Or maybe I hit my head too hard when I fell.
“That’s … a lot to take in,” Elianna says, clearly frustrated, after I wrap up the recitation and put the necklace back beneath my shirt. “I mean, ‘you must yet retrieve the key from the Scholars’ Temple.’ Really? She couldn’t have given us a few clues as tohowwe’re going to do that? Orwhereexactly in the temple we’ll find the key?”
“Not so much. She said the key and amulet coming together gave her a burst of energy, but it didn’t last long. She’ll be able to talk to us again when we find the next key. We may want to write up a list of questions, so we’re prepared.”
When I look up from my bowl, everyone is staring at me with varying degrees of surprise and respect.
“What?”
“You have an uncanny ability to cut through to the meat of the matter,” Chitai says. “A list. It’s basic, but none of us thought of it.”
“Well, to be fair, we didn’t know the goddess would appear when we touched a key to the amulet, either,” I point out reasonably. “Just that she’d grow stronger.”
“Whathappened after the draugrs but before the goddess?” Sergeant Neville asks. “You’re the heart of this company, Soli. How did you survive?”
I look to Kaelen. “You tell it.”
He does but puts far too much emphasis on what he calls my “heroic efforts” to save them. So, I jump in and tell them about his heroism in that tunnel. Bern adds his part, and they recount an edited version of the rest, leaving out any mention of my bout with Gray Mind.
“And then we walked out of there and found you here,” Bern concludes, skipping my breakdown.
But I’m tired of hiding. “That’s not quite accurate. I cost us time.” I tell everyone what happened as briefly as I can manage. “I wasn’t able to climb out of it. Too much happened in too short a time, and I think it all overloaded my mind. Also, the sheer relief of knowing Kaelen and Bern were awake to take over … Well. There it is. I’m sorry for the delay I caused.”
Chitai holds up a hand when everybody talks at once. “Soli. That’s a very normal reaction to the stresses and fears of battle, even in the toughest warriors. We do what needs to be done in the worst of it, then we collapse and sleep for a day or two when it’s over.”
“Agreed,” Sergeant Neville says. “You held up like a champion, lass. I’d be proud for you to serve on my watch.”
I have to blink very hard to keep back the tears, so I look down at my empty bowl. “Thank you. Anyway, that’s us. Tell us what happened to you.”
It was even worse than I’d feared. Taking turns, with each of them adding in parts to the story, they tell us how they fought off the enraged draugrs and found a narrow passageway only wide enough for the people and the horses to get through. The draugrs chased them to it and then, furious at being thwarted, took out their ire on the abandoned wagon.
“But then the smallest of the monsters figured out he could squeeze into the tunnel,” Andras says dryly. “Luckily for us—and I realize the irony of saying that—the foul Zhagarn arrived with a full cohort of their monsters. From two different directions, which we didn’t understanduntil we got here and learned of the group that burned the crops.”
“Enemies from two different directions, but none of them knew to sing,” Elianna puts in, giving me a tentative smile that I don’t return.
Chitai shudders. “Can you imagine the Fell singing? Birds would fall dead from the trees in horror.”
I grimace, preferring not to imagine it, actually.
Andras continues from his spot by the window. “The draugrs wore themselves out killing all the Zhagarn and Fell, and then daylight must have arrived, because the four creatures collapsed and fell asleep right there on the remains of their conquered foes.”
“Elianna healed us—we were pretty banged up. Trick’s arm was broken,” Chitai says. “After that, we found our way out of the tunnel, spent some time in a futile search for you, then headed this way, in case you were out in front of us.”
“So, that’s all the news,” Trick says cheerfully, waving his unbroken arm to show me. “We survived, so now I guess we’re off again on our fun-filled journey through the freezing cold mountains and into horrible danger?”
“No,” I say, staring at Elianna. “Now the powerful Air Touched Guild sorcerer tells us why she hasn’t been able to do much beyond floating a few pretty balls of light in the air and using already-activated potions since we began this expedition.”
“Yes. Very good idea,” Andras says, folding his arms.
Elianna sits back and puts her face in her hands for a long moment. Then she drops her hands to her lap and shrugs. “I tried to tell you.”
“You didn’t try very hard! How about, oh, I don’t know, anytime during this entire journey, something like, ‘Hey, sorry to have to let you know Ibarely have any magic’?”
Kaelen stares at me and then turns to her. “Elianna? What is this? Tell us. Now.”
She raises a sardonic eyebrow at the tone of command in his voice but doesn’t argue. “Yes. Fine. I lost almost all my power nearly a year ago. I can do small magics, like producing the ‘pretty balls of light’—which, I’ll remind you, also helped defeat our attackers at the palace.”
“Andtook so much out of you that you collapsed,” I shoot back.
