Memorybound

Chapter 19

Aaron walked along the shimmer. Something was clearly wrong here, but no one had said anything to the public, other than to stay away from the shimmer. Soldiers had ridden to all the little towns and villages to tell the people to stay away from the shimmer. A lot of good that would do.

In a square of fence posts that had been roped off, Hailey's portal appeared. He was glad to see her until he caught sight of her face. She looked even more ragged than the last time he had seen her. He jogged up to her. He was starting to feel a fool for being her loyal friend, but he would be there for her. She had gotten him out of the spell fifteen years before he would have been freed. He didn't wake to see a dragon smashing into the castle, but got to grow up with his brother. He had a normal life because of her, at least until she got him this current job.

And so he smiled at her, trying not to cringe at the dark circles under her eyes. She's got to be so tired that she's seeing things, he thought to himself. He wished he could wrap his arms around her and make her go to sleep and then eat something. She was looking too thin. Her dress was starting to hang on her, as if it was tailored for a much larger woman.

She glanced at him and smiled a weary smile. At least she didn't seem to be snapping at him today.

"How are you, Hailey?"

"I'm fine." She didn't hug him, nothing but that tired smile. He had been in love with her for so long. It just seemed that she wasn't interested in him or anything other than her magic.

"How are things here?" He shouldn't care that she didn't ask him how he was doing, how he was holding up with his fellow soldiers dying. She just wanted to know how much work she had ahead of her and he was afraid that he didn't have good news.

"Not good. Everyday there are more people wandering into the shimmer. Derrick says he thinks that the people are being lured in by fairies and attacked by something else."

She sighed. "That would make sense. Anyone have any idea what exactly is attacking them, though?"

"George thinks it might be wargs." George was one of the oldest and most experienced soldiers. Derrick seemed to put a lot of stock into whatever he said, and so the men agreed.

She nodded as if people had ever seen wargs. They lived in the forest and were one more reason not to enter. "But no one has been attacked outside the shimmer, other than that one merchant?"

"Right. People say the shimmer might be shrinking, though."

She eyed him with bloodshot eyes. "Are people walking into it to check?"

He rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't think so. There's a lot of rumors."

"I will have to check that, if I have time. It might be something to keep an eye on."

He wanted to ask her what she knew, why there were so many things going wrong in the kingdom recently, how it was that people were being attacked, but just then Gillian called to him.

She jogged up to them. "Aaron, I'm glad you brought your mage friend today. We have some people who need healing." Then she held out a hand to Hailey. Hailey frowned at her for a moment, then looked at him before taking it.

"I'm Hailey," she said simply.

"Yes, I know. Anyway, if you could see to some of the men, they've been hurt, and there's some people not to far from here who have been slashed at as well."

Hailey knelt before Edward, who was moaning. His leg had been wrapped tightly. Hailey didn't say anything to the soldier that lay there in massive amounts of pain, she just grabbed his leg, just below the wound. His pant leg had been torn and blood was seeping through. She closed her eyes and said something he didn't understand. She was getting better at this. The wound closed before his eyes. Sometimes, he forgot how amazing she was, and sometimes he thought that she idd the same.