Page 84 of A Queen’s Betrayal (Legends of Worldbinders #1)
“ Itta ,” Arenna rasped, dropping to her knees.
She gently placed a hand on Itta’s wrinkled skin, carefully pulling her hand away from the wound on her belly.
“What happened?” As soon as the pressure was released, blood gushed from the wound, soaking the alchemist’s blue robes and spilling onto the floor.
Desperation gripped Arenna as she pressed her hands into the gash, rage burning her eyes.
“They-they were looking . . .” Itta groaned, her eyes closing in pain.
Arenna pressed harder into the wound. “Looking for what?” she demanded.
“ For this ,” Itta rasped, her voice strained. With trembling fingers, she grasped the amulet hanging from her neck and ripped the chain free with a single tug. A cough wracked her body, blood seeping from the corners of her mouth.
“You need a healer. Let me take you.”
Itta shook her head. “Take the amulet, Firewielder. You must bring it to the Draka Mountains. My home .”
The world began turning in slow motion, and voices distorted. She couldn’t have heard the alchemist properly. “Your home?” Arenna asked, confusion in her voice. “What are you talking about?”
Itta repeated, “Bring it to the Draka Mountains. Reveal the amulet. Reunite the world.” She managed a faint smile before a groan escaped her.
The earth beneath them began to rumble. “There was so much I wanted to tell you, so much I had planned—” The alchemist wheezed in agony, her eyelids fluttering.
“Stop talking,” Arenna begged, “It’s making it worse. I’m going to find a healer , okay?”
Itta gritted her teeth, her hands bracing against her trembling legs. “You’re not listening to me.” She spluttered and coughed, sending a spray of blood against Arenna’s vest.
Arenna pushed her hands deeper into the wound, ignoring the blood seeping through her fingers. “Stop, please , you are going to open it more,” she said.
Tension filled the room. “I was born in the Drakian Kingdom, to a woman named Drescaries,” Itta said, straining, pushing away Arenna’s hands. The Firewielder was stunned into silence. “You must return this to my home,” she said, waving the amulet, “You and only you.”
The world seemed to stop spinning.
Shock and disbelief battled within Arenna.
“Itta, I don’t understand,” she whimpered, desperation lacing her voice.
“Let me take you to a healer. We can talk about this when you’re better.
” Blood loss was already taking its toll.
Itta’s pale skin had turned ghostly white, her veins visible beneath the surface.
Her hair was dull and her eyes hollow. “You won’t survive much longer. ”
“I told you what to do,” Itta wheezed. “Take my amulet. Go to the mountains. This is a key, Arenna. It is the only one.” The alchemist coughed again, enough blood filling the cavity of her mouth Arenna had to force Itta onto her side to avoid choking.
“I was sworn into silence, unable to tell you anymore.”
Anger coursed through Arenna’s mind. If she could just get Itta to a healer, everything would be okay.
Itta removed Arenna’s hands from her wound and placed the golden amulet in her palm.
“ Leave me ,” she croaked. “You know where the capsules are.” She gestured weakly to a cabinet with a door hanging by a single hinge.
“Take them all. Get our people to the bunkers below the castle. Promise me you will go to the mountains and use the key.”
With trembling hands, Arenna turned the amulet over, her thumb tracing the dragon embossed on the golden circle, then the emerald gemstone in the center. Her heart raced. “A key? What do I use it for? What do I unlock?”
“I am unable to tell you,” the alchemist gripped Arenna’s wrist, preventing her from touching a single part of her body. “But you have to believe me. Promise me.”
A million thoughts raced through her mind as she struggled to make sense of Itta’s words, recalling every bit of Drakian and Fae history she had learned in the past weeks.
Everything was a jumbled mess, making her head throb.
But when she looked up, the alchemist's gaze was already fading.
“Itta!” Arenna gasped, tears finally spilling over. “ No, no, no .”
Arenna tore a strip of fabric from Itta’s blue skirt and stuffed it into the wound, ignoring the wet, raspy sounds escaping from the alchemist’s mouth.
Blood continued to pour, and she pressed harder. Within moments, the cloth was soaked red. “Don’t leave me,” Arenna sobbed, tearing off another piece of fabric, then another, and another.
Itta placed a trembling hand over Arenna’s, gently pushing the makeshift bandages away from her wound. “I have been away from home too long, and my body cannot heal as it once could,” she whispered. “I’m losing too much blood.” Her hand moved to Arenna’s cheek, brushing away a falling tear. “ Go .”
Arenna shook her head, tears blurring her vision. “I won’t leave you,” she croaked.
“ You must ,” Itta whispered, her voice barely audible. She took the amulet Arenna had dropped and placed it back in her hand, folding her fingers over it. “Please, promise me.”
Heart hammering, Arenna nodded slowly. Her eyes burned with warm tears, her throat constricted, but she managed to whisper, “Okay, I promise.”
Itta smiled sadly as her body began to tremble.
Arenna sank back onto the floor, wide-eyed and unblinking, watching as Itta took her final breaths.
Itta’s head lulled, her body slumping against the wall. Those blue eyes remained open, unseeing.
Lifeless.
Dead .
“ NO! ” Arenna screamed, pressing her hands to Itta’s cheeks. She shook her gently. “You have to stay alive until I can find a healer.”
She shook her again.
And again.
But Itta remained unmoving, unblinking, unbreathing. Arenna wrapped her arms around the alchemist, pulling her close to her chest. She broke apart, clutching Itta so tightly her arms shook.
War raged around the castle, every scream and cry piercing Arenna’s ears. She held the alchemist tighter against her chest, as though Itta needed protecting while the apothecary crumbled around them.
She rocked Itta in her arms like a newborn babe for what felt like hours, until another explosion shook the castle, sending dust raining down. “ STOP! ” she screamed, again and again. “Please, please— stop ,” Arenna begged in short, quiet whimpers.
She begged for the war to stop, for Itta to come back.
She begged to the goddesses who were not listening, who abandoned her a long, long time ago.
Her chest pounded with a rage that seared through her veins, her vision reduced to a streaked blur. Arenna wondered if a heart could explode from such pain and loss. Too many good souls had been taken from her, taken from the earth.
The sound of blades and screams and wisping magic filled the quiet of the apothecary. Dread formed like a knot in her chest at the remembrance that there was still a battle going on all around her, and she needed to help.
Wiping her eyes, she took one last look at the amulet and the female who had given it to her.
It depicted a golden dragon, long and powerful, its wings spread wide and its tail coiled around an emerald stone.
Arenna fastened it around her neck, tucking it securely into the collar of her leather vest.
Determined not to break apart, she gently laid Itta on the stone floor of the apothecary.
She tore a green curtain from its rod and draped the thick fabric over her body, already growing cold, deliberately avoiding the sight of the wound on her belly that still oozed though her heart no longer beat.
With a final broken sob and a kiss on Itta’s gray hair, Arenna murmured a prayer to the Seven, asking them to guide Itta’s soul to oblivion and the Realm. “I promise. Thank you for everything,” she whispered against the curtain.
More explosions shook the castle as Arenna ran to the cabinet that usually held ripplers. She yanked it open, her heart sinking at the sight of empty shelves. She pulled open the remaining cabinets in a frantic search, finding nothing each time.
After four useless cabinets, she finally found one filled with jar after jar of the tiny ripplers. She placed three jars into a brown satchel hanging from a nail, then grabbed one from the small tin on the counter.
Without looking away from her fallen friend, Arenna slipped the capsule under her tongue, and vanished into thin air.