Part 22 (1/2)

”What is it supposed to achieve?” asked Cedrik, but he found out ere Deacon could reach them. Derek tossed a handful of the powder into the fire and with an explosive burst, dragons of fire writhed out from the flame, hot and eel-like, blazing up into the night sky, like fireworks gone wrong, las.h.i.+ng Derek with a nasty lick of flame. With a shriek he stumbled backwards and fell. Closer to Magenta, Cedrik huddled round her and covered her with himself, so she was s.h.i.+elded like a nut within its sh.e.l.l. The fire quickly became subdued, the fiery dragons dying out in the blackness of the sky.

Cedrik uncurled reluctantly from Magenta, looking upward. Derek returned to his seat, nursing a burnt hand. The others gathered round him to find what damage had been inflicted. Deacon held off for a few moments before he did anything, just to let him suffer a little. Presently, he knelt to one knee before Derek and placed his hand over the injured one. His touch felt like ice, and for a moment the ache of cold was worse than the burn, but it soon subsided and left the skin cool and numb.

”What did you expect it to do?” asked Cedrik crossly, looking down at his brother while Deacon attended him.

”It was supposed to reveal future happenings,” Derek said in an injured tone.

Deacon looked up at him from under eyelids heavy with satire and bound the injured hand with brutal roughness. ”Perhaps in the future you will learn to use that dormant organ hidden in your head,” he said, reproachful.

Derek drew a sharp breath between his teeth. ”Easy, easy,” he said, frowning and cursing under his breath.

Cedrik watched, stoney-faced. ”Pride of the Imperial legion,” he muttered.

”Where did you get it, in any case?” asked Deacon, rising to his feet, task completed.

”Won it,” answered Derek.

”Won it where?”

”In that underground place. Some fellow lost a bet, he couldn't pay me, so he gave me this powder and said if I throw it in the fire my future would be revealed.”

Deacon raised his brows. About his mouth were subtle lines of derisive amus.e.m.e.nt.

”And how is it looking for you?” asked Cedrik, taking a place by the fire alongside Deacon, who had gravitated to his book, rendering himself deathly dull. Derek muttered a curse and sat quiet. Magenta came to his side, and he was content to turn to her for sympathy after the rough handling he had received from his more coa.r.s.e companions.

”I'm suffering a little here,” he said to her, then reached into a bag. ”Fortunately Cade left us a parting gift.” He tapped the bottle. He downed several mugs in quick succession, and it proved a potent restorative, under the influence of which Derek was happy to be the centre of attention. Cedrik threw him a few cautionary glances as if to warn him to tone it down, but Derek shrugged them off.

”He prefers the society of old ladies. He would rather be knitting,” said Derek in a loud whisper. ”And this one!” Deacon raised his eyes at the rude address with a none-too-friendly expression. ”Always with his nose in those books. I don't even think he can read.”

Derek noticed that Magenta's spirits had paled and, in an attempt to recapture the previous lightheartedness, poured her a drink and offered it in a manner she was unable to refuse. ”Drink!” he ordered when she did not place it to her lips even. ”No one shall be gloomy in my presence!” He wiped his chin on the sleeve of his s.h.i.+rt. He talked all the time with unflagging zest. ”Drink!” he said.

”Are you always this cheerful after an injury, Derek?” she asked.

”Always!”

Cedrik said, ”And I suppose the ale in your belly can account for none of this merriment?”

”That's why I always drink after an injury,” he said. Then he complained to Magenta. ”You're not drinking!”

On impulse he stood, and taking her suddenly by the hand, dragged her to her feet. He led her away from the camp so they might see the stars more clearly. The sky was a garden of diamonds. Most of what Derek said didn't make any sense, showing her the different constellations and sprouting ridiculous theories.

”You are fortunate to have such a love of the stars,” she said.

The young man's voice grew tender as he leaned nearer. ”I am.” She had a momentary sense of unease at his nearness, when he suddenly burst out in a tone full of his former merriment. ”I say, take life as it is, full of beauty, full of adventure! Why shouldn't we enjoy it? Why should we take it any other way! Too much is wasted on reserve and fear and resentment and whatever else keeps us from what we want!”

When he finally paused to steal a breath he looked at Magenta. She was lovely in the soft light. She was a strange, wonderful creature to him, so separate and beyond him. The clouds drifted free and unveiled the moon's pale beauty. He looked up. ”Ah, look how beautiful it is; look!” He lowered his eyes to make certain she was looking. She was. Her face tilted upward, exquisitely showed the delicate line of her jaw down to the pale exposure of her throat. ”Isn't that beautiful?” he said with enthusiasm.

”It is.” Her eyes came down to look at him; he was still gazing upward in wonder, his head tilted so far back it looked as if he might lose his balance. To herself she smiled, yet with heartache. Derek was sweet company, but in spirit she was quite alone. She s.h.i.+fted her gaze over to Deacon. He had moved away from the fire and was sitting among the trees. She could not see his features among the shadows but saw the vague form of him. She looked toward him with dull longing.

”I think you will find the romance one-sided,” came Derek's voice, verging on scorn. She turned to him and found his eyes upon her. He suddenly grew sober, coming closer. ”But he's not the only man worth having, is he?”

His hopeful words touched her with pity. ”Derek ...” She sought to find words to discourage him, when he flushed and suddenly turned from her. His back and shoulders stiffened with injured stubbornness.

”He was going to leave you,” he said. ”If not for my brother you would not be here.”

This she already knew, but to hear it from another was a bitter pain to her.

”He's a thoughtless, cold-hearted ...” Derek paused, his mouth working with hurt anger, his brows crossed heavily in a frown. ”He cares nothing for anyone, gives no thought to others' pain. He knows of nothing but his own suffering. I hope one day he wakes to find what a black-blood he truly is.”

Magenta became aware that the greater hurt came from his disconnection with his cousin, not the sting of her refusal. ”When he spoke of you, he spoke with greater kindness,” she said, with gentle remonstrance.

A sob seemed as if it struggled in his throat. ”I don't understand him,” he said with desperate anger. ”We risked our lives to save his, and yet he would act as if he despises us!”

Magenta felt a sensation in her own throat that made it difficult to speak. ”Sometimes when we hurt so terribly, we cannot help but hurt those nearest our heart.”

”He has always been like this, always. Devoted only to himself, to his own interests and benefit, regardless of others.”

While Derek persisted in his lament, her gaze went momentarily to Deacon. Half the night he had remained there in the darkness. She remained quietly talking with Derek, but her thoughts were always on him. When she looked again she saw that he had fallen asleep against the tree. His head lolled forward.

When Derek gathered himself together and bade her goodnight, Magenta went to Deacon. He sat motionless in the same position as before, only his head was back. Slowly, she came down to his level. His eyelids were lowered, his mouth slightly open. She felt a pang of pity and tenderness. She wanted to kiss him as he lay there so soft and vulnerable, abandoned in the half-death of sleep. Adoring him with loving eyes, she watched while he slept. Before drawing away she leaned over him and put her lips to his cheek, so softly he never knew.

Days pa.s.sed without account. They soon came to a thriving wood. The vegetation here was overgrown, choked with overbearing plants, rivals among themselves, one plant slowly choking another in a witless attempt at supremacy. Creepers, swollen with venom, wrapped so tightly round their victims that even the trees were strangled, straining under the ma.s.sive weight of entrenched vines.

The travellers thought it best to dismount and proceed on foot through the twining and thickening ma.s.s. In some parts it was impenetrably dense. There was little sign of animal life. Plant life stirred within the shadowy, concealed parts. Not all the plants were objectionable to the eyes. Some had pretty flowering foliage, some bright berries.

Magenta recognized some of the plants for what they were and was cautious about the others. It was daytime but was quite dark, due to the overhanging trees, and it was difficult to move without catching a branch in the face. Cedrik drew his sword to cut away some of the vegetation that bothered him.

”Do not provoke them,” she said, touching his shoulder. He lowered his arm and sheathed his sword in a wary manner. ”Please be very quiet,” she said to her companions. She saw that they had come upon an area infested with a particular plant armed with a paralytic substance, so it could devour its victims without struggle, feeding on the blood, drawing it from the tissue.

She turned from Cedrik and caught her breath as a startled scream came suddenly to her throat. Near her face was the face of another in among the trees. Damp earth and rotting vegetation grew over its lifeless countenance. Insects crawled over it with appalling disregard, so that the features were barely recognizable as human. The body itself had started to become a part of the plant, partially decayed, partially digested. Magenta shut her eyes to escape the sight of it.

”We need to move from here swiftly,” said Cedrik quietly, urging her away from the horror of it.

They had gone perhaps half the distance without encountering misfortune, when a sharp branch caught Derek in the face. He drew a sharp breath and closed his hand over the strip of blood on his neck, a gesture which made all of them turn to look at him. As if trying to clear his vision he shook his head. ”I'm fine,” he said but had not taken more than a few steps, when he suddenly teetered and pitched forward into the ground. He did not feel the pain when he hit. A form of paralysis began to seize his limbs, quickly.

Snaking out of the vegetation, invasive and sly, came a ma.s.s of these creepers. With his drawn blade Cedrik wasted not an instant to come to Derek's aid, but on his way his foot was snared and he was flung to the ground. He rolled to his back, slas.h.i.+ng and cutting at his foe. The horses jolted and ran off with fright, leaving their owners to their fate. Magenta too was seized, creeping-vines twining up her thighs and up around her body.

Deacon, as yet untouched, stood back. His hands broke into flame, and with a flare of extraordinary fire, he set alight any creeping thing to come near him. There seemed to be an anguished cry that rang from their tortured forms. The blackened boughs, utterly wounded, withdrew and suddenly stilled.

Magenta became suffocatingly entwined, the vines trying to drag her down, twisting restrictively about her limbs and her throat even. She was highly resistant to their effects, but not they to hers. They clung tightly but were becoming brittle and were dying.

”Do not burn them!” she cried to Deacon. Her desperation was not for any love of the plants but because she knew that the harmful substances could also be inhaled if the poisonous boughs were burned. Deacon heeded her cry and swiftly quenched the flames. He saw her entangled and with sudden urgency made his way to her. A plant whipped across his face and left a thin line of blood high on his cheek, just below the eye. Before he reached her even, he tore them from her with a single forcible effort. They were already dying from her touch and shrivelled and curled upon the ground.

Afflicted with the loss of voluntary movements, Derek lay helpless. He did not so much as twitch and had grown as stiff as a frigid corpse. His eyes were fixed wide; he had not use of his lids. The only sign that he still lived was the lacrimation-secretion of tears-that trickled down his cheek, a reaction to the chemical in the sap. Something was at work about his legs. Feelers were winding their way up around his body, gnarled things trying to devour him whole.

Lying not far from him, Cedrik fought vigorously, his foe still entangling his legs. He chopped it to bits, slas.h.i.+ng its outgrowth that seeped with his blood. When he was freed he rolled to his stomach and scrambled over to Derek. He hacked back the feelers and with frantic haste tore open the front of his brother's s.h.i.+rt. Distended blue veins appeared on Derek's neck and went down his chest. His lips had the paleness of death. Cedrik was frantic at the sight.