“Run!” I warn them.
Seeing the birds flying at them, Sky struggles with the sack of parfa powder as Deean holds on to the nille stones.
Leaving a trial of powder behind, Sky dumps it all and Deean stops for a second to generate sparks over the small mound. In a panic it takes five strikes before the stones spark and set the powder ablaze. Right before the birds can reach Deean they divert and fly upwards and out of the clearing at the top of the dome, rising with the smoke.
The smoke is strong and hits us in a rush. We continue running until we are in absolute sunlight and out of the cave and its adjoining tunnel.
Out of breath, I bend over and take in as much air as my lungs allow. Between the running and the strong scent of the powder, it’s difficult to breathe.
A tightness in my chest begins to set in and my shoulders rise. Even though I desperately try to take deep inhales it’s not enough. I dig in my pockets for my spray. My hands sweat and it’s like I’ve rubbed them with butter because the bottle flies out of my hand and lands near me. Thankfully, it remains whole.
“We need to keep going,” Deean shouts running out of the tunnel. As I bend over, he runs my way and steps on my bottle before I have a chance to retrieve it.
Crunch.
The noise sucks out any air I have left in me, and I watch the liquid soak into the ground.
“Ariah.” Iann is at my side in a second. His hands lift up my face to see him. “What’s happening?”
“She can’t breathe,” Vera says, having seen me struggle in the past. “Sky, help her.”
Vera starts to rub my back as Iann tells me to drink some water.
My wheezing picks up as I watch Sky sniff the mixture on the ground.
“Twenty-five crushed elderberries, two pinches of mullein, a dash of ginseng, four leaves from an elmonk flower,” I struggle to get out. “Boiled.”
He gives me a look and then gives one to Iann. A look that doesn’t need to be translated. We are on a deserted island and the chances of finding all those ingredients in the limited time I have before my breathing stops is impossible.
Iann lifts me into his arms and tells Sky to get moving. He sits me near a tree, allowing me to rest against it. I feel his hands brush the hair from my face. “I’m going to make it better, Ariah.” He kisses my forehead and tells Vera to watch me.
There is something stronger here than just my difficulty to breathe. There is a tingling that coats me. A near-magical feeling, but not in a beautiful, majestic way. Something malevolent is at work.
My eyes grow heavy and my breathing becomes more and more strained. People start running and shouting but it all becomes a blur.
I feel Vera’s hand in mine. “I’m sorry my mom never showed up,” I struggle to say and should really refrain from talking.
“No, more talking,” she orders.
I don’t know when, but all noise becomes mute, and my eyelids fall heavy. Breathing, the one thing we must all do to survive, becomes painful. Too painful to bear. My eyes finally close off to the panic of those around me, and I slip away to somewhere else.
32
IANN
I’ve only lost one man in all my days of leading expeditions. His name was Rein Cordwall and it was on my third voyage to an area just outside Diamondhead. He was bitten by a snake while hiking a nearby trail and couldn’t get back in time for help. I was the one who found his cold body keeled over in a pile of autumn leaves. It is the closest I’ve been to death.
Dusk falls upon us and Ariah still hasn’t awakened. I move her body away from the fire the others sit around, afraid the fumes will exacerbate her current state.
Sky struggled to find ingredients needed for her spray. A few couldn’t be found at all and we had to make do with a few substitutions.
Getting the concoction in her system was harder. Without something to spritz in her mouth and with her being unconscious, it was nearly impossible, but Sky managed. Almost magically healing her.
Deean makes a few attempts to approach us, but guilt keeps him away.
He thinks I’m angry with him. I’m not. I’m more worried if the mixture is helping her. I’ve seen others who share her ailment and never have they become unconscious from it. It’s as if her body has completely shut down, and I wonder if there is something nefarious at play. Or perhaps my mind is scrambling for an excuse. Sky assures me as long as she’s breathing, she’ll be fine, but I won’t be satisfied until her eyes open.
“You can come closer,” I say to a spying Deean.
