Crown of Thorns

Chapter Fifteen

Far from camp, Day 73 A.F

-Never...I...-

The words spoken in my mind were soft and muffled. I could only find meaning in two as I stared at the injured man. A smile ghosted his lips and he hung from a tree, suspended by his ankle. I blinked the image away. There was no tree, only a dying man on the ground.

There certainly wasn't a smile upon his lips. His face was contorted in a grimace of pain, sweat beading down his tan forehead. Ragged breaths and tortured moans escaped his full lips, now pale and cracked from dehydration. I couldn't tell how long he'd been bleeding out under the blazing sun, but judging by the gaping wound in his side, he wouldn't survive much longer. Unless I could save him.

"Gladiator," I instructed the wolf. "Signal Tybira." Before I could wonder whether or not the canine could possibly understand me, his eyes turned a glowing red like Tybira's had before we escaped Amire's laboratory. Gladiator was merging senses with his master, Tybira seeing through his eyes.

The message presumably delivered, Gladiator's irises returned to their amber yellow color and the wolf sniffed at the injured man.

Swallowing my apprehension, I took a step closer, surveying his wounds. Blood streamed from his side, along with another sickly color that tinted the ragged skin. With a small gasp I realized that that same color stained the dead man's injury, mingling with the blood that coated the knife at the corpse's side. Were both men attacked with the same weapon? Poisoned somehow?

This man had evidently dragged himself away from the death, but in his injured haze had misstepped, his ankle catching in one of the wider crevices that lined the dry ground. I assumed he was too weak to free himself. Where would he go even if he could?

Gladiator dug around his ankle, tearing into the earth that bound him. I winced when the wolf's claws came away red. He'd accidentally scratched the poor man's skin.

Finally free, but still unresponsive, the man's breath came in ever weaker pants. I motioned for Gladiator to crouch down, a command the wolf somehow obeyed. With the help of the canine, I managed to haul the man onto Gladiator's shaggy back. I debated whether or not to remove the man's sword from its holster at his side, but with my coordination, I'd probably trip and cut off my own hand. The sword could remain temporarily; it wasn't as if its owner could wield it.

"Go slow," I warned, keeping my hands on the man's shoulders to keep him stable as we began to plod carefully back to where Tybira and Enki waited, hopefully now aware of the situation. Only now I was thankful Tybira's wolves were so large. A normal sized wolf wouldn't have been able to carry the wounded man.

Matthew... I certainly hope saving this person isn't a mistake. After the betrayals of Amire and Shiva, I was wary of strangers. I assumed this man had killed the African person Matthew had dubbed Kentarch, possibly with the same weapon that had caused his injury.

Whatever he'd desired to happen evidently set into motion, Matthew chose to remain silent. Still, I could sense his presence close at hand, watching me. I wondered if he could see through my eyes similarly to how Tybira saw through Gladiator's.

Moving slowly, it took quite some time before we neared our makeshift camp. I hadn't realized until I smelled the smoke of a campfire that I'd feared Enki and Tybira would take my absence as an opportunity to leave me. Needless worry, my companions remained. Even if Enki could persuade Tybira to leave me, Fauna would never abandon her wolf.