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There were gasps as people saw us return. I declared that Gonshu had been defeated, but people were not calmed by that statement as their hearts ached for the condition of their Alpha. They all wished him well and I saw many of them praying for his safe healing, while I carried him inside. I sent a guard to go and fetch Tania, and took Axanar into the nearest room where I lay him on the bed. Kara sank into a chair. She looked exhausted. My face was lined with worry. I placed my hand against Axanar’s cheek. His eyes were hazy, and his breath was haggard. He smiled at me, but the smile faded quickly.
Tania rushed in and gasped when she saw Axanar.
“What happened?”
“Gonshu’s breath,” I said.
Tania’s face fell. She looked back at Kara and then at Axanar. She immediately rushed out of the room and returned within about ten minutes, holding a cup, which she placed to Axanar’s lips. He coughed a little as the thick liquid slid down his throat, and then his head lolled to the side, his eyes closing. His chest was still rising, but both Tania and I knew we didn’t have much time.
“What can we do?” I asked.
Tania looked uncertainly at me, and then she turned her gaze towards Kara. “We need her,” she said.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Kara
My head was still spinning after the journey through the jungle, and from what Axanar had whispered in my ear. The arduous walk had been like a dream. I hadn’t slept. I hadn’t eaten. I had just taken one step after the other in the hope that I would make it back to the tower before Axanar died. All I wanted to do was sleep and stop this nightmare from taking hold. Every muscle in my body ached. My clothes clung to my skin with sweat, and I burned with worry.
Then I overhead Tania saying that they needed me. My eyelids were heavy, but I cracked them open and looked at her and Volkan. They watched me expectantly. They came towards me. Axanar was on a bed behind them, looking peaceful, although the grim stain upon his lips was a reminder that death was inside him.
“Kara, are you suffering from the poison as well?” Tania asked.
I shook my head. “What’s going to happen? Can you cure him?” I asked.
Tania and Volkan shared a worried glance. “We can, but we don’t have the antidote here,” Tania said.
“Where is it?” I asked.
“It’s in another world,” Volkan replied.
“Another world?” I sighed.
“In the stories, we believe that Gonshu and the other monsters came from another world. Gonshu’s poison has always been known to us. A long time ago, a world walker went to Gonshu’s home world to bring back the cure, but the stores of poison have been empty for a long time now. Usually, the Alphas know not to make themselves vulnerable to that attack.”
I bowed my head. “I think he was trying to keep Gonshu away from me. I was always at the rear,” I said. I thought Axanar had been my enemy, but in that fight, he had shown the hero that was inside him. And now he was dying, before I even had a chance to thank him properly.
“Kara, do you think you can walk between worlds? We need you to do it, now more than ever. If you could find a way to travel, then we could find the cure and Axanar will be saved, but we must hurry,” Volkan said. His eyes were wide with desperation, mine were wide with fear.
“I don’t know how,” I said.
“But you have done it once before,” he replied.
“That was an accident. I don’t have any control over it,” I said, hating myself for being so useless.
“Can’t you at least try?” he asked.
“But where would I even go? Is there a doorway to that world? Surely, I have to know where I’m going first?” I asked.
Tania interjected at this point. She came and placed a hand on my shoulder. “There is only one door Kara, a door that leads to a thousand places. The world walkers decide on where the door leads. If you think of Gonshu then you will go to his world, if you can find the power inside you.”
It all seemed like too much. They kept saying that I had this power, but I didn’t feel any of it inside me.
“I don’t know if I can…” I said.
“Please try. He needs you,” Volkan said. His eyes glistened with sorrow. I looked past him, towards Axanar. I thought about the way he had acted and all he had told me during our expedition into the forest, and although all my vigor had been drained by this, I nodded and rose. My knees almost buckled, but I walked towards the shrine with Volkan and Tania by my side.
*
