, or
undie. Hold very still,” he said to me.
“Tell me you’ve got morowad,” Divina said, glancing
over the supplies.
“I do have morowad.” She looked relieved, but Edward
didn’t. “I don’t have drumid, though.”
She viewed my ankle with pity. “That’s all right, he
doesn’t need it.” I opened my mouth to ask what it was, but she beat me to it.
“It’s only a little pain killer. Disinfecting it can sometimes burn… a bit.”
“No! I do need it,” I said quickly.
“Would you stop talking to him?” Edward growled.
He took a white cloth from the pile and a light blue,
glass jar full of what looked like harmless water… but I never judge a strange
liquid by what it resembles. He pulled off the top and poured some of it onto
the cloth. I was pleased to find that it smelled like antiseptic. Then I remembered
most antiseptics burn to high heaven and I braced myself.
It was cold and instantly soothing. The pain rapidly
dulled; even my aching muscles from running cooled. I laid my head back as he
glanced at me.
“Does that hurt badly?” he asked.
I waited until he started rubbing the blood and paste
off to answer, but it didn’t even hurt when he did. “Just the opposite.”
He grinned. “Interesting.”
“More like weird,” Divina said. He glared at her and
she raised her hands in surrender. She checked the supplies and smiled. “I have
something that can help.” She dug through her bag, pulled out a small, silver
flask, opened it, and held it out a few inches above my mouth for me to drink.
I beheld it with suspicion. “What is this?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes. “If I’m in pain, I have the right to scream in agony like
a little girl.”
“All you have to do is drink this poison- I mean
potion.” Edward glared at her, but I came to suspect that kind of behavior from
the woman. “This will make you sleep so you don’t have to feel the pain.”
“I’d rather just scream,” I said, not liking the idea
of waking up in the middle of surgery. She shoved it into my mouth and the
soporific potion poured down my throat. It was cold and incredibly bitter. It
actually tasted like very concentrated peroxide.
She took the flask away and capped it. I suddenly
was very dizzy. My muscles relaxed devoid of my control and when I tried to
lift my head, it was too heavy. I tried to lift my arm but I’m not sure if I
did; it was also heavy. I felt as if all my pain was only a shadow; a memory
that bugged me really badly. My eyes slipped closed and my mind wandered
aimlessly- which happened to lead to Divina and her inhumanly attractive body.
* * *
I woke feeling cold and slow. The sun was still down
and Edward was sitting in the chair by the desk with his head back and his eyes
closed. Divina was sitting next to the bed with her head against the pillow
again. Several minutes passed before I could drag my eyes from her. I was
tangled up in two thick blankets, but it wasn’t difficult to find my injured
leg. My poor little ankle looked so pathetic in its professional looking white
bandage. It didn’t hurt; it felt cold and numb… which, to be honest, was much
better than hot and itchy.
I sat up slowly and examined my bandage. When it was
fully examined, I very slowly reached out and poked it. It didn’t hurt, so I
poked it harder.
“What are you doing?” Edward asked.
I didn’t even jump. “Just seeing if it hurts. If I
was dead, it wouldn’t hurt.”
“If you were dead, I would be very annoyed with you.
You can take off the bandage; it was just to stop the bleeding while the
coagulants took effect,” he said.
I gently unwrapped the bandage and inspected my
ankle. It was no longer swollen, or black. The skin wasn’t even parted; it
looked like a long scratch that had a week to heal. “Wow. How?”
“The body is very easily manipulated with magic, save
for the brain. From now on, I’ll teach you the medical advantages of certain
plants. I’m starting to think it’ll be harder to keep you alive than it will be
to keep your book safe.”
“Do you ever pray?” I asked.
“Why would I pray?”
I shrugged. “Because people who believe in gods
pray.”
He thought for a moment. “Erono is not a god that
answers prayers. I suppose I have wished for things, and that might be a form
of prayer, but I never expected anything from him. Why are you asking about it?
I didn’t picture you the kind of man to believe in it.”
I always relied on science instead of religion and
only believed in the things that were “proven” by science, but I was on a new
world. The reality was that I knew next to nothing about being a Guardian and
the only thing I had to go on was what Edward told me.
“I did in the forest when the reptile monsters were
after us. I think it’s easy when all other options are gone to pray for someone
else to save the day.”
“I don’t think you can sway a god’s mind by asking
politely. We are Guardians of our books; the gods have a good reason to keep us
alive, but at the same time, they can easily replace us. Tiamat didn’t save my
brother.”
“So you think that Tiamat had nothing to do with us
being saved?”
“Is it too ironic to say I’m not a religious man? I
think the gods create our worlds and direct us to fix their problems, but as
far as our own lives, we’re on our own. Day-to-day life, even for a Guardian,
has nothing to do with the gods. Magic has as much to do with science as
anything else.”
We sat in silence for a few minutes while I digested
that. It made absolute sense to me, but I wondered if he only felt that way
because his brother was killed and no god stepped in to save him.
“Divina and I were contemplating what to do about you
speaking when we get to Anoshii.”
“I can keep my mouth shut on my own.”
“I know you can for a while, but it only takes a tiny
mistake in the wrong place at the wrong time. Neither of us wants to use force
on you, especially since you get your frustrations out physically when you
can’t get them out verbally. You’re still gathering energy subconsciously and I
thought you were going to sink the ship if I caused anymore pain. Of course,
Divina thought it was cool.”
“Funny, I can sink a ship without trying but when we
were in the woods, I was next to useless. I don’t understand that.”
“Your problem isn’t with your energy, or imagination,
only with your focus and confidence. You have to know you can do it, and you
really have to focus the energy into what you’re doing. It’s very easy to
release energy into everything around you and, if your emotions and energy are
strong enough, make a lot of mess. It’s not always such a terrible thing. When
you struck the raptor to defend the beast, you used your hand to focus and your
passion to drive. You didn’t doubt you could, just knew you had to. Try
standing on your ankle.”
“Am I going to need to run on it anytime soon?” I
asked, slowly getting up. The ankle felt just a little weak, but it didn’t hurt
at all. The sluggish effects of Divina’s sleeping potion had worn off.
“No, I don’t think so. I’ve talked to the captain
and, because of the background of many of the crew, we’re staying far from any
checking stations.”
“What’s a checking station?”
“I don’t know if that’s what you would really call it
in English, but it’s… like pirate stations. They are stationary ships with a
small group of very violent people who say they make and enforce laws for the
good of the people, but really, they are only thieves.”
I sat down and put my ankle back up. “So they’re
cops?” I asked.
Divina stirred a little and we both looked at her,
but she remained asleep.
“She hasn’t said anything to you about your actions
earlier?” Edward asked. At my confusion, he smirked. “I saw the way you touched
her in the Aradlin when she was holding you down.”
I could feel my face flush as I recalled the feel of
her smooth skin. “It was an accident.”
“Was that all it was?” she asked. I jumped, she
chuckled, and my face grow even redder. She pulled herself up to sit on the
bed. “I thought it was just the wrong time.” She then scooted until she was
sitting inches away and leaned over me very slowly to check my ankle while
exposing her back to me. Her shirt came up just a tiny bit and I wanted to
touch her again so badly. “Now is also the wrong time,” she said without
looking at me.
Edward wasn’t even trying to hide his smirk. After
taking way too much time examining my ankle, Divina sat back.
“How long before we get to Anoshii?” I asked Edward,
trying to clear my head.
“We should get there by sunset tomorrow. Go back to
sleep.”
I shook my head, not tired at all. “I don’t want to
sleep. I want to do something.”
“You’re sure?” he asked as he stood. “That’s fine
then, we will take off where we left with the combat training.”
I huffed and collapsed against the pillow. “I’m
hungry.”
Edward rolled his eyes. “There’ll be no food until
tomorrow at noon,” he declared.
I moaned. I wanted a pizza so badly. Divina patted my
stomach and left the room. Edward leaned back in his chair and I let my mind
wander. About ten minutes later, Divina returned carrying a wooden bucket of
steaming water and several white cloths. She set them on the table and left
again.