Promising Light (53 page)

She turned aside to see where else
she may be able to help. Sierra’s arrows were landing in victim
after victim, then Grace saw her run out and throw the crossbow to
the ground. Lee was on his horse, slashing at anyone who tried to
get him down.

Someone grabbed Grace’s arm, and
she spun around with her dagger. “It’s me,” Dar said. Blood
streaked his face. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Please tell your family not to
hurt Kyler or my father,” Grace said. “Take them in if they have
to, but don’t kill them.”

Dar hesitated, swallowing, then he
ran to Jeshro. Grace glanced around, and her stomach lurched when
she saw Leck’s body on the ground. She covered her mouth, looking
away from the blood.

Her gaze fell on Matilda and
William wrestling on the ground. She approached them cautiously and
struck William on the back of the head with her dagger hilt. He let
out a cry of surprise as his knees buckled, and Grace grabbed
Matilda’s hand. “Come on!” Grace yelled, pulling her to her
feet.

Grace mounted her horse. “Sierra!
Evan!” She tried to find them in the chaos.

“Go without us!” Sierra
yelled.

Evan looked up from his latest
victim, a man he’d sliced at the neck. “No, you need to go with
them! It will only work with both of you!” He grabbed her arm and
pulled her to their horses.

Grace started her horse out of the
clearing, passing Chad’s still body. She glanced over her shoulder
to see Matilda talking to Myra and turning to mount her horse.
Where was Dar?

“Dar!” Grace called, stopping her
horse for a moment.

She dismounted her horse just as
Lee, Sierra, and Evan sped past her; Grace had to find Dar. She ran
back into the battle and she suddenly heard Dar’s yell. She
searched for him, panting, and saw Dar crouched in front of her
father, who had a bloody sword in his hand.

“No!” she shouted. She ran to
them, flinging herself on her father’s hand just before he struck
Dar again. He pushed her away, and she dropped in front of Dar. A
dark stain was spreading on his shirt, and he held his stomach,
groaning in pain.

“Oh, my goodness,” she breathed,
her heart pounding in her ears.

“Is she right here?” Father
growled. “Is Grace here?”

Dar gave a weak nod and tried to
stumble to his feet.

“Dar, what are you doing?” she
asked.

Dar stood, half-leaning on her. “We
have to go.”

She fought back tears as her hand
touched his warm, wet stomach. Maybe Kaiden could heal him. Maybe
they would have time to find her. Maybe there would be a Thieran in
Nyad. They had to save him.

“Where are you going?” Father
asked. He reached out blindly and grabbed her shirt. “Grace? Grace,
is that you?”

“Father!” Kyler called, running
over to them.

“Please let us go,” she cried,
even though they couldn’t hear him.

“Father, don’t kill him,” Kyler
said. “Grace will never forgive you.”

Grace and Dar stumbled over to his
horse as Father and Kyler began arguing, and she fought back tears.
“Can you get on?” she asked. Dar nodded and struggled onto his
horse.

She looked over her shoulder;
Father and Kyler were yelling now, and Father tried to go toward
Dar, but Kyler grabbed his arm. She let out a sob and told Dar,
“We’ll find a Thieran in Nyad.”

She ran to her horse and mounted.
She glanced back to make sure Dar was following, and he was, though
he crouched low on his horse.

They met the others a mile away.
Grace was almost sobbing by that point. She’d stopped wiping her
tears away because more replaced them every moment. “We have to
stop,” Grace called. “Dar’s injured.”

“What? Where?” Sierra
asked.

“His stomach,” Grace said, already
by Dar’s side. “Come on, Dar, we have to wrap you up.”

Dar kept his balance by leaning on
Grace. His face was pale as they pulled up his shirt. His stomach
was covered in blood, and the wound looked deep. Grace sobbed, and
Matilda told her to go get a water skin. They washed the wound,
slathered what little Mahri cream was left onto it, and tightly
wrapped linen around his torso. Matilda gave him a mild pain
relieving potion.

Once he was standing by his horse,
Grace touched his face. “It’s going to be okay,” she
whispered.

He nodded, leaning his forehead on
hers.

She closed her eyes and kissed his
lips. “I love you.”

He kissed her again and brushed
some of her hair from her forehead. “I love you, too.”

More tears
threatened to fall, and she swallowed them back. She had to pull
herself together.
This will not be his
last day,
she told herself.
This will not be the last time I hear that from
him
. She would make sure they had a
future.

“We have to go,” Lee said. “We’re
not far from the jungle; we can make it in fifteen
minutes.”

“But what about Dar?” Grace asked.
“We need to find a Thieran to heal him.”

No one said anything for a moment.
Dar mounted his horse, and Grace kept him steady. “We need to find
a Thieran,” she repeated.

“We need to go to Mumbar Jungle
because other Protectors are there,” Dar said. “We have to keep
them from getting the ancient texts, Grace. This is the whole
reason we’re here.”

Grace swallowed, touching his leg.
“But Dar…”

“No, I’ll be fine. Let’s
go.”

Grace stood still for a moment,
staring at him. The others were mounted and ready. Grace hadn’t
wanted it to come down to this—choosing between Dar and the
Avialies. She’d had that choice once before when Lesado was
torturing Dar, and she’d chosen his comfort—his life, probably.
Now, he shook his head at her, and she knew the choice she had to
make. She only wished there was a way she could choose
both.

* * *

The jungle didn’t have a definite
beginning. The plants were thin at first, then they gradually
became more entwined, the trees grew taller, the path became
thinner. They reached a point where they had to leave their horses
behind because of the dense plants.

After finding a creek, they tied
their horses to the nearby trees. They took their bags and bedrolls
and loaded them onto their shoulders. Dar tried to insist he could
take his load, but the others spread it out among
themselves.

“Let’s follow the creek,” Lee
said. “It’ll eventually lead us to the waterfall where George said
he met the tigers.”

Grace walked beside Dar, holding
his hand as they moved deeper into the jungle. The humidity stuck
to her skin. The rich scents of the plants around them filled the
air. Gradually, the sounds of insects grew louder. Clicking,
clattering, squeaking. Lee was silent and concentrated as he led
the way.

“Remember Governor Peter’s manor?”
Grace asked Dar. “I got lost in his garden one day. It was
something like this. The same plants at least, but not nearly as
overgrown.”

Dar smiled at her, sweat on his
face mixing with the blood on his forehead. She had to fight back
her worry.

“I remember,” he said. “We kissed
in that library.”

“Yes, I definitely remember that.”
Grace helped him over a log; he held onto her hand tightly as they
stepped back onto the ever-shrinking path.

Dar chuckled. “And at some point,
you became the one protecting me.”

“We protect each other,” Grace
said, meeting his eyes.

The path stopped twenty minutes
later. They stood still for a moment, watching Lee. “This place is
so alive,” he said quietly. “It’s getting strange, though. The
animals in this area are different.”

Grace glanced around. She could see
some insects crawling along the ground and birds fluttering from
tree to tree. She looked back the way they came; it seemed like
nothing but plants and trees, like there’d never been a path. Above
them, the trees stretched into the sky, blocking out the sky so
they were in a humid bubble.

“How are you feeling?” she asked
Dar.

“Fine. Thirsty.”

“Do you think this water’s safe to
drink?” she asked Lee.

“I don’t know,” Lee
said.

To be safe, they used the Mahri
purifying potion in their water skins after they filled up. They
followed the creek as best they could. The downfall of this was
attracting mosquitoes; Grace swatted them away every few minutes.
Spots near the water had plants that were too thick to walk
through. They fought through the plants, trying to find a way to
pass. They lost the creek a few times, but Lee would find it by
listening to the animals around him.

As they were waiting a third time
for Lee to find it again, Dar called to Matilda. She walked over to
where Grace and Dar sat on a rock.

“I’m sorry about Chad,” Dar said
breathlessly.

“He should have stayed with us,”
Matilda said faintly. “I hope Myra can take care of his body.” She
shook her head. “I feel horrible leaving him.” Her voice broke, and
she covered her mouth.

Dar nodded. “I’m sure she
will.”

She took a shuddering breath. “And
how are you doing?”

“Fine.” His face still had little
color, and Grace offered him more water.

Lee called them over. “The
Protectors were here,” he said as they gathered around him. “They
have a Boren with them. I can hear… the animals aren’t used to this
many people in the area.”

“Should we find a guide like
George said we should?” Sierra asked.

Lee didn’t respond, his gaze
traveling over the trees. Grace looked up again, but he saw and
heard things the rest of them didn’t.

“Maybe in a little bit,” he
answered. “Come on, the creek’s this way.”

Grace helped Dar to his feet,
watching his face as he moaned in pain. “Are you sure you’re—” she
began.

“Yes,” Dar said with a grimace.
“Please, don’t worry about me.”

They met up with the creek a bit
later and walked along the moist bank. The creek widened to a
river, the water flowing quicker and deeper.

“Walk quietly,” Lee called over
his shoulder. “The place is changing.”

“Didn’t he just say that?” Matilda
asked Grace over her shoulder.

Smiling, Grace walked on, her hand
clasped with Dar’s. Lee pointed out poisonous plants, told them
which trees to stay away from, and on a few occasions told them to
stop walking completely.

A little after they worked around a
bush full of poisonous spiders, Lee suddenly stopped. “Sierra,
wait—”

Sierra let out a small scream, and
Grace saw a brown snake hanging from her leg. Sierra shook it off,
and Evan took out a dagger, killing it.

“Did he bite you?” Lee
asked.

Sierra nodded, holding the side of
her leg.

“Take off your pants, let me see
the bite. Matilda, get the antivenom potion! Evan, watch
out!”

A snake leapt from a nearby bush at
Evan; he raised his sword just in time.

“Kill any snake you see! Watch
out, they spit, too!” Lee said.

“Can’t you make them stop?” Evan
called over his shoulder.

“No, I already tried!” Lee
shouted. “Matilda, where is it?”

Sierra inched her pants down her
legs; Grace ran to her side to look at the bite. Her leg had two
small puncture wounds, seemingly harmless but for a small amount of
blood.

“I’m sorry I didn’t sense him
sooner,” Lee muttered, looking down at the bite. “This place is so
alive. There are animals everywhere, and he just got lost in it
all. He probably only bit because you startled him. I think they’re
already aggravated because of the Protectors, too.”

“That makes me feel better,”
Sierra said breathlessly. “What’s going to happen?”

Matilda ran over with the antivenom
potion, handing it to Lee. Lee quickly unscrewed the flask and gave
it to Sierra. “Drink this. The quicker, the better.”

Sierra drank the milky liquid, her
face screwing up. “Bitter,” she said with a cough. “What’s going to
happen, Lee?”

Lee took her hands. “It’s going to
be fine. The antivenom potion will take care of
everything.”

Matilda put the flask back in her
bag. “It might be tough for a couple hours, though. It’ll take a
while to work, but it will work. I’ve never met someone who died
from a snakebite after taking the potion.”

“How many people have you known
who’ve been bitten by snakes?” Sierra asked.

After a pause, Matilda said,
“Three. And they all took the potion.”

Sierra shuddered. “Can I put my
pants back on?”

Lee’s face grew red, and he let go
of her hands. “Of course. Sorry.” He gave Grace an embarrassed
look, and she held back a smile. She looked over her shoulder at
Dar. He leaned against a tree, holding his stomach with his
hand.