Authors: Colleen Montague
XL
Lina
Lina
lay curled up on the floor by the window, the sunshine coming into the room bright and warm. She dozed as a gentle breeze stirred her fur, ignoring the bird chatter and distant shouts of people rising from the city below. She let her breath out in a big huff and twisted her neck slowly as she moved her head away from the ray of sunlight that fell on her. Her muscles were still sore even after being home for several weeks, especially around her left shoulder. She groaned and shifted her weight to her front left leg.
Only w
hen she continued rolling onto her side did she remember that she didn’t have said leg anymore.
Lina let out a low growl.
Stupid Brilken
, she said to herself, standing up on her remaining three feet and pacing around the room; she had to twist her body slightly to bring her remaining front leg under her for stability. She had tried to sink her teeth into the neck of one of those overgrown lizards in an attempt to take its throat out but missed, her canines sinking into the side of its head instead. It was able to close its jaws around the limb and tear it clean off, swallowing it whole as she had rolled along the ground away from it. As much as she couldn’t stand the pain after losing it, she really didn’t want the beast to give it back.
She twisted her head around to stare at the line of stitches along her shoulder. Amazingly she hadn’t died, but then again some of the enchantments
and adaptations that made her species unique had prevented her from bleeding to death—a compound in her blood reacted with the air and caused a kind of instant healing, causing the torn edges of the veins and skin to draw together as much as possible and so reduce the blood flow. When the battle was over the Nymphs stitched the flesh the rest of the way closed without needing to use any of their own spells. The scar she would be left with would be well hidden when her fur grew back. They said she was lucky to lose only a limb instead of her life.
Lina disagreed with that—Ca
lla was the lucky one, not her.
She stopped at the side of the bed and reared up on her back legs,
gently putting her front foot on the mattress as she stared down at the unconscious girl. Calla had been a mess when she was brought back, covered in blood with her chest torn open. Elenia and her Nymphs, along with the freed Ronan, spent days trying to put her back together; the girl’s heart had stopped at least three times during their efforts. Somehow Elenia was able to fuse the broken bones and knit the deeper muscles back together enough that they could just sew the rest of the wounds closed. The rest of the healing was now up to Calla.
Lina let out a low whine and rubbed her nose against Ca
lla’s hand as if it would be enough to wake her up. No response. She hopped down and resumed pacing for the next hour.
The sky outside changed from blue to light orange as the sun sank lower towards the horizon and the shadows along the walls of the room darkened. A
servant entered with a lit candle that she set on the bedside table, watching Lina warily with her eyes before backing out of the room again.
Lina sighed, wondering where
Hiran was. He had taken to visiting Calla every night and would stay for hours. Some nights he talked to her, others he just stared at her, most nights he fell asleep in his chair with his head resting against her arm. He had taken the whole thing hard. But he hadn’t come yet tonight. That seemed a little off.
Are you losing hope
, Hiran?
Lina wondered.
There was a low moan from across the room. Lina pricked her ears up, listening closely. For a moment only silence followed and she thought she was just hearing things, but then the sound came again. She heard the wooden bed frame creak as its occupant tried to move.
With a happy yip Lina bounded across the floor and put one foot up on the side of the bed.
Calla?
she asked excitedly.
“Ow.” Ca
lla had tried to sit up but her wounds were still tender; with a gasp she dropped back onto her pillows. Lina glanced down. Calla’s torso had been wrapped up in strips of linen after her skin had been stitched up, and because of the girl’s effort there were now several red stains where she had broken the scabs. Lina wrinkled her nose at the scent of the blood. Calla’s chest rose and fell quickly as she tried to breathe through the pain. “Where am I?”
Lina crawled over to the other side of the bed and hopped up onto the mattress, dropped onto her stomach and inched forward gingerly until she had snuggled up under Ca
lla’s arm with her chin on the girl’s shoulder.
You are in Elenan. Welcome back to the land of the living
, she said.
We were all worried about you.
Cal
la opened one eye and looked at her. “What happened? Did…we win?”
“Indeed,” said a deep voice from the foot of the bed. “You are quite the lucky one, my dear.”
Lina snapped her head around and growled loudly. Ronan stood by Calla’s feet just at the edge of the light, a warm smile on his face. Lina never heard him coming; she hated it when the gods did that. She bared her teeth at him when she caught a whiff of his scent—he still reeked of demon, even if he was rid of the creature once and for all.
Ca
lla lifted her head slightly. “Ronan?” she asked after a minute.
“You are much stronger than any of us expected,” he said, coming to sit on the edge of the bed next to her. “You lost so much blood in so little time. None of us thought you would survive.”
Calla placed a finger to her chest, feeling the cuts beneath the fabric. “I almost died?”
Your heart stopped at least three times
, Lina said, not taking her eyes off Ronan.
“The demon’s claws cut deep. By the time we could get to you, you had turned as pale as
marble and your soul almost left us. It took several days to put muscle and bone back in their proper places. You have slept since then. Elenia was adamant about keeping you here,” he said in response to Calla’s questioning look. “And I was and still am indebted to you for what you did for me; it is because of you that I stand here now and this world lives on. Therefore I closed the Gates of the Afterlife to you and drew your soul back to the realm of the living. You are young, and the life ahead of you is full of promise. My sister…” He hesitated for a moment, seeming to scramble for words before saying, “chose well.”
Lina relaxed slightly, still a little distrustful of him.
“But…but what happened to the demon? What about—”
Ronan held up his hand to stop her stream of questions. “Relax, young one—you are too weak for this kind of excitement.”
“Please?”
Ronan sighed and shook his head, but he looked more amused than annoyed at Cal
la’s insistence. “Very well,” he said, “since it seems you will not rest until I sate your curiosity.” He put a hand on her forearm. “We won, Calla—we all won.”
Her eyes widened in disbelief. “Are you serious?”
“I fool you not. Against we who are the Three the demon Bralon stood no chance. Our combined strength was more than enough to cast him into the Void. The army that followed has scattered in light of his demise: the humans surrendered while his monster followers have turned on each other. The world will now know true peace for a time, something it is truly in need of.”
“What about Dranl?”
Ronan cocked his head to one side like a bird, confused. “The other mortal?” Calla nodded. “My sister took care of him. Bralon’s influence infected him to his core; he was beyond saving and too great a threat to leave in this world, but Elenia chose not to send him to the Void after his master. She sent him to live out the rest of his days in the deep caverns of the Earth, wrapped in enchantments to keep him from returning here.”
Good riddance
, said Lina.
“So he’s not dead.” Lina
thought she heard a note of disappointment in Calla’s voice.
“No, but your cats almost did him in; one of them came quite close to severing his spine at the neck
and piercing a major artery in the same place. Elenia called them off before banishing him to the darkness. My sister has grown quite fond of them, actually—she has decided to let them live in her realm on the mountain. They are an impressive bit of Earthmagic.” He set both hands in his lap and gave a start. “Oh, I almost forgot—your friend was here. That young man you have grown so fond of.” He reached over to the bedside table.
Cal
la blinked as she thought over what he could mean. “Hiran?” she asked, her eyes lighting up. “He’s all right?”
There is hardly a scratch on him
, Lina replied before Ronan could speak.
Out of all of us, he is the one who has worried the most about you. He has been in here by your side every night since you were brought back. Tonight, though, I do not know where he could be. He has never been this late before.
“You are blessed to have someone like him in your life. I have sensed his thoughts and feelings, and there is hardly a moment when they are not centered on you.” Ronan placed something into her hand. “I believe he intended to give this to you when you awoke.”
Calla lifted her hand so she could look at the object; Lina sat up and stared at it as well. Dangling from her fingers on a thin strip of leather was a tooth, almost three inches long with an incredibly sharp point and bleach-white in color. A small hole had been drilled through the wider end for the leather to be threaded through; it was meant to be worn as a pendant. The tooth had been taken from a Brilken. Lina vaguely recalled Hiran pulling it out of his shoulder when the battle was over, where it had broken off after a Brilken tried and failed to chew off part of his arm.
Ca
lla gathered up the leather in one hand and closed her fingers around the tooth. “I want to see him,” she said quietly.
“In time.” Ronan stood up to leave. “But for now you
should rest.”
“But—”
“Rest, child.” He waved one hand through the air over Calla’s head. Instantly the girl’s eyelids began to droop, and letting out a sigh she sank further into her pillow. In a minute she was sound asleep.
Ronan headed for the door but paused halfway across the room, turning back around to look at Lina. “You know,” he said, “I could
arrange for one of the Nymphs to create a new leg for you to replace the one you lost.”
Lina jumped down from the bed, landing lightly on her feet.
As much as I appreciate the offer, my lord
, she said,
I cannot accept. Besides, I have grown accustomed to not having it anymore, and its absence does not trouble me too much.
“I will not force your decision, great wolf; it is yours to make.” He turned and left the room.
Lina flicked her tails as she walked back to the window. She yawned as she settled down on the floor. Resting her chin on her front paw she closed her eyes and fell asleep.
XLI
Hiran
Hiran sat out in the gardens in front of the tower, holding one knee tucked up under his chin as he leaned his back up against a large statue. A passing wind rustled through the plant life around him and blew at his matted hair but he otherwise ignored it. The noise of usual activity came up over the garden wall, the shouting of people as they headed home for the night; the festivities that had been taking place down in the city had stopped around a week ago. The world was back to normal, for everyone else anyway.
For him the world was now…strange.
He twisted around to look up at the tower, searching for that one window in the evening light—hers. His eyes came to rest on one on the third floor. There was a creature sitting on the edge of the balcony there; Hiran had to strain his eyes but he was able to make the silhouette out as Lina’s. A light had been brought up to Calla, shining out through the door a bright orange against the dim twilight. He couldn’t make out any sign of movement within the room.
He
let his head drop back into the statue a little too hard and didn’t flinch at the impact. He closed his eyes and let out a breath. Calla had finally woken up a couple of weeks ago and with continued help from the Nymphs and humans her strength was returning. He had wanted to see her, to see for himself that she was all right, but suddenly he couldn’t bring himself to go to her. The feeling grew worse when he heard how she kept asking after him, begging to see him.
It was sad that he’d taken to hiding from her like this, but there was a lot on his mind that he wanted to sort through first. Being around her right now when his feelings towards her were such a jumbled mess would create even more confusion for him.
He heard the sound of footsteps walking across the grass coming in his direction. Hiran lifted his head and listened for a moment; the step was far too light to belong to any of the gardeners or even a visitor from the city. They had to belong to a Nymph, or possibly Elenia herself.