“Does your mouth taste like metal?” he asked. “I think maybe we—”
“Good night, Simon.” Silently, I added the words I didn’t dare say aloud: I’m so very sorry, but it had to be done.
Sometime over the next few hours, the rain worsened and was accompanied by fierce lightning and thunder. I sat up and saw her crouched in a tight ball, obviously afraid.
I motioned her over to me, beneath the ledge, but she shook her head. Why did she have to make this a fight, especially on a night when I was becoming increasingly sick? The ache in my bones had worsened and spread through my limbs, and I was sure I had a fever. I started to crawl out from my blanket, but she held up a hand to stop me, then scooted over beside me. With the next flash of lightning, I realized she was watching me, but I didn’t want her to know I was sick. She’d use that as an opportunity to try escaping.
I faked a smile, then wrapped my dry blanket around her shoulders and pulled her close to offer her some warmth. Her hand brushed against my chest, then my thigh, as if she wasn’t sure where to rest it, so I clasped her hand in mine and was surprised she didn’t pull away. She was shivering, I realized, or maybe I was. With her head against my shoulder, she said, “You’re not well. Let me go find some herbs to help you.”
I’d have to release the binding cord to do that, and within an hour, she’d be as far from this camp as she could go. In this storm, and with a long list of enemies hunting for her, she might not see morning.
Unless this fever broke, I might not see it either.
“Help!”
I sat up straighter, wondering if I’d just heard a voice. Kestra had sat up too and she looked at me with concern.
Then I heard, “Simon!” It was Trina’s voice, but it wasn’t the voice that had called out first.
I heard it again, louder. “Help!” This was Gabe.
From the direction it had come, I knew what the problem was. They must have spotted our camp and were trying to cross the slot from the other side. They hadn’t anticipated how much rain there would be, and all of it was pouring into the slot. It was flooding, and now Gabe was trapped.
I held out a hand to Kestra. “I need your help to save him.”
I’d expected a fight, but she immediately stood and walked with me. “What can I do?”
I wasn’t sure, until another call for help gave me a sense of direction, and a flash of lightning showed me the area. I pointed across the ravine to where Trina was jumping up and down to get my attention. When I motioned back to her, she gestured down into the slot, as I had feared. She shouted something over at me, but her words were lost against a crack of thunder.
I peered down to see Gabe halfway up the slot wall, but he was holding on to an exposed tree root as a torrent of water rushed over him. It wasn’t too much different from when I had seen Kestra in the river, half-drowned.
Yesterday, I’d felt strong enough to pull Kestra out. I couldn’t do that now for Gabe. My vision was blurring and I was burning up with fever, despite this cold night’s rain.
I pointed to a thick bush near the edge
of the ravine and said to Kestra, “Get behind that and hold on. I need you as a brace.”
“A brace for what?”
I detached the binding cord from my wrist and began coiling it. “I’ll try to manage his weight, but if I can’t, don’t let go of that bush or you’ll go over the edge.”
Her brows furrowed. “Simon, I have to tell you—”
“I’ll be all right.”
“You won’t. I—”
“Get to your position and hold on. Hurry!” As soon as she signaled that she was ready, I called to Gabe to grab the rope, then tossed it to him. My first throw missed, but I gathered the rope again and he caught it the second time.
“Attach it to your wrist!” I shouted.
He nodded and smacked it against his wrist. I immediately began pulling, though once he let go of the tree root, he was thrown directly into the current. With my illness, I wasn’t able to pull as hard as I wanted. Across the ravine, Trina was shouting again but I couldn’t pay attention to her. All I could think about was giving another tug upward.
Then I felt the load lighten. At first, I thought Gabe had somehow fallen off, but I turned and saw Kestra at my side, helping to pull the rope. She nodded over at me, and together we began to make progress. My head swam with dizziness, and Trina’s shouts blurred along with everything else. This was worse than mere illness. I was dying.
I was dying.
It was that water Kestra had given me earlier tonight. I’d thought then that it had a funny taste, but skins sometimes picked up strange odors. I’d never tasted anything like this before though.