Outcasts of Aquila (Aquila's Originals 2)

Chapter 5: Consequences, Part 1

BODIES FLOATED IN the lake. Aching all over, weak and dizzy, Rhiddyl drifted on the surface like flotsam and could barely take in the horrifying scene around her.

So many bodies, all limp and lifeless.

"He's breathing! Get him out!"

The familiar, comforting sound of Lieutenant Dhori's voice drew Rhiddyl's attention. She tried to watch the figures running along the distant shore, but her eyes wouldn't focus. Just dark blobs on a strangely shattered scene. Her head hurt.

She looked around the bodies, searching for familiar features and faces. She couldn't focus. Her nose wasn't working. Breathing hurt. Everything hurt. She paddled towards the nearest student, but her limbs felt like lead.

She reached towards the body, wondering why its skin was all shiny, wondering why her scales were missing and why her arm was so pale.

"I must have shifted," she mumbled, and patted the body again. It turned in the water, dark braids fanning out around the head like weeds.

The thought made her shudder and she rolled the body over in the water. The face was puffy and shiny and so unlike how it should look – but she still recognised it.

"Zett." Her voice was a croak, pathetic and broken, but strength was coming back. Along with memories.

Oh, Family, Zett! She grabbed her friend close, then let go, worried she'd hurt him.

Of course she'd hurt him! Her power had done this. That was why his skin was all shiny; she'd fried him in the water!

"Vhen?" Memories flooded back and she spun around, almost going back under as her aching head protested the movement.

Someone groaned nearby, a corpse that wasn't a corpse. More of them were moving. More of them were alive.

Family be praised.

"Vhen!"

Someone was coughing, others were choking. Alive, alive, alive. Even Zett was making noises. Unhappy though they were, Rhiddyl thought them the most beautiful sounds she'd ever heard. He was alive. She was alive. They were all alive.

"Vhen!"

Vhen was alive, swimming towards her, his face blistered, his eyes swollen almost shut. She swam towards him and hugged him tight.

It hurt. It must have hurt him too, but neither of them let go. Pulling Zett in to join them, the three of them clung together, treading water, until Dhori's boat came to pick them up.

Stumbling ashore, Rhiddyl fell to her trembling knees and waited for the world to stop spinning. Vhen and Zett collapsed alongside her, groaning but alive.

They were all alive.

Smiling with relief, Rhiddyl looked up at the beautiful sun in the bright blue sky and whispered her thanks, grateful that life was good.

* * *

BLOOD. IN HER mouth, on her face. Taryn could taste it, smell it. Blood surrounded her. Oh gods. She rolled over to retch and lost track of the world.

When the blackness cleared she felt pain. So much pain. In her arm, her leg, her side, her face. It burned almost as much as the bile in her throat. The scent of blood overwhelmed her and she vomited, choking and crying, wishing everything would stop.

Spitting the foul taste from her mouth, she pushed her hands into the earth, desperate to get away from her own mess, and found that only her left side worked. She looked at her right before she thought better of it and quickly wished she hadn't.