by Sariah Skye
“I’m so very sorry,” he said, with a sigh. Maxxus helped me fasten the bra. “We’ll need to find someone to heal you. I need to be gentler next time, I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be. I enjoyed it,” I said, with a wink. “Remember though, only Gabriel can help heal me; no one else’s powers will work as well.”
“Then we’ll make sure he helps you out, stat,” Maxxus insisted. I began to protest as I slid my legs into the pants. “No, this is his job. You don’t have to tell him how it happened. Just tell him you need help.”
I grunted. I really didn’t want to ask Gabriel for help…with this.
Gently, he wrapped his arms around me and nuzzled my cheek with his nose. “Really, I must insist. You need to be well.”
I melted in his embrace, and relented. “Fine. But don’t tell him anything. I don’t want him to feel worse than he already does,” I said, with another sigh. “One of these days, we’re going to have to sit down and chat. I feel this wall around him every time I see him.”
“That’s not good. Yes, you’ll have to talk. But first, let’s go meet with Prelate Yarrem,” Maxxus said.
“How did you know he was found?” I asked.
“Kiarra told me as soon as we came in. Daniel and Gabriel are having breakfast while we wait for you,” he said.
“Didn’t you eat?”
Maxxus shrugged. “I’ll grab a biscuit or two on the way out.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “You need to eat. And I’m still hungry anyhow, I didn’t get to finish. Yarrem will wait for ten minutes. My grandfather will meet with him as soon as he comes over.”
I finished dressing as Maxxus took a quick shower and went back downstairs to eat.
“All hail the queen!” Daniel jibed, humming “God Save the Queen” under his breath.
I flipped him off. “You’d know a queen too, wouldn’t you?”
“Damn straight, bitch!” he said.
Gabriel and Daniel were sitting next to each other across from my still half full plate on the table. My mother was loading them full of all sorts of bad-for-you foods.
Gabriel facepalmed himself and groaned into his palms. “Oh my god, you two…” he muttered, shaking his head at Daniel’s and my banter.
“You love us bro! Don’t deny it!” Daniel gave his brother a shove before looking at his breakfast plate with remorse. “Oh I’m going to regret this.”
I scoffed. “Come on, you walked how far from the dungeon to here? That’s at least a mile. Just go with it.”
Daniel smirked. “True. I’m just going to enjoy it.” He dug into his biscuits and sighed happily. “More carbs…if I die right now I die happy.”
I rolled my eyes, exchanging a look with Gabriel. “Your brother is odd.”
“You’re telling me.” Gabriel was less joyful to dig into his food but he still looked to enjoy the ham and gravy. And the coffee my mother set in front of him.
“So, you get Connor locked up safely?” I asked them, in between bites.
“Yep. Braeden is watching him right now with another guard—forget his name—but he was an orange dragon,” Daniel said with a shrug.
“Connor looked terrified. I don’t think he’ll be trying anything anytime soon,” Gabriel agreed, with satisfaction.
“Good. Did Finnian get a chance to talk to you?” I asked them.
“Nope,” Gabriel said. “When we arrived, they were gone. I suspect to meet up with the Prelate. Why? What does he have to talk to me about?”
I bit my lip sheepishly. “The Shadows. When I was healing Daxie…”
Gabriel sighed. He took a long drink of his coffee before speaking next. “I was afraid of this.”
“You know for sure that it was Shadows?” Gabriel demanded.
I nodded. “Yep. Finnian did the mind-thing.”
Gabriel groaned. He wrung his hands out before him, looking anxious. “I wish there was something I could have done…”
“Ah, Gabe. What could you have done?”
Maxxus entered the room, fresh and clean-shaven. I exchanged a pointed look with the sorcerer, that clearly said, “Not now.” Maxxus didn’t know, yet, that my dream had been the Shadows after all.
Gabriel just shrugged. “Oh, nothing. Castle Danger stuff, ya know.”
“Don’t we all…” Maxxus still wore the same clothes but he’d changed into a set of fresh emerald green robes. I gave him an odd look as he sat next to me and he shrugged. “Apparently your mother has some clothing for me in your bedroom too,” he said with a laugh.
“I aim to be prepared!” My mother said from the kitchen with a laugh.
I grinned at Maxxus. It was a common trait for yellow—air—dragons to be organized and well prepared. My mother was no exception.
“Thank you, Countess Miradoste!” Maxxus called back.
“Stop that. Call me mother,” she said, entering with another plate for him, setting it down next to me. He sat down and smiled at her.
“If that’s what you like, Mother.” He gave her a wink and she grinned.
“Perfect! Call me if you need anything else!” She called to us. “I have to prepare the house for our guests.”
“Guests?” Gabriel questioned.
“Delegates from Dreka and the Northlands. They’ll be staying here I assume since the castle is out of commission,” Maxxus explained.
“Ah.”
“The palace is nearly scrubbed clean of Shadow residue but, we don’t want to risk it,” Maxxus said. “Elder Aleron and Valessia will be staying at the palace with us during their stay.”
“What about Prelate Yarrem?” I asked.
“Not sure yet,” Maxxus said. “I figured we’ll work that out when he arrives with whatever he’s comfortable with.”
We ate the next few minutes in silence. When we’d finished our meal, and were standing to go meet the Prelate in the makeshift village in the gardens, Maxxus pulled Gabriel aside.
“Will you help heal her?” he asked quietly.
“Heal her? What happened?” He eyed me with inquiry. “Shadows?”
Maxxus shoot his head, looking a little bewildered. “No, why would you think that?”
Gabriel shook his head. “Nevermind.”
I just blushed. “Don’t ask. Just—can you? It’ll take a few more shifts to heal but this is much quicker.” I tossed my robes over my shoulder, and unbuttoned a handful of buttons on my blouse, shifting it to the side to expose the bruises on my shoulder.
He lifted a brow. “Ah. Right.” He scratched the back of his neck, trying to appear nonchalant about it, but I knew what he was thinking. “I’d ask if someone hurt you, but I am pretty sure I know what happened,” he said uncomfortably, looking between Maxxus and I. He held out his hands and I grasped them. Like before, when he helped heal me on the Lake Superior shoreline, his hands glowed with light magic as I pulled my spirit magic from inside. The warmth from his touch spread through my arms, shoulders and back, feeling like summer sunshine. After a moment, he released his grasp. “Better?” he asked.
I shifted my shoulders and stretched my arms. No soreness remained. I beamed at him thankfully. “Oh, much better thank you!” I buttoned my blouse back up, feeling rejuvenated.
“Good.” He stood awkwardly but offered me a friendly grin. “Shall we?” He motioned for me to lead the way.
“Let’s go.”
“Go easier on her next time, eh?” Daniel quipped from behind us.
Maxxus growled, and gave the seer a playful shove. “Perhaps it’s her that should go easier on me.” He looked at me jokingly and I shook my head.
“Ass…” I said, rolling my eyes.
Maxxus chuckled the entire way, as we walked to the gardens.
Evie was tending to Prelate Yarrem in the infirmary tent when we arrived. Finnian and my grandfather were hovering around him, speaking in hushed tones. Being that he couldn’t shift out of his dragon form, several cots and tables had been shoved aside to make room for him. He
was laying on all fours breathing hoarsely. He looked no worse for the wear, but the agony fell off him in waves.
“He looks rough,” Maxxus whispered to me.
“Actually he normally looks that way. An old Shadow battle a long, long long time ago,” I responded back.
Maxxus winced. “Wow…” It was all any of us could say.
“How is he?” I asked Evie, as she was checking his vitals.
“Physically, about the same. But he seems to have suffered some sort of emotional trauma,” she said, after waving her hands around him. With her vampire senses, she didn’t need anything in the way of special instruments.
“Prelate?” I asked softly, kneeling next to him.
His foggy eyes flew open. “Oh, the pink dragon. It is good to see you.”
“How are you?”
“I am surviving,” he spoke, as a shudder shook his entire body. He gasped and shut his eyes, resting his head on his front legs.
I winced, taking a couple of steps back.
“His aura is…” Daniel whispered over my shoulder to me, but trailing off. The look on his face said everything, though. He appeared utterly horrified.
“We need to do something. I wish he was here when I did the—” I made an exploding sound. “Maybe he’d be okay.”
“How is it that he cannot shift?” Maxxus wondered.
“It’s the Shadow taint. He’s been Shadowtouched for…millennia,” I explained.
“The only way you can heal from being Shadowtouched is pink dragon spirit magic,” Gabriel said. He looked at me expectantly.
“Do you think that maybe the two of us—like you helped heal me—might help him? At least ease some of his suffering?” I asked him.
“Worth a shot. Do you think it’s safe?” he asked but I shrugged.
“I don’t care. This dragon has suffered for years. It’s worth a few days of sleep to end his torment,” I said with defiance.
“Okay then.” I stared down Finnian or Maxxus and dared them to defy me. No one said anything.
Gabriel and I knelt down on either side of the injured old dragon. He lifted his head briefly to eye him but, with a listless snort, decided he was harmless. “Hello, Knight.”
“You know what I am?” Gabriel was surprised.
Yarrem nodded weakly. “Yes. My mate was a pink dragon. Her knight—though it’s been years—was a very good friend.”
“What happened to him?” Gabriel inquired, swallowing nervously. I don’t think he really wanted to hear the answer.
“Oh, he passed away along with my mate when the…when the dark…” he cut off his words as his body shook, trembling like an earthquake.
“What’s wrong with him?!” I demanded, looking at Evie, then Finnian: anyone who I thought could give me an answer.
Finnian knelt in between Gabriel and I and put a hand on the Prelate’s scaly cheek. His eyes flashed colors before settling on a dingy gray color before he pulled away.
“It’s a flashback. He’s remembering the Shadow wars from years ago—where he got injured.” Finnian’s mouth set in a tight line. “It seems like some sort of PTSD. The attack on Castle Danger put him in a bad state, though he was not actually injured from the attack this time.” Finnian sighed. He leaned over to speak calmly to the black dragon. “I am so sorry, old friend.”
“We’ll fix him. Right Leo?” Gabriel said, his lower lip quivering slightly. I could feel the emotion pouring off him; he felt terrible for the poor dragon’s fate.
I nodded vehemently. “Yes, we will. Well…we’ll do our best.”
My grandfather came up behind us and asked quietly, “Is there anything I can do to help? The prelate is a legend, it would be an honor to be of some service.”
I looked at Gabriel questioningly. “Is there?”
“Well, he’s a healer. It couldn’t hurt,” Gabriel said. “Okay, hold hands around him and call for your magics—as much as you can. Don’t hold back. Maxxus, be ready in case Leo goes nuclear again. I don’t anticipate it, with the Elder’s help, but we just don’t know. Nothing like this has been attempted in years.”
Maxxus took his position behind me, softly placing his hands on the small of my back. I smiled lightly under his touch, ignoring the scowl Gabriel was attempting to stifle.
Gabriel reached out and clutched one of my hands, and I took my grandfather’s outstretched one. We circled the agonized dragon on the floor.
“Now.” Gabriel instructed. I closed my eyes and felt my hands warm with magic. I called for my own and I felt the familiar pull inside.
Gabriel began chanting quietly. I didn’t recognize the language but it sounded like ancient Latin; or perhaps he was speaking in tongues, I didn’t know.
I called for more of the magic and felt my chest swell with power. The heat of it pricked my insides and fought my body for escape. I called for even more, feeling the magic inside seep out of my pores as sweat and tears. I opened my eyes and saw a large orb of glittering magic over Yarrem, it twisted and swirled with my pink magic and my grandfather’s healing light. Gabriel dropped our hands, and manipulated his hands around the orb, chanting loudly as the magic roared. He lifted his hands in the air, compelling the magic to shoot upwards before he slammed his hands down with a quick motion, rapidly shoving the magic straight into the the prelate.
Yarrem’s muddy eyes opened widely as the magic crashed into him. He let out a pained growl and my grandfather and I fell to our knees, placing our hands on his sides. I willed more magic into him—healing magic. Your scars will heal, emotional and physical. Be well, old soul. Be well, I said in my mind, over and over again as I shut my eyes, concentrating on the mantra. All the while Yarrem writhed and howled in agony.
“Yarrem!” my grandfather called out, and I felt the dragon scales under my touch smooth out before disappearing.
My eyes flew open and I sat there, dumbfounded. No longer did a scarred, agonized black dragon lay on the ground in pain. A human form—in the form of a very old man with long gray hair, tanned and wrinkled skin, a long thin beard around his mouth and aged features—lay before us now.
Maxxus knelt beside me, unfastening his robes and placing them over the prelate’s naked body.
“Prelate Yarrem?” I asked quietly.
Yarrem’s uncertain almond-shaped eyes opened up and looked straight at me. He sat up slowly, with some effort, looking in awe at his hands he was holding out before him. They were wrinkled and a little mangled with wear but, they were hands. His once muddied eyes were sparkling with light and a smile spread across his face.
“Leorah. How—how did you—?” he flipped his hands from back to front over and over in front of his face and grinned, slowly. He let out a wild laugh. “They’re hands! Hands!”
“Would you like to stand?” my grandfather stood next to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders for support. Gabriel stood back, and allowed Maxxus to take the other side and together they helped the prelate unsteadily to his feet—his human feet.
“Goodness!” He exclaimed joyfully. “I—I can stand! How—how is this possible!?” Yarrem beamed at me in amazement through his clear brown eyes.
“Leorah is no ordinary dragon,” my grandfather said, with a wink in my direction.
“I’ll say! But—I’ve been healed before by a pink dragon, and a knight and even another healing dragon—it never worked! This…this is…” Yarrem stammered, putting a hand to his nose and sniffling.
“She literally is like no other dragon,” Gabriel said. “She and I, years ago before we were born, our bloodlines were infused with a spell to make us stronger,” he said, glaring ever so briefly at my grandfather before his gaze flicked back to the prelate.
“Is that so?” he asked, with amazement.
“Yarrem…may I?” Finnian reached his hand out to do his Loremaster-mind-meld thing.
Yarrem nodded his head weakly. “Of course, friend.”
Finnian gently touched the side of Yarrem’s face and his
eyes flipped color, landing eventually on a dull black. He pulled away quickly after a long, agonizing moment. “Oh my…” Finnian seemed disconcerted. His eyes shifted to a gray-blue and sparkled with the sheen of tears. “All you have seen…I am so sorry…”
Yarrem struggled to lift his new human hand, and awkwardly patted him on the side of the arm. “It’s okay…it’s okay. You and your friends made it all better. Thank you.” He smiled at each one of us in turn, pausing at me the longest.
I bowed my head. “You’re welcome.”
“Why don’t we bring you into the house, and get you washed up and I’ll summon another healer or so. We will get you good as new,” my grandfather said, looking at both Maxxus and Gabriel. “Will you help me bring him to the house?”
“Of course, Elder,” Maxxus said, looking expectantly to Gabriel who nodded quickly.
“I will summon Esmé and send her over.”
“Don’t you think you should…talk to him?” Gabriel asked softly in my ear as they passed.
“I will. As soon as he’s feeling better. All the way better.” I insisted and he gave a head-bob of agreement.
Evie, who’d been standing back, stepped towards me. “How are you feeling after all that?”
I shrugged. “Fine…just fine.”
“No fatigue, no dizziness at all?” she questioned.
“Nope, not even a little bit,” I said. “Huh, weird.”
“Tapping into the sorcerer’s energy helps preserve yours,” Finnian spoke knowledgably. “Good to see that’s still the case after the bonding.”
I raised a brow. “Did you think it wouldn’t be?” I asked suspiciously.
“I wasn’t sure. That was quite a spell cast on your bloodline; there’s no telling what sort of repercussions it can have on you. Either of you,” he said. “Well. Leorah thank you for helping him. He’s been suffering a long time. The things he’s seen…it’s truly terrible. Being able to give him his able-body back is the one thing he’s always wanted. So, thank you. I think you’ll have an ally in him for as long as you need it.”
“That’s good. Glad I could help.” I gave him an awkward smile.