Page 26 of Spirit Rites

“I can do it,” I offer, but he just shakes his head and disappears. He’s back a few minutes later with fish again, but I don’t mind. Food is the difference between life and death in here. It’s a quick breakfast, and then we’re moving again. My enthusiasm wanes pretty quickly. The walking jostles my arm, and I do my best to ignore it. Eventually, I settle into a sort of numbness. I follow Kaldar’s back for hours. I don’t allow myself to think about anything but the next step. When we finally stop, I settle on the hard ground after looking for any creeping things and drop my head onto my knees.

“I’m sorry. I should have stopped more often,” Kaldar says from behind me. I don’t lift my head; my entire body aches.

I hear him mutter something, but I don’t quite catch it. “I’m going to go catch something for us to eat, and then I’ll work on a shelter.”

I have no intention of making him do all that himself, I just need to gather some strength. When he comes back, I stand to my feet and gather kindling for a fire. He tells me not to worry about it, but I want to pull my own weight. Soon our fire is going, and there’s small game cooking over the fire. My stomach growls in anticipation of the fresh meat. He starts making a shelter for the night, and I walk over to help him. “I’ve got it.”

I lift my chin. “I want to help.”

“I know. You can help by sitting and letting your arm heal.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s not how that works.”

His lips tug into a smile. “Sure, it does.”

Because I’m in so much pain, I don’t argue with him. I head back to the fire, but then I hear him curse a moment later. I whirlaround, forgetting about my arm. I hiss in pain as I hurry over to him. “What is it?”

“Nothing.”

I look past him when something moves and catches my attention. We both watch as a small bright yellow creature hops away. “What was that?” I ask.

“A mireling.”

Something about his voice has me turning to him. “What is a mireling, Kaldar? I’m assuming you have those in your kingdom?”

“We do.”

“And?” I prompt when he says nothing more. He turns to me, and I startle at the look on his face. “What’s wrong?”

“A mireling’s bite has enough poison to take down a full-grown emberstag.” He stares down at me, and horror fills me at what he’s trying to convey.

“It bit you, didn’t it?”

He nods, and I feel like I’m going to be sick. “Where?”

“On my hand.”

“Let me see.” He holds out his hand. There’s only a tiny red ring.

“What do we do?”

“I don’t know.” His voice is solemn.

“Well, what do you do in your kingdom?”

“Every home has an antidote on hand.”

My panic is rising with each word that comes out of his mouth. “Well, what’s it made of?”

He runs a hand over his head. “I don’t know.”

I stare at him. “What do you mean you don’t know?”

“I don’t know.” He raises his voice just the slightest bit, and it surprises me. It’s the first time he hasn’t been perfectly cool, calm, and collected since I’ve met him. “Everybody just has the antidote. I’ve never studied what makes up the antidote.”

“Okay. What happens without an antidote?”

“The poison will spread.” He doesn’t say anything more, and he doesn’t have to. I know exactly what he means. The poison eventually will reach his heart.