Shimmer by Jennifer McBride Page B

half-dragging her along with him, she tried her best to keep up. It felt like they had been running for hours, not minutes. Her knees were cut from the fall and a thin trickle of blood oozed down her leg.
    â€˜Are we safe yet?’ David asked raggedly.
    â€˜No!’ Kora yanked her hand from his and stopped for a moment. She put her hands on her hips and leaned forward. Breathing hard, she wondered if she was actually going to be sick.
    David’s eyes searched the landscape. ‘Can we hide somewhere here?’
    She shook her head but soon stopped as the ground spun dizzily. ‘Not far enough away yet.’
    He grasped her hand tightly. ‘Come on, then.’
    He set a gruelling pace. Her legs scrambled numbly after him. She had never relied on her physical body this way before. She had never needed to and it made her feel vulnerable. Weak. Her mouth was dry and her lungs ached. They had come a long way but she knew it was still not far enough.
    She could feel herself getting humiliatingly slower. David was dragging her more than she was running. Her arm no longer felt as if it belonged to her and she wondered if he had pulled it from its socket.
    â€˜I can see the house.’ David’s speed increased despite the fact that they were now headed uphill. Her legs gave way from under her and she fell again to the ground. Her sweaty hand slipped out of David’s grasp and she rolled until she landed shoulder first against a hard sharp rock. Pain pierced through her.
    â€˜Kora?’ David was bending over her. ‘Are you all right?’
    She couldn’t speak at first. ‘My shoulder,’ she finally croaked.
    â€˜Can we use your magic now?’
    â€˜Not yet.’ She bit down on her lip and tried to push herself up, but before she knew it David’s hands were under her and she was swung up onto his back.
    â€˜What are you doing?’
    â€˜What does it look like I’m doing?’ He wound his arms so that his hands gripped tightly to her legs, holding her in place on his back. ‘I’m giving you a piggyback. Try to hang on.’
    She pushed against him but that just made the shooting pain in her shoulder worse. ‘Put me down.’
    He was already taking long strides up the hill. ‘No.’
    â€˜I am too heavy for you to carry.’
    His skin was already reddened from heat and now it darkened further with the exertion of carrying her. ‘I’ll manage,’ he said. ‘I’m human.’
    Exhausted and sick with pain she gave up. She doubted she would be able to make the rest of the way to the house relying on just her own physical body. How did humans live like this, every day with no magic?
    Breathing hard, he made no attempt to speak to her but his pace never slowed. He made his way, dripping with sweat, face set in determined lines, steadily and surely towards the house.
    He let go of her leg to push open the front door and then kicked it closed behind them. ‘What now?’ he rasped.
    â€˜Wish us into my globe.’
    The moment he wished she closed her eyes and very carefully, using the most minuscule amount of magic possible, they shimmered.

The pirate
    Amurru shuffled out of one of the darkened corners of her globe. ‘What has happened, Empress?’ He glanced at David then back to her. ‘You are hurt?’
    She was slumped on David’s back, her head over one shoulder. ‘Set me down.’
    He looked bewildered but swung her carefully off his back and onto a bed of gold cushions. ‘Is it safe now?’
    Amurru’s ears twitched but his yellow eyes stayed fixed on her. ‘Why do you not use your magic to heal yourself, Empress?’
    â€˜Idiot here wished for a cool wind.’ She threw a scornful look at David, but then felt bad when she saw the lines of exhaustion that etched his face.
    Amurru’s head drooped. ‘This is grave.’
    â€˜We are safe now, aren’t we?’