Chapter 36 - Left Loose

My arm is no longer my own, it has become a vessel for a suffering I thought I had left behind.
The viscous, violet fluid continues to weep from the newly opened wounds. A rancid odor diffuses from my old scars, tracing the familiar, hated patterns. It’s the scent of my own trauma, given form and substance. 
The child on my right arm is silent, clutching to my bundle of clothes as I clasp to him.
His tiny, desperate hold for comfort, is the only thing that is stopping my mind from shattering. 
For him, I have to move. For him, I have to endure.
My gaze snaps from my grotesque arm to the path ahead. 
“Let stone be cloud, let tether be freed…” I gasp, the incantation a ragged, desperate prayer. The silver light flickers around my legs, weaker than before, tainted by the storm raging in my soul.
I run. The world becomes a smear of orange, black, and lilac as the glow on my arm intensifies. Every stride sloshes the purple poison. 
 I hold the boy tighter, his warmth a fragile shield against the despair seeping from my own skin.
We continue to pass scenes of impossible horror. I force myself to look away, to focus only on the small life in my arms.
The northern gate is visible now, a dark slash in the burning horizon. We’re so close. But the path is not clear. A small pack of the insectoid creatures, feasting on the remains of a cart horse, turn their multifaceted eyes towards us. Their chittering rises in pitch, a sound of discovery.
There are five of them. My arm throbs, a venomous pulse that saps my will. It feels like it’s consuming me from the inside out.
A figure arises from the alley to my left, a gale of steel and fury. It’s Riel. 
His face is marked with soot and blood. He moves with a desperate, deadly grace, his sword a blur of silver light that cleaves through the creatures’ carapaces.
He dispatches two before the others can react, his movements economical and brutal. His grief for Anya has been forged into a weapon, and it is terrible and beautiful to behold.
The remaining three swarm him. He ducks under a scything claw, his sword gutting one from below, but another latches onto his other arm, its mandibles trying to penetrate his armor. He barks with pain, and stumbles.
He’s going to be overwhelmed. The boy in my arms is crying again, his tears soaking into my tunic.
My choice is simple. Run, and save this one life. Or stay, and risk everything to save another.
I gently set the child down behind the relative cover of an overturned water trough. "Stay here. Don't look." I command, my voice gaining a sliver of authority I didn't know I possessed.
I turn back to the fight. Riel is on one knee, fending off the last two creatures. I raise my right hand, the one that isn’t a monument to my own self-destruction. 
“Broken flesh with skin that’s torn,
I see the path where pain is born.
The blood that flows, a weeping red,
A wound that fills with daunting dread.
Our wall is breached, our gates undone,
Our vital warmth is forced to run.
He knows the sting, he feels the shock,
A broken memory in a living clock.
But fear will fade and doubt will cease,
I offer now a gentle peace.
Let blood be calmed and skin be bound,
A perfect whole, both safe and sound.
I call the flesh to mend its part,
With all the body’s knowing art.
Let living threads now weave you true,
And make the broken whole anew.
With no faint trace of what has been,
Let perfect health now be seen.”
A perfect turquoise light blossoms above my palm and finds its path to Riel.
The creatures snap towards me, letting go of Riel’s leg. 
Riel looks at me, shellshocked. 
The creatures let out a high-pitched, metallic screech as they begin their pursuit of me. I can’t see their movements, they flash before my eyes as if I am not experiencing this moment.
I’ve felt this before. I try to move my legs but they give way. I’m still conscious.
I can hear the parade of a thousand legs against the ground.
This is it. I did it, I saved another.
I close my eyes in hopes my demise is quicker if I can’t see it.
I feel a strange warmth splash onto my face and neck. My body must not be able to tolerate any more pain and refuses to send the signal to my brain.
“Shikara! Shikara! Wake up!” I hear his screams.
My body refuses to open my eyes but I push through.
I find both the boy and Riel at my side. Then a new smell finally hits me. It smells like ammonia, I look down to a sea of red across my clothes.
“You’re alive! You have to try to get up, we need to get out of here, it's not safe!” He continues to scream despite me being so close.
I try to move my limbs but they feel nailed to the ground. “C-carry me.” I manage to make my lips utter the words. 
“I’m not sure I can, I’m going to have to drag you.” I hear his reply but I can’t respond.
I feel his hands hook under my arms, his grip clumsy but strong. He begins to pull. 
The world lurches, as the rough texture of the cobblestones catch against my sandals. 
The boy looks at me as he hitches a ride on Riel’s other hand, stumbling along with me.