Chapter 20 - Y
"Zael, you ass. Wake up!" I checked his pulse. "Come on, I know you're not dead."
"If you keep shaking him he might just keel over," Lowell kneeled next to me after helping Syrenne up. She had been knocked down pretty hard by that troll, but the three of us handled it pretty well.
I could have cried, but I was trying so hard not to. "Zael, god damn it," I could feel my eyes swelling.
"Look at that," Syrenne pointed to his hand. The little cross that had appeared on his skin when he first got this weird power thing started glowing blue. "Does that mean he's alive or what?"
"I'm not quite sure," Lowell shrugged. "That's still a new topic to me."
"He's alive! I know it," I checked his pulse again just to be sure.
"Yurick, he's been hurt so many times. An arrow to the chest isn't going to knock him off," Syrenne put a hand on my shoulder, but I threw it off with a violent shrug.
I grabbed his hand and held it to my forehead. One tear managed to escape and ran down one of his fingers.
"Stop that." I couldn't have looked up any quicker without breaking my neck. He coughed. I squeezed his hand after his thumb rubbed against my cheek.
"Oh thank God," I whispered with a breath of relief.
"Zael, feelin' alright there, mate?" Lowell extended a hand to him, but I wasn't sure if it was for comfort or to help him up.
After a few grunts and an attempt to sit up, he said through grinding teeth, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit loopy." He put a hand to his head. "Wasn't this this toxic?" he muttered under his breath, but I was close enough to hear it.
"Shouldn't we take it out?" I stared at the feathered stick jutting out from my Zael's shoulder.
"Probably," Lowell shrugged, "but we don't have Mirania or anything to bandage him with."
"No, he's right," Zael pulled his arm out of his sleeve and twisted it until it was a tight ball of fabric. "Syrenne, can you pull it for me?"
"I can, but I'll have to break it first. You sure you still want it out?" He nodded and she shrugged in return. I backed up to make room for her, but didn't let go of his limp hand. Zael put his twisted sleeve in his mouth and nodded again. She pushed him forward off of the wall and winced when she saw the head sticking out through his shoulder blade.
"On three," she grabbed the tip. "One, Two-." She jerked her arm and Zael let out a muffled scream. I kissed his hand.
It took him a minute to get his breathing back under control. Then he nodded again and Syrenne pulled the rest of it out by the end. He muffled another groan then spit his sleeve out.
"Okay, help me up," he took Lowell's hand and tried to stand, but could barely even pull his back off the pillar. I sighed and switched to his other side, throwing his arm over my shoulder, and pulled him off of the ground, but he wouldn't lean on me.
What was he thinking? Trying to stand after being shot by a poison arrow. What a dimwit. I wanted to help support him, but he wouldn't let me. I swear…
"Well, if you think you can make it, then alright. Let's go," Lowell started looking around for a good path.
"You can't be serious?!" There was no way I'd let Zael keep hurting himself. He may act tough, but I know him all too well.
Zael shook his head. "I'm fine. Let's just get moving," he seemed light headed. I could imagine. He left a lot of blood on the floor.
After a few forced looks and some major disagreement on my side, we headed over to the gate that all of the Reptid reinforcements had come through.
"What ya think's on the other side?" Syrenne tried to look through the gate, but it wasn't a very good view.
I responded bluntly, "Reptids. They're everywhere."
Lowell opened the gate and he and Syrenne rushed through and started taking out some of those scaly bastards. Again, I tried to help out with Zael, but he's just too stubborn.
"Okay, fine, but if you collapse-," I started.
"Don't worry. Just go help them. I'm going to try to be more of a distant help for a minute," he pulled out his crossbow and propped it up on one of the broken columns.
I nodded and ran to the others. I have never known a sharp shooter better than Zael, so I trusted him up there. There was an explosion a few walls away from where Lowell was.
"OI! Watch where you're shootin' at!"
"Wasn't me!" Zael yelled back. "Watch out for mines!"
"Mines?! Are you serious?" he knocked out all of his close enemies than stood closer to me to do a few castings. Together we knocked out the rest of them and a few of the mines that were blocking our next path.
"All good. You can come down now, love," Syrenne called to him. Zael nodded and worked his way over to us. "What's this?" he picked up something on the floor. "Bone pieces?"
There were two more Reptids blocking the door at the end of the path. Syrenne took them out swiftly and with ease.
"That statue, is it some kind of God?" Zael looked at the strange Raptor like statue in the middle of the giant room.
"Maybe the Reptids worship it," I suggested.
"Well, it is big," Lowell chimed in.
Zael ran his hand along the face of the Raptor. "Look here," he put whatever it was that he found on the floor next to the mouth. "They're fangs."
"Perfect fit," Syrenne said as the statue slowly moved itself out of the way.
"Well would you look at that. Stairs...," I said like it wasn't already pretty obvious.
"Down we go," Lowell smiled and started down them.
Syrenne followed close behind him and I followed Zael.
"Woah! Look at all this… Treasure!" Syrenne was like a pirate sometimes.
I looked around and saw some of the markings on the walls and columns. "Are these Gurak markings?" I was like a scholar that had just come across an important find. "I've never seen any like this before!" I ran my hand along the walls. "It's like a museum!"
"Oh, shit, another one," Syrenne pointed to a giant Reptid on the other side of yet another gate. "Bet you could shoot 'em with your crossbow through here, Zael."
Sure enough, my love had the precision of a hawk, even with one arm, and it only took a few shots to take the thing down. Lowell and I had to lift the gate high enough for Zael and Syrenne to get through, then quickly not drop it on ourselves.
Syrenne stuffed her pockets as we walked around. I guess gold is all that really matters to people now days. I laughed.
Lowell opened yet another door and we journeyed farther into the catacombs. The next room was almost like a ball room. The flooring was an old gorgeous tile that would have looked better if it had been taken care of instead of left to crack and rot. The columns were huge and there were two statues on the far side of the room that almost resembled dragons.
"Just look at this place. Could you imagine what it looked like before it was torn up and run down?" I was gawking at everything.
"Watch out, we've got ourselves an up and coming archeologist over here," Syrenne teased.
Truth be told, I love history and old buildings so I had thought about it, but after my father went missing, I had pretty much given up on everything that I wanted and become a mercenary. This was the last thing on my list of future occupations.
"It's incredible that these columns are even still intact. All of the other's that we've seen are completely destroyed."
"Remember, we're just passing through, unless you want us to leave you here," Lowell found yet another set of stairs, only going up this time.
I followed the group to the base of what looked like endless spiral stairs.
"I have a bad feeling 'bout this one. I'm shedding pounds just looking at 'em," Syrenne sighed.
"Oh come on, there just stairs," he stepped forward. "One, two, three, four," he started.
After what seemed like half an hour, we were still climbing stairs. It was exhausting. "Just stairs, eh? Bet you lost count, didn't you?" I sighed. "I didn't… 3595, 3596, 3597…"
"Yeah, I'm not movin'. I think I'll just live here," Lowell sat down.
"You always have the best ideas," Syrenne joined him.
Zael looked terrible. He was so pale and he was hanging onto the walls with every few steps. He sat down and mumbled something. I joined him.
"What?"
"I said, I can't - keep going like this," he was breathing pretty heavily. "How much farther to these things go up?"
Lowell stood up, "Yurick, if you can see how many of these bloody things are left, I can carry him up," he paused, "unless we're only half way there. I don't think I can take another 3 thousand some steps."
I nodded and ran up a little bit. They followed slowly, the nearly unconscious Zael on Lowell's back.
It wasn't more than another 746 steps when we finally reached the top and came out somewhere in town. It was still midday and the sun was too warm and bright for my tastes. Ironically, I'm a fire mage that loves the cold.
We got back to the tavern and scared Mirania half to death when we showed up with Zael completely blacked out and more pale than a ghost. We laid him on his bed and let our healer do her magic. It didn't take long to heal his physical injuries, but the poison was already coursing through whatever blood he had left.
"Could he really not take a simple arrow to the chest? I thought I taught him better than that," Dagran half smiled as he slouched onto a stool.
I couldn't stand it. I ended up shouting, "It was your crappy teachings that got him into this mess in the first place! If you weren't showing him that it's okay to be impulsive and rash then he wouldn't have gone rushing in and gotten caught in a trap. Not to mention, he thought he was being 'strong' by refusing to let me help by at least wrapping it, so he has been losing blood this whole time in decent amounts." I didn't breathe until the end, but my glare held.
"That's true," Mirania said softly. "That's why it will take a little longer for him to heal, because he's lacking the blood he needs in order to heal at a regular pace."
"He'll be fine. That one's pretty resilient," Lowell sat next to Syrenne at the table under the stairs. "My wager, he'll be up and about tomorrow."
I glared at Dagran. "For your sake, I hope so," I turned stiffly and started up the stairs.
"When did this become my fault?" I heard him say.
"'Ere, just have a drink," Syrenne was pretending that she wasn't worried, but I know she thought of Zael as if he were her little brother. Same with Mirania. She was the mothering best friend of the group and more like a sister to me than anyone ever could be.
I peeked into the room, hoping he was awake, but no such luck. He still looked dead. I silently closed the door behind me, sat on the edge of my bed, and looked him over. Just the fact that he was breathing was enough to make me relieved. I put my hand on his head to see if he had warmed up any. He was colder than I was.
"You're a fool, you know. If you had just let me help… maybe it wouldn't be this bad," I caressed his cheek. Maybe I can help him now, if I concentrate… I cast a small spell in my head to send heat to my hands then tried to warm his face and neck. I had to keep my focus or I'd lose the control and probably burn him. He looked gorgeous, for a dead guy. "When you wake up, you'd better pay me back for this," I couldn't resist. I leaned down and kissed his ice cold lips. This was going to take a while…
I looked around and pulled the chair from the corner of the room over to me. I sat down and slid my hand under the blanket and up his shirt to warm his torso, keeping my other hand on his forehead. I sighed and closed my eyes for a few minutes.