Eyes of Emerald

Chapter 20 - Poisoned

  "Wait, Wynn has a...a father? He never-" I protested, my head whirling. Celie looked sad, her liquid green eyes filling with tears. 

        "He...never mentioned his family to anyone." she told me quietly. "We all assumed they were killed in the battle - most of us here are orphans from the battle that killed most of the Shifters." 

        I frowned slightly, biting my lip. I didn't want to set her off again, but I had to know. I had to know a lot of things! I couldn't remember anything after running into a horde of strange...goblin-like things. 

        "What happened?" I asked again, grasping in the dark corners of my mind for anything that could help me remember. Why couldn't I remember? 

        "I told you." Celie said, her eyes welling up in tears once more. 

        "No, not about the battle." I said quickly. "Why can't I remember?" Her face clouded over like a storm coming down from the North, blanketing the world in shadow. 

        "You..." she hesitated. "You were cut by a Goblin's spear. Its tip was made of all the weaknesses of LowerLanders - you know, silver for werewolves, iron for Faeries, copper for Warlocks, lead for Elementals, cobalt for Witches and Gold for Shifters, and - and you had a bad reaction to the poison. One of the effects of too much gold on a Shifter is that their memory can be lost." Celie explained. "The purple phlegmy stuff was the stuff produced by the gold." 

        I blinked. 

        "Wait, what?" Celie sighed dramatically, and I'm not surprised. It was a long list. 

        "All LowerLanders have their own weaknesses. You didn't think we were invincible, did you?" she laughed slightly at this. I didn't. "Anyway, each of us have our own weakness. They're all metals, and I'm sure you've heard of werewolves and silver." 

        I nodded mutely. "Anyway, that Goblin's spear was tipped with a mix of all these metals." 

        "No wonder gold earrings made my ears all infected," I murmured. Whenever I had worn gold earrings, my ears and neck had swollen up and I had had to go to hospital, where they couldn't explain it. They told me I had an allergy, and so since then I had worn silver. 

        "You've always been showing signs of being a Shifter you know. You just didn't look for them." Celie smiled. I nodded tiredly, all this talking and thinking had made me want to wink beneath the covers and fall asleep. 

        But I couldn't sleep yet. I had to know what had happened...what had happened to Angel.

        "What about...Angel? And Iris and Ffi?" I asked, my words slurring slightly. Celie took a deep breath. 

        "Angel and Ffi are still recovering. They were both badly hurt. Iris is fine, she managed to only get an arrow wound. Unfortunately, they're the most painful wounds, so she's been crying every time she wakes up." she sighed, and I saw how tired she looked. 

        "You should get some sleep, you look exhausted." I told her, and she smiled slightly. 

        "Thanks. I'll be..." she yawned and stretched. "I'll be over here in case you need me." she wandered off to a spare bed that had bloodstains on the usually pristine sheets, but I doubt they were Celie's top priority at the moment. She looked dead on her feet. 

        I stared up at the ceiling and wondered how many other signs of a Shifter I had shown. Maybe I had always shown Shifter signs, just never noticed them. Who else knew about me being a Shifter? 

        I frowned, flashes of memory flying through my head like the tattered remains of a flag that's been through a hurricane and is still flying but with only part of it left. 

        Ffi, her face set in a grimace, with fire all over her arms and blood pouring from her stomach. 

        Angel, lying helpless on the ground, her eyes closed. 

        Wynn, walking to a man who leant on a long, blood-stained sword as if it were the only thing holding him to life. 

        Wynn. 

        My heart squeezed in my chest, and tears came to my eyes. I missed him so much, he would have made everything so much better if he was still here. 

        Suddenly it came to me, and I leant back against my pillows in shock. 

        Wynn knew about me being a Shifter. 

        But Wynn was with the King. Who would eventually find out about me. 

        Oh my God. 

        How long did I have? Should I run? He would attack again, and I couldn't let my friends all die for me. I couldn't. 

        I just couldn't.