Chapter 16 ~ Awake.

He couldn't breathe, it was her hands, it must be, he was choking, suffocating. He shook violently, writhing on the hard ground. He had to get her hands off him, he had to. And then he felt arms around him and heard deep sounds that he realised were sobs as the black returned and he fell into the state of a coma. There were sharp stabs of pain in his throat, and little drops of cold touching his face as Maurelle cried on. 

She was crying, she was sorry, she had a heart...It raced round his head as he struggled to breathe, numbness seizing his legs. And then the sobs went and a slight wind passed over his face as she exhaled. There was muttering that hurt his head, it echoed around his mind as a wave of warmth passed over him and he-

Karil found himself sitting upright in bed and gasping for breath, the horrors of his encounter in the woods returning to him as he relived every moment. Then a voice came, concerned and ringing.

''Karil!'' 

Karil turned his head with a jerk to be greeted by Ly, face unusually pale, freckles dark against the white of the skin. Karil looked at him, bewildered for a second, then fell back on the pillows with a soft thud. Ly leaned forward.

''Karil, mate, what was happening? You were yelling, coughing. D'you want me to fetch Madam Pomfrey?'' 

Karil shook his head slowly and swallowed. He turned to his friend, who was looking expectantly at him, awaiting a command.

''No.'' He said quietly. ''No, don't worry about it.''

Ly sighed and lent back a bit. ''So, you feeling okay?'' 

Karil let himself feel. There was no pain, just a slight aching in his head. The wounds on his legs and head didn't seem to be present. He turned to his friend. ''Yeah, I'm fine.'' He rubbed his forehead. ''How long have I been here?'' 

Ly looked at the clock. ''Your little accident happened last night, and it is now ten minutes past eight in the evening.'' 

''What happened to me?'' Karil looked around himself vaguely.

Ly raised his eyebrows. ''Madam Pomfrey was hoping you could tell her. You had a massive hole in your leg and a wound on your forehead. She fixed them up pretty quick, but apparently you've been asleep so long because of some sort of poisonous substance in your system.''

Karil sat up. ''Did she get rid of it?''

Ly shook his head. ''She could only find traces of it. Someone got there first, and good thing they did. She said if you'd been left till she got to you, you'd be dead.'' 

Karil tried not to think about Ly's previous information and went on, ''How did I get here then?'' It was clear Maurelle hadn't done it.

''Rolf found you.'' Ly answered. He watched his friend's face closely before looking around them and leaning in towards Karil. ''Do you seriously not remember what happened.''

Karil sighed. ''I remember some. Just promise not to tell anyone, not Madam Pomfrey, not Rolf, no one.''

Ly nodded, intrigued. Assured that his friend would not say anything, Karil continued; ''Maurelle found me, she'd been in the woods, I'd followed her-''

''What?'' Ly had his mouth open wide.

''Shh, don't interrupt.'' Karil told him, before going on; ''I read her dream diary, found out she had predicted a meeting between herself and some witch that night. Then she went out and I followed her.'' He creased his brow, trying to remember. ''She met the witch - the name of the woman was something like Shimmer or Glitter - Mirror. Yeah, that's it, Mirror. Anyway, Mirror said something about being related to Maurelle and sort of persuaded Maurelle to join her side-''

Karil paused as he remembered the disturbing things that Mirror had stated they could, and would do. He gripped Ly's arm, his friend looking both surprised and confused. ''Ly, not only are the two of them going to kill Merlin, they're going to use this army of witches, along with Maurelle's magic, to conquer the wizarding world.'' 

Ly's eye's became wide with shock. ''Wh-What?''

Karil shook his head. ''I don't know if I misheard or aren't remembering right, but that stands out in my memory.'' He looked at Ly seriously. ''We need to stop them Ly, but I don't know how.''

''Karil, calm down. Finish your story and then we'll try and figure it out. I need to know what happened.'' Ly said hastily.

Karil lay back on the pillows. ''I headed back once Mirror had won Maurelle over, I thought they'd be going off soon after. I was all confused, and then I thought I'd go and see Rolf. But on the way-'' He paused, trying hard to decipher what happened through the flashing, hazy images in his mind. ''On the way, this creature attacked me. A bear or a wolf or something, and I was knocked out. But then I was awake again, and Maurelle was there, she was-'' He looked at Ly, who was hanging onto his words. ''She wasn't like her normal self, she was concerned, scared. And then I started choking, like someone was strangling me, I thought it was her but then she was crying-'' He glanced at Ly, whose eyebrows were disappearing off his forehead. Karil returned to his account. ''Yes, she was crying, I don't know why, she never cared anything about me before, but yeah, she was crying and then she stopped and suddenly I stopped choking and blacked out again. Then I relived that scene just before I woke up here.'' He took a breath and turned to look at his friend, who had his eyes closed, trying to take it all in. Karil took a sip of water from the glass by the bed and then his friend finally spoke.

''God, it's so hard to take in.'' Ly shook his head in wonder. Karil nodded, watching his friend blink a few times. The Ly turned to Karil with a determined look.

''But I know what we need to do first.'' 

Karil lent forward questioningly. ''What?''

Ly looked his friend in the eyes. ''We need to read her book.''