Wild Watchtower: Shield & Claw Book One

Chapter Thirty-Six: The Dying and the Dead

She had her back to me, but that didn’t hide the bloom of red that stained the dirty shirt of a masculine cut which Fiáin wore. Her blood spread across the lower left quadrant, too copious to have come from any minor wound. A bolt of fear shot through me, so intense that I scarcely noticed how she stood in a hazy mist, as if the dream around her couldn’t quite form. The planks of the hidden harbour’s quay echoed under my feet, but there was nothing under hers, almost as though she’d become untethered from the world.

“Sister? What happened to you?” I demanded as I ran towards her, the representation of the quayside extending under me, although it didn’t clear the mist that still swirled around her.

Fiáin turned slowly, as if pained, revealing how blood stained the front of her shirt as well. Had she been run through?

Gore flowed down her front, catching in the waistband of the grubby men’s britches she wore and dripping down her left leg. Her face looked pale and bloodless, her lips already turning blue. Each laboured inhale barely caused her chest to expand, her breathing shallow and rasping, but her pupils were like saucers, dilated, her eyes unfocussed even as she frowned.

“I think I’m dying,” she croaked, her voice weak, and when she stumbled forward, I rushed to catch her.

Gods, she smelled bad. The clothes she wore were rank with old sweat, gunpowder, and something acrid that I couldn’t name. That didn’t prevent me tugging her icy body into my arms, though. As I did, the quayside solidified around her, my dream overwhelming the hazy fog of hers, and we slid down to sit on the wet planks together, her on my lap as I kept her against my chest. She looked so small. So broken. More so than I’d ever seen her.

“What happened?”

“Highwaymen. We were attacked and they took Lord Styrkr. They intended to ransom him, but I tried to rescue him,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “I couldn’t leave him.”

I blinked at her confession, blindsided, so much so that my jaw fell open in surprise.

She’d done what?

Fiáin – the same Fiáin who almost always refused to get off The Sea Wolf when we made port because she was so frightened of the threat posed by strangers – had taken it upon herself to rescue a captive from a band of brigands? My disbelief couldn’t comprehend it. Who was this female in my arms?

She continued without noticing my shock and awe. “I tracked them, waited till most were asleep, killed the watchmen, got Lord Styrkr free... But their leader woke as we were leaving. He stabbed me from behind. We were desperate and I... I used magic, Cróga. I didn’t even know I had magic until Grimfæng Torrfær told me. I threw a fireball at a barrel of black powder and it exploded. We escaped, but I think the roof of the cave came down on the bandits. I heard them screaming from outside, but they didn’t follow us.

“The princeling bandaged me up as best he could, but the wound smelled of belladonna. The highwayman must’ve poisoned his blade. Everything got blurry after that. Styrkr wouldn’t leave me, though. I told him to leave me, but he carried me instead. That might’ve been days ago. I’m not sure. I think we were attacked by wild wolves, but I passed out. He might be dead now too. I might have gotten him killed when he could have been sold back to his uncle and lived...

“Brother... He wouldn’t have been caught at all if not for me. It’s all my fault. We were arguing and we didn’t notice the highwaymen approaching. We were arguing because I’ve bonded with him, but he thinks he’s cursed. He believes getting close to me will get me killed. He blames himself for this, but it really wasn’t his fault! Now he might be dead, and I’m dying, and it’s all such a mess Cróga!