“I’ve said all I must say. Nonetheless, the Guardians’ Hero is awake. She will choose the path, not us.”
The Guardian’s Hero is awake.Yes, I am.
I open my eyes.
I’m right, the person right beside me is covered by a diviner’s cloak. White strands thread evenly through her thick curly hair, going down both shoulders to below her breasts. Despite her words, her lips are pressed in a tight line. Her eyes are wide and watery. She’s holding back.
“I don’t understand,” I say, then cough up a storm. My throat is raw, and the water the healer brings me does little to help it.
“Sinchinrei, please,” the healer’s voice is gentle as he replaces the diviner at my bedside and grabs my shoulder to push me back down to the bed. “Do not exert yourself right now. You survived an assassination attempt on the Inka and Panaka. You could have died.”
Right now, I’m not feeling any pain and can replay the assassination attempt in my head. My mother was right, the internal dissidents were our highest threat.
The healer is also right. I need to rest as much as I can. Serpent healing may heal all ailments, but it is a curse as much as a blessing. It speeds up the healing process, but the pain one would feel naturally is condensed into a fraction of the full time. He must be powerful to delay the pain from hitting me during the healing, but itwillhit.
“I need to see the princess,” I say. Both the healer and diviner sigh. I push past the healer’s hands and get up, ignoring the black dots that mar my vision. I feel my body flash with heat and then rapidly sweat in an attempt to cool down. An impossible wind picks up the loose strands of my hair framing my face. The sweat on my face cools, and I hold back a shiver. The wind has a voice.
It’s time.
It’s time.
They speak with a force so strong it’s impossible to think it could come from the gentle breeze. It’s the voice that I’ve been mistaking for my own, only now I can’t. What is that in my head?
“Sinchinrei,” the healer says, and his voice sounds far away. “Sinchinrei, are you okay?”
I have never heard my full name be used as often as in these last few hours. At least I think it’s been a few hours.
I have to open my eyes again, though I don’t remember closing them. I’m on my knees, the phantom pain of falling reverberating through my knee caps. The diviner is gone. It’s only the healer in the room.
How much time has passed?
My knees burn, but even that starts to fade into the feeling of tensed muscles. The delay the healer blessed me with is at work.
It’s time.
“Guardians be damned, I get it,” I say and press the heel of my hand into my forehead. There’s nothing but the promise of pain inside my skull, waiting to get out.
“Sinchin–”
“Rei. It’s just Rei,” I interrupt the healer.
He smiles, but his eyes look just like the diviner’s. Tears. So many unshed tears, for what?
I heard what they said. I’m not stupid. Gods be damned, I’m the Guardians’ Hero. I must have completed the fated action the diviners were on the lookout for.
A hysterical laugh bubbles out of me. I have never felt so disoriented in time and space.I’mthe hero. I laugh again. I must be dreaming.
The healer pulls me up and guides me to the bed, where a beautiful tunic is laid out. “We’ve already lost so much time,” he whispers to himself. “I’ll help you prepare, Sinch…Rei.”
I smile at him. I want to ask his name as I dress, but conversation seems impossible with the heaviness of the room. It’s only broken by my occasional laugh and his occasional sigh. At one point, I’m sure he whispersdelirium, but my throat locks when I try to call him out on it.
It’s when he’s opening the door and motioning me out that the dam breaks.
“Where’s the princess? Where’s Suyai?” The moment the words are out of my mouth, my brain pangs with the intensity of my worry. Still, even that is nulled by the healer’s blessed curse. The silence makes sense now. He’s not just helping me. He’s sedating me. That’s why my thoughts are slow, why my emotions are dulled, and the realization that I’m the Guardians’ hero hits me in erratic waves.
He doesn’t answer me. I follow him through the healer’s quarters.
Wherever we’re going is far from where we started. I can’t use that time to do anything but try to keep the princess and Suyai in my mind. The thoughts threaten to drift away the moment I think of something else.
