I locate Entho’s healing case again and find exactly what I am looking for – iodine. I also find an old undershirt that I packed and take it with me. Then I tiptoe over to Thann; I don’t want to startle him. When I speak, it is if I am talking to a small child or infant, and I don’t even know if what I say registers in his brain.
“I am going to put this on you to make your skin darker…in case we come across other Destroyers.” I want to explain about the new Purity Law…the danger we are in, but I end up pouring iodine on my old shirt and just wiping it on his face and hands. He remains motionless, unmoving as he turns an odd color of orange-ish-brown, but at least it isn’t white. I then do the same with myself, the sharp medicine smell burning my nostrils as I continue to wipe the iodine on my body, wincing at the sting of it on my skin, especially near my eyes.
Gunter returns with the dark, gooey river mud piled into his old cloak.
“What in the blazes do you want this for?” he asks.
“Watch and see,” I tell him as I reach my hand into the mud, feeling it squish between my fingers, and rub it in my hair, hoping the dark mud will cover up the lightness of it. It feels dirty and smelly and heavy, weighing down my head. I don’t like it, but the thought of a sword cutting my head off doesn’t sound too appealing, either. I do the same to Thann. Once again, he doesn’t respond. I worry about him. If the iodine and mud didn’t bring him out of shock, I have no idea what will.
Koree is calling to me again, his voice thin and raspy, so unlike the Koree I first met. “Teak…”
I rush over to him, prop his head up a bit, his copper curls glistening with sweat as the sun beats down on his face. “The Destroyers….you’ve got to get rid of them…and Soot.” I have no idea what he is talking about.
“Get rid of the Destroyers…Soot? How?”
Koree motions me to come closer with his finger, moving it slowly back and forth. I kneel down. I am so close to him I can feel his breath on my face as he talks to me – sweet and minty and salty. And very masculine. His jaw is firm and the slightest amount of stubble scatters his face. His green eyes glisten as he whispers, so quietly that I can barely hear him. “Have the dragons burn them.” He stops then, taking in a huge breath. “Send their bones down the stream…” He closes his eyes as sweat continues to drip down his forehead.
“The dragons…they can still breathe fire?”
He nods his head.
“How…how do I get them to do it?”
He swallows again, his dry lips making contact with each other. For a moment I am fascinated by his lips. They are neither full nor thin, and when he purses them, he seems to do it with a movement that is gentle, purposeful. He answers with a hoarse voice, “Say breavo…in their ears.” With that, he falls back against my bag, exhausted. But two more words escape the lips I can’t seem to stop staring at. “Whisper it.”
For some reason I hesitate to leave, staying a little too long and watching his chest move up and down, staring at his curls falling down onto his forehead, and his reddish-brown eyelashes that cover those green, piercing eyes.
“Teak…come…on!” Gunter snaps me out of it.
“I am coming,” I call out as I scurry over to Pebble and Koree’s Metallic, taking one last glance back at Koree. “Gunter, bring a dragon,” I yell. “Or two,” I take the dragons by the reins and lead them over to the dead Destroyers and Soot. All of a sudden getting rid of them makes sense to me.
Gunter arrives with another Metallic and an Ebony. I wonder if four dragons will be enough to burn the bodies. Burn the bodies? How has my life come to this? I shake my head, closing my eyes for just a moment. Focus. I need to focus. I glance over at Gunter – his face is pinched into a tight ball.
We line the dragons up in a row, incinerators or cremators of the most unholy sort. They stand obediently and I think they surely must have some knowledge of what is going on. I peer into Pebble’s eyes. She blinks them placidly, as if she stands before dead, brutalized bodies every day. I breathe deeply before I traipse to the dragons, whispering , “Breavo” in each one’s ears, just as Koree told me to. Instantly, flames shoot out of the dragons’ mouths, red and golden fire, so hot that Gunter and I have to back off, covering our faces with our elbows.
The huge elm tree disintegrates first…a black waterfall dropping to the earth with a crackling crash. Next, the two dead Destroyers ignite. I watch, fascinated, feeling an odd satisfaction at seeing them awash in flames. I wonder if Koree can see them. “I hate them,” he said to me. What could have happened in his life for him to hate Destroyers so much? It’s not like he is a Light Skin.
My heart clenches into a tight ball when Soot’s body starts to burn. Sadness overtakes me, the same desperate feeling I had when I watched Canto enter the building…only worse. I have witnessed this death firsthand. I stare at what is left of Soot, watch as flames engulf the ragged pieces of her body while she disappears from us. “She deserved better,” I say to Gunter. “I failed.” There is nothing but rawness, an open hole inside of me.
“Um…yeah,” Gunter answers. “We all failed…I should have done something.”
I stare at him for a moment. “Like what?” I ask.
“I don’t know. I’ve never had anything like this happen…snock, I’m a Red Cloaker.”
“Me, too.”
“But you were….were…so smash. You killed those guys…the Destroyers.” He turns his body toward mine as the flames behind us cast a red shadow over him. “You saved Thann. I watched you save his life…I didn’t do a thing.”
We both stare straight ahead, mute and yet frozen amid the most heat I have ever felt in my life. Gold and red flames continue to spew out of the dragons’ mouths, a furnace that seems to get hotter by the second. I take a tentative step back. So does Gunter. “I was trained for it…you weren’t.” My words, a late answer, come out of nowhere. I am not sure if he even hears me.
Gunter turns his body toward mine again, sweat pouring off his forehead, the reddish light reflecting eerily on his dark skin. He narrows his eyes and takes my hand, squeezes it. Our eyes meet…dark against light as cinders and ash circle around us…black snowflakes falling from the sky. Another wave of heat rolls over us, and we both step backward again, still grasping hands.
The dragons continue to breathe fire, off and on, starting and stopping, spitting flames, alternating like children taking turns at a game. Time seems suspended, like watching a building burn down. Gunter and I keep stepping back, away from the waves of heat and smoke that continue to roll toward us.
And then a roar…the loudest sound I have ever heard, pierces the already war ravaged countryside. I instinctively know it is the fire…that it is spreading. I place my hands over my ears, stepping backward rapidly, but I can’t seem to stop staring at the enormous flames. The dragons are moving back as well, retreating with me. Within a couple of minutes I can barely see in front of me. Or beside me. I am blinded by the heat, the fire raging like it has a mind of its own.
I retreat more, turning now and running at full speed. I hope that Gunter does the same. I scout around, searching for him, scanning the countryside, the fire, any place I think he can be. Heat like I have never experienced continues to roll over me. But I can’t seem to find him. “Gunter!” I yell loudly, hoping that he can hear me. “Gunter…where are you?”
Panicked, I search for Gunter but can’t find him through the haze and flames. I am coughing now, holding my hand over my mouth as soot and ash shoot into my eyes, mixing like poison with the remnants of iodine that are dripping into them. I can barely see ahead of me, my eyes are stinging, and my lungs are burning as if there is a fire inside of my chest. Hot mud drips down onto my cheeks, and I brush it away as I pull further back from the dragons, not knowing how to make them stop. Why didn’t I ask Koree how to make them stop?
“Gunter,” I am screeching now, almost hysterical. I can’t bear the thought of Gunter getting burned, or even worse, finding him dead. I can’t fail another person.
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“Gunter…Gunter,” I continue to yell, each breath an effort. I turn from the fire, running at full speed, each step bringing a shade of coolness, air that I can actually breathe. I cough again and again as I turn around, surveying the darkened, smoky countryside for Gunter.
My heart is beating fast, like a rabbit’s thumping foot, over and over again. Through the smoke I can see the injured group by the other dragons and they appear to be fine. I continue searching, each step an effort. I call out for Gunter again, louder this time. “GUNTER!!”
I approach a large rock, a silvery boulder next to a group of three saplings, which are withering from the heat. I hear something…coughing or sniffling. Could it be Gunter? Maybe it is just Reese.
I round the corner of the boulder and find Gunter, huddled into a tight ball. Instantly, my shoulders relax, and I breathe out, relief spewing from me like a fresh summer breeze. I kneel down next to him, put my arm around his shoulders. “Are you okay?” I ask, watching as tears stream down his soot stained face, like someone had brushed swirling lines down his cheeks.
“I…I…just can’t….take…any more…” he answers, wiping at his face. I plop down next to him.
“I know.”
Gunter and I huddle together, his wiry frame leaning against mine, his head between his knees. It might be minutes or it might be hours that we stay this way. I don’t know if I doze off or if I just fall into a daze, but I finally open my eyes to find Gunter staring at me, his eyes wide for a change. I breathe deeply, turning to him.
“What?” I ask him.
He hesitates. “Nothing.” But he is staring oddly at me. And then he starts laughing, a maniacal, hysterical laugh. “You look….you look…like…. a….dirty Brown Cloaker!” he snickers as he grabs his stomach and falls to the ground laughing.
I study my hands, stained a terrible yellow orange, dabbled with soot and the black mud of my hair draping down my shoulders. I can only imagine that my face appears to be the same way. I stare at Gunter. He, too, is covered in soot, his beige tunic and pants singed, dark hair blacker than it should be,
“So do you,” I say in defense. The entire day is welling up inside of me like a volcano about to erupt…and I don’t know which way it will spew.
My chest heaves up and down, every nerve inside me ragged with emotion. Gunter, lying on the ground, squints his eyes up at me. I stare at him, the mess he has become, and something inside me unleashes – the last thing I would have expected. It starts as a giggle that I can’t seem to control, a ridiculous reaction to what he said, but then it crescendos into frenzied laughter, matching his own like two singers in harmony.
But even as I laugh, a feeling so rare and precious I never want it to end, a piece of me wants to take off running – terrible memories of hiding behind a boulder with friends taking over. Even though I want to stop time, to trap it in a can or a jar and keep it like this forever, I can’t help but wonder if this day will end the same way as the other…or even worse.
Because last I checked, Entho is still in Bay City and I am in the middle of nowhere…with Gunter, two injured people, a huge, comatose Light Skinned boy, and Reese on the loose.
Not to mention…a new law that calls for my death.
Chapter 24