The Spark

Chapter 5.1: The Run

I instinctively pulled away when I felt her prodding me, but the retreat was halted by a sharp stab of pain in my forearm.

"No, no, don't move. You're hurt!" she commanded, in a brief flash of white teeth and shadow. "Curse me, I told you to crouch, didn't I?"

"You were going too fast! I couldn't... ow!" I jerked back, feeling her burning hands on my arm.

"Stop that, you're bleeding!"

Sounds of tearing and shuffling danced around me and Luna's fingers were on my flesh again. This time, I merely gritted my teeth, and let her work. More pain followed as she fastened something around my forearm, and then looped it around my neck. My mouth went dry. Everything smelled like rotten leaves and metal.

"Come on, you have to get up, we need to..." her words died on her lips when I crumpled into her arms. Another wave of pain shot through me like a bullet, but this one, coming from bellow. My left leg gave a shudder before collapsing right under me, the weight too much to bear. White tufts swam before my eyes, as Luna uttered something which sounded like a curse word in that strange foreign language.

"Fuck me!" she roared finally in English, letting me slide to the ground. "You've twisted your ankle."

Fire seared my eyes, and instead of words, sobs burst from my lips.

"No, no, you have to carry me then, you..."

"I can't carry you, it would slow us down."

I gulped a mouthful of air, feeling as if I was choking. "No, no, no, please, we can't, what are we going to do?! What are we going to do?!"

"Quiet Kahlan, they'll hear you!" Luna's hiss made me sob harder.

"They're going to kill us, they're going to..."

"They're not going to kill us! Just shut up and let me think for once in your..."

Her words died on her lips as a faint burst of light shone through the gaps in the thick trunks. I had just a fraction of a second to gauge the slope we slid down before the light vanished and we were left in darkness once again.

Luna began muttering-this time, she couldn't keep the panic from her voice.

"What was that?!" I demanded as she threw herself onto the ground to rummage through the backpack. "Luna what was that?!"

"Kahlan, shut up and listen to me. They're coming. They've broken the shield and they're coming for us."

My ears rang. The throbbing in my arm and leg vanished.

"What did you say?!"

"Shut up and listen for fuck sake!" her rasp was accompanied by a dull thud and the swishing of liquid. "I'll try and hold them off for as long as I can, but if I don't..."

"No, no, no, don't..."

"Shut up! But if I don't, I need you to finish this." My right hand screamed in protest when she snatched it. A chill raced up my spine when she brought it down into what felt like a bowl, liquid sloshing inside it. The instant my fingers came away from it, a foul stench of open drainpipes bloomed on the wind.

"What, I don't understand, finish what?!"

"The spell, the summoning spell. Listen, I don't have time to explain it to you right now, you just have to finish it!"

Every fiber of my being shuddered in protest at the word 'spell', and I was half tempted to laugh in her face. But then, the distant whisper of bushes made the voice in my throat evaporate in a sickly cloud of fear.