Yann turned a corner on the riverbank and hefted the skinned hog carcass higher on his shoulder. He caught Anríq grinning at him. “Do you want me to carry it for a while?” Anríq asked.

  “I’m fine,” Yann told him. “I don’t need you to rescue me from hard work.”

  Anríq laughed, but they both stopped when they rounded the bend and the Watchmen’s camp came in sight.

  The group had been camping here for a week while they waited for Barsali to recover.

  Eliska had been unconscious for the first two of those days. Now Barsali sat up by the fire. He still looked haggard and tired, but he would get stronger. He already looked better than when he first woke up.

  Yann stiffened when he saw Eliska sitting at the edge of the clearing. Yvan, Niyazi, Rien, and Omer sat around the fire talking to Barsali. Neils squatted by the stream cleaning a knife.

  Yann and Anríq had just parted from Vidal out in the trees. He was too busy hunting to come back to camp yet.

  Eliska sat apart from everyone and made no move to join them. She sat sideways and faced the nearby hills. She didn’t outright turn her back on everyone nor did she leave, but she didn’t talk to anyone or even look at the Watchmen, not even Barsali.

  She left for a full day after she healed Barsali. She used her magic to avoid anyone who went to look for her.

  Anríq explained a thousand times about how she took on Barsali’s Darkness to heal him, but the process still didn’t make any sense to Yann.

  Anríq couldn’t exactly explain how Wesh healed Eliska after she took Anríq’s Darkness to save his life, but Anríq couldn’t take hers to bring her back from this.

  She returned to camp surly, hostile, and aggressive when she bothered to talk to anyone at all. The Watchmen fell back on ignoring her whenever possible.

  She didn’t turn around when Yann and Anríq returned.

  Neils quartered Yann’s hog and put the meat on the spit. The Watchmen talked amongst themselves and didn’t try to include Eliska in their conversation.

  “Don’t push yourself too hard,” Yvan told Barsali. “We’re safe here for now. We don’t need to rush off before you get better.”

  “I’m all right,” Barsali insisted. “I can handle walking across country.”

  “You might not be able to handle fighting Darklings,” Niyazi pointed out. “Better for us to stay a few extra days and make sure you’re back to full strength.”

  “I don’t suppose it makes any difference where we go once we do move,” Yvan remarked. “We might as well scout the countryside and see if we can find any towns. We have nothing better to do until something else happens.”

  He turned around and called over his shoulder.

  “Do you have any ideas about where we should go, Eliska?” Yvan asked.

  “I don’t care,” she muttered. “Go where you want.”

  “I detected an area of powerful magic to the south,” Anríq chimed in.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  “Is it another collapsing landscape?” Omer asked.

  “No, it feels stable and healing to me. I think we should head for it.” His eyes darted sideways toward Eliska. “They’ll have powerful magic-users there. They might be powerful enough to help us.”

  “I suppose we have nothing to lose by trying.” Yvan leaned forward to take his portion of meat from Neils. “Maybe they’ll be powerful enough to keep their Island stable and stop it from collapsing.”

  Marine shrieked extra loudly just then and made everyone jump—everyone except Eliska. She kept her back to Marine all the time.

  The Watchmen stared across the river. Marine didn’t even see them.

  Neils went back to carving up the meat. He served all the Watchmen and then dumped a portion into a bowl carved out of wood.

  He carried it across the clearing and set it on the ground a few yards away from Eliska. She didn’t turn around to acknowledge him.

  He returned to the fire, prepared another bowl for Marine, crossed the stepping stones, and placed that bowl on the ground a little farther away from her.

  He returned to the fire and got to work cutting up the rest of the haunch. He didn’t see Eliska pick up her bowl and start eating without a word to anyone.

  Yann, Anríq, and the other men on his side of the fire were the only ones who saw Eliska take the food. Every night followed the same routine. She acknowledged the Watchmen as little as possible.

  Yann woke up every morning expecting her to be gone for good. He didn’t understand why she stuck around if she hated everyone so much.

  He had to continually remind himself that she got like this by saving Barsali’s life. She sacrificed her whole connection with the group and especially her deeper connections with Yann, Anríq, Barsali, and Yvan. She did all that to bring Barsali back.

  She must still care even though she did her best to act like she didn’t. She would have left long ago if she didn’t care.

  Yann really wished he could get close to her. He would give anything to make it okay for her, but Anríq kept saying no one could. She would carry that Darkness for life now. Nothing would ever take it away.

  Yann couldn’t accept that. He had to find some way to bring her back. She deserved that much. She deserved a lot more. He just didn’t know how to give it to her.

  He lost the thread of the conversation while he watched her and tried to figure it out.

  More noises from Marine brought him out of his thoughts. She emerged from the trees across the river, contorted her body into bizarre shapes, and the yowls and screeches coming from her got worse by the minute.

  Rien stood up. “She’s driving me crazy. We can’t stay here. If we’re going, let’s go right now. Why wait? Waiting will only get on our nerves even more.”

  Yvan shrugged. “I don’t suppose it matters very much.” He turned to Anríq. “Do you have any objections to leaving right away?”

  “I agree with Rien,” Anríq replied. “Traveling to this magical place may offer some benefits for us that we can’t find here.”

  Yvan nodded. “Let’s go, then. Pack up the rest of the food, Neils. We’ll wait for you to finish.”

  The process of breaking camp took longer, now that the Watchmen had more baggage. Neils divided the food into more than one hog hide package. Niyazi and Omer carried the other two.

  Vidal came back while they worked. He only nodded when he heard the news.

  The other Watchmen used the time to check, clean, and sharpen their weapons. Yann went over to Eliska, but he didn’t do anything to get her attention. Would she follow the group or stay behind? No one knew.

  He picked up the discarded wooden bowl Neils used to serve her meals. She jerked around to glare at Yann when he came up behind her.

  “We’re moving out soon,” he told her. “You’re coming with us, aren’t you?”

  She gave him a dirty look and turned the other way. “What difference does it make if I come with you? None of you wants me around anyway.”

  “Of course we do—and not because of the help you might give us with your magic. I keep telling you this and it’s even more important now because you’re hurting. You heard what Anríq said. These people where we’re going might be able to heal you.”

  “No one can heal me,” she snarled. “When are you going to realize that? I’m poison. I’ll always be poison. I was poison even before this happened.”

  “I don’t see it that way, but you…..”

  “That’s because you’re an idiot,” she snapped. “You don’t know anything about it. You don’t know anything about anything.”

  “I know you took this Darkness on yourself to save Barsali. I know you’re staying here with us right now because you still care about us and we still care about you. I know you probably don’t want to, but I really hope you come with us. You’ll be better off with us than by yourself. We might find another magic-user strong enough to heal you—or a bunch of magic-users strong enough to heal you. Wouldn’t that be worth it?”

  She didn’t answer him at all nor did she turn around. She kept her head turned so he couldn’t see her face.

  End of Chapter 16.

  ? 2024 by Theo Mann

  I post new chapters of The Corrupted Coil series on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday PST.

  Don't want to wait to read the rest of the book? You can purchase the completed book, the whole The Corrupted Coil Series, and the rest of Theo ’Manns work at Theo Mann’s Amazon Author Page.

  Read Tales From the Coil: The Calling for free!

  Get these episodes delivered to your inbox before anyone else sees them. Find out how on Patreon at .

  Thank you for reading and thank you for your support!