As everyone in the room seemed to hold their breath, Tas closed his eyes and lifted his hand above Shura’s abdomen, drawing Daks’s attention back to him. Energy flowed from the stone on his chest into him and out through his extended palm, concentrated solely on Shura’s belly. Nothing about the magic felt wrong to Daks. In fact, the vibrations were vaguely familiar. They were different from anything he’d sensed from the wizards of Samebar, and nothing at all like the one time he’d felt a pain priest at work—from a very safe distance, of course. He’d met a visiting witch from Ghorazon once in Scholoveld. She’d done a demonstration at the school. That was probably the closest thing he could compare the feeling to.
Shura gasped, drawing his attention back to her. Fara leaned forward, still clutching Shura’s hand, her eyes worried, but Daks could already tell the magic was having a positive effect. The deep lines etched into Shura’s forehead had faded, and some of the color had returned to her skin. The energy traveling through her wasn’t tainted and wasn’t directed anywhere else. Daks would have to trust that was enough, because he didn’t want the man to stop.
After what seemed like far too long, Tas blew out a breath and the energy coursing over Daks’s skin ebbed. Shura sighed and closed her eyes as the rest of the lines of pain on her face eased.
“Shura?” Fara called, leaning forward anxiously.
“She’s all right,” Tas said. “She’s just resting. She’ll need it. The wound is healed, but she may still be fevered from the infection flowing through her body. I could only do so much. Perhaps Lyuc will be able to do more when he returns, but she is out of danger for now and will heal in time, even without further intervention. I promise.”
“Thank you,” Fara said before returning her attention fully to Shura again.
“Thanks,” Daks added gruffly, and the former priest gave him a tired smile.
“I’m still learning to work with the magic as it is, not as it was, but Singer says she will heal quickly.”
“Singer?”
Tas lifted a hand to his chest to indicate the stone. Daks shifted uneasily. He had so many questions he hardly knew where to start.
“I need a drink,” he said, and Ravi snorted at his side despite how bowstring taut his body still was.
The big guy, Girik, smiled. “Tas, are you okay?”
“Yes. I could use a little food, though.”
“Why don’t we leave Shura to get that rest and I’ll take all of you to get a good meal,” Girik offered with a soft smile.
“The horses,” Daks exclaimed, suddenly remembering he’d essentially abandoned them.
“We took care of that,” Girik replied calmly. “If you want to see them, you can, but we’ve put them in the stables with the others. Karn is more used to goats, given that he lived his whole life in the mountains, but he’s turned out to be an excellent stable master. He’ll take good care of them. Come.”
“I’m staying,” Fara said, and Daks gave her a grateful smile.
If she hadn’t been there, he wouldn’t have been willing to leave Shura alone, even though both he and Ravi hadn’t eaten all day.
“Lead the way,” Daks said, and they trailed after the blond giant, keeping a safe distance between themselves and that monstrous hound.
As soon as they were outside, Girik’s hound bounded away from them toward several others of the same size and coloring playing in the river with some children, and Girik watched him go with a fond smile. Daks had heard tales of the mountain clans’ hounds before but never thought to see one. Now he was glad it had moved off.
Daks and Ravi each had a large tankard of some of the best mead Daks had ever tasted, plus a heaping bowl of mutton stew, and were following Girik and Tas to a rough plank table and benches in a green space at the center of the little village when a commotion near the tree line caught everyone’s attention. Daks saw the great black stallion Spawn first and scowled, tensing in instinctive fear, but the man who followed it out of the woods quickly grabbed all of his attention. He was dressed in brightly colored patched robes that almost hurt the eye to look at. But despite the change in clothes, the stranger’s bushy red beard sparked a memory, and Daks froze.
The red-beard who’d eyeballed Ravi in the market was the infamous mage who’d saved Traget from the flood?
Fuck me.
“Lyuc!”
Girik and Tas waved until they caught the man’s attention, and the man and his companion strode toward them as, thankfully, the Spawn strolled off in the opposite direction. Daks was trying to decide whether to throw his delicious supper away and free his sword hand or not, when Ravi let out a strangled sound and the force of his impending Vision nearly knocked Daks off his feet.
Tossing his mead and stew aside, he lunged for Ravi, fighting through the storm of power rushing over him. As soon as Daks reached him, Ravi’s back arched off the ground and his eyes shot open. They glowed silver under the setting sun, and Daks couldn’t pretend it was a trick of the moonlight this time.
He heard the footsteps of people rushing toward them, but he didn’t take his eyes off Ravi.
“Come on, sweetheart. Push it away. You know you can,” Daks said hoarsely as he struggled to think past the waves of energy coursing through him. “I’m here, love. You’re not alone.”
“What’s happening? What’s wrong?” Daks heard someone, possibly Tas, ask, but he couldn’t answer.
“To heal the wound, you will need the strength of all.
Twin roses of the winds, ever after entwined: the pillar and the shield.
Free the stones from Black Tower to Knowledge’s heart.
Cleave to your own heart, your sight, and the bearer of your burden.
Gather the stone that sleeps, the three made one, the bridge, and the axe.
At the end and the beginning, the last will come to fulfill the promise and change his song forever.”
Ravi’s voice had that creepy, foreign overlay Daks had only heard once before, and he groaned. Gods, he hated prophecies, even more so for the toll they took on his Ravi. Feeling helpless, he clutched Ravi closer and rocked him in his arms, murmuring useless reassurances. He didn’t give a damn about the prophecy, or if it was important. He just wanted it to stop.
Shadows loomed over them, and Daks had enough instinct for self-preservation to look up. Red-beard, his small companion, Tas, Girik, and others stood over them staring. But when Ravi turned his head, his otherworldly glowing gaze fixed on the bearded wizard, pinning him in place.
“But beware, Riftwielder, another has returned to finish what was started, and they will destroy all in the name of a new paradise.”
The magic flooded out of Ravi as quickly as it had rushed in, leaving Daks reeling. He couldn’t even imagine how Ravi must feel. As soon as Ravi went limp, Daks gathered him into his lap, clutching him tight and protecting him as best he could from the crowd of gawkers. He wanted to lash out at all of them, chase them off like the flock of buzzards they were, but he would’ve had to put Ravi down to manage it.
“Back up, everyone. Give them some air,” a new voice yelled.
When Daks glanced up, he saw the wizard’s petite black-haired companion making shooing motions, and the crowd of mostly giants quickly dispersed under his orders.
Daks liked him already.
The red-beard stood frozen, staring at the two of them as if he thought he could will more information out of them, but Daks was done. Heedless of anyone else, he rose to his knees, hefted Ravi in his arms, and struggled to his feet. Girik lurched forward as if to help, but Daks simply growled at him until the man stepped back. Before anyone else could get in their way, Daks lumbered toward the building where Shura lay. He’d seen another small bed in there, and Shura and Fara were the only people here he trusted.
Chapter Sixteen
“WHAT HAPPENED?” Fara asked as she made way for him and closed the door behind them.
“Vision,” Daks grunted around the headache that threatened to gray o
ut his world.
He laid Ravi carefully onto the empty bed and plopped onto the mattress next to him.
Fara worried her lower lip before looking over her shoulder the way they’d come. The door remained closed, though, no matter what went on outside, and that was all Daks cared about for now.
“Were they…. Was everyone, uh…. Is everything okay?” she asked.
“Don’t know. Don’t care. They’ve got a wizard, a rogue pain priest, and a Spawn, so I’m pretty sure having a Seer around shouldn’t ruffle their feathers too much.”
“You’re going to stay here?”
“Yes.”
She turned her gaze to Shura’s sleeping form. “I don’t want her to wake up alone.”
Daks lifted his aching head and held her gaze as he said, “She’s been my partner for close to ten years. I’ll never leave her alone unless she tells me to.”
A small smile crept over Fara’s lips, and the worry lines on her brow faded. “Of course. I’ll go see what’s going on out there, then, try to calm things down if I have to. I’ll be back soon.”
Silence fell heavily in the small building once she’d left, and Daks blew out a long breath and rubbed his temples. If Ravi had to have a Vision anywhere in Rassa, this was the place. The Brotherhood might have scryers locked on the wizard’s little town and Sensitives in Traget, but if they hadn’t sent any brothers or guards after the magic users already, chances were, they wouldn’t mount an offensive for one Seer.
“Daks?”
Some of the tightness in his chest eased at the sound of Shura’s voice. He managed a weak grin and moved to the chair at her bedside that Fara had vacated.
“Feeling better, you stubborn old goat?” he asked.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “No more stubborn than you, idiot.”
That was certainly true.
She frowned when she spotted Ravi. “Is everything all right? How long was I asleep?”
She tried to rise, but Daks put a hand to her shoulder to stop her. “He had a Vision, a prophecy. I have a feeling he’ll be out for a while. I’ll be joining him as soon as Fara comes back to report on the state of things out there.”
She grimaced. “Gods, I hate prophecies.”
Daks barked out a weak chuckle. “I’ve missed you.”
When she turned back to him, her gaze was troubled. “When the flood hit, I saw the ferry go under, but there was nothing I could do. As soon as I realized the wizard was working against the flood, I went to his aid, hoping it would help you.”
“And got yourself shot with an arrow,” Daks finished, frowning at her.
“Nobody’s perfect,” she replied, giving him a wry smile he rarely saw when they were outside of Samebar.
“I try to tell you that all the time and you get mad at me.”
Instead of laughing with him or giving him one of her stern, exasperated glares, her expression sobered. He squirmed under her continued study.
“What’s wrong, Shur?”
“I’ve missed you, Vaida….”
“But?”
She dropped her gaze and fiddled with the edge of the blanket draped across her middle, making Daks’s stomach twist. She was never shy. She never held back with him.
“Spit it out, Shur,” he poked, and she threw him a glare.
After taking a deep breath, she said, “You will want to return to your home as soon as you can with him, yes?”
“Not until you’re well enough to travel.”
She shook her head impatiently. “I know that. I know you would not leave me… unless I asked you to.”
That uneasy feeling in his stomach doubled. “Talk to me, Shur.”
“I am… conflicted. For the first time in many years, I… I want something solely for myself.”
“You know I’ll give you anything you want. Don’t be stupid.”
She leveled her dark gaze at him. “I want someone for myself.”
Daks followed her gaze past his shoulder, though no one was there. When he turned back to her, he was grinning. “Well, obviously, I can’t you give you that. But I won’t stand in your way. You know that. Go for it. What’s stopping you? Gods, Shur, you had me worried for a sec—”
“Will you be quiet for a minute?”
He blinked at her but clamped his mouth shut.
“It isn’t that simple anymore, Vaida,” she continued, sounding tired but determined. “Fara will not be accompanying us to Samebar. She has found the answers she was seeking here. We talked a great deal before the fever got bad.” She actually blushed, but cleared her throat and plowed on. “In Scholoveld, she would have to fight for information and deal and trade in foreign lands, the results of which are uncertain. While here, the brother and the wizard seem more than happy to share. Here, she has found possible allies for her cause and her people—much more than she would ever get coming with us—allies they’ll need.”
Conflicted, she’d said. His chest felt tight. He might be a little slow on the emotion front sometimes, but not that slow.
“Do you want to stay here with her?” he asked. “Is that what you’re telling me?”
She wouldn’t meet his gaze. “I am sworn to you.”
He sighed and took her hand. “That’s not what I asked, and you know it.”
Her hand tightened in his, and she met his gaze with tortured dark brown eyes. “I am oathbound.”
The best Daks could manage was a sad twist of his lips. “You know I never asked for that. You’re my partner. That’s how I’ve always seen it. I respect the ways of your people and I honor the gift you gave me, but I would never hold you to that if it stood in the way of your happiness.”
She stared unhappily back at him in silence until Daks squirmed under the weight of it. “You told me years ago, when I asked, that there was no way I could free you from your vow without bringing shame on you and your whole family, so I won’t ask again,” he continued soberly. “But is there a way I could, I don’t know, order to you stay and make sweet sweet love to Fara for a decade or something?”
Shura snorted out a laugh, as he’d hoped she would.
“Idiot,” she said as she pulled her hand out of his grip and slapped his arm.
“What? It’s a valid question.”
He glanced over at Ravi’s sleeping form, and his expression turned wistful. It seemed he and Shura both wanted things they hadn’t in a long time. Change wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Shura gripped his wrist, drawing his attention back to her. “Daks—”
He held up a hand to silence her. “Let me do some thinking, okay? Just give me a little while. You know the thinking part is harder for me.”
She rolled her eyes at him.
He rose and stretched stiffening muscles, trying to work the tension out of his neck. “Keep an eye on him. I’m not going far. I’ll be able to see if anyone other than Fara heads your way.”
“I will.”
At the door, he paused and threw what he hoped was a comforting smile over his shoulder. “We’ll figure something out. We always do.”
Outside, he found the nearest tree and slumped against it with a gusty sigh. People eyed him curiously as they went about their work, but he didn’t see anyone he knew, and almost everyone turned the other way under his forbidding glare, which was just fine with him. His head was throbbing, his skin felt too tight, and he needed time to think. Damn, he wished he still had some of that mead he’d dropped earlier, but he wasn’t going to risk dealing with anyone new right now to get it.
AFTER A brief scan of the area outside the building where he’d awoken, Ravi spotted Daks’s broad back leaning against a tree. He sat stiff and unnaturally still as strangers bustled around him, giving him a wide berth. That, combined with Shura’s oddly guilty look, made Ravi’s stomach churn even more than the Vision hangover.
“Daks?” he called, when he was within easy earshot.
Daks started, his face drawn and troubled when he met Ravi’s gaze. �
��Oh, hey. Feeling better?”
“Not much, but getting there. What happened?”
“You gave us another prophecy.”
He smiled gently and lifted his arm in invitation. Ravi should have been embarrassed at how quickly he rushed forward to accept it, but he was too tired for that. Daks’s arms were strong, his chest broad, and his body warm as Ravi dropped to the ground at his side and buried his face against that scruffy neck.
“I’m sorry. I couldn’t stop it,” Ravi mumbled against his skin, and Daks’s arms tightened.
“I felt it. Even a trained Seer wouldn’t have been able to control that. I’m sorry you had to suffer through it. You probably wouldn’t have had it at all if I hadn’t dragged you here.”
“You didn’t drag me anywhere,” Ravi said, pulling back and meeting his eyes. “I came to get you.”
Daks grunted and fell silent.
“What’s wrong?” Ravi prodded.
“Wrong?”
“Come on. You’re out here alone, leaning on a tree, instead of either pumping the locals for information, conning them out of more food and drink, or being inside with us. I may not have known you as long as Shura has, but I know you well enough.”
“I have a lot on my mind.”
“Is it something I said in my Vision?”
Daks shook his head and kissed Ravi’s forehead. “No. Nothing like that. To tell you the truth, I don’t even remember what you said.”
“Then what?”
“I think my Shura may have finally fallen in love.”
Ravi drew back and gaped up at him, and Daks grinned. “I know. Crazy.”
“Mistress Sabin?”
He nodded.
“That’s good, right? I mean, I might still hold a little grudge over the drugging incident, but anything that softens her up is a good thing in my book.”
The Seer Page 31
