The wailing continued as the people around Lilah rushed to try and save her life. The moments seemed to pass by at a torturously lethargic pace. Seconds felt like minutes, and minutes felt like hours, and the passing of each made Lilah want to scream. It wasn't the fire burning her throat or the hammering inside her head, the true torment came from listening to the screams from down the hall. For a moment, she wished that the pain would push through the nothingness so that her body would finally just succumb and send her into unconsciousness and she would not have to listen to Mama Ra's screams. Even through the fog in her mind Lilah berated herself for the cowardly thought.
"Please." She croaked to Marzonna and Emory, but they were only frantically talking amongst themselves. "Please, go save her." Lilah tried again.
"Shh, don't talk, it will only cause you more pain." Marzonna murmured and swept away the hair that was matted to Lilah's damp forehead.
Lilah would have screamed if she had the energy for it. Is this was leading was meant to be? Watching others lay down their lives so that she could go on? Must she suffer through this again?
"What the hell happened?" Bleu said as soon as he came in the back door of the church. He knelt beside Lilah and clutched her hand fiercely. "Is she okay? Who did this?" He asked Marzonna, his face a mingled expression of fury and fear.
"We've taken care of the worst of it." Marzonna answered and wiped sweat from her brow. She looked like she had aged ten years in the short time she had attended to Lilah. Exhaustion had seemed beneath her eyes and colored the skin there purple.
"Bleu" Lilah croaked, her throat was now starting to hurt too much to speak.
"What is it?"
"Please," Lilah tried to breathe in, but she started to cough. "Go save them." She said and even she could hear the concerning gurgle in her words.
"We don't have time, Lilah. We need to leave." He answered tenderly.
"If you don't, I will." She panted and tried to get herself up off her back.
Bleu and Marzonna shared a troubled look before he nodded and said, "Alright, I'll go help them. Van-" Bleu said and looked up at Van who was frozen and staring down at Lilah. "Come with me. The rest of you load up out back. Take one of the wagons for Lilah to lay in."
There was a moment of still silence, but then everyone followed his orders and dispersed. Marzonna and Leon began to help Lilah to her feet, having to drag her for a few moments before she could muster the strength to work with them. They draped her arms on each of their necks and started to lead her towards the back door through the never ending narrows of the church. Warmth had still not seeped its way back into her body and so Lilah felt as if she was walking on pins and needles. There was no longer blood trickling down her throat, but she could see hand prints and streaks of it painting the walls each time one of them accidentally brushed by. With so much blood loss, it was not normal for her to not feel the pain in her throat, even given the Noduv work the others had performed on her. Lilah knew somewhere in her bones that something was wrong.
After minutes of scurrying, they were just about to step outside, when a loud crash followed by sounds of breaking glass rang through the air. Then it was total silence. Everyone stopped and listened for a moment as they tried to decipher if the end of the cacophony was a good or bad sign. Within another short moment, the sound of wheezing and footsteps began to fill the once quiet hallway, bringing whatever trouble just transpired right to them.
Between the tattered old walls of the church hallway, Van and Bleu came stumbling toward the group with a body draped between the two of them. Lilah instantly recognized the lanky figure as Boniface and meekly broke free from the arms of Marzonna and Leon. She stumbled to the men, ignoring the shouts of protests from the others, her eyes focused on nothing but Boniface's contorted face.
"Is" she panted, "he?" Was all she could manage to get out. Van shook his head once and Lilah let out a sob of relief. The men softly placed Boniface on the floor and Lilah fell to her knees. There was a huge gash on his forehead, a concerning amount of blood coming out of his mouth, and a slash in his stomach. His wheezing was slow and wet, making him sound like he was breathing under water. His dark eyes were only slightly opened, but they focused stubbornly on Lilah.
"You're okay." She stated and held his head in her hands. Her voice sounded weak and scared. "I'm so sorry, this was my fault."
Boniface coughed one sharp wheeze of a thing and Lilah could feel blood splatter on her face from the force of it.
"You..." Boniface started, but the effort caused him to cough again and gasp for air. Lilah tried to shush him, but he continued. "You have to leave. Now."
"Don't talk, it'll make it worse. We'll get you out of here."
Boniface only smiled softly and then closed his eyes. His was faintly breathing, but it was too slow to matter. Lilah wanted to scream at him for the resignation that was coating his face, for accepting such an unjust fate.
"You're going to live." Lilah ordered him in the same forceful voice she would use to address a room of followers. She repeated it over and over again and willed it to be true, but the elderly man would not listen. The queen felt the man go limp even as she commanded him to hold on longer.
"Lilah" Van said softly beside her. "He's not going to make it. We need to leave, one of the officers set the worship room on fire."
"No!" She shouted and fought against Van as he tried to pull her away. "We can't leave him here. We have to help him." She shouted and then stood up too quickly. She swayed and had to wait two breaths before she regained her equilibrium again. She bent down and started to pull Boniface's frail body with all her strength towards the back door. The others were staring at her in horror and pity, but she paid them no attention.
"Lilah, stop." Van tried again, but she was beyond listening.
She grunted as she pulled Boniface by his arms and dragged him with everything she had. She could feel the slickness of blood beginning to drip down her throat again, having reopened the wound Marzonna had just hastily stitched. There was smoke crowding the hallway like a cloak of darkness, making her cough and wheeze, but she kept going. She was sobbing and gasping for breath at all the excursion, and after only a few more steps, she began to sway and stumble. The last thing she heard was Marzonna shouting at Bleu to catch her and then darkness washed over her and she slipped into unconsciousness.