I knew we should leave, but I didn't want to break the silence. Not when she had needed it for so long. After a few more moments she broke it for me.
"We should go." Her voice was soft and whispery, almost raspy. A casualty of the sobs that had been wrecking her body for gods knew how long now.
I wanted to question her. To ask how long it had been since he'd taken her. But I didn't need to. He was dead now and though the anger toward him still boiled within me, my lust for his death was satiated, just as the [Lust of the Blood Dragon] had been.
Still holding onto Irinda's hand, I turned away from the burning body and led her into the tunnel. We walked in silence for a while.
"I'm sorry he found you." I finally said, glancing over at her.
She nodded. "It isn't your fault. Thank you for coming for me. I… I didn't think I'd get away again."
Her fingers tightened around my hand and I offered a reassuring squeeze of my own. "I would have come for you. I always will." I promised.
Our eyes met for a moment, understanding passing between them, and then she smiled. A warm smile that made her glow despite the disheveled look that she carried.
It faded a moment later as another problem settled over us.
"Is Will okay?" Irinda's voice was heavy with concern.
I faltered in my steps. Will. I had forgotten about the man in my fight to catch Brin and free Irinda. It was a sinking feeling to realize that he had slipped from my mind so easily. There was a time that I would have remembered ever person fighting alongside me. So why was it different now?
"He… he's okay, I think. They drugged him and beat him pretty bad. He was alive and fighting the drugs when I saw him last. He said there was an antidote, so we might be able to find it at the inn once we get back." I hadn't thought of checking Brin's body for it, but I didn't mention that to Irinda. It was unlikely he'd been carrying it on him anyway.
We picked up our pace at that, not quite running but not casually strolling through the flickering light of the tunnels, either. When we reached the junction room I led Irinda into the tunnel that led back to the inn, and several minutes later we were back in the basement.
She gasped when she first saw Will, his body pressed against the central column, hands tied around it. She rushed forward, dropping to her knees beside him. His head lolled to the side and he looked up at her with hazy eyes.
"What did they do to you?" She asked. I couldn't tell if she actually expected him to answer or not.
He didn't give one. Her eyes turned back to me.
"Is there anything you can do?"
I shook my head slowly. "Not unless we can find the antidote. I mean, without knowing what they used, I don't think Henrietta could heal him, and even if she could, we can't really get her to him." I wasn't wholly sure on that second part, but it seemed reasonable. And carrying someone like Will all the way to Henrietta's shop wasn't going to be easy, neither would bringing her here. Damned lockdown.
"I'll look around for anything like an antidote," I said, turning to the stairs that led up into the inn. I climbed the stairs up into the kitchen. The room was more of a bustle now than it had been before. I saw the serving woman that had questioned me before as she walked back out, carrying a tray of bowls and mugs. Another girl, this one was short with blonde hair and bright blue eyes, was checking the large pot that hung near the coals in the hearth. She stirred something in it.
"Oi, you," she said as I came up the stairs. "Have you seen Master Brin?"
"He's gone and he won't be coming back." I told her and shuffled past. I made for the only other door in the room that I hadn't been to yet. It was locked, so I took out a lockpick and popped it into the keyhole. This time the process was much easier and the lock clicked open within a few moments.
"You can't go in here!" the blonde woman said, leaving behind her pot to walk over to me.
She made like she intended to stand in my way and I held out a hand in her direction, summoning [Dragon's Palm] as I did. Each time I used the ability it was becoming more natural. It still wasn't as natural as breathing fire from my mouth had been, but I had a feeling I would get there eventually.
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"I can go where I want," I told her, not even looking in her direction. "I suggest you stay out of my way and talk to Irinda about things if you disagree."
I let the fire die and pushed through the door.
The room beyond was exactly what I expected. I'd known that there was a master bedroom of sorts in the inn thanks to my time spent within it in my previous life. Just like Brin's demeanor seemed to suggest, his greed also translated to the way he decorated.
Paintings held within frames that were lined with gaudy-looking gold filligree covered the walls, and a massive four-poster bed sat in the center of everything. Dark purple curtains, also enlaid with golden thread, lined the walls between the paintings, and even the desk and the chair behind it were extravagant in their own manner. It was like walking into a room in a palace. One for dignitaries that was meant to showcase the wealth of the nation they were visiting.
In a way, it was almost like he had kept his hoard here. There were even chests of jewels and other items littering one of the corners, a sight that immediately made my heart beat faster, the treasures calling to me. I would have to go through all of them to be sure of what they were, but just looking at them in passing, I could make a guess about how Brin had managed to keep the inn operational for so many years.
For now, I turned my attention to the desk, crossing the room and stooping down to look through the drawers. There were stacks of papers on the top of the desk, some outlining the inn's various incoming shipments—a brief look over a few of the pages confirmed my suspicions about Brin's usage of the tunnels that ran beneath The Slumbering Drake—and the drawers were full of various baubles. I had almost given up when I finally opened the third to last drawer. In it, several vials stood within a wooden case, all propped up so they wouldn't spill.
They were all corked, and I could see that four of the eight vials in the case were empty save for a couple of drops of a reddish liquid. It was almost the same color as the health tonics that Henrietta had given me, but it was a shade darker. As if something were wrong with it. I used [Insight] on it and shuddered.
Vial of Blackleaf Extract – A tonic made using the poison extracted from the highly venomous blackleaf during the peak of its growth season. Extremely deadly if an antidote is not administered within six hours. Causes the body to slowly turn on itself, leading to internal bleeding and organ shutdown.
It had been years since I'd seen a blackleaf. The growing of the plants had actually been outlawed throughout the empire thanks to a ploy over 1500 years before that had seen human leaders taking each other out using the poison.
If this was what Brin had given Will, then that meant we didn't have much time to act, especially since I couldn't be sure how long it had been since he'd been administered the last vial.
I checked the rest of the vials in the case, finding that each one was the exact same. So where was the antidote?
Panic began to set in. Not for myself, but panic over how Irinda might react to watching her cousin's body literally stop working in front of her. I'd seen someone die to a blackleaf bite once. Even in their earliest stages, the plants were extremely toxic. The woman's death had been excruciating to watch, the blood eventually pooling out of her eyes as she struggled to take any breaths. I shuddered again, involuntarily, and pushed the thought away.
I needed to find the antidote.
I left the desk behind, checking through the chests that were in the corner. Each one contained various bits of gold and jewels, and some even contained maps of the distant parts of the empire. I didn't look too deeply at the maps, but I did make a mental note to return to them later.
After I'd gone through everything I could find, I turned back to the room and let out a long sigh. I hadn't found any sign of an antidote anywhere in Brin's things, and if he had had one on him, then it was already ash. I turned back to the kitchen and retracted my steps down to the basement.
Irinda had already managed to untie Will from the column, and while he was a good deal more lucid now, he still had a hazy look to his eyes and smears of red along his cheeks. He coughed, his hand moving to his mouth.
"Any luck?" Irinda asked, looking up as I came down the stairs.
I shook my head. "I checked everywhere in his room. I found the poison, but no antidote. I don't think he had anymore of it."
She let out a shocked little gasp and turned back to Will, who was taking it all in stride considering the glob of blood that was on his hand when he pulled it away from his mouth. He wiped it off on his pants.
"Should have known," he muttered softly. He focused his attention on Irinda and his mouth lifted into a tired smile as he hugged her tight. "It'll be fine, Swallow. I'm lucky it didn't happen sooner and I got to see you become who you are."
He coughed again and this time the blood got on Irinda's shoulder.
"Sorry." His voice sounded even more tired now. Raspy.
Irinda began to sob again. It seemed her body had recovered some in the walk back to the inn, as fresh tears streaked down her cheeks.
I stood there, a bit dumfounded, unsure what to say or do. I was about to excuse myself when an idea popped into my head.
"Hey Will?"
His eyes landed on me. "Yeah?"
"I might have a way to save you."
He raised his eyebrows and Irinda turned, her eyes widening as if I'd just promised her the world.
"I can't promise anything," I started, crossing the distance to them. I knelt beside Will and put a hand on his shoulder. "But it might help you if I give you something."
I sounded crazy trying to explain what the System was, but I had to at least offer it. It was better than nothing.
"if it does work, you could become stronger. Faster. I don't know. Better?"
Will let out a laugh at that. A sad one, but it was a laugh nonetheless. Irinda's gaze moved between us, waiting for Will's response. He thought about it for a long moment before finally shaking his head and leaning back against the column.
"It's tempting," he said after another fit of coughs that left more blood staining his hand. "Really tempting. But I've seen so much… I don't know. I feel like we should all only get one chance in this life, you know? That's how the Seven intended it, right? One chance. Just like each moon gets to rise once each day. Well, my time is over now. Time for me to settle below the horizon and rest."
His gaze settled on me once more. "You killed him… right?"
I nodded. "Burned to ashes."
Will smiled again, leaning his head back and looking up at the ceiling. He closed his eyes slowly.
"Good. He deserved worse."