Chapter 10
March 21st - Outskirts of Grythen
Zaelem
Zaelem heard the gunshot, but there was too little time for him to react. He was still halfway from recovering his balance after kicking one of Jaelon’s lackeys. He let out a brutal howl as the bullet drove a tunnel in and embedded itself in his back.
Kismette’s eyes flew open to the blood-curdling sound, her eyes darting around wildly as they searched for a focus. When she finally saw the scene in front of her, her throat was so choked with horror that she could not even scream.
She reached out for Zaelem though he had already turned away from her. Before anyone could even blink, Zaelem grabbed Jaelon’s head with one hand and smashed his other fist in. His accuracy was diminishing rapidly, but he managed to deal the other man a heavy blow. Jaelon staggered a few steps backwards and crumpled into a heap on the ground, out cold.
Zaelem whirled around to see if Kismette was safe, but the action only made his giddy. His vision began to blur, and he fell backwards.
“Zaelem! Zaelem!”
Kismette, run…!
Kismette
Kismette rushed forward and knelt beside him, scrapping her knees as she skidded on the rough wooden floor. Tears rolled down her cheeks uncontrollably. Never in her life had she felt so helpless before.
His chest rose and fell rapidly as he remained lying on the floor. He turned his face towards hers, concern masking the pain from his features. The soundless words forming on his deathly pale lips suddenly carried the weight of the world to her, yet she could catch none.
Kismette hauled him up and dragged him out of the door, stepping on a leg or two on the way. Zaelem was much taller than her and his legs scraped the ground, adding resistance to her effort. She looked around wildly, trying to recall the way to the market or to Grythen’s Stone, but her brain refused to function in panic mode. Which way? Which way?
Any way would be better than staying here waiting for the other men to wake up, she decided. She clenched her teeth and struggled through the foliage with Zaelem’s pained, shallow breathing constantly at her ear. I must be brave, I must be very brave.
After an eternity of seeing nothing but trees, fresh tears came to her eyes again. The trees grew denser instead and he was leaning more and more of his weight on her. She had obviously taken the wrong path, but she neither had the strength to go all the way back nor want to go back to where those bad guys were. She took in a deep breath and swallowed the lump in her throat. “Are you okay? Which way do we go now?” she said in what she hoped to be a loud and clear voice.
His only response was to cough blood on her shoulders.
Kismette’s spirit broke. She sat Zaelem down against a tree carefully and began to sob loudly, pouring all her fear and grief out. She couldn’t pretend to be undaunted anymore. Zaelem’s eyes were closed and his eyebrows were knitted together tightly. His agonizing gasps for air were the only sign that he was still alive.
She lifted his back from the tree to look take a good look at the injury for the first time. The bloody hole wrenched her heart, its livid red seeming to reproach her. It’s my fault, I know it’s my fault. How is he ever going to survive such an injury? Touching them gingerly, she wished with all her heart that they would just mend miraculously.
On contact with his wounds, they shrank a little. She blinked hard. Was she going crazy? Did it just…? Curiosity made her touch the open wound again. As though guided by invisible hands, the skin at the edges of the gap grew to meet each other and sealed themselves together.
Kismette gasped and her eyes grew wide with astonishment. She brought her hands up slowly and proceeded to gawk at them as though she had never seen her palms before. Overwhelmed by the new discovery, Kismette immediately pressed her small hands on Zaelem’s back, almost too forcefully.
Zaelem reacted with an exasperated cough, spitting out the remaining blood in his mouth. He wiped the blood from his lips. “Are you mad?”
“You’re alive! Oh mfphfmnn!” Kismette exclaimed, her last few words muffled up as she buried her face into his back and hugged him from behind.
Zaelem hid his smile. He could catch whiffs of fresh wildflowers from her hair. “What’s the matter with you,” he mumbled.
Kismette’s face split into the biggest grin he had ever seen. “I thought you’re going to die!”
He reached over to mess up her hair and laughed soundlessly, unable to suppress it any longer. “Well, I didn’t,” he replied. He closed his eyes, turned his face skywards and took in a deep breath.
The air never smelt so good.
“You know, all the while when I thought I was going to die, I suddenly have so much to say. And the worst thing was that I could barely breathe, let alone say my last words.” Zaelem let his breath out slowly, feeling the air leave his chest first then his stomach.
“What was it that you suddenly had to say?”
He didn’t respond to her question and, instead, smiled at the leaves overhead with his eyes still closed.
“You’re not supposed to move a gunshot victim, you know that?” he finally announced, looking at her through one eye.
“How come?” she asked, her eyes widening at the thought of worsening his condition.
Zaelem shrugged. “In case some important bones were shattered or something like that. I can’t remember all that stuff in my emergency handbook anymore,” he grinned at the thought of all the stupid things they were forced to memorize. “Lucky me you aren’t just anyone else,” he added quietly, shifting his gaze downwards.
Kismette’s hand flew to her mouth. “What’s… what’s wrong with me?” she whispered.
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Next: Chapter 11