Page 89 of Avelina

Chapter Twenty-six

Though she had narrowly escaped Queen Mortier’s trap, Linorra knew that she was not yet safe for she had lost the key. Nevertheless, her bond with Syndeth remained true and brought her great comfort. This connection would be their strength in the coming days. With Syndeth’s help, Linorra vowed to find the key and her lost love, then they would fly out to meet their destiny.

Fitch and Falondeitric dragged Markinius back into the house, pulling him up beside me. Seleca had dug her thumb right through his forehead. Blood spurted from the wound disturbingly fast. He looked like someone had dumped a bucket of blood on his head. His face and chest were completely covered.

“Avelina, please, can you help him?” Falondeitric cried desperately. He was hysterical, sputtering and hyperventilating, but I couldn’t remember what to do about it. My head hurt, and my mind was full of helium.

Fitch reached for Falondeitric and held him like a weeping child. It was distracting, and I winced at the sound of it, but at least he didn’t throw himself on top of his brother.

It’s not over, Lina, Spirit thought. You’re still a warrior. You said it yourself, remember?

Spirit was always right, wasn’t she? No. This time she must be wrong. I wasn’t a warrior. I was just a self-deluded idealist. I doubted I would ever beat Seleca, but my own grief was no excuse for letting Markinius die. If I did that, then it needed to be a conscious, well-considered choice, not a result of numb indecision.

I shook myself, then reached over and grasped his hand, easily pushing into a Connection link. He was alive, but not for long. He had no thoughts at all. His forehead and upper skull had been crushed. The base of his brain was okay and kept his body alive for now, but blood gushed into cavities in the skull where it should not be. It would be mere moments before his soul drifted out of his body.

Holy shit. How strong do you have to be to crush someone’s skull with your bare hands? What the hell am I even doing here?

“Focus, Lina,” Spirit said.

Right, sorry. I sent Protection into Markinius at a steady rate, trying to regulate the flow so that it was constant but not overwhelmingly strong. I focused on his head injury, spreading my awareness into his brain but also reaching out for his mind.

He didn’t respond at first, but then I felt an abrupt halting of the hemorrhaging that was killing him. The artery in the front of his head that had burst steadily repaired itself, and the blood was reabsorbed. The immense swelling that had impaired his consciousness subsided, and his mind reemerged.

Wake up, Markinius, I thought to him gently. You’re going to be okay. Wake up. His eyes fluttered but didn’t open. Then he released a pornographic moan.

Falondeitric stared at his brother, eyes wide, then wiped the tears from his face. Fitch raised one eyebrow, glanced at me, then released the stunned Falondeitric and stood to get some distance from the embarrassing noise. Aaron knelt next to me, ready to pounce.

Markinius grasped my hand tightly and pulled it down toward his groin, at which point Aaron promptly intervened, ripping our hands apart. I hadn’t expected that response from Markinius since I had been fairly certain about my hypothesis on Protection. Healing was highly pleasurable but not necessarily sexual, and Markinius hadn’t done that the first time I’d healed him.

I sighed, giving up my effort to understand for now. There was still so much to learn. Every time I thought I had a handle on my reservoirs, I was promptly shown otherwise.

I let Aaron pull me into his arms. “We’ll get him back,” he whispered, holding me tight. I felt so defeated that I didn’t even respond. I just sniffed and wiped my eyes with my sleeve, drained of both energy and willpower.

Markinius mumbled something, but I couldn’t understand him.

“What, Markus?” Falondeitric asked, leaning over his brother. “What’d you say?”

Markinius opened his eyes, wiped his bloody face with his hand, then examined his red fingers and palm. “I’m in too,” he croaked. He sat up, but he didn’t look at me. He took a deep breath and let it out again as if bracing himself. “You’ve saved me twice now, Avelina Silva. I’m sorry I didn’t say it before. Thank you.”

I smiled. Well, that’s one way to gain an ally. I glanced at Falondeitric. He breathed easier, but his face was tense, like he still couldn’t believe his brother would be all right. His gaze shifted to mine, but his expression of awe made me uncomfortable, so I avoided it by focusing on Markus.

“We’re all friends here, Markus,” I said with a nervous laugh. “Call me Lina.” I hoped that meant I could call the Eboros brothers by their nicknames since their full names sounded needlessly pretentious. I wondered if that had anything to do with their social status in Neesee.

“Friends,” Markus repeated, glancing up at Aaron warily. “I’ve never been friends with a girl before.”

“Well, you can’t say that anymore, can you?” I observed. His comment struck me as strange. He must have gone to SONA like the rest of them. Hadn’t he made a single female friend the entire time? So odd. “A lot of things will change around here if we have our way. That’s the least of them.”

“What do you mean?” he asked doubtfully.

Aaron nodded at me. Go ahead.

Not that I needed his permission to speak, but I valued his judgment to guide me through the social sand traps of this strange world.

“No more burning down people’s houses, for one,” I said. “No more enslaving people with Projection. No more begging for a permit to fall in love, bond, and have children. No more illegal reservoirs or hiding who you are. And most of all, no more worshipping of murderers and thieves. I’m sure there will be more, but that’s a good start.”

“That all sounds great,” Markus said, “but so far Seleca’s beaten you pretty easily.”

“She’s had an advantage, it’s true,” Aaron said. “We need to find my mother. I think she’s the only one who would know how to counteract that advantage. To do that, Lina needs to learn how to use the Teleportation fragment. There are two books in the library that I know of that discuss it. In the meantime, we’ll take Jorin’s skiff up to the commercial docks and borrow a larger boat to sail up the coast to Neesee.”

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