Page 112 of Knight's End
My sister’s golden tresses were stained with blood. Her wings were still limp in the water. Even her scales had lost their luster. I moved closer to her, now that Ryan wasn’t clutching her so protectively. My hand stroked her cheek.
“It’s okay to let me go, Bloss,” she whispered. “It’s okay.”
My heart plummeted, like it had been shot from the sky, pierced by an arrow. I fought against that feeling, fought against reality and gravity and the certainty of death. It couldn’t be true. It couldn’t happen. Not to my little sister. Not before me. “Connor—”
“I’m trying, Bloss!” he snarled, the anger that was his price made his hands clench into fists, even though his own body was too hurt and weak right now to lash out.
But I saw Avia’s breath grow more shallow, even as my best friend shoved all his pink magic into her skin. Her eyes fluttered. I grabbed her hand, needing to hold her, needing to touch her, to be with her—
A raspy voice echoed through the cavern. “What the sard is going on? You’re trying to heal someone in a pit of blood?” Lizzatsked as she turned to Posey. “I swear, sometimes the living have no sense at all.”
Then the undead hedgewitch whispered some words, took a bite of moldy-looking bread from her pouch, and waved her arms. Avia floated up out of the water, droplets falling from her hair and dress as she levitated in midair. Lizza waved her hand and my sister floated over to her.
She looked at the knife in Avia’s chest, and the ice spear poking out of her back. Then over at us. “It’d be easiest if I could make her undead.”
I shook my head.
Lizza sighed, scratching at her exposed bit of skull. “Thought you might say that. Come on then, we’ve taken the castle. Let’s get her in there.”
* * *
Lizza put another spell on Avia, freezing my sister, preventing any further injury or blood loss until we had her settled into a bedroom. Instead of taking us up through the mountain, she marched down, toward the opposite side of the cavern and led us into the castle via a passageway there. I had to assume that it was the same passage that Mayi had used to find us.
We tromped right through the great hall, mermaids stopping dead at the sight of us. Their rainbow-colored tails glimmered in the light of floating orbs of glass that served as sea lanterns. Each woman had hair that matched their tails. Their breasts were unbound and uncovered, and their plush mouths were open in shock as they watched us. Their eyes all flew to Avia and they watched as Lizza levitated my sister’s body up the blue glass staircase and we followed. General Enderson tromped through the room and scattered them, saying, “Don’t you all have work to do? Or should I toss you in the dungeons too?”
Lizza brought my sister right to the queen’s chambers. I tried not to focus on the fact that this had once been Mayi’s room. I tried to think only about Avia. Lizza set her on a canopied bed hung with seaweed that dominated the room. Glowing lights in round glass lanterns floated throughout the space, gently bumping into the walls with a clink and then floating back toward the middle of the room. While the walls were made of glass, they were opaque green inside the palace rooms instead of translucent as the outer walls appeared. Avia had privacy.
Lizza got Avia settled onto the round mattress, turning my sister on her side so the undead woman could see both wounds. The hedgewitch examined them for a moment and then she turned to my knights. “Get out.”
Ryan, Connor, and Declan protested furiously. Blue was still off chasing the stranger.
“We can help.”
Lizza gave them a sharp look. “No. I’m going to heal the princess. And then I need to discuss some matters that might be sensitive for Avia … female matters.”
Declan’s eyes went wide, and he looked at me. Ryan and Connor were already avoiding eye contact. “You’ll be okay?”
I nodded. So long as Avia would be okay. Lizza seemed confident as she pulled a decapitated lizard out of one of her pouches.
I closed my eyes and hoped fiercely that she didn’t try to make Avia eat it. But, in all honesty, I’d do whatever it took. If I needed to hold Avia’s jaw open and force that lizard down so that she’d survive, that’s what I’d do.
My knights left, muttering about speaking to the general, the captured Mer soldiers, and the castle servants.
I went to sit next to Avia as Lizza prepared her tools. “Anything I can do?” I asked as I stroked my sister’s hair. Still frozen, Avia didn’t respond.
“Take the knife out,” Lizza ordered.
I nearly wished she’d asked me to force feed my sister the lizard instead. My heart leapt into my mouth as I wrapped my fingers around the dagger’s handle. No sight in my life had seemed more wrong. But I shut down my thoughts and yanked.
As soon as I did, Lizza clapped her hands. A bright purple light sizzled around Avia and she sat up, gasping. My sister blinked and then reached for my hand. I let the knife clatter to the floor as I hugged Avia to me as hard as I could. I wanted to fuse our bones together, make it so no one could ever take her again. I crushed her into my shoulder as she sobbed.
“Am I healed?” she whispered.
I realized I didn’t know. I might not have been supposed to hug her at all. I might have been interrupting a second part of the spell. I turned to look at Lizza. “Is that it?”
Lizza was stuffing the decapitated lizard into her own mouth. She gave me a smile as she crunched one of the bones and slurped the tail into her mouth. “For this bit, yes.” She chewed a little more and then swallowed. Then she walked closer. Her weathered face was serious as she said, “But Avia has done serious injury to her body. You shouldn’t go around stabbing yourself, child.”
Avia blushed and I hugged her to me once more. My elder sister instincts kicked in. “She thought Ryan could heal her.”
