Emma sighed, both in relief and out of weariness, when Amelia slumped to the ground in front of her.
Finally. She mused.
Inhaling deeply for strength, she squatted, and touched her sister’s forehead with her right palm. The latter’s temperature was warm; just the right amount. She also perused the latter’s mind repeatedly, to see if there was any other sliver in her mind, or in any part of her body. She let herself fall to the ground when she saw nothing of that sort in her mind. Amelia was finally free from the hold of the mage.
Emma, her eyes scanning the skies above, let out a large gush of air from her mouth. Then, she took a deep one, rubbing her belly slowly. She was hungry. Very hungry. She was tired too. She needed to rest, and she would have if she didn’t hear Prescott’s sudden gasp of terror.
It was then that Emma remembered the wall of fire around them. She hadn’t put it out yet! She hoped that it hadn’t done harm to an overzealous Prescott.
Immediately, she got to her feet, and hurried to the location where the fire was still burning bright. With a flick of her hand, the fire died down. She covered the distance between them, hurrying first to Prescott who was coughing and holding his chest.
“Prescott! Are you okay? Prescott!” She shouted, holding Prescott to herself, and shaking him softly when he gave her no response immediately.
Prescott stopped after a few shakes, and looked up at her, a bit disoriented.
‘Did you get him?’
Emma nodded her head frantically, yet calmly palming his forehead, to check his temperature.
‘Is Amelia safe now?’
She nodded again, wishing he would stop exacting strength by straining to communicate through the mind path between them. She could literally feel life leaving him, just like it was leaving Annabel.
Slediv had mentioned that he had only knocked them out, but had he really? The man was a dark mage; lying was like a second language to him. Whatever he had done to them, was killing them slowly. She needed to get them out of here.
But how? She had three bodies to move now.
When she noticed Prescott about to shut his eyes after a deep sorrowful sigh, she shook him again, tears pricking her eyelids. “You can’t leave me, Prescott! You just can’t! You promised, remember?!”
Prescott’s eyes opened a fraction. ‘You have to take us through the remaining journey. You can read minds right? Try searching out the location in Amelia’s head?’
Then what next? How would she move them to the location?
‘Your wolf. I can use my last strength to lift them and place them on your back when you shift. I can lift myself too. I think I have a little energy left.’ Prescott coughed again, and this time blood spewed from his mouth and stained Emma’s clothing.
But Emma shook her head, tears running down her cheeks. “You might die if you do that, Prescott. I can’t let you do that.”
Prescott coughed again. ‘If you don’t, we might all die, Emma. Do you want that?’
Emma shook her head frantically, but refused to let Prescott go. She refused to believe that this might be the last time she would hold Prescott in her hands.
‘Emma, please time is running out.’
Emma pretended she didn’t hear him, rather she let herself swim away from her flesh, into her spirit, into the bottomless pit. There must be some way she could transfer energy to Prescott. She wouldn’t let him die on her. The Abyss opened at her entrance. She wasn’t new to it.
‘I need to help my friend.’ She muttered, flexing her hands, waiting for the guide to lead her, the invisible force that had always told her what to do.
Just when she was about to stamp her feet in frustration after waiting for a while, she felt the sweep of the magic around her, inside her, that pushed her back to her body, that pushed her to lift Prescott up and join their foreheads together.
Emma felt the burst of energy that moved from herself, from her belly, and into her head. She felt it walk through her forehead, and enter into Prescott. It lasted for a mere second. A zap of light; that’s what it was.
‘What did you do?’
“I lent you energy. I am not sure how long it would last, but it should be enough to get you to do the lifting work, without dying.”
Prescott’s eyes, which were now wide open, brimming with sudden vitality, got wet. He raised his hands, and hugged Emma’s neck. ‘Thank you, I will not forget this.’
Emma shrugged off the gratitude. There was no debt to be paid. She owed Prescott quite a lot. She let him go, and stood to her feet, flexing her hands again for a shift.
‘Are you there?’ She opened the communication lines with her wolf, aware of the swirling of magic around the tattoo that covered her body.
‘You remember me now? How could you lock me out? You don’t even know my name?’
Emma sighed. The gods had given her a wolf like her-talkative. Couldn’t the latter leave the bonding for later?
The reason why she didn’t bother bonding with the latter had been because of the pain that was still present in her mind, the pain that had ransacked her entire being during her first shift. It was quite traumatizing. Even as she prepared herself for a second shift, she prepped her mind and nerves for the same amount of pain, never mind that Annabel had told her that it would not be the same pain.
“If you want to enjoy the goodness of the forest, and even hunt, I suggest you let yourself out. We can bond later, I promise.” She finally spoke, appalled when she was suddenly overtaken by another sheer power; that before she could blink, she was already a wolf. There was not one pain.
‘You couldn’t wait for me to prep further?’ Emma asked, awe ringing her voice as she felt the largeness of her size. Prescott, a few feet away from her, looked like an ant. She hadn’t noticed before, because of the consciousness of the pain. But now it was different.
Now, she could assimilate the power that was her wolf. She wished then that there was a puddle of water, where she could look at herself, where she could see her color. Prescott had mentioned she was a multicolored wolf. She hadn’t believed him, and she wouldn’t, until she saw it herself.
‘Are you ready?’ She heard Prescott’s question in her mind, and was grateful that the mindpath still held strong. She bowed her head in acknowledgment and sauntered toward Annabel who was still lying face down.
With magic, Prescott turned her over, such that she faced the skies.
Emma, with her nose, moving by instinct, brushed Annabel’s forehead, with an intent to know. And suddenly the information ran in; the location of the institute, the paths they should follow, and the description of the institute.
‘Did you get it?’ Prescott asked her, when she stepped away from Annabel. She bowed again.
Emma watched, as Prescott wasted no time in lifting Annabel to her back. Her friend weighed nothing. Then Prescott walked up to Amelia, and did the same. She still felt nothing. And then he lifted himself to her back. Nothing still. It was like she was carrying nothing.
And then, Prescott, with a string borne from magic, tied the females and himself to Emma’s backside so that they wouldn’t fall if she started running. He didn’t know how fast she could run.
Emma didn’t know either. But if she could move fast as a plain human, then it would be the same in her wolf nature.
‘Are you ready?’ She asked this time around.
‘Yes. You can speed away.’
***
Casper’s ghost watched the mage lay flat and cold in the open grassland where they had stopped suddenly because the man had felt a breach in his spirit, and wondered if he should just do away with the latter, and continue on his mission. But if he did that, how would he get to his murderer?
Just as he thought of this, Slediv suddenly sat up like a robot would, and cursed loudly. “I will kill her! How dare she take a part of me?!”
Casper didn’t need to ask to know who the man had been speaking about. He knew it was his murderer.
So, he couldn’t fight her? How could he call himself a powerful mage then? Casper wondered, stepping away from the man when the latter stood to his feet.
“My link to her has been disconnected.”
“Totally?” Casper queried, remembering that the man had managed to discover the link after many attempts the first time.
“Yes. It was total this time around. She made sure of that.”
So, there was no need of keeping him alive then? Casper toyed with his hands. But suddenly he felt that he couldn’t move again.
“Take that thought of your head, ghost; and lead me to your Queen. I think we have a lot to discuss about.”