Brightly (Flicker #2) (46 page)

“Why did you call it?” Lee asked again.

“I wanted to ask him a question,” Henry said. He was still staring into the trees, where the elk had gone. “That’s all. It probably won’t matter.”

Lee sighed. “Do you want to try the spell again?”

“If you think we should.”

They’d been walking since this morning, never straying too far from the river so they wouldn’t get lost, periodically stopping. Lee had cast the spell three times already, always with no result. No matter where she cast, her magic didn’t pick up on anything.

She strongly suspected that it wasn’t a matter of her location, but a matter of the bag of salt being gone: washing downriver where the magic couldn’t find it, or torn open, the salt dissolved. Still, the tracking spell didn’t take much energy, so she could cast it a few more times before they started back. It might not help, but it couldn’t hurt.

“We might as well,” Lee said.

This time, it’ll work. This time, for sure.
She tried to buoy herself with that thought, but she’d told herself the same thing every other time she cast the spell. The words were becoming meaningless.

Lee pulled out her knife and began to trace a fresh circle on the ground.

The stars were blazing overhead when Lee stirred and pushed herself onto her elbows. She hadn’t slept a full night since they came here. Every few hours, she snapped awake and went to check on Nasser. It was hard to be away from him. Even when she was casting the tracking spell with Henry, her thoughts had been here.

The fire was burning low, but she could see fairly well by the soft light of the fruit trees. Everyone was asleep but Filo, she saw. He sat near the edge of the ward, knees drawn against his chest, his face buried in his arms.

She crawled out of her sleeping bag and crept over to him, rubbing her arms. The days were warm here, but the nights could get very cold. Why was Filo sitting so far from the fire?

He didn’t seem to notice when she sat down near him. His shoulders were hitching slightly and his breath was coming in muffled gasps. For a moment, she stared. She had never seen him cry before.

“Filo?” she whispered, edging closer. “Are you okay?”

When she touched his arm, he jumped like he’d been shocked and twisted away from her, wiping furiously at his face.

“I’m fine,” he said thickly, but she could see that his eyes were red-rimmed.

“What’s wrong?”

For a while, he didn’t answer. Keeping his gaze fixed on the ground, Filo muttered, “It’s Nasser. He’s so sick. The infection’s spreading. He needs medical attention.
Real
medical attention. If we don’t get him back to Siren…”

She grabbed his arm. “What?”

“He’s dying, Lee. Every hour, he gets worse. At this rate, it won’t be long. We might have a few more days, but with how fast he’s deteriorating, I doubt it. So does he.”

Lee’s pulse kicked up. All of a sudden, her limbs tingled with the need to stand up, to run—but there was nowhere to go, and no way to outrun this. “What are we going to do?”

“We’ve already done everything we can. I mean, we can give him the powder to help him sleep and try to keep him as comfortable as we can, but beyond that…”

Digging her fingers into his arm, Lee whispered hotly, “So you’re saying we should just sit here and watch him—” But her voice failed. She couldn’t get her breath.

Filo pried her hand from his arm with surprising gentleness. When he spoke, his voice was soft but thin, fraying. “I’m saying that the best we can do is be with him when it happens.”

Lee released a shaky breath. For a minute, she closed her eyes, but the darkness behind them was too vast. “You should lie down,” she whispered, when she found her voice. “It’s too cold to sit around like this.”

“I wouldn’t be able to sleep.” He buried his face in his arms again.

She scooted closer to him, careful not to touch him, to give him his space. Filo was wary of physical contact. He didn’t usually like to be touched. She had always wondered about that: what was in the bone, just part of his nature, and what had been ingrained into him from years of abuse. Either way, she’d learned to let him initiate most contact.

“You’re tired,” Lee said. “This isn’t helping anything. Try to get some sleep. Please.”

At length, he unfurled himself and returned to his sleeping bag. She did the same, but she didn’t sleep. She waited until Filo’s breathing was slow and regular, and then she crept to where Nasser lay.

Lee took one of his hands in both of hers. She just wanted to feel him. As long as she was touching him, she could close her eyes, because she knew he was still there. She could force herself to take a series of ragged breaths that did little to ease the feeling of impending collapse inside her ribcage. She could try to swallow the tears burning in the back of her throat.

“Please, please, please,” she whispered, feeling like she was pleading with the universe, with nothing, with herself. “Please, he can’t die. I love him.”

“Lee?”

She startled at the sound of Nasser’s voice, though her name sounded fragile in his mouth. When she opened her eyes, she found that her lashes were wet. She wanted to wipe at them, but there was no way to do it without him seeing, and she couldn’t bear the thought of him seeing her cry. Not now. She blinked rapidly and tried to pull herself together.

Nasser watched her with cloudy gray eyes, like he was observing her through a fog. His mouth twitched, lifting a little at one side, but a smile seemed beyond him.

“How are you feeling?” she asked.

It took him a moment to respond. “Tired,” he said finally. “Everything hurts.”

“I’ll get you something for the pain. It’ll help you fall back asleep.”

“I don’t want to sleep. Not until I have to.”

She could see the gleam of fear in his eyes. “Nasser…”

“You are so beautiful.” With obvious difficulty, he reached up and touched her hair. “I could look at you forever and it wouldn’t be enough.”

Lee held his hand against her cheek. His skin was hot, but she was unwilling to let go.

“I love you,” he said gravely.

Her throat was so tight that it was hard to speak. “I know you do,” she managed, running her thumb back and forth along the back of his hand. “I love you so much. And it’s okay. You can sleep. I’m going to take care of you. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

Nasser’s eyes never left her face. “Promise?”

“I promise.”

“Well—” He tried to smile again, and she felt his fingers twitch. “If you say so.”

He lowered his hand. She retrieved another tablet from her pack. She wanted to give him two, but they didn’t have many left, and he would need them later.

There would be a
later
, she told herself firmly. There would be.

When the painkiller kicked in and his whole body relaxed, his eyes drifting shut, Lee curled up beside him. She laid her head on his uninjured shoulder. She could feel the heat of his fever radiating from his skin, through his clothes, but she didn’t move. She just listened to his breathing, grateful for each rise and fall of his chest. She kept her eyes open.

The thin, sharp cries of birds made Lee bolt upright. It was morning, the sky an incredibly pale blue and the woods filled with slanting light. When had she fallen asleep?

It was just as well, she thought, since it was time to check Nasser’s leg anyway. She had come to dread this task, but it had to be done. Gingerly, she sat up and looked at him. He was still asleep. In fact, he didn’t look like he’d stirred at all since last night, though his face was turned away from her.

“Nasser,” she whispered, gently nudging his shoulder. “Nasser.”

He didn’t respond. She nudged him again. When he didn’t wake, she shook him. His head lolled to one side and his eyes stayed shut. He was so pale.

It wasn’t until Filo seized her by the arms and pulled her off of him that she realized she was making high, keening noises: Nasser’s name, over and over. She twisted toward Filo, who hauled her to her feet, still holding her wrists.

“He’s not waking up,” she shrilled, her voice closer to a scream than anything else as she tried to yank free of him. “Filo, he’s not waking up, he’s not—”

Filo shushed her. He didn’t release her. “Henry, will you check on him?”

Evidently, Lee’s shouts had woken Henry, too, because he stood behind them. He knelt beside Nasser, pressing two fingers to the soft spot under Nasser’s jaw. Then he bent, placing his ear near Nasser’s mouth, and listened for a long moment.

“He’s breathing,” Henry assured them. “He’s still burning up and his pulse is way too fast. Did you give him any sleeping powder last night?”

“Just a tablet.” Lee’s voice cracked. “It should’ve worn off by now. I should’ve been able to wake him up.”

She started to sob and Filo began shushing her again, his hands still clamped around her wrists. She didn’t listen. She struggled against him, her heart beating so hard that it hurt, but his grip was like iron.

Filo jerked her close, and as she looked up into his face, she remembered another moment, not long after they’d first met, when he’d grabbed her the same way. He wasn’t just shushing her, she realized. He was speaking to her in Old Faerie, low and fast, but when she listened, she understood the words:
“Shhh. You’re going to be all right. Everything will be all right, but you have to calm down first.”

The rhythm of the language seemed to hit some unknown shutoff switch in her. She stopped struggling. Her knees turned to water and would’ve buckled, but Filo her up for a moment more before finally releasing her. Lee’s hands tingled. He’d been squeezing her wrists too tightly.

Lee wiped her cheeks with the heels of her hands, but the tears wouldn’t stop. She was trembling. She felt like she was sinking.

Then a rustling sound outside the ward made all three of them whip around.

A figure emerged from the trees. He was small, maybe four feet tall, dressed in a dingy, once-white shirt and trousers that had been patched so many times it was difficult to tell what the original fabric had been. He had a craggy, weathered face and his wiry black beard hung almost to his waist.

The dwarf stopped just outside the ward, surveying them with shiny dark eyes. He tapped the barrier with one long finger; it shimmered and rippled pale green. “The elk told me there were humans in this cavern,” he said in accented English, his teeth whistling slightly. “But I didn’t quite believe it. We don’t often see your kind in these caves.”

Lee glanced at Henry, but he didn’t look at her. “Is that all you came for?” he asked. “To see if we were real?”

“Not exactly,” said the dwarf. “The elk said you were looking for assistance of some kind, that you’d be willing to pay for it. I came because I was curious. What is it you need?”

“Our—our friend,” Lee stammered. “He’s hurt. And we need—”

The dwarf made a clucking sound with his tongue. “One thing at a time, little human. One thing at a time.” His dark eyes flicked toward where Nasser lay. “What’s the story?”

“He was mauled,” Filo said. “The wounds are infected. He’s very sick. Can you help him?”

“That depends on what you can pay.”

“What we’re willing to pay will depend on what you can do for him.”

At that, the dwarf smiled toothily, like Filo had said something funny. “Fey remedies are strong, and you are such fragile creatures. If I try to cure him, the result may not be what you wanted. But my wife is clever with potions. I daresay she could keep him as he is.”

“As he is?” Lee echoed. “You mean, keep him from getting worse?”

“Aye, for a time.”

Lee and Filo exchanged a look. Any time they could buy Nasser was precious, but it wouldn’t matter if they couldn’t get him back to the human world, where they actually stood a chance to save him. Above all, they needed to secure a way back.

“Listen,” Filo said, turning to the dwarf. “We’re looking for something in these caves. Two things. First, we need salt.”

“Salt?”

“Yes. Do you know what I’m talking about?”

“Of course I know what salt is,” said the dwarf, wrinkling his long nose. “You say you want to buy salt?”

Filo nodded. “Do you have any that you’re willing to sell?”

“Perhaps. You’d have to see my wife about something like that.” He paused. “You said there were two things. What else do you want to bargain?”

Henry pulled the shard of crystal from his pocket and held it out for the dwarf to see. Even now, the crystal pulsed. Sunlight glanced off its many planes. “Do you know if crystals like this one grow in these caves?”

“Yes. And I know where.”

“Could you lead us there?”

“For a price. We can negotiate that later. My wife will want a say.” He nodded toward Nasser. “Just now, that one looks worse off than any of you. You’ll want to do something for him. I can take you to my wife, and quickly, but she will set her own price for treating him. You can bargain with her directly.”