Bastion of Sun

CHAPTER SIX

Sungarsi

When Gray awoke, it was after midday.

He sat up, Dalic's words echoing in his mind.

"You have until the dawn."

Hours had been lost. Time was slipping by and he needed to find the others.

But when Gray looked around, he saw he was in a hut of wood and dirty thatch. A wet, cloying smell hung in the air, like the burning of sweet incense, clogging his nose. Nearby, a thick, low wooden table butted along the wall. On its rough-hewn surface sat dozens of drab light blue and gray clay bowls, a wood mortar and a pestle. Bushels of colorful herbs, flowers and bizarre shaped mushrooms were stacked high at one end of the table.

A woman sat over him, her face unreadable.

"Who are you? And where am I?"

"The others be gone," she said bluntly. Indara's eyes and skin were dark like the other Algasi. She wore a brown robe, and on top of that, an unusual red-fur wrap. A Samigurian tiger from the Heaths of Samigur, he and Kirin knew. She seemed old and yet young, and her words were the same choppy speech as the Algasi.

"Gone?" he repeated. "No... that can't be."

"They left you behind with me. To get better. They will return in the morning with the prophecy. My name is Indara. You are safe here."

Gray threw the covers off, leapt to his feet and then staggered. His world felt upside down and his head spun. He lost his balance and fell into a nearby chair and table. His hand swiped off blue and gray pottery, which shattered on the wood floor as he struggled to right himself. He groaned, grabbed his stomach as he fell back down, lying once more on his back like a helpless turtle. He gasped for breath, staring up at the thatched ceiling. At last, the pain died and he sat up, looking at his belly. There was nothing there. No cut, no wound, nothing. Even the wound he'd suffered upon the gates so long ago was healed, leaving unblemished tan skin.

"What's wrong with me?"

She handed him a mirror that had fallen to the ground, then spoke, "See for yourself, child," she whispered. In the mirror Gray saw his reflection. His gray-green eyes, jaw-length brown hair, stubbled cheeks, his bold nose and...dark red blood trickled from his nose. Panicked, he wiped it away but more flowed forth.

When he looked up, Indara was handing him a small cloth.

He saw it was already stained with blood. His fingers curled around it. "What's happening to me?"

"Farhaven be stripping you of your spark," she intoned.

"What do you mean?"

"You are going to die."

Dread rose inside him, his breaths coming faster. His head felt light, dizzy. His hands fell to the rough wood floor. His vision blurred and he gasped, his breath caught. "I... I can't breathe..." He had a sudden vision from long ago, of blood staining his hands, of screams of terror as he killed Ren and the others. Then of Ezrah standing over him as the horror of it all sunk in and his breath was lost.

Kirin's memories.

They were his memories now, too, but they still held the same horror.

Just like then, he couldn't breathe. Gray gasped again, trying to pull in a morsel of air. His lungs burned, fingers clawing at the splintered floor.