Rudiger fled behind Varian's leg, cowering as his master quickly wrenched the bow off his back. "Shay!" he barked over his shoulder as he grabbed an arrow and started frisking the contents of his bag. "Our stay here's worn out! We need to find a way to open that door on the other side of the chamber - it's the only way out of here!" He found the compound he was looking for and used a piece of twine to hastily tie the vial to the arrow's shaft. "Do you have any ideas?!"
Shay furiously wiped her face clean and turned to make her way towards the door. She stopped with a yelp when she saw more skeletons blocking her way.
Varian turned in her direction and drew back; adrenaline fueled his strength, and the drawstring pulled back easily. "Duck!" he called, and Shay buckled her knees as he aimed and fired at the skeletons that barred the door. Varian knew it wasn't exactly the best time to brag, but his aim was incredibly accurate. The arrow shot through the chill air and struck cleanly through one of the skeleton's eye sockets. The impact catalyzed the compound, the kinetic energy triggering the reaction, and a rosy explosion bloomed, shattering the skeleton and sending a few others flying. Varian saw Shay shield her face with her arm, and he noted the pillars shivering dangerously as he reached to nock another arrow. "Go!" he hollered, his voice cracking as he turned back around to face the other skeletons. "I'll buy you time!"
Shay scrambled back to her feet and sprinted forward, losing a shoe as she slammed into the door. She studied the lock for a moment, wincing when she heard another explosion across the chamber. "There's another ward on the door!" she yelled, her high voice carrying through the chamber like a broken bell.
"Then find the key!" Varian shouted as he groped for one of his sticky bombs and hurled it at a skeleton trying to flank him; the pink substance splattered in a wide sheet across the ground, catching a few of the monstrosities off-guard as they stumbled and strained against the arresting trap. It wasn't enough to stop the others from reaching dangerously close to Varian; one swung its broadsword in his direction, the wicked blade shrieking through the air. Varian dropped and heard the sword strike the sarcophagus behind him, biting at the marble stone. He shot his foot out and knocked the skeleton to its knees before raising his bow to block a blow from another undead soldier. There was a flash of grey fur, and Rudiger was on the soldier's head, wrenching savagely at the skeleton's helmet until it fell backwards, giving Varian a chance to regain his feet.
As he stood, he felt something push him from behind, like he'd just been punched, and his left shoulder went numb. He stumbled and whirled around to see that one of the skeletons had produced its own bow, the drawstring still vibrating from the arrow's release. Varian tried to reach for another sticky bomb, but his arm refused to respond. He looked at his shoulder and saw why: there was an arrowhead protruding through his jacket, his own blood coating the vicious, barbed tip. His eyes popped open wide, and he stopped breathing, his mouth falling open as he realized with morbid fascination that he'd been shot. The world seemed to stop, and all sound hushed to silence in his ears. His father's bow fell from his trembling hands, and he stood there, dumbfounded and stunned.
Something was tugging at his bag. He felt a cold nose sniff his hand, then dig some more through his things. The sound of glass shattering caused everything to come rumbling back to his senses, and pain erupted in his brain like a battering ram, blossoming like an angry lightning bolt from his left fingertips to the base of his neck. He crumpled to his knees and watched in a haze as more skeletons closed in on him, their skinless grins looming over him like a series of jagged crescent moons. Something syrupy soaked his pantleg, and he managed to focus enough on the sensation to see that Rudiger had filched the chimera serum from his bag. The serum had spilled from the broken vial, and Rudiger was quickly lapping up the solution like a rabid dog. He vaguely heard someone scream his name, then fell over on his side as his racoon exploded into a massive, hot-blooded, extremely violent behemoth. Rudiger seemed to fill half the chamber, and he unleashed a savage, blood-curdling roar that informed everyone and everything that he was very, very angry. He began rampaging around the chamber, snarling and snapping with a fury Varian had never seen before.
By the time Rudiger had succeeded in transforming, Shay had managed to break the ward on the door. Unfortunately, breaking the ward triggered the gutters above to begin pouring water into the chamber. Shay looked up through her hair in alarm and quickly cast a configuring spell on the lock. An ethereal tumbler appeared before her, and she started lining everything up, her trembling fingers flicking the ghostly gears into place. There was a click, and the door yawned open as she scrambled to grab her shoe and tug it back on. She then rushed over to Varian's side, struggling to push him back upright. Varian was barely responsive, but he managed to help her drape his arm over her shoulders.
"What happened to him?!" Shay exclaimed as Rudiger pounced back and forth, chewing on skeleton bones and lashing wickedly at their suits of armor. She snatched his bow and slung it over her own back.
Swimming in and out of consciousness, Varian slumped forward. "He's – it's a serum, he's fine." He felt, more than saw, the pillars around them tremble in the wake of Rudiger's rampage, and he felt water begin to wash towards them. "Did you get the door open?"
"Yes, I did," Shay pleaded, grabbing him before he could fall over again.
"Go without me," he managed to get out. "I'll only slow you down."
Shay ignored his ridiculous request and dragged him to his feet, causing him to howl between his teeth and snap temporarily out of his painful stupor. She pulled him along, trying to get him moving. They stopped when a skeleton limped into their path, its hollow sockets wide and filled with burning rage. Shay flung her hand forward and hastily drew a character in the air, rattling off a livid incantation. A red enchanter's circle appeared, and a plume of fire engulfed the undead soldier. It crumbled to the ground, smoldering into a pile of dusty armor and ashes as Varian and Shay fled to the door.
"Rudiger!" Varian shouted over his injured shoulder. "Come on, we're getting out of here!"
Rudiger gave one more bone-shaking growl and broke off the attack. He lumbered over towards them and balked when he saw the door, sniffing and scuffling anxiously when he realized he wouldn't fit. Varian tried reaching for his bag, but the pain in his shoulder was too intense. "I have an anti-serum that can turn him back!" he told Shay through a wave of agony. "It's the vial labeled 'P2640'. It's white!"
Shay opened the flap of the bag and recited the anti-serum's number. It leapt into her palm, and she turned to face Rudiger's gaping maw. "How much?!" she shouted as the water levels reached the hem of her skirt.
"Just a drop!" Varian leaned against the wall, trying to steady his breathing as Shay administered the solution over Rudiger's lolling tongue. They watched him swallow, then whine as he transformed back in a flash of light. Shay reached for Varian again, tugging him up the stairs beyond the door. The moment they crossed the threshold, Haderon's burial chamber went completely black, and Shay shoved the door closed with an almost deafening crash. She slapped her hand on the door and cast her own ward, sealing it shut with a few rushed, tense words. The sound of the chamber filling with water pounded against the other side, like an irregular heartbeat.
"Varian," she gasped as she helped him climb the stone steps, "how are we going to –"
"We'll worry about that later," Varian winced, the light from his staff nearly smothered by the darkness. "I have other things on my mind right now." He heard something snap, and he looked down to see that they had triggered a tripwire. "Like that!" he hollered as a massive, spiked beam fell from the shadows above, swinging a wall of death in their direction. "Get down!" They slammed into the stairs, narrowly avoiding the deathtrap. Varian nearly blacked out as the arrow in his shoulder shook from the fall, and bile crawled up his throat as Shay begged him to get back up and keep going. He could hear Rudiger whimpering in the dark as they continued the climb. Sounds started to fade as Varian's brain came dangerously close to prioritizing unconsciousness above everything else.
At last, they reached the top of the stairs, where the rope handle of a trapdoor dangled from a dirt ceiling. Shay traced another character over the trapdoor's surface and breathed a desperate spell. Another red circle appeared, and the door blasted open to a rainy, early-morning sky. Rudiger scampered up, flicking water droplets and bone dust from his ears. "Hold on," Shay told Varian, and she crawled up out of the crypt. "Give me your hand," she told him, and she helped him emerge into the shadow of a rocky foothill next to a rushing river. Varian assumed it was the same river as the one that ran south of the Haderon Forest. The river was flooded, water gushing in rivulets over the grassy bank. The rain almost immediately soaked them as Varian doubled over once more, sinking to the ground with his forehead pressed to the waterlogged earth. He had never experienced something so physically excruciating before. All he wanted was for it to go away, this screaming that pounded through his mind with every heartbeat. Tears mingled with the rain dripping down his pallid face.
"Varian," he heard Shay speak. "I need your help. I can't get you back by myself, I'm not strong enough. Please."
Varian couldn't speak. He could only lean backwards and nod slowly. He felt Shay take the hand of his bad arm and tuck it into the fold of his alchemist's coat to keep the muscles in his shoulder from tearing any further. "How far is it?" he managed to ask as she helped him stand once more.
Shay took a deep breath. "Closer with each step," was all she said. Varian leaned heavily on her; it was like bracing against a bird, fragile and shaking and soaking wet. He had enough wits about him to wonder how long she would be able to bear his weight like this. With his head hung low and his vision obscured by a world of rain, he started moving with Shay up the river side. It was like walking through a swamp; the ground was thick and muddy, sucking and clinging to each step like molasses. Rudiger practically swam behind them, huffing and puffing as he hopped from one of Varian's footprints to the other.
As they continued wading their way forward, they felt the downpour turn into a torrent that doused them, causing them to slip more than once. Each time, Varian blacked out, then woke up to the sound of Shay's urgent pleas. He tried to concentrate on placing one foot in front of the other. Just one more, then another. He could feel Shay struggling under him, straining to hold herself up as well as him. She was either using magic or adrenaline because she kept going, dragging him until they finally reached higher ground. The Haderon Forest rose up to meet them, its silvery trees engulfing them in a quiet, hushed calm that pressed down on their ears like cotton. Shay guided Varian over gnarled roots and jutting rocks, leading him down a path he couldn't see. He could feel a fever slowly creep into his bones like the rain that drenched his skin. It filled his head with strange half-dreams, hallucinations that only served to confuse and terrify him. With his eyes closed, he could still see the skeletons rising up out of their coffins, heard the slabs pound against the ground like the hammer in his brain. All the while, the arrow in his shoulder shuddered with each footstep, a morbid reminder that he would probably never be able to use that arm the same way again. He barely even realized that they had finally made it back to the Crimson Caster's cabin, a flickering light from the dying fireplace emanating from the slim part of the window curtain.
"House," Shay panted as they entered, "clear the table, now!"
Varian heard vials and papers clatter and sift off the table, tumbling up the stairs. The cauldron she'd been working at vanished into thin air. The sound of Shay snapping her fingers predicated the rush of the flames in the fireplace as the embers rekindled back to life. Varian didn't have the strength to argue as she urged him to sit up on the tabletop. Water dripped on the floor as she scrambled about for scissors and string. She settled them hastily on the table and ordered the pot over the fire to start boiling water before dashing up the stairs to fetch more things.
When she was out of sight, Varian reached shakily for the arrowhead. It didn't matter whether it was poisoned or not; he was certain he'd get infected regardless. He'd been thinking about how to even begin removing the shaft. The tip was barbed, which meant it was a good thing that the arrow had pierced all the way through him. If it hadn't, he would have had to ask Shay to do it herself. Since he didn't have to, he skipped ahead to the next step: removing the arrowhead from the shaft. The sight of his own blood coating the tip was gruesome enough, but touching it was even worse. The shaft was thick, almost half an inch in diameter, which made it difficult for Varian to snap. By some miracle, he did, though not without screaming through the pain.
Shay tumbled back down the stairs when she heard the noise and gasped. "What are you doing?!" she shrieked, dumping the clean linens she'd fetched on the table. Her cloak was gone, her feet bare as she hovered anxiously over his wound.
"The arrowhead has to go," Varian wheezed, trying to fight back a retch. "You can't take the shaft out if you don't get rid of it first."
"I know that, but I wasn't going to snap it off!" Shay exclaimed hysterically.
"It doesn't matter now," Varian grimaced, his hair dripping into his eyes as the bloodied arrowhead fell from his fingers, clattering onto the floor. "Just get it out of me."
Shay took a folded piece of linen and pressed it into his hand. She looked like she was holding back a panic attack as she used the scissors to cut the fabric around the injury. He couldn't even feel her tug his coat, shirt and apron away, but he heard her wince out loud once the damage was laid bare. Varian didn't bother to look; his imagination supplied enough imagery. His vision was blurry, anyway. He felt her grip the shaft at the base of the wound. It felt like a hot poker was boring through his shoulder as she carefully extracted the arrow, and another cry involuntarily burst out of him. The sound of it was absolutely sickening, and Varian felt the blood begin to run down his chest as Shay pulled out the arrow and quickly applied pressure to the back of the open wound. He used the linen in his hand to stave off the bleeding, his hand shaking like an old woman's wrist.
"I'm going to have to stitch it," he heard her say.
"I know," he answered under his breath. He was so tired.
Thunder rumbled outside the cabin, and the storm continued to rage, obscuring the morning light and blending it away. Shay did her best to clean the wound and check for splinters before beginning the arduous task of stitching it closed. Varian didn't even notice the needle weaving through his skin; each stitch was just a drop of water in the fevered ocean of throbbing misery he was drowning in. Each time he nodded off into it, Shay would bring him back, telling him he couldn't sleep just yet. Varian weakly obeyed, waiting for her to move to the front of the wound. When she did, he noticed she was crying.
"Stop that," he mumbled out loud.
Shay paused in her stitching.
"Stop with the tears," Varian explained, his words slurred. "Is that all you do, is cry?"
He heard Shay swallow, and she mashed her lips together as she continued her work. She smelled sweet, like honeysuckle. Words came out of her, hot and hard. "I almost got you killed," she said through her tears. "I should never have shown you that door. I should have just turned you away."
Varian felt Rudiger sniff at his arm, his nose warm on his skin. "But you didn't. You can't change what happened." He made as if to jut his chin at the wound, but just turning his neck caused a lance of pain to sear up his spine. "This is nothing. I've felt worse." When Shay gave him a watery, doubtful look, he sighed. "A different kind of worse. I'd rather feel this than what I have in the past."
Shay finally finished the stitching and began to dress the wound. "That's no excuse," she told him. "Stupid girl I am, I should have known better."
To his credit, Varian actually made a chuckle. It was a wet sound, and it hurt like crazy. "If we're going to make that argument," he exhaled, "then I should have known better, too. I'm the one who broke the seal on the door."
"But you didn't know what would happen," Shay countered. "How could you have known?"
"But I didn't know," Varian mused aloud. "I should have let it alone." At that moment, he wasn't sure what he was talking about anymore. "I should have let it all alone. All I do is cause trouble everywhere I go. Everything I try, everything I do…and I get shot in the back for it. I've tried blaming others, I've tried revenge. It doesn't work when the only person at fault is yourself."
"Stop it," Shay hissed.
Varian glared at her, his blue eyes glazed with fever. "But it's true," he said firmly, swallowing once. "None of this would have happened if I hadn't…" He shook his head and looked away, tugging his goggles from his hair. "I'd swear it'll never happen again, but I've learned how difficult it is to keep promises. And yet, at the same time, you're right. There is no excuse." He managed to pull the glove from his bad arm, but he couldn't even try to pull off the other. He gave another chuckle at his own helplessness. He felt like an infant, wailing in the dark with no one to hear.
Shay reached to help him and knotted a makeshift sling around his neck. As she draped a blanket around his shoulders and set his boots by the door, she said nothing. She led him wordlessly towards the stairs, and he trudged slowly after her. Something brushed past his leg; it was Killy, the hare bounding effortlessly up to the second floor. He saw Rudiger tail after, his eyes wide and curious. The steps creaked under his weight as Varian followed. With his mind clouded as it was, he didn't realize at first where the girl was leading him until she opened the door to a very small bedroom that could only be hers. More bookshelves like the ones downstairs stood against the walls, and a desk cluttered with bobbins and bolts of cloth was tucked into the corner opposite the unmade bed. Shay said nothing about the state of the room as she pointed for Varian to sit down.
"I'm not staying in your room," Varian protested emotionlessly. Even in this state, he was able to acknowledge how unseemly it would be for him to sleep in a young woman's bed, let alone a bed that wasn't his own.
Shay said nothing. Her face was expressionless, stony even. She pointed again, still without saying a word. Rudiger followed her finger and leapt up onto the mattress, stepping lightly over the cotton quilt. He looked over expectantly at Varian, his ringed tail twitching back and forth.
Well, I tried. Varian sat and watched Shay turn to one of the shelves. The melody of clinking glass jars and bottles filled the quiet air, and she came back to him with a philter in her hands. She held it out for him to take. "It's a pain killer," she finally spoke.
Varian wasn't sure whether she was telling the truth or not, but he didn't feel like arguing with her. He took it and gave it a sniff before drinking. It tasted bitter, and it numbed his stomach like ice. "Listen," he said quietly. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry we weren't able to…well." He held out the empty phial. "We'll get to the bottom of this."
Shay stared at the phial. She knelt down so that she was at eye-level with him and reached to take it. She sat there on the floor with the empty glass in her hands, chewing her lip and fiddling with the stopper. She finally looked at him, as if she was going to say something. Varian could sense a tension building, like a wire twisting tight around his chest. Whatever she wanted to tell him, it was important. But then she changed her mind, and she let out a sigh. "Get some sleep," she suggested as she stood and turned to leave.
Varian caught her hand, and she stopped dead. He wanted to ask what it was she was keeping from him, to demand what she was hiding. "Thank you," was all he said. As he said it, he knew he meant it. He'd only just met her today, but after everything that had happened, it didn't feel that way. And he was grateful.
Shay didn't say anything. She turned her head, and Varian saw her give him a look so vulnerable, so desperate and forlorn, it made his gut wrench. He'd never seen anyone look that way before, much less at him. It was like she was screaming at him on the inside, begging him for something. Why wouldn't she tell him what it was? He wasn't sure why, but it was almost familiar. Her fingers slipped out of his, falling limply back to her side. She slowly made her way to the door. "Killy will let me know if you need anything," she told the open air before closing it behind her.
Varian glanced over at the hare curled up on the stool, its long ears twitching in his direction. Rudiger stared back at the hare, but he didn't seem hostile. In fact, he let out a massive yawn and curled up at the edge of the bed, cleaning his fur. Varian gave a weak smile, glad that his friend was alright. As he leaned back with his injured shoulder facing the cabin's roof, he waited for sleep to claim him. It came more slowly than he'd hoped, his mind still swirling with feverish images and foreign words that swam in and out of his thoughts. They trailed into his dreams, tainting his subconscious with restlessness and anxiety.
Deep in his lonely sleep, he could hear a woman calling his name.