Philo Amarus's Arc

Chapter 11 of 12

The path uphill was colder than Philo expected. Eris walked beside him with her stiff hand tucked against her ribs and the red gem swinging at her throat. He watched the pendant more than the trail. Its pulse had slowed since they left the pond. The pink light inside it looked thinner now, like a candle behind gauze. Eris was not talking. That was the worst part. He stopped her at a bend in the path and pulled the bundle from his satchel. His mother had pressed it into his hands months ago and he had never opened it. The purple cloth was warm to the touch, warmer than his palm, warmer than the air. He untied the knot enough to see the glow banked inside like coals that would not go out. He wrapped it around Eris's neck so the cloth cupped the gem against her collarbone. The pendant caught the heat at once. Its pulse steadied. Eris let out a breath and closed her eyes. "Better," she said. "But not enough. I can feel it still leaving." Philo looked up the slope. The spring was still far. Eris was walking slower with every step, and the warm cloth was a delay, not a cure. Then he heard hooves on stone above them. A small figure came down the path at a canter, white-winged, a single horn bright in the morning light. She drew up short when she saw them and folded her wings. "You are going to the pink spring," she said. It was not a question. "You will not make it at this pace." Philo did not ask how she knew. He said, "Can you carry her?" Celestia Starwing knelt on the path. "Both of you. Hold the cloth tight against the stone in her necklace. The cold gets worse near the top before it gets better." Philo lifted Eris onto Celestia's back and climbed up behind her. He pressed one hand over the wrapped gem at her throat and held her waist with the other. Celestia ran. The trees blurred. Halfway up the slope she turned off the main path toward a squat stone building Philo had not seen from below, a temple with a fire burning steady in its open hearth. "Not the spring yet," Celestia said. "The gem needs a real flame before the healer can work on her hand. Hestia's hearth will hold it." She stopped at the steps. Philo carried Eris up to the fire himself. He unwrapped the cloth and held the pendant close to the flame. The red inside the gem brightened. Eris's stiff fingers twitched against his arm, then curled. She looked at him and, for the first time since the chamber, smiled. The drain had stopped. The healer was still ahead of them, but the gem would last now.