Page 50 of Dark Elves of Ardani

She took a long breath. She was glad he was unconscious for this part.

She yanked the arrow out in one movement. An alarming gush of blood followed. Tossing the arrow aside, she fumbled for the bundle of cloth and hurriedly pressed it against his skin. Far more blood than she’d expected was suddenly flowing out of him. She put her weight on it, at a loss for what to do next.

Naika abruptly crouched beside her. She put her hands over Zara’s, and Zara felt the tingle of healing magic running over her skin.

After a few minutes, Naika withdrew with a heavy exhalation. Zara cautiously moved her bundle of cloth away from the wound. It had closed fairly cleanly. The blood flow had stopped.

“Will he live?” Zara asked.

Naika nodded. The visceral relief that filled Zara was more emotion than she probably should have felt for someone she barely knew.

Zara saw Naika do something she’d never done before: she was mouthing something to her. Zara watched her lips.

Don’t tell Theron.

“I know,” Zara said.

Naika nodded and looked away. She looked nauseous.

Devana was leaning over them, hands on his knees. He’d been watching the entire process with interest. He leaned back as Zara looked up at him.

“She healed him,”he said, baffled. “A Paladin.”

“Yes,”Zara said.“We need to get him back on the behelgi. Will you help me?”

They managed to lift him and drape him over the saddle. When Zara went in front of the tall creature and took her reins to guide her, she felt momentarily intimidated by the size of her, but Changa remained calm. Maybe she’d spent enough time with Zara by now that she considered her a friend.

Guiding Changa, Zara followed Devana through the mountains to the mouth of a cave hidden behind a rock fall, much like the cave she and Nero had slept in before. It was another Varai cache, complete with a stack of firewood and a crate full of blankets and waterproof sleeping mats. Zara and Devana carried Nero inside and laid him on the floor.

“I’m starting to think he’s just pretending to sleep to force us to carry him around,”Devana commented, crouching beside them.“Shouldn’t he be awake by now?”

Zara looked at Nero again. She pushed his violet-black hair behind a slightly pointed ear to get a better look at him. There were dark circles under his eyes, and there was a line between his eyebrows that probably came from too much frowning. She was a little concerned by the fact that he didn’t move at all, even when she touched him.

Being this close to him stirred something warm and yearning in the pit of her stomach.

Naika sighed loudly. Zara glanced up in time to see her roll her eyes.

Zara cleared her throat. “Something is not right. He is sleeping too much.”

If Naika had any thoughts on that, she didn’t share them. Zara wondered if he could be sick from an infection, but she didn’t think it could have set in so quickly.

“Poison,” she said, looking up at Naika, who looked perplexed. “Tahir told me about a poisonous plant that grows in the mountains that the Varai have been using on their weapons. It can cause weakness, fatigue… sometimes worse things, as well.” Things she was afraid to say aloud. Things likepermanent blindness, paralysis, death.

Naika shrugged a little.

Verdan root and Astra’s heart leaves boiled together would make a solution that would prevent it from getting worse. Zara went to Nero’s bags and dug through them. She found a packet of powdered verdan root, but no Astra’s heart, which was fine, because she could probably find Astra’s heart in the wild if she searched.

“Can you give me a light?” Zara asked Naika, strapping her daggers onto her waist and pulling up the hood of her cloak.

Naika looked startled. She shook her head sharply, pointing to the darkness outside of the cave and then making a stabbing motion. Zara smiled a little, understanding what she meant.

“This is the sign for ‘Varai’,” she said, making a motion across her left shoulder.

Rolling her eyes again, Naika pointedly copied the motion and pointed outside.

“I will be fine.” She turned to Devana, who was watching them blankly. Zara hesitated, then decided to take a risk. Normally she would never have volunteered to spend time alone with Varai she didn’t know, but she was in an unusually optimistic mood at the moment.“Will you come with me? I need to find a plant to treat Nero’s sickness.”

Devana looked surprised, but he nodded. Naika gave them a narrow look as they approached the entrance of the cave, but conjured a small, dim ball of light that hovered around Zara’s feet as she walked. Zara paused, tempted to remind Naika of why she shouldn’t kill Nero while they were gone, but said nothing. Her momentary optimism apparently extended to Naika as well as Devana.

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