“Caden and Iolaire shouldn’t be alone though. Where are Chione and the others?” Esme asked. “My night vision is terrible! Getting old truly is for the birds!”
“Age has written the wisdom of your life on your body, old friend. There is no shame in that,” Jahara said, patting Esme’s shoulder.
Valerius’ eyes went from Caden and the square to something nearer. The bridge. Like the others, he was wondering where Chione, Rose, Wally and Marban were, not to mention Simi, Nygoye and the rest of the Claw. Why had they not come up to try and fight the Behemoth when it was outside the throne room? He was glad they hadn’t. They would have been desperately hurt, but still. Where were they?
And then he saw.
“Chione,” Valerius breathed and he was moving before he consciously thought about it.
The others called out after him, but he didn’t stop and he had no thought or breath to tell them what he’d seen. They would see it soon enough themselves. The Wise Women cried out in concern as he flew past them and down the hallway and then out of High Reach. He was out in the entrance courtyard, stones cutting into his already bleeding and bruised feet. The gate was still closed.
“Open it! Open it!” Valerius shouted at the Claw who stared down at him from the two guard towers flanking the gate with open mouths.
“Here, King Valerius, come through this door.” It was Ngoye who spoke.
There was a door cut into the gate that could be opened even if the main gate remained shut. She opened it and gestured for him to join her. She was naked and her dark brown skin was covered in splatters of blood, but it did not appear to be her own. Or she had already healed as her Lion Spirit had protected her. But there was exhaustion written in her handsome, dark face and eyes.
“Chione,” he said in explanation.
“I know,” she said and stepped aside as he ducked through the gate. “She kept the Horde from getting to the gate.”
And he could see that. She was lying prone in the mid-point of the bridge. There was none of the Horde between her and the gate. But on the other side were scores of moaning and writhing people. The Claw were trussing up each of the Horde at the feet and ankles, making sure they couldn’t get away. Even when the human souls were returned to the Horde bodies they would have to separate the innocent from the truly guilty.
With relief, he caught sight of Simi leading the round up of the prisoners. There was blood splashed on his face and bare chest, but the lean, tawny body appeared unharmed.
Ngoye continued, “At first, Chione was flying down and grabbing those who we sent off the sides of the bridge. Stopping them from being killed.” Ngoye shook her head as if she thought that foolish and he understood why. The Horde was still possessed by the Behemoth’s evil soul. A monster’s soul. “But then we were overwhelmed and she landed in the middle of them.”
He saw what looked like blast marks etched into the stone as he hobbled towards his Councillor and his best friend. Tears were running down his face and he hadn’t even noticed. She had to be all right. She had to be!
“Wave after wave kept coming, but she held them back. I don’t know how,” Ngoye’s voice held wonder and deep respect from one warrior to another. “And she didn’t kill one of them. It was more than they deserved.”
“Some of them are innocent,” Valerius said, but he wasn’t sure if he cared if they had been at that moment. But then he reminded himself that in the Horde were Landry’s body and her brothers as well. They deserved to be saved.
“It wasn’t until some of them shifted into that--that thing that she was taken down,” Ngoye said with great bitterness. “It cut her with its filthy claws. She didn’t back away though. She stayed and fought until the end.”
“Yes,” he swallowed.
“King Valerius!” Rose cried when she saw them approaching. Tears were streaming down her face and her lower lip quivered. “She’s… Chione… She's really hurt, but says we shouldn’t move her. We’ve called for a doctor, but--”
“It’s no good. These wounds can’t be helped that way,” Wally said, an unnatural frown on that usually comically humorous round head.
Valerius quickened his step. Wally’s bare fuzzy butt moved to the side as he approached. Marban’s wizened form was revealed. The old Swarm Shifter was holding one of Chione’s hands and stroking it. Valerius’ heart lodged in his throat. Chione’s naked golden body was covered in wounds. Deep gouges. Slashes across her throat, her abdomen and her legs.
Hydra claws. No...
“Chione. It’s me. I’m here,” Valerius said.
He dropped down to his haunches by her side and took her other hand. She gripped it back weakly for just a moment before the strength seemed to just run out of her and her hand went limp in his. He could see how deep the gouges went across her throat and chest. He could see white bone and the glistening outsides of organs. The wounds were healing, but not as they should and not near fast enough to save her. Valerius felt sick and helpless with grief.
“Some--some kind of poison in the c-claws,” Chione gasped out in explanation, knowing what he was thinking before he said anything as she always did.
“Where is that Claw with the doctor and a blanket?!” Rose cried. “She’s going into shock. She’s freezing.”
All of them were shifted so they had no clothes to offer.
“I will go! Fast as the wind!” Ngoye promised, turned on her heel and headed back to the castle.
Valerius closed his eyes. That grief made him want to shriek. But he had to be strong for her. Find a way forward for her. He forced his eyelids open and made his voice calm and soft, “That’s why you’re not healing? The poison? Yes, yes, I see. We need to flush your wounds and perhaps--”
