Page 87 of Oathborn
Tobias struggled to sit up, despite Hazelle’s best attempt at holding him down with her one arm. He cleared his throat. “Cadevesh,” he said. “You should try cadevesh.”
The old folk tales said cadevesh was beloved by the fae and deadly to humans. A rhyme played out in Zari’s memory, a sing-song tune accompanying it.
Cadevesh’s blooms are the Queen’s blessed own,
but silverbane saves a life, once grown.
Leave the fairest flowers to the fairest folk,
stay far away from its cloying smoke.
Zari looked up at the weedy plants pushing between the stone rubble in the courtyard. She spotted gorse, heather—and there!—a single cadevesh plant, its white flowers opening under the moonlight. Wasting no time, Zari hurried over and knelt, tugging off a few of the broad, flat leaves before returning.
Already, Daeden’s breathing shallowed, each exhale softer than the last. As her fingers brushed over his blood-slicked skin, the heat of the infection burned her. Laying the leaves on top of the wound, Zari closed her eyes.
“Please,” she whispered. “Let this be enough.”
The night wind whistled around her. She took a breath, waiting. Hoping.
Faintly, a bell chimed, and laughter seemed to ring out. Zari opened her eyes searching for the sounds. Nothing had changed. Hazelle still held Tobias nearby. Daeden still fought for every breath.
“It’s going to work soon,” she told him.
If it didn’t, if she failed… Hazelle would be left with no one. Tivre would lose someone he cared for. The world would be a sadder, darker place without Daeden’s easygoing joy in it.
His lips parted. He whispered something she couldn’t quite hear. Hazelle turned her head and called to him, “You’re going to be alright! Zari is with you, Dae.”
“By the Maiden,” he murmured. “By her light and her blade. I do not wish to die.”
“You won’t.” Zari squeezed his hands before applying another cadevesh leaf. “I’m here.”
A chill spread from the leaf, as if it was made of ice. Silvery light danced over her hands, spread over the leaves and the wounds. The strands grew thicker, like quicksilver, racing across Daeden’s body.
The bleeding stopped. Daeden sighed in relief.
His breathing steadied and his skin cooled to a normal temperature. He was going to survive. The knot of worry in Zari’s chest eased, replaced by the steady calm that came from years of tending the sick and injured. She had seen men slip away too quickly, and she had seen them claw their way back. Tonight, at least one life had been saved.
“Get away from him.” That cold, familiar voice sent shivers down her spine.
Javen.
Zari lunged for Tobias’s pistol. Her fingers wrapped around the handle as Javen approached, the lit cigarette in his mouth illuminating his harsh-angled face. The wind had whipped his perfectly styled dark hair into tousleddisarray, but other than that, he looked completely unharmed. Once more, he’d arrivedafterthe deadly smoke.
Could he have been the one to cause it? Zari leveled the gun at him. “What do you want?”
Smirking, he said, “Pull the trigger. I dare you.”
“Murderer!” Hazelle sprang from her knees in a whirlwind of fabric and flying golden hair. With a snarl, she hurled a rock at him. It smashed into his temple, hard enough to knock the cigarette from his lips. As blood dripped from where the rock had made impact, he remained motionless, staring at her. Hazelle was already reaching for another stone, her chest heaving, eyes blazing with rage.
“Ha-Hazelle?” A stutter crept into his tone. “What are you doing here?” Pain flickered in Javen’s blue eyes, stripping away his usual severity and leaving him looking startlingly young, no older than Zari herself.
The shift in him was enough to make Zari lower her gun. It did nothing to stop Hazelle’s rage. She drew her sword, the movement graceful as a dancer’s, and charged at Javen. “You promised to keep Dae safe. Now you train men to kill him!”
Moonlight flashed along her blade as she swung the sword, stopping just an inch from his throat.
Javen didn’t flinch. He stood utterly still, as if carved from stone. However he knew Hazelle, he had trusted she wouldn’t strike to kill, despite her anger.
“She loved you!” Hazelle’s words tumbled over each other in a storm of grief and fury. “Celene loved you and you murdered her!”
