I grabbed her snout, giggling when she nudged my stomach and rumbled for me to get up. But deep down, I wanted to weep with weariness and frustration.
‘Get up, Bren. We’ll get it next time,’she sent kindly.
‘I know. I’m just—’
“Bren. Don’t move. I want to check that knee.” Terra appeared out of nowhere. She and another medic had been asked to attend, because this flying mount wasn’t only difficult for me. In fact, until this round, I’d thought maybe my lighter bodyweight gave me an advantage. The men were stronger than me, and still able to mount faster. But I’d seen more than one lose their grip on the strap when they took that first, flying grasp. And one had even been retired for the night when his dragon accidentally stumbled over him when he fell.
Grateful for a reason to just lay there, I flapped a hand at Terra as she dropped her bag to my side and knelt at my leg.
“This is ridiculous,” Terra muttered as she palpated my knee. At first, I hoped it wasn’t a real injury—until she put pressure on the inside of my kneecap, and it felt like she was trying to pry it off.
“Oh,shit!”I cursed, jumping like a startled rabbit, and pushing up to sit. “Don’t do that again.”
Terra frowned, but didn’t let go of my leg, supporting the back of my knee as she bent it up and extended it twice, then put her thumbs on the kneecap again.
“This will hurt,” she said grimly. “But not for long—”
I squealed with pain, clapping my hands over my mouth as she did something to manipulate my knee, but then immediately pulled a long bandage from her bag and began strapping it.
“It was slightly out of alignment,” she said darkly, binding my knee over my leathers, and bending it, moving it between wraps. “It will heal quickly—especially with Akhane’s bond. But no more running mounts tonight. You need to take some care with it for a couple of days to make sure it healscompletelybefore it gets injured again.”
“I can’t,” I said through my teeth, my knee thrumming with pain, though it felt more comfortable when she moved it now.
“You can, and you will.”
“No, I mean it. I have training and—”
Akhane nudged my side, chiding me to listen. But unfortunately, she bumped the rib on my side that I’d bruised the night before, thanks to my sparring partner’s elbow.
I flinched, and cried, clapping my arm to my side to protect the rib. Akhane jerked her head back at the same time Terra’s head snapped up.
Her lips thinned as she tied off the bandage on my knee, then moved up my body and reached for my jacket buttons. “Let me see that rib,” she muttered.
“No, I—it’s just a bruise,” I said quickly, widening my eyes at her. I wasn’t taking my shirt off here, where my brothers and their dragons were all watching!
But Terra shook her head. “Hold your jacket for modesty, but unbutton it so I can lift the side. We don’t play with ribs, Bren. They can cause all kinds of issues if they’re cracked or broken.”
I glared, but she just waited patiently as I unbuttoned my jacket, then the shirt under it, then held both tightly over my breasts, while she lifted the sides, then erupted in colorful curses.
Several of the Shadowfang brothers were landing their flying mounts, or trotted toward us from the hall.
Voski was the first to reach us. I glared at him, warning him with my eyes not to say anything to embarrass me as he stood, hands on his hips and spoke to Terra.
“How bad is it?”
“She’s bruised and injured and if you keep putting her through this, it won’t end well,” Terra said, shaking her head as she reached into her bag and pulled out a small, sharp-smelling pot, which she opened, then scooped her fingers into, leaning into my side as she rubbed the awful concoction onto my rib. I winced at the pressure, but within seconds, the skin felt cool and the pain under it began to ease.
“What was that?” I asked quickly.
“More than you should need for training,” Terra said. “But you’re coming back to me tomorrow for some more. I don’t like the look of that bruising.”
It was embarrassing, sitting there like a child, one bandage on my knee, a medic hunched over me, while I held my jacket closed over my breasts so they wouldn’t be bared. But Voski didn’t stare, and the others were too far away to see anything. It just felt… vulnerable.
Thankfully, the session was ending. Voski told the others to take their dragons back to the stable, and as the other officers ambled out of the hall to see what had kept everyone, they agreed that it was time to call it a night.
I slumped with relief, but frustration rose in my chest.
The only upside to Terra’s ministrations was that most of the men had left to put their dragons to bed before she pushed to her feet and offered me a hand to rise.
