Page 56 of Tattered Huntress
At first,the cluster of voices speaking over my head were difficult to decipher.
‘I don’t understand. Where wasshe?’
‘How did she get out of the cave?’
‘What’s wrong with her? Is she going to wake up? Daisy? Daisy!’
My head was pounding but I forced open my eyes. Several people were staring down at me; I saw Becky, Otis, Hester, Boonder, Eleanor, Humphrey and Hugo. Only one Hugo.
Oh. I groaned and sat up.
‘You’re alive!’ Hester flew towards me, burrowing into the crook of my neck. ‘I thought you were dead,’ she sobbed.
‘I’m alright,’ I said faintly. It was obvious what had happened: somehow I’d allowed too much time to elapse between doses of spider’s silk. But even as I was thinking that, I realised it didn’t make sense because I’d taken a pill this morning. I should have been fine for another few hours. In fact, Ihadbeen perfectly fine until I’d left the cave. Maybe the fresh air and natural light had gone to my head and caused a tsunami of withdrawal to hit me.
Then another thought occurred to me. ‘Wait. How long was I gone for?’
It was Boonder who answered. ‘Sixty-three hours. You fell sixty-three hours ago.’
My stomach flipped. ‘It can’t have been that long.’
Next to him, Hugo growled, ‘It was.’
I couldn’t look at Hugo, not after what had happened, so I kept my focus on Boonder. A huge bruise marred his right eye. ‘What happened to your face?’
‘Nothing.’ He shook his head. ‘It doesn’t matter.’
‘But—’
‘Daisy.’ It was Eleanor. ‘What happened? Where have you been?
‘I was in the cave,’ I muttered. ‘There was a … man there. He wanted to fight me but then he helped me instead.’
Otis wrung his tiny hands. ‘You’re still hallucinating.’
‘I’m not.’ I gave him a tired smile. ‘I’m fine. Honest.’
‘Give her some water,’ Hugo said. ‘I’ll tell the search parties to stand down.’ He disappeared and a little of the tension in my chest eased.
‘Search parties?’ I asked.
‘We’ve been searching for you for the last two days,’ Becky told me. ‘But there was no sign of you. We tried to go into the hole after you but it was too deep, so we’ve been searching for other tunnels and caves to, uh, recover your body.’
That was a sobering thought. ‘I’m not dead.’
‘Clearly. How did you survive? And how did you get out?’
‘I wasn’t alone down there,’ I said faintly. I cricked my neck then got awkwardly to my feet. Several hands shot out to help me but I waved them off. ‘Honestly, I’m okay. I have some cuts and bruises and I could do with a long hot shower, but I’m really okay.’
I swallowed. I was angry with myself for not realising that I was going into withdrawal. I’d had the spider’s silk with me and it shouldn’t have happened. Being underground had messed with my head in more ways than one. ‘Where are the other teams?’ I asked.
‘The witches and Aaron Allen’s team have pulled out. After the Primes found the second key part and everyone discovered what had happened to you, they decided not to continue. Two parts of the key have been found but two teams have almost died. They didn’t want to risk their lives so they went home. The others are staying in a hotel nearby. Hugo persuaded Sir Nigel to delay the last clue for a few days until you were found.’
‘That’s … kind,’ I said, painfully aware that they’d been searching for my corpse.
Humphrey patted my shoulder. ‘We couldn’t leave you behind. You are one of us now, my dear.’
I wasn’t entirely convinced that was true but it was nice ofhim to say it. Then I paused. ‘Wait.’ I looked at Becky. ‘It was Hugo who found the second key part?’
