And my blood ran cold. We all knew about those. They might not seem bad at first, and a woman could sew it up easily. The problem came later. Gut wounds festered. They grew infected. Always, they killed.
"No," I whimpered, shaking my head to deny it. "It's not that deep, is it?"
And he lifted his hands. Blood covered both them and the wound, but I could see the puncture in his gear. It wasn't asshallow as I'd hoped. That knife had definitely gone into his body, meaning it was fatal.
As the realization hit me, everything else out here faded away. Sylis was supposed to get the code. He was going to marry Felicity so Callah could make plans with her. I needed him to help me with this, but he wouldn't. He was going to die!
"Ayla!" I begged, reaching up to grab her leg.
The dog spun, snapping quickly in my direction. It was enough to make me jerk my hand back, but the Reaper had been pushed away. The Wyvern stood between him and us, lashing his tail furiously. The commotion had drawn a bit of attention, but all of it was from Dragons. The only gunshots I could now hear were in the distance.
Ayla knelt beside me. "Tobias, do you want him to live?" she asked.
"I need him," I said. "I do, but it's a gut wound, Ayla."
She turned to look at me, her pale eyes piercing with the calmness in them. "I know. Tobias, I can sew him up. I can pack the wound so he'll make it back...." She glanced at Sylis, then back to me. "But we both know what will happen."
"Can you save him, though?" I begged. "Please?He's my friend! You don't understand. Except for Callah, he's the only person down there I can trust, and she's a woman, so I have to treat her as my wife outside our rooms!"
That rocked her. I watched her entire body sway, and she blinked twice. "You married her?"
"Lawfully wedded friends," I told her. "We only share a bed to sleep. The marriage was not consummated, Ayla, but we pretend. That means I'm the one to punish her, and I won't. She can heal the women now, and she is! I'm too stupid to know better, right?"
"And it's working?"
I nodded. "But Sylis is going to marry Felicity, and that will get him promoted. Once he's a team leader, he'll be given the code. Then we can get out!"
"Or we can get in," she countered.
"Both," I told her. "Callah will make sure the women are ready when it happens, but to make it happen, IneedSylis!"
"I won't..." Sylis said, grabbing my hand. "Tobias, I won't live that long."
Ayla all but ignored him. "Do youwanthim to live?" she asked me again.
"Yes!" I gasped, not sure why she wasn't listening.
"Do you still want that even if he's not down there?"
And I finally realized what she was asking. She'd told me Dragons had medicine. She was a healer, so she probably knew exactly what kind they had. She was saying she could save Sylis, but not there. Here! He'd have to stay.
But movement made her look away. I followed her gaze to see more Dragons crowding around us. Dogs too, but the Dragons were pulling close, almost forming a line between us and the wild men and those dogs. Ayla's was still beside her, but the rest were watching us, looking like they wanted to kill us if we moved the wrong way.
Then a broad, tan-looking Dragon crouched across Sylis's body and looked right at me. "What's the code?" he asked in English.
"I was going to get it," Sylis panted. "Please, Dragon. Spare my friend. We tried, but I couldn't let him die."
Ayla pointed at Sylis. "He saved him." Her finger moved to me. "But they don't have the code yet, Drozel. If I send this man back to get it, he'll die before they come back."
"We can't get through the doors without that code!" the man called Drozel snarled.
Ayla didn't even flinch from his rage. She pushed into it, closing the distance between them. "And this man willdiedown there, making him useless to us. Tobias is helping.Callahasked him to, and you should know her name by now. She trusts him enough to marry him, and I don't know what else to do but save this man!"
The tan Dragon turned his attention on me. "You married Callah?" His tail snapped like a whip cracking, the stinger on the end extending with the motion.
"She. Is. My. Friend!" I growled.
"She is," Ayla confirmed. "And Tobias is Jerlis's nephew. He knows that, and he knows about the women in quarantine, but I can't send Sylis back to die, Drozel. It doesn't help us, buthestill could."
