Serpent's Quest

Chapter Twenty-Three: Spy Hunters

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

SPY HUNTERS

Nikko woke in a bright sunny room that he did not recognize. A pleasant breeze blew through the windows, carrying the scents of the forest, flowering bushes, and farther away goats and sheep. A soothing lethargy held him in a gentle imprisonment on his bed, with no desire to move. His awareness felt cottony and displaced. Nikko yawned. He wondered if one of his people had found him. Then he wondered who his people were, and why they should have found him. Why should they even have been looking for him? The emptiness in his mind shoved needles of panic into his chest. His pulse raced and his heart hammered, which brought on a feeling of increasing pressure in his chest as if a tremendous hand were squeezing his heart.

"Awake finally, Lawgiver?" said a nice female voice.

Nikko started to turn on his side, and gasped sharply in pain. A pair of long-fingered hands pressing on his naked chest stopped him from moving further.

"I'm having a damned hard time keeping those wounds closed." Navaryn put her cool fingertips to his temples. "Relax. Breathe deeply. Your heart is damaged. Tense up like this and you'll set off an attack."

Nikko dropped flat and obeyed her, feeling her warm power flow through him. The chest pain eased.

"Lawgiver?" He angled his head to glance at the bandages on his chest, ribs, and stomach. Beneath the light coverlet, he felt another near the base of his spine and one on his thigh. Nikko could not remember being hurt. He reached for the memories, and his mind flinched away from it, leaving him staring into a darkened abyss again.

"Yes. You wear a lawgiver's runes," said Navaryn. "What is your name? Which village are you from?"

Nikko blinked, his thoughts racing as he became aware of the chain around his neck and pulled the runes forth from where they had settled along the edge of his neck amid the pillows. "My ... my name? I don't remember. It's all gone."

"I'm not surprised, really. You had nearly as much poison as blood in you. Death lotus – it took me days to dig all the broken off ends of the darts from your skin. Snake venom and Devil's Silver. It's the gods' own miracle that you're alive. If you wish to stay that way, don't get out of bed without my permission. You're still in bad shape."

"How bad?"

"To start, you only have one lung left. I managed to save one kidney and your liver. I may yet be able to fix your damaged heart. Time will tell. If that arrow that struck near your spine had been a fraction closer, you'd be paralyzed. So count yourself lucky. Now do you understand why I want you to stay in bed?"

"Oh, gods. Yes."

She rose from her chair and poured a greenish liquid from a bottle into a small glass. "Devil's Silver does that when they get enough of it into you."

Nikko turned a pleading face to Navaryn, as he accepted the glass and drank the contents. Despite some sweetening, it tasted dreadful. He wiped his mouth with his arm, grimacing. "Do you know who did this to me?"

"We were hoping you could tell us."

"I can't remember anything."

"You're the only person alive who has ever seen his face. It was the Butchering Serpent."

"Oh, gods. And he's loose among my people."

Navaryn smiled and Nikko thought she was the loveliest female he had ever seen. She touched his forehead and he felt the wash of a Reader's power through him. He caught her hand when she removed it and sniffed her fingers. At least he could move his arms without pain so long as the rest of him did not move. "You're lycan."