Magika [Completed]

Chapter 22

Where am I?

Aldeheid groaned, squeezing his eyes shut to mitigate the dull buzz in his head. Trees, that was all he could see, along with the pale glow of moonlight.

He rubbed at his face, something slick came away from his hands. Blood. It welled up from his palms and slipped through his fingers, sliding up his forearms. The metallic tang of iron invaded his nose, mouth and throat.

"What...?" His heart beat a frantic rhythm in his chest. He scrubbed his hands against his pants until the friction made them burn. But the blood kept coming, like a raging river cutting through the landscape of his hands.

"Aldeheid..."

He looked through his fingers at the person who'd spoken, and his stomach dropped. Chestnut hair. Hazel eyes. "Amalie." He started towards her, but she scrambled away.

"No, no, stay away!" She held her hands her hands out, cowering away as though he were a fiendish abomination. "You're a murderer."

The word echoed over and over in his head, filled every corner of his consciousness.

"Murderer! Murderer! Murderer!"

Aldeheid awoke with a start, his arms and legs straining against bonds that held them down. A horse whinnied in his ear and he was tossed and jostled about, black hair obscuring his vision.

"Shh. Calmly, Alvere."

The horse snorted and tossed its head, throwing more hair into Aldeheid's face.

"Kitaya?" he asked, his voice low and groggy. There was a thump and then the bonds holding him down fell away. It took him several tries to get himself upright on the horse. His limbs felt like wet noodles and his heart was rattling about in his chest. He swallowed thickly and looked down at his shaking hands.

A studded ring adorned each pinky and thumb, but he only spared them a glance. He reached up and touched his left cheek, exhaling in relief at the smooth unblemished surface.

"Are you alright?" Kitaya hopped back on her horse and moved closer to him.

Aldeheid glanced around at his surroundings, a million questions dancing on his tongue. They were no longer in the village, but on a forest trail. Water was dripping down from the canopy and the air smelt crisp and clean. Sunshine filtered through the treetops, speckling the trail with spots of light.

"Where...? What...?" He rubbed the back of his neck, looked down at himself then up at Kitaya.

She was dressed in a red and black ensemble of leather and chainmail that clung to every curve in her form. Her hair was freshly braided and adorned with so many beads that it was a wonder she could hold her head up. "Aldeheid. Focus. Are you alright?"

"Y-yes, of course," he answered a little too quickly. It had been a while since he'd had a night terror as bad and vivid as that one, but the experience was as jarring as he remembered. "Where are we? What happened to the magician? And the villagers? What—"

Kitaya held up a hand to stop him. "Let's take care of you first." She beckoned him forward with her hands and cupped his face when he obliged. With their faces nearly touching, she examined each of his eyes.

In such close proximity, he could see that her eyes were not black like he originally thought, but a dark brown that was nearly so. He forced himself to focus on them and not the gentle curves of her lips or the delicate lines of her neck.

"It would be nice if you could stop shaking." She let go of his face, and took each of his hands in hers, turning them palm up.

"Sorry," he said, and held his body rigid. He'd been through this song and dance before. Kitaya was checking to see if the magician's magic had poisoned him. And with the amount of times he'd been struck, it wasn't a farfetched possibility. The rings, he knew, were supposed to absorb any foreign magic in his body.