Page 43 of Fae Reckoning

“I know,” Edsel replied again. “‘Tis why I’m here. Got no place better to be than with the hope of the Mirror World.” He started toward the others, Pru tilting her face expectantly toward him.

“Edsel,” I called.

The stocky goblin stopped, turned. “Aye?”

“Are you the only healer here?”

He shrugged. “Ain’t met everyone proper like yet. But I think so.”

I nodded. I hadn’t met everyone either. “When you have the chance, I’d really appreciate it if you’d see to Ivar’s horse. He’s really hurt.” I hesitated. “And I’m the one who hurt him.” I’d raced Bolt out into the clearing in a blur, my attention fully affixed on Elowyn and the immediate threat to her. I didn’t know who’d witnessed my attack on the horse.

Edsel cocked his head to one side and craned it back to take me in. “Ye want me to heal the horse ye sliced?”

“Aye. Please.”

He hummed mysteriously. “I’ll see what I can do.Ye gonna squeeze every drop of intel outta that slippery advisor ye got captive there?”

My mouth hardened into a firm line. “Most definitely.”

“See that ye do.” Edsel straightened his shoulders and surveyed those who needed him before settling on a fae at the edge of the group who was so thin and so motionless I could scarcely believe he was still alive.

13.BEAUTIFUL, SHINING BRIGHT SPOTS AMID THE STEAMING, STINKY PILE OF SHIT

ELOWYN

With a barely suppressed groan, I settled gingerly onto an uneven stump at the edge of the clearing, where the sleeping fae lay in neat rows. Between Einar’s bulk and the surrounding trees, we were cast in shadow. Aches flared angrily along my body while I slid Saffron to sit on my lap. Tail wagging, he craned to lick my neck.

I bobbed my head out of the way. “Not now, boy. I’m tired.” And was I ever. Dragon Xeno had heaved the massive tree off the cabin. Afterward, despite Rush’s insistence that I rest instead, I’d helped shift the caved roof and walls until we were certain no one else was trapped beneath them. Now that the most immediate of our urgencies was resolved, my body felt like it was melting into a useless puddle. It wasn’t time to relax yet, however. My mind understood that; my body didn’t.

Even if the queen wasn’t able to follow our trail out of her dungeon, she must know where all her power-draining stations were. Through nothing more sophisticated than the process of elimination, she could probably find us. Einar had ostensibly joined Xeno in acting as sentinel, though I hadn’t confirmed that the black dragon considered our survival his concern.

I ran my fingers along my hairline, and they returned smeared with dirt and sweat and who-knew-what-else.At least it’s not umbrac gunk. I shuddered at the memory of the chittering, gelatinous monsters with far too many eyes and tentacles … which led to thoughts of Finnian and how Xeno and the others had been forced to abandon him to the Wilds. What a gruesome way to go…

Saffron licked me again. With a resigned exhale, I submitted to his affections even if I wasn’t in the mood for them. Kicking my legs out in front of me, my gaze trailed over those we’d rescued. Besides Ramana and the four we’d brought with us, we’d saved another fifteen fae. Every person was in a similar condition: thin, frail, and emaciated, unconscious and unmoving beyond the steady beat of their hearts, the thready rise and fall of their chests, and an unnatural pallor made eerie by the darkened veins too prominent beneath their skin.

“Any luck?” I asked Edsel, who crouched over one such fae, lifting their eyelids to examine their eyes.

He pressed his ear to their chest. “With gettin’ ‘em to wake or gettin’ ‘em to live?”

“Uh … both?”

After several moments of quiet while Edsel listenedto his patient’s chest, he sat roughly on the ground, ruffled his short hair, then rubbed both knees above the point where his prosthetics met flesh.

Dodging Saffron’s tongue as it stretched for my face, I asked softly, “Do they hurt?”

He glanced up sharply, his hands dropping abruptly to the grass at his sides. He glowered at me for a breath before blowing it out and relaxing all over.

“Aye. They hurt. No more than usual though, girly.” He shrugged, an abrupt raising and lowering of his burly shoulders. “Ain’t nothin’ I ain’t used to. Ain’t stopped hurting since the day she…” He frowned. “Well, sincethatday.”

He thrust his wompa legs straight out in front of him. To offer him a little privacy, I studied those we’d rescued some more.

“How are they?” I asked, just as gently. “Will they be alright?”

He scoffed. “Who knows?” As if unaware he was doing it, he leaned forward to rub his knees some more. “It all depends on what the queen’s really been doin’ to them. Far as I can tell, she’s been stealing most of their essence, leaving them only enough for them to survive. Nothing more. Not even an extra drop.”

I cringed at the blatant signs of her evil and scratched the soft patch of scales atop Saffron’s head. He closed his eyes and purred around a smile that revealed spindly teeth. I couldn’t resist a responding smile even as I muttered, “Good sunshine… So if your assessment is right?—”

“I think it probably is, ‘specially when taking into account what ye told me ye already know about what she’s been doing.”

---