Taste Of Darkness

I rushed over to him. “Have you seen Kerrick?”

“Nope, and we figured we wouldn’t see either of you until...” His smirk faded. “Maybe he went outside for some fresh air.” This in a hopeful tone.

“Without his shirt?”

“Well, when nature calls...”

“Or his sword?”

Loren jumped up. “Let’s not panic, Avry.”

Too late.

“Have you searched the other caverns?” he asked.

“Not yet.”

“Okay, then you look for him inside, and I’ll go outside. If he’s not nearby, I’ll ask the guards if they saw him last night. All right?”

I nodded, but dread clawed up my throat. Kerrick wouldn’t be in another cavern unless he’d been too sick to find his way back to me. Gulping down the tight knot, I grabbed a lantern and checked all the other sleeping areas.

A few people grumbled after I swept the light over them, but I didn’t care.

Odd squinted in the brightness, but sat up as if he’d been awake. “What’s wrong?”

I explained.

He cursed. “Not only did Wynn stab us in the back, she’s twisted the blade, too.”

“While I’d love to plot revenge with you—”

“Yeah, go. I’ll be right out.”

The other caverns yielded the same results. Even the one reserved for the privy. A detached part of my mind noted the buckets needed to be dumped. However my heart kept its frantic rhythm. That was the last place inside. Perhaps...

Running back to the main cavern, I spotted Loren and Odd talking to a soldier.

“...sometime after midnight,” the man said. “Don’t recall if he came back or not.”

Loren rounded on him. “Don’t recall! You’re supposed to be guarding us. What if the enemy grabbed him? If someone goes into the woods and doesn’t come back, that’s a big red flag, you idiot!”

Odd touched Loren’s shoulder and tilted his head toward me. “Not helping right now.”

“He was outside?” I asked.

The guard had seen him leave. I dashed out into the cold morning air. The fresh scent of moist earth reminded me of Kerrick. Without hesitating, I embraced the closest bit of foliage, seeking the vibrations of Kerrick’s forest magic.

Nothing. I drew a shaky breath. Don’t jump to conclusions. He could be unconscious. Odd and Loren had followed me out. Six inches shorter than Odd, Loren ran a hand over his buzzed black hair. More silver sprinkled his hair despite only being thirty-five. Odd on the other hand had let his hair grow since Tohon’s surprise attack. Although saying it had grown was being generous. His dark brown locks remained close to his scalp in a fine fuzz.

“We need to search the area. Wake the others,” I ordered.

They hastened inside and soon Flea, Quain, and most of the soldiers had assembled by the cave’s entrance. Using one of Ryne’s military maps, Loren divided the surrounding area into quadrants. The infirmary cave was located in Pomyt Realm, northeast of Zabin and east of the ruins of the Healer’s Guild.

Quain growled at everyone, but he appeared healthy despite being frozen in Sepp’s magical stasis only yesterday. But Flea’s face remained pale and he seemed unsteady on his feet. The discovery of his ability to break Sepp’s stasis had taken a toll on him.

I moved closer to him. “Flea, stay here, you’re in no condition—”

“No. I’m going.” Despite being sixteen, he sounded much older. And his firm gaze meant I’d have an easier time convincing fire not to burn.

Before assigning quadrants to the teams, Loren pulled me aside. “Hate to bring this up, but if he’s... If we find...”

“A dead body?” Not like I hadn’t thought of it a million times since I’d woken up.

“Yeah.”

“Tell them to find me as fast as possible. I have the Lily map—we’ll head to the closest Peace Lily and hope for the best.” I glanced at Flea. A Peace Lily had saved his life and mine; it might save Kerrick’s.

The strain on Loren’s face eased just a bit. “Right.” He shouted orders and the teams of four headed into the woods, fanning out to their assigned areas.

No surprise that Loren, Quain, and Flea joined me. I trailed my fingers along the greenery, hoping to detect Kerrick’s magic. At this point, I’d pray to Estrid’s creator if I thought it would help.

As a group, we moved in silent mode. Despite Tohon’s current condition—frozen in stasis, because if he weren’t, he’d die from the deep stab wound in his chest, a little gift from me—his army still advanced from the south. Cellina had taken over command. Just as ruthless as he was, at least she couldn’t create more dead soldiers. And we’d discovered how to stop the ones in existence. So it was only a matter of time until we neutralized them all.

What if we didn’t find Kerrick in time? The Peace Lilys were picky. From the little I’d learned, the person in question either needed to be a magician or have the potential to be one, and the body had to be fresh. Flea’d been dead a few hours and I had died inside the Lily.

Well, actually, the Lily hadn’t brought us back to life. It’d preserved our bodies until another person touched us. I’d awoken Flea and Kerrick had saved me.

Kerrick, why didn’t you wake me? Why didn’t you tell me you felt sick?

What if the Peace Lily rejected him? Like it refused Ursan and Noelle? Although Ursan had been a magic sniffer, he’d been dead too long, and my sister, Noelle, hadn’t been gifted with magic. I was the only one in my family who’d developed powers. Healing powers, not that it helped with either of them. Or Kerrick. I couldn’t cure those poisoned by Death Lily toxin or infected with the plague.

The plague had killed two-thirds of the population of the Fifteen Realms. At least there hadn’t been a new case in almost three years. But during its prime, over six million people had died.

Gee, not like I wasn’t depressed enough. I focused my energies on the search. How far could one sick man go anyway?

The day dragged on. We made sweeping arcs through our area, but only managed to scare a few rabbits, which Loren shot with his bow. Sunlight streamed through the gaps in the trees, heating the air to a comfortable level—summer’s last gasp. Fall started in eleven days.

Memories of last fall came unbidden. Around midseason Kerrick and the guys had rescued me from the guillotine. Because of his forest magic, his eyes had matched the color of the forest with warm browns, gold, and amber flecks. I huffed. His personality hadn’t coordinated at all. He’d been cold, mean, and only cared about healing Prince Ryne, which had been why he’d freed me from jail.

Loren raised his hand in a stopping motion. We froze, listening. Hope surged, but died just as quick. The noise of the other searchers’ passage had carried. They weren’t as skilled in moving through the forest. Instead of their movements blending in with the forest’s song, it stood out like an out-of-tune violin in a string quartet.

My emotions had been on an endless seesaw over the past month. First Tohon’s vast army had surrounded Estrid’s and he’d demanded unconditional surrender. Cellina had acted as his liaison and Kerrick’s sword had hung from her belt. She’d claimed Kerrick had been torn apart by her pack of dead ufas. He hadn’t. But then Ryne had sent Kerrick north to fight the invading tribes and a messenger had reported he’d died in the attempt. He hadn’t.

So this was just another false alarm. Right? Kerrick was like a cat with nine lives. Three down, five left. I clung to that thin thread of hope because... Well, if I didn’t, I’d shatter.

We searched all day.

When the sun hovered over the horizon, Loren called it off. “We can resume in the morning.”