“I’m not sure.”
“We must find the cure.” He closed his eyes. “If it is not truly him, then I cannot bear to see him any longer.”
I knew it must have been hard for him. The death of a loved one was never easy to deal with, and having to relive it must have been heartrending. But that wasn’t our only problem. If I didn’t find a cure for Kull’s wound, he would soon bleed to death.
Something stirred at the cave’s mouth.
I focused on the entrance as someone moved toward us. “Someone’s here,” I whispered, taking the knife from my pack.
“Yes,” Kull said. “Someone has been tracking me for quite some time, although I wasn’t able to determine who it was.”
The faint sound of footsteps echoed. I walked quietly away from Kull and approached the figure, though I couldn’t see anything but the silhouette of a woman. As I drew closer, I paused.
The person stopped, allowing me a brief glance. Her dark skin and long white braids were unmistakable. Uli stood in the shadows.
I closed my eyes. This isn’t real, this isn’t real, I repeated in my head.
When I opened my eyes, she was gone, yet I heard the footsteps again. My heart thudded. I stepped forward. The dim light made it impossible to see anything but the dark forms of rocks. The footsteps grew louder, echoing, making it impossible for me to tell my own footsteps from the intruder’s.
“Uli?” I whispered. This was a trick. I knew it was a trick, and still, I held out hope that what I’d seen had been real.
I am here, Deathbringer.
Her voice echoed in my head. I held my knife so tightly I felt my circulation being cut off.
A woman emerged from the cave’s dark maw, but it was not Uli. Princess Euralysia walked toward me.
The glow from her necklace illuminated her face, but it also deepened the shadows under her eyes. She wore breeches and a loose shirt, and her platinum-white hair was pulled into a sloppy bun. She held only a leather pack as she casually walked forward, although her shrewd gaze made me feel vulnerable.
“Princess?” I asked. “What are you doing here?”
“Following Kull,” she said. She looked at my knife. “You’ve no need of that.”
I held it a moment longer. Was this some sort of trick?
“Kull was under the dark creatures’ influence. I feared he would hurt himself or someone else, so I have been following him for some time now. When I saw him scaling the mountains to the dragons’ lair, I knew he was in increasing danger of losing his life.” She stared past me. “It looks as if I was correct. What happened?”
“He didn’t get along with the dragons. He gets grumpy when someone tries to kill his girlfriend.”
“You must let me help him.”
“How? You have no magic.”
She touched her necklace. “I’ve no need of it.”
I’d never trusted her. She had more secrets than my father, and that was saying something. But if she could help Kull, then I had no choice but to let her.
“Fine,” I answered. “But I’m keeping my knife.”
“Very well,” she said with a nod.
We walked out of the shadows and into the domed cavern. Although the ceiling had cracked, evidence of the elven architecture was still present. The princess glanced at the pillars but made no mention of them.
I led her to Kull. With his pale skin and closed eyes, I wasn’t sure if he were still conscious or not. Dark blood formed a pool beneath him. He wouldn’t last much longer if we couldn’t stop the bleeding.
We knelt beside him, and the princess’s delicate fingers moved with grace as she peeled away the soaked scarf and inspected his wound. She pressed gently right above the gash, and dark blood trickled out.
“He’s injured his internal organs,” she said.
“Yes. That’s what I suspected.”
“Kull,” she said softly. “Can you hear me?”
His eyelids fluttered. He whispered something, though I couldn’t make out his words.
“I am going to heal you, but in return I ask for your aid. You must help me implicitly without hesitation. Do you agree to this?”
He moaned but didn’t answer.
“He would never agree to such a thing,” I answered for him.
She shot me a calculating glare. “I did not ask for your opinion.”
I couldn’t believe I was hearing this. “If you are truly concerned for his well-being,” I said, “then you would not ask him to give up his free will in order to serve you. You would heal him without reward.”
“That is true; however, it is necessary that I receive his help. And yours, as well.”
“Why?”
“Because the fate of our future is in grave danger. There is more at stake than the survival of magic. You must believe me when I say I serve the greater good—just as your father. I promise I will not ask him to do anything contrary to his beliefs.”
“Then why are you making him bargain for it?”
She was silent for a moment. “Because I must be guaranteed that he will help me, no matter what the circumstances.”
I knelt beside the princess, hoping she saw my determination. “And what are the circumstances?”
Our gazes met, and for a brief moment, she let her guard down, revealing the fear in her eyes. “We travel to Verutith,” she said. “We will take back the island’s magic so the blossom can be restored, but in order to do that, we must defeat the dark creatures.”
“How do you plan to do that?”
“We will use the power of the Everblossom.” Her eyes darkened. “And we will kill them all.”
Chapter 32
We walked through the tunnels under the dragon’s mountain. Despite my misgivings, the princess had healed Kull. I wasn’t sure he understood what he’d agreed to at the time, but at least the princess had been true to her word. She’d used her crystals to heal him completely, so that not even scars remained after she’d finished. She’d also removed the spell that was causing his visions, though I had no
