Discoveries

17

 I looked up, straight into those sunset eyes I knew so well.

But something was missing.

The stunningly purple orchid disappeared from my eyes, just like a Turned.

Oh Gods.

"You took him from me, you did." The look on his face was pained. "My sweet little boy. But Her cause is true, and you blinded them from it." When I started to protest, he used his other hand to hold me down by my hair and pressed the knife a bit harder. "That's why She sent me. She knew I'd do the best job. Dead or alive, She said, but what She meant was alive or hardly. Because your feckin' kind don't die. Wonder what it feels like to be stabbed in the heart. Then you'll wish to die. Shall we try?"

That rimed. And made me snicker, despite the situation.

This was it.

Why had nobody heard us?

Wait.

This was a man.

Up went the knee into the groin, giving me a second of freedom. It was just enough to turn the roles around. I held his knife against the side of his throat, where death was swift. Now it was my turn to have the advantage: he was mortal.

But I couldn't kill this man.

Many would never forgive me for it. Whatever he was.

So I flipped the blade around and bashed his temple hard with the butt. It took three blows to get him completely out – surprisingly little, for a man of his strength. Then I rolled onto my back, panting with pain.

Flynn came out of the cave about a minute later. Or maybe it was ten, I had no idea.

"Father!" he exclaimed. "What have you done to him?"

"Rather ask what he did to me," I managed.

He saw the blood. "Oh Gods."

The others emerged from the cave and stopped dead. A moment later Sabrina started to search the bushes and the Rose came over to me.

"Chew this."

My body relaxed as I ground a disgusting leaf in my mouth. Rosalinda chewed on a root and spat it into a bowl. She added several drops of this and that and threw a few herbs in. Suddenly boiling water filled the bowl. After letting it steam for a while she poured the brew onto a cloth and tore my clothes – that had been cleanly sliced – away from around the wound. After a moment of hesitation she passed me a ball of cloth, indicating that I should put it in my mouth. Pain shot through me when she pressed the hot cloth against my hip. It soon turned red. The Rose frowned. She took fresh rose petals out of a hidden pocket, kissed them and placed them in the wound. Her hand was swift when she stitched it up with stinging nettle fibre.