Page 175 of A Tribute of Fire

If I ever saw Demaratus again, I was going to kiss his shaved head for forcing me to practice running so often.

The forest came to a sudden end and I broke into a clearing and could see again, the bright moon lighting my way. I threw my torch at the terawolf and heard it back off. There was the river! I saw Zalira, Ahyana, and Io were swimming across, but Suri was standing in the shallows closest to me. Was she waiting for me?

“I’m here! Let’s go!” I told her and then ran past her into the water. I dived in and had gone a few strokes when I discovered that Suri hadn’t followed. I swiveled my head to look at her and called for her to follow me.

From the frantic and panicked expression on her face, I realized that she couldn’t swim.

Cursing, I immediately turned and rushed back, but before I could reach her, a terawolf tore out of the forest straight toward her.

“Suri!” I screamed. “Look out!” It was like I was moving in slow motion. The water was making it so I couldn’t go quickly enough. I wasn’t going to be able to reach her in time.

She slashed at the terawolf, but it evaded her blow and reached over to clamp its teeth around her other arm and pulled her to the ground. It started dragging her away.

I ran out of the water and plunged my xiphos into the back of its neck. It collapsed to the ground, its teeth still wrapped around Suri’s forearm. I pried its jaws open and she quickly withdrew her shaking limb.

“Come on, I’ll help you,” I said. “In the water turn onto your back and I’ll pull you.” I was grateful that I had grown up next to the sea and had spent my entire life swimming and that my brother, Haemon, had taught me how to rescue someone who was struggling.

I also knew that if Suri panicked she could drown us both, and I couldn’t imagine a worse death. Getting eaten might be preferable.

We ran into the river just as the rest of the pack came through the tree line, revealing themselves to us.

There were at least a dozen of them, all bristling fur over thick muscles and massive teeth, and they were the most horrifying things I had ever seen.

They came over to the riverbank and watched as I pulled Suri through the water. The cloak I wore was dragging us down, but I didn’t have a way to remove it. Swimming like this was exhausting work and I was quickly tiring.

Despite my warning, Suri seemed to sense how I was failing, and she thrashed around, struggling within my grasp. I tried to warn her not to, but my arms gave out and we were both drifting down. Now I was the one utterly panicked. Drowning was my worst fear and I wasn’t strong enough to save us both. I didn’t know what to do. I kicked my legs out, but it was futile. I was too weak.

But then I felt hands on my arms, pulling me up. Zalira and Ahyana had come into the water and rescued both of us, taking us to safety.

We landed on the opposite shore, exhausted and breathing hard. We all collapsed and watched as the terawolves slowly disappeared, blinking out of sight until all we could see was their golden eyes. I heard the brush parting as they reentered the forest.

“They’ll keep hunting us,” Zalira said. “They will find a way around the river. We have to keep moving.”

“Suri’s hurt,” I said. “One of them bit her.”

Io was already moving, looking at the wound. She took off the cloth wrapping from Suri’s arm and wrapped it tightly near Suri’s elbow. Then she leaned down and wrapped her mouth around the bite mark, sucked, and then spat something out.

“What are you doing?”

“Sucking out as much of the venom as she can,” Ahyana said as she started looking for some long branches. “We’re going to need a litter for Suri. If she walks, her blood will pump faster and spread the venom.”

Zalira went to help her, but I could only watch as Io tried to save our sister.

“Lia! Give us your cloak!” Ahyana said. I realized that I was the only one who still had mine. The cloak that had nearly drowned me was now going to help Suri. I quickly took it off and then handed it to Ahyana. She was using soaked ropes from her knapsack and tied the cloak to the wooden frame she and Zalira had constructed. I wondered why they hadn’t used one of the blankets until I remembered that our cloaks had been coated in lanolin oil to make them somewhat waterproof. Our blankets would be drenched.

“That’s all I can do,” Io said as she wrapped the wound up with the cloth from Suri’s other arm. “It is a slow venom and we have plenty of antivenin at the infirmary. We have time.”

I hoped that was true.

After we secured Suri to the litter, we began pulling her with Io crying as she walked. We plunged back into the dark forest and again had a hard time seeing. I heard Zalira curse more than once as she tripped over something, but she managed to lead us safely through.

We found the main road, and despite Antiope’s warning, we took it the rest of the way back. It was faster and felt safer than returning into the woods.

When Troas came into sight, Io suddenly collapsed. I called her name and rushed over to her.

“It’s probably from sucking out the venom,” Ahyana said. “She put herself at risk to save Suri.” We put her onto the litter next to Suri and dragged it the rest of the way, trading off so that we wouldn’t tire too quickly.

The streets were empty, but I kept my xiphos drawn the whole time just in case we ran into somebody we shouldn’t. Urgency pushed us to hurry but I was so worried it wasn’t fast enough.

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