The Raven & The Wolf

Chapter Fifteen

“Stanya, come on,” I whine when we step out of the cave. She still hasn’t spoken to me, and has her arms folded, and is glaring at me from under her mask. “It wasn’t my fault you flashed Halthin.

“Yes it is. If you had just woken me up, instead of trying to let me sleep, it wouldn’t have happened.” She grumbles.

“Do you even hear yourself?” I demand from her. “You’re psychotic. I already explained to you that Gedric had the herbs needed to help remove a good chunk of Halthin’s poison. If we had waited any longer, he’d be at death’s door before nightfall.”

“Still,” she grumbles, “you should have woken me.”

“Is that what this is about? I tried to let you sleep in? Stanya, we’re going to be climbing a mountain. I’m going to be expending a large amount of energy to accomplish this. If I need to use you as an emergency source, I need you rested. Besides, I was more excited by the fact that we could give Halthin a chance than waking you.”

“You’re so mean,” she whines, but I know by her tone I’ve won. She’s just being stubborn and doesn’t want to admit it.

Now I’m annoyed. I roll my eyes, “When you get over this, please let me know.” I look at Gedric, who is biting his lip to keep from smiling. “Keep an eye on him.” I point to Gedric and look at Stanya. “Sit next to him.”

She huffs and sits cross legged next to Halthin. Gedric covers his mouth with his hand while I desire an invisible rope connecting me to them, and them being wrapped in a protective bubble. My anger fuels my desire to move, and my body becomes coated in green. I start climbing the mountainside, using my magic to strengthen my muscles and aide my grip and endurance to accomplish this. Stupid blood magic poisoning. While they get to float lazily, I get to climb a mountain.

“You know, you could just send us up the mountain by floating us up.” Stanya yawns after a few hours into the climb; leaning back against the bubbles, while bobbing next to me.

“That would require centering the magic around you since I’m in the bubble.” I grunt, sweat fully on my brow, causing the cloth on my face to ice itself to my forehead. “I can’t with Halthin’s poisoning. It’ll taint my magic and spread to me.”

“Can you just teleport help here?” Gedric asks, sounding either bored or frustrated.

“Halthin has to be seen in an area equipped specifically for blood magic poisoning.” I focus on my grip for a few more minutes before continuing. “It’s very easy to taint any magic source.”

“But you did it in the cave.”

“I removed some. I’ve been trained to remove what I can handle, but due to my power level I can’t expose myself to it too long. That’ll be age twelve all over again.”

Stanya shudders. “She tried removing some from a boy we once found, and it infected her. It took every healer in the Sheik clans to safely remove all the poison from her. It’d be impossible now.”

I scoff. “Almost. Ari is the only one left who can do it.”

“I doubt he’d be willing to help,” Stanya looks at me. “You look tired.”

“I wonder why,” I snap, my arms shaking. “I started at sunup. It’s nearly sundown.”

“Do you want to take a break?” Gedric asks.

“We can’t afford one. How is he doing?” I grunt.

“His fever spiked, and he’s sweating. Also, his heartbeat is weaker and slower.” Gedric answers before Stanya can answer.

“So Gedric,” Stanya asks, leaning towards him, “how did you learn so much about healing?”

“When you don’t have magic, and your family is the town healer, you learn a lot.” His tone is dismissive, but that’s never stopped Stanya before.

“Like how to keep a human being alive?”

“I know more than most about that, and how to kill them if that’s what you’re getting at. My entire family has studied humans and animals our whole lives. I know almost every living things anatomy better than most.”

“So that’s why you were suspicious of Nat when you first met.” She giggles. “I thought you noticed the blood on her leg.”

Gedric shakes his head while I feel a glare on my neck. Okay, he’s still upset about the whole memory wipe. “In simple terms yes. I was more confused about how she had the exact injury her horse should have. How did you anyway?”

I chuckle. “In my haste, I forgot to sever the spell from my body when I had finished; which transferred the injury to me.”

“Your body?”

“You heal with your magic, which is a part of you. If you’re not careful, what you’re working on with your magic, can attach itself to you, which is why you are to make sure the spell is fully finished and no longer connected. I failed to do that.”

“So you’re the strongest Sheik alive, and you made a simple, rookie mistake?” Gedric asks.

I grit my teeth. “Mistakes happen. For instance, I may sever this connecting spell a little prematurely.”

“Point taken.” Gedric replies quickly while Stanya laughs.

“You forget Gedric, she’s twenty. Believe it or not, we all have a lot to learn.”

“Doesn’t it scare you that the most powerful Sheik is twenty?”

“They’re all that age at some point or another. She’s been the most powerful since eight.” Stanya states almost bored. “Master Brin only allowed her to go for her stars when she was thirteen, since anytime she executed a rather strong spell, it sent her into magic overload.”

“How doesn’t that terrify either of you?” He demands.

“The man currently hunting us scares us more.” Stanya and I answer at the same time. It makes us both giggle, and we shoot each other grins.

“How did Ari turn into the man he is today?” Gedric asks.

“That, Gedric, is something only Natasha knows at the moment.” Stanya says with a hard tint in her voice. “Only the marked ones are privileged to know this.”

I groan. “I’m the only one, besides Ari that knows.” I shake my head. “That just made the weight I carry harder.”

“Well can I know?” Stanya asks. “I’m, apparently, a “Second Guardian” anyway. Whatever that means.”

“I think it means that you’re supposed to help me protect these symbols.”

“So I watch you?”

“Well you can’t die until after we’ve dealt with Ari either, so I feel like it might be more than that.” I muse. “But what?”

Stanya sits up, intrigued. “You’re right. What are the Fates planning?”

“If my life is any example, something cruel and painful.” I mutter.

She chuckles. “You better hope they didn’t hear that.”

“Oh, I’m sure they did. I bear three of their cursed marks, remember? One of them being their all time favorite symbol of fuckery.”

“You mean the raven?”

“Bingo,” I answer while rolling my eyes. “Then again, I guess I’m the new target on the block.”

“And fifty percent of them.” Stanya agrees, but her words make me flinch. It only reminds me how alone I am in this. Stanya has been with me the longest, but she’s never fully understood how hard it is to bare a symbol. It haunts you, and controls you.

If I was never born with this cursed raven, my family would still be alive, and so would so many others. Then again, someone else would be carrying my scars. Even worse, Ari might have already taken the raven. I hate the “what if” rabbit hole. Once you go down it, and start questioning everything, it’ll drive you insane. I guess that’s why Master Brin always said to stick with what has happened. He was a crazy old man, but that man has seen more outcomes than any other living being. It would likely be best that I heed his advice.

“Nat, you’re shaking. Please stop for the night,” Gedric begs.

I start laughing. “I find it funny that no one else called me Nat, except for Halthin. Now it’s all I hear today. It’s only pushing me harder.”

“That’s because Halthin had no sense in him,” Stanya says, sitting up. I know she’s feeling uncomfortable at the moment, but she doesn’t dare complain to me. “Who calls an Elder by a pet name?”

“A friend.” I grunt, still climbing the frozen mountain. I’m just grateful it isn’t snowing.

“Hey, I resent that,” Stanya retorts. “I’m your friend.”

“You’re my sister,” I correct. “Master Brin would skin you alive if he heard you call me that. Remember when I called you Stan? I couldn’t sit for a week.”

“A name reflects its master,” Stanya quotes with a hard chuckle. “That old man was so old fashioned, even his age couldn’t keep up.”

“True,” I answer, not really wanting to talk about Brin more right now. I miss him, and running, well climbing, for our lives would give him the perfect perspective about how I’m quite literally hanging on by a ledge right now. I miss his terrible jokes.

“Nat, may I ask you something?” Gedric asks, leaning over closer to me.

“Like there is anything better for you to do.” I huff, still trying to stay focused. I can feel my hold over my magic slipping. I’m about to use up my strength.

“How do you know Halthin?”

Stanya beats me to it. “We grew up together. He lived next door to Master Brin. When Natasha first came to live in Brighton, he was the only one that could get her to eat. Halthin has always had a way with her.”

I shake my head as I agree. “He was the only one that could get me to laugh during those first few days. Master Brin tried, but I didn’t trust older strangers after what I had just been through.”

“Can’t say I blame you on that one,” Stanya agrees.

“What happened?” Gedric asks, sounding worried.

“Ari had just murdered my family.” I answer coldly.

“If Ari killed your grandfather for the raven, how did he know where to find it after he found it missing?” Gedric asks, not reading my very frigid tone.

“He didn’t, which is how he didn’t find my family until I was six.” I climb a couple more feet before answering further. “However, after interrogating a Sheik that was a friend of the family, he found out about my grandfather’s family. Fortunately for us, he didn’t know that my father had a child. Ari’s main target was my father. After he found no mark on him, he tried my mother. My mother died calling out for her baby. That’s how he knew I existed. He thought I was a literal infant, so he was trying to make me cry so he could find me. Little did he know I was just at the age where my magic was starting to make itself known. That’s what saved me in the end. Well that and Master Brin.”

“So the only time Ari has seen you was as a child?”

“A child covered in soot. He’s seen my face, but he has no idea what it looks like now. A Sheik’s face changes drastically when puberty hits.”

“And he’s never heard your name?”

I shake my head. “My name is enchanted, as a safety precaution. To live in the city, the spell hits you. If you try to think of my name in a place of fear, you cannot place a face, then you forget the name. It’s a price for your safety, but reasonable when you consider the cost of Ari actually knowing who I am.”

“If he were to know her, or see her, he could visually astral project to her, find out where she is, then teleport to her. He could ambush her when she slept, and we’d be doomed.” Stanya explains.

“How do you know that?” Gedric demands.

“Because he’s done it.” We answer together.

“It’s very rare for someone to connect with their inner magic and self so completely that they’re able to astral project.” I explain. “The only ones able to do it in a half century are Master Brin and Ari.”

“You can’t?” Gedric asks, sounding disturbed by this knowledge.

I shake my head. “Until my magic can settle, I can’t. The last time I tried, I triggered a magic overload.”

“So your magic is tremendously strong, but it’s also a huge hinderance?”

“Putting it simply, yes.”

“Natasha cannot pursue magical and soulful connections, which is the next step to becoming a Master Sheik, until her magic settles.” Stanya explains. “Master Brin’s theory is that since there is only chaos in Natasha’s life, her magic reflects it.”

“The stronger my magic gets, the more I agree with Brin.” I grunt, nearly losing my grip on a rock. My fingers have gone numb. My magic is nearly gone. “We need to rest for the night.”

“Do you need my magic?” Stanya asks, worry in her tone. When I agree to stop, she knows I’m spent. Last time I pushed it, I nearly killed us both.

I close my eyes and scan the mountainside with my magic. “There is a cave a hundred feet above us, and thirty feet to our left. Yes please.”

Stanya leans over and touches my neck, sticking her fingers past the bubble. I feel as if she’s given me breath as I scale the mountain to our destination. I move quickly, burning her magic and mine more quickly, but giving us a shot that it won’t spend the rest of her magic as well.

When we get to the cliff, I set them next to me. I fall to my knees and plop down in the ice snow. It’s so cold the snow has iced over. I’m too tired to even lift a hand.

“Come on,” Gedric grunts, pulling me onto his back. He holds one end of a rope and Stanya the other to drag Halthin behind us. They make the trek to the cave silently, the only sound heard is the crunch of the snow under their boots.

Once we’re in the cave, Gedric sets me down and builds a fire. Stanya checks on Halthin, and reports he’s pretty much the same as before. Gedric sits next to me and helps me off with my soaked mask. Stanya kicks him out and changes me into a long night shirt and leggings and wool stockings. When Gedric comes back in, he sits back next to me and starts prepping dinner. I fall asleep to the smell of cooking meat.