Hours later, well into the evening, Rana Akshaya arrived at Roderick’s bedside, when Frederica had all but given up on her. She swept into the room in her veiled human guise and took one glance at Roderick, who was in one of his thrashing phases. “You may go now,” she said to Frederica, dismissing her as if she were a servant.
Somehow Frederica had not expected that, but she swallowed the desire to beg to stay. She retreated from the room and began to wander the old gallery, pacing from end to end as if her steps could somehow help the healing.
But Rana Akshaya did not emerge. Each time Frederica passed the doorway to Roderick’s room, dragon magic tugged at her, powerful beyond her ken.
A half-hour. An hour. What kind of healing took this long? If, in fact, Rana Akshaya was trying to heal him. What if she made a terrible mistake in bringing her here?
Another half-hour. They would have expected her back at the main house long ago. But she wanted, she needed, to be here to hear the news, whether it was good or bad.
No. She would remain. She sought out the housekeeper and asked her to send a servant to Pemberley, informing them she would spend the night at the Dower House. Mrs. Reynolds would no doubt send a squad of maids to protect Frederica’s reputation from a night alone with an unmarried man, even if he was unconscious.
A guttural cry of pain came from Roderick’s room. Frederica clutched her arms around her, digging her fingers into her flesh until it hurt.
Another cry, this one wild and ululating. She swallowed a sob.
And ran. Ran out of the Dower House, through the moonlit walled garden, and to the old dovecote, to the only other being who would also find this as unbearable as she. Rowan.
It was pitch black in the dovecote, but as soon as she entered, a glow began at the base of the circular walls, enough that she could see the red dragon curled up against the far edge. She ran forward and threw her arms around his scaly neck, an impossible forwardness.
But it felt right, and she could sense his pain, too. “Rana Akshaya is trying to heal him,” she sobbed.
I know.Rowan spoke in her head, as if mortal speech was beyond him.She asked my permission. You were very brave to go to her.
“But she is hurting him!”
I can feel it. But sometimes healing causes pain.His own deep distress leaked through the sending.
“The healers of the Nest, would they have hurt him too?”
I do not know, but Rana Akshaya is unusually powerful. We do not understand some of her abilities. If anyone can save him, she can.
She breathed raggedly with relief. If Rowan trusted Rana Akshaya, so would she. “Are you in trouble withthe Nest?”
Very much so, but I expected that. He switched to speaking aloud. “They cannot put me under Silence right now, when they need every able-bodied young dragon to manage the visitors. If Roderick lives, I will go to his Nest, and it will not matter.”
“He will live,” she said fiercely. “He must.”
“Did Rana Akshaya state a price for doing this healing?”
Her mouth went dry. “No. Should I have offered payment?”
“Not unless she asked it. A deep healing like this takes an enormous amount of power, so it is rarely undertaken without a reason.”
If there was a price, she would find a way to pay it. As long as Roderick lived.
“Wake up, Companion Frederica!”
Frederica’s bed was shaking. No, not her bed; she must have drifted off to sleep against Rowan’s flank, there in the old dovecote. Then it all came back to her. “Is there news?”
“Rana Akshaya says we can see him now.”
She jumped to her feet and hurried out of the dovecote, momentarily blinded as she came out of the darkness into early morning sunshine. Had Rana Akshaya been working on Roderick all night?
Blinking hard, she ran through the garden, into the house, and pounded up the stairs in the most unladylike manner.
Roderick’s door stood open. Inside it, he was sitting propped up in bed, sipping something from a cup held in both his hands.
Relief flooded her. “You are awake! Do you know who I am?” Because the last two times he had opened his eyes, he had not even seen her.
