Diviner (17 page)

She let a smile emerge. A river cannot be stopped. The water has to go somewhere. It either piles up and overcomes, or it seeks another route. There are no other options. A river never gives up.

Koren lifted to her toes and spun in place, letting her cloak fan out. She laughed out loud, her smile so wide, her cheeks ached. “Thank you, dear Creator!” she shouted. “You have answered my prayer.”

Finally, she stopped, her smile unabated as she tried to catch her breath. Now the answer was clear. Her fellow humans believed themselves to be without hope, born to live in slavery until they died. How could someone be set free from such an idea?

She clenched her fist. With another idea!

eleven

 

E
lyssa slid down Fellina’s side and dropped to the castle foyer’s wooden floor. She clutched the pouch that held Jason’s stardrop and shivered hard. Although the air was warmer inside the castle, the flight through the Northlands’ frigid air had chilled her to the core.

She staggered toward the entryway, where Fellina had deposited Jason and his father, then dropped to her knees between their shivering bodies. “They’re so co-cold!” she shouted. “Does the k-king have b-blankets?”

Flapping her wings, Fellina completed a running turn and stopped near Elyssa. “I will summon the king.”

“Please hurry.” Elyssa threw herself over Jason’s curled body and wrapped her arms around him as tightly as she could. “I can’t keep them b-both warm.”

“You will keep no one warm. Your lips are blue, and you are shaking more violently than they are.” Fellina stretched out her wings again. “Move aside. I will take them to the beds. I had to put you down here, because I cannot land in the healing chamber. After I take them, I must return to the Southlands to look for Arxad. Deference will lead you to Jason.”

Elyssa scooted away on her knees. “Jason mentioned Deference. Where is she?”

“She will introduce herself soon.” Fellina lifted into the air, circled the foyer once, and snatched Jason and his father with her rear claws. The two bodies dangling, she flew into a long, wide corridor and faded in the dimness.

Elyssa hugged herself, rubbing her upper arms as she rose. “Deference? Are you here?”

A shimmer of light appeared. Shaped like a teenaged girl, the light spread out a radiant skirt and curtsied. “I am Deference. Follow me. Quickly.” The girl turned and ran into the corridor, an aura enveloping her and lighting the way.

Elyssa bolted after her. Her stiff legs felt like tree trunks, but after several steps, her knees loosened, and the chills eased. Soon she caught up with Deference and ran at her side. “Is it far?”

“Not far.” Deference slowed and lowered her head. “Get down!”

Elyssa ducked. Coming from the opposite direction, a dragon flew by, passed a foot overhead, and zoomed toward the foyer. Fellina was obviously in a hurry.

Deference continued forward, her arms and legs appearing again as they moved. After a few seconds, she stopped at an open archway that led into another room.

Inside, the floor consisted of a network of tree roots, tangled and knotted. About ten steps within, a dragon sat on his haunches. It appeared to be gray or ivory, but in the dim light, it was impossible to tell for certain. His eyes, blue and shimmering, seemed foreboding, yet somehow inviting at the same time.

“Come in,” the dragon said in a low tone.

Elyssa looked at Deference. She nodded, her radiance dimming once again. “He won’t hurt you.”

“Are you coming?”

“Soon.” Deference set a hand on Elyssa’s arm. The touch tickled. “Go on.”

Elyssa stepped into the room on tiptoes, avoiding a hole just inside the doorway. The roots bent with her weight, crackling slightly, but they didn’t break. With every step, the floor popped and bounced until she halted about a wing’s length from the dragon. As her eyes adjusted to the dimness, she glanced around, not only to get a look at the room but also to avoid the dragon’s piercing stare. A row of beds took shape on each side, but no one lay in the beds closest to her.

“What do you seek?” the dragon said.

Elyssa cleared her throat, hoping a new chill wouldn’t shake her words. “A dragon named Fellina brought my friend Jason and his father in here.” She opened the pouch and withdrew a glowing sac of skin. Using her fingernails, she ripped the sac open, plucked out the stardrop, and laid it on her palm, dropping the ruptured sac behind her. “We heard this might heal them somehow.”

The dragon extended his neck and peered at the glowing white sphere. “Only one stardrop? There are two patients. When Fellina delivered them here, I put them in adjacent beds at the far end of this room. They are both badly injured, and I am sure they are bleeding internally. They will soon die without the aid of healing light. And now Exodus has risen, so we have no source for a second stardrop.”

A new tremor shook her extended arm, and her voice quaked with it. “Can we split it in half?”

“Of course, but half will not heal either patient. With stardrops, it must be all or nothing.”

Elyssa drew the stardrop closer. “Then I have to choose?”

“Yes, you must make a choice.”

“But how? I can’t decide whose life is more valuable. Only the Creator can do that.”

“No life is more valuable than another, but that is not the choice you must make.” The dragon took a step closer and set a wing tip on her shoulder. “Elyssa, it is time for you to take yet another step of courage.”

Elyssa steeled herself. Not only did his touch send a tingling buzz across her skin, his words sounded like funeral gongs. And how did he know her name? Had Fellina told him?

“You have likely noticed that the stardrop once caused a dizzying effect,” the dragon said. “Do you feel it now?”

Elyssa blinked at the stardrop. Although it had bothered her early in the journey, the effect had diminished, something she had attributed to the cold air. “No. I don’t feel it now.”

“And you will not as long as you are here.” As the dragon took another step closer, his features clarified.

Thin red lines, like tiny blood vessels, drew a matrix across the pristine white background—scales that seemed flatter than those of other dragons. With the narrowest of gaps between them, they looked as much like human skin as they did dragon’s. “There is only one hope for saving both humans. If you possess the proper gift, you will be able to ingest the stardrop and gain the power to distribute its healing energy.”

She looked at the stardrop again. “What happens if I don’t possess the proper gift?”

“Then you will die an excruciatingly painful death.”

“How can that be? How could something deadly to one person be beneficial to another?”

“I did not say it would be beneficial to you, even if you do possess the gift. In fact, its power will likely cause you great pain in some ways, and that pain will continue the rest of your life.”

Elyssa held the stardrop between her thumb and finger and drew it closer to her mouth. Warm to her fingers, it seemed fiery hot to her lips. She shifted her gaze to the white dragon. “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

The dragon’s brow turned downward for a moment before rising again. “You do not, and I have no way to prove my words. You must decide based on what you know. If you decide that I am untrustworthy, then go your way. You cannot help Jason and his father. If you choose to swallow the stardrop and you survive, I will teach you how to use your power. If you take it and perish, I will see to a proper burial. But choose quickly. Their lights are waning.”

Elyssa closed her eyes. Could she do it? Could she drop this flaming sphere into her mouth and swallow it?

Firming her chin, she nodded. For Jason. Yes, for Jason she could do it. She opened her mouth, tossed the stardrop as far back as she could, and swallowed. It merely tingled going down, warm but not burning.

She looked at the dragon. He stared back at her, his ears erect and his head tilted.

“Okay,” she said. “That was easier than I —”

A shot of heat stabbed her insides. Sizzling fire erupted into her throat like a flood of burning bile, then surged deep into her belly, jabbing like a demon with a fire poker. Grasping her stomach, she fell to her knees and cried out loud and long.

She toppled to her side and curled to a fetal position on the roots. Hot gas belched through her lips as throaty words gushed like rhythmic bursts of a volcano. “Help! … Oh, help me! … Dear Creator, help me! … I’m dying.”

More gas erupted, this time mixed with acid, burning her tongue and lips. She spat and coughed. Spasms twisted her stomach so cruelly it seemed that a saber-toothed beast gnawed her gut, shaking her intestines to tear them loose from her body. Would this kind of pain continue? For the rest of her life? No! It would be better to die!

Finally, the beast released her. The demon rested his poker. The acid settled to a simmer, and the gas pressure eased. She let her body go limp. Every muscle relaxed. Even her heart slowed to the beat of a death march. Then a sense of cold returned, as if her blood had turned to icy water and flowed to every part of her body. She shivered harder than ever. The end was near. As her curled frame quaked, she whispered. “I tried, Jason. I tried so hard. I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”

Tears flowed, cold tears that chilled her cheeks. Only a tiny core of heat remained, likely the stardrop itself burning a hole in the pit of her stomach. Like an overlooked ember after the dousing of a campfire, it sizzled on, radiating heat but no longer causing pain.

The core swelled, and its warmth spread, first coating her insides and loosening her stiff muscles. It radiated outward and thawed her frozen joints and skin. Yet no pain followed, only glorious relief.

She pushed against the floor and lifted her head, but her hair was tangled in the roots. Exhausted, she let her head flop back down.

The dragon snaked his neck toward her and set his eyes close to hers. “Try again. Jason and his father have very little time remaining.”

Elyssa pushed, lifting her head a few inches, but her hair stayed entangled, too much to tear loose. With a surge of energy, she jerked against the flooring, but the roots wouldn’t budge. “Cut my hair!” she shouted. “Or burn it with your breath! Just get me up off this floor!”

“I have no fire,” the dragon said calmly, “but I can help.” He lifted a foreleg and swiped a razor-sharp claw across her hair at the floor line. With the sudden release, she snapped upright and nearly toppled the other way.

Energy coursed through her body. Her muscles flexed. She leaped to her feet and scanned the room. “Where are they? What do I do?”

“First, I want you to know that my name is Alaph.”

“Pleased to meet you.” Elyssa cocked her head. “You look different now. Clearer. Brighter.”

“For good reason. Look at your hands.”

She lifted her hands. Her skin emanated a soft glow.

“Your face is glowing as well,” Alaph said. “The light you see is your own.”

“What happened? Did I die after all?”

“In a manner of speaking, but we can discuss that riddle later. For now, I will teach you how to use your gift, a gift you always had but now are able to use to its fullest.”

With Deference following, Elyssa walked toward Jason’s bed, keeping her footfalls soft on the roots. Just as Alaph had said, the roots, which he had called branches, led to humanlike trees, one standing behind each healing station.

When she stopped at the bedside, Deference joined her. “I call this tree Wisdom,” Deference said, sparks from her mouth giving away her position. “Look at his face. Don’t you think it looks wise?”

Elyssa let her gaze follow the trunk until she spotted a protruding knot, two recesses just above it, and a huge gall on each side. “I see a nose, ears, and eyes, but no mouth.”

“Right. Most wise people I know don’t say much, but they listen a lot.”

“Good point.” A branch from Wisdom protruded over Jason’s bed. Like a human arm, the branch ended with an open hand, palm facing up, as if the tree reached out to ask for a trinket. She lifted to tiptoes and touched the palm with a fingertip. The bark absorbed her glow. Light filtered down and emerged at the back of the tree’s hand, raining glittering sparks that fell to a sheet covering Jason’s body.

Leaning over the bed, she set her palm on Jason’s pale cheek. Her glow spread and coated his skin from chin to forehead. “Warm,” she whispered. “High fever.”

Deference nodded. “Infection?”

“Maybe.”

With his mouth slightly open, Jason turned his head to the side and inhaled a gurgling breath. When he exhaled, a thin line of drool fell to the pillow, tinged with blood.

Elyssa cringed. “That can’t be good.”

“Probably bleeding into his lungs,” Deference said. “In case you’re wondering, my father was a doctor. He taught me a lot.”

“Then I’m glad you’re at my side. Keep telling me what you think.” Elyssa pulled the sheet down to Jason’s waist, exposing his undershirt-draped torso. Her pendant lay on his chest, the closed-hands side facing up.

Deference touched the pendant. “That might get in the way.”

“I’ll get it.” Elyssa slid the chain over Jason’s head and put it over her own, letting the pendant dangle. “Now for the shirt.”

She pinched the shirt’s hem at the side and lifted, peeling it from his skin slowly to keep the dried blood from pulling. As blood flaked away and rained to the bottom sheet, she peered at the wound. A bruise painted his skin purple and black from the bottom of his ribcage to just under his armpit, and a hole at the bruise’s center revealed the jagged end of a bone, his broken rib. Blood dripped from the opening, slow but steady, as well as from a vertical gash that sliced across his ribs.

Deference pointed at a purple glow shining through Jason’s skin over his pectoral muscle. “What’s that?” she asked, pointing.

“A litmus finger. It’s supposed to be a guide to finding a portal from our world to yours.” Elyssa slowly lowered her hand to the wounds and set her palm over the bone. She closed her eyes and probed within. Two ribs had fractured. The other end of the protruding one was still attached to the rib cage, though barely. The second rib had been pushed inward, and the broken end scratched a lung, causing a quarter-inch tear. With every breath Jason took, the lung expanded and pressed against the bone. “I sense a pool of blood near a tear in his lung.”

“That’s what I was worried about,” Deference said. “He can’t survive for long in that condition.”

“If not for this.” Elyssa stood on tiptoes again and grasped the tree’s hand as if greeting a friend. Her glow poured into the bark, sending veins of light toward the trunk. Seconds later, sparks rained from the tree hand’s underside. Elyssa let go and cupped her hands under the glittering shower.