Fire Study (Poison Study 3)

At one point a hand shook me into semiconsciousness.

“Theobroma?” Leif asked, his voice a distant call.

My tired thoughts slogged through a fog. “Pack,” I muttered.

“Where?”

Leif shook me again. I batted at his arms, but he wouldn’t stop.

“Where?”

“Backpack. In jungle. Snake.”

“I’ll go,” Chestnut said.

His retreating footsteps lulled me back to sleep.

I woke choking on a foul-tasting liquid. Coughing, I sat up and spit.

“You still need to drink the rest,” my father said.

He offered me a cup.

“What is it?” I clasped the mug. The green-colored contents smelled like swamp water.

“Soursop tea. Restores the body’s strength. Now drink.”

I grimaced and put the cup to my lips, but couldn’t produce the nerve to consume it.

Esau sighed. Blood and dirt matted his shoulder-length gray hair. He looked older than his fifty years. Weariness pulled at his broad shoulders. “Yelena, I would like to get home. And your mother must be having fits by now.”

Good point. Cringing at the rancid flavor, I gulped the tea. My raw throat burned as I swallowed the liquid, but, after a few moments, I felt more awake and energetic.

The sun loomed high in the sky and the clearing was empty. “Where is everyone?” I asked.

Esau grunted. “I’ll tell you on the way home.” He stood.

Spotting my backpack nearby, I checked through the contents before shouldering the pack. My bow rested on the ground next to a wide scorch mark. I hefted the weapon, running my hands along the ebony wood. It appeared to be unharmed. A nice surprise since, during the skirmish, I had thought the Fire Warper had reduced my bow to a pile of ash.

A hot flush of fear raced over my skin when I thought of the Fire Warper. I had never encountered magic like his. I had been completely unprepared to fight him, and I couldn’t think of anyone in Sitia who could match his power. But what about in Ixia? My thoughts turned to Valek. Would his immunity to magic save him from the Fire Warper’s flames? Or would he be consumed?

“Come on, Yelena,” Esau said.

I shook off my morbid thoughts and followed my father from the clearing. He set a quick pace, and, once I caught up to him, I asked him what had happened after I had fallen asleep.

He huffed in amusement. “Passed out, you mean?”

“I had just saved Stono’s life. And yours, too.”

Stopping, Esau grabbed me in a tight hug. “I know. You did good.”

He released me just as fast as he had seized me and continued through the jungle. I hurried after.

“The others?” I asked.

“You were asleep for a full day. We thought it best for Leif and Chestnut to take Stono and Barken back to the homestead. The Sandseeds and the other Ixian fellow never came back.”

I stopped. “They could be in trouble.”

“Two Sandseed warriors and a swordsman against three Daviians? I doubt it.”

“How about against three Vermin with Curare?”

“Ah, hell!” Esau spit. “I wish I had never discovered that foul substance!” He pounded his fists on his thighs. “I had hoped the supply they stole from the Sandseeds would be almost gone by now.”

“You extracted the drug from a vine in the jungle?”

“Yes.”

“So how do they know how to make more?” I wondered out loud.

“And where are they making it?” Esau glanced around. “Maybe in the jungle. I’m going to cut down every single Curare vine and burn it,” Esau vowed.

I put a hand on my father’s arm. “Remember why you searched for it. There’re plenty of good uses. Our immediate concern should be for Moon Man and the others. I’m going to try to contact him.”

Gathering power, I projected my mind into the surrounding jungle. My awareness touched a variety of life. Valmurs swung through the tree canopy, birds perched on branches, and other small creatures scurried through the underbrush. But I couldn’t locate Moon Man’s cool thoughts.

Did the Vermin have him hidden behind a null shield? Was he dead? I searched for Tauno and Marrok, also to no avail.

My father said, “Let’s go home and figure out a way to find them. All of them, including the Curare-making Vermin.”

He reminded me of the other Vermin guards we had sprayed with the snake perfume. “We can question the Daviian guards. Are they at our homestead?”

Esau tugged on his stained tunic as if deciding how to tell me something unpleasant. “When you were picked up by that snake, the creature wasn’t happy to discover you weren’t a female snake. So in order for Chestnut to keep you from being devoured, he had to concentrate all his efforts on saving you.” He paused.

“And that means…?”

“He lost control of the other snakes.”

“The guards are dead?”

“An unfortunate development, but there is an upside,” Esau said.

“Which is?”

“Now there are four very full necklace snakes who won’t be bothering the Zaltanas for a long while.”

I washed as much dried blood and sticky gore from my body as I could in the small stream flowing underneath my clan’s homestead. My mother would worry and fuss over my disheveled appearance despite the fact I would be standing before her safe and sound.

Climbing the ladder into the tree canopy, I mulled over recent events. There might be a group of Daviian Vermin working in the jungle, gathering vines and distilling Curare. I had no idea where Ferde and Cahil had gone or where my friends had disappeared to. And there was a Fire Warper on the loose who could possibly jump out of any campfire in Sitia. My life in Ixia as the Commander’s food taster sounded like a vacation in comparison.

Why had I wanted to leave Ixia? An order for my execution for being a magician had been one compelling reason to escape to Sitia. That and wanting to meet my family, whom I had no memories of until Moon Man unlocked them. Well, I’d met my parents and the execution order had been revoked. The thought of returnin

g to Valek and Ixia tempted me.

I reached the top of the ladder and arrived into a small receiving room made of branches tied together. Esau hadn’t waited. The Zaltana guard stationed there informed me my father would meet me in my parents’ living quarters.

Walking toward their apartment, I marveled at the ingenuity and craftsmanship of the vast complex of living areas built above the jungle floor. The Zaltanas were resourceful and determined and stubborn. All traits I had been accused of possessing.

I wondered if those qualities would be enough to counter the Fire Warper. Did I have the experience or magical knowledge to find Moon Man, recapture Ferde and stop the Vermin from killing more people?

The daunting and overwhelming to-do list would not deter me from making the attempt or die trying. But how many would be hurt or killed in the process because of me?

11

I NEVER REACHED my parents’ suite. My cousin Nutty intercepted me en route, relaying a message to go to the common room. She scrunched up her face and tsked over my ripped and stained clothes.

“I have a change in my pack,” I told her.

“Let’s see then.” She held out her long thin arms, waiting.

Knowing it was useless to argue with her, I opened my bag and showed her the other set of skirt/pants and cotton top she had sewn for me. I thought a lifetime’s worth of events had happened since then, but in reality it had only been two seasons.

Nutty examined the clothes with a dismayed purse to her full lips. “You’ll need some new ones. I’ll make them for you.” With a slight nod of farewell, she hopped up into the tree branches with the grace and speed of a valmur, disdaining the practical rope bridge.

“Oh, snake spit,” she called from above. “I’m supposed to fetch Uncle Esau and Aunt Perl.” She changed directions and disappeared through the trees.

I reached the common room. Oran, Violet, Chestnut and the two scouts stood together. My strong relief over the absence of a fire in the central pit alarmed me. If I was afraid of a simple hearth fire, what would I do when faced with the Fire Warper again? I avoided thinking about that scenario and focused my attention on the matter at hand.