Taste of Darkness
Page 95

“Avry? Hello?” Danny waved his hands in front of my face. “Sergeant Phelix?”
“Sorry.” I turned my attention to Phelix, pressing my fingers to his throat. A faint pulse throbbed. But more important, my magic sensed his symptoms had lessened.
My sleep fog disappeared in a snap as I realized what it meant. I hopped to my feet and grabbed Danny’s arms.
We jumped up and down like fools, shouting, “It worked! It worked! It worked!” at the top of our lungs.
“What worked?” Loren asked. He stood in the entrance with Quain and Odd. Swords drawn, half-dressed and barefoot, the three appeared to have been roused from their beds.
“We found a cure for the plague,” I cried.
“You found a cure,” Danny said. “I just helped.”
“I couldn’t have done it without Odd.” I grinned at him.
“Me? What did I do?” he asked.
I explained about how Odd’s comment sparked the idea to use my blood as I picked up the clean syringe. Danny helped me fill it with my blood and I injected it into another patient.
When I finished my explanation, all three of them had huge silly smiles.
“Danny, can you get me two more syringes? I’ll finish with the stage-three patients and then move on to stage two.”
After I’d injected the remaining patients, I gave the syringes to Danny. “Ask Ginger to sterilize them, please. And bring me more.”
“Will do.” He snapped a salute and shot out the door.
“This calls for a celebration,” Quain said. “I’ve some whiskey I’ve been saving.”
“With breakfast?” Loren asked.
“As breakfast. This stuff’s so good, you don’t want to ruin it with anything else.”
“How about later? After I heal...” The room spun. I reached for the wall and missed.
Odd grabbed my elbow, steadying me. “When’s the last time you ate?” he asked.
“Uh...”
“That’s what I thought. Blood loss and no food is a dangerous combination.”
“Uh...”
He tsked. “And the injustice of it is that you would yell at us for not taking care of ourselves, yet you can abuse your body without anyone giving you grief.”
“Technically, you’re giving her grief right now,” Quain said.
“But it doesn’t work. She won’t listen to me.”
“Don’t feel bad, she doesn’t listen to anyone,” Loren said.
“Hey! I’m standing right here.”
“No, you’re swaying.” Odd tightened his grip. “Come on. Food first, then sleep, and then you can go back to work.” He guided me from the cavern.
“Good luck with that,” Quain muttered.
Our happy party settled around the fire. A few of my caregivers checked patients, but otherwise the main area was empty at this early hour. Odd insisted on fetching me a bowl of oatmeal and a handful of apple slices. It didn’t take me long to devour them. The others wished to spread the news of the cure, but I asked them to wait. It might not work for everyone and Phelix might have a relapse. Despite my initial excitement, there were too many unknowns at this time. Plus I didn’t need the news to reach our enemies.
“If you wanted to keep it a secret, maybe you shouldn’t have screamed ‘it worked’ at the top of your lungs,” Quain teased.
I ducked my head. “I couldn’t help it. Besides, only you three woke up.”
“Others did as well, but they rolled over and went back to sleep,” Loren said. “We knew it was you and...”
“And it’s always better to check than be sorry,” Quain added. “‘It worked’ could be code for the dead are invading.”
“Wow, that’s...really random, Quain. Aside from you, who would ever put those two things together?” Loren asked.
“Shut up, Loren.” He threw a spoonful of oatmeal at his friend.
“You’re asking for it now, pup.” Loren aimed at Quain with a full spoon.
“That’s enough, boys,” I said, pushing Loren’s arm down. “Thank you for coming to check on me. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to return to my patients.”
They watched as I clambered to my feet. Weak-kneed but steady, I searched for Danny. He helped Ginger clean the syringes.
“Amazing, Avry, simply amazing,” Ginger gushed.
I put a finger to my lips. “Keep it under wraps for now. Just in case.”
“Of course. But we have to tell Christina!”
“Of course.”
Danny collected a handful of syringes and followed me to the stage-three cavern.
Sergeant Phelix gave me a weak grin.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I tried a new medicine on you,” I said to him.
“I don’t mind at all. I feel so much better.” He pushed up on his elbow. Hope brightened his face. “Will it...?”
“It might save your life.”
He clasped my arm. “But you said—”
“I did, but that was before yesterday. Today’s a whole new day. And the best thing you can do is rest and regain your strength. Are you hungry?”
“Yes.” He said the word as if amazed by the answer.
“Good. I’ll get you breakfast after I check on the others.”
As I moved away, Danny whispered, “I thought you were waiting to make sure the cure worked before saying anything.”