Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 64872 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64872 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
She runs off and Olyn helps me position our patient on his side, using her cloak to pillow his head.
Megaera returns with a fire-starter wedged inside her belt.
I rise. “We need to find the plant that poisoned him.”
Megaera starts for the caves and I snatch her arm, gently pulling her back, shaking my head. “We need to prepare.”
Her gaze sweeps over the other teams; all but the royal team are racing towards the caves. I look over and Florentius catches my gaze. We both know what kinds of plants and animals may lie in wait in these caves, and we both know the importance of protecting ourselves first and foremost.
To murmurings in the crowd, our two teams don’t run to the caves but turn into the woods. “What are you doing?” Prins Lief hisses as I push past our attending stormblades.
“Trying to win this.”
I scramble to collect useful plants, and have Megaera grind them into powders and pastes that we store between waxy leaves or in our emptied pouches. Our handkerchiefs I use to tie around our mouths and noses, and after finding cane-like sticks, we race for the caves.
The royal team are about to enter the left cave mouth when we arrive; they glance at us as they enter. Megaera and I careen into the other cave. Icy air instantly curls around us like rope and drags us deeper inside. Megaera takes the fire-starter from her belt and blows on it.
A small flame bursts to life and she looks over it at me. Her hand snaps out and flicks something off my shoulder. I follow the soft thud to a venomous blue-backed spider scurrying away. Megaera moves calmly past a larger web of nesting blue-backs and I follow, reminded that she’s always been adept at handling poisons, not only in the cheeky way she uses them on Lykos, but earlier. When she was betrothed to me. When she studied them in her pursuit to save her father.
“He has symptoms of magentapuff poisoning,” I murmur.
“Mmm. His nails were turning green.”
“You’ve used magentapuff before?”
She shakes her head. “Only read about it. It’s rare, and dangerous. We can’t touch its petals or breathe in its puff.”
“The antidote is in its nectar.”
She nods with a grimace. We’ll have to get close.
“That’s not the only hard part,” I murmur.
“You’re expecting silversnakes.”
I’m impressed. “How do you know?”
She opens the string on the pouch carrying knockout powder and pinches some. “There are two behind you.”
She tosses a small cloud at my heels and I swivel to see two raised and ready-to-strike snake heads flop to the ground.
A shrill cry echoes around the cave walls, the source sounding close. I pinch some knockout powder and use it through a nest of silversnakes to get round a darker, moister corner of the cave. There, groaning against a slick mud wall, is a young man in an orange cloak; his leader crouches over him, training magic into his veins. I spy the snake bite and the swelling and inhale the sharp tang of the spell. I rush forward, grabbing one set of our waxy leaves. “You need serpentiswort. It’ll keep the venom from spreading.”
Sweating under the intensity of his spell, he grunts.
I rip at the young man’s leggings, exposing the severity of the wound. It’s already turning. I peel open a leaf and slather minced serpentiswort over his wound, tying it in place with shredded orange fabric. “Get him to safety. Where’s the rest of your team?”
“Getting the antidote,” he hisses.
He finishes his spell and buckles forward, bracing against his knees as he catches his breath.
The young man whimpers. “Whatever’s on this leaf, it’s—” he stops himself. “Help me up. I can get myself back to the patient.”
His leader growls as he carefully aids his friend. “I’ll get you there.” Narrowed eyes land on me. “This doesn’t change anything.”
Only the way I see you. Loyal to your friends.
They hobble away, their flapping orange cloaks a beacon in the dark. Megaera and I continue deeper into the cave. There are lots of tunnelling passages and at each turn we take a rock, blacken it with our flame, and mark our direction. The musical sound of dripping water has me racing around a few lefts. Our plant thrives on the dark and water—
I stumble over a root and catch myself on crumbly rock. “Careful, Megaera, there’s—”
I gasp. It wasn’t a root. It’s someone’s arm. I hold our small flame closer. Four unconscious bodies. I take their pulses. “Megaera . . .”
She passes me the salve and I swipe some under each of their noses. We find handkerchiefs to protect them from breathing in any more of the spores, then I push to my feet and we round a corner into a spacious cavern.
My step hitches. The ceiling rises far above, as high as a grand luminarium; from its centre, a shaft of sunlight streams into the middle of a dark lake, water droplets big and small falling around it.