“I found water,” I say, and smile.
Without a word, his lips part. I kneel at his side and wring my shirt out into his mouth. His tongue darts out and licks his lips as the water drips onto them, and then he swallows. “That’s good,” he whispers. “How far is it? My arm…” He lifts his injured arm an inch off the floor, and then it falls back down.
“It’s not far. It’s just through that wall.” I point.
He moves his eyes in the direction I am pointing and blinks. “Am I dreaming? What is that light?”
“There’s a hole in the ground. Something at the bottom is shining up through it.” I take his healthy arm in my hands and tug. “Come on. The water helps with the Mayanchi blood. It might help your arm.”
His eyes meet mine. “I can barely move, Sorrowlynn. You’re going to have to help me.”
“I know.” I put his arm down and crouch behind him, pushing his broad, muscular shoulders up until he is sitting. Next, I loop his good arm over my shoulders. “Ready?” I take his silence to mean yes. “Get up!” He grunts with effort, and I wobble and sway beneath his weight. After a minute, he is on his feet, his head is on my shoulder, and we are stumbling and weaving like a couple of drunks. The effort chases the chill from my bones, and after a minute, Golmarr is damp with sweat.
When we get to the wall, he stops and squints at it. “There’s a stone wall there,” he mumbles.
“I know it looks like there is, but there really isn’t. We are going to walk through it. The lake is just on the other side.”
“Whatever you say,” he whispers, and sags a little heavier against me.
We step through what looks like solid rock and emerge in the columned room. Golmarr stops walking, and his eyes grow round. “I have dreamed of this place,” he whispers, and then he falls to his knees and his eyes roll back in his head. His body seems to go boneless and teeters forward and back before tipping headlong onto the cave floor. I sigh and remove the bow and quiver from his back before using his ankle to drag him the last few steps to the lake. Trembling with exertion, I flip him from his belly onto his back and submerge his injured arm in the icy water, all the way to his shoulder.
Using the hunting knife, I cut off another layer of my skirt and soak it, then drip the water onto his parched lips and into his mouth. Next, I wash his face. All the fierceness has vanished from his expression. My heart swells with gratitude for this man who risked his life to follow me into a dragon’s cave, and I trail my fingers over his stubbly jawline. “Thank you, Prince Golmarr,” I whisper.
By the time I have tended to him, my damp clothes are clinging to my skin and I am shivering with cold again, so I curl my body up against his, lay my head on his shoulder, and fall asleep.
I am cocooned in warmth. I sigh and scoot closer to the heat, pressing my forehead against it. Air stirs the skin behind my ear, and I open my eyes. Before me is soft brown leather. I try to move my legs and find them entangled with…another pair of legs. Arms are secured around my back, cradling me to the warmth, and my head is resting on a bicep. “Are you awake?” a deep, accented voice asks. My heart starts pounding and I look up into a pair of pale hazel eyes framed by black lashes.
We are lying on the side of the lake, facing each other, our limbs intertwined like two trees that have grown so close you can’t tell their branches apart. “You were shivering in your sleep, so I kept you warm,” he says, tightening his arms around me and pressing his cheek to the top of my head. I shiver again, but it has nothing to do with being cold. Golmarr pulls me even closer, wraps his legs tighter with mine, and runs a hand down my back. “I figure keeping you warm is the least I can do after you saved my life again.”
I force myself not to shiver and ask, “How is your arm?”
“A lot better. The Mayanchi venom must only be temporary, used to paralyze.” As if to prove his point, he unwraps his legs from mine and sits up. “See?” He holds his arm out and wiggles his fingers. The swelling has gone down, and the puncture is simply a wound that needs a few days to heal. While I look at his arm, I can feel his eyes on me, and all of a sudden I wonder what I look like. My hair must be a mess. And my legs! My skirt is halfway up my thighs. I sit up and yank the skirt down almost to my knees, and Golmarr laughs. “Still worried about that?” he asks with a twinkle in his eyes.
He turns and uses his left hand to scoop water to his mouth, and I realize the cave isn’t dark. The water is pale blue and so clear it looks like glass. Nothing is in the water: no bugs, no fish, nothing. On the water’s surface is a shimmer of sunlight. High above, between two massive white columns, is a jagged crack in the ceiling, and sunlight is pouring through it.
“A way out?” I ask, sticking my feet into the cold water.