Highest rating: #19 in fantasy!
Edlyn has never fit in. With her unusual white hair and silver eyes, she sticks out from her village of brown. To make matters worse, unexplainable things tend to happen around her-things that she can't control. In a...
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The first rays of the sunrise bathe my skin in welcomed warmth when I return to the cave.
"He's still out," Rurrous informs me. I nod and take my spot beside Alec, cleaning the blood from his wounds as best I can with my hat. I bite down on my tongue. I've never been good with blood. Peter was always the one to clean me up when I hurt myself. But since he's not here, and Rurrous clearly isn't going to help me, I have to do it myself.
I set the hat to the side when I'm finished cleaning the wound and huddle against the cave wall, suddenly freezing. Thankfully, the nausea passes quickly.
With nothing else to do besides worry about Alec, I pull the scale out of my pants and hold it out in front of me. Rurrous makes a horrified choking sound when he sees it.
"Where did you get that?" he cries, his eyes wide. He moves away from me. I think I see his hands shaking.
"A woman gave it to me," I tell him. "I think she was a water fairy. She told me it will help Alec." Rurrous doesn't relax, and his reaction is beginning to worry me.
"That's a mermaid Scale," he says. His voice is low and trembling with terror. I give him a strange look. Mermaids. How could mermaids make him so afraid?
"Will it help him?" I ignore the subject of mermaids for now, focused only on Alec. Rurrous licks his lips and swallows audibly before answering.
"Those who are lucky enough to encounter a mermaid and live are often rewarded with its Scale. A mermaid has many scales, but only one gives the creature its unnatural strength and connection to the rest of its pod. Only one holds the magic that can do almost anything if used correctly." Rurrous slowly returns to his spot on the cave floor, never taking his eyes off the object in my hands. "And you, Edlyn, are holding the Scale of a dead mermaid."
I look down at the object sitting in my lap. The colors I'd been mesmerized by just moments before seem duller somehow. More sinister.
"So it will help him." I look to Rurrous for affirmation. He nods. "How do we get it to do that?"
Rurrous is quiet for a moment, stroking his beard anxiously. "I don't know," he says. I stare at him for a moment, and then drop my eyes.
"Okay." No big deal. All we have to do is get him to Mount Inferno. Once we get him there, he'll be fine. He'll be okay. I take a breath. "Plan B. We steal horses."
"But there's no one out here," Rurrous protests. He snorts. "Besides, you know, everything that wants to kill you."
I roll my eyes. "There will be travelers on the main road. It shouldn't be too far from here. All we have to do is—" I pause, realizing that I'm suggesting we steal a horse. Several horses. "—is borrow a few horses."
