“We wish the new chosen and his lenacht luck in your future,” the female lu-ong whispered.
When Kira looked up again, it was to find the lu-ong gone. Only a ripple of water to show that they were ever there.
“Well then,” Kira said. “Who wants to be the one to carry Graydon back?”
twenty-nine
The journey back to the arena took much longer than the one to the chamber. Part of the blame lay in the fact they had two unconscious people to transport. One of whom was a heavily muscled Tuann the size of a mountain.
Kira didn’t trust Elise to be there when she returned, and she wasn’t willing to leave Graydon behind so it meant taking both with them.
She could have sent the wanderer for help but in the end decided against it.
Once they left this place, her instincts told her they wouldn’t be able to find their way back. With the lenacht having chosen its carrier, the chamber’s purpose was at an end.
Best for everyone if they didn’t delay vacating it.
Aeron carried Elise while Kira and the wanderer, whose name she still hadn’t gotten, supported Graydon between them.
Their journey went by in silence.
Kira was too heartsick and exhausted to do more than put one foot in front of the other, and the wanderer didn’t strike her as the type to engage in aimless chatter.
It wasn’t long before they used the same entrance Finn had shown her to find their way to the arena.
A little of Kira’s numbness dissipated.
The arena and its floor looked like someone had kicked over an anthill. The bodies of the face changers still lay where they had fallen. As did the bodies of those Tuann who hadn’t been lucky enough to survive.
The sands were stained red.
Truthfully, Kira was a little surprised the arena hadn’t booted the dead as soon as their hearts stopped. Maybe because they were true dead and not killed by one of the weapon illusions.
In the end, it didn’t matter.
Kira and the wanderer hobbled forward, drawing the notice of several of those who’d responded to the emergency.
There was a cry as Amila spotted them. She broke from the crowd, Solal and the rest of Graydon’s oshota, including Baran, Isla, and Cord sprinted up the stairs.
“What happened?” Solal demanded as soon as he was within reach.
Kira let Amila and Cord take Graydon’s unconscious body, stepping aside while they lowered him to the ground. “He’s alive but unconscious.”
“It’s more than that,” Isla said with a focused look in her eyes.
Kira’s nod was weary. “He was shot by something that induces comas. He will wake up.”
She had to believe that. Any alternative was unacceptable.
Graydon would wake up. He would.
Solal’s gaze moved to Aeron who still held Elise. “Did he do this?”
For once Solal was easy to read. His desire to murder Aeron if Kira answered yes written on his face.
Kira put herself between the two men. “Not him.”
Solal considered her, his expression loosening as understanding dawned. “She has to pay for this.”
