Was that really true? I didn’t feel like it now, but I couldn’t deny that I had stood up to a mistweaver, an impossible fight… and won. Along with the other things I’d done and the fast healing.
Trust in yourself, Legs. Maverick is right. I can feel it. Auwei seemed certain. I wish I could have been.
Then Fin appeared in the great hall, the prince next to him, and… I nearly lost everything I’d eaten upon seeing the beaten and bloody body of Silence… limp in Fin’s arms.
“He’s alive,” Fin said reassuringly, though his tone wasn’t entirely confident. “Is Ant any better? Silence could use some healing.”
Chapter 3
Jack wasoff like a shot to fetch Ant. Even as Amber yelled, “He’s not ready yet!”
“I’ll fetch bandages,” Crane said also running out of the hall.
“I’m… so sorry,” Alvere breathed.
I couldn’t look at him. His people had done this.
Fin laid Silence on a table.
I stood, but I couldn’t draw closer. Even from here I could see the horrors done to him. He was covered in blood. His hands, those delicate hands, were ruined, crushed and swollen. His face, that beautiful face, was torn with cuts, it looked like shallow slashes had been made all down each ear and on his lips. He was clothed in rags, and what parts of his body I could see were covered in bruises and other injuries. I dared not get closer, dared not see more, or I would be sick. As it was, I felt bile rise in my throat and only barely suppressed it. My jaw was clamped closed, I couldn’t speak, only rage and weep.
“How did they catch him?” Maverick asked. Voice hard, stoic. I could hear the hint of his repressed rage.
“My people have some secrets—”
“Tell me!” The room suddenly grew deathly cold, frost rimed the insides of the windows.
Spirits Within! Was this Maverick’s cold rage? It was terrifying!
Alvere started, and I could see a true fear in his eyes. He swallowed hard. “I guess, since we are to be allies, I can let you know.” A heavy, shuddering breath. “My people have had some contact with the Fey, up north of our lands. They have equipped us with some intriguing items. One such is a trap meant for Elistans who can change shape. It attracts all manner of animals to a place and when they get there, forces them into their true shape. Most animals wouldn’t be affected but one of your kind…”
Maverick nodded. “Clever.” I saw his jaw twitch. I was willing to bet his thoughts echoed my own: I wanted to be furious with the Vauphani, but wehadbeen in their palace without permission. So far, all the prince knew was that we’d been there to stop the mistweaver, but that wasn’t true. We’d been there to spy on them and find out if the rumors of war were true. And they were, though we’d since found out that it had been Elista who’d started it. So how angry could we be that one of our own was captured and tortured during an act of espionage?
Well, I was furious, but there was no one here to take that fury out upon. Alvere didn’t deserve it.
Still, I couldn’t look at him, couldn’t bear to see the pain in those clear blue eyes. He wasn’t allowed to feel pain too, not now.
“You called?” croaked a weary voice from the doorway. Jack was helping Ant into the room, and suffering greatly for it, as the massively muscled man leaned heavily upon him.
“You shouldn’t be up!” Amber chided. “Even for this.” The concern in her voice real, but also torn. She wasn’t truly fighting him. She wouldn’t stop him from helping Silence, since she could see the massive damage done to the young man like we all could. Still, I sensed her concern for Ant. He might cause more harm to himself by healing another. If he went too far to save another, he might even kill himself.
I felt compelled to add, “Please, help him, but… be careful.”
Ant smiled at me. “Always.”
That was a lie. He hadn’t been careful when he’d charged into the oncoming guards back at the palace, which had landed him in his current state. He’d been fearless… protecting myself and Amber.
Jack helped him sit at the table where Silence lay. He reached out a trembling hand to the young man. He laid his other thick arm on the table and put his head upon it, clearly weary even before he began.
Amber stood beside him and laid a hand on his back as he worked. I didn’t see much of a change in Silence. His hands seemed to mend a little and his face cleared of some of the cuts upon it. Then two things happened at once. Ant groaned and his hand fell away from Silence, as Silence gasped, then screamed. It was a sound of pure agony, so heart-rending I fell to my knees in sympathetic suffering, head in my hands weeping. I couldn’t listen anymore and was so very thankful when I heard Amber’s soft “sleep” command. The screaming stopped then, and when I looked up again Silence was still, relaxed.
Crane returned with a heavy bundle of bandages and a pot of something, which she spread on some of the wounds as she went to work mending the young man.
Amber helped Ant to the floor, for he was close to dead-weight with exhaustion. There he lay and slept.
“Let’s give these people some peace,” Maverick said as a command and the rest of us began to filter out of the great hall. “Silence will live,” Maverick said, certainty in his voice. “Let’s all give him the time he needs to recover.”
I didn’t realize I was trembling until Sparrow took my hand. “Let’s get you to your room,” she said softly and led me, like a witless child, to my bed. There she laid me under the covers, still fully dressed save for my boots, and tucked me in, gently. But perhaps seeing my addled state she then curled up with me, one arm around me, hugging me close. Only then, did I begin to come down from the horrors I’d seen.
