Ez’s expression went wide with surprise, but there was no time to sit and marvel. “What do I need to do?”
“Healing wounds and broken blood vessels is easier than curing an illness. You just have to knit what’s cut back together,” I told him. “You’re doing just fine now, but try to speed it up. You can encourage the body to regenerate the blood he lost by giving your Familiar some of your magic. You share a connection, so the transfer should be easy.”
Ez nodded firmly, then put all his concentration into healing his Familiar. I observed as the harsh wounds and deep gashes that the barbed wire had delivered vanished completely at the touch of Ez’s light. The rattled breaths the peryton gave became healthy and strong. Ez broke off the shaft of the arrow and carefully removed it from the animal’s wing. I watched as Ez’s Anichi magic knitted the hole the arrow had made back together, sinew and bone regrowing until it was as good as new.
I never thought my brother was a gifted caster. He was always behind in our elemental class, and he’d never been very good at any spells I’d seen.
But he was able to use Anichi magic effortlessly, despite all the struggles he had casting Toaqua magic. No, better than effortlessly… he wastalented.Healing had to be his primary gift, while Water was just a secondary trait. It just hadn’t shown up until his Familiar arrived.
Eventually, the peryton was able to get back up. He stood tall, tossing his antlered head and letting out a bray. Ez scratched the peryton behind the ears, and the deer gave an affectionate snort.
“Stop touching my merchandise!” The snarly voice of an ugly old man beckoned from the other side of the fence line. Through the metal and barbed wire, I saw that he was carrying a crossbow.
I snarled. He had to be the one who’d shot the peryton. What was more, this was the guy who ran the magical creatures shop in Shade Hills—Precarious Pets. I knew he had to be, because I’d seen him on our field trip into town during our second semester. The peryton must’ve been trying to escape, and this despicable jackass had shot him down.
“He’s not merchandise, he’s a living creature, one that breathes just like we do,” Ez replied cruelly. “And he’s staying with me.”
The shopkeeper’s lip twisted. “The hell he is, boy. That deer is my property, bought and paid for!”
“Yeah, and I just bonded with him,” Ez snapped. “Get lost, loser.”
“I don’t care if he’s your long-lost lover. I paid good money for that peryton, and I spent my morning chasing after him once he broke out of the shop. Busted up half my stock, too. I’m going to turn him for a profit, whether that be by selling him on the black market or to a meat factory,” the shopkeeper sneered.
“I'll pay you for him. Just leave us alone,” Ez said.
The shopkeeper snorted. “You inmates don’t have any money.”
“I’m the eldest son of the Toaqua chieftain. Contact him, he’ll give you whatever you ask for,” Ez said firmly. “But you’re not walking back to town with my Familiar.”
Daddy was going to be broke by the time all us kids got done asking for money, with the kind of trouble we got into. The shopkeeper narrowed his eyes, but he ceased to throw out a comeback as he saw a group of ten guards approaching, carrying noxite guns.
Clearly, he didn’t want to deal with the Warden any more than the rest of us did, because he said, “Your father better pay up, boy. Or I’ll be looking for you the second you set foot outside this hellhole. If you ever do.”
The shopkeeper hustled back into the woods. Immediately, the guards set on making the entire situation our fault.
“What are you kids doing?” a guard barked. “Trying to escape?”
“No,” Ez replied harshly. “I was rescuing my Familiar.”
“Quit lying, Mitoh, you don’t have a Familiar on record,” the guard snapped.
“I just bonded! And if I hadn’t gotten here in time…” Ez rubbed the peryton’s head, and the deer gave a snuffling noise.
“We’ll see,” the guard replied. “We’re taking you and this animal in for a bond evaluation, to make sure you aren’t lying. The rest of you are going down to Cellblock 9 for trying to break out!”
“We weren’t trying to break out, dipshit. The only part of the fence that’s broken is the barbed wire at the top,” Kallie replied dryly. “And if you haven’t noticed, none of us can get close enough to get over it.”
“We’ll be the judge of that,” a guard replied. “You’d better check your attitude, missy, before I decide I don’t like your tone.”
Kallie wrinkled her nose at him, which didn’t help. Three guards escorted Ez and his peryton back to the prison, while the rest of the guards forced us to go in another direction. I had the thought that we should fight them off and try to make a break for it, but there was no way we were getting past that inferichite without possibly blowing a hole in our heads.
Charlie helped me back into my wheelchair. The guards took us to an evaluation room, where they grilled us with a bunch of pointless questions. When it was clear they didn’t have anything on us and they couldn’t prove we were trying to break out, they let us go— but not without a bunch of pointless threats. We hurried along to the Villain's Den as fast as we could, to get some relative privacy from these assholes.
Once the guards left us alone, Opal began fretting.
“Oh, I do hope Ez will be all right,” Opal worried. “I’m not sure what a bond evaluation is, but it doesn’t sound good.”
“Marcus and I had one, ordered by the Warden,” Kallie said dully.
