The Way We Fall

Chapter 18 (Tigris)

Tigris burst through the engraved doors. Piles of books toppled to the ground with a grand crash. She could barely think through the crushing terror filling her mind.

"Where is he?" she barked, shoving aside the two guards who gently tried to pull her out of the room. No one acknowledged her. Not even Roche who stood in the corner with that stupid, wide eyed look of hers. She lifted her horrified gaze with great effort, covering her mouth with a trembling hand.

You're wrong! Tigris wanted to scream, Finn's fine!

But Roche averted her gaze to the pale, limp body on the ground. Tigris sucked in a breath. The world spun around her.

Finn was sprawled out on the ground beside his bed, hand outstretched like he'd been trying to reach for something. An ugly wound had matted his tousled brown hair, forcing it to stand up in a million directions. She would have teased him for it if not for his deathly pale pallor, and the way his green eyes were darting around, unseeing. He twisted on the ground, his mouth twisted with a pained grimace. His movements were sluggish and only getting slower.

Leinos, the royal physician, was at Finn's side, poking and prodding and turning him like a fresh cut of meat. At his side, Verita was flipping through a ridiculous amount of books with a deep set frown. She whispered something to her ex-husband, whose eyes only grew grimmer as he nodded.

The king kneeled on the ground, brushing away the thin sheen of clammy sweat that had plastered some of Finn's hair to his forehead. His hands trembled with tenderness. When he looked up, his devastated expression whited out Tigris' world.

"How did this happen?" the king whispered in a horrified voice. Leinos stood, his medicine bag jingling with vials.

"He appears to have been poisoned, sire. He must have fallen and hit his head when it overcame him." the physician declared gravely. He bent, looping his arms around Finn's arms. Tigris' stomach flipped as his head lolled when Leinos dragged him upright. Silently, Roche slipped forward, grabbing the prince's feet. Leinos nodded at her appreciatively. "We must get him to the infirmary."

"Can he be cured?" Tigris asked, fighting to keep her voice steady. She couldn't take her eyes off her brother's face. Her book loving baby brother, reduced to a half conscious corpse. Tigris felt numb with horror. "Leinos, can he be cured?"

Leinos looked like he was trying to pick his words carefully. "This poison... to treat it I must first identify what it is." he said slowly, hoisting Finn higher in his wrinkled arms. Together, he and Roche placed the prince on a stretcher.

The king didn't leave his side.

"What is this poison?" he demanded to know.

Leinos hesitated. "I'm not sure, sire. I haven't seen anything like it before. But from what I can tell... it is very deadly."

"Can you cure it?" Tigris hadn't noticed that Aodh had entered the room until she heard his strained voice. She'd never seen him so disheveled. His blue eyes were as fractured and stormy as their father's.

"I'll do my best, my lord, but it is clear that this poison is an unusually fast acting one. If the poison cannot be identified in time... he might not survive, my lord."

The silence that followed was choking. The king ran a hand over his face, hiding his devastation. Tigris locked her jaw so that she wouldn't cry out. The guards entered then, hoisting the stretcher on their backs.

"The cure must be found, Leinos. Do you hear me?" the king insisted, his voice trembling with a mix of tears and fury. When Leinos avoided his gaze, he turned to the librarian. "Verita, you must help him. Find whatever you can. Surely there must be something."