“I just changed his bandages,” Calin said severely. “You shouldn’t need to take them off to cast your spell. Can’t you feel the damage with your magic?”
“Yes, well, it’s easier with a visual aid,” Erick said. “I told you, I haven’t studied this…but there’s no reason why I can’t do it the hard way,” he added as the piedling continued to fix him with a fierce stare.
“You don’t really want to see it anyway,” Gerald said. “It’s disgusting.” He had watched the piedlings change the bandages in one of his more clearheaded periods and he had been regretting it ever since.
“Burns usually are,” Erick said absently. “Now hush.”
He closed his eyes in concentration and Omar, Gerald, and Calin all watched him intently.
For a long moment, nothing seemed to be happening. Then Gerald gasped and sat upright as the ever-present ache the medicine never quite reached vanished abruptly.
Erick opened his eyes and smiled with satisfaction before swaying unsteadily on his feet. Omar caught his arm and guided him into a chair while Calin scolded him about overreaching himself. “But he does look much better,” she admitted grudgingly as she looked back at Gerald.
“I feel much better,” he said, moving his leg experimentally. There was no sudden stab of pain and he grinned and reached over to clasp Erick’s hand in thanks. His cousin murmured something incoherent in response and Calin frowned.
“The healer is going to want to talk to you, in great detail, about what type of spell you used,” Calin warned Erick. “And you clearly put too much of yourself into it, whatever it was. You better rest now or you won’t survive the interrogation.”
She sent one of her sisters to fetch the healer, adding to the rest of them, “We better have someone here who’s awake and familiar with healing spells in case Gerald has a bad reaction again.”
The ever-efficient piedlings soon had Erick tucked into a cot nearby and he was asleep within minutes. Omar covered a yawn of his own. “We flew pretty much nonstop to get back here,” he explained. “It’s hard to sleep on dragonback. Even with the harnesses, you can’t quite convince yourself you’re not going to fall.”
“It’s even harder to sleep when you’re the one flying,” the dragon pointed out.
“You can sleep now,” Gerald told it fondly. “You must be exhausted.”
The dragon sniffed. “It was important to hurry. But yes, now that you mention it, I am a bit tired…” It trailed off and soon its familiar rumbling snores were echoing off the cavern walls.
By the time the healer arrived, the only ones still awake were Gerald and Calin. The cavern was huge from a human’s perspective, but their dragon was taking up a good deal of space and the healer took up even more. It took some maneuvering for it to get settled without stepping on any of the people, piedlings, or furniture scattered around the suddenly crowded space.
It took in the scene and grumbled half-heartedly about the crowding and the fact that virtually everyone it wanted to talk to was asleep. “I suppose I shouldn’t wake them,” it sighed. “All that flying… Well. You do look better, at least,” it added approvingly to Gerald. “Fever’s gone?”
“It seems to be,” Calin said. “I don’t know if the spell specifically targeted the infection or if it was a general boost to the overall rate of healing, which in turn caused the infection to clear, but his temperature is much better now.”
“Hmm… I can’t quite tell what he did,” the healer said thoughtfully. Gerald’s skin tingled as it cast some sort of magical scrutiny toward Erick’s spell and he rubbed at his arms reflexively. “It’s an odd spell… Did your cousin say what he was doing?” it asked Gerald, who could only shake his head helplessly.
“You do feel that it’s working, though?”
“Oh, yes. The pain vanished completely. The medicine had been dulling it, but it was still there, underneath. Now, it’s like there’s nothing wrong with my leg at all.”
“Well, there is,” Calin said severely. “So don’t get any more ideas about getting up and walking around.”
The healer cocked its head at him. “You tried to walk? Why?”
Gerald turned red. “I had to go to the bathroom,” he muttered. “Anyway, I have a wheeled chair now, so there’s no reason to worry about it,” he added hastily. Let’s change the subject now! “I promise I won’t try to walk until I have permission.”
“See that you don’t,” the healer said, as severely as Calin had. “Especially the way you’ve been reacting to healing spells, it’s better to be cautious. I do wish he would wake up,” it sighed, looking at Erick. “I’m most curious to compare methodologies.”
“He only just fell asleep,” Gerald said apologetically. “You might have to wait a while.”
“I should have more patience than I do, considering my profession,” the healer sighed. “No one ever gets sick or injured at a convenient time, of course, and then they often insist on taking an unreasonable amount of time to get better.”
Gerald was left feeling like he should apologize for his own eventful recovery to date, but Calin caught his eye and gave him a wink. Dragons have the oddest senses of humor, he thought wryly.
“I suppose I could run some diagnostic spells in the meantime,” it said, looking around the cavern as if hoping someone would wake up if it looked at them hard enough. “I say, who’s this?” it added, craning its head to peer at the dragon.
“You mean Dragon?” Gerald asked, confused.
It shot him a look that clearly said don’t be an idiot. “The human here in the harness,” it clarified. “I remember your friend, who’s asleep in the chair, and the magician in the cot is presumably your cousin, but who is this other one?”
“Oh—I thought there were three people!” Gerald said. “But no one said anything and I thought it was the fever or the medicine muddling me again. I have no idea. Or—maybe—are they female?”
The healer squinted. “I think so?”
“It’s probably Princess Nedi, then,” Gerald said. “She was the one in the forest where Erick was. Omar and Dragon must have rescued her when they went to get Erick. But why didn’t anyone say anything? Why didn’t she say anything?”
The healer shrugged, its scales rippling with the movement. “I’ve long since given up on trying to understand anything humans do or don’t do,” it said dryly.
Calin offered a more practical explanation. “The others were caught up in being worried about you,” she pointed out. “They weren’t thinking about performing introductions or giving explanations. And she probably didn’t want to interrupt your reunion or your cousin’s spellcasting. I’m sure if they weren’t all so tired it would have been handled a bit more, hmm, smoothly.”
Gerald nodded. “It’s not like there’s not enough room for her,” he said wryly. “And we are planning on bringing another hundred or so here. No reason not to get started with the showcase just because I got a bit seared.” Calin had told him the dragon had gotten them permission for it; he had the impression the dragon had been so furious he’d been burned that no one had much wanted to argue with it about anything else.
His skin started tingling again and he cast a sharp glance at the healer. “Does your magic have to tickle like that?” he asked it. “It feels like there are ants crawling all over me.”
“You can feel the diagnostic?” it asked with surprise. “But you didn’t before. Or did you? You didn’t mention it, but I suppose you may have been a bit distracted at the time. Do you remember if you felt the same, ah, tickle when I cast my healing spell initially?”
Gerald cast his mind back with an effort. His memories of the past few days were very hazy. “I wasn’t awake for it, was I?”
“No, that’s right, you weren’t,” it said, sounding disappointed. “You were quite thoroughly unconscious. Hmm. I wonder if that sensitivity had anything to do with the way you reacted to the spell… Did you feel anything when your cousin cast his spell?”
&
nbsp; “Nothing like this. Only the pain going away.”
“I suppose that’s a promising sign,” it said, but it sounded doubtful. “We really must compare methods. How long do you think he’ll sleep for?”
“Oh… I don’t know,” Gerald said. He was starting to get sleepy again himself. He hadn’t been awake this long since getting burned, and the excitement of seeing Omar and Erick, followed by the effort of holding a prolonged conversation, was starting to weigh on him. His eyelids fluttered and he murmured, “It could be a few hours,” before he drifted off.
The last thing he was aware of was the healer plaintively imploring Calin not to fall asleep too.
A MURMURED CONVERSATION between the healer and Erick was what woke Gerald a few hours later. Erick was still wearing the same clothes he had arrived in and was looking distinctly rumpled, but much more alert.
“It’s a balance between pain management and tissue regeneration,” Erick was explaining. “It’s not purely one or the other.”
“Very few healing spells are purely one or the other,” the healer responded impatiently. “That does not explain the way this spell feels at all.”
“Maybe it’s the energy requirements?” Erick suggested. “The spell has to be continuous, self-sustaining, but it needs too much energy to be powered by either me or Gerald—”
“The energy signature is about the only normal thing about this spell!” the healer snapped. “I’m quite familiar with self-sustaining spells. I cast the same sort of energy-looping with mine.”
“They’ve been going on like that for ages,” Omar said conspiratorially. Gerald stopped turning his head back and forth between his cousin and the healer and looked at Omar instead. He looked just as rumpled as Erick—maybe more so, considering he had slept in a chair—but Gerald reflected that he almost certainly looked no better and likely much worse.
“It sounds like they’re going to keep going on, too,” Omar added. “They’re starting to repeat themselves, but I’m not sure they’ve noticed.”
“Well, whatever kind of spell it is, I like it,” Gerald said. “I had forgotten how amazing it is to not be in pain all the time.”
“You’ll be running around rescuing guardians again in no time,” Omar said with a smile.
“That reminds me,” Gerald said, propping himself up higher to peer at the dragon, who was still snoring gently at the foot of the bed. “Speaking of rescues—you brought someone with you! Was anyone going to mention that?”
“Oh! Didn’t we? I was so tired, once I saw you were all right, I wasn’t even thinking about anything else. Yes. By the time we reached the Enchanted Forest, Erick had already gone in. We didn’t catch up with him until the tower and then, since we were there…” Omar shrugged. “Nedi’s quite taken with your idea, by the way. She’s all ready to help get everything set up. She’s from one of the smaller kingdoms, too, so she’s helped in administration for years. She’ll have everything organized in no time.” He lowered his voice and leaned in close to say, “Whether you want her to or not.”
“I want her to,” Gerald said fervently. “I also want to hear about the Enchanted Forest. And I want breakfast. Or dinner. What time is it, anyway?”
“You were right the first time,” Omar said, laughing. “It is hard to keep track in here, isn’t it? I’ll see about breakfast. Do you need anything else?”
“A bath,” Calin interjected. Gerald jumped. He hadn’t noticed the piedling appear. “You can probably be trusted not to fall asleep and drown now that there’s a healing spell on you,” she continued. “And you’ll feel better if you’re clean.”
“I’ll feel better when I eat something,” Gerald said. “Although, actually, I feel fine in the first place.” It was still a novel sensation and he smiled as he said it.
“You can eat first,” Calin said grudgingly. “But then you’re bathing. Or you can tell the healer why you’re choosing not to.”
Gerald looked at that impressive personage and gulped. “That’s okay,” he said faintly.
“That’s what I thought,” Calin said with satisfaction. “I’ll go find some breakfast.”
When she returned carrying a tray—followed by several sisters carrying additional trays and a table to put everything on—Erick and the healer broke off their ongoing argument. As Omar had said, they were repeating themselves. Erick broke off a frustrated response in midsyllable to say, “Please tell me those drinks have caffeine in them.”
“It wouldn’t be a very good breakfast drink without it,” Calin responded, handing him a cup.
“Ah, that’s good!” he said after the first sip. “I could drink this all day.” He dragged a chair over to the table and began applying himself with equal gusto to the rest of the offerings.
The healer let out an amused snort. “I suppose that’s my cue to get some breakfast of my own,” it said. “We can resume this discussion after we’ve both eaten.”
Erick waved a hand at it in distracted acknowledgment, and the healer nudged the still-snoring dragon into wakefulness, murmuring to it about a quick hunt to restore its strength. With an exaggerated groan, the dragon got up, reassured itself Gerald was still all right, and followed the healer out of the cavern.
Gerald made a move toward getting up and joining Erick at the table, but Calin immediately pounced on him. “You agreed not to get up without permission!” the piedling scolded.
“It’s three feet away!” Gerald protested. “Are you really going to make me eat in bed with everyone else sitting at a table three feet away?”
Omar nudged him. “I think she wants you to ask for permission,” he stage-whispered.
Gerald grumbled half-heartedly under his breath and then said, as politely as he could manage, “Calin, would it be all right if someone helped me over to the table?”
“Of course,” she said, equally politely.
Omar gave him a hand up and helped him hop over to the table, making a show of gallantly pulling a chair out for him.
As Gerald started to serve himself, he realized there was still an empty place at the table. “Is Nedi still sleeping?” he asked. And why do I keep forgetting she’s here? I thought my fever was gone. I shouldn’t be getting confused by things any longer.
Erick looked up from his plate. “No, she’s been up for ages. She wanted to look around. But she must be getting hungry by now, she’ll probably be back soon.”
“In fact, there she is now,” Omar said, nodding toward the cavern entrance. “Nedi, come have breakfast!” he called, and she waved an acknowledgment.
Gerald observed her carefully as she came closer. Her clothes—simple, practical trousers and tunic in a bright, cheery shade of yellow that stood out against her dark skin—were as rumpled as the princes’, but that didn’t seem to bother her at all. In sharp contrast to her clothes, her hair was neatly arranged in dozens of braids that hung down her back. Not a single strand appeared to be out of place.
She was tall, he noted as she got closer. Her height and the way she moved, smoothly, with no wasted motion, made her look quietly dangerous. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s like Omar, with knives up her sleeves.
That, in turn, made him wonder why she had chosen to be a rescuee and not a rescuer.
She smiled at Erick and Omar as she approached, but her gaze caught on Gerald and held there. He wondered self-consciously how he was faring under her scrutiny. Probably not very well, he thought wryly. I should have taken Calin up on that bath. He knew nothing about her or her kingdom, but both Erick and Omar seemed to like her and that made him want to make a favorable impression.
Not that Erick’s approval was all that hard to get—he liked nearly everyone, at least on a superficial level of casual friendliness, but Gerald had gotten the idea Omar was a bit more cautious with his approval; not that he was unfriendly, but more…wary. Not that we met under the most normal of circumstances, Gerald reminded himself.
Nedi stopped when she was a few scant yards away. Wi
th her eyes still locked on Gerald’s, she gave him a formal bow, dipping precisely to the depth considered appropriate for one royal child to greet another.
Gerald bobbed a sketchy, seated bow in return, feeling even shabbier and grubbier as he did so. “Forgive me for not rising to greet you properly,” he said, striving to make his tone and his words appropriately formal to make up for the implied insult of remaining seated. “I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Princess Nedi.”
She surprised him then by dropping all pretense of formality to give him a wide grin. “Likewise, I’m sure,” she said. “Oh, don’t worry, I wasn’t expecting you to get up—although you do look a lot better than you did last night, if you don’t mind my saying so. I was just wondering how you would react to me. It’s odd, but I’ve found you can tell a lot about a person by how they chose to follow—or not—the rules of these interactions. You would think we would reveal more about ourselves in circumstances of our own choosing, but it’s often not the case. I’ve noticed having the freedom to choose how to present ourselves often makes us more guarded. In a formal situation, no one thinks about how they might be giving something away.”
Gerald blinked at her. “Oh,” he said. “Um. What did I, uh, give away?” he asked with an air of trepidation. Nedi’s gaze had turned a bit sharper than he was strictly comfortable with.
“That,” she said primly, “would be telling.”
She pulled out the remaining chair and sat down, calmly reaching for some fruit while Gerald gaped at her. Omar hid a grin behind his hand, but Erick didn’t bother to hide his.
“Close your mouth, the flies will get in,” he said. “Meathead.”
Gerald closed his mouth with a snap.
“Sorry,” Omar said, still grinning. “But she did the same thing to us. Now I can see why she finds it so amusing… I might have to start doing something similar.”
Royal Rescue Page 17