“OK, I see you can’t even stand right now, so we’ll wait a bit, but we can’t wait long.” The girl sighed and hobbled over to a small bag placed near the campfire. Her movements proved she was clearly in pain. “I can make you something that will help your head,” she shouted over her shoulder as she dug through the bag. “I don’t know why she had the cure on her as well as the poison, but consider yourself lucky.”
“Aena?” he groaned, sitting up as the memory of last night started to come back to him. She had poisoned him and threatened to cut off his hands and feet! The memory of her betrayal was so painful now. He’d really thought he cared for her, but now he just felt stupid. But someone had stopped her. It… it was her! He remembered the fight now. This girl here with him had gotten there just in time to stop... oh, my head! He saw lights flashing in front of his eyes as he lay back down, his head continuing to throb.
“Aena, huh?” she said sarcastically. “So that’s the name she gave you.” Jade just shook her head as she stirred a pot of water containing the brown herbs she had found on the girl. “I can’t say I know what she had in mind for you. I mean, knowing what you are and how important you are...well, I would have just killed you. Trying to take you alive was simply arrogant, and risky.” She kept stirring away, as if she were just talking about the weather. “But don’t get me wrong, we are all pretty lucky you are still in one piece. Lesson number one: Don’t trust anyone!”
She poured the sweet-smelling brew into a tin cup and ran it over to Eric. When she tried to give it to him, he jerked his hand away as if she were handing him a snake. Impatiently, she forced his fingers around it before muttering something about forcing it down his throat as she limped back toward the fire.
However, after taking one swallow, Eric felt better almost instantly. He eagerly downed the rest. Sure, there was a voice inside his head sounding the alarm. He was drinking some strange liquid handed to him by a person he didn’t know, making jokes about how he should be dead! The strange thing was, he just didn’t care right now. He had never felt this sick in his life, and this stuff was making him feel better. For now, that was good enough.
With his head starting to clear and now able to stand, he did so and cautiously walked toward the girl. His eyes darted around as if he didn’t even trust the trees. He wouldn’t feel safe until he had a better idea of his surroundings, so that became priority. The trees were thin here and the road was not far off, only fifty feet or so. “I’ve checked the whole area. We are OK for now, but we have to keep moving. Are you feeling better?” she asked, but did not seem interested in the answer, as she kept packing things into bags and loading them onto her horse.
He was getting sick and tired of nothing making any sense. This girl had just killed someone and was acting like nothing had even happened. Then a disturbing thought flashed through his head. “Hey, where is—” he swallowed hard, trying to say the name, “Aena’s body? What did you do with it?”
This time she finally spared him a look, although for only a second. “First off, I highly doubt that was her name, not that it matters anymore.” She rolled her eyes at what she seemed to think was trivial small talk. “Second of all, I searched her for any notes or instructions as to who sent her, then I buried her over there.” She gestured with her hand to a mound only twenty feet away.
Buried was an overstatement. Barely covered with dirt and leaves would have been more accurate. He didn’t go over to have a closer look. That was not an image he needed to carry around with him. What was done was done, and besides, she had tried to kill him. Or more accurately, it seems, tried to take him prisoner? To whom? For what? So many questions… then he remembered the answers he wanted could be found in Taron.
“My name is Jade, by the way,” his savior said in a lighthearted voice, but she winced a bit when she turned to face him. Eric started to make a comment about her obvious pain, but she cut him off. “I’m fine. I’ve already stitched the wound that needed it. Look, we have to go now, OK?” she said, now clearly becoming impatient. “You can ride with me until we find you a—”
“I have to get to Taron!” Eric blurted out as he cut her off. She just looked at him evenly as she waited for him to finish. “My father—” just saying that word wounded him yet again, “my father said I need to go there as soon as possible. I need to show someone—”