In Exchange for Magic

I crawled like I've never crawled before. Hurt and fear bubbled up in my stomach. I wasn't sure what I was going to do, but I knew that it would most likely involve killing the King.

I reached the end of the vent and busted it open with one strong kick. The metal covering bounced away and skittered across the floor. The guard who had been assigned to "get rid of them" had the elf girl slung across his left shoulder, and Ez over his right.

He turned around, and stared at me, confused as to why an angry girl had just popped out of the air vent. Within a matter of seconds, I leapt to my feet, snatched a decorative vase from the table across the hall, and swung it towards the guard's face.

In the split second before impact, I could see his face snap into fury. Then, as the vase smashed into his forehead, it melted into a dull complacent expression. To my surprise, the vase didn't shatter. It held strong... It was then that I realized that it was made of some sort of glittering metal. Probably gnome made...

The guard tipped backwards like a tree. I was tempted to yell, "Timber!"

He crashed into the floor, and Ez and the elf girl went with him. I winced as they hit too... But was relieved when the guard broke their fall.

I rushed over to the elf girl and gently slapped her face.

"Please be alive," I muttered. "Please be alive..."
Her eyelids fluttered and she murmured something that I couldn't understand.
"Hey... Hey..." I kept urging. "Hey... Wake up..."

She suddenly gasped, her hands flying to her stomach. Silver blood had soaked through the front of her shirt. She reached out and snatched my hand, digging into my flesh with her fingernails. By the look on her face, she was about to have a baby.

She let out a muted scream and the hole that had been ripped in her stomach glowed with a faint white light. I looked away, but I already knew what was happening. The folds of skin were stitching themselves together... I could hear it crawling. I nearly gagged.

She finally collapsed in exhaustion. Her stomach was unblemished. The had that she'd been squeezing, however, was not. Crescent-shaped impressions of her nails were branded on my skin. I dismissed them and helped her into a sitting position.

She was panting, but we both knew what we had to do. With our combined efforts, and a little lacking on her part - which, under the circumstances, was entirely understandable - we managed to lift Ez up off the ground.

His face was completely white. I hardly noticed where we were taking him, I was so concerned with his face. What little color that he'd had was gone. He shone with sweat and there was little to no blood dousing the front of his shirt... Indicating an instant death.

The elf girl bumped open a near-by door with her hip and we lugged Ez into a pink colored bathroom with an ocean theme. Wordlessly, the elf girl unbuttoned the front of Ez's shirt, placed her hands on his silver-soaked chest, and closed her eyes.

"Is he dead?" I choked.
"Yes," she replied.

In that instant, I completely forgot about his pale face. It was the gaping hole... The bundle of nerve endings and muscle tissue that was visible through the wound in Ez's heart. I didn't want to gag, like when I saw the elf's stomach wound. I wanted to cry.

The elf girl's hair had fallen out of her ponytail and hung ragged around her face. She looked slightly mad... With her glowing hands, her intense eyes, and the general tenseness of her entire body.

It was some time before Ez stirred.

"His finger twitched," I whispered, not daring to raise my voice with the excitement that was bubbling up from my toes.

The elf girl was silent. She gasped in a lungful of air and continued her Healing. Heavy bags sagged under her eyes and, for some reason, she looked thinner. I could tell that this was taking a lot out of her, and that she was giving this all she had.

I moved closer and placed my hand on her shoulder. She didn't acknowledge my touch, but a new vitality sprung to her face. Her youth came flooding back into her face and, with my tiny gesture of encouragement, she was able to create one last surge of power. White light exploded from her finger tips Ez's entire body was bathed in it. Her eyes widened and it was obvious that she'd never seen this before.

She was able to remain in control of her powers for a few seconds, but then it left her body. The light pushed outwards from her hands and the elf girl fell backwards, knocked on her rear end from the force of the it.

We both watched in amazement as the light lifted Ez from the ground. I realized that the light wasn't white... But rather green... And blue... And red... And yellow... A full spectrum of every single color, all fighting to keep Ez alive.

And, just as suddenly as it began, it stopped. Ez gasped his first breath of air in over ten minutes as the light dispersed and he dropped to the floor. He lay there, motionless, for a few seconds.

He scrunched his nose, his eyes squeezed shut.

"It can't be true, it can't be true," he chanted.

He clenched his fists and then slowly brought a hand to touch his face. He gasped when he could feel his own fingers on his cheeks. He opened his eyes and turned to look at me and the elf girl.

We were backed into a corner, squished together from the force of the light.

"Hi," Ez croaked.

And with that, we both scrambled frantically towards him. The elf girl threw herself into his stomach, sobbing indecipherable words into his shirt. I took his head in my arms and squeezed, burying my face in his hair and babbling about how stupid he was and how much I hated him.

"Ouch!" he rasped.

The elf girl and I both let go of him, blurting out apologies.

"It hurts to talk," he managed, rubbing his throat. "Scratch that. Everything hurts."
"You've been dead for about five minutes," the elf girl panted. I shot her a look.

"Dead?" he gasped, closing his eyes. "Then how am I..."
"I kissed you," the elf girl reminded him. "I figured that it would make you more elf... It was just a hunch - I didn't know if it would work. A last ditch attempt, I guess."
Ez seemed to think about that. "You gave me Healing powers?"
"Yeah..." she mumbled. "It was only just enough to keep you alive. Well, not even alive. Just a small sliver of life..."

I shivered, thinking about the white light that the elf girl had somehow conjured out of Ez. She'd had to expand that little sliver of life that had been left in him.

Ez sat up, and seemed surprised when he found that his rib had been healed.

"Dead," he muttered, as if trying to get used to the idea. "I wish I could remember it... It would make an excellent book."
"Ez!"
"They would sell like hotcakes."
"Why would you want to remember how it felt like to be dead?" I cried, my voice hitching to a pitch that was almost hysteric. "Forget it! Never think about it again!"
"You okay?" Ez asked gently, abandoning his joke.
"Am I okay?" I hissed. "I just watched the both of you die!"

He made a move to put a hand on my shoulder, but his arm flopped down to his side. His eyes widened and he tried again... Failing miserably.

"I... I can't move!" he whined, looking to the elf girl with horror.
She shrugged. "I don't know! You've been dead for-"
"Stop!" I yelled.
"Well, he was! maybe he's just weak from it!"
"Calm down!" Ez soothed. "I'll be okay."

I felt stress rising into my throat.

"We have to get out of here," I whispered, suddenly aware that we were all in grave danger. "If they've found the unconscious guard, they'll know that you two got away."
"Unconscious guard?" Ez questioned.
"Rose did it," the elf girl informed him, pointing to me.
"Go Rose!"
I shook my head. "Nows not the time for that... Even if it was pretty awesome... No, focus! We've each got a price on our heads, we're in a castle full of people who want us killed in slow and painful ways, and Ez can't even walk, let alone run out of here."

The elf girl scowled.

Ez, on the other hand, smiled wide.

"What are you grinning at, Sullivan?" I barked.
"I am so smart!"
I rolled my eyes. "Try and be a little serious, okay Ez?"
"I am completely serious!" he laughed. "Rose, look at yourself!"

I looked down at my maid's uniform.

"You're in the perfect disguise," Ez continued. "It's all up to you, Sweet."