As Hall’s body gained momentum toward them, Orabilis stepped back and away, leaving Brie to shoulder the full brunt of his weight. As strong as she was, she wasn’t strong enough for that.
She fell to her back, him spread-eagle on top of her. The only thing that saved her from a painful landing was Orabilis’s hands at her shoulders, slowing her fall a bit, guiding her to the ground. Thank the Seven the old woman hadn’t completely deserted her.
“Good of you to help,” Brie managed to squeak when she’d caught her breath. “Yer stronger than you look.”
And a good thing it was, too. Without Orabilis to slow her descent, Brie suspected she might have been seriously injured. As it was, she was simply pinned to the ground under Hall’s weight, barely able to catch her breath.
Orabilis stepped back, hands on her hips. “I suppose I am strong at that. But then, I’d have to be, living out here alone as I do, now, wouldn’t I?”
“If you could just help roll him off of me,” Brie grunted.
“Sorry, lassie. I canna see that happening. But perhaps I’ve something inside that might give us some assistance,” Orabilis answered, turning to hobble back inside her little cottage.
At least Brie assumed the old woman returned to her cottage. With Hall on top of her, her view of everything other than a few degrees to her left was blocked.
So here she lay, unable to move, struggling for breath, deserted by the only creature within miles who could help.
“Bollocks,” she muttered, and tried in vain to pull her arm to freedom.
Hall’s face lay next to hers, his shallow breath hitting her cheek in short little puffs. At least he still lived.
She quickly realized that he lay so close, if she turned her head at all, her lips brushed against his. She did so, then tried it a second time, just to make sure she wasn’t imagining it.
“Ahem. Am I interrupting the two of you in some sport?”
“No!” Brie’s shout of surprise sounded more like a flattened huff of air. “I was only checking to see if the fever had taken him again.” Why she felt the need to explain was beyond her.
“And has it?” Orabilis asked as she squatted down next to them.
Brie regretted that she hadn’t actually been thinking of fever when her lips had touched his. Her lie forced her to turn her face back toward his to rest her lips against his once more. Heat flooded her body, assuring her that one of them was excessively warm.
“Yes,” she responded breathlessly. “There is a fever.”
Orabilis chuckled as if someone had told her a wonderful joke, leaving Brie with the awful suspicion thatshewas the punch line in whatever the old woman found so amusing.
“Turn yer head away, lassie,” Orabilis instructed, and thrust her hand between them, up next to Hall’s nose.
With so little warning, Brie wasn’t quite fast enough.
An acrid, bitter odor crawled into her nostrils and rushed straight to her oxygen-deprived lungs. She panted, unable to fully catch her breath under Hall’s weight. The need to gasp for air or to cough out the stinging fumes overwhelmed her.
“What is that?” she choked out after a moment.
“Strong, is it no? A potent wee tincture of my own making. Good for waking a body from almost anything. Any moment now, yer big warrior here will be able to help us get him inside under his own power.”
“And off me,” Brie grunted.
As Orabilis had predicted, Hall groaned and began to stir.
“Where?” His voice rasped as if his tongue were too thick for him to form words.
“Dinna you try to speak, good sir,” Orabilis said as she tugged at his arm. “Save what little strength you have for getting on yer feet.”
“Who?” He tried again while pushing up to his knees.
“A stubborn one, you are.” Orabilis chuckled, her eyebrows waggling like fuzzy caterpillars. “I see you’ve found a match for yer own willfulness, have you no, lassie?”
Brie ignored the question and got to her feet, snugging her shoulder under Hall’s arm to help support him. She could only hope his mind was too fuzzy to have registered the old witch’s question.
