Basilisk Eyes

Chapter 51: Up the gangplank

Harry heard some voices up ahead on the path and wondered what was going on.

Is it Tony? he thought. Maybe Tony is talking to the two people who had passed me?

He rubbed his sore butt cheek and then shook out his wrist and made his way toward the voices.

Tony's voice sounded distressed—angry and a bit frantic.

"Stop doing that. Let me go!" Tony shouted.

As Harry neared he realized that it was coming from the ground. Tony had also fallen down.

Who thought up this hike idea?

Harry's anger sparked and he didn't listen carefully to his staff, stubbing his toe painfully on a rock. Resisting the urge to toss the staff down the mountainside, he bit his tongue to keep from crying out and limped along in his wet trainers. It was only the knowledge that there were people he didn't know on the trail and concern that Tony might be really hurt that kept him from losing it completely. By the time he'd traveled close enough to ask what was going on without having to shout, he'd calmed down a bit.

"Tony, are you alright?"

"Hey, do you know this young man?" It was the voice of the man who'd been talking about the underground.

Tony was cursing and it sounded like he was flailing, too.

"Yeah, is that you Tony?"

Tony grunted in response.

Harry's staff told him that he was a step away from a person lying in the pathway and that there were two other people nearby.

"Hey, he won't let us help him up. He won't even let us touch him."

"Do you know how he's hurt?" Harry asked as he lowered himself down to the ground, using his staff to help keep his balance and then collapsed it and put it in his pocket. He slowly reached forward, tentatively feeling for Tony. He felt Tony flinch as his hand came in contact with his torso and pulled back. From what he could gather, he was lying on his back perpendicular to the path.

"He's got some scrapes and bruises, but he's not telling us where he hurts," another man's voice supplied.

"Could you go get Healer Jordan?" Harry asked, "I'll sit with him."

"Are you sure you're okay staying with him?" the second man asked, his voice was deep and resonant, with a slight accent that made Harry think of far-off lands.

"Yeah, we'll be alright."

Harry sat quietly by Tony's side as the two men walked away. Harry noted that the second man was mentioning the locations of rocks on the path for the first man. He must be blind, too, Harry thought. He wondered why the second man was here.

He let out a big breath.

Why send all of us down this mountainside when we're still learning how to get around in our newly broken bodies? It seems sadistic.

When he was pretty sure that the two men were out of earshot, Harry probed, "Hey, Tony? Do you want me to help you up or do you want to keep sitting here?"

He made an unintelligible grumble in response.

Harry shifted his position to get more comfortable (and off the bruise)—it seemed like they'd be here for a while.

Tony let out a sigh that hitched in the back of his throat like a sob. Tony's feet started scrambling on the rocky earth, sending little rocks down the side of the hill by the sound of it.