Chapter 21: Road to Baetnal pt. 2

POV: Seyari

I saw Zarenna take a second hit and get sent tumbling. I’d hoped that monster scorpion’s venom would somehow have not affected her. I was wrong.

My feet pounded into the sand as I ran toward her. She managed to struggle upright, still looking in the direction she was tossed from.

Behind me, Aretan and the mercenaries were finishing the scorpion off. Another set of lighter footsteps followed; Nelys no doubt.

Ahead of me Zarenna flared brightly, her entire body burning with magic. Flames licked off the surface of her skin, burning away her clothes in an instant. Even the sand below her started to melt.

Fuck. I should’ve warned her about diving into a fight with that thing. Would she have even listened? I didn’t think to give her an order, and even then, she might’ve just ignored it and caused a shitstorm when she broke the contract.

I let it focus on her. I’d stayed in the back, like a coward. I could’ve been right there with her, I could’ve maybe—

No. I can’t. I won’t.

Zarenna turned toward me and mouthed something. Gods, why was she smiling? The vertical pupils of her blue eyes were wide, but her gaze was lidded. Her fire dimmed and went out.

I was twenty paces away.

She closed her eyes and fell forward.

Ten paces.

She hit the sand headfirst and her horns shattered the cooling glass.

I reached her before Nelys. She was hot enough to blacken my gloves, but rapidly cooling. I pulled her upright and felt her pulse. My breath hitched for a moment when I felt nothing. Then, a slow single beat. Too long of a pause, then another.

She was alive, but something was really wrong.

Fuck!

Maybe I could, but then—wait, she’s a fucking demon!

What I might be able to do wouldn’t even work for her.

And I couldn’t face that part of me, anyway.

Shit. I had to hope the mercs or the caravan had something. If they did, they’d better fork it over. I didn’t doubt she saved a lot of lives today and everyone here owed Zarenna big.

“Is she okay?” Nelys asked beside me, their voice small.

“No,” I answered, then continued, “She isn’t dead, but she’s really hurt.”

“Do you think she’ll heal herself?”

“I don’t know. We need to get her to someone who knows about the venom of that monster.”

Nelys nodded seriously.

I looked over their small frame. “I can carry her, can you—”

“Go ask people for help? Yeah!” They had picked up on what I wanted before I could even say it. For all their childish act, Nelys was always quick to read the room.

“Thanks,” I nodded back to them.

“She’ll be okay Seyari,” Nelys said confidently.

“You don’t know that,” I snapped back.

They frowned. “Yeah, I guess you’re right."

Nelys turned and dashed quickly off to the caravan. Armed with only daggers, the small human had stayed out of the fight to help get the injured clear. Where I was firing arrows. Stupid arrows. They had a reason to stay behind, since charging in with their short reach and small daggers was suicide. I had options.

I pulled Zarenna up. She was heavy. I expected as much given her height and build. I managed to get one of her upper arms over my shoulder. I wasn’t sure what to do with the lower one and it was in the way, but I started to carry her back nonetheless. Her knees and tail dragged, furrowing the sand behind us.

“How is she?” Aretan met me part-way and grabbed another arm, lifting the part of the weight off me with a grunt.

“Bad. Heart’s barely beating.”

“Not good,” Aretan said solemnly. “What about the hit she took that knocked her away?”

“I doubt she really felt the impact. Girl’s as tough as they come, even for a demon.” I looked across at Aretan over my demonic friend’s horns.

Aretan nodded. “I can believe that. She received at least a full dose of venom from a titan scorpion. I have never heard of anyone or anything surviving that.”

“Fuck. Is there any way to treat the venom?”

“I do not know,” Aretan sighed. “Usually, the sting itself kills the person. I’ve heard that some big animals live a few moments more before collapsing. I’ve only even seen a titan scorpion once before, and it was in the deep desert.”

“What happened?”

“The titan scorpion was very far away and moving between burrows at night.”

“I expected something much worse,” I laughed dryly.

“Trust me, if it had seen us that time, I would not be here. We were lucky this one was barely even an adult.”

I almost tripped. “What.”

“Do not go into the deep desert,” Aretan looked at me seriously.

“Trust me I never want to.” I shuddered.

“Good,” Aretan said with finality.

We reached the camp and headed for our wagon since we knew it’d be empty enough to lay her down.

“Do titan scorpions ever show up on this route?”

“I’ve heard it has happened, but not since I’ve been alive.”

“What does a monster like that even eat?”

“Out here? Everything that is big enough. They are ambush predators. I need to hear more from my crew, but I did hear so far that it was hidden in the sand and ambushed the lead wagon. My guess is the vibrations from our caravan were enticing.”

While Aretan was explaining, Nelys ran up and picked Zarenna’s tail off the ground. “No one here knows how to make Zarenna better. There’s a kai-roar-jen in the next town that might, though!”

“Do you mean chirurgeon?” I asked.

“Yeah, one of those!” Nelys started to smile and failed. “What does it mean?”

I explained in Cavenish and Nelys’ smile returned.

A few moments later, we reached our wagon and loaded Zarenna into the back. The glances we’d gotten in the caravan seemed concerned, so I hoped we’d have their full cooperation, including resources if needed. I knew Zarenna didn’t have a lot of money and we’d need what I had to get to Ordia.

We laid Zarenna down on a sheet. Checking her back, the skin and muscle were healed with no sign of a puncture wound. Her breathing was very shallow and irregular. Her heartbeat, however, was steady, but far, far too slow. We covered her with a second sheet, as much for decency as any other reason.

Nelys opted to stay with Zarenna. I stepped out of the wagon with Aretan and looked toward the front of the caravan where the first wagon was a ruin and the second badly damaged. People clustered around the area, cleaning up and helping the wounded.

“I knew patrols had been lessened, but I did not think something like this could happen.” Aretan’s face was hard.

“Yeah.” I couldn’t think of anything else to say to that. I followed the mercenary leader’s gaze to the bodies of the dead.

Three of his people had died. One had been stung like Zarenna. Several others were injured some badly. Out of the crowd, Florian walked toward us, his face somber. Both of us glanced at him as he approached, but neither of us said anything.

“Seyari,” Florian broke the silence, “I wanted to thank you and your contracted demon. This disaster would have been much worse had you not been with us.”

“Sure. You should call her Zarenna.”

Florian stared at my expression for a moment. “I will. Tell Zarenna that I will do whatever is within my power to aid in her recovery.”

“Thank you,” both Aretan and I replied.

Florian bowed. “I need to help take inventory and determine how best to redistribute goods to the remaining wagons. I will give consideration to making sure Zarenna has space.”

He turned and walked back to the others. I looked over at Aretan.

“How quickly can we get to the town?” I asked.

“If we push through the night, we can make it there before sunup,” Aretan replied, turning back toward me.

“It’ll have to be good enough.”

“I wanted to thank you three as well. Seyari, you took out one of the tails and at least one person is alive because Nelys helped get him away from the fighting. When she recovers, I want to thank Zarenna especially. She pulled the scorpion’s attention from my soldiers and distracted its tails, not to mention the damage she inflicted.”

“I didn’t do enough,” I whispered under my breath.

“What was that?”

“Nothing. You’re welcome, I guess.”

With everyone pitching in, we scavenged parts from the ruined wagon and managed to fix the damaged one. As per request, the dead were cremated before we moved on. We were moving again before sunset.

The night was bright with stars and a pale moon overhead. Nelys and I stayed by Zarenna’s side in our wagon while Aretan stayed with his crew. The crimson woman’s breathing evened out but stayed shallow while her heartbeat remained unchanged and deathly slow. I don’t think either of us spoke the whole time.

Our wagon had been partially filled with textiles, leaving little space for anyone but Zarenna to lie down. I gave what little space there was to Nelys who, despite their protests, nodded off eventually.

I stayed up the entire night, part of which was spent watching the stars from the back of the wagon. The possibility of Zarenna dying weighed heavily on my mind. I’d gotten really attached to her, despite everything. Hell, I’d been growing closer to her for a while now.

I would just end up hurting Zarenna, though. But it was too late to back out now. Maybe I selfishly wanted to try to get closer, but I’d never be able to be as close as she wanted. I could tell she was starting to worry over what I hadn’t told her.

What I could never tell her.

Fuck.