Bone, Fog, Ash & Star (The Last Days of Tian Di #3)(6)

He is mine, she whispered, and they hit the ground. The violent jolt brought sweet air rushing back into her lungs. Her heart began to beat again, slow and frozen from the awful water. She hung onto him, Charlie full of arrows, Charlie bleeding terribly, but alive.

~~~

Nell was staring at her, wild-eyed, mouth open with a question she couldn’t put into words. Foss took her by the shoulders, hard.

“What have you done, Eliza Tok?”

“Healers,” she gasped. They were there already, surrounding Charlie. She heard their low murmur, smelled the herbs beginning to burn. He was alive. Barely, but it was enough. If he was alive, the Sorma could help him.

“Eliza!”

She looked up into Foss’s flaming eyes.

“I brought him back,” she said, trying to sit up. His face began to spin and fade and she fainted.

~~~

When Eliza woke up she was alone in her tent with Foss. She leaped to her feet, dagger in hand. Immediately her knees gave way and she crashed back down onto her mat.

“What happened?” she cried, then couldn’t really think what she meant.

“Is Charlie all right?” she asked next.

“The Sorma healers are with him now,” said Foss quietly. “He will live.”

She nodded her head and felt how weak she was. She leaned back onto the cushions, let the dagger slip out of her hand.

“You went where you should not have gone, Eliza Tok,” he murmured as sleep swept over her again.

~~~

When she woke up a second time her head was pounding. Her mother was seated in the corner of the tent chewing on a fingernail. Her father was cross-legged at her side, holding her hand. The entrance was tied open to let in the cool night air and Foss paced back and forth before it.

Rom smiled at her when she opened her eyes. He said to the others, “She’s awake.”

“Thank the Ancients,” said Rea.

Rom ran a hand over her forehead. His hand was very cool. “How do you feel?” he asked.

Her tongue felt swollen in her mouth when she answered him: “Fine. Lah, no, terrible actually.”

“You have a fever,” said Rea. “But you’ll be all right. Your friend Charlie seems to be stable as well.”

Eliza glanced at Foss, still pacing, his head down.

“Am I going to be all right?” she asked.

His eyes were the colour of sunset when he looked at her.

“You look well enough, Eliza Tok,” he said. “But I do not yet know the consequences of what you did. Only that it is unwise to make an enemy of the Guardian between life and death.”

“Drink some water,” said Rom, handing her a cup.

Nell peered into the tent.

“Can I come in yet?” she asked.

“Hello, Nell,” called Eliza.

“Oh, thank the Ancients!” Nell gasped, bounding past Foss and hurling herself onto Eliza to hug her. “I just looked in on Charlie. He’s still out cold but the Sorma dinnay seem too worried. They say they’ve seen worse, aye.” She laughed a bit at that. “What happened, Eliza? He’s shot full of arrows!”

“I was going to ask you about that,” said Eliza to Foss. “We were just…we were talking, aye, and then there was a fog and I knew something was going to happen but I didnay know what. And then –”

“The Thanatosi.”

“The what?”

Foss bowed his head. He seemed strangely reluctant to speak.

“The Thanatosi are a…well, I don’t know exactly what they are. A sort of mystical tribe perhaps.”

“Tian Xia worlders,” said Eliza.

“Of course. They are assassins, essentially. They can be called upon only by Great Magic and once they have been called no power known can stop them from pursuing their goal. From what little I know, they are notoriously difficult to kill – perhaps impossible. I have never heard of them failing, giving up or being defeated.”

“Will they be back?” Eliza struggled to sit up again. Her limbs felt hot and weak.

Rea, Rom and Nell were all gaping at Foss in horror.

“They will,” said Foss. “As soon as they sense their prey is still alive. I have put a barrier around the camp. We are safe for the time being.”

Nia, thought Eliza immediately. But no. The Urkleis, which bound Nia, was still in her chest. She could feel it: Nia’s power turned in on itself in a furious deadlock, pulsing like a second poisoned heart in her chest. Nothing had changed. Nia could not have called the Thanatosi.

“Who wants me dead?” she asked, a bit tremulously.

“Eliza,” said Foss gently, “you were not the target. They achieved their goal, if only temporarily.”

It took a moment for this to sink in.

“Charlie?” she blurted.

“It makes sense,” said Nell. “He’s been around forever, aye, and he is sort of a difficult personality. I imagine he’s got loads of enemies.”

“But enemies powerful enough to…” Eliza paused.

“What are we going to do if we cannay repel them?” asked Nell. “I spec the Mancers can get rid of them, nay? I mean, I know you dinnay want anything to do with them anymore, but for something very important like this…lah, we need the Mancers, nay?” This last she directed at Foss.