Still on my knees, I scoot around to her side. I shake the flask and estimate that only about two sips remain. I drip a little more sap into Tela’s mouth and rub it on the insides of her cheeks and gums.
“Tela, wake up,” I say several times.
Her eyes don’t open and she doesn’t make a sound. Thinking back again to when Larn healed my broken arm, he poured half a canister of sap on the break. I drank the other half. I’ve used far less than that on Tela’s entire body.
Considering how severe her injuries are and the large amount of blood she’s lost, she’ll never live through a journey back to the Delta. If I go on my own and come back with help, the round trip will take at least ten hours. I can’t risk leaving her alone for that long. If she doesn’t die from her injuries, the Murkovin could find her. The only solution is to get more sap as fast as I can.
The wild sap of the Barrens didn’t change Balt into a Murkovin overnight. His transition seemed to be gradual, leading me to the conclusion that it takes a while to fully change a person. As much as I don’t want to, my only option is to use wild sap. Fortunately, I know exactly where to get it.
Chapter 17
“I’ll be back soon,” I say to Tela. “Hang on a little longer.”
I raise the flask that still has a little sap in it to my lips. One large gulp drips into my mouth. I clip all four flasks to my belt, carefully take Tela’s empty canister from over her shoulder, and find mine on the ground. After standing to my feet, I drape the canisters around my neck.
As I step into the tunnel, I stop to look back at Tela. If she regains consciousness, I don’t want her to wake up in the dark. But if a Murkovin pokes around the rocks, they might see the light.
“Dark,” I say, trying the opposite of the word that ignited the purple.
The light fades away, leaving a dull silhouette of Tela on the ground. I feel my way through the tunnel until I reach the end. Before stepping through the seam in the boulders, I listen for any sounds. Not hearing anything, I slither outside to the gully.
After surveying the hillside above me and the ravine ledge on the other side, I break into a sprint to the south. Almost immediately, I stop and spin around. Nothing is moving behind me, but I wanted to make sure that no one was in hiding and waiting for me to show myself.
Keeping my traveling speed to a minimum, I eventually reach the canyon that I escaped through with Tela. I find a spot to cross to the other side and then return to the area where we first saw the transport. On a hilltop about a mile away from where Tela fell over the cliff, I search the wasteland for any sign of Murkovin. Far in the distance to the east, I spot a single blur of light, but it’s heading away from me.
Sprinting from large boulder to large boulder and pausing behind each one, I descend the hill and cross the uneven ground to the outside of the low hills surrounding the tree and transport. Careful not to disturb a single rock or make a sound, I climb to the top of a knoll on the southern side of where the tree stands. When I reach the crest, I peek over a rocky ridge.
On the far side of the tree, three Murkovin sit together on the side of another hill. I’m certain it’s the same three who were standing on the ledge when I rescued Tela from the canyon. Two are dressed in ragged, black clothes, and the third only in a pair of pants. All of them have steel spears in their hands.
The body of the Murkovin Tela wounded is no longer by the tree. I don’t know if he died or was taken somewhere to heal, but I don’t care. What I need right now is a weapon, but there aren’t any spears on the ground by the tree. At the very least, mine should be there and probably the wounded creature’s as well. It occurs to me that maybe the Murkovin haven’t gone to the canyon to retrieve the spears they threw at me and are using the two that should be by the tree.
I creep back down to the bottom of the hill, run around it, and then jog up the slope of another hill to the edge of the deep canyon. Tela’s spear is still lying on the dirt at the bottom as well as the two Murkovin weapons that were thrown at me. I have no intention of fighting the beasts, but I’ll feel better if I have one with me. More importantly, a spear will help the plan that’s taking shape in my mind.
I run along the ledge of the canyon to the north. When I reach the same place that I jumped from before, I spring into the gully. I travel to the spears, snatch two from the ground, and return to the area by the Murkovin camp. This time, I stop outside the northern side of the circle of low hills. If the Murkovin haven’t moved, they should be sitting on the other side of the hill that’s in front of me.
While examining the base of the hill, I see several boulders large enough for a person to hide behind. Staying low to the ground, I jog to one of the rocks and stab a spear in the dirt behind it. I adjust the exposed tip so that only a few inches of steel stick out above the top of the rock, but enough to be seen from the hilltop.
Taking the other spear with me, I quietly climb the slope and look
