Sorry for the wait. This was a hard chapter to write. Hope you like it. Enjoy
Karigan
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'Foxgloves and twigs'
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The two women pulled away from each other; both wiping tears away. Daine looked around. "We should get back. Numair will have kittens if he doesn't know where I am." They got to their feet and brushed off the dirt. Justice looked up to see Daine staring at her.
"What?"
Daine hesitated. Licking and biting at her bottom lip, she stuttered over her next question. "How…how did you…I mean, what did you use to umm…" she sighed in annoyance of her own nervousness. "You know," she stated, waving in the general direction of her stomach.
Justice looked lost at first but then her eyes opened wide in understanding. "Oh." She looked down at the ground as she spoke. "Foxglove."
"Floxglove?" Justice nodded. "But you can get foxglove anywhere. Why were you breaking into the mages wing and stealing herbs if you were using Foxglove?" Daine looked confused, but continued on. "Besides, why in the Gods' name would you use Foxglove? It's completely detectable with the gift."
"Only if you're looking for it." Contoured Justice. "Anyways, I don't put it in drinks or food. I grind it up until it's finer than powder. When it catches the wind, it floats in the air. A person can breath it in. So even if a healer were looking for poisoning, they'd be looking in the wrong place. It wouldn't be in the stomach; it would be in the lungs. I thought the dose I gave you would be enough the first time. I used more the second, but still I didn't kill you. Finally I found out you're God born. That would make you more resilient to the drug. And as for breaking into the mages wing; that was hardly more than a diversion. I did it to keep people more interested in that than an eight year old girl wandering around the palace for so long."
Daine stared, dumbstruck. "Oddly, I'm impressed." Justice quirked a smile. Daine sighed, why don't you gather some dry wood for the morning fire and I'll go back and let them know we haven't disappeared again."
Justice nodded and began to walk farther into the woods. Suddenly she stopped and turned quickly. "Daine?" Daine turned around with an answering question. "Are you going to tell Numair? I mean, about what I did." She was twining her thumbs nervously.
Daine's expression softened. "Not right now. Eventually, I'll have to. He has a right to know, Justice."
Justice took a deep breath. "I know. It's just…I like Numair very much. It took so much for him to trust me. After he finds out about what I did, I don't think he'll ever trust me again. He'll know I have evil in me, even if I want to be trustworthy."
Daine looked pensive as she answered. "In each of us, two natures are at war – the good and the evil. All our lives the fight goes on between them, and one of them must conquer. But in our own hands lies the power to choose – what we want most to be, we are." Justice stood in place, stunned by Daine's words, even after the woman walked back to camp. Finally she turned and proceeded into some underbrush for some twigs, her mind going over an over those words. 'What we want most to be, we are.'
She stopped for a moment in thought. "What I want most to be, I am." She brought up her hands in front of her and observed her long slender pale fingers, sharply contrasted by bright silver nails. She closed her eyes and imagined red, silver and gold feathers covering them. Imagined the rustle of gloriously long tail feathers flexing for takeoff. Imagined calling out to hear the echo of her voice resonate through dense forest. Imagined firebirds streaking past redwood trees. She could almost here them calling out, waiting for an answer. She could almost feel her talons gripping the branch in anticipation. She imagined them to be so close; streaking over valleys and rivers and mountains and deserts and…
Her eyes opened and she jumped back so quickly she almost tripped. She looked around confused. Why was she breathing so heavily? She knew she had a vivid imagination; but never has she been carried away by it. She smiled, remembering the image of firebirds flying over the desert. "Desert?" the smile vanished and a frown appeared. There were no firebirds in the desert. Why would she imagine that? She had been the only one that had crossed a desert. Why would she imagine her colony flying over a desert? She put the thought aside for later and continued gathering wood.
She scratched at an itch on her left ankle as she picked up another piece. She bent down for the next when she froze. Her eyes shifted to her legs. She didn't move an inch as she waited. There it was again, the itch. Her breath hitched then began to speed up. The itching grew worse. She tried to tell herself she needed to get back to the others, but fear had an iron grip around her throat. It got worse. She could hardly stand it now. "No." she whispered right before she felt her skin explode into pain.
With a strangled cry she dropped the wood and grasped various parts of her body; all stinging severally. She scratched at her skin, desperately trying to take the pain away. She staggered towards the camp. If she could get to Numair, he could help her. He could make it stop. She had tears running down her cheeks. The salty tears seemed to accentuate the stabbing pain in her face. She staggered a few more steps and then tripped. Letting out strangled cry, she cursed the humanity in her that made her want to die. "STOP IT!" she screamed. "Leave me alone!" Then, then numbness started. Her ankles deadened into soft relief. He feet, and legs relaxed as the emptiness took away the pain. This time however, she didn't welcome it. She fought it. "No! Leave me alone! Please don't do this!" But the emptiness was winning. She felt it in her chest and arms. Felt it rise to her throat. Felt her eyes turn cold and unseeing, until all that was left in pain was her mind. Until that to became numb, empty of all that was the young firebird who had wandered from the canopy two years ago to get a better look at the first human she had ever seen.
Deep in her mind, she heard his voice. The soothing tone he used with everyone he thought was fooled by him. "You belong to me, my little sparrow. You cannot fight the old ones."
*****
"I think that if we leave in an hour, we can be back by tomorrow morning." Alanna was looking at the sun. She stretched out and walked over to Daine. "Let me look at your arm."
"Alanna, it's fine."
"Daine." Numair looked commanding. "Let her look."
With a roll of her eyes, Daine acquiesced. An overprotective husband could be annoying sometimes.
Buri, who was still laying down with the cloak she and Alanna had shared wrapped around her body, peaked out from underneath in curiosity. "Where's Justice. You said she's be back in a few minutes."
Daine opened her mouth to answer when Justice walked into view. "I'm here." She dropped the collected wood by the fire and began stuffing the twigs into the fire.
Daine had smiled at the girl, but frowned in curiosity when Justice had not even looked up. She walked over and began to help her with the fire, inching closer so that she could ask her privately what was the matter. Alanna and Numair spoke as Buri turned over and grumbled about her throbbing wrist. Daine took the opportunity. "Justice, what's the matter?"
"These dry twigs were hard to find; it must have rained here yesterday."
Daine was confused. Justice was never this cold towards anyone. "Justice, if anything I said upset you, tell me. I didn't mean for that to happen." Justice continued to look down. 'Odd,' Daine thought. Justice was a very proud girl (probably a firebird quality); she wasn't someone to not look at you in the eye. The only other time Justice hadn't looked at her was when they had run into each other outside the mages corridor.
Justice reached for another dry twig. Daine reached out and placed her hand on Justice's shoulder. "Justi…Unghhhh." Justice had swung around faster than Daine could have imagined. Pain began to swarm Daine's feelings as she looked at the small girl in confusion. The red head was looking down. Daine followed the line of sight. Confused and shocked at what she saw. The small girl on one end was still holding the twig she had picked up. The other end was lodged deep into Daine's lower stomach. Slowly she wrapped her own hand around the twig. Daine's eyes were wide in continued confusion as she silently raised her eyes to look at the girl again. This time she could see the girl's eyes.
And she finally understood why the red head had kept her eyes down in the corridor when they had first seen each other. Why she had kept her eyes down just now. She had been under the mages control then, just as she was now. It wasn't hard to figure something was very wrong when there was no iris or pupil in someone's eyes. When all you can see was the white. She understood what Justice had said about being empty. Daine could see it now as she stared into the empty eyes. There was no sweet, hot-tempered Justice in this body.
Daine felt some blood drip from the corner of her mouth just as she heard screaming and shouting. But everything was much to dark. She could feel herself falling.
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AAAAAA Cliffy….another one!!!!!!!! I know…..how horrible…! Oh the suspense….the horrid thought of waiting….hehehehehehehehehehe…………………GOOD!!!!!
Bye
Karigan