Page 186 of Starside

Maybe … maybe we really aren’t as different as we both like to think we are.

I sheath my blade, and finally, I start to move again, eyes on the grass. My skin still prickles with shame.

He doesn’t need to look at me for us to continue this journey. His notice doesn’t matter. We aren’t friends. We aren’t anything but unlikely and begrudging companions. After we reach the Land of the Gods, we’ll never see each other again. That, I’m sure of.

And I don’t know why that thought makes my stomach twist.

I’m so lost in my head, that I don’t even hear the hissing, not until it’s so loud, it’s impossible not to notice.

I squint. I take a step forward, reaching back for my blade, only to stop in front of a long, coiled snake with sparkling silver scales.

It reminds me of the one in the maze. The one that looked at me, with far too much awareness.

This one does too. Its forked tongue flicks out, and then it rises, inch by inch, until it nearly reaches my height. It stares at me with bright silver eyes, rimmed in red. I inhale sharply. I know those eyes.

I’ve seen them before.

A flash of memory shocks me still. Silver-red eyes, burning through the fire. Silver hair, floating as she—

Far ahead, Raker has turned.

“Aris,” he yells. “Aris, don’t—”

Whatever he says fades away when the serpent lunges—and bites the place between my neck and shoulder.

A rattling, otherworldly pain fills me. I gasp, then seize, falling to the ground, my limbs going numb.

There’s the slice of a blade, and the hissing stops.

White-hot agony blinds my senses. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever felt before.

Everything—my nerves, my voice, my skin, the world—is screaming.

Then, like blowing out a candle, it all goes silent.

33

I wake up soaked in sweat. And I’m moving.

Strong arms are encircling me.

I tense, and look up, only to see Raker’s hood.

“It bit—” I say, my voice raw, like it’s been dragged across a rock face.

“You’ll live,” he snaps, with more than a hint of regret.

Was he able to find a cure? Did my body overcome the snake’s poison?

Raker won’t answer any of my questions anyway, so I close my mouth to conserve my voice. It’s only a few minutes later that he drops me onto a cave floor.

“Sleep,” he snaps at me. And then he disappears through the entrance.

I wake up with a pulsing headache, but better. Able to move. There’s a pile of berries next to me and a mound of mushrooms next to that. A pouch of water is right by my head.

Raker. He must have foraged for them while I slept. I look around—

And that’s when I see him. Slumped against the wall.