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"I'm not." He stood up and held out his hand.
We trudged through the woods, our glow throwing off weird, long shadows that seemed to wriggle and squirm between the trees. Naji had the sword, but I had to stop myself from reaching over and grabbing it from him. I always feel safer with a sword in hand.
The spring was waiting for us, looking as normal as ever. Naji knelt beside it and took to drinking, but I hung back. His glow shimmered across the surface of the water.
"Ana
I was thirsty. And I knew I couldn't go without water. What would be the use of coming all this way, just to die of thirst?
"Fine," I said, and I sat beside him and drank my fill.
Nothing happened on the walk back – no whispers on the wind, no flare-ups of Naji's curse. He led me off the path we'd flattened out on our trips to and from the spring to pick some nuts and berries, and I was so hungry I ate 'em without waiting till we were on the beach. This time, they seemed enough to fill my belly. The sun pushed out from behind the clouds and washed out enough of the glow that I almost got to thinking everything was normal.
"We shouldn't stay," Naji said.
"Are you hurting?"
"No. I just don't want to linger."
Stepping out on the beach eased my tension up some, the way it always did. Out in the open, my glow had almost entirely disappeared in the pale northern sunlight.
"The lean-to," Naji said.
"What about it?"
"It's gone."
I stopped in place and squinted down the beach. He was right. All I saw was trees and shadows and sand.
The fear slammed back into my heart.
"Someone knows we're here," I said. "The wizard? He's trying to scare us off?" My voice pitched higher and higher. "He ain't go
"I don't think that's it." Naji pulled away from me and marched to the place where our lean-to had been. And that's when I saw it: the smear of ashes from our fire. The lean-to had been replaced by an enormous bone-gray tree, twisting up toward the sky.
"Curse this island," Naji said.
I couldn't speak. The best I managed was little gasping noises in the back of my throat.
"It's the magic," Naji said.
"I know it's the magic!" I shouted. "This island ain't nothing but damn magic!" Desperation welled up inside of me. He wasn't never go
Naji turned toward me. Even though the glow was mostly washed out by the sun, his eyes seemed much darker than normal. "We should be grateful that we were not."
I turned away from him and walked over to the fire ashes. Kicked at 'em with my boot. The tree that had been our lean-to rustled its branches at me and showered down a rain of gray, twisting leaves. Everything about the island was gray. The sky, the sand, the shadows, our home.
I was becoming more and more convinced that the rest of my life would be nothing but gray.
We spent the next few days sleeping in fern tents that I built out on the beach. A storm rolled in one afternoon and soaked through all the wood and our tent, but Naji had gotten enough of his magic back that he was able to build a little fire afterward. It must have exhausted him, though, cause he stretched out on the sand afterward and slept, the glow of his skin and the glow of his tattoos fighting it out in the dark.
We always moved our location, and we always used different ferns for the tents. We took different paths to the spring. Naji said that would keep the island from changing too much, though he didn't explain how. At least that was back to normal.
Things fell into a routine. I didn't get used to 'em, but they were at least a routine.
Then one morning I woke up and Naji was gone. The familiar sick panic set in. I was on my feet immediately, tearing the tent apart, screaming Naji's name. A million possibilities raced through my head. Maybe he'd turned into moonlight after all, and I was next. Maybe he'd turned into a fern and I was ripping him into shreds in my fear.
I dropped the fern and I stepped back, almost stepping into the fire. The beach was silent save for the wind and my racing, terrified heartbeat.
"Naji?" I said one last time. All my hope was lost. That wasn't much of a surprise, though, cause I really didn't have much of it left.
"Ana
Naji popped up in the shadow of a tree.
"You!" I shouted. "What's wrong with you?"
He blinked at me.
"I thought you got turned into a fern."
"Oh. Oh, Ana
"You go on and on about how I can't be left alone and then you just leave me here?"
Naji walked up to me. He moved with his old grace, slinking across the beach instead of shuffling. I'd hardly noticed that particular quality was coming back along with the magic.
"I was restless," he said. "I'm sorry. You weren't in danger."
I suppose that was something, but my heart was still beating too fast.
"I have something to show you."
"What could you possibly have to show me? Did your sword turn into a courtier's dress?" I narrowed my eyes at him. "Or did you find the wizard? Did you–"
"No. I'm not that well yet. But I think you'll appreciate it nonetheless."
He turned and headed off down the sand. I followed him because I didn't much want to be left alone again. After fifteen minutes we came across an old fallingapart little shack, set back into the woods, still within sight of the beach.
I didn't trust it at all. "Does somebody live here?" Though I had to admit it looked long-abandoned, the stones in the walls cracked and warped, the thatched roof dotted with holes.
"Look at it, Ana