Page 53 of Ties of Starlight

Starlight began to flood the tent as the first two healers began to utilize their magic.

“Get the top of this tent gone; we’re going to need all the starlight we can get!” one of the other healers called out as his hands moved, directing his magic.

Nyrunn looked back over right as the sound of fabric cutting ripped the air. The second healer was cutting through Idonea’s blouse, opening it up to be able to reach the wound to operate without it being in the way.

Idonea’s eyes fluttered open, but not fully. She let out a harsh, pained gasp when she was shifted.

“Your Majesty—”

Nyrunn could feel the agony on the other side of the bond. Idonea was sweating, huffing for breath with her eyes screwed shut. He turned to the healer. “Please, don’t send me away. Let me help. I’ll do whatever you ask.”

The third healer looked at Idonea and said, “Hold her shoulder down. Don’t let her move it and make that arrow injury worse while we heal her side.”

Nyrunn hurried to Idonea again, one hand braced against her bicep and the other at the juncture of her neck and shoulder. His fingers brushed the metal chain of the starry necklace that never left her skin.

Once he was in position, the third healer looked back to the other two who had finished moving Idonea’s blouse away from the wound, leaving the dagger sticking out of her pale skin. He nodded at them and the first healer wrapped a hand around the dagger and pulled it out.

Nyrunn almost lost his grip on Idonea as she lurched forward with an earth-shattering scream. He pushed back with his whole weight, pinning her down. Her head fell back to the cot. The starlight was blinding, but Nyrunncouldn’t bear to look over and see how bad it was. He just stared at Idonea’s face and focused on the bond.

If it was possible to send her his emotions to calm her like he had that morning…

The lines on his hand glowed. He reached out and began to pull.

Nyrunn had to bite his tongue to keep from screaming in agony as Idonea’s pain began to flood into him. He couldn’t help but tighten his grip on her even as her thrashing slowed. Her head turned to the side and her breathing, while still pained, was far less agonized than it had been before. Nyrunn could feel his jaw get close to cracking from how hard he was clenching it as he kept taking Idonea’s pain from her. It didn’t stop.

The healer’s work constantly sent new waves of sharp pain through Idonea’s body, and Nyrunn, despite his own instincts begging him to let go, pushed past them and kept pulling the pain into his body. His lungs were burning and his side was pulsing as if the wound was his. He could feel the echoes of the healer’s starlight digging into it and finding all the cut and damaged organs and veins. It stopped right before his heart.

If the dagger had been a little longer, it would have pierced her heart and she would have likely been dead before the healers could reach her.

No wonder Idonea had been so certain this wound would kill her.

Nyrunn let out a long, slow breath.

The pain of the healers’ work was worse than the wound itself.

The worst part of it all was the fact that Nyrunn knew this wasn’t the only time Idonea had experienced this agony. Just one lifetime ago she’d been dying from a similar wound inflicted by one of his own blood.That wasn’t even getting into the other atrocities she’d had committed against her.

So Nyrunn could not let go. He may not be able to take any of that pain away, but he could bear this for her.

“Your Majesty.”

Nyrunn blinked before the words hit him. He looked over to see the healers stepping back to wash their hands. The wound on Idonea’s side was closed, but it was certainly going to scar. The first one to clean his hands began unrolling bandages. “If you’ll help us lift her, we can bandage this and move on to her shoulder.”

“It worked, right?”

The third healer nodded. “Yes. We’ll need to monitor both this one and her shoulder for infection, and we’ll have to take extra care with her as we travel while she recovers, but she will be able to finish the rituals.”

The rituals?

That’s what they were thinking about? That’s what they thought mattered to him?

The comet could drop out of the sky for all Nyrunn cared right now.

But he was still reeling from having absorbed so much from her, so that all he did was nod and move, sliding an arm underneath Idonea to lift her into a sitting position. The healers wrapped the bandages around her ribs before securing them and moving to the shaft still sticking out of her shoulder.

“If you’ll hold her upright and keep her still, Your Majesty. We got lucky with this one. She left just enough shaft we can push the arrowhead through to the other side. Far less painful and damaging than if she hadn’t.”

Nyrunn nodded and wordlessly shifted so he was half on the bed, holding her up, her head resting on his shoulder now as he kept one arm around her waist and the otherwrapped around her head, keeping her braced while leaving the injured shoulder clear for the healers.

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