Page 100 of Quest for her Knights
“We think it might be a curse,” I say, wanting to gauge their reactions. I see Gerald’s hand tighten on the spoon he’s holding.
“Magic isn’t allowed here,” he says formally, without looking at me.
“And yet, it’s the only thing that can explain her illness.”
“She probably ate something bad before you arrived,” Rusty adds, his back still to me.
I know they’re hiding something, but I don’t think I can push them for answers. But their reaction solidifies the idea in my mind. I just need to find what’s cursed.
I run back up the room and find Elora vomiting into a bowl with Draven supporting her.
“Shit,” I grumble.
“Yeah, she’s getting worse, she’s vomiting up blood,” Blaze says looking broken.
“We need to get her out of here,” I tell them. “I think it’s a curse.”
“We tried to move her, that’s what caused the vomiting. The second she sits up now she can’t stop vomiting,” Ranger says in frustration.
“Well we’ll carry her then.”
He shakes his head, “I tried that. Whatever this is, it won’t let us move her. She’ll choke on her own vomit before we make it outside.”
“We have to find what’s causing this.”
“It could be anything,” Blaze says as he gazes around the room.
“Blaze you know the most about curses, let’s think this through. It’s something that started affecting her as soon as she got inside and it’s only affecting her specifically. We know it’s nothing on her because we’ve cleaned her from head to toe.”
“So it must be something in the castle,” Ranger adds.
Blaze’s eyes go wide. “I remember something, the gloomstone. It’s a cursed object that when combined with some specific herbs and attached to the entrance of a home, will harm any woman who enters.”
“She came through the front door!” I say in hope as I spin on my heel and sprint towards the entrance. Blaze and Ranger follow me and we stop short right inside the doors, gazing around, but there isn’t much here.
I step forward and yank them open, stepping outside and turning to see what’s on the outside.
“I don’t see anything,” Blaze says, his chin lifted as he gazes above the doors.
There are several plants on either side of the door and I bend over to push them aside. That’s when I see it. A small stone and bundle of herbs that’s been wrapped with twine.
“I found it!” I exclaim as I bend down and pick it up. “What do we do with it?”
“Give it to me,” Ranger says, and I place it in his hand. He takes it and runs out into the middle of the courtyard, where he pulls out a dagger and cuts the twine, letting the herbs drop to the ground.
“Blaze, burn those. I’ll get rid of the stone.”
I jog after him, through the front gate and into the forest. I don’t question where he’s going. After fifteen minutes, he finally stops, dropping to his knees and sinking his hand into the dirt.
Realizing he’s making a hole, I drop down beside him to help. When it’s a couple of feet deep, he pulls the cursed stone from his pocket and drops it inside. We push the dirt back over it and smooth out the surface.
I grab some fallen leaves and twigs to scatter over the area so it blends in with the surrounding ground in hope that nobody will ever find it.
When we finish, we stand and stare down at where we buried it, breathing heavily.
“Do you think that will stop the curse?” I ask.
“I hope so. If it needs to be tied to the entrance of a home, it shouldn’t be able to harm anyone out here.”
