Free Web NovelChapter 185: Far From Home
Zeph sat behind Lucien, one arm wrapped firmly around his chest to keep him upright, while his other hand held the reins loosely. The horse moved at a steady pace. Ahead and to the right, Zuri guided her own horse while also leading Lucien’s horse.
Lucien was barely himself anymore. Despite Zeph’s grip around him, he kept slumping forward against the horse’s neck. His skin has gone pale and thin-looking, stretched too tight over the bones of his face. His lips held no color, and his under eyes were dark. The linen wrapped around his side has black liquid seeping from the wound. He looked like something already halfway into the grave.
As he slumped forward again, Zeph’s grip tightened instinctively as if he could physically hold Lucien back from whatever edge he was teetering on. His weight had grown heavier over the past two days, not from any gain of flesh but from the terrible fact that he could no longer hold himself upright. Every muscle had surrendered to the venom’s slow crawl through his blood.
In the last two days, they had found two healers, both spoken of in hushed tones by villagers who claimed these women could mend bones with a touch and purge fevers with a whispered word. The first had taken one look at Lucien’s wound and turned pale as her patient. She had burnt a bitter root and pressed it into Zuri’s hands with trembling fingers. She claimed it would slow the effect of the poison and ease the pain. But she could not stop what was already moving through him.
The second healer has been older. She had examined Lucien with gentle hands and sad eyes. She said she has forgotten more about venom than most healers ever learn. Then she gave them a name. A place to find another healer. She claimed that if anyone could help Lucien, it would be the woman on the Fox Road.
So they had ridden hard. Through the morning, through the afternoon, pushing the horses harder cause Lucien had stopped speaking entirely. Now he only made small sounds, bitten-off noises that escaped despite his obvious effort to contain them.
"This should be worth it," Zuri said as their horses pulled to a stop.
They were in a landscape, fenced with rough-hewn posts and wire. Cattle dotted the land, moving without hurry, fat and heavy looking. And there was a small house.
A woman stood on the land, one hand raised as if counting the animals moving across it. She was bent at the spine, her back curved into a permanent stoop that made her look much shorter than she actually was. Gray hair hung in tangled ropes from beneath a faded scarf, and her hands were knotted with age and work.
She spotted them before they reached the fence line. The woman stopped her count. She did not wave or call out to them. She just stood there, waiting as they guided the horses closer.
"Old Mother Aris?" Zuri said. "Healer Maren sent us from the town of Stillwell. She said you might be able to help our friend."
The older woman did not respond. Her gaze shifted from Zuri to Zeph, then Lucien, who already slumped forward again on the horse’s neck. She walked closer to Zeph’s horse and studied Lucien.
"We shouldn’t waste the little time your friend has left. Bring him inside."
Then she turned and walked toward the house. They moved quickly. Zuri tied the horses to a post near the door. Zeph dismounted and reached up to catch Lucien as he began to slide sideways. He slid one arm under his shoulders and another behind his knees, lifting him off the saddle. Lucien’s breath caught in a sharp gasp, his hand clutching weakly at Zeph’s collar, and then he went limp.
Zuri pushed open the wooden door. Inside, the house smelled of dried herbs and smoke. Bundles of medicinal plants hung from the rafter, their leaves brown and brittle. Clay pots lined the windowsill, each one marked with strange symbols. A fire burned low in a stone hearth.
Zeph laid Lucien down gently as he could on a rough-hewn bed with a wooden frame. He eased his head onto a flattened pillow. Lucien’s eyes fluttered but did not open.
Mother Aris moved past Zeph, her hands went to the linen wrapped around Lucien. Her fingers worked the knots loose, and the clothes fell away. She didn’t flinch at the gash where the MonoValith had torn through him. Now it was worse. The edges of the wound had faded to an ugly purple-black, and from its center, dark liquid pumped out. It smelled of rot.
Mother Aris shook her head. "This is deep. The venom is not just eating his flesh anymore, but is entering his system. It has reached deep into his blood and organs." She pressed two fingers to Lucien’s neck to feel his pulse. "He should be dead already."
Zuri stepped closer, her arms wrapped around herself. "Can you heal him?"
Mother Aris looked up at her. "The healers you saw before me, did they not tell you what cures the poison of a MonoValith?"
Zeph and Zuri exchanged a glance.
"No. They didn’t tell us anything." Zeph answered.
Mother Aris nodded. She pulled a small clay pot from the shelf beside the bed, poured a powder from a container, and a few drops of elixir from another bottle, and began mixing them.
"There is only one way to save him. A plant that can draw MonoValith venom from the blood and mend the damage it has done." She paused, her gaze lifting to meet Zuri’s. "Feranalin Roots." She added.
"Feranalin Roots? Where can we find it?" Zeph asked.
"It grows only in Fox land." She answered.
Zeph’s eyebrows lifted. "Fox Land?" He repeated. "You mean FiraEmber?" He looked at Zuri.
Zuri’s face had gone very still.
"Yes, FiraEmber." Mother Aris said.
"Is there nowhere else?" Zuri asked, her voice tight and controlled. "Surely the plant must grow elsewhere. Similar climates, similar soil—"
"You know better than that. You are a fox-touched girl. You can feel the truth of it in your bones. That plant only grows where your people grow. Nowhere else."
Zuri said nothing. Her arms tightened around her body, her fingers digging into her own sleeves hard enough to whiten her knuckles.
Mother Aris turned back to her mixing, adding a few crushed leaves from one of the hanging bundles and stirring everything together with a wooden pestle. "Without that plant, he will die. Not today perhaps. Not tomorrow. But, he has a week at most, and that is only because he has a strong will," she glanced at Lucien’s pale face. "Most men would have been dead two days ago. He fights. But even the strongest fighters cannot win against this without the right weapon."
Zeph’s mind was already racing and calculating—a week. Firaember was not that close, three days hard riding if they pushed the horses or four if they tried to be careful. And even if they found the plant once they arrived, they would need a healer, but his kind was not welcome there, not even with Zuri on their side. But there was no other choice. There had not been any choice since the moment MonoValith pierced Lucien’s side.
"Is there a temporary remedy? Something to reduce the pain further, slow the venom even more. Something stronger than what he was given before." fгeewebnovёl.com
Mother Aris finished her mixing and set the pot aside. She wiped her hands on her apron. "There is a potion I can make. The strongest I know. It will not cure him, and it will not buy him much time. But it might be enough to reach FiraEmber if you ride hard and don’t stop. And if he is lucky to live."
"Then we need it," Zeph said without hesitation. "Whatever it requires, we will provide it."
Mother Aris nodded. "I need the blood of a deer. Fresh. The heart’s blood, drawn while the animal still lives. Bring me that, and I will have your potion ready by morning."
"Can we find a deer in this part?"
"Yes. There’s a particular groove where deer gather at the East of the woods." She replied.
"We’ll go now and make the hunt." Zeph moved towards the door.
He was halfway there when he noticed Zuri didn’t follow him. She stood still, eyes fixed on Lucien’s wound. He turned back, crossing the room, and caught her by the wrist.
"Zuri, you should come with me." He said.
She didn’t resist. Then he led her outside. Zeph stopped a few yards away from the house before turning to face her.
