A Breeding Darkness (Complete)

(43)

"You should have gone with me out of the country when we had the chance," Saul said, dropping her hand. 

Lucy shook her head. "The darkness should be leaving. Joon was supposed to come back."

"There's been no rumors of his return," Alisdair said. "I'm sure the new would spread fast if he had."

"I need to get to the castle," Lucy said, pushing away from the wall of Gregor's home and almost falling as she stood on her own feet. Her strength was leaking out of her wounds, and she knew she didn't have much time before her body shut down again to rest.

"No," Saul said, firmly pulling her back by the shoulder. "You need to rest and let us look after your torso." He nodded his chin at the blood soaked fabric of her dress. "Whatever has happened to Prince Joon, we can find out when you are feeling better."

"That may be too late," Lucy said, but already her vision swayed around her. Her words slurred and she clutched onto Saul just to keep from falling to the ground. "If Joon dies, we'll never see the light again."

"If you push yourself anymore now, you won't live to see anything beyond this street," Saul muttered, and while he talked Lucy's knees gave out. Saul scooped Lucy up into his arms, though she tried to protest, and walked to the door. While Lucy tried to get her words to her sluggish mouth, Alisdair picked the lock on the door and opened it to let them in.

The swimming light from the lantern revealed a sparse but cozy interior, furnished to the tastes of a man who would never step foot in the house again. Lucy felt tears prick at her eyes and suddenly she was sobbing and exhausted and finished. Saul's lips twisted in sympathy, and he carried her straight to the bedroom to lay her on the bed.

"You need to sleep," he said, smoothing down her curls and then asking Alisdair to find some proper bandages and warm water. While they waited, Saul pulled off her boots.

"But Joon."

Saul sighed. "'Joon, Joon, Joon.' I'm sick of his name. Think of yourself for a moment. You've been nearly gutted."

Lucy, still hiccuping through her sobs, rolled onto her side as Alisdair came back into the room and peeled back the fabric on her stomach so he could wash the wounds and stitch them shut as best he could with a clothing mending kit. Lucy didn't even care about the stinging needle closing her skin, because all she could see behind her eyes was Joon's blood sliding down his arms as he sliced his hand with that special blade. He should have been in the real world. The darkness should have been gone.

A few minutes later, Alisdair wrapped snowy bandages tightly around her waist and pulled the blanket over her shoulders. By this time, Lucy was swimming close to the edge of a dark and deep sleep. Her eyes felt impossible to open and her breathing would do nothing but slowly eek from her lungs. She felt Saul move to the door, rather than saw him, and heard Alisdair lean in close to whisper to her.

"You're a credit to Dreamwalkers," he said, and she felt him chuck her chin gently. "Stay strong."

She barely heard his words as she fell off the edge and into the darkness.

###

There was nothing on the other end of her sleep. Normally, with a sleep this deep, she'd end up in Zerkalo, but in its place was... nothing. A void gaped where Zerkalo should have been, and it terrified Lucy. She fell and fell and fell, but there was nothing to fall into. Her mind swam, desperate to find the place where it belonged. She was in nothing and she was nothing. It was as if she was an eighth day, or a fifth season. She was the time before being born, the light of a dead star. She was nothing, superfluous.

And then she heard something. A howling, screaming, burning sound. It ripped through the nothing, slamming into Lucy hard enough to feel like pain. She gasped, feeling her heart shred and the pain of losing something overwhelmed her. It was like losing everyone she loved at once, or waking up to her country smoldering in ruins. Mourning and terror and some sense that it was all her fault.

And then the noise slammed into her again and her mind retreated, running away from the black nothingness. She flew away, racing for the pinprick of light so far away. She had to make it. She had to leave here.

Her eyes fluttered open to a room washed in the milky light of the moon and stars.

###

Lucy jerked upward, her heart racing at the sight of the celestial light. She pushed the covers of a strange bed off her and hobbled to the window to look out the glass at the sky. Her breath fogged the glass, but he could just barely see the moon through what seemed like storm clouds. Stars peeked through in gaps. None of them were very clear or bright, but they gave enough light for Lucy to see her hand in front of her face without the lantern on. The light was returning.

Joon had to be back.

She pushed away from the window, grinning so much her cheeks ached. If the light was back, she had to get back to the palace.

Looking around the room, she spotted a dresser and pulled it open to rummage for clothes. Since Gregor was the only person to live in the house, all she found was men's clothes. But she couldn't exactly go to the palace in a dress that bared her torso, and covered in blood as she was. So she pulled on a loose white shirt and a pair of men's trousers. As she pulled on some woolen socks and her boots, she noticed that the black veins on her foot had retreated. They were not gone, but they had slinked away from her knee. She breathed a sigh of relief as she laced her boot. That would mean that Joon's poison would retreat as well. 

As she got to her feet in her new outfit, twisting her curls out of her face with a length of fabric, the door opened and Saul entered. He paused at the sight of her standing in the middle of the room, and his eyes took in her new clothes and the sight of the bandages showing through the thin fabric of the shirt.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"I'm going to the palace. The light has returned," Lucy said, pointing to the window and smiling.

"What do those two things have to do with each other?"

Lucy paused, her smile faltering as she looked at Saul's confused expression. "Isn't Joon back?"

"There's been no word at all from the palace. No one has seen the prince or spoken about him."

Lucy shook her head. "That can't be true. The lights have come back, and my poison is going away. That means Joon made it back and that the curse is retreating."

"I don't know what you're talking about, but the prince hasn't appeared. The light returned almost as soon as you passed out, but it was barely anything. At night there was nothing again, and the moon and stars only just showed through a few minutes ago."

"Then even more reason for me to go look for myself," Lucy said, pushing past Saul and into the hallway. She located the staircase and took them as fast as she could while holding onto her aching stitches in her stomach.

"This is ridiculous. What if Koshmar is still there? You'll get yourself killed."

Lucy didn't even look over her shoulder as she tossed back an answer. "I'll be careful."

"I know you won't!" Saul shouted back, but Lucy just lifted a hand and waved to him as she pulled open the door to Gregor's house and stepped out onto the street. She grabbed the extra lantern that hung on the doorframe and then turned to face the street.

It was as if blood had rushed back into veins that had laid dormant. People milled around, laughing and marveling and talking. They pointed to the hazy form of the moon and stars, enjoying the blue light instead of the orange glow of flames. Shopkeepers sold cookies and breads shaped like the moon and sun, and for the first time in so many months the people of Krov Korol were together again. They were a city, united in laughter and relief as their lives returned to them.