Chapter Nine: In Sickness
"What are you doing?" Sydney demanded of the dark-haired man carefully pulling the dart from Nigel's thigh.
The man lifted the tiny metal tip to his nose. "As I feared," he muttered. His worried blue eyes rose to meet hers. "Kytesh, poison drawn from the sap of the potent herb of the same name."
"What does that mean?" Preston asked, softly, fearing the answer.
"We have the antidote back at the village, but we must hurry or it will be useless."
Without another word, the man reached down. Preston caught on and helped the stranger to pick Nigel up.
"Armand, lead the way," the man ordered one of the other strangers.
"Señor de la Piedra," a third stranger said, stepping forward. He held an amber-coloured oval stone out on his palm.
"Gracias, Jacques. Now, Armand, quickly!"
.
A gasp flew from Karen's pale pink-painted lips, as she blinked against the glare of the afternoon sun and saw a dozen of D'orage's men waiting to 'greet' them at the entrance to the labyrinth. Twelve pistol barrels were levelled, trigger fingers eager to squeeze.
"Hand over the Stone, Monsieur de la Piedra," the leader of the mercenaries ordered.
However, de la Piedra didn't even grace the man with a glance. "Keep going," he muttered, quietly, to Preston when he hesitated.
Sydney stopped a little in front of Karen, who stood rooted to the spot by fear, and frowned with confusion and worry. Her hand tensed around her little crossbow. She didn't want a repeat of what had happened when cornered by D'orage himself.
"Wait…"
"It's ok, Professor Fox," de la Piedra assured, looking over his shoulder at her. "They cannot harm us. We have the Guardian Stone."
She was still uncertain and it seemed that the mercenaries were unconvinced as well, for it was then that their leader ordered them to fire.
To Professor Sydney Fox time stood still. She didn't draw breath, waiting for what was sure to come.
Yet, seconds passed and their wasn't a single report from any of the guns.
"Que le…?" The commanding mercenary didn't seem to understand it either. Try as he and his men may they could not squeeze the triggers of their guns. They reached for their knives instead, but the blades inexplicably slipped from their hands.
Meanwhile, de la Piedra was quickly whispering orders to Armand. "Take the horses and go back the way we came. I will go with Nigel and his friends in their car. The Stone will protect me, but you must ride fast before D'orage's men realise that you are unprotected."
"Sí, Señor."
Armand led the other black-clothed men to the horses and slipped away through the trees, while de la Piedra and Preston gently placed Nigel in the back of Sydney's rental car, all unhindered by the perplexed and alarmed mercenaries. Karen and Sydney climbed in the back of the car, de la Piedra took the front passenger seat and Preston took the wheel. The vehicle then sped away along the dirt track leading from the mountain to the road.
With his head on her lap, Sydney gently wiped away the hair stuck to Nigel's burning forehead. To finally be reunited with him, only to… She couldn't bear to think of it. Instead she switched her mind to other matters.
"Who exactly are you?" she demanded of de la Piedra.
The Frenchman with the Spanish surname obligingly twisted around to face her. He glanced worriedly down at Nigel's pallid face, then raised an apologetic gaze to Sydney.
"I'm sorry, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Francesco de la Piedra. We are going to my village, El Pueblo Ocultado de la Piedra. I am a descendant of the Spanish fisherman that the Guardian Stone was given to all those many hundreds of years ago."
"It was you that attacked D'orage in the tomb?"
"Oui."
"And it was you who took away and treated Nigel?"
"Oui."
"He's been at your village ever since?"
"Oui. The village was closer than Toulouse, so I sent him there with some of the others, while I led a search for you and D'orage along the river. Regrettably, once he was well enough to leave, I could not let him. D'orage has had the village under watch and even launched an attack against it. For Nigel to have left and sought you, who I knew was being tailed by D'orage, would have been suicide. He understood this; I assure you, I have not kept your friend prisoner."
"Then I believe thanks are in order, Señor de la Piedra."
Francesco shrugged. "Nigel's help has been invaluable. I doubt I would have managed to find the Stone without him." His expression became sorrowful and his gaze slid down again to the unconscious and feverish Englishman. "And he has become a good friend to my family and I."
.
.
As soon as they had drawn up in the courtyard of Francesco de la Piedra's villa, the Frenchman had called for aid and the antidote had been injected into Nigel's bloodstream in the car. Francesco and Preston had then carried him inside and up to a bedroom on the second floor.
Sydney and the others stood back to let Dr Henry Santino and Marietta de la Piedra work. Nigel was soon cleaned up and had fresh bandages wrapped around his healing gunshot wound.
The doctor then approached Sydney and Francesco, and Preston moved to sit next to his younger brother. A young girl with long, dark hair dashed forward and stood at the foot of the bed, chewing her nails.
"Don't bite your nails, Nicole," Marietta admonished, softly, as she passed by on her way over to the others.
Nicole obediently dropped her hands and quietly climbed up to sit on the end of the bed.
Henry Santino's grave expression made it even harder for Sydney to suppress the fear that threatened to overcome her.
He swallowed and then addressed Francesco first, "As you know," he then turned to Sydney, "and you must have guessed, Ms Fox, Nigel's body was in a weakened state when he left on this…expedition."
Marietta wrapped an arm around her husband, who pulled her close in response, and she rested her head against him.
"The gunshot wound," Karen murmured.
The doctor nodded. "Though he was well on the mend, he was probably running mostly on adrenaline by the time he was hit by the dart. An adult in full-health usually dies within four hours once poisoned with kytesh, if not given the antidote. In the case of the antidote being given, it can only cure if the poison has not spread too far and done too much damage, otherwise it will only draw out the time until inevitable death."
"A-and what if the person was already weak?" Preston asked, shakily, from Nigel's bedside.
"Chance of survival becomes incredibly small."
Fear clamped Sydney's chest. "Nigel…?"
"I suggest you pray, Ms Fox," Henry Santino said, sadly.
"Déjà vu…" Francesco muttered, bitterly, and pulled away from his wife.
.
TBC…(one more chapter to go)…
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(AN: As far as I know kytesh doesn't actually exist.)