Author's Note: Just so everyone knows…on Friday and Saturday I will be going on in my show as a witch. Complete with REAL green stage makeup. It looks AMAZING. So wish me luck. And thanks once again to Drew for nitpicking…ahem…er, editing. =P
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Chapter 15
"How did you find this place?" asked Elphaba, wincing as Fiyero helped her out of her wet cloak. He had somehow spotted the cave like a hawk sighting its prey from miles away. He had grabbed Elphaba and made a run for it, leaving the others behind. She could hear them now, tramping through the wet grass outside like a pack of wild animals. She looked at the curtain of rain at the mouth of the cave and shuddered.
"How are you?" asked Fiyero, putting his arms around her. She leaned gratefully into his embrace for a moment, but then remembered that she was angry with him and pulled away.
"Fine. You didn't answer my question."
"Which was?" Fiyero asked absently.
"How you found this place."
"I used to live out here, remember?" he said, slightly annoyed with her. He knew he'd opened up some old wound by asking her about the child, whoever he was, but Fiyero still felt he had a right to know.
"Well, yes of course, but you've been away for such a long time, how could you possibly—"
"Elphaba, why should it matter?" shouted Fiyero, suddenly in a rage. "You still don't trust me, do you? You never did!"
She flew at him then, all rational thought pushed aside by anger. Just then, Glinda and Gerema rushed into the cave, Boq close on their heels.
"Elphie, Elphie, stop!" screamed Glinda.
"What's happening?" asked Boq, limping in behind her.
"I don't know!"
Fiyero had fallen to his knees, clutching his injured shoulder. Elphaba froze, the fire of her anger passing as quickly as it had come on. She knelt down beside him, one hand on his back.
"Elphaba, what is going on?" asked Glinda.
Elphaba shook her head.
"I…don't know. I don't know what happened, I just—I've never felt anything like it, except—"
"Except what?"
"Nevermind," she said quickly, and turned back to Fiyero. "Talk to me, Yero. Are you all right?" Her voice shook with guilt and fear.
He shook his head, and she realized suddenly that he was struggling to stay conscious. She brushed the back of her hand against his forehead, wincing as his sweat stung her skin. He was burning up. Elphaba wrapped her arms around him supportively, her last thought of anger vanishing.
"Glinda, bring me a blanket," she ordered.
Glinda and Gerema hurried outside to unhitch the donkeys. Fortunately, the sacks that the Scrow had given them had been waterproofed and the supplies had remained dry despite the storm. Glinda magicked a smokeless fire in the middle of the cave, and together she and Elphaba laid Fiyero, who was now nearly unconscious, on the blanket beside the fire.
"Fiyero, talk to me," Elphaba repeated, her voice filled with desperation. "How long has it been hurting? You told me you were all right! You lied to me!"
Glinda took her hands gently.
"Elphaba, calm down. Yelling isn't going to help anything."
Glinda took a small pocketknife from the supplies and cut Fiyero's shirt open. The wound on his shoulder was open and bleeding beneath the bandages, more inflamed even than it had been when it was new. Elphaba drew in a sharp breath and willed herself to stay in control.
"Infected," breathed Glinda.
"Or poisoned," said Elphaba.
The others looked at her, alarmed.
"What do you mean?" asked Boq.
"That wound," said Elphaba slowly, "is from a tiktok axe. It would be quite a trick of theirs to poison their blades." She looked at her own injured hand. She turned back to Gerema. "You are trained in the ways of this land. Is there anything you can do?"
Gerema looked around thoughtfully for a moment, then shook her head.
"If I do not know what the poison is, there is nothing I can do. And we do not even know if it is in fact poison."
Glinda took Elphaba by the shoulders and led her away from Fiyero.
"Listen to me, Elphie," said Glinda carefully. "If it is poison, then you are infected too. I know you don't want to hear this, but you can't be worrying right now. You need to calm down and you need to sleep. That's the only way you have a chance of getting through this."
"No!" said Elphaba vehemently. "I'm *fine*. You all need me."
"Elphaba, look at you, you're falling apart. We need you, but right now we need you to give up control for a little while. Lie down."
Elphaba sighed, then obeyed reluctantly.
"I'm not going to be able to sleep."
"I'll take care of that," said Glinda, pulling out her wand.
Elphaba lay back on the hard floor of the cave and closed her eyes. The spell did its work quickly, but somehow sleep only intensified the nightmare she was living.
The room was completely trashed. The crates were overturned, the jar of mild shattered. Even the skylight was broken. The hulking form of the Emerald Palace loomed up over the new hole in the ceiling, the remaining shards marring the image like gruesome scars. And the blood. There was blood everywhere. So much blood.
"No!" moaned Elphaba, closing her eyes against acid tears. "No, no, no! Anything but this! Why this?"
"Now, now, my dearie, awfully upset for someone with no soul."
Elphaba whirled toward the voice, nearly tripping over pieces of wreckage in the gloom. She gasped. Yackle was standing immediately below the scattered skylight, a few late snowflakes lighting in her white hair and disappearing.
"You," growled Elphaba, advancing on the old woman.
Yackle raised a hand to stop her.
"No, no, my pet, don't want to get wet." She pointed toward the open ceiling, and suddenly the snowflakes turned to a pouring gale of water.
Elphaba flinched and took a step backward. Yackle laughed, wildly, maddeningly.
"Who are you?" she demanded, glaring at the old woman.
Yackle stopped laughing and turned on Elphaba, her face hard as stone and completely unreadable.
"Mother Yackle is what you fear most, my darling," snarled the woman.
Elphaba caught her breath and her knees went weak.
"What?" she repeated. "What are you?"
"You know, dearie. You know what you fear most. Your soul."
Elphaba gasped for breath. The room began to spin dizzyingly around her.
"No…you…what do you mean?"
"You know, dearie, you've seen it. Mother Yackle has taken your soul."
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