Chapter fourteen: Flying daggers
Willow's POVWillow didn't know what to do. After Tak had run into the battle, Willow had gone back to the healer's room to see if any of the wounded needed to be treated.
It was empty.
They must have all gone to the emergency room. She thought, walking quickly down the hall. When she rounded a corner, her antenna picked up a scream. A horrible, tortured scream.
She gasped and suddenly came to a halt. The scream had come from Tak and something had happened.
She spun around and raced to where the scream had come from. The scream was still in the air and Willow's antenna started throbbing, as she kept getting closer to the source.
Soon she smelled blood. And a lot of it. She almost gagged at the overpowering sent of it. No one could lose that much blood and still be alive. She hurriedly raced toward the sent, even though all her instincts were telling her not to go near that blood.
Willow finally, finally got to the top and her eyes darted around, looking for Tak. There! She saw a figure silhouetted against the pale indigo sky kneeling next to a body.
"Tak?" she asked softly, her words carrying in the breeze. The battle was still raging on below them, but Willow blocked her senses so all she heard was muffled yelling.
Tak didn't even look up. She just kept staring at the body.
"Tak?" willow repeated. Tak slowly lifter her head, and Willow was shocked to see that her eyes were dull and exhausted looking. Tak looked utterly defeated, like she didn't want to go on.
Tak stared into her eyes. "He's dead."
"W-who, Tak?" she stammered.
Tak shifted and Willow saw that it was Urdu's body. "No…" she gasped. She stumbled forward and stared at the lifeless body in front of her. Why hadn't she sensed this? She placed her hands over his chest wound and closed her eyes.
"What happened to him?" Willow murmured, her eyes still shut, even though she already knew the answer before Tak replied.
"Sodo killed him." Tak spat. Willow wasn't surprised. She could feel Tak settle down next to her. "What are you doing now?" Tak asked. "It's too late to save him." She sounded so wretched and heart broken that Willow opened her eyes and gazed at her friend. Then, she flung her arms around Tak and hugged her. Tak didn't speak, but hugged her back, hard, seeking comfort from Willow.
When they parted, Tears were rolling down Tak's face. "Tak, where is Sodo?"
Tak's eyes grew dark and she pointed silently to a bush. Willow stepped over to it and moved it.
"Oh…!" she jumped back and covered her mouth. There, behind the bush, lay Sodo's body. The sent of death hung heavy in the air around it. She bent down and saw a knife stuck in his chest. She scrambled back over to Tak and knelt by Urdu. She placed her hands over his wound again and closed her eyes once more.
"Humior shamtar kira…" she murmured ancient Aktarus words. She placed her hands on his shoulders. His soul was still there she could feel it. Come. You are safe. She urged it. She felt the tug of it as it fought to be kept in its host. "Humior shamtar kira…" she murmured again, but this time more fiercely. It still wouldn't let lose. It hung stubbornly on to the body. She tried a different approach.
"Pirtakra shemli quistlk…" she said. It came closer but not close enough for her to touch it and read it. Willow repeated the words again. It was almost within reach. Then, she said the last words she never thought should would say.
"Loreti relim muntaw!" She shouted. It burst free and a blinding light shone through her closed eyelids. Several different images flashed through her mind like a movie on fast forward. Hold still! She growled impatiently to the soul. It obeyed and she searched it quickly, looking for images of Urdu's last few minutes of life. She found it. Bloody pictures flipped through her mind and when she was finished, she gently let the Soul be free. She thanked it for its help and told it how sorry she was that she had disturbed its passing to the Other world. It fled and the brightness disappeared.
Willow's eyes snapped open. She felt drained. Tak was staring at her with something of awe in her gaze.
"What…was…that?" she shrieked.
"That, my friend," Willow coughed. "That was Soul Reading."
"Well, what did you find out?"
Willow answered, "Well, of course it was Sodo who killed him, but there's something else…" she hesitated.
"Well?" Tak asked.
She sighed. "Urdu knew something that nobody else did. He knew that time was going to go the same as it did before the Great Darkness. With some few changes."
"Wait, so you're telling me that time is going the same way except that Urdu and Sodo died?"
Willow nodded.
"Wait, so if time is going the same way right now, then that means…"
"Yes. It means that you may possibly die." Willow finished.
Tak stared at her. "When?" was all she said.
"Soon. I don't know when, but soon you will have a dagger to your heart. I will try to do what I can, but there's not much I can do when I'm drained like this. I'm so sorry." Willow's eyes dropped to the ground.
A soft finger lifted her chin. Tak gazed at her. "Willow, not even a flying dagger to my heart could be more painful then what I've already lived through."
Willow smiled slightly. "Thank you." She whispered. Tak stood and prepared to walk down the hill.
That was when it happened. Before Willow knew what was going on, Tak gasped in pain and fell to her knees.
"Tak! Tak, what's wrong?" Willow raced to her friend's side and held onto her shoulders. Tak's eyes were filled with pain. Willow looked over Tak's body and glanced over her shoulder to her back. Willow gasped and screeched, "Tak! No!"
Tak fainted in Willow's arms, something silver catching the moonlight in Tak's back.
A silver handle.
A flying dagger.
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