Page 60 of Veil of Vasara (Fate of the Five #1)

CHAPTER 60 - NEMINA

I dragged myself over to the pool of putrid water, and cupped some into my palm, returning to Silus’ lips.

“No…no—"

“Drink it, or you’ll die.” Though I hadn't wished to satiate Silus' thirst, I needed him to live a while longer.

He had stopped coughing up blood now, but his voice was still weak and quiet. “It’s not…drink…able.”

I threw the water onto his face.

“You saw me drinking it!” I snapped.

“Did you…think…I’d tell you?” He chuckled through coughs.

“Why bother saving me then?”

“It won’t…kill you…just…. make you feel—"

I’d placed it on my wound. I put my head in my hands. It was as if I unconsciously sought out and ended up in situations which would harm me.

Maybe I was some kind of demented masochist.

“Where’s…this…Healer of yours?”

I had no way of knowing.

“He’ll come.”

“You’re…crrr…lying…”

I took my head off my hands and looked at him, debating whether it really was worth leaving him alive.

“I can…we can…tell.”

“Well, just shut up and die then,” I groaned.

“How…lovely.”

“Lovely? You killed a pregnant woman, and Gods know who else.”

Silus let out a sudden groan of pain. I didn’t spare him a glance. I was sure I’d hear him moan that way for a while yet.

“I…didn’t…have a…crrrgeerkk… choice…” He was back to gagging on blood.

“Oh really? Only the man who refused then.”

“He…he’s different…he would…. he could do anything…not me.”

“Spare me the speech. Do you expect me to pity a piece of shit like you?”

“Why…not?”

“Why not? Fuck, you really are the worst of humanity.” I spoke looking forwards, not at the man. “You killed a pregnant woman and play the victim. Who cares if you were given an ultimatum? If it was your life versus hers, you should have sacrificed your own worthless one.”

I was not in the mood to filter my words, and especially not for the benefit of this man.

“And don’t get confused, I’m sparing your life so I can ask you questions. If I thought you didn’t possess any information, I’d have killed you already.”

“You’re…just…like they say…”

“What are you talking about?”

“The…Acciperean…they kept…with the dogs.”

He recognised me. I couldn’t decide whether that surprised me or not. Perhaps I simply didn’t have the energy to feel any particular emotions about it at that moment.

“Don’t …you…want…to know what…they…gcrrkkk… said…about you?”

“Do I want to know what a bunch of sadistic torturers said about me?” I asked sarcastically. “No.”

“They said—"

“I just said no.”

“You were…brash…and vicious.”

My lips quivered and I began to laugh, placing my hand over my mouth. I felt woozy at the deep intake of break that the laughter stimulated.

“And…terrifying…and…beautiful.”

Beautiful? I looked at him with contempt.

“They…they did,” he insisted weakly.

The thought made me physically more unwell than I already was.

Or perhaps that was the water.

Or the blood loss.

Or the fall.

Or the wounds from earlier.

Or the divination I just performed.

Or the fact I hadn’t eaten.

A noise. I couldn’t see its origins, but it was nearby us, and then it stopped.

“What…was…” Silus began asking.

I grabbed his hips, and pulled a dagger from his belt, holding it close. He yelled as I did. It probably aggravated the pain from his extremely broken leg.

“If someone is there…you may as well show yourselves. I’m not going anywhere… clearly,” I spoke into the air.

“Why…would you…” Silus spoke.

“Sshhh,” I hushed him.

Someone stepped from the shadows. It was a man, dressed in similar clothes to Silus, only his jacket was longer and was lined with silver instead of gold. Also, unlike Silus, his head was clean shaven, cropped very close to his skin. His golden eyes regarded me with…amusement?

“Look at you. You managed to throw Julios off his rider, and you’ve practically finished him off.” He pointed at Silus.

“Alijah,” Silus groaned.

Alijah sauntered over towards us, stopping a few steps away. The closer he grew, the further I had to tilt my neck upwards.

“You’re coming with me, leave him there.”

Silus didn’t react, he’d clearly expected such an outcome.

I narrowed my eyes. “I’d rather die.”

“They said you’d say that.”

Alijah reached from behind him and withdrew a pair of cursed shackles. From another pocket deep in his pants, a bunch of binding coils.

“Remember these?” He shook the shackles in his hands, smiling. They jingled.

I looked down at Silus, who was watching me out of one eye.

I was still bleeding and unable to stand, so speed enhancement was useless. I didn’t have a combative ability that would allow me to attack Alijah, and I could barely defend myself. I didn’t even have the energy to maintain translucency either.

But I did have one option.

It would have to do.

I took both hands around the dagger and pointed it towards my heart.

Alijah, who had been coming towards me with the binding materials, stopped.

“You won’t do it,” he squinted.

I wouldn’t until the last moment. It wasn’t as if I’d stab myself right now before I could be sure there was no way I could render him unconscious.

He came closer. I held the blade in place, in response to my stillness, he moved faster.

I reached one arm forwards, keeping the other hand around the dagger, and gripped his wrist, hard.

But Alijah was faster. Before I could apply any level of force to crush it, he knocked me backwards. My head slammed against the ground. The dagger I had been holding easily fell out of my hands.

He pinned them to my sides.

I leant forwards and headbutted him, using my non injured leg to knee him in between the thighs.

Alijah barely reacted, and only let out a slight grunt, before he pressed down on my wrists harder, and dug his right knee into my left thigh.

Exactly where my wound was.

I howled in pain. The bleeding returned with full force, and my vision blurred, a wave of nausea accompanying my agony, churning through my abdomen like a blazing furnace.

I couldn’t react or move as Alijah slipped one of the shackles around my wrist.

“No…no…” I said pathetically, barely able to form words. I struggled but Alijah easily prevented me from moving. I kicked my feet out from in-between his legs, wailing weakly, as the movements tore my wound open even further.

As he reached to place the shackle on the other wrist, I lifted the already shackled one and reached for a dagger at his belt.

His eyes widened in alarm. I held the dagger to my throat.

Then there was blood everywhere.

All over my neck, my chest, my torso, spilling like a relentless rainfall across my skin.

A blade was lodged right in the centre of Alijah’s neck, its tip skimming my chin.

Alijah removed his hands from my wrists and clutched at his throat. He looked at me with rage.

Knowing he would die, Alijah pulled out a weapon and raised it, ready to plunge it into my chest.

I barely saw it as his body blurred before me, and was launched to the right, so forcefully, that it flew over Silus, and landed a far distance away.

I was still holding the dagger at my throat, my movements halted in confusion when a familiar voice reached my ears.

“You don’t need that anymore.” His voice was quiet and soothing.

I didn’t have the energy to move much. I tried to bend my neck to see what was in front of me but there was no need. Within seconds the Healer was at my side. His cloak draped half-over my body as he gently reached for my hand.

His gloved one covered the back of my own and stayed there for a moment. He gently pulled my own away from my neck and removed the blade from it. Then he removed the shackle from my wrist since it hadn’t yet been locked.

I didn’t say anything, I only stared at him, at the bottom half of his face. His head turned to the side as he examined my body. His lips twisted as he saw my thigh.

“Can you stand?”

The same question he had asked me less than a day before.

I closed my eyes and moved my head very slightly from the left to the right, feeling weaker with each passing moment.

He took off his gloves, and with his right hand, reached for my leg.

I grabbed his wrist.

His face sharply turned back towards my own.

I shook my head no, very slightly again, then with my left hand, raised a finger, and pointed in Silus’ direction.

Heal him first. He won’t last for much longer. You can’t heal two people at once.

The Healer’s head followed the direction of my finger. His lips curved downwards.

“No.” He understood my request and denied it.

He reached for my leg again, but I gripped his wrist harder. He could easily have resisted me. I was frail and slightly shaking at the effort now.

But he stopped again. I pointed towards Silus more insistently.

“I’m sorry,” he said, then reached for my leg.

I made some weak sounds in protest.

Part of me was dreading the agony he was about to unleash. It had been horrendous when he had pulled some shards out of my back, when I could still walk and talk and hadn’t been bleeding. Now?

“I know. I know.” He offered me his other hand, just like the last time.

I looked at it. It had healed.

Healers can't heal themselves, so how…how has his hand mended?

“It’s alright," he insisted.

I shook my head no. I'd definitely break it again. There was a chance I’d break his whole arm this time.

He seemed to change his mind and moved towards my chest. He placed his hand on my collarbones. His fingers were freezing, I couldn’t help but jerk at his touch.

He removed his hand immediately and seemed concerned.

I nodded yes.

He repeated the movement, and I could feel, as my broken bones began to fuse back together, as my other injuries slowly began to heal, as I regained some energy.

Enough to speak. He was trying to make sure I could speak. He wanted to hear what I had to say.

Once he had finished, he whispered. “I am here for you, not him.”

“We need him,”

“We need you.”

“We need him,” I insisted, but despite the fact I could now speak, it was still difficult and tiring.

“Please,” I whispered.

The Healer sighed roughly, then stood, and walked towards Silus.

I heard another voice.

Ullna’s voice.

I pushed myself up on my elbows, still mostly lying down, so I could witness the scene.

Alijah’s head was a bloody pulp, smashed against the stone wall.

Silus was still alive it seemed, Ullna was standing beside him.

The Healer must have been explaining my request, Ullna glanced confusedly at Silus’ body, then at me.

After we made eye contact, she turned back to the Healer and nodded.

He bent forwards and spent some time over Silus’ body. The warm glow of his abilities cast a light over the bottom half of his face.

It took longer than I had anticipated. Silus must truly have been minutes away from death.

The Healer returned to my side after muttering something to Ullna.

He wordlessly stretched out and reached for my thigh. His hand hovered over it. He seemed unsure of where to place it or what to do. I was still pressed up on my elbows watching him as he was distracted.

“Can’t?” I said through an exhale, breathing deeply, either from the nerves of anticipating his healing, or exhaustion, or both.

The Healer, still looking at my thigh replied, “Not here, we should—"

A large length of coil wrapped around the Healer’s body.

From above, a rider soared and began landing. The binding coils she had curled around the Healer tightened. They were so light, like cobwebs, the fine promise of death.

She dragged him away from me.

I tried to prop up on my elbows but instantly became lightheaded.

The rider dismounted from her Erebask and purposefully strode towards Ullna.

Ullna, who was lying unconscious next to Silus.

Silus who was standing, hunched over her, unsteadily on his feet.

Had I saved Ullna, simply to be the reason for her death as well?

The rider who had just arrived looked over at Alijah’s corpse.

“Leave him. He’s not important now,” Silus told her.

The rider then looked at the ground. At Ullna.

“Take her. She won’t be a problem,” Silus ordered.

For whatever reason, the rider obeyed Silus, and walked around him to lift Ullna’s body, which she did so with ease, as if it weighed nothing.

Silus turned his attention towards me. He grinned, the swelling on his eye had completely disappeared now, along with all his other wounds and so, his face was clear. His two dark small eyes drilled into me. His sharp features looked even more angular than the buttes around us.

When he reached me, he kicked me hard in the face. The effort I had been maintaining to keep myself elevated was eradicated instantly.

“You really did know a Healer. Ha. Thanks for that.”

My mouth tasted of blood.

“Did you think once you’d fulfilled your promise to heal me, that I’d come with you willingly? That I’d sit around with you all, wagging my tongue? They said a lot about you, but they never said you were so utterly stupid.”

He lifted me up by the hair, then threw my body forwards, so I was forced to kneel in front of him. He dragged me across the space, my injured legs making full contact with the ground. The feeling of it, when one was all but cut to ribbons at the thigh, was so excruciating I began screaming.

Only I had been screaming so often over the past few hours, that my voice was cracked, and my screams now sounded like raspy groans.

He was dragging me in the direction the Healer had been thrown in, but his steps halted, and I, finding the will to lift my head and eyes, noticed the Healer was nowhere to be seen.

Silus crouched beside me, and his hand shifted from the top of my hair to the back of my neck. He whispered in my ear. “Where has your Healer gone? Mmmmm?”

He raised his voice significantly. “Is he lingering somewhere in the shadows? What does he plan on doing, I wonder? Those coils mean he’s nothing more than an ordinary person now.” Silus’ eyes searched the area. “If he comes out, I’ll take both him and you back without breaking any of your bones.”

Silus laughed. He was genuinely finding this whole situation exciting.

“Oh, come on! It was you who saved my life wasn’t it, Healer? At least let me thank you in person!”

Silence.

He turned his head towards me, his breath hitting my face. “Look at that, sorcerer. Your Healer isn’t truly ‘your’ anything. It appears he’s run off and left you here. Isn’t that sad?” He frowned mockingly.

I tried to turn but only managed to move my eyes in his direction.

“Good,” I grunted.

The female rider had put Ullna on the back of the Erebask, and was standing to the side quietly, obediently waiting instruction.

“Find him,” Silus said to the woman without looking away from me. “He can’t have gone far.”

She nodded and began to move, but before she could take more than two steps, a voice sounded from behind us.

“Didn’t you say you wished to thank me? Why then, send someone after me with such ill intentions?”

Silus spun around, pulling me with him as he did, so forcefully that I half yelled again, as my leg was twisted.

Silus guffawed. It was tinted with shock. I looked up to see the Healer standing before us, with no coils around him at all.

“Now how did you manage that?” Silus’ voice rose in pitch.

“Your subordinate did a poor job at sealing them.”

Silus grimaced and with a tight smile, turned to face the ‘subordinate.’ I couldn’t see her face, but judging by her previous actions, she was probably terrified by that smile.

“That’s no matter. She can make up for it right now.” Silus flicked his head in the Healer’s direction. The woman emerged, running towards him.

As she did, she drew two blades from her belt. The Healer stood there doing nothing, patiently waiting for her to close the distance.

As she did, he held out one hand and clicked his fingers.

He disappeared.

“Shit!” the woman shouted.

In the next instant, she had lunged to the side, somehow anticipating his attack even when it was unseen. That made sense, considering how the other riders had fought when blinded.

Unlike the time it had taken the rest of us to deduce this, the Healer seemed to realise it in an instant, and dropped his translucency. Employing it when it was useless would be a waste of energy. Instead, he used two fingers to press into the woman’s shoulder. The movement looked like a flick but behind it was enough force to send her flying backwards several metres.

Just how strong…is his strength enhancement?

The rider rolled over and stood, lunging for the Healer with her daggers. She feigned several lefts and rights. The movements of her arms were so rapid they blurred. But the Healer still hadn’t drawn one weapon, and was simply turning, twisting, and ducking, avoiding all her blows. Down, to the side, a spin to the right.

The woman grunted in frustration and went for him once more. This time he grabbed her forearm, lifted her, and smashed her body into the ground. She coughed. He bent forwards to reach for her, but she rolled over, and jumped onto his back. He reached behind him and flung her off, over his head, as if she were a fly.

She landed crouched, her back to him. She dodged as the Healer tried to grab her and turned around to face him once more.

“Hurry up!” Silus shouted.

The woman, hearing him, frantically attacked, but this time, the Healer used speed enhancement to whirl around and disarm her within less than half a second. She appeared stunned. The Healer didn’t do or say anything.

The woman tried to kick him in the abdomen, but he jumped back. She took out another weapon and went to stab him in the foot. A strange move considering it was clear he would see it coming and avoid it. He did, and reached forwards to grab her by the collar.

But with her other hand, she reached up and placed a chain around his wrist. Although she had not been able to attach the chains to the other, the cursed shackles would have weakened him instantly. In that instant of drainage and shock, the woman grabbed the Healer’s cuffed wrist, and twisted it behind his back, ready to link it to the other.

Not him .

He could save countless lives. He could do so much more for the sorcerers than I ever could.

Let him live in his Castle, let him sleep in beds clad in silk and fur, let him never go hungry or thirsty. I didn’t care. Not truly. So long as he would not go there, as long as he would not be locked behind those walls, deep beneath the ground.

He could not go there.

He could not.

“No,” I mouthed into the air.

The thought took over my very being. A starving despair sequestered in my soul erupted through my veins.

All of a sudden, the woman backed away from the Healer. He took advantage of her hesitation, and moved away, turning to look at her.

Blood was coming out of her nose.

More like pouring. Pouring until it fell like a torrential storm down her neck, her chest.

Then it began coming out of her eyes.

Her ears.

She began to scream, pausing between each outburst in shock. She almost sounded like a child.

The blood kept coming, as if her body had been a cage for it, and now, it was trying to get out.

Now it was coming out of her mouth.

The spaces under her fingernails.

She howled and clutched at her face, which grew paler and paler by the second. The whites of her eyes turned red, the veins under her now much paler skin began to burst.

She looked at Silus pleadingly.

As if he could help her.

“What the fuck?” he muttered, half baffled, half disgusted.

She screamed desperately and so loudly that Silus flinched.

She dropped dead to the ground, blood continuing to flow, bubbling out of her crevices, even afterwards.

Silus let go of my neck and left me kneeling. He stood and took his own weapons out. “As rare as a Healer is, I’m not going to let you turn me into bloody broth,” he asserted.

The Healer was still staring at the woman’s body, he didn’t even acknowledge that Silus had moved or spoken.

But Silus, determined to ensure he fulfilled his declaration, went for the Healer, who hadn’t yet had time to take his shackle off.

They fought much in the same way, only Silus was faster than the woman had been, and within less than a minute, had already cut the Healer in several places, his clothes being torn and scratched apart.

The next time Silus went to strike, the Healer manipulated his shackle, pulling the chains taught and raising them above him, to parry Silus’ blow.

Silus’s blade cut the shackles off the Healer’s wrist.

Silus’ eyes widened and his mouth twitched up in annoyance. The Healer’s demeanour changed. He appeared and gave off an aura I had not recognised on him before. Silus noticed the change as well.

The Healer became invisible again. Somehow, Silus anticipated his movement and rushed towards me, slashing out with his dagger as he did.

The Healer reappeared with his back to me. His arms and legs spread slightly, as if that would shield me further.

As Silus slashed out his dagger, the Healer made a sweeping movement and disarmed him. Silus had no other weapons on him now. I had removed them all earlier.

But Silus didn’t seem to care about his lack of blades, or anything at all.

Because the strike of Silus’ dagger through the air had achieved what he had wanted.

The hood the Healer was wearing fell backwards, and a black piece of thread that had bound it around his shoulders, floated to the ground.

Silus was staring at the Healer’s face. His mouth was widened, his eyebrows raised. His expression was full of so much astonishment and horror, you would have imagined he was looking at a mountain of rotting corpses.

For someone who had just watched his comrade die in a sea of her own blood, who had only reacted with mild disgust, a reaction like this…

Silus didn’t make another move to attack. He didn’t make a move at all.

Before me, the Healer placed his hand over his back and drew a longsword. It rang through the air as he did so. He stretched it out by his side.

Silus laughed in disbelief and only uttered one word.

“You.”

He looked over the man’s shoulder at me briefly, then back at the Healer’s face. He observed his stance, his sword.

As if someone had possessed him, Silus’ facial expression completely changed. He smiled widely, shaking his head in a resigned manner, looking up at the sky.

He tutted. “How disappointing.” He let out a small laugh.

“I really, really… would like to have known what happened next.”

He made eye contact with the Healer, who without any reservation or hesitation, lifted his sword, and took Silus’ head off his body.