Not Giving Into Fate

48- The Curse Breaks

I come to and see Adrian's face. I let out a groan and he shouts that I'm awake. I try to sit up, but he tells me to stay laying down. I try to move my wrists and feel like I can't move them.

"Milo is trying to heal you. It won't be perfect but it'll have to do for now." Adrian assures me and then I hear Milo's muttering and his hands on my wrist that lay over my stomach.

"How are you two alright?" I whisper before squinting my eyes in pain. I take deep, shagged breaths to ease the pain. My wrists throb with every heartbeat, reminding me of surely broken bones. My ankles are stiff, held together by strong rope.

"We know how to land because of our training as a battle mage. I'm sorry I never taught you. I didn't think it would be important during our training and now your ankles are broken and you're in pain and-"

"Adrian shut up." Milo cuts off the blubbering Prince. Milo comes in my field of vision. "You're alright for now. We will just have to take turns in carrying you. You will still be able to use magic so you can help me break the curse of the rings and then we will get out of this creepy cave."

I nod my head and the two men help me sit up. I look down to see my shoes are off and my ankles and knees are bandaged. I swallow, feeling pain in my spine but I don't tell them that. I tell them to help me up and they slowly get me on my feet when I put one arm on each of their shoulders.

We awkwardly limp towards the only exit. Adrian tells us that there's a small river up ahead. Apparently he went forward to see what is out there while Milo was with me, but he came back when the path was blocked. Adrian ends up carrying me across the river, carefully jumping on the stones to avoid the water. Milo is ahead of us to start clearing the path as Adrian carries me.

Milo mutters that he doesn't like this cave at all. On the other side of the river, there's a boulder that looks to be covering the only exit. I can feel the strong magic from the rings beyond the boulder. I tell them we have to open the door. Milo lets out a deep breath and tells us his suspicion on the type of magic. Because this is an elven curse, usually the curse attaches to the stronger mage. Typically there is a time limit before it consumes the mage and we have to break the curse before it happens. I nod my head, looking at the men with a brave smile.

I tell Adrian that he will have to let go of me and we will have to put all our magic onto Milo. Once the rings bind to him we will have to break the curse. He looks anxious, but a second later he looks determined. We tell Milo we're ready and he takes a deep breath and uses magic to easily roll the boulder to the side.

The force of the magic is strong, but I can handle it. Adrian, who still has me on his back, follows Milo into the room. I see that there's a pedestal with six rings and other gold. I look around the room. It doesn't seem impressive at all. I don't see any writings, drawings or runes that could tell us what the magic behind the rings could be. It seems as if the elves must've put the dangerous rings here and closed the boulder in hopes that no one gets their hands on them again.

As we walk closer, the rings shake and Milo shouts out a question, asking if we're ready. I strengthen my legs and Adrian lets go of me. I walk to the pedestal and see the rings are shaking even more know, they're practically dancing as they sense great magic from Milo. I don't see any words on the pedestal and reach into my bag to take out the spell to break the curse, hoping that it's correct. I give a copy to Adrian and he takes it, quickly reading the words to say. He and I nod our heads for Milo to take the rings.

Milo lets out a low breath and extends his hand to grab them, but they fly through the air and the six rings settle on each finger, one finger bears two rings. Milo groans in pain, sinking onto his knees and I start the chant.