The Crescent Hour ✓

Chapter 38. Lies and Truths

Clara stripped a piece of cloth off her sleeve. She pressed it on Tamer’s back, where the arrow was still stuck. Pulling out the arrow would be dangerous so she’d left it there, wishing she could summon Eryx and have him heal Tamer.

They were hunched behind a stack of wooden crates. Tamer sat with his hands curled into fists. She watched the pulse on his throat, a tell-tale sign he was still alive. There were bruises on his left cheek and dark circles under his eyes.

“I’m taking you to Helima’s place,” she said.

“No, I can still fight,” he insisted.

She would have laughed if the situation wasn’t so dire. He was bleeding terribly and if she didn’t do something, he wouldn’t make it out of Ashura Deadlands alive. She’d never forgive herself if that happened.

A group of the attackers dashed out of a building and headed in their direction, weapons raised. Clara took out a vial from the pouch by her hip and threw it at the men’s feet. Plumes of blue smoke rose up the air. She heard the thumping of bodies collapsing on the ground before a collective snore took over. They’d been knocked out cold.

She helped Tamer stand. They ran through the complex alleys, trying to lose the tail. Heart stuttering, lungs aching, Clara prayed they’d make it out unnoticed. Tamer became weaker and they had to slow down their pace. She was afraid he’d collapse so she kept him talking, asking stupid questions and growing anxious when he took too long to respond.

The slums broke way to reveal the road where they’d first started. Every step they took, Clara thought of the red cottage with its white gutters, the yellow flowers dotting the garden, the brick chimney puffing out grey smoke. She could see it so clearly in her mind, a goal to reach. When Tamer arrived, Helima would be standing on the porch, knives between her fingers and she would drop them and rush to his aid and he would be well again.

She wouldn’t be there with him. Once they crossed the barrier, she’d tie him to a ragar and send him off to Helima, Then she would go back and find Rai and Eryx. She’d never abandon them. It would be selfish. They too were her friends. Somewhere in the back of her mind, it all seemed an impossible task but they’d reached this far, so close to the invisible barrier.

“How are you feeling?” she said, wheezing out a breath.  

 “Need rest.” Tamer stumbled, head bowed.

She helped him rest against a tree, hidden behind lamp-shaped mushrooms. He closed his eyes and sat still. The only indication of movement was the rise and fall of his chest. Clara paced back and forth, her fingers going over the vials left in her bag in an effort to soothe her nerves. Tamer was getting worse by the second. He needed urgent help and she was no longer sure of her plans. Without her magic, she only had the potions and none had healing properties.  

“Leave me,” Tamer said in a quiet voice.

Clara knelt beside him and squeezed his hand. He was so cold. “No, Tamer. I lost my home. I can’t lose you too.”

“You know…”

She’d known from the moment he’d had the vision. It had been obvious, hadn’t it? He only had visions when a seal was destroyed. She’d buried herself in some fog of detachment, refusing to think about it—the fact that she was stuck in Findora without so much as a choice, the hopelessness of it. Now isn’t the time, she’d told herself.

Tamer opened his eyes and only then did she realize she’d spoken her thoughts out loud. She stood up, wound an arm round his waist and helped him up. “Get up. I won’t let you pass out here alone and miserable.”

His mouth pulled into a shaky smile. “I’m not alone.”

They made it to the edge of the dome. When Clara finished drawing the symbols, she waved her hand, expecting the feel of a viscous substance brushing her fingers but the barrier was as solid as a rock. She banged her fist. Nothing happened. She redrew the symbols. Pushed against the barrier again. She was on her third try when she heard the yells and the stampede of feet. At any moment now, the attackers would find them.

“It won’t let us out,” she choked.

Tamer didn’t respond. She felt him stagger and held him tighter, carrying most of his weight. Panic coiled a tight knot in her stomach. She searched around, eyes roving over the broken cart with missing wheels, the shack without a roof, the purple mushroom churning out spores. There was nowhere to hide. She heard a set of footsteps. Someone was approaching them. Taking out a Stinger potion, she held it at the ready.

That someone was a Shima but he wasn’t an enemy. It was such a relief, seeing him. One more person on their side. He must have noticed the dome barrier and decided to investigate.

 “Azmand!” Clara cried out. The man looked the same as she remembered him. Shaggy blond hair and blue eyes.

 She hurried towards him, hoping he had medical supplies or healing magic. “I beg you! Help him.”

He would help Tamer. He had to. Clara clung to that hope, holding it so close to her heart, it almost felt tangible.  

Azmand stepped forward, grabbing Tamer’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, Tamizan,” he said.

She thought he meant to say it out of sympathy at the sight of his friend, bleeding to death in a place so far from kindness and safety but when he took a step back, eyes staring straight ahead, her heart slammed to her throat.  There was a dagger in Azmand’s hand and the sharp curve of its blade gleamed with blood.

He’d stabbed Tamer in the stomach.

Tamer took a shuddering breath, face twisted with pain as he looked at Azmand and a heartbeat later, he fell. Clara threw herself to her knees and lifted his head to her lap. He looked at her then, a sheen of sweat on his pale face.

Ancient symbols burned on his skin, brilliant flame tattoos that rippled as though they were living points of light. Clara knew those letters—the curled edges, the crooked lines—she’d seen them in her vision, etched on a mound of white sand far below a stretch of black, black sky.

“No, please,” she said, voice strangled. “Please don’t leave me.”

Even as she cupped Tamer’s face, called his name and begged him to stay, the flame tattoos faded and so did the sparkle in his eyes.  

The crushing weight of the truth, the grief and sorrow swelling within her, compressed into a wretched thing so fierce and heavy, it poured out of her throat as a terrible wail that echoed for miles and miles away.

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*hides in a corner* Wait, wait, don't hunt me down yet for what I did to Tamer! You want know what happens to the rest of the story, right? D:

PS: Thanks so much for your support on the previous chapter. I'm so happy to know you're still around, patiently waiting for the updates. Where would I be without you? T_T

PS2: This is unedited. It's 2:00am here so yeah, expect weird sentences and typos.