War of the Realms by Kate O'Hearn

Author:Kate O'Hearn [O'Hearn, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

20

THE SOUNDS OF HUSHED VOICES drew Freya from sleep. As she came to the surface of consciousness, pain was the first sensation to greet her. It reminded her that she was still alive, but in Muspelheim. Her face felt hot and swollen, and her eyes were puffy and difficult to open.

“Freya!” Orus cawed. “Archie, everyone—she’s awake.”

Freya was lying on her side, her burnt wings fanned out behind her. She winced as she tried to move her hand to get up. The skin on the back of her hand was blistered and peeling.

“Take it easy,” Quinn said, gently but firmly pushing her back down. “You’re covered in burns. Just lie still for a bit longer.”

“How long . . . ?” Freya coughed and tried to speak through swollen lips and a scorched throat. “How long asleep?”

“All day,” Archie said. “The rain stopped, and now it’s dark out.”

“Too long,” Freya rasped. She pushed past Quinn’s hand and climbed unsteadily to her feet. She was dizzy and had to lean against the wall to keep from falling. The pressure of standing was making her skin throb, and the pain was nearly unbearable. She tried to fold in her wings, but it was agony. Not only were her wings badly burned, but her back was as well.

When Skye offered her another cup of green liquid, she shook her head. “Can’t. It will make me sleep again. We don’t have time. We must go.”

Archie shook his head. “You can’t go anywhere yet. You should see yourself, Gee. You’re a big, walking red blister!”

“Believe me, I feel worse on the inside than I look on the outside,” Freya rasped. “But we don’t have time to waste.”

“You need to heal, Freya,” the sergeant insisted. “You’re no good to this unit as you are.”

“And the war will be lost if we don’t get moving while it’s still dark out. Orus and I have seen where we need to go, and it’s a long way from here. There are giant settlements everywhere. We must leave now if we want to avoid being seen.” She looked at Skye. “Is there something you can give me to take away the pain but leave me awake?”

Skye looked at Quinn and he nodded.

“It won’t take away all the pain; only sleep can do that. But it will be diminished,” Skye said. “And you will heal faster.”

“That’s all I need.”

After Freya drank the new brew, she watched the others pull on strange-looking shoes. Archie brought a pair to her.

“What are these?”

“Skye and Quinn made them from the discarded bark of the Yggdrasil root. Look, this bark hat has been covered in acid rain, but the water didn’t hurt it.”

Quinn nodded and held up a strange, wide-brimmed hat. “When the storm was at its worst, I went out and tried it. The water couldn’t penetrate it, and these bark shoes will protect our feet in the same way.”

Freya looked at the odd shoes and strange wooden hats the others were pulling on. “I wish you’d thought of this before I went flying.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.