Moon Flowers (Book 1 of the Flower Trilogy) #Wattys2016 #Featured

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE -- HALIA (Edited)

HALIA'S POV

The sound of a drinking bowl breaking on the dirt floor woke me. I glanced around and saw Phi, in tears, picking up the pieces.

"I was trying to make wild mint and blackberry tea," she explained. She pointed at the walls, heavy with plants. "Turns out that with the powers you'd given me, I can grow plants perfectly. That won't be of any help against the Evil King, though."

Her eyes were swollen and had dark circles under them.

"Let me clean it up," I said, leaving the warmth of the bed. I crouched to pick up the shards when drops of blood fell on the ground beside me. "You cut yourself!" I told Phi who was looking down at her hands.

I threw the broken bowl in the pit and took my friend's palms in mine to stare at the wound more closely.

"It's nothing." Phi shrugged, pulling her hand away.

I wouldn't give up. "I know the Tisannieres have a healing spell somewhere, a simple one."

I opened one of the Tisannieres' grimoires, the one I had seen them use to cast their own spells in the alley when someone got injured from our sword fighting lessons with the dwarfs, and ran my fingers through the crisp pages until I found one that could be performed by a novice like me.

I concentrated on the words until I could remember them. It was easy, two lines only. I laid my hands over my friend's wound, closed my eyes and recited the spell aloud.

"Pure Mother with a cooling dress
Let my bandages heal the wounded."

My body absorbed the energy in the room and channelled it through my hands. A golden light escaped through my fingers, a light that died out as soon as it appeared.

I removed my hands. Phi's cut was gone, without the trace of a single scar. Instead, I felt a tingling on the back of my neck.

Phi removed my hair that cascaded down by back, having noticed it peaking through my strands of hair. I tried not to freeze at her touch. "You have a new sigil," she said, contemplating the ancient monogram. "Looks like you will never forget that spell again . . .too bad this spell is useless to help our condition, though."

She sighed and walked back to the bed, where we had spent the night. Our first night as wife and wife, although it seemed as if this had changed nothing for her. Since our union, my heart was now an open book to her. She could see right through me. She could see my deepest secret. She knew I was in love with her.

And I knew she did not feel the same way for me.

But it doesn't matter now. What matters is that we and our people will come out of this alive—and free.

I still hoped that Phi would come to love me once all of this was over. I wanted to believe that she simply didn't feel the same way because she was too preoccupied with everything that was happening to us.

Certainly, things will be different once we are safe.

I had to hang on to that hope, and let it run its course. I had tasted her lips for the first time the night before and was thirsty for more. I still felt the soft touch of her kiss. It had kept me awake for most of the night.

A burning sensation grew inside my stomach, different from the time in the alley. It was sending my heart racing. I was not sick. I knew what it was, something that brought me both joy and pain. It was love.

I can't be like this. There are more pressing matters at hand.

To forget about it, I swept the floor for the remaining shards and contemplated the plants on the wall. The plants Phi had grown. There were different kinds of berries. Phi's favourite fruits.