Page 224 of A Sanctuary from Shadow
Smokeandglowingashchoking the air, I scrambled through the rising night to find Pete and Morus. With me, I hefted Pete’s blades and rucksack. His jerkin had gone up in flames.
I found them by a pink, trickling stream, only yards away from the flaming willows. Morus stood over Pete, who knelt at the stream’s sandy bank, palming water into his battered mouth.
I cringed at my harbinger friend’s brutalized face. It had seen better days.
“Any sight of the beyn? Of Alys?” I asked, first thing. If she were still out there, I needed to deal with her immediately. Couldn’t risk her guessing I’d started the jungle fire. She’d totally wonder how.
“Taken care of,” Morus assured me. “Clawed her gullet out when you flung her into me.”
I blinked at the Kobold, not even grossed out by his report. From what I’d seen of Pete’s graven flesh, dear Alys got her jollies by causing others pain. She’d deserved a gruesome death. “Guess my aim was lucky then.”
“I’ll say.”
“And the snuff hounds?”
Morus shrugged. “No signs of them. For whatever reason, they mustn’t have come.”
Thank our lucky stars.
Groaning, Pete lumbered to his feet and faced me, hands out. “My baggage?”
“Yeah, right.” I tightened my grip on his belongings. “I’ll hand these over, and you’ll try bolting off to the Shadow Palace again.”
He soured.
“That’s what I figured. What the hell is wrong with you?”
Pressing the heel of his hand to his pummeled temple—pounding, no doubt—Pete shook his head. His only response.
Suddenly, I thought his face needed more pummeling.
“Squabble later,” Morus crowed. “Right now, we must race away before that fire catches us.”
I handed Morus Pete’s gear. Then I trod over to my boneheaded friend to help him walk. As fast as his long, bungling legs could carry him.
At first, the prospect of escaping the wildfire seemed impossible—with an injured man and a surly Kobold straining to breathe soot—and with us dodging fleeing stampedes, prey and predators alike.
Once, I did try to help. High from my victory, I felt like the master of all nature. So, I stopped before the formidable wall of fire devouring trees that had probably stood for centuries—until me—and whipped a great gale at the greedy flames to drive them back. This resulted in me dashing back past my hobbling friends, squealing, “I made it worse! I made itsomuch worse!” The fire roared on, taking double what I’d tried to wrest from its ruinous maw.
After that, flight was our only option. I grabbed both Pete and Morus and whisked us to cleaner air on a sweltering easterly. I did this sporadically, landing to run constantly to conserve my wind, worried I’d drain myself before we found safety.
The last time I tried lifting us skyward, we went but a foot before our feet touched back down. “I’m spent, guys.” I bent over, heaving. “Can’t even blow a leaf.”
“Just as well.” Morus folded his tired, monkey arms upon a fallen tree. “We’re free of it now, I’d say.”
I’d have said so too. Yes, distant smoke still stung my nose, but the air where we’d landed was clear, the orange aura around the jungle canopy absent. Now, we stood in the chirruping, whooping moonlight, relief cleansing my troubled soul like a good book.
That’s when Pete, who’d fared the worst in the fire, clutched his chest and crumpled to his knees, coughing like his lungs mutinied.
“He needs water.” I ran to kneel with him. “I think he breathed in too much smoke.”
“Not smoke,” Pete wheezed. “Poppy.”
I clutched my mouth.Howhad I forgotten?
Morus pushed off the tree. “What’s that he said about a poppy?”
“The Leprechauns—they made him eat part of a death poppy. They wanted to turn him demonic.”
