there, and she fled for a reason.” The bright beams of energy ceased to be as Heisle’s broken body slowly shriveled into little more than a leathery ball.
Hours later the relatively calm, as well as the horribly outraged, had abandoned the arena save two large figures. Draining energies still filled the large space; pain, sadness, and uncertainty. Baal didn’t like being there. It made him feel weak at an incredibly vulnerable time. Delia looked at the ground and laughed at the crumpled raisin-like form of Heisle. Baal didn’t find it amusing in the least.
“Do you think those Healers will ever forget what we did to one of their own?” he asked.
Delia chuckled again. “Nope, they’ll never forget what you did to one of their own, and you’d probably die trying to take it from their minds, since Heisle gave his to put it there,” she said flatly.
Baal threw his sharp arms up in disbelief.
“Do you think there will be a revolt?” she asked him. Her voice was uncaring, as always.
“No. Healers make peace, not war.” Baal felt certain of this, but there was a hesitation to his words.
“Sometimes war brings about peace,” she countered. There was a smile in her voice.
“Do you truly not care about what is ahead of you or about anything?” he spat.
Baal was face to face with her. He remembered how she’d looked as a Healer, long flowing golden hair, thin waist, bright smile. Now she was a deformed creature, giant and sharp, like himself. All of her beauty had faded as she’d gained and retained power as his had. But he never missed his looks. He’d rather have the power.
“What is ahead, what is behind, it doesn’t matter. I have lived too long to care about anything that happens, but I’m glad for the change, a bit of excitement in the centuries of dullness. Did I ever tell you how happy I was when Shiphra fled?” she asked.
His anger boiled over, and she laughed.
He stifled his anger and spoke. “We are beacons of power mortals know not of. Does duty mean nothing to you?” he asked. Delia smiled a twisted smile, her sharp cheekbones becoming peaks. “It used to, but my sense of duty fled years ago, as did yours.”
Baal went to speak but had nothing to say.
“Duty means nothing to you. It’s power, energy, and control you hold dear. Otherwise, you’d care as little as I do about Amanda being free. Why is it so important? Because people disagreed with your decree and acted upon it, and it kills you.” She brushed a single long white hair out of her face delicately as if she cherished the remnants of this reminder of her old appearance. Then she continued. “Don’t worry. This is a mere bump in the road. You like ordering, and they seem to be okay with following. So, who cares?”
Baal let out a breath that he had been holding for some time. Delia’s words had soothed his troubled mind.
Delia looked back at the strange leather clump that had been Heisle and picked it up from the ground. She tossed Heisle casually back and forth in her gigantic hands like a basketball. She interrupted his calming breath, gleefully taking away the relief she’d brought to him. “Of course, things are going to be a heck of a lot bumpier around here if Amanda—”
Baal cut her off in a roar of anger as he looked at the ball that was Heisle and understood what she was going to say. “Don’t even think it! I forbid you.”
With that, Delia gently tossed Heisle into Baal’s cold hands and glided away coolly.
8
“Oh, please let Madgie be okay,” Amanda pleaded.
Each passing minute without Madgie was accompanied with a new and terrible possibility as to what could have happened to her, compliments of her over-worrisome mind. They’d been searching for hours with no sign of her… or Carter. She wondered if they had chosen the wrong direction. Maybe they were on the other side of the hill.
Hopefully, Cole was having more luck. She thought about going back, but something told her the valley was the right place to look. Amanda had pictured them here so clearly, and although she couldn’t see or feel them, she knew they were somewhere near. She pushed her way blindly through a thick group of bushes and caught her foot on something hard. With a chorus of breaking branches, she fell to the ground.
“Stupid rocks,” she grumbled.
Amanda was trying to untangle herself, quietly hoping that no one, friend or foe, had heard her fall. She managed to get herself into a kneeling position and began examining her scraped palms, her skin was raised up in an odd-looking welt that didn’t seem to have anything to do with the fall. She was trying to understand this new set of marks when she heard a branch snap in front of her. Her head jerked up. How close was that? Twenty- five yards, or less? Unable to see anything through all of the dense bamboo, she narrowed her eyes, squinting into the darkness. The white moon cast an eerie light onto the valley, seeming to wash away all color.
She didn’t move, didn’t breathe, straining her ears to hear something. The rustling of bushes, the snapping of a twig, but the only sound she heard was her own heart thudding loudly in her ears. She relaxed. There was nothing out there. If she jumped at every noise she heard, she’d be too busy jumping to find Madgie.
She just hadn’t been in the wilderness for a long while. Not since she’d stopped running…
Amanda’s attempt at calming thoughts was interrupted by the barely audible intake of a raspy breath.
Staring at where the sound had come from, she tried to ignore the fact that the noise didn’t sound human. She imagined two bright spheres glowing like embers three feet from the ground. Amanda couldn’t see the pair of eyes, but she could feel them. She felt the scream rise to her throat but choked it back.
She drew up her strength and found she didn’t have much.
Her fear was too great, and the poison in her veins seemed to thrive on it. Amanda glanced at her outstretched hands and saw the marks begin to darken and spread, feathering out like an ink well spilling on white paper. Her core lashed out at the migrating disease, her soul feebly attempting to keep the darkness from overcoming her entire being. The inner fight tore away the last of her strength, and she slowly fell to her side, collapsing in pain. Amanda’s delicate face impacted the rough, unforgiving terrain.
A trail of black tainted blood poured out of her torn cheek and ran into the darkness. She didn’t feel her cheek split open or the sharp rock that had pierced her thigh. Amanda didn’t even feel the rush of air escape her lips in a cry of agony. She could only feel the poison tearing at her being and the desire that it would just take her, wishing she could just cease to be.
“If this is payment for running, I was never running from you. I just couldn’t handle their pain, it was…”
Through the fog of agony, Amanda felt more than heard padded footsteps. She opened her eyes slowly. Her vision came in and out of focus, bringing her dark blood into clear view, then the opening in front of her. She saw the convex trail of gore still flowing, the earth refusing to absorb it, then the clearing and the movement. A tall wisp of bamboo lazily leaned four inches to the right, and her unnatural lifeblood continued on its way.
“Come on, eyes!” She tried to refocus on the distant outline of the grove, and a new sound sprang up behind her, a swift chiming-like wind through a field of grass. Then the noise was in front of her again.
They were circling her like vultures. She hoped Cole had found Madgie and gotten out of there. The clearing came back into focus, and shimmering moonlight danced off the silver fur of a large wolf. The animal was far too large to be a normal wolf. The creature had been touched by magic in some way. Amanda could see the power and energy flowing from the beast. She’d never witnessed anything like it. She had no strength left in her to fight, but instinct told her to soak up the energy crashing out of the wolf. She wondered at the strange urge but tried it.
She closed her eyes and breathed the animal’s energy into her body, and she was swept away. Amanda felt hair blowing around her face and, through another’s eyes, witnessed rocky terrain flying underfoot faster than a person’s legs should have allowed. Cool, fresh air was pumping in and out of her lungs, cleansing both body and mind.
Fear rippled away replaced by exhilaration. Her spirit walled the poison back into its dam, and her energy returned to her as the pain ebbed. Amanda’s hand went to her cheek as the gaping wound that had been there closed up. She hadn’t ever felt the way she did in that moment and struggled to find the words to describe it. After
