Fire Study. Maria Snyder V.

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СКАЧАТЬ event, it took time for all the bats to leave.

      The muscles in my legs burned when I finally straightened. The flapping and fluttering sounds echoed from the tunnels then faded. I looked at my companions. No one appeared to be hurt, although a few of us were splattered with dung.

      Marrok had dropped his torch, and his arms covered his head. He puffed with alarm.

      “Captain Marrok,” I said, hoping to calm him. “Give me your torch.”

      My order pierced his panic. He picked up the unlit stick. “Why?”

      “Because the bats have shown me the way out.” I cringed as my hand closed on the muck-covered handle. “Leif, can you relight this?”

      Leif nodded. Flames grew. When the torch burned on its own, he asked, “How far to the jungle?”

      “Not far.” I led the group, setting a quick pace. No one complained. All were as eager as I to exit the cave.

      The sound of rushing water and a glorious freshness to the air were the only signs we had reached our destination. The day had turned into night while we had traveled through the cave.

      From the bats, I knew water flowed along the floor of the exit and dropped down about twenty feet to the jungle. The waterfall splashed onto a tumble of rocks.

      The others followed me to the edge of the stream. We doused the torches and waited for our eyes to adjust to the weak moonlight. I scanned the jungle below with my magic, searching for signs of an ambush and for tree leopards. Necklace snakes were also a danger to us, but the only life I touched were small creatures scurrying through the underbrush.

      “Prepare to get wet,” I said before wading into the cold knee-deep water.

      My boots filled immediately as I sloshed to the edge. There were plenty of rocks below to climb on, but they were either under the water or wet. I eased off my backpack and threw it down, aiming for a dry spot on the rocky bank.

      “Be careful,” I instructed.

      I turned around and crouched, leaning into the force of the water. Keeping my face above the stream, I stuck my feet over the edge and felt for a foothold. By the time I reached the bottom, my clothes were soaked. At least the water had washed away the foul-smelling dung.

      Once everyone climbed down, we stood dripping and shivering on the bank.

      “Now what?” Leif asked.

      “It’s too dark to see trail signs,” Marrok said. “Unless we make more torches.”

      I looked at our ragtag group. I had a dry change of clothes in my backpack, but Tauno and Moon Man had nothing with them. The bank was big enough for a fire. “We need to dry off and get some rest.”

      “You need to die,” a loud voice said from the jungle.

      6

      ARROWS RAINED DOWN. Tauno cried out as one pierced his shoulder.

      “Find cover,” Marrok ordered. An arrow jutted from his thigh.

      We scrambled for the underbrush. Moon Man dragged Tauno with him. Marrok fell. An arrow whizzed by my ear and thudded into a tree trunk. Another slammed into my backpack before I dived under a bush.

      I scanned the treetops with my magic, but couldn’t sense anyone.

      “Null shield,” Moon Man shouted. “No magic.”

      Marrok lay in the open, unmoving. Arrows continued to fly, but they missed him. He stared at the sky.

      “Curare!” I yelled. “The arrows are laced with Curare.”

      The ambushers wanted to paralyze us, not kill us. At least not yet. The memory of being completely helpless from the drug washed over me. Alea Daviian had wanted revenge for her brother’s death, so she had pricked me with Curare and carted me to the plateau to torture and kill me.

      Leif yelped nearby. An arrow had nicked his cheek. “Theobroma?” he asked before his face froze.

      Of course! My father’s Theobroma, which had saved me from Alea. I ripped open my pack, searching for the antidote to Curare. The rain of arrows slowed, and a rustling noise from above meant our attackers were climbing down. Probably to take better aim. I found the brown lumps of Theobroma and put one into my mouth, immediately chewing and swallowing it.

      Moon Man cursed and I broke cover to run to him. An arrow hit my back. The force slammed me to the ground. Pain rippled through my body.

      “Yelena!” Moon Man grabbed my outstretched arm and pulled me to him.

      “Here.” I panted as the Curare numbed the throb in my lower back. “Eat this.”

      He ate the Theobroma lump without a moment’s hesitation. An arrow’s shaft had pinned his tunic to a tree.

      I lost feeling in my legs. “Are you hit?”

      He ripped his shirt free and examined the skin along his right side. “No.”

      “Pretend to be,” I whispered. “Wait for my signal.”

      Sudden understanding flashed in his deep brown eyes. He broke the shaft off the arrow that had missed him, and swiped blood from my back. Lying down, he held the shaft between two bloody fingers of his left hand which he placed on his stomach, making it look like the arrow had pierced his gut. His right hand gripped his scimitar.

      Men called as they reached the jungle floor. Before they could discover me, I put my right hand into my pant’s pocket, palming the handle of my switchblade. Numbness spread throughout my torso, but the Theobroma countered the Curare’s effects to a point where limited movement remained. Even so, I lay still, pretending to be paralyzed.

      “I found one,” a man said.

      “Over here’s another.”

      “I found two,” a rough voice right above me said.

      “That’s the rest of them. Make sure they’re incapacitated before you drag them out. Dump them beside their companion in the clearing,” said a fourth voice.

      The rough-voiced man kicked me in the ribs. Pain ringed my chest and stomach. I clamped my teeth together to suppress a grunt. When he grabbed my ankles and hauled me through the bushes and over the uneven stones of the bank, I was a bit glad for the Curare in my body. It dulled the burning sting as the left side of my face and ear were rubbed raw by the ground.

      The Curare also dulled my emotions. I knew I should be terrified, yet felt only mild concern. Curare’s ability to paralyze my magic remained the most frightening aspect of the drug. Even though the Theobroma counteracted it, Theobroma had its own side effect. The antidote opened a person’s mind to magical influence. While I could use magic, now I had no defense against another’s magic.

      Marrok still lay where he had fallen. The loud scrape of Moon Man’s weapon on the ground reached me before he was dropped beside me.

      “His fingers are frozen around the handle,” СКАЧАТЬ