By the Skin of Our Teeth

[skyler manfield]

“’M alright,� her lips were growing numb, her words becoming slurred as she righted herself, not wanting to admit how grateful she was Cael had caught her before she hit the ground. She might not have had the strength to pull herself back up if she had. As it was, it was a struggle to get the lightweight silk coat around her shoulders, only one arm in the sleeve. The briefest thought crossed Skyler’s mind that she would ruin the thin material, but as she shivered in the chill of the prison, she figured maybe Hawk could buy him a new one. At the sound of guards shouting, not too far away, she amended her promise to herself, to include - if they survived.

Inhaling raggedly, the assassin glanced at Cael, finding it impossible to focus on his face or his words. It was all she could do to remain upright, and almost as if she only heard every third or fourth word he said. She drew her brows together and focused on his mouth and made out the word “captain.�

“Dunworry…� she mumbled almost incoherently, “Rez dead. Bled out or… suffocated.�

Closing her eyes, Skyler allowed her shoulders to slump, her thoughts falling apart and drifting in different directions like leaves across the surface of a pond. The sting of Cael’s fingers against her cheek was almost missed, but his words were encouraging - he was taking responsibility for getting them out - surely she’d done enough, and gotten them this far.

“Seven faint this red cat…� the words coming out of her mouth made no sense to Skyler, and she frowned, glad when Cael opened the door and pulled her behind him across the hall. The sound of panicked guards and stomping boots roared behind the ringing in her ears, and she focused inward on trying to keep upright.

When she opened her eyes enough to actually look around her again she had to reach out and lean against Cael, it was almost pitch black, and her eyes took painfully long to adjust to the miniscule amount of light that crept under the door. Apparently Cael was more resourceful than she thought, because a key was jammed into the lock of the heavy wooden barrier, and her mind seemed to remember that this might keep whoever was chasing them, out.

The glint of crystal in the too dim light was barely enough to catch her attention for a brief moment, and she tried to focus on it as her body began to tremble, shivering not only from cold but almost as though it wanted to break into tiny pieces and lay shattered at Cael’s feet. His voice was so far away, she almost thought that might already be the case, but suddenly she was shoved into a furnace and her resulting cry was lost somewhere in the blinding light that seared her eyes shut.

It was as if the fire of this place was made of ice, and injected directly into her veins. It oozed through her heart, and she choked back a scream that didn’t leave her lips. Skyler prayed for the first time in her life, begging to the gods that she could just die. She wondered for a moment if she already had - what if this was hell? How many people had she killed to deserve this?

Her mind circled round and round the all-consuming pain, and suddenly it stopped. The light changed, and she opened her eyes, her knees buckling as she cast forward and, unable to catch herself, felt the frozen wetness of untouched snow. If it hadn’t been so unbearably cold on her face, Skyler may have laid there face-down in the snow, but instead she forced herself onto her back.

Cael was on his knees beside her already, and she wheezed in a meager breath of chill air, staring at where his face should have been. He was just a silhouette though, the snow-laden clouds a steely grey that shone with the reflected light of the setting sun. Between his head and the sky, stretched the skeleton-like bones of whatever building they had ended up in somehow. Skyler turned her head to one side to look around her, but she never did quite figure out where they were.

Instead, her back suddenly arched, eyes rolling back into her head. Her heels rattled the snow away as they pattered rhythmically down into the rubble beneath. Her awareness was so vague, she only thought the poison was tearing her body apart, and would leave bloody fragments of her to stain the snow crimson in her memory. When the spring came, her memory would be forgotten. Her teeth ground together, and her head pounded against the ground painfully.

Nearly a quarter of an hour later, the convulsions finally stopped, and Skyler, gasping for air, found herself in Cael’s lap. His arms were so much warmer around her than she thought possible, and the sun had set enough that she could vaguely see the concern in his pale blue eyes.

Taking a final, desperate breath, as though to say something, Skyler conceded to unconsciousness, unable to fight it any longer. As she slipped into something between sleep and death, she swore she heard Hawk’s voice. Too bad, he’s too late, her mind laughed, almost as an afterthought