Ollie MacQuoid and the Journey To Rubius

Chapter Seventeen

It wasn't hard to sleep under the stars' watchful eyes. After all, there were thousands of them, all staring down at the three little figures huddled on a beach, their lives in the hands of someone miles and miles away. A boy, a girl, and a little black dog with yellow eyes. Death was eager to take the girl away again, and it drew ever closer with each misty breath she exhaled into the icy air. The boy beside her was filled with fire, flames licking the inside of his rib cage until it crawled up his lungs and into his throat and boiled his blood while smoke poured from his eyes and ears and mouth and nose and fire burst forth from his chest and burnt everything in sight until it was nothing but ash just like he did to his brother and —

Ollie jerked awake. Elora had fallen onto his shoulder again in her sleep. He slid away awkwardly with his twitching fingers buried in his chest. Gods, he was cold. He was so cold he'd forgotten what it felt like to be warm. Every part of him ached and he promised himself he'd throw himself onto the next bed he ever saw and never leave it again. He wondered what kind of beds they had in Rubius. He didn't even care if they weren't comfortable.

Time had definitely passed, but Ollie had no idea how much, and he hadn't thought to look at the position of the moon before going asleep to track it. Calladin could have been gone for hours at that point. Impatience and anxiety gurgled in his empty stomach. At least he was too nervous to feel hungry. Getting Elora to eat or drink anything would be useful, but Ollie refused to take the chance of giving her melted snow or bay water for fear the coldness would stop her heart. Instead, he opted to dig out slivers of bark from a tree with the knife left in Calladin's jacket. Just holding the knife was immensely difficult, as all of his joints felt as if they'd been welded together with ice, but it gave him something to focus on. Maybe forcing his muscles to move would make him warmer.

Getting Elora to eat the bark was ten times harder than tearing it from a frozen tree. She didn't wake when he roused her, leading to a bout of sudden panic that sent jagged icy spires shooting from the ground around Ollie's feet. When Elora did wake, she was disoriented, a little bored, almost. She didn't register Ollie's display of magic and turned her nose up at the bark when he offered it to her. Most alarming of all was her insistence that she was overheating. She kept trying to remove her jacket, and when successful, she began to remove her sweater and skirt as well. Her constant shuffling opened the raw scabs on her throat and sent blood trickling down her shoulders. Ollie momentarily forgot about his fear of touching her as he was forced to keep pulling her shirt back over her head when she ripped it off. Elora wasn't strong, especially in such a weakened state, but the sudden rush of adrenaline to her dying brain made her quick and frenzied like an animal. She slapped Ollie when he wrapped her coat around her like a vice and screeched in his ear when he eventually resorted to pinning her to the ground to keep her from tearing off any more of her clothes, repeating 'I'm burning! I'm on fire!' until she dissolved into tears.

A weight wrapped itself around Ollie's waist and threw him off with a grunt. Ollie scrambled for his knife, preparing to fight off some awful monster that had emerged from the sea, but the blade was ripped from his hands the second he pulled it out and his shoulders were thrust to the ground Calladin's furious face materialized above him.

"What were you doing to her?" He was snarling so viciously he was almost spitting. "What were you doing to her? Answer me!"

Ollie's arm was in so much pain he could barely remember how to speak. He could see Elora's back if he craned his neck, but Calladin's full weight sat on his legs and one of his freezing hands grasped a tuft of Ollie's hair so tightly it brought tears to his eyes. It had only been moments but Ollie could see Elora's back was bare, the outline of her spine and ribs prominent against the moonlight, and Clementine kept circling and circling them, barking loudly. He tried to choke something out but Calladin's other hand grabbed his jaw and squeezed it tightly. "What were you doing to her?" He roared.

"Elora!" Ollie managed to say, willing his free arm to point in her direction. Calladin's face didn't turn. Alaudidae wasn't here anymore. Calladin could kill him if he wanted to. "Elora! Look!"

By the grace of the gods, Calladin whirled his head around and immediately froze. The weight left Ollie's legs. In less than a moment, Calladin was grabbing his jacket from where it had been discarded on the ground and wrapping it around Elora's unwilling shoulders. Elora was completely naked, save for her undergarments. She'd even removed her socks. The mark of Bax's long fingers branded into her throat looked inky black in the moonlight. All the brutish anger Calladin had possessed a moment before was gone, replaced by a mix of confusion and panic. "Elora, stop!" He cried, struggling to stop her from thrashing about as he tried to get her undershirt back on. Ollie kept his eyes to the ground. "Elora, stop! Stop it!"

"I'm burning!" Elora shrieked. Her back twisted and Ollie heard her sore joints pop. "Calladin, I'm on fire! I'm on fire!"

"Stop! Stop it!" Calladin caught Elora's fist mid-air as she swung it towards his face. "Did you do this?" He said, making eye contact with Ollie over Elora's shoulder. "Did you do something funny?"

"I didn't touch her!" Ollie screamed. "I've been trying to keep her clothes on her!"

Calladin looked like he wanted to spit back a response but Elora's fit kept him too busy to reply. As he grabbed one of her wrists to force it into a sleeve, Ollie noticed with a sickening feeling that part of her pinky finger had gone dark. Several of her toes looked to be in horrible shape as well.

Calladin was in tears by the time Elora was weak enough to be maneuvered back into her clothes. Ollie didn't try to help, knowing Calladin probably wouldn't let him anyway, and watched in silence as he tugged Elora's shirt over her heaving chest and fought to keep his own breathing steady. She's not going to make it, Ollie felt the realization hit him colder than the ice hanging from his eyelashes. Calladin choked out a sob when he thought Ollie wasn't listening. Even if she survives the water-travelling, there's no way she'll make it to Rubius. She's going to die.

Once Elora was re-clothed and nestled somewhat safely against his chest, Calladin moved to the edge of the water and steeled himself to jump back in. Before he turned to go, he turned and fixed Ollie with a tearful, contemptuous look.

"I wish it was you dying right now," he almost whispered, "Just know that. I wholeheartedly wish it was you."