“Chaotic?”
“I was unpredictable in those days. Most juveniles are. Sometimes I think that’s why the Berserkers accepted me at first, obviously now I know otherwise.” He let out a deep breath. “Chaos breeds chaos.”
We travelled on, collecting dozens of the things before finally pulling the gloves off. Ric counted them out and after deciding there were enough of them, we started back. Our bodies were sweaty, my back was aching, but it felt good to be out just doing something, anything other than sitting in one room or another. The sun had barely kissed the treetops when my locket pulsed and grew heavy. I panicked.
Oh Daeus, not now, please.
The others wouldn’t understand if they knew about the attacks. It pressed down on my throat, growing so heavy that it constricted my breathing. I took in the air around me desperately and held the locket off my neck but it wouldn’t work. It never did.
“What’s the matter?” Ric asked, suddenly panicked as I sank to the floor. I waved him off and clutched the chain tightly. “Is it this thing?” He moved to unclasp the two ends but couldn’t, as though his strength had been sapped.
Then my hackles rose again and I understood. Ric was so distracted by my predicament that he hadn’t felt it or heard it. Something was coming. I reached out for him, tearing his hands away from the chain. I pulled him off the road and into the bog; my foot slipped into its thick, smelly water and an idea formed. Disgusting as it would be. He moved to pull me out but instead I pulled him in, submerging us up to the waist. The surrounding undergrowth would hide us from sight and hopefully the marsh would hide our scent. I shifted quickly as I felt my feet sinking deeper than I’d intended, but then we stopped and turned deathly silent as three man-sized creatures jumped across in front of us, their red eyes burning in the fading light of day.
Berserkers.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
WE WERE TRAPPED in the marsh for hours, waiting for the dreadful beasts to move on once and for all. The constant fear of discovery had left us both tense and aching by the time they’d finally disappeared. I grimaced as Ric helped me out of the bog, our legs swollen and half-asleep. We stomped some feeling back into them, trying to ignore the weight of our clothes and squelch of the marsh mud and headed onward, starting the first awful hour of our long trip home.
Strangely I didn’t remember much of it. It was as Ric had promised; the moon was indeed at its halfway point so we were undisturbed but constantly on edge after our encounter. How could we not be? Then there it was. A beacon, glowing warm and welcoming against the faint haze of sunrise on a distant horizon, sat waiting for our return.
Home.
Exhausted, I asked, “Should we tell them?”
Ric nodded. “It’ll stir them up but we have to. It’s been decades since a Berserker’s gotten this close. Not since…” He faded off.
Not since Andor. I placed my hand on Ric’s strong shoulder and squeezed, throwing him an understanding smile. He squeezed my hand back and we walked the final distance in silence. Silent, at least, until we pushed open the doors and things became far more chaotic.
Lavender pounced on us the moment the door closed, talking so fast that I could barely understand. She gagged at the smell of us and fussed over me; complaining about my matted hair and the state of my skirts.
“What do I have to do to get some attention?” Ric whined.
“You aren’t as delicate, cat-man.” Lavender shooed him out of her way. She ordered me to remove my boots so she could inspect my feet and I snickered. Whether she realised it or not Lavender was turning into her mother. However, all fun and humour was gone when I pulled off my boots and socks and saw the quivering mass that lay beneath them.
“Oh,” I said, paling dramatically, “leeches. Leeches make me…” My sentence faded off as the floor buckled from under me. A haze covered my eyes and I blinked away the sparks beneath them. Give me blood and give me gore, make me sew a fingernail back on or clean an infected gash in someone’s leg; give me anything but leeches. The sight of them made my skin crawl and my stomach turn.
Once her concern had passed, Lavender chuckled quietly. “You’ll jump head-first into a fight you know you won’t win, but you can’t handle these, huh?” She pulled one off and waggled it in my face.
I shook my head, trying not to vomit. “The sight of them makes me-”
“That explains where your energy went on the last leg home,” Ric said. “I’m surprised you have any blood left.”
He removed his own shoes and whined at the sight of his feet. Unfortunately, I looked up. At least mine had been gracious enough to stick to my legs. Ric looked like he could have passed out as well when he discovered the beasties nestled in the softer skin between his toes. All colour drained from my body and I lay back.
“This doesn’t help me abolish my ‘trouble finds me’ status, does it?”
“It was a different kind of trouble,” he said, grimacing as a lively little leech reattached itself to his thumb. He turned his attention to Lavender. “Has Ethan come back yet?”
“Not yet.” She shook her head and plucked the last leech out of my leg. “Ava, please go and take a bath before I vomit. You two smell like you’ve been swimming in a bog.”
“In our defence we weren’t swimming,” I jested, uncovering my eyes.
“Where’s Willow?” Ric asked before Lavender could question it.
“She’s still sleeping. Why? What’s going on?” she asked, suddenly fearful. Ric and I exchanged looks.
“We ran into some trouble,” I said. “Pretty big trouble.”
“I can wake her-”
“No,” Ric insisted, “it can wait another couple of hours. I’ll tell her once she’s rested. Your mother doesn’t get enough sleep as it is.”
AFTER CLEANING THE grime from my body and disinfecting my bites at last I settled into the beautiful, clean bed and closed my eyes. But sleep wouldn’t come. Not with the dull ache my locket caused as it pressed into my windpipe. It had been too much back in the forest. The pressure of it had caused the area to ache.
As the hours rolled by I watched the morning brighten through the open windows – Odd though, I didn’t remember opening the windows. My locket throbbed again and I scoffed. If the infliction wasn’t temporary I’d burn it white on a blacksmith’s anvil and chisel the damned thing off.