Riven (The Arinthian Line Book 2) (42 page)

It could only have gone in one direction. He turned—and there it was, almost invisible behind a clump of snow, not ten paces away. He sprinted, but he was not the only one that had spotted it—Haylee had apparently witnessed the whole thing and was galloping straight for it.

His brain fogged as Centarro expired. “Shyneo!” he called, hoping to blind Haylee’s horse, but the spell failed. He dived for the rock, fully expecting Haylee to trample him, but her horse just jumped over him instead. He heard her shout something as the last threads of concentration slipped. He lay stupidly in the snow.

“Command it!” he heard a girl’s voice shout. “Tell it to stop! Gods, tell—”

The ground rumbled again.

“Stop? Stop what?” he mumbled, staring groggily at the stone in his hand.

The rumbling ceased. Something growled nearby.

“He has it—!” shouted a male voice.

A frantic female voice shouted a phrase that sounded like gibberish to Augum. He giggled at the funny words. Time passed filled with otherworldly noise as he nestled the stone close to his chest, its smooth texture cozy, safe. His chest tingled like a bug bite. He stared at the starry sky and smiled, enjoying the simplicity of it, the beauty of twinkling stars.

Suddenly the stone was yanked from his hands as a figure hurtled across him. He barely noticed, brain still foggy, senses crawling back snail-like. A vicious struggle ensued nearby too complex for his feeble mind to follow. Something roared very loudly.

And then … silence.

When the fog in his mind finally cleared, he glanced about as if waking from a dream. His chest pulsed sharply, breath shallow.

Then he saw it.

The banyan beast stood over the cowering figures of Haylee and Robin, Leera standing nearby staring at the stone in her hand, a simple expression on her face.

His blood instantly quickened—she’s lost to the side effects of Centarro!

He sprang to his feet and ran to her, taking the stone from her hands. Luckily, Robin and Haylee had no knowledge of the Centarro spell and its side effects, else they would have taken the opportunity afforded them and disarmed Leera of the stone.

“Sit, Lee,” he whispered, gently pushing her to the snow.

She peered up at him like a lost child, braids falling across her forehead.

“Where’s Bridget?” he asked no one in particular, frantically looking about.

Haylee pointed off to his left.

There he found her face-up in the snow, eyes open. He fell to his knees. “Bridge … are you all right? Bridge!” He placed his ear to her chest. There was a faint thumping.

“Bridge, you’re alive!”

Her eyes slowly focused on him, but her mouth remained slightly agape. She did not move.

Something was terribly wrong.

He gently shook her. “Get up, Bridge, get up—” but she didn’t move. Her eyes stayed on him, pleading and sad.

“Don’t worry, everything’s going to be okay,” he mumbled, not believing a word of it and painfully conscious of just how fearful he must look. They needed an arcane healer, but where would they find one? He’d never even met one before, and they were supposed to be rare and very expensive, not to mention sought after by the Legion.

He sat there in a kind of panicked trance for a while when the banyan beast snorted, snapping him out of it.

“Leera, I need your help!” he called, seeing that she was regaining her senses. He checked to make sure Robin and Haylee weren’t trying anything. Robin watched with a smirk on his face while Haylee looked on with—was it pity?

Leera slowly got up, brushed herself off, and lumbered over. When she spotted Bridget, she gasped and fell to the snow, gurgling, “No no no no …”

“It’s all right, she’s alive, she just can’t move,” Augum said. “We need an arcane healer.”

“It must be her back—” Leera’s hands shook as she brushed Bridget’s braids from her face. “I’ve seen something like this before … a boy in Sparrow’s Perch fell from a tree once. The elders had him taken to Antioc. They had an arcane healer there, though
damn it
, I can’t remember her name …

“Then that’s where we must go,” he said, readying to pick Bridget up. “Come on, let’s get her on the horse—”

Leera grabbed his wrist. “No! Don’t touch her, she could die that way. It’s really important she remain as still as possible. We have to use Telekinesis and levitate her onto the horse.”

“Just the two of us—?” he asked, fully aware how tired they were from the spell casting.

“We
have to try
.”

He nodded and the two stood back.

“Aww, wut is wittle Bridgey-poo hurt?”

Even Haylee gave Robin a horrified look.

Augum, enraged, put the stone to his mouth, daring Robin to say another word.

Robin, thinking Augum was going to command the banyan beast to do something heinous, quickly said, “Please no! I don’t want to die!”

Instead, the banyan beast, towering nine feet over Robin, roared down at him, sniffing the air repeatedly over his head. Augum, satisfied the message was delivered, turned his attention back to Bridget. Her eyes followed him, expressing concern and confusion. Seeing her like this was almost more than he could bear.

“Ready?” Leera asked, breathing heavily.

He nodded, steeling himself, trying to ignore his horribly grating chest. The beast’s charge had worsened the damage. They reached out together and began Telekinesis, but it was immediately evident their arcane stamina was too low. Bridget didn’t even twitch. They tried again, failing the second time as well. Leera, panting, looked away from Bridget, checking the black horizon behind her, as if expecting the Legion to come at any moment.

Augum grimaced, holding his chest. A wave of nausea forced him to sit down.

It was over. They were stuck until the Legion came, and then what? What would happen to Bridget? To Leera?

“Let me help—” Haylee said, standing up despite the banyan beast towering over her.

“What are you doing?” Robin asked, snagging her robe. “Sit back down!”

“It’s a trick—” Leera said.

Haylee shook her head. “It’s not.” She unsuccessfully pushed a long strand of blond hair from her eyes. “I … I didn’t want this. This is too much … I’m not a murderer …”

“Hayles, what are you doing? Have you lost your mind? Do you realize what’s going to happen to your fam—”

“Stop it! Just STOP IT!” Haylee placed her hands over her ears, tears streaming down her face. “I told you this isn’t what I wanted! We were supposed to be in the academy together, not murdering people! We were supposed to be … this isn’t what I wanted!”

Robin only blinked, mouth gaping.

“It’s a trap, don’t listen to her, Augum.” Leera was staring at him, but he heard something else in Haylee’s voice—sincerity.

He met Leera’s gaze. “It’s a chance we have to take.”

Leera glared at him a moment then looked at Bridget, before finally nodding.

He reached out a hand. “Will you help us then?”

Haylee wearily paced toward them from under the towering figure of the banyan beast, which followed her with its head as if it had eyes, sniffing the air with that giant nose. She stopped a few paces away, hands wringing.

Leera stared at Haylee with undisguised contempt and distrust.

“I’m … I’m sorry this happened to her, I’m sorry about everything …” Haylee’s voice was soft, eyes glassy. “I can’t live that way anymore. I can’t …”

“Look at her—” Leera said. “LOOK AT HER!”

Haylee forced herself to look at Bridget. Her pale hand slowly came to her mouth. She fell to her knees, hair obscuring her face.

Something caught Augum’s attention on the horizon. A low white cloud had formed there, lit by the orange glow of torches.

“Are they coming?” he asked, eyes still on the cloud. “Did they break their word?”

Haylee only nodded.

“What’s going to happen to One Eye?”

Haylee slowly shook her head.

Augum wiped his forehead with his sleeve. He knew it. He looked square at Haylee. “We have to go. Help us get her on the horse.” He was willing to give her a chance. It was the girls she’d have to win over, especially Leera.

Haylee stood and nodded, composing herself. Leera eyed her distrustfully as they raised their arms to begin Telekinesis.

“Don’t you dare help them, Haylee,” Robin said. “I swear to the Unnameables we’ll find you and—”

Augum raised the stone to his lips again and Robin fell silent, glaring. He then turned his attention back to Bridget, throwing every ounce of concentration he had left her way. Remarkably, working together, her body slowly rose, coming to rest on top of Haylee’s horse.

Augum and Leera fell to their knees when the spell concluded, both gripping their heads.

“Here, take this, it’ll support her back,” Haylee said, unsheathing a short sword from her horse and offering it pommel-first to Leera.

She could have killed us instead, Augum thought. Taken the stone …

Leera snatched the blade. “Just don’t you touch her!”

Haylee dropped her eyes. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “For all of this …”

Augum helped secure Bridget to the horse, wrapping her in a Dramask blanket before tying the rucksack near her feet. He was exhausted, cold, his chest bones grated with every movement, and his head throbbed from all the arcane effort.

Haylee stepped away from the horse when they were done, necrophyte robe rippling in the wind. “What are you going to do now?”

Augum mounted Robin’s horse, offering a hand to Leera. She sat behind him, hands around his waist. “We’re going to find an arcane healer.”

Haylee checked the horizon. The cloud had turned into an oncoming plume, with dark specks at the center surrounded by a pulsing orange glow. The Legion was at a full-on gallop, racing to catch up to them.

“I heard you say earlier you were going to Antioc. There’s a healer there my family knows. Miralda—don’t remember her last name though.” She handed him the reins to Bridget’s horse, which he passed on to Leera.

“You helped us, but now what’s going to happen to you?” he asked.

Haylee looked back at Robin.

“She’s going to burn, the disgusting filthy little traitor!” Robin said, frothing spittle, face contorted. “What happened to having my back, huh, Hayles? What about that? You’re so fake! I can’t wait to see you burn, and everyone you love too—”

The color drained from Haylee’s face. She turned back to Augum, her once icy-blue eyes now hollow and dull.

Augum glanced at Leera.

“No, forget it, don’t even think about it—”

“If we leave her—”

Leera’s nose flared. “I don’t care, she murdered our parents! And look what she did to Bridget—!”

Out of loyalty, he almost didn’t argue, but another look at Haylee and he knew it wasn’t right to just leave her there. “No, you know she didn’t. You might hate her for many other things, but she didn’t kill your parents—my father did.”

Leera glared at him before removing her hands from his waist and crossing them to her chest.

He sighed. This was not going to be easy. He reached out to Haylee. “Hop on.”

Haylee looked back at Robin, who was still shouting obscenities at her, then at the approaching Legion, before finally taking Augum’s hand and climbing onto the warhorse, easily large and strong enough to support all three of them.

Leera slapped Haylee’s hands away when she tried to grab on for support. “Don’t touch me!”

“But … I might fall.”

“I. Don’t. Care!”

Augum, realizing this was as good as it was going to get, raised the stone to his lips.

Leera peeked over his shoulder. “What are you doing?”

“Buying us time.”

Haylee

Augum loosed the banyan beast on the Legion with a careful set of instructions whispered into the stone. It roared and dove under the snow, burrowing straight at the oncoming cloud. It would be a battle he had no intention of sticking around for.

They promptly left, leaving behind a frothing Robin, shouting obscenities mostly aimed at Haylee, threatening her family. She broke down but didn’t reply. Neither Leera nor Augum made any attempt to console her, though each for different reasons—Leera loathed Haylee while Augum didn’t want to provoke Leera lest she shoved her off the horse or something. He wondered what they were supposed to do with Haylee now.

They trotted along rather slowly to avoid doing further harm to Bridget. Leera carefully held onto the reins of her horse, keeping a watchful eye on it as it bobbed along beside them. Haylee sat quiet in the back, avoiding any contact with Leera while trying to balance on the horse.

“You keep wincing. How are those ribs?”

“When the banyan beast hit me, I don’t know … something isn’t right though …”

“Don’t you even look at her!” Leera screamed at Haylee. “Don’t you dare …”

He decided now might be the time to question Haylee about a couple things on his mind, at least to change the mood a bit.

“Haylee, do you know where my father is right now?”

She cleared her throat delicately. “You’re trying to get to the crone—err, to your great-grandmother before he does, right?”

“Yes.”

“Your father is way too far ahead for you to overtake him. If you go to Antioc, though, you might still have a chance—if you’re quick finding a healer and leaving the city that is.”

“So are you done with the Legion now?”

“I’ve had doubts ever since Sparrow’s Perch. To see people killed like that … And then Tornvale … after your prison outbreak, they … they murdered most of them.”

“But you helped your grandfather in Sparrow’s Perch!” Leera said.

“I didn’t even know about any of his plans! I lost friends that day too. But I played along, I played the good girl, supporting the cause.
I was afraid
, all right? I was afraid of what they were going to do to me and my family if I said anything—”

“—you betrayed the village, and you
knew
what was going to happen—”

“—no, I didn’t, I swear it!” Haylee broke down crying again, her long blonde locks falling over trembling hands that cupped her face.

“I’m sorry I … made fun of you and … your friends …” Haylee said between sobs. “I’m sorry about that awful song … I just wanted to be popular and … and liked …”