Chasing Sparks

Chapter 37

Quizi was quietly packing her bag after having eaten some lunch. She knew she was slowing Wren’s progress but this couldn’t be helped. She was no enduro affine. She was pulling the straps tight around her pack when the sun came out from behind the clouds and a slight flicker of light in the mountains above her caught her eye.

Quizi had lived long enough in the wilderness not to hesitate. The instant she noticed something catching the light, she didn’t think. She just reacted. She raced towards Wren. No time to scream. No time to speak. She just ran.

Everything seemed to be unfolding in slow motion. The sun coming out from behind the clouds, the reflection of the sunlight glinting off the poison tipped arrow, her body moving towards Wren. She was going to be too late but then her stone flared next to her heart and her legs moved impossibly fast, speeding her towards her target.

She reached Wren a split second before the arrow hit and wrapped her arms around his waist pulling him to the ground. They fell together and tumbled a few paces behind a rock up against the mountain face.

Wren looked startled, but as he started to recover from the shock of being hit by Quizi, an arrow hit him in the leg and then another. Quizi with her eyes full of pain pulled Wren’s exposed leg back in behind the rock.

“It’s the Seekers,” she said through gritted teeth. “Run. You must run.”

Wren was coming to his senses now and realised Quizi had been hit. He could see the arrow sticking out of the back of her shoulder. He touched the wound and whispered the healing words but recoiled in horror as the wound repelled him. The wound would not accept his healing, in fact there was something in the wound that was making Wren want to retch.

Wren went white and screamed, “No!” He was beyond reason. The arrow was meant for him. For him. How dare they hit Quizi.

Quizi bit Wren really hard on the arm to get his attention. “You must run. Do not fight them. It is what they want. You must run. Leave me and run.”

“Never!” Wren screamed, looking her straight in the eye. “If we are to die. We die together.” With that he picked up Quizi, healed his own wounded leg and ran, his leg accepting his healing unlike Quizi’s wound.

He hugged the mountain face and turned towards it whenever he could to keep the deadly archer from getting line of sight on him. Despite his efforts, he expected to feel an arrow through the back of his head at any time but it didn’t come. He just ran holding Quizi in his aching arms. He was focusing the sparks energy on his legs keeping up an incredible pace as he ran down the trail away from his deadly pursuers.

Wren kept running until his spark was empty and he was just running on his natural affinity. Quizi was on his back, her injured arm in a sling. Wren had stopped briefly to pull the arrow out from her shoulder and had made a support for her arm to ease the pain but the wound continued to resist any attempt at healing. It was infected with some kind of hideous poison that was immune to his Celestial energy.

Wren looked around and tried to get his bearings, but in the white snow, it was difficult to see anything clearly. He wasn’t sure if he was still on the track or not. He was confident that they had earlier found the trail the Chief talked of but whether he was still on the trail now he had no idea. But all he could do was go on.

Quizi was not getting any better. In her weakened state the cold was beginning to affect her, and although Wren could heal away any frostbite damage to her fingers and toes, any damage close to the shoulder and the arrow wound could not be repaired.

Quizi groaned as Wren stumbled on a hidden rock under the snow. He stopped for a moment and laid her down on the snow. Quizi could hardly open her eyes now. She was exhausted and Wren could see she was dying. And there was nothing he could do to save her.