The Seventh Sun by Lani Forbes

Author:Lani Forbes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Published: 2019-12-19T18:00:34+00:00

Chapter

28

Ahkin ran up the steps to the royal residences, taking two at a time. When he finally reached the doorway of Coatl’s room, he wrenched the red curtain aside without bothering to announce himself.

Mayana was lying on a woven mat with a cushion propped under her dark hair. Her head thrashed from side to side, eyes closed and brow damp with perspiration. The breaths escaping her lips sounded ragged and harsh. Ahkin didn’t understand. Hadn’t Atanzah said she was healed? Why did she still seem so ill?

Coatl sat hunched at her side, holding her still as he applied some kind of salve to the massive swelling on her lower leg.

“Coatl!” Ahkin meant his voice to sound forceful, authoritative. Instead it trembled with anxiety. “What’s wrong with her? What … what’s happening?”

He rushed forward and cradled Mayana’s head in his hands as her eyes rolled and fluttered under her eyelids, unseeing. He rubbed a thumb gently across her warm cheek, panicked at the fever scorching her skin. Her head continued to loll between his hands, and the muscles of her arms and legs twitched as though she were being shocked by a lightning fish.

“It’s the poison.” Coatl frowned down at her form.

“I thought your sister healed her,” Ahkin shouted, confusion mingling with his fear and making him unreasonably furious.

Coatl turned to face the prince, his eyes full of repressed impatience.

“She did, my lord.” He drew out the title like stretching tree sap. “But you see, when you heal a wound, as my sister did, with poison still coursing through the body, it does not exactly help.”

“What? What do you mean?” Ahkin’s gaze fell to the wound on Mayana’s leg. A fresh gash oozed blood into a bowl positioned beneath her calf. The blood of the goddess Atlacoya, the blood of the girl he wanted to marry.

Coatl let out an impatient sigh. “I am draining the wound and attempting to draw out the poison with the power in my own blood.” He lifted his palm to show the prince his own small cut. “It has spread extensively throughout her system, as I am sure you can see.” Coatl motioned toward her twitching arms.

“Will she be alright?” Ahkin’s heart raced as he attempted to read every grimace on Coatl’s face. Anything that might give him the answer he sought.

Coatl pursed his lips, his brow furrowing. “I think so. We will have to see if she survives the night, I think, before I can know anything for sure.”

“I will stay with her until she is completely healed.” Ahkin reached for her hand and held it steady within his own.

“Of course, you will.” The healer sighed.

Ahkin narrowed his eyes dangerously. “Watch your impertinence,” he snapped.

“But of course, my lord.” Coatl’s voice became as slick and sweet as agave syrup. “I only live to serve you.”

Ahkin shifted his shoulders uneasily. What had become of his friend who loved to play tricks on the servants and flirt with the girls Ahkin was always too afraid to talk to? Coatl had changed much in the recent months.

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