Two men hung from poles, their bodies drooping against the ropes that held them up. Sai hooked his trident through the ropes that bound one of the captives. Sage caught the heavy man as he slumped forward. Zane and Trace cut down the other man. Both men were alive, but they’d been horribly tortured. Even in unconsciousness, the men flinched as the warriors inadvertently touched their raw wounds. Strange symbols and words had been carved and burned all over their chests and backs.
Zane could smell their burnt flesh. Anger blazed in his eyes. What kind of monsters would do such a thing? He didn’t like killing, but Zane had taken out monsters before to save himself and others. Guilt always plagued him afterwards. But there was no way he would feel sorry about killing these lizard-creatures in battle! No way!
“RYO! Ryo, in here!” Mia stood in the doorway of a crude hut, stunned by what she saw. The people from the expedition were tied up on the floor, fear radiating from them. She saw Uli’s mother in a corner. Mia shook herself and rushed in to help. The others were right behind her. They all started cutting the people loose and checking their wounds.
Mi knelt next to Uli’s mom, noticing the vicious red marks on her neck. “Are you all right?”
The voice that answered her was a squeaky whisper. “I’ll be ok. But Uli…” She got up and rushed to the corner where Uli’s body lay still in the shadows. Mia was right behind her. “He hasn’t…woken up since…they dragged us…in here. Not even…moved.” She struggled to say the words her injured throat tried to prevent.
“Shhh. Don’t talk. He’ll be ok. A few of the people with me are healers. They’ll help him.” Uli’s dad came over and put his arms around his wife, rocking her gently. She burst into tears.
Mia scanned the room. “Astarte! We need your help.” Astarte was there in a flash. “How are the other captives?”
“Mostly minor injuries that Trace, Sage, and I can heal. Why?”
“Could you help Uli? Please. He needs attention badly. We haven’t moved him in case he has a neck injury.”
Astarte saw the naked need in Mia’s eyes. “I will do what I can.” Astarte put her hand on Uli’s back gently. She was relieved. His injuries weren’t too bad from her perspective—a concussion, a broken arm, moderate burns and abrasions. Nothing she couldn’t fix with a bit of effort. Astarte concentrated on the worst injuries first, feeling her own power and that of the Jewel meshing and reaching out. He would be tired and weak for a while after she finished. So would she for that matter. Healings took more energy out of her than anything else—perhaps because she was actually infusing the other person with her own life energy. Life energy was always slow to replenish.
Uli was healing nicely, but…Astarte frowned. He wasn’t waking up. He should be looking up at her right now with that bright grin of his. Something wasn’t right. She looked deeper, deeper. Poison! In his blood, mixing with every cell! She hurriedly sent her energy coursing through his body to combat the poison. The poison resisted her like a living thing, struggling to push her power back. She forced more energy into him. All of a sudden, Uli’s whole body started to shake.
Mia’s eyes were wild with fear. “What’s wrong! What’s wrong!?”
Astarte swore in ancient Phoenician. The clash of her energy and the poison were too much for Uli’s body to handle. All his organs had started to shut down! She managed to stabilize him by placing his whole body in magical stasis. With no cell movement, no fluids flowing, the poison wouldn’t be able to spread anymore. She just couldn’t completely expel it from his system. If she tried, the cure would kill the patient. Whatever this poison was, it was resistant. Maybe another god of healing could help…or maybe modern medicine knew tricks that her magic did not.
“Astarte! Please! What just happened?”
She became aware of several eyes staring at her.
“Shouldn’t he be awake by now? Is something wrong?”
Astarte sighed. With a heavy heart she explained what had happened. Trace and Sage also had some healing powers so Astarte tried to mesh her power with theirs in various combinations, then by themselves. Nothing worked.
Uli’s parents sat like stone, staring as if none of what happened had been real. Mia went to them. “We’ll find a way to help. We all have to trust that there is a cure and that we can find it. We have to hold onto that.”
Something in her words punched a hole in their bubble of reality. They looked over at their little boy as if the horrible truth were finally sinking in. What if no one could find a cure? Uli’s mother cried and cried as his father buried his face in his wife’s hair, shaking. Mia could not stop her own tears. Ryo was beside her in an instant, his own tears flowing freely.
The others stood around them in shock. Not Uli. Not their favorite little tag-a-long. Nothing like this was ever supposed to happen to him.
Kento grabbed Zoe and held her tight, his voice a hoarse whisper. “We’re the strongest bunch of people in the world, Zoe. We’ve beaten some of the meanest, evilest creeps that ever tried to take over the world. But what good is it if we can’t save…What good is strength against something stupid like poison?”
Zoe looked him straight in the eye, a fierce glint in her own. “We will help Uli! Don’t give up on him already. He’s strong on the inside. Sometimes that’s better than physical strength. And with all of us looking after him, there’s no way we’re going to lose him. You hear me? No way!”
The corner of Kento’s mouth quirked up a bit at that. Her determination was one of the things he loved most about her. She never gave up. “You’re right! We’re the Ronins and the Sentinels. Nothing can keep us down for long—especially not our junior Ronin.”