Free Chasing the Dragon by Jason Halstead

could use it."
    "Alto, step into Trina's room," Karthor suggested.
    "Why?"
    "Please . I want to check something."
    Alto turned and stepped into Patrina's cabin. The priest followed him, and then began to chant so that his holy symbol glowed and lit up the room more than what the dawn light coming in through the door allowed.
    "Turn around . I want to check you."
    "Check me?" Alto asked, confused.
    "For injuries," Karthor explained.
    "I'm not injured! I told you that."
    "Humor me," Karthor said. "Patrina needs you. This isn't the time to take any unnecessary risks."
    Alto sighed. "All right, what are we doing?"
    "I need you to lower your pants."
    From outside the cabin , Kar's voice could be heard. "Saints above and below! So this is what he learned at the church?"
    Karthor and Alto ignored the wizard while he untied his breeches and lowered them. Karthor bent over and then knelt down behind him. "Break wind and I'll never heal you again," the priest whispered.
    Alto grunted, unable to laugh.
    "You've been stabbed," Karthor said a moment later. "Hold still."
    The priest chanted some more and Alto felt a warmth surge in him, causing fresh sweat to break out on his skin. Karthor rose a moment later and cursed under his breath.
    "What is it?" Alto asked. He pulled his pants up and tied them, and then turned to see Karthor shaking his head and scowling.
    The priest stepped out and motioned for him to follow. "You might as well all hear it," Karthor said. "Alto's been stabbed. Something tiny . It was just a pinprick of blood, like that from a seamstress's needle. There was more, a hint of green around the hole. You've been poisoned."
    Alto stared at Karthor and then looked at the gaping faces of his companions. He shook his head. "I'm not tired," he said. "Hot, but not tired."
    "Different poison," Karthor said. "There was no green substance near hers."
    "I didn't find any poisons on them," Carson said.
    Mordrim grunted and dug into one of his pockets. He pulled out the Stalker's ring and stared at it, and then he began to toy with it until he twisted it and a needle sprung out of the end of it. The dwarf peered at it and then sniffed before he held it up for them all to see. "Their rings," he said. "Still some of the poison on this one."
    "Let me take it," Kar said. "Having some of it will help the wizards I speak to identify it."
    "That's not what's killing Patrina," Alto said.
    "No, it's what is killing you," Karthor said. "I healed your injury but the poison resisted the light. It's deep inside you, hiding in dark places and working to make you sick."
    Alto let his head drop. He stared down at himself and then raised his hand up to curl it into a fist. He relaxed it, grimacing at the spasms the muscles in his arm continued to suffer for several seconds. "I'm not dead yet," he said.
    "No, but it will get worse," Karthor promised.
    "Can you help me fight it?"
    The priest shrugged. "I will try, but much of it will be up to you and your will to fight it."
    "No worries there," Alto said. He turned and looked at the rest of them. "Kar, take Garrick and Mordrim and visit your wizards."
    Kar looked at the two men and then back to Alto. "Garrick and Mordrim? Has the poison gone to your head already?"
    "You can fight magic; they can fight everything else," Alto said. "Karthor, do you need to be near Patrina to help her?"
    "Once a day for now, until she weakens ," the priest said.
    "All right, then you and Carson come with me."
    "Where do you think you're going?" Kar demanded.
    "I'm going to the palace," Alto said.
    "The palace?" Carson asked. "Why?"
    "That's where Sulim lives when he's here."
    "But he's not here—we already learned that," Kar snapped at him.
    "No, we were told they went on a retreat. For all we know he could be here. If nothing else, Jakar is there and I will make him tell me."
    "How?" the wizard challenged.
    Alto shrugged, the movement painful in itself. "I'll beat it out of him if I have to."
    Kar shook his head and