The Other Side

Chapter 4

—Brother? Brother, where are you? I tried to find you but you
disappeared. Father wants to meet you too, I'm sure of it.—

I woke up, a strange voice reverberating through my mind. I tried to grab at it, at what it could possibly be, but it was too fleeting for my grasp. Great, another weird thing to figure out for me to add to the list.

—B R O T H E R ?—

There it was again! I tried to chase after the voice, to pick up anything I could from it. It sounded like a young girl; with an accent I'd never heard before. Her voice almost bubbled, like a quickly moving stream. And who was brother? Was I brother? A ringing started up in my head, I could almost hear that same voice again behind it. The ringing got louder and louder until...

I woke up. Again? I thought I'd already been awake. I looked around me to see that I was still in the prince's house, I was still in the same room I'd gone to sleep in. The ringing was gone, the voice was gone. Had I dreamt all of that? But I was sure that I'd woken up. A twinge of pain shot up my side as I turned to look around the room. I was definitely awake if I could feel the pain of my wounds. I looked down at myself to see...

Nothing.

I wasn't there.

There was no way I was in a dream again; I'd never felt pain in a dream before. Was this something that happened to magic users? Was that what this was? What was going on!?

—I hope you'll like my present. I made it just for you...—

"Alex!"

I shot up, every one of my wounds greatly protesting. Landon was leaning down by my side, one of his hands on the bed, the other one outstretched like he was about to shake me.

"Alex," he said, "you were crying out in your sleep. Are you alright? Did you have a nightmare? Do your injuries hurt?" His eyebrows were drawn together in worry, his perfect skin broken by lines of stress. "Do you need anything?"

I slowly shook my head. "I heard a voice," I said. "A girl, I can't..." My head began to throb as I tried to remember what the voice had said. I could remember exactly what it had sounded like, but none of the words were there. I grunted in pain as the throbbing in my head got worse, and I brought my hands up to my temples, pressing down, my skin hot.

"Don't push yourself," Landon said quietly, "you don't have to remember right now. It's alright." He gently pushed my hands away. "Especially since we have to clean your wounds again. I need you to be in as good of a shape as you can be."

I winced a little at the thought of that. Last time it had really hurt a fair amount, I was just hoping it wouldn't hurt as much today. I'd always been a naturally fast healer, hopefully that would have kicked in and saved me some suffering. "Yeah, I guess," I muttered. It was still going to bother me, but it was just a dream. Landon was right, I shouldn't push myself too hard.

"I think tomorrow we'll be able to do another round of healing. I'd like to wait longer, but I don't want to risk it. It'll be tough on you, but I think you can do it." Landon got up and handed me a glass of water that he'd apparently brought with him.

"That would be nice," I said, taking a long gulp from the glass. Healing was always a tricky thing to do. To heal a specific wound, one had to take energy from the rest of the body. The bigger the wound, the more energy necessary. The reason I'd been out for so long was most likely from the healing, rather than the actual wounds themselves. "I'd much rather be tired than in pain."

Landon nodded. "Do you want to do the cleaning in here?"

I shrugged. "Sure." It was easier than walking through the maze-like halls of this giant house.