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She also looked familiar.
I must have lost too much blood, I thought, as she bent over me.
And then I saw her blue-gray eyes, almost lost in folds of wrinkles. The eyes were the same, I thought, staring upwards. Nothing else was, but the eyes . . .
“Yes, it’s me,” Nimue said testily. “I know. I know. Not what you expected, hm?”
She dropped her burden, which turned out to be Ray. The many arrows were gone, but, alarmingly, the wounds were still open, splitting his flesh in terrible ways. He wasn’t dead; he hadn’t dusted away. But he was close.
“Removed the arrows,” Nimue panted, squatting down beside him. “Didn’t know what else to do. Don’t have experience with these things.”
She poked him.
“He needs blood,” I croaked, wondering how much I had left.
Not enough.
But then a miracle happened, something that had me gasping in surprise and gratitude: she threw our three blood bags onto the stone. I managed to get a hand underneath me and reached for one. I tore it open with my teeth, and yes! It remained fresh.
“The waters still bring me things,” she said, by way of explanation.
I did not know what she meant by that, nor did I did question it. I focused on crawling over to Ray, before Nimue made a disgusted sound. “Some god-killer you are,” she said nonsensically, and took the bag away.
She was no longer wearing seafoam, I noticed, but dirty, tattered robes of what might once have been silk. It was no longer possible to tell, as it looked like she had been wearing them for a while. But I doubted that Ray cared right now.
She dragged his head into her lap and looked at me expectantly.
“He needs—you just have to feed it to him,” I panted.
She made a disgusted face, but did the job matter-of-factly enough, pulling his mouth open and drizzling a little of the blood inside.
“You must make him swallow it,” I added, as most of it dribbled back out again.
“Oh, must I?” she replied testily.
“I’m sorry. I just . . . I meant—”
“Stop tearing up, girl. I’ll make the creature drink. Here, take this.”
She shoved a dirty vial into my hand, which I ignored. I needed to make sure that she did this properly. We had no blood to waste. She had to—
“Drink it, or he gets nothing,” she told me flatly.
I drank.
It tasted vile, as most potions do, but I barely noticed. She made me upend the container to show that I’d finished it, then she started feeding Ray again, massaging his throat as I had once done to make sure that he ingested it all. Three bags later, his body had started to close some of the wounds, but he was still deathly pale and out cold, likely in a healing trance.
I relaxed back against the stone, feeling dizzy. I did not understand why, unless it was because of the potion Nimue had given me. I watched her through bleary eyes, as she less-than-gently pushed Ray back onto the floor.
Then, to my surprise, she lay back, too, obviously exhausted.
For a while, there was silence.
I was not sleepy, but I was so tired that the ceiling of the cave seemed to spin above me. I wondered if it would be the last thing I ever saw. Strangely, that thought did not fill me with the alarm I would have expected, but with a sense of wonder. I had seen so much, experienced so much, and in such a short time. I was greedy for more, and yet, it was enough. I was content.
Except for one thing.
“Please,” I finally said. “If I die here, can you get my companion to a portal? He has family on Earth; they will find him—”
