Cursed by Malignant Magic (Once Upon A Curse)

Chapter 12

Chapter

Twelve

I scrambled to my feet, reaching down to help Varna up too. "So now what?"

We just stared at each other, and it occurred to me that one of us had to come up with a plan relatively quickly, or we were going to get caught. With that in mind, I started shuffling along the side of the stream, hoping that some sort of solution would come to me.

Finally, Varna pointed toward the stream. "If they have any kind of dogs, they won't be able to track our scent if we're in the water. Not to mention they won't be able to follow our footprints on the bank either. Depending on which way the current is going, it might even take us away from them."

I stuck my hand into the freezing stream, doing my best to figure out which direction it flowed in the darkness. Once I figured it out, I pointed with one finger, and Varna nodded.

"They're behind us. If we're in the water, it should take us away from them with very little effort on our part," she said hopefully.

Given how cold the water was, I wasn't exactly keen to just jump into it, but what she'd said made sense. Better to be cold and wet than caught again. Besides, I was still at least partially sure that it was the right direction to get back to Ehuna and my camp, so getting there more quickly would be worth the discomfort as well.

Time to suck it up.

"Can you swim?" I waded into the stream, the current shoving at my legs as I held out a hand to help Varna in.

She shook her head, and I sighed. It wasn't her fault she couldn't swim, although it did make things slightly more difficult. The only reason I knew how to swim was because I'd been tossed into the river more than once or jumped in order to escape from someone. It wasn't exactly the most auspicious way to learn how to swim, but it had certainly worked, and now I could use that to help Varna.

I held out a hand to help her into the stream, digging my feet into the rocks at the bottom for better balance. "Just hold on to me. As long as we aren't trying to swim against the current, we should be fine."

I tried to inject some confidence into my voice. True, I knew how to swim, but I had never intentionally jumped into water that moved this fast. Varna didn't need to know that, though.

She glanced back in what I assumed to be the direction our pursuers were coming from then hesitantly stepped into the stream with me, taking my hand for balance. I floated on my back, and she did the same, letting the current do the work for us. The water froze my skin, and my teeth chattered.

Most of my effort went into trying to keep us both from drowning. I did my best to keep my head above water, although a few times the rough current pushed us under, and I had to drag us both up, spitting water. Thankfully it didn’t taste bad, a small mercy.

I let a tendril of magic flow behind us in the water, hoping that it might let me know if our pursuers drew closer, just in case Varna couldn’t warn me. They were close, but my awareness of them faded as we floated farther away, and finally, I couldn't feel them at all.

Verna’s fingers dug into my arms, and then she pointed at the bank nearest to us. "They're not going to catch us right now. We should rest."

My body aching, I tightened my grip around Varna's waist, towing her toward the bank of the stream. Despite my exhaustion, I got us back to land without going under the water once again.

We clawed our way out of the stream and onto the bank. Grass and dirt shoved under my nails as I pulled myself farther out of the water. I flopped facedown, grateful for the warmth of the grass and the rising sun. The frigid water felt as if it had seeped into my very bones. My clothes clung to every inch of me like a second skin, and I was sure it would be uncomfortable once I warmed up enough to actually feel it.

Varna pushed my shoulder gently, helping me roll to my back, and I grunted but didn't protest. Now that I faced upwards, the sun heated my face, a welcome warmth on my skin.

"Thanks," I muttered.

I kept my eyes closed, water dripping from my lashes onto my cheekbones. I had no way of knowing whether Varna had slept any, but I was absolutely exhausted. She hadn't been a hindrance in keeping us from drowning, but she hadn't been much help either.

Still, I had managed to keep us both from drowning, which was a minor miracle. Not to mention that we hadn't been caught right away, which was another gift from the gods I wasn't sure I believed in.

Again I sat up, forcing myself to move. "You can sleep now. I'll take this watch."

Varna shook her head, and I huffed.

"We can both sleep,” she said. “I'll feel if anyone comes near us. We'll sleep for a bit and then keep going. I can feel a settlement, and I think…"

She pointed toward me, the end of her finger prodding my chest. She flinched back immediately, like she was afraid I would be angry with her for poking me, then kept talking when I couldn’t muster a blink.

"I think it's where you came from. It feels like you somehow. There's a magical signature like yours, only…older?" She waved her hand in a loose gesture like she wasn't sure how else to explain it.

I nodded. I knew what she meant. Ehuna had taught me most of what I knew, so it made sense that our magical signatures would feel the same. At least, I assumed it was Ehuna she was talking about since that was the only thing that made sense to me.

I stretched out next to her, closing my eyes again. She had proven herself more than capable of alerting me if there was someone coming, and I had no reason to distrust her. If she said that it was safe to sleep and we wouldn't get caught if we did, then I believed her.

Besides, we would need all the energy we could get if we were going to get back to Ehuna and tell her what I had learned while we were held captive.

Our lives, and potentially many others, hung in the balance with that traitor, Tannin, walking around free.