Elowynn and Gliss have the power to heal him?
Suddenly, I’m remembering the way Gliss had refused to leave the cave back in the mountains; the way she’d pointed out that the Vandawolf was dying. I wonder if she would have offered to heal him then and there if her sister hadn’t arrived.
I guess I’ll never know.
Now, Elowynn’s expression betrays nothing of her true feelings, although Gliss is quick to move as they kneel on the other side of the Vandawolf’s stretcher.
Elowynn shouts orders at the warrior fae gathered at the side of the room as she settles into position just behind the Vandawolf’s right shoulder. “I want purified water and clean cloths. Bring them quickly.”
Remaining on his left side, I turn my back on the Queen, directing my rage at Elowynn. “All this time, he was in pain and you could have helped him.”
“You don’t tell me what to do, Blacksmith,” she snaps back, loudly enough to be heard by the entire congregation. “I follow my Queen’s orders.” In the next breath, she continues. “I assume you can remove this dark metal. If you do it slowly, we will heal him as you go and prevent any further blood loss.”
I narrow my eyes at her. “Can you do that without touching him?”
She nods. “We can direct our power into him from a small distance. It lessens the effect of the power slightly, but not enough to make any real difference.”
Several warrior fae reappear then, placing buckets of water and baskets of cloths beside Elowynn and Gliss before they retreat again.
The two women each dunk a cloth in water, wring it out, and then pause.
“We’re ready,” Elowynn says to me. “Begin.”
I don’t hesitate a moment longer.
The metal on the Vandawolf’s chest is still awake, so there’s no need for me to tap it with my hammer. It will respond to my commands.
Extending my left hand toward the Vandawolf’s wounded right shoulder, which requires leaning against the side of the stretcher to reach that far, I experience a moment of fear, not knowing what’s going to happen next.
When I plugged his wounds with the metal, I didn’t already have a medallion fused to my palm.
With the wrong thought, I could just as easily kill him as help him.
Chapter17
Taking a quick, anxious breath, I empty my mind of all impulses, everything except the need to call the titanium back to me.
I close my eyes and sink into the icy darkness of the medallion until I can no longer distinguish the metal on his chest from the titanium on my hand.
Come away, I whisper within my mind.Come away quietly from his flesh and bones and skin.
Come away like drips of blood.
Drop by drop.
Little by little.
I feel the metal move beneath my palm, and it is as slow as I wanted. Gradual and careful. Behind my closed eyelids, I’m conscious of the drips of water from the wet cloths and a dark glow building.
When I open my eyes just a little, careful not to break my concentration, I take note of the tension in both Elowynn and Gliss. They’re poised over the Vandawolf, both hands extended, one emitting dark light, while with their other hand, they’re carefully cleaning the wound, an efficient but apparently well-practiced process as they work in unison. The cloths sit between their fingers and the Vandawolf’s body, ensuring they don’t directly touch him.
Their lips are tightly pressed together and their shoulders are stiff, their fingers flexing and their hands trembling.
When the dark light emitting from their palms touches the Vandawolf’s chest, he shivers, an alarmingly significant movement.
“What are you doing?” I ask them.
Elowynn answers me. “The violence that was done to him was committed with malice. To heal him, we must meet darkness with darkness. We must draw it out like a poultice. Otherwise, he won’t heal.”
