Page 94 of Terragnata and the Heir of the Earth

The world swirled in my mind.Think, think, think—but nothing came. My head pounded, a steady drumbeat, the thrumming of blood rushing upwards through my temples.

Cool, soft hands cupped my neck. A jolt went through me—they had no hard callouses of a warrior’s palms. Fayzien.Get away, I hissed in my mind. I could not move. I tried to lift my arm again, but my limb didn’t respond.

“Terra, ye must try, try te tell us, what happened?”

I screamed again in my mind, but not at Leiya’s question or Fayzien’s touch. I screamed because I couldn’t move. A word started repeating in my head to the rhythm of the pounding blood that rushed through my veins—my body trying to fight whatever venom the spiders had gifted me.

Paralysis, paralysis, paralysis.

“Terra,” Fayzien urged. He almost sounded concerned for me. “Youhaveto try and tell us. Were you burned, with fire? Was it blue or orange?”

I did not move. He waited.

“She’s breathen,” Leiya said clinically. “An not bleedin’. Her skin looks like et was devoured by somethen’ rotten, poor lass, but not flame. What could cause thes?”

“She could have been knocked in the spine, rendering her paralyzed,” Fayzien said, his voice distant. “But her Fae blood would have healed an injury like that by now, and it doesn’t explain the blisters.”

I grew more desperate as they debated, pounding my inner walls, searching frantically for some movement. Nothing budged. Not a finger, nor a twitch of an eyelid. It had to be venom.

Would the poison eventually stop my lungs from inhaling air? Could it do that?

Breathe, think, breathe, think,I repeated, trying to slow my heartbeat. Panicking would do nothing to help.

A strangled groan floated from across the meadow. Footsteps sounded in the opposite direction from me. Someone running. More running. And then a thud.

“Xinlan, can ye say that again?” Leiya commanded.

“Deeghsie,” her voice rasped. I knew it would dry up in a matter of moments, like mine had.

“Deeghsie? I dinna understand!” Leiya yelled in frustration.

Fayzien swore under his bread. “Dinghisenie beetles,” he said. “They look like spiders. Deadly if not followed by the antidote within a matter of minutes.”

“What’s en the antidote?” Leiya asked.

“A whole combination of things… spindle flower, up-root, ground truffle bone… and Faerie blood. Either Golbin or some close relation. It would take hours to make.”

My heart sank. So this is how I would die.Where did Ezren lie, unmoving?

The venom seemed to seep into my heart—slowing everything. No need for panic now. Everything felt slow, slow, slow.

“Move over, you fools!” A third voice rang out of nowhere.

In an instant, my mouth was opened, my chin tilted up, and cool liquid trickled in. I could feel it dribble down the sides of my face, but I could not swallow.

“Plug her nose, warrior,” the voice commanded.

“I dinna take orders from a Faerie,” Leiya growled. “What are ye given’ her?”

“It’s an up-root elixir, you imbecile. All that is required to treat Dinghisenie bites,” the voice grumbled.“No Faerie blood needed.”

If they argued more, I did not hear, because my nose was plugged and I began choking and gurgling, a bodily reaction finally ignited.

“There, there, Daughter,” the voice I now recognized as Cobal whispered. “Drink.”

The liquid slid down my throat, cold and soothing my burning insides. He held my head, rocking it side to side, swirling his concoction inside my body.

My mind cleared. The panic returned with a vengeance, and my eyes flew open. I kicked immediately, sitting up with a force that made my burnsscream. But I moved.I could move.

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