Lirael turned and looked. Her stomach roiled and she coughed hard. 'Touchstone!' she gasped, her eyes filling with fear.
'Father!' Ellimere choked, her black eyes wide.
Touchstone was hanging from a tree by his neck. A loose knot of rope that was tied off at the root.
His head was lolling motionless on his chest; his arms limp at his sides, his dark curly head limp and frail. Lirael's eyes filled with tears, just as Ellimere let out a harsh resounding sob. Forgetting that she was carrying Nick, Lirael stumbled forward and untied the knot that lynched him in the skeletal arms of the tree. It was whispering softly, and Lirael found her senses casting around for a creature of free magic or the dead. Whatever signs of the culprit were gone, indicating the dead rather than free magic.
Hot tears wound there way in sombre trails down her pale cheeks and she tried to clear her sight, snapping through the rope that bound Touchstone.
As gently as she could, she lowered his body to the ground, her silky black hair falling over her face to disguise that it was wet and red.
Ellimere had collapsed on the grass, her head buried in her hands, black curls sliding in between her fingers. Nick lay next to her, his eyes staring blankly into the grey sky. Lirael gently reached forward and slipped the noose from his head, feeling his neck.
What if… his neck was not broken she realised, but the rope had choked him so that the skin on his throat was red, and his windpipe was crushed. Lirael paused, her hands ready to trace the marks of cremation over his body, and then stopped. No. This was her sister's duty, if anyone's.
What if she could heal the body? Please, she begged. Please let me heal him.
Thinking hard, she tried a charter mark for inflation and traced it over Touchstone's prominent Adam's apple. With delight, she felt the windpipe rise steadily, inflating well. Once normal, she checked for bleeding and found many harsh cuts along the inside. Not ready to give up, she determinedly sent healing charter marks down there, and prayed for them to heal fast. The longer Touchstone's spirit wandered through death, the less likely it would be that he would be able to return, and she prayed with all her might that it would.
Her eyes were still flowing freely, and she pushed them back forcefully, biting her lip hard to bring herself back into rational thinking.
As she did, her senses detected a very familiar aura in the up stairs of the palace, though it wasn't moving and the sense that it was somehow frozen was overpowering.
Sabriel was in death, her body up stairs.
Good, at least maybe she could stop Touchstone from going far. Unless of course it was his time. Sabriel, of all people knew when it was time for death and when she had to let go of people. As the Abhorsen he knew it was silly to keep hold of such things, because like sand they slid through your fingers. But Lirael knew that Sabriel loved Touchstone more than anything in the world, save her children. At what lengths would her sister go to bring her husband and lover back?
Lirael couldn't, shouldn't stay to find out.
Quickly, she cast charter marks of protection over Touchstone's body. –that was just what she needed – a greedy member of the dead finding his body and taking out for their own.
'Ellie?' she called, her voice stronger now that there was hope. Not much, but a little.
Her niece looked up, face red and raw from crying.
'I've healed his body as much as I can, El, it's the best I can do. I'm not sure how far he's gone… I…' she paused to keep her voice steady. 'Your mother's upstairs,' she whispered, but her spirits in death, no doubt keeping him from… but anyway, you should bring her down, make sure no one touches them. I can't find Sameth, but he's got to be here somewhere and...'
Ellimere nodded to stem Lirael's half-hearted words of comfort. Lirael didn't know how to give sympathy. She had never had to before now, and now that she needed to she wished desperately that it wasn't so.
'Here,' Lirael said, handing her Kibeth again. 'Just in case.'
'In case of what?' Ellimere mumbled, her eyes round and wide, tears still leaking down her face.
Lirael didn't need to say it, Ellimere knew, really.
She hugged her niece hard, who hugged her back, numbly. 'Be safe, dear.' Lirael whispered, kissing her on the cheek.
'And you.' Ellimere whispered inaudibly.
With that, Lirael turned from her and plunged into death, hoping that it wasn't too late.
Ellimere watched as frost formed on her aunt's face, hands and body, icicles began to cling to her hair.
This isn't real she thought.
Aww that SADNESS. Sorry my lovelies but you'll find out if Lirael managed to save the day in time later…
Wild Blood Rose X
