Bones of Salt

Jonathan

I braced myself for the symptoms of poison.

I only knew the common ones, and there they arrived. The shallow breathing, a twisting sensation in my guts. I was sure that if I wanted to spit, I would have spat blood.

But in hindsight that wouldn't have been a very gentlemanly thing to do.

Roman studied my expression. "You knew what it was," he guessed.

"Wrong. I suspected it."

"Then why did you drink it all down? In one gulp?"

"Reply to my own question, first," I challenged him. My legs were feeling weak and I tried lookig around at the place under the trapdoor when I noticed my vision was getting blurry. "You know I'm not an idiot. Why did you think I would drink down whatever Jason gave me?"

"Because I thought it could be anything else. A tonic, as I told you... why did you drink it if you knew it could be poison?"

"Because it's never killed me before," I tried to stand on my legs, but they buckled down. Roman caught me. We shouldn't really make it become a habit, I thought. "And if I didn't drink it, he would have insisted. In those cases it's better to down it all in one go and then never think about it again."

"Stop talking," Roman said. "The poison is making you delirious. And stop trying to walk... we can't go anywhere with you in this state."

"Don't worry," I tried to give him a comforting look. "It never lasts long, the effect. The other times, at the very least, it didn't."

"When were you poisoned before? And how often?" Roman asked. I should have known destiny would have paired me up with the only other person in Solima who was as curious as I was.

"You just don't know when to let things slide, do you?" I asked, and my whole body jerked. It was good --- it always meant the poison's effect was vanishing.

I trashed around in Roman's arms, and I completely stopped paying attention to what he was telling me. But when I woke up again, I felt better than ever and we were in what looked like a dark tunnel.

"I don't think the portal to the other world will be visible, so it's safe to say we're already in the Other Side," Roman told me warily. "I can feel it. My power feels different here."

I was still feeling weak, but I would never let Jason's plans hinder our quest.

Since I could see that Roman was still waiting for an explanation, and there wasn't exactly one, I decided to tell him, "Let's just say that Athanasios is a true believer of that quote that whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

Roman did not seem happy to accept it as an explanation but I just let it go. There was an another issue. "Am I the only one who hears the sound of water?"

The sound seemed to be coming from the end of the dark tunnel. It was the thundering sound of waves crashing against rocks. I had to remind myself that we were in another dimension, and so things were going to be different --- there could be very well be a large body of water at the end of a tunnel, under a Temple.

Roman looked a little worse for wear. The signs of exhaustion were clear on his face, and the sound in the distance seemed to worry him. Since I'd just been poisoned, I wondered how I looked. I didn't feel well, just well enough to put a foot in front of the other.

"Well," Roman finally commented. "We have no choice but to keep moving."

"Just out of curiosity," I asked. "Can you swim? I can."

"A little," Roman replied. He didn't like to sell himself short, but I gathered, with his upbringing, that a little probably meant that he wasn't sure he could swim enough to save his life if the waters were deep.