Page 8 of Of Blood & Stone

Yenna groaned.

Elnok patted the nurse’s shoulder. “No need to complain, seeing that Orym will be walking out of this piss-stained infirmary and joining me for some shitty ale come nightfall.”

Orym’s eyes widened. Yenna batted Elnok’s hand off her arm.

“You found medicine?” Orym whispered.

“The Vutrorian ship will be docked within the hour,” Elnok replied, “and with it, the request I sent weeks ago.”

Orym’s face stilled.

“A Vutrorian vessel?” Yenna said, desperation in her voice as her brows knitted together, “Perhaps the gods have heard our prayers.”

“Or perhaps my letter was well-received,” Elnok countered as he gripped Orym’s shoulder. A well of emotion rose in his chest, the blood dripping down his friend’s chin was a sure sign the sickness would take him in the coming weeks.

But Elnok refused to watch his friend die.

Orym struggled to raise his arm as he gripped Elnok in return. What had once been thick, corded muscle under golden skin was now small and frail, having lost all its color. His eyes were the only part of him that still looked alive.

“The medicine is only a rumor,” Orym choked out.

Elnok clenched his jaw as he said, “If Vutror wasn’t sourcing it from Estea, I wouldn’t believe it either.”

“Estea?” Yenna interrupted, “Those magical imbeciles wouldn’t help anyone outside of their godsforsaken forest even if they knew we were all to die tomorrow.”

“Did someone say Estea?” a woman lying in a cot next to them said as she lifted herself to face them. Her skin was sheet white and blood stained her chin.

“Now’s not the time for your stories,” Yenna said in a sing-song voice, “Go back to sleep?—”

“My brother wanted to go to Estea. He braved Lhaal Forest two years ago to do it.” The woman continued, her arms shaking, “Our family’s grain field had finally withered; the last one in our village. But my brother refused to accept it and made to demand food from Estea. He’d been told their women could create crops from the ground with their magic—crops that were ready toharvest.Can you imagine? Growing grain to bake it that same day? What I would give for a single fucking piece of bread again!” Tears began to well in her eyes, “But he never returned.”

“No one returns from Lhaal,” another person voiced, a man on a different cot, “Your brother was a damned fool for such a venture.”

“Everyone,” Yenna pleaded, “Please, go back to sleep?—”

“He was one of our best fighters,” the woman argued.

“Doesn’t fucking matter how good of a fighter he was,” the man replied, “Nothing can get past the monsters that live in that devilish forest.”

“A Dynami can,” she argued.

The man on the cot laughed bitterly, “Magical, blubbering Esteans. Disgraceful to call them warriors. If it wasn’t for their magic, they’d be useless.”

“I heard a Dynami was spotted along the coast,” Orym said as he coughed.

“What?” the woman replied, “But they’re only meant to go as far as Vutror. Why would they be on the coast?”

“Bet someone stole a piece of that stone while they were sleeping,” the man cackled.

“Someone stole a piece of orodyte from a Dynami?” the woman asked, her voice rising.

“I’ve heard they kill for that sort of thing,” Orym said.

“What if they’re going on a killing spree?” the woman said, eyes wide and shaking, “Are we all going to die before this sickness takes us?”

Suddenly she erupted into shouts. Surprise took over the infirmary as others joined in the woman’s panic. Nurses rushed to their patients’ sides with calming words and bowls of gutted, cooked fish.

“This is your fault,” Yenna hissed to Elnok and Orym as she stood.

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