by Ben Cass
“Jengshwi venom,” he said. “It’s from a particularly nasty lizard in our world; you have a very similar one here. I believe it’s called a Komodo dragon? The jengshwi mostly lives in Amielton, thankfully. The venom attacks the muscles, causing paralysis, and then goes after the internal organs. Tayamu are more resistant to it than ordinary people; our magic offers us some protection.”
“How long will your recovery take?” she asked, putting his arm down and settling on the bed, crossing her legs.
“Hard to say. Theonus wasn’t exaggerating when he said it could be weeks before I can move again. I might be fine tomorrow, or I might not recover for months.” He heaved a sigh. “Just what I need...months of Kira acting as a nurse.”
“We’ll all help,” Ellie assured him. “Even if ‘helping’ means keeping your sister away for a bit.”
“And your sister, too?” Doyle asked with a faint smile. Ellie shrugged.
“If need be. I think you’ve more than earned some rest. How many times have you saved her life in the last few weeks?”
He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter to...hey! I can shrug!”
Ellie laughed. “Why is ‘The Princess Bride’ popping into my head right now?”
“So if I’m Westley, who does that make you? Fezzik?”
“Oh, hush,” Ellie said, shoving his leg.
He chortled and laid his head back on the pillow. She studied him for a few minutes, saying nothing. “Something on your mind, kid?” he finally asked. She started to answer, but closed her mouth and shifted positions on the bed. “Let me guess...you have questions about your Changing, but you didn’t ask Kira.”
She gave a small, guilty grin. “It didn’t seem appropriate. There were more important concerns.”
Doyle lifted his index finger and pointed at her. “Not for you. Your well-being is the most important thing. So what’s up?”
Ellie brushed some hair from her face. “Three weeks ago, Kira said I probably wasn’t done, but nothing’s happened. So...am I good?”
Doyle slowly pointed at his stomach. “Is the cut still there?” he asked. “I can’t quite tilt my head enough to look.”
“Yeah, it is. We tried the rumagna salve, but it wouldn’t heal.” She narrowed her eyebrows. “What did you do?”
“The only thing I could at the time. I connected myself to you.”
“You took the pain into yourself, you mean.”
Doyle shook his head. “Sort of, but not exactly. Tayamu are able to tether themselves to another Tayamu, physically and/or emotionally. It’s often used for marriage bonds.”
Ellie leaped off the bed, her hand going to her heart. “Wait...you MARRIED ME?”
“That’s not what I said,” Doyle replied. “Besides, I’m pretty sure Jen would kill me twice over for that.” He pointed with his chin at the bed. “Sit back down.” Ellie sat, her breathing rapid. She was close to hyperventilating.
“Relax,” he said. “I didn’t marry you in any way. I’m not that crazy.” Doyle wiggled his torso from side to side, trying to sit up straighter. He gained a few inches, but finally gave up. “Yes, the tethering bond is normally used when Tayamu marry each other. Part of the whole ‘two become one’ thing, except it’s almost literally two becoming one.” He gently touched his stomach. “I used a much lighter bond, which is most commonly used by Tayamu when another of us has been seriously injured. When I touched your back in the shower, I enacted the bond. It transferred your pain to me, and I was able to expel it from my body. Mostly.”
Ellie gently touched the wound, which was halfway healed. “So this was caused by what I was feeling.”
“Yes,” Doyle agreed. “It was. This bond is mostly one-sided. The injured Tayamu gains some strength from the healthy one, who takes on the pain of their injured partner. When the injured Tayamu fully recovers, the wound will close and heal itself, and the bond will be broken.”
“It’s only about halfway healed,” noted Ellie. Doyle sighed.
“Then we have at least one more Changing to go through.”
Ellie frowned. “Can you break the bond now?” He shook his head in the negative. “So, whenever it happens, you’ll get the pain?”
“Most of it.”
After several moments of silence, Doyle finally spoke again. “Three weeks? Really?”
“Three long weeks,” Ellie added. “We’ve all taken shifts being with you. Jerry has taken the fewest, because he was busy patrolling with Theonus. Theonus said he doesn’t think there will be any more problems for now, but Jerry didn’t want to risk it.”
“That’s sensible,” Doyle agreed. He heaved a long, drawn-out sigh. “I hate being wrong, but I’m glad I was about Jerry.”
“I’m sorry,” Ellie said, leaning forward and cupping an ear. “Could you say that a little louder?”
“Nope.”
She laughed. “Jerry really is a good guy, Doyle. Theonus adores him now. Somehow, they manage to communicate very effectively.”
He considered this. “Well, Jerry has known Theonus for almost a decade, and Theonus developed his own form of sign language to communicate with Kira. We saw them a lot over the years, so I’m sure it wasn’t hard for Jerry to pick up the signals.” He tried to shift his leg, but couldn’t. “Hey, could you...” Ellie was moving before he finished. With practiced care, she peeled back the sheet, gently lifted his left leg, bent the knee slightly, and laid it back at a different angle.
“That leg has twitched a lot,” she explained, seeing his eyebrow raised. “We’ve had to constantly adjust it.”
“Probably because the dagger was stuck in that one,” Doyle mused. “I’d guess it will take longer to heal than the rest of my body.” He looked down at his arms and frowned slightly. “Did I get stitches?”
“Yeah. The surgeons removed the bullets and sewed you up, but Kira insisted on putting the rumagna salve on anyway. It dissolved the stitches pretty fast. Dr. Thomas is dying to interrogate you about how it works.”
Doyle glanced around his room, noticing it held dozens and dozens of potted plants. “How did I get back here?” he asked. “I remember being in...dirt? A hole in the ground?” He frowned. “Wait...you buried me alive? Rude.”
Ellie chuckled. “Jen and Jerry figured out you needed physical contact with the earth to heal yourself, so we got the doctors to release you, and brought you here. A lot of people pitched in to dig the hole and fill it with plants.”
Doyle frowned. “People? What people? What do they know?”
“Pretty much everybody, and pretty much everything,” came a voice from the doorway. Doyle and Ellie looked up and saw Jerry walking in, holding a tray with some light snacks on it. He set the tray onto the nightstand next to the bed. “There’s been a nonstop vigil for you since you were brought to the hospital. If I’m not mistaken, there are several people guarding this property right now. They keep bringing you flowers, hoping it’ll help you heal.”
Doyle groaned and shook his head. “And you told them everything.”
Jerry snorted rather rudely. “What else could we have done? You think they were just going to forget about the man who walked through a blazing inferno like it was a sheet flapping on a clothesline? Or the dog that’s bigger than a damn elephant? You saved a bunch of kids and adults from being murdered. No way we could keep them from knowing about you.”
Doyle was quiet for a moment. “I guess you’re right.”
Jerry stepped back, holding his hands in front of him, palms out. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. What the hell happened to you? A little brush with death and suddenly you’re admitting I was right?” He looked up to the ceiling. “I don’t recall the apocalypse happening. Did I miss something?”
Doyle laughed lightly. “I think I’m the one who missed something. A lot of somethings.” He raised his right hand off the bed, the elbow bent but still resting on the mattress. Jerry walked around and clasped Doyle’s hand in his own.
“I’m sorry. For everything. I’ve been wr
ong about you,” said Doyle. Jerry’s smile spread across his face, and Doyle continued, “You helped save Jen and the others. That took a lot of guts to do what you did. I know this is really late, but welcome to the family.”
“Oh, dammit,” muttered Ellie, wiping her eyes. “I must be allergic to one of these flowers.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Jen opened the door to Doyle’s bedroom, trying not to make any noise. She just wanted to check on him. After waking up last night and talking with them, he’d fallen back asleep, and had been out for about twelve hours. Ellie had finally given up her spot on the bed and gone to get food, looking absolutely exhausted, much worse than she had earlier. Jen wondered if she was coming down with something.
She peeked in and saw Doyle was awake, his eyes aimed at the ceiling, his gaze distant and far away, as if lost in his thoughts. Jen stood there for a moment, looking at him in relief. He’d come so close to death, and she and Kira had spent many sleepless nights together these past few weeks, worrying themselves sick over him. Ellie hadn’t said much to her, but Jen knew her sister. She had been just as terrified, which was why they’d had to drag her away from his side a few times and force her to take a break.
“Are you going to come see me?” Doyle suddenly asked. “Or are you just going to stand there pensively?”
Jen smiled and entered the room, closing the door behind her. She went over to the bed and sat next to him, taking his hand in hers. “How are you feeling?” she asked. He looked so much better that Jen wondered if there was some kind of secret Tayamu healing power.
He shrugged, the movement better than it had been several hours earlier. “Honestly...not bad, all things considered. My left leg still doesn’t seem to want to move, but otherwise, I’ve apparently regained control of my body. I feel weak and sore, but that’s about it.” He glanced down at his arm, lifting and flexing it. “That shouldn’t be possible, but I’m not going to question it.” The expression on his face told Jen that, despite his words, he was indeed questioning it, but she let it go. She wasn’t going to argue with something that had healed him so quickly.
“Jerry is working on making you a walking stick,” Jen said. “He figured you might need it for a while.”
Doyle nodded. “He’s probably right.” A frown flicked across his mouth. “Still hard to believe I’m saying and meaning that.”
Jen lightly smacked the back of his hand, and Doyle grinned. “Glad to see you’re back to your usual charming self,” she said.
“Because you want me to spill my non-vital secrets?” Doyle asked, an eyebrow raised.
Jen’s breath caught in her throat, and she forced herself to breathe normally. Is that what he thought she’d come in here for? “No,” she said firmly. “Because I’ve been worried sick about you.”
Doyle laughed. “I know. I just wanted to see how guilty you could look.”
She smacked his chest, and he laughed harder.
“As a reward for your smartassery,” she said, stretching out onto the bed next to him, “you’re going to have to snuggle up with me. And since you can’t run away, there’s nothing you can do about it.”
“Oh, no, somebody help,” Doyle said in a flat, robotic voice. “Please do not make me hold this woman against my body. No. Not that. Nooooo.”
Jen rolled onto her side and placed her head onto his chest, hearing his heartbeat pounding strongly beneath her ears. It had been very erratic in the hospital, jumping from a slow speed to a rapid, nearly out-of-control one, so this was a welcome relief. She rested her hand on his stomach, careful not to touch the wound on his abdomen. Ellie had told her this morning what Doyle had done. Kira had been right about him; he would do whatever he could to help others, even at the cost of his own well-being.
Jen lay there for a while, not saying anything, just gently running her hand back and forth along Doyle’s chest, her fingers gently dragging on the fabric of his shirt. His left arm wrapped around her, and she took his hand and guided it to rest on her stomach, underneath her shirt, the tips of his long fingers just barely brushing her bra. His heart beat a little faster, and Jen smiled to herself.
“You really want those answers, don’t you?” Doyle asked, a smile in his voice.
“I do,” Jen admitted, “but this has nothing to do with them.” She snuggled in closer to him. “Right now, I just want to hold you, remind myself of the things that started coming back.”
“You regained more memories?” He sounded pleased.
“I did,” Jen said. “Nothing too earth-shattering, unfortunately, but I remembered more about us. In particular, I remembered how much I liked having your hand on my bare skin, and how we celebrated becoming legal adults.”
She felt his body tense up beneath her. “You did?”
“Mm-hmm. Can’t believe I forgot that. Can’t believe you didn’t tell me, either.” She smacked his chest again. “Definitely not something to keep from me, Ali!”
“I see.” Doyle sounded worried to her, and she didn’t like it.
“Ali...if you’re about to guilt yourself into thinking that what we did had anything to do with me running away...you need to take your guilt, bury it in the ground, and have a funeral for it.” Jen propped herself up on her elbow, looking at him. His hazel eyes were definitely nervous. “I remember exactly what happened, and, if anything, I seduced you. I initiated it, not you. What we did had nothing to do with my departure. Is that clear?”
He nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Good.” Jen snuggled back down into him, pulling his hand back onto her skin, and worked her own hand up his shirt to rest on his chest, supporting her head. “This is nice. I can get used to it.”
JEN woke up confused; she’d been resting on Doyle’s chest, but he was no longer in the bed. She looked around the room, checking the floor to make sure he hadn’t somehow fallen out. He hadn’t.
So where was he?
A flushing sound came from the bathroom, followed by running water, which turned off a few seconds later. She watched as the door opened and a large stick emerged, Doyle’s hands wrapped firmly around it. He stepped into the bedroom, dragging his left leg behind him. His body trembled with the effort of holding himself up. Sweat poured out of his forehead, and it seemed to take all his strength just to stay upright. Jen jumped out of the bed, ready to help him, but Jerry smoothly stepped through the bedroom door just as she left the mattress.
Jerry caught him as he started to topple and threw Doyle’s left arm over his shoulder, supporting his brother-in-law’s weight. “I told you to wait for me,” Jerry said, scowling as he led Doyle back to the bed.
Doyle shrugged. “I have authority issues,” he replied easily.
Jerry rolled his eyes. “Tell me something I don’t know,” he said, helping Doyle sit back down on the bed. He went and retrieved the walking stick. It was sturdy, easily six inches in diameter, with a smooth, rounded top. The stick was taller than Jen. Jerry placed it against the wall next to the headboard. “Need anything else?” he asked.
Doyle shook his head. “Not right now. Thanks, Jerry.”
Jerry smiled. “You’re welcome.” Giving a nod to Jen, Jerry left the room, closing the door behind him.
Jen stood in front of Doyle, who was still sitting up on the bed, looking exhausted. “You shouldn’t have tried. I would have helped you back,” she said crossly.
He nodded and yawned. “I know, but you looked so peaceful, and I didn’t want to disturb you.”
“That’s what I’m here for, you big dummy,” Jen replied, tousling Doyle’s hair. “Why don’t you get back up in the bed, and I’ll join you after I use the bathroom?” She turned around without waiting to see if he listened, and headed to the bathroom.
When she came out, he was still sitting on the edge of the bed, looking troubled. “What’s wrong?” Jen asked, coming back over to him and wrapping her hands around the back of his neck. Doyle looked up at her, his face just inches from her chest. “You
look guilty. It’s not a good look on you.”
“I thought I would be fine with all these secrets,” he began quietly, gently kissing her stomach, “but they’re just eating me up. It’s never been a problem before, and wasn’t a problem the other day. Well, a few weeks ago—whatever. I don’t even know what day it is.”
“And now?” Jen asked gently, stroking the back of his neck.
“And now...I just want to tell you everything, get it all off my chest. You don’t deserve to be kept in the dark anymore.” He moved his head down, breaking eye contact. “I don’t want to give you a reason to leave me again, and keeping secrets like this...that’s a damn good reason.”
Jen was quiet for a few moments, and then knelt down in front of him, tipping his chin up with her hand. “Do you still believe, deep down, that you need to keep my missing past from me, for my own safety?”
He closed his eyes, hesitated, and then nodded once.
“And do you also believe telling me, instead of letting me remember, would give me more confusion and trouble than peace?”
He nodded again.
Jen shrugged. “Then it’s settled. You can’t tell me. Hopefully, it’ll come back on its own. Some stuff did over the last few weeks, right?” He smiled, somewhat hesitantly. “Oh, no. Don’t give me an awkward smile,” Jen said. “Those memories are good.” She closed her eyes and pressed a hand to her heart. “So, so good. I look forward to updating them as soon as you’re healthy.”
Her eyebrows went up when she opened her eyes and looked at his face. Were his cheeks...red? Had she actually embarrassed him?
Man, Ellie would love this moment! Too bad Jen had no intention of sharing this with her.
She forced her mind back to the conversation at hand. “I told you I was willing to accept the secrets you consider vital, if you’re willing to share the ones that aren’t. I meant it. Are there things you can share? Ones that might help ease your guilt a little?”
He thought about it. “Probably.”
