Tears of War (28 page)

Anevay took a deep breath.
“They will have to get over it. They have their duties and we have ours.”

She started to scan the streets below for Loki and Merru.

“There they are,”
came Latia’s sending at the same time Anevay spotted the pair in the middle of an intersection where two wide roads met. Her heart clenched at the sight of the broken pair.

Latia tilted her wings and angled toward the ground. Anevay’s heart thundered in her chest. What if they were dead? The yellow pulled up just short of the ground and landed heavily, jarring Anevay in the saddle.

She didn’t care how rough the landing was. She ripped away the safety straps and leaped from the saddle without bothering to unbuckle the catcher strap. It was long enough that she could reach him with it on.

Anevay ran to Loki first, knowing if they lost him they lost them both. She dropped to her knees beside where he hung from the safety straps at an odd angle and reached for him with her hands, a healing weave already forming. A deep sigh pushed past the ache in her side where the branch had hit her. He was alive.

Beside her, Bardeck laid his hands on Merru and began a healing weave. Anevay’s heart soared with relief. Merru was alive too.

She was keenly aware of the strain on Kellinar high above them as he held back the storm. However, she could only work so fast. Loki’s head must have hit the pavement. His skull was cracked and he had a massive concussion. His back was broken too, but the immediate threat to his life was the damage to his head.

Merru began to stir and Anevay reached for Latia immediately.
“Tell him to hold still. Loki cannot be moved right now. He is close enough to death as it is. I have to get this repaired before the swelling in his brain becomes too much.”

She heard the yellow relay the message and the gold stilled. She worked fast but thorough, using multiple weaves to work on several areas of his head at once as she reduced the swelling and repaired some of the damage to his brain and skull. After several tense minutes when Anevay felt she had done enough to make it safe to move him, she gently took him in her arms to support him.

“Bardeck, can you release his safety straps? There is still healing to be done, but he’s stable enough to get back to Galdrilene.”

Bardeck quickly unbuckled the straps and took Loki from her. She turned to Latia who had stood over them with her wings spread to keep the drizzling rain off them while they worked. Anevay jumped into the saddle and made quick work of the safety straps then reached out for Loki, ignoring a wave of dizziness.

Bardeck stepped up on Latia’s front leg, balanced carefully, and lifted the boy up to her. She sent a brief thanks to the Fates for the increased strength of the dragon bond as she pulled him up until he sat sideways in front of the saddle her arms secure around him and his head resting against her shoulder. Anevay looked down at Merru who slowly gathered himself together. She shot a worried look at Bardeck. “Can he fly?”

Bardeck nodded, a weary look on his face. “He broke both wings and had some internal damage from the impact, but I healed it all. He is tired, but he should be able to fly.”

“How are we going to get them both home? Latia isn’t old enough to open a Slide large enough for two dragons to get through.”

Bardeck climbed into the back saddle seat. “No, she isn’t, but Shryden is.”

Several people peeked out the windows of their shops and homes. Anevay ignored them; there would be time to deal with that later. Latia took off as smoothly as she could. Anevay glanced back to make sure Merru was following before turning her attention to Shryden and his rider. Even from this distance she saw Kellinar’s stony face. His fury rolled along their bond. She had never seen him this angry.

A large Slide spun open as they reached him and the three dragons passed into it, the sound of the storms released ferocity echoed behind them then disappeared. The familiar swirl of colors faded and Galdrilene spread out below them. Anevay ignored another wave of dizziness as Latia circled in for a landing with Merru and Shryden right behind.

Kellinar was off Shryden before Anevay even reached for her safety straps. She let Kellinar take Loki without looking him in the eye.

Little black flecks swirled across her vision for a brief second and were gone. She shook her head and stared at the buckles on the safety straps. What was she doing?

“Are you sure you are alright?”
Latia sent.

“I’m fine. I think maybe that branch dazed me a little.”

“Branch? The thing was practically a tree.”

Bardeck climbed down from the saddle. He looked at her with a worried frown. “Are you coming?”

That is what she was supposed to be doing. She loosened the buckles and let herself down from the saddle. After pausing a moment to unbuckle the catcher strap, she followed Kellinar and Bardeck up to Loki’s bedchamber.

Kellinar laid the boy on his bed while Merru looked on anxiously through the doorway between the sleeping room and the lair. Anevay took a deep breath and moved toward the bed but Kellinar stopped her. She looked up into his blue eyes, the emotions coming through the bond as tumultuous as the storm they had left behind. His gaze raked over her as he lifted her hair away from her face, his fingers gentle despite the anger she felt in him. She glanced down and saw her long, ebony ringlets coated in blood. “You’re hurt.” His voice was soft.

“I’ll live. I have to take care of Loki. His back is broken and I still have work to do on his head.” Kellinar glanced at Loki’s still form, a mixture of rage and torment flooding his face. He turned back, his eyes steady on hers for a long moment before he stepped away and allowed her past.

She settled on the edge of the bed with Bardeck on the other side and reached for her magic, allowing Bardeck to link them before starting the healing. It was a long and delicate process to remove the remaining brain injury, and mend the broken bones and nerves in Loki’s lower back. When they finally pulled their hands away, he was healed and resting peacefully.

“Is he healed completely?” Kellinar asked, his voice rough.

Bardeck nodded. “He is. I don’t believe there will be any lasting effects from the brain injury, but we won’t know for certain until he wakes. We will have to wait and see how much he remembers of his misadventures. Maybe he will have learned something from this.”

Kellinar glared at the boy though Anevay felt his worry through the bond. “He better have.” He turned his gaze on her. “May I have a word with you, bondmate?”

Anevay nodded. Another wave of dizziness came and went. She focused through it and followed Kellinar from the room. Based on the symptoms, she figured she had a mild concussion from the branch. It could be healed later after Kellinar went back to Haraban. In his anger he had missed the signs and she preferred to keep it that way.

They climbed to the next level and entered their sleeping quarters. He shut the door quietly behind him, leaned against it, let his breath out in a low growl and rubbed his hands over his face.

Anevay held up a hand. “Before you say anything, you have to realize that I have duties I’m called to. You can try to wrap me in swaddling clothes if you want, however you won’t keep me there. Be angry with me if you must, but you are going to have to get over it.”

He dropped his hands and stared at her for a long moment. “Angry with you? You think I’m angry with you?” He started pacing back and forth. “I am not angry with you at all. You did what you had to do even if it did scare the life out of me.”

Kellinar’s voice rose as he continued. “I’m angry…no I take that back. I am furious with Loki! He nearly got himself and Merru killed with his antics and at the same time endangered you, Latia and Bardeck. I can accept he has a hard time settling into his role as a Dragon Rider, but he had better flaming start getting used to it and grow up a little…”

Another wave of dizziness rolled over her accompanied by black flecks in her vision. She blinked several times. What was he yelling about? Oh yes, Loki. She wished he would stop shouting; it made her head hurt more.

“Kellinar,” she said softly, trying to calm and reason with him. “He is still a child. This is hard for him.”

Kellinar threw his hands in the air as he paced. “I don’t care how hard it is. A rider doesn’t endanger others for his own selfish pleasure. He should know better. Merru should have known better. Dragons are supposed to be smarter than humans. What in the name of the Fates was he thinking?”

Anevay opened her mouth to answer when more dizziness struck. The black specks obscured her vision. She placed her hand on the wall to steady herself

“Anevay?” Kellinar’s hand touched her arm. “What’s wrong?”

The specks and the dizziness faded and she blinked. “I don’t know. The tree branch hit me pretty hard. I think it left me kind of dazed.”

He took her chin in his hand and tilted her face up. “Look at me.”

She stared at him.

“There is something wrong with your eyes, Anevay. One of your pupils is bigger than the other.”

She groaned, the dragon was out of the shell now. “I must have a bit of a concussion. That branch hit me harder than I thought.”

He pointed at the bed. “Sit. Shryden is having Mernoth send Bardeck to us. You need your cheek and the side of your head healed anyway.”

She sank down on the edge of the bed and nodded. Bardeck would be there in a minute and she would feel fine.

S
erena paced back and forth, waiting for word of Loki and Merru. How could the boy endanger himself like that? Miya had relayed the extent of the injuries to both Loki and his dragon.

“I don’t know why you are so nervous,” Taela said from where she stood next to Paki in the giant courtyard garden. “Anevay is a very capable healer.”

Serena nodded. “I don’t doubt her ability, but sometimes there is only so much even we can do. He has extensive injuries to his brain, and I won’t take an easy breath until she is finished.”

Taela stared into space for a moment and Serena narrowed her eyes at the other woman. “What? Is Latia telling you something?”

Taela shook her head, a shadow of worry on her face. “No, but I’m feeling something in the bond. Not all is completely right with Anevay. I don’t think it’s anything life threatening.”

“What do you feel?”

“She’s dizzy and has lost her train of thought a couple times. That isn’t normal for her.” Taela waved her hand absently. “You know how focused she is.”

Serena went over everything that Miya had relayed to her. Most likely she had a mild concussion. Bardeck could heal it with little effort or one of the others from the Tower of Healing.

“Kellinar and Shryden are furious,”
came Miya’s sending.
“If Loki wakes while Kellinar is still there, the boy is going to get an earful. Merru is already getting a stern lecture from Shryden and a long distance one from Tellnox and Nydara.”

“He needs it. They both do. That was beyond foolish of them and they have done some foolish things,”
Serena sent back.

“Latia says Anevay and Bardeck have completed the healing on Loki and they were able to repair all of the damage,”
Miya sent.

Serena nodded, relieved. Hopefully Kellinar wouldn’t be too long. The dragons had been announced to the city the day before and things were still pretty tense as the people tried to come to grips with it. It was more than just the dragons and the magic they struggled with, it was also the knowledge that people who used magic had been put to death for no reason for the last five hundred years.