Page 66 of An Honored Vow

WE TRAVELED TO ARALINTH. It was quicker to get to, and Rheih and Feron were already there. Syrra had not left Riven and Nikolai’s side from the moment we stepped back into the Dead Wood. Tears streamed down her face as she caressed Nikolai’s hair, ignoring the way the shorn sides of his head had started to grow out in thick, pressed chunks.

I didn’t use my healing gift. I wouldn’t do anything without instruction. My gifts were powerful, but solely relying on them had cost Nikolai his mother. I wouldn’t let desperation take him too.

Vrail waited at the edge of the city. The golden leaves of Sil’abar cast warm streaks of light on her face as she ran for us. For Nikolai.

“Is he alive?” she croaked, tripping on her long robe as her black braid trailed behind her.

I nodded but Vrail didn’t see it.

“Someone tell me he’s alive!” she screamed, falling to her knees.

“He is,” Riven answered, stooping down so Vrail could see Nikolai’s bruised face and the faint rise of his chest.

“He’s home.” Riven’s voice gave way to a sob just as Feron and Rheih walked out of Sil’abar.

I put my hand on Riven’s shoulder, feeling the weight of his rasps under my skin. “Let’s bring him to Feron and Rheih. They will be able to tell us what Damien did to him.”

Riven nodded and carried Nikolai’s limp body to the healer’s quarters inside. No one spoke as Rheih completed her inspection. She poked and prodded. She used instruments I didn’t even know the names of to check inside his ears and up his nose. “Was he conscious when you got him?” She pulled open his lips and checked his gums.

I nodded. “I used my healing gift to put him to sleep.” I turned to Feron. “Just like you taught me. And then I numbed his pain, and he hasn’t woken since.”

“That’s all?” Rheih’s yellow eyes stared up at me over Nikolai’s matted coils.

I swallowed. “Yes.” Fear slipped into the word; it came out breathy and unsettled.

Rheih stepped back from the white stone slab Riven had placed Nikolai on and started rifling through her shelves. Vrail grabbed his hand and refused to move even while Rheih muttered under her breath and walked around the seat Feron had made for the Halfling.

Rheih pricked Nikolai’s arm with a tiny rod. She studied the red drop of blood, sniffing it twice before bringing it to her lips.

She lashed her tongue and spat on the ground.

“What’s wrong with it?” Riven tensed.

Rheih pushed a gray curl back into her braid and started examining Nikolai’s body. Vrail flinched when she ripped through his shirtwith a blade and revealed the bruises that covered his brown skin. “He’s ingested some kind of magical additive …”

I froze. “Damien gave him an elixir too?” The one Damien had given me had allowed him to peer into my dreams. What if his experiments on Nikolai had been worse than that?

“Perhaps.” Rheih tilted her head to the side, clucking her tongue. “Magic can affect the taste of blood. Sweet for blessings and sour—” Rheih’s face fell. Nikolai had not been blessed.

Gerarda crossed her arms. “A trap Damien set? Maybe he planned for Keera to heal Nikolai only for it to trigger something that would kill him.”

The blood drained from my face. I had never been so happy to have not used my powers since they’d awakened. “Is that possible?”

“Theoretically …” Rheih muttered to herself. “But I’ve tasted something similar before. I just need to find”—she lifted up Nikolai’s left wrist—“the marking.”

Gwyn stepped backward into Syrra, her eyes bulging at the sight of Nikolai’s now exposed wrist. The skin was swollen and red around the pattern, but it would settle to a pale silver. Just like hers.

Similar markings were now branded into his skin.

“I will kill him,” I seethed before my thoughts caught up with me. “But how was Nikolai able to leave the palace if Damien tethered him there?”

Feron’s hold on his cane tightened as he leaned in closer, examining the tether marking for himself. “A tether can have many uses. Gwyn was tied to the palace but that does not mean that is what Nikolai is tied to.” He muttered something to Rheih in Elvish.

Her yellow eyes were wide. “I did not know a Mortal could set such powerful magic.”

“He’s using Halfling blood to do it.” Bile crawled up my throat.

Rheih tilted her head. “Blood is a powerful catalyst, but it’s never been used to bind a life to—”

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