Don't Disturb Stella and Her Mates novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: The Spore Field

The gold haze closed over Thora's head, and she heard the first scream.

It was Keir, somewhere to her left.

"Stella?" he shouted. "Stella, get away from the fire!"

There was no fire.

Thora dropped to her knees, tore a strip off her sleeve and dunked it in the stream.

She knew this stuff.

In the old world they had called it sleepflower, a spore that went through the lungs and hit the eyes, and a man who breathed enough of it would see whatever he most wanted to see until he walked into a river.

She tied the wet cloth over her mouth and nose.

Then she pulled the coil of wire from her belt.

She had meant it for snares.

"Joren," she shouted. "Stay where you are. Talk to me."

"Here," he said, from the rock, hoarse and close. "I'm here. I can't see my hands."

"Then hold the wire."

She fed him the end.

She followed the voices.

Ansel was standing in the middle of the stream with water to his knees, laughing at nothing.

She slapped him hard enough to rock his head.

"Thora?" he said, and blinked, and his eyes cleared a little.

"Wire," she said, and wrapped it round his wrist.

She found the Heir kneeling in the mud with his rifle across his lap, speaking quietly to someone who was not there.

She found Dax at the stream's edge, trying to pour water into the sky.

Keir was the hardest.

He had run into the trees and flung his arms around a trunk, and he would not let go of it.

"She's cold," he said. "She said she was cold."

"It's a tree, Keir."

"She's crying."

"It's a tree." Thora took his face in both hands and made him look at her. "It's me. Thora. Do you remember what you said about the garden?"

His eyes lost focus and found her.

"I laughed," he whispered.

"Then follow me."

She hooked the wire round his belt, and he came.

By the time she had all five, the haze had thickened until she could not see the end of her own arm.

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