Daylight was filtering in through the mouth of the cave. As tired as she was, Lacey didn’t sleep. Now that his fever had broken Devan was in danger of catching a chill; she curled up next to him again, letting him hog their makeshift blanket. For a long time she just listened to his heartbeat gradually slowing to a normal pace.
He was quiet, and wasn’t objecting to her warmth against him, so she thought he was asleep, until he whispered, “Why did you attack us?”
Devan’s question bounced off the rocks around them, sounding louder than normal in her ears.
“I was just there. I had no idea.” She choked out the words, but they were hollow. How could she have trusted Goeden? These Wished were not like the people who had raised her. Not like any colonist on Eridan. They were violent, evil people straight out of one of the Envoys stories about the Old Earthers who did not follow the Path.
“What happened to the others?” Devan asked.
“I don’t know.” She couldn’t say out loud that she thought they might all be dead. She wanted more than ever to cry right now. Her friends deserved that much. But her well-cursed eyes refused to co-operate.
Devan tried to shift his position, but as soon as he moved his leg he gasped in pain.
“I should look at it.” She sat up and peeled back the filthy bandage on his thigh. He stiffened but didn’t make a sound.
The bleeding had stopped.
“I didn’t do anything except bind it last night. It needs to be cleaned.” She poured some fresh water on the cloth she had used to cool his forehead and scrubbed it together a bit. It was as clean as she could make it. Dirt and pine needles had dug into the wound; she dabbed gently. He writhed and clenched his fists as she brushed away the surface debris. She still needed get out the deep dirt.
“This is going to get painful,” she said. She set the cloth aside and started to undo his leather belt.
“Hey,” he said through gasps.
“Quiet,” she said. She pulled his belt out of its loops in one swift motion. “You have to stay quiet. They may still be looking for us.” She folded the belt over and offered it to him to bite down on.
He took the leather between his teeth and braced himself. To his credit, he made no sound as she dug the cloth deep into the flesh of his leg. Blood trickled and started to flow, but she kept scraping at the dead tissue and bits that didn’t belong. It wouldn’t heal right if it wasn’t clean. Once she was satisfied, she tore a fresh strip of cloth, cleansed it as best she could and knotted it around his thigh. By then he was unconscious.
Lacey looked down at her hands. They didn’t hurt. Strange, she thought, flexing her fingers tentatively. She crawled toward the entrance where the light was better.
Her hands were healed—not even a trace of a scar or ghost of a bruise.
Magic--like the magic of the wishing well. Lacey cast a suspicious glance at the dark entrance of the tunnel to the spring. Maybe the waters were from the same source? But she hadn’t wished for her hands to be healed, she hadn’t even thought about it.
Lacey crawled back to Devan and peeked under the bandage, it looked far less angry, but it was still raw. She didn’t know enough about healing to tell if it was more healed than normal. Maybe it took time, or more water.
Devan woke up as she tucked the bandage back in place.
“How does it feel?” Lacey asked.
“Feels better, you would make a good healer.”
“I don’t want to be a healer, I was going to be a hunter until you took my place!” She didn’t realized what she was saying until the words were already out.
He met her eyes, his expression unreadable.
Lacey cursed her temper. She needed to make amends, not accusations.
“I never wanted to be a hunter,” he said. “Nobody ever asks me what I want. I just pack up my things and go where they send me.”
Lacey felt a glimmer of hope. “Maybe if we both tell them what we want, if we do it together, they might listen for once.”
“You’re coming back?” Devan raised his eyebrows. “I thought maybe you had found your own kind or something…”
“I didn’t mean to…it’s my fault for trusting Goeden…but I never meant for any of that…”
“So you didn’t ambush us to get back at me?”
Lacey shook her head. “No. Never. Could you tell everyone I helped you? Maybe they would forgive me?”
“We were here to rescue you. People got hurt. You stabbed me.” His eyes were like daggers.
“I was just trying to get home.” She sank back onto her heels. It was useless. He wasn’t her friend; he wouldn’t help her. She could never go home.
“There was a big argument about us going into the Wish Wood.” He let out a snort. “Envoy Yasmina, expressly, advised against it. She told Riley, ‘the Path does not lead into the Wish Wood, nor does it lead out of it.’ I guess she was right. But your mother threatened to make nothing but dry biscuits for the rest of eternity. They all thought you were just lost. I knew you came here to wish at the well; to get your revenge on me.”
“I told you I don’t know where the well is!”
“That isn’t true! I don’t remember a lot about yesterday, but I remember you telling me not to go to the well. Why do you have to keep it for yourself!” His eyebrows bunched up like thunderclouds.
“You don’t understand.”
“I do understand. You have a mother and I don’t. Maybe you didn’t try to kill me or maybe you did, but now I’m stuck in a cave with you, after you practically cut off my leg. And you still won’t let me go to the well. You hate me.”
“You hated me first!”
She got up and ran from the cave. He was just stupid. He would never understand, never help her.
Maybe if she could get back to the village and tell them her side, then she could bring people back to rescue Devan and be the hero. Nobody would blame her after that.
She examined the ground with every ounce of tracking skill she had. But it didn’t take hardly any skill at all. Her footprints from yesterday ran in a straight line back to the road. She followed them swiftly and tried not to think of what she would find when she arrived. If she hurried, she could make it to the village and return with help before dark.
The trail she followed was also painted with Devan’s blood, a beacon for predators, and she started to feel uneasy. There was nothing but stark gray tree trunks all around. The forest was silent. No sign that Goeden or his cats were out there. She slowed her pace anyway.
A branch snapped ahead of her and she froze. Blayd stepped out from behind a tree, jaws gaping. He cast his gaze downward, which did not make him seem less threatening, if that’s what he was trying to do. Then his tongue lolled out to the side and she saw the puppy again. She put her hand to her chest and leaned against one of the trees, panting.
She wanted to lump him in with the cat hunters, and hate him for what happened. She wanted to lump him on the head for scaring her. She wanted to hug him.
“Blayd, you almost gave me a heart attack.” She kept her back flat against the tree, waiting to see what he would do next.
He nodded and came toward her. He looked her up and down. He prodded at a few of the places where Devan’s blood had gotten on her clothes and sniffed. The knot in his shoulders smoothed when he found no sign she was injured. He took a step in the direction she had left Devan.
“No!” She jumped in front of him. “Nothing back there you need to worry about.” She was a terrible liar.
Blayd cocked his head to the side.
She wasn’t sure what he would do if he found Devan. She was like him. Devan wasn’t. Her plan to go back to Pine Ridge was blown. If she left for the road now, Blayd might continue on and find Devan. And what if others were searching for her—maybe Goeden or one of his cats. She needed to keep Blayd with her, and show her face at the Wished camp. Then she would figure out what to do about Devan.
“Let’s go back to the camp.” She beckoned Blayd in the opposite direction of the cave. She pleaded with her eyes for him to not to go back there.
Blayd looked uncertain, his expression was grave and concerned. It was hard to figure out what he was thinking. But after a moment he nodded, and corrected her path, guiding her in the true direction of the camp.
She resisted the urge to look over her shoulder. It seemed that the only way to save Devan right now was to abandon him. And maybe all hope of proving her good intentions.