AllFreeNovel
Share Us
41
Onnika cupped Caryn’s pale, sweat-damp face between her hands and felt a disturbing heat emanating from her skin. “She’s burning up! What has caused this change?”
Just then, Lear rushed in with a damp cloth and placed it over Caryn’s forehead, assuring, “The doctor should be here shortly.”
“But what’s wrong?” she demanded. “She was getting better.”
“We do no’ know,” Lear replied. “One minute she seemed fine, the next…” With a deep crease in his brow, he gestured as if to find the words, but had none to give.
Clasping Caryn’s hand between hers, she begged her sister to wake up, but her eyes only fluted as her body was racked with shivers.
It seemed to take forever for the doctor to arrive. When he did, he ordered them all out of the room. Reluctantly, Onnika joined Aidan and the crew in the mess hall to wait, everyone taking turns pacing along the cold grated floor.
“What is taking so long?” she complained after about ten minutes.
Aidan wrapped her in his embrace. “I’m sure it’s just a fever,” he soothed, and she desperately wanted to believe him, but it was clear he wished only to alleviate her worry.
When the doctor finally emerged to address them, his dour expression heralded bad news. “I found evidence of poison in her blood.”
“Poison? But how?” Priya asked.
Onnika dropped to her knees. “No,” she breathed, though her brain had already accepted the devastating realization.
Aidan knelt beside her at a loss for how to comfort her.
“Do you know what kind of poison it is?” the doctor asked. “If so, I may be able to scrounge up an antidote.”
Onnika shook her head, grief wreaking havoc on her heart, squeezing the wretched organ until she thought it might implode from the crushing pressure. “Rice tips his blade with poison. She didn’t cut herself getting sucked from the ship…” She glanced at Aidan. “There’s no cure.”
Everyone remained silent as they digested her words. Asher sank to his knees and placed his big hand on Caryn’s clammy cheek. Lear leaned against the wall as though he were having trouble staying upright, then slid to the floor, his gaze distant and broken. A darkness settled over the room, saturating it, making Onnika want to crumble to the ground and never get up. Only the doctor questioned her.
“Do you know the name of the poison? Does it stem from animal or plant? There may be something I can do to reverse the effects if I have all the information.”
Onnika choked the next words out, her voice quavering. “All I know is that it kills slowly and painfully. She’ll die screaming in the end.” Her whole body began to shake, and Aidan pulled her against him, wrapping his brawny arms around her. She was like a limp rag doll in his embrace, unable to accept the comfort.
“The way I see it,” the doctor said with the remote detachment of a man who has been at his profession a long while, desensitized to the many faces of death and grief, “you have two options. You could either end her suffering yourselves—”
He took a step back under the weight of several murderous glares before hastily continuing. “Or, you could make your way to the end of the race, where a Serakian healer awaits to attend every contestant who crosses the finish line. Get there before your friend expires and the Serakian’s mystic arts may be enough to save her.”
Onnika’s head jerked up. “A Serakian?” From what she recalled of their kind, they were magic users of some sort…advanced and elusive creatures who could not be found unless they wanted to be. Wherever their home world resided, no one knew.
“Our ship is grounded,” Aidan growled. “Damaged beyond repair. And we will not be given the final coordinates unless we leave this station as contestants.”
The doctor just pursed his lips, then replied, “You may be able to bribe a race-hopper to sell you their ship. I do not recall there being any rules about finishing the race in an alternate conveyance.”
“I’m afraid money is a little scarce,” Lear murmured, still staring off into space, “what with all the upgrades we’ve made to this vessel.”
“Why is there a Serakian at the end of the race?” Aidan asked. “There has never been one before.”
“Clearly you didn’t follow last year’s race. The winner died of his many wounds shortly after crossing the finish line, and the award was bestowed upon the runner-up. To say the least, the fans were outraged. The commissioners do not want a repeat of that fiasco.”
Asher spoke up next. “What if we simply catch a ride with a race-hopper? They get direct coordinates instead of having to follow a set track.”
The doctor shook his head. “The Serakian is there for the express purpose of healingcontestants.If you arrive as anything else, they likely will not help you. Serakians are prideful and obstinate creatures. I hear there was a heavy price to have just one of them on hand.”
“Maybe I can fix the ship,” Vin piped in. “We don’t have to win. We just have to get there in one piece.”
“Yes, but we have to get there quickly. How long do you wager it would take to fix all that has been damaged?” Aidan asked.
