Page 84 of A Promise of Peridot
The tent had grown too crowded for its size. Mari knelt in the corner beside me as I leaned over Fedrik, whose pallet bisected the floor. Griffin sat on the other side of him, his considerable frame cramped alongside Fedrik’s many packs. Kane stood at the entrance, hunched to accommodate the sloped canvas. I wasn’t sure if he preferred to stand or if there was just nowhere left to sit. The hearth in the corner fought to stay alive.
“He wanted to know where the blade was. If we had it.” But I had thought it was strange, too. If I was dead, per the prophecy, there would be no one left who could kill Lazarus. Why didn’t Halden take me out when he had the chance? “If I said we had it, they would have come after you all. But I couldn’t tell them we didn’t and lose any leverage we might need.” I swallowed bile at the memory. “So I just... let him.”
The sound of screeching, twisting metal shook me from my work.
I whirled to see Kane’s hand around a mangled mug.
Fedrik’s eyes widened. “Quite the grip you have there, King.”
“Why don’t you go get someair,” I said to Kane pointedly.
His response punched through clenched teeth. “Plenty of air right where I am, thanks.”
I huffed at him and turned to place the long branches Mari had found along Fedrik’s leg, aligning the bones as close as I could to where they should have been. From what I could feel, his shinbone was cracked down the center and needed to be worked back in line with his knee and ankle. The swelling was tough to feel around, but at least that was a clean—orcleaner—break. The smaller one, his fibula, was practically shattered. Not much to do there but wrap it tightly with bindings around the branch and support the jutting bits back in the right direction.
Though Fedrik had to be in great pain, he hardly showed it, aside from the beads of sweat he couldn’t help but loose onto his tunic, and the occasional slow inhale or grunt.
The more I elevated the limb, and the tighter I bandaged it, the more the swelling went down.
My heart rate had lowered, my thoughts flowing in a slower, more even pace. I had missed healing. Had missed helping people, with or without my lighte. When Fedrik grimaced at a tight yank of the dressing, I recalled how I was supposed to be distracting him.
“Halden did say one thing that stuck with me. That the seer had a daughter. He said they’re the only two Fae to ever have visions such as these. I know the seer died decades ago, but could her daughter still be alive?”
Silence enveloped the tent.
“What is it?” I asked.
“I can’t believe they tracked her down,” Griffin murmured.
“And for nothing,” Kane mused. “Esme never inherited her mother’s gift.”
Esme?
“Why would Gareth’s army think that she did?” Griffin asked.
“I’m not sure,” Kane said. “We’ll have to pay her a visit, won’t we?”
“Yes. The blade isn’t here and I’ve never sweat so much in my life,” Griffin said, wringing out his shirt and exposing a sliver of cut abdomen.
“Go where?” Mari asked, though she sounded distracted.
My lighte tingled at my fingertips once more, regenerating faster the more I used it, as Dagan had once told me it would. With Fedrik’s leg reset, I snuck my hand under his bandages and fused his bones back together with careful precision. His leg would be able to bear weight by morning, and might even function fully by the next day. It would look like a miracle.
“To Crag’s Hollow,” Kane said.
Finished with Fedrik’s leg, I climbed over Mari to sit in the corner, wiping dampness from my brow that had gathered while I worked. “Back to the Onyx Kingdom?” I remembered Crag’s Hollow from a map in the Shadowhold apothecary. It was a coastal town outside of Willowridge.
Kane ran a hand through his damp hair. “It’s worth a shot.”
“How do you know the seer’s daughter?” I asked.
“I doubt she remembers either of us. Griffin and I helped her escape Lumera when she was young. After her mother was killed during the rebellion, we brought her here to Evendell and helped her set up a new life.”
“Unguarded?”
“I never thought they’d come for her, all these years later. There was no reason to.”
“We’ll find out why they think she has her mother’s visions,” Griffin said. “It’s the only thread we have to follow.” My heart chilled with the unspoken words:Since the blade wasn’t in Reaper’s Cavern, and we have no other leads.
